ld be tedious and unprofitable. And yet
there are many descriptions of different portions of it given by
eye-witnesses, many circumstances and natural curiosities belonging to
it, and related to us upon the best authority, which are likely to
please and interest the reader, who can see and adore God everywhere,
and is capable of taking delight in tracing out and following the
footsteps of Almighty Wisdom and Power, even in the wilderness and among
the mountain-tops. It is proposed, therefore, to select a few of the
pictures which have been drawn by the bold explorers of the Bush, so as
to give a general idea of the character, the scenery, the dangers, and
the privations of that portion of the Australian islands. And, having
first become familiar and acquainted with these, we shall be better able
to set a just value, when we turn to the state of the colonies and their
inhabitants, upon that moral courage, that British perseverance and
daring, which have, within the memory of man, changed so many square
miles of bush into fertile and enclosed farms; which have raised a
regular supply of food for many thousands of human beings out of what,
sixty years ago, was, comparatively speaking, a silent and uninhabited
waste. When the troops and convicts, who formed the first colony in New
South Wales, landed at Port Jackson, the inlet on which the town of
Sydney is now situated, "Every man stepped from the boat literally into
a wood. Parties of people were everywhere heard and seen variously
employed; some in clearing ground for the different encampments; others
in pitching tents, or bringing up such stores as were more immediately
wanted; and the spot, which had so lately been the abode of silence and
tranquillity, was now changed to that of noise, clamour, and
confusion."[4]

[3] It is supposed that the word "Sin," applied to the wilderness
mentioned in Exodus xvi. 1, and also to the mountain of "Sinai," has
the same meaning, so that the appellation of "Bush" is no new term.

[4] Collins' "Account of the Colony of New South Wales," p. 11.

And still, even near to the capital town of the colony, there are
portions of wild country left pretty much in their natural and original
state. Of one of these spots, in the direction of Petersham, the
following lively description from the pen of a gentleman only recently
arrived in the colony, may be acceptable. "To the right lies a large and
open glen, covered with cattle and enclo