sed with _bush_, (so we call the
forest,) consisting of brushwood and gigantic trees; and, above the
trees, the broad sea of Botany Bay, and the two headlands, Solander and
Banks, with a white stone church and steeple, St. Peter's New Town,
conveying an assurance that there are Englishmen of the right sort not
far from us. And now we plunge into the thicket, with scarcely a track
to guide our steps. I have by this time made acquaintance with the
principal giants of the grove. Some are standing, some are felled; the
unmolested monarchs stand full 200 feet high, and heave their white and
spectral limbs in all directions; the fallen monsters, crushed with
their overthrow, startle you with their strange appearances; whilst
underfoot a wild variety of new plants arrest your attention. The
bush-shrubs are exquisitely beautiful. Anon a charred and blackened
trunk stops your path: if you are in spirits, you jump over all; if you
are coming home serious, weary, and warm, you plod your way round.
Well,--in twenty minutes' time you reach a solitary hut,--the first
stage of the walk: you pass the fence, the path becomes narrow,--the
bush thickens round you,--it winds, it rises, it descends: all on a
sudden it opens with a bit of cleared ground full twenty yards in
extent, and a felled tree in the midst. Here let us pause, and,
kneeling on the turf, uncovered, pour forth the voice of health, of
cheerfulness, and gratitude to Him who guides and guards us on our way.
And now, onward again. The land falls suddenly, and we cross a brook,
which a child may stride, but whose waters are a blessing both to man
and beast. And now we rise again; the country is cleared; there is a
flock of sheep, and a man looking after them; to the left, a farmhouse,
offices, &c.; before us the spire of St. James's, Sydney, perhaps three
miles distant, the metropolitan church of the new empire, and, a little
to the right, the rival building of the Roman church. Beneath us lies
Sydney, the base-born mother of this New World, covering a large extent
of ground, and, at the extreme point of land, the signal station, with
the flags displayed, betokening the arrival of a ship from England. Till
now we have met with no living creature, but here, perhaps, the chaise
with Sydney tradesman and his wife, the single horseman, and a straggler
or two on foot, begin to appear."

The general appearance of the coast of New Holland is said to be very
barren and forbidding, muc