ly-watered country
had been rapidly utilised by the pastoralists.

PART 3. THE WEST.

[Illustration. John Septimus Roe, First Surveyor-General of West
Australia.]

CHAPTER 17. ROE, GREY, AND GREGORY.

17.1. ROE AND THE PIONEERS.

Whilst Sturt and kindred bold spirits had been painfully but surely
piecing together the geographical puzzle of the south-east corner of the
Australian continent, a similar struggle between man and Nature had
commenced in the south-west. Here, Nature kept close her secrets with no
less pertinacity than in the east; but, though the struggle was just as
arduous, the environment was very different. Instead of rearing an
unscalable barrier of gloomy mountains, Nature here showed a level front
of sullen hostility. Nor did she lure the first explorers inland with a
smiling face of welcome once the outworks had been forced, as she had
drawn Evans when he reached the head-waters of the Macquarie and Lachlan.
Beyond the sources of the western coastal streams, she fought silently
for every eastward mile of vantage ground, spreading before the
adventurous intruder the salt lake and the arid desert.

As far back as 1791, George Vancouver, a whilom middy of Cook's,
discovered and named King George's Sound, when in command of H.M.S.
Discovery. He formally took possession of the adjacent country, and
remained there some days, making a careful survey of both the inner and
outer harbours.

On the 9th of December, 1826, Sir Ralph Darling, then Governor of New
South Wales, sent Major Lockyer, of the 57th, with a detachment of the
39th, a regiment intimately associated with the early settlement of
Australia, to form a settlement at King George's Sound, where they landed
on the 25th of December of the same year. This settlement was established
in order to forestall the French, who, according to rumour, intended to
occupy the harbour and adjacent lands.

On the 17th of January, 1827, Captain James Stirling, of H.M.S. Success,
left Sydney, intending to survey those portions of the west coast
unvisited by Lieutenant King, and also to investigate the nature of the
country in the neighbourhood of the Swan River with a view to its
suitability for settlement. Stirling was accompanied by Charles Fraser,
who had considerable experience as adviser upon Australian sites for
settlement. Both Stirling and Fraser reported favourably on the Swan
River; and the latter waxing enthusiastic on its eligibility, it wa