natives. Imports and exports. State of crime. nous timber. Whale-fisheries. Horses. Conclusion. Co- operative communities recommended. Mr. Wakefield's sys- Principles of colonisation. Early colonies; their failures; the causes. Injustice of government. Curious effects of general laws. Crown-grants. Validity of title. Infringement of boundaries. Total want of system at the Colonial Office. Philosophy of Mr. Wakefield. Jack o'lantern changes of authority. Arrangements proposed. Mr. Wakefield's plan not fairly tried. Profits and wages. Competition and its consequences. Remedy proposed. Western Australian Com- mittee. Lord Glenelg's despatch. Proceedings of the Com- mittee. Sir George Grey's letter. Want of consideration of the Colonial Office. Advance of money. Grants. Pro- posal to cut the isthmus, and open Melville Water. Com- pany proposed and plan. Margary's cheap specific against Anchorages and sailing instructions. Captain Preston's com- King George's Sound. Owen's Anchorage. Buoys. Rottnest in heavy gales. 262-271 Reasons for emigration. Unhealthy political and manufacturing state. Mr. W. Whitmore's opinions recommended to Ire- land. The western isles. Labourers and others. Articles in which capital may be invested. Reasons for considering Western Australia the most eligible of the colonies. Ma- Return of lands in Western Australia exchanged from one dis- trict to another between the 1st day of July, 1837, and 30th Return of lands in Western Australia resumed by the crown Return of town and suburban allotments in Western Australia Return of town and suburban allotments in Western Australia Return of lands in Western Australia exchanged from one dis- trict to another between the 1st day of July, 1836, and 30th A return of all lands in Western Australia, exclusive of town lvii-lxiv WESTERN AUSTRALIA, &c. PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. RECENT researches in the British Museum have led to presumptive proof that the great continent of Australia was discovered by the Portuguese very early in the sixteenth century. The archives of Portugal state that New Guinea was discovered by Menezes in 1527, which receives corroboration by the claim of the Spaniards to its discovery in 1528. The manuscript hydrography by John Rotz, dated 1542, which is written in English, and dedicated to the king, has Australia delineated nearly as it was in the seventeenth century, prior to the voyage of Abel Tasman. A later map, supposed to have been copied from it about 1550, instead of retaining the Portuguese names found in Rotz's charts, has them translated into French. The land descried by Torres in 1606, when south of New Guinea, is conjectured to have been a part of Northern Australia. A Dutch yacht, called the Duyfhen, ran down nearly a thousand miles of the south and west coasts of New Guinea. Both Torres and the Dutch navigator do not appear to have known, that the land descried by them was the northern limit B |