o effect the permanent civilization
of these miserable people proved utterly abortive.

They possess the faculty of mimickry or imitation to a very considerable
degree. I was walking with a friend, one beautiful evening, on the banks
of the Paramatta, when Bungarry, chief of the Sydney tribe of black
natives, was pulling down the river with his two jins, or wives, in a
boat which he had received as a present from the governor. My friend
accosted him on his coming up with us, and the good-natured chief
immediately desired his _jins_ to rest upon their oars, for he was rowed
by his wives. During the short conversation that ensued, my friend
requested Bungarry to show how governor Macquarrie made a bow.

[Illustration]

Bungarry happened to be dressed in the old uniform of a military
officer, and standing up in the stern of his boat, and taking off his
cocked hat, with the requisite punctilio, he made a low formal bow, with
all the dignity and grace of a general officer of the old school.

The rich variety of vegetation on the Illawarra mountain, which is a
lofty range running parallel with the coast, contrasts beautifully with
the richness of the scenery. The fern tree, shooting up its rough stem,
about the thickness of a small boat's mast, to the height of fifteen or
twenty feet, and then, all at once shooting out a number of leaves in
every direction, each at four or five feet in length, and exactly
similar in appearance to the leaf of the common fern; while palms of
various botanical species, are ever and anon shooting up their tall
slender branchless stems to the height of seventy or a hundred feet, and
then forming a large canopy of leaves, each of which bends gracefully
outwards and then downwards, like a Prince of Wales' feathers.

Another beautiful species met with in the low grounds of Illawarra, is
the fan palm, or cabbage tree, and another equally graceful in its
outline, is called by the natives Bangalo.

[Illustration]

The nettle tree, which is also met with in the bushes, is not only seen
by the traveller, but occasionally felt, and remembered, for its name is
highly descriptive.

Both the animal and vegetable creation in Australia, are wholly
different from those in every other part of the world.

To show that the existence of a thing was not believed in, it was
compared to a _black swan_, but in New Holland we find black swans, and
blue frogs; red lobsters, and blue crabs; flying opossums, and b