ad occurred. Public attention had been
strongly directed towards the question of Steam Communication with India
and England, the facilitating of which was one of the principal objects
of the Voyage of the Rattlesnake.* Meetings to discuss the practicability
of forming railroads** had also been held. Dr. Leichhardt, the
well-known, indefatigable traveller, had started with a party to attempt
to traverse the Continent of Australia, and reach Swan River--and Mr.
Kennedy had returned from tracing the Victoria River of Sir Thomas
Mitchell, which he found to become lost in the stony desert of Sturt,
instead of disemboguing into the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, as some
had conjectured.

(*Footnote. This project, I regret to add, has not yet been carried into
effect, nor does there appear to be any reasonable prospect of its speedy
accomplishment.)

(**Footnote. I have lately heard that the first Australian railroad has
actually been commenced at Sydney.)

FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY.

During our stay the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the colony was
celebrated, and a large proportion of the 50,000 inhabitants of Sydney
and the neighbourhood joined in the festivities and amusements
commemorating so glorious a day in the annals of their adopted country.
When witnessing the gaieties of the regatta, I could not help reflecting
on the simple narrative of the first founder of what may hereafter become
a great empire, a mighty monument of the genius of the Anglo-Saxon race.
"The spot chosen for our encampment," says Colonel Collins, "was at the
head of the cove near the run of fresh water which stole silently along
through a very thick wood, the stillness of which had then, for the first
time since the creation, been interrupted by the rude sound of the
labourer's axe, and the downfall of its ancient inhabitants; a stillness
and tranquillity which from that day were to give place to the voice of
labour, the confusion of camps, and the busy hum of its new possessors."*

(Footnote. Collins' New South Wales 2nd edition page 10.)

Finding that there was yet some time to spare before the arrival of the
usual period for leaving Sydney to pass through Torres Strait, Captain
Stanley resolved upon acting in accordance with the expressed wishes of
the Colonial Government, that he should make an inspection of the various
lighthouses in Bass Strait, and for that purpose sailed from Sydney on
February 2nd, with the Rattlesnake and B