CHAPTER IV.
A JOINT STOCK LAND COMPANY.
In view of the fact, that, although extravagant hopes of success had attended the formation of the Swan River Settlement, it had proved an almost total failure, it behoved the projectors of any new colony in Australia to put forth some very strong recommendations of their scheme if they would secure the ear of the Government and the ready cash of subscribers. It was necessary, at any rate, that they should show distinctly that whatever were the causes of failure at the Swan River those causes should not operate in any new project.
Such was the burden of the Press when it became known in June, 1833, that, notwithstanding the rebuffs Mr. Gouger and his colleagues had received in their previous attempts, they were again taking action for founding a colony in South Australia.
It was at this point in the history of the movement that Mr. Gouger began to keep a systematic Journal, and henceforth in these pages we shall, as far as possible, let him tell his own story in his own words.
