Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/92

Ixxxii AN INTRODUCTORY round the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Gilbert ; from which the explorers travelled in a south-easterly direction home- wards. The journals kept during the expedition, which lasted sixteen months, do not give much precise information about the nature of the country traversed; but although the reports brought back were not calculated to create a rush of stock- owners to the north, they were not so discouraging as to prevent the gradual extension of settlement which has since taken place. The exploration of the Victoria proved the existence of good pastoral country in that direction ; and even if the Plains of Promise did not realise the anticipations formed of them by their discoverer, they were at least seen to be well fitted for occupa- tion. Now let us see how Denison described the results : — Last year, or rather in 1855, an expedition was sent to explore the north-western part of the continent. The men returned a few weeks ago, and the result of the information obtained is, that Australia con- sists of a nan^ow belt of good land to the south, east, and north, varying from, say, 250 miles in width to 60. On the west coast the desert^ which fills up the whole interior, abuts on the coast. In fact, five-sixths of the whole block of land is desert; yet we constantly hear people talking of the destinies of this great continent as being similar to those of America ! The destinies of a dry, arid, unproductive country, with- out rivers or means of internal communication, what are they % The people who talk in this way can have a very slight conception of the influence which water, and the means of water communication, exercise upon the destinies, as they term it, of a people. The tone of this letter is enough to show the state of mind in which it was written. Denison was evidently pleased, as if he felt that the result of the expedition had entirely confirmed his own ideas on the subject. Australia was a desert, with just a narrow strip of coast line fit for occupation. Even that was some advance on Payne's account of the country — ^a vast desert, with a den of thieves and murderers at Botany Bay. Denison knew better than that, because he had been Governor of Van Diemen's Land before he came on to Sydney in 1855. Still he had the stereotyped English ideas on the subject, and the people who talked of their destinies seemed to him in need of a little caustic treatment. He could hardly have failed to Digitized by Google