ed me amongst the different tribes of New South Wales, being
unable to understand one word spoken by tribes of other districts, would
lead to the belief that the dialects spoken in New Holland, are far from
possessing those affinities, still less those identities of language,
from which a common root might be inferred. Those European visitors or
explorers who adduce, in support of a common root, some hundred words
analogous in sound, construction and meaning, as being spoken all over
New Holland, have jumped to the conclusion with, I fear, too much haste
and eagerness. Besides many other insuperable difficulties, which an
investigation of such a nature presents, there was one quite sufficient
to defeat all attempts to fathom the subject, namely, the syntactic
ignorance of the language to which the inquiry related. Indeed, to any
man who knows and speaks four European languages, it will be at once
apparent, that to seize upon, and note from the sound, a word belonging
to one country, so as to compare its sound and accentuation with a word
belonging to another country, needs a thorough knowledge of the genius of
the two languages, and of their alphabet, through which alone the
pronunciation can be discriminated."

Though, however, we may not attain to a knowledge of the truth at once,
yet should we never lose an opportunity of making a vocabulary of such
words as we know to be correct. This should be the case from one
consideration alone; for how gratifying it is, when visiting an
uncivilized people, to find that you know a word or two of their
language! The satisfaction is mutual--there is at once a sympathetic link
between you--you no longer appear as thorough strangers to each other,
and this slight knowledge of their dialect may often be the means of
making useful acquaintances.

To return, however, to the thread of our narrative.

LEAVE PORT DARWIN.

The opening to the westward, visited by Captain Wickham, requiring
further examination, we left Port Darwin for that purpose, beating out on
the morning of the 26th. Before taking leave, however, of this place, it
will not be deemed irrelevant if we give some slight description of it.
The entrance points, I have already said, are white cliffy projections,
and distant from each other three miles. Just outside them lies a long
four fathom bank, which, together with a very extensive flat of one, and
two fathoms, nearly joining it from the eastern side, and another
front