and her back against the wall, just as we had often seen her sitting on deck resting against the bulwarks, was crying grievously, in company with her daughter. When we learned the reason for all this lamentation we did not wonder that they were both disconsolate. The poor souls had come out to Swan River intending to proceed from thence, believing it to be a very easy trip, to join the husband and father in Melbourne; and they now found themselves in Australia with almost less chance of getting to Melbourne, in their penniless condition, than if they had remained in London.
Another emigrant, who came from the Midland counties of England, and whose relations lived in Tasmania, was in equal trouble. He assured my husband that he had been told at the Emigration Office at home that he could easily reach Hobart Town when once landed at Perth, and supposed that he would have to go thither by coach, but wished to know whether he would be more than one night upon the road. Many cases of this nature have occurred among the poor whilst Western Australia was the only colony to which free emigration, at the expense of Government, was carried on.
Australia is known to be an island, and the poor at home who desire to reach its shores seem to have no idea of its enormous extent; but to fancy that, if once landed in any one of its settlements, they may easily transfer themselves, at no great expense, to any other colony to which they desire to proceed. I cannot but think that much self-deception upon this point is allowed to exist among the English poor, and that the country agents of the Emigration Commissioners take no pains to counteract
