nd.

MONUMENT TO FLINDERS.

It had been my intention, on our passage to the westward, to have
examined the south and west sides of Kangaroo Island, with the rocks
lying off the former. I was also anxious to visit South Australia for
another meridian distance, those already obtained not being satisfactory,
I wished, moreover, to comply with Sir John Franklin's desire, that we
should set up a monument, dedicated to the memory of poor Flinders, which
he had sent to Port Lincoln, the centre of his honoured commander's most
important discoveries on the south coast of Australia.* The performance
of such a task would have constituted an appropriate conclusion to our
labours on the shores of this great continent; and certainly nothing
could have been more agreeable to our feelings than to be instrumental in
paying a tribute of respect to our distinguished predecessor in the
career of discovery. I shall always regret that we were prevented from
doing so. At the same time I must say, that it will reflect great
discredit on the colony of South Australia, if some portion of its wealth
be not devoted to the erection of a suitable monument to the memory of
Flinders in one of the squares of Adelaide.

(*Footnote. Sir John Franklin was a midshipman with Captain Flinders when
he discovered this part of Australia.)

Strong northerly winds prevented us, as I have above hinted, from closing
with the land, we consequently continued our course to the westward; and
on the twenty-third day arrived at King George's Sound, whence, after
completing our wooding and watering, we sailed on the morning of the 21st
of April. At noon we passed between Bald Head and Vancouver Reef.*

(*Footnote. See plate.)

ROTTNEST LIGHTHOUSE.

In the forenoon of the 23rd we saw the lighthouse of Rottnest; and
regarded it with great interest, as the work of the aborigines imprisoned
on the island. I could not avoid indulging in melancholy reflections as I
gazed upon this building, erected by the hands of a people which seemed
destined to perish from the face of the earth without being able to leave
any durable monuments of their existence, except such fabrics as this,
constructed under the control of a conquering race. The time indeed, if
we may judge from past experience, seems not far distant when the
stranger, on approaching the shores of Western Australia, and asking who
erected that lighthouse to guide him in safety to the shore, will be told
it was the w