was so arid and barren, and fresh water was so scarce, that it was judged necessary to abandon the place altogether.
'On the land where Colonel Collins stood, and which he abandoned in disgust, the city of Melbourne now stands and flourishes. People from Tasmania went there, and bought a few acres for a mere trifle, and found themselves in a few years' time millionaires. The gold mines of Victoria were the magician's wands.
'While we were away the site of the present city of Hobart was fixed upon, and a part of the wild Bush cleared for dwellings. It is a small but very pretty city now, but at that time the largest gum-trees thickly overshadowed an almost impenetrable scrub. Returning to Sydney to refit, we again went to Tasmania, and surveyed the entrance to the Tamar. Then we went to King Island, and amused ourselves with hunting the emu and killing sea-elephants; and on going back to Sydney, after a trip to the new settlement of Newcastle, seventy miles north of Port Jackson, I left the King of England's service.
'A voyage to New Zealand next engaged my attention, We filled a vessel with skins, and came back to Sydney. I then entered as chief officer of the Alexander, a whaler, and we sailed for the Derwent, where I struck the first whale that had ever been struck in Tasmanian waters. Directing our course to New Zealand, we filled our ship, after nearly losing her in a skirmish with the natives, and sailed for London, taking two of our savage friends with us. Baffled in our attempts to double Cape Horn, and driven three thousand miles out of our course, we made for Otaheite for provisions. Plenty of fresh meat was to be had but we were obliged to manufacture salt to cure it which detained us two months. Again setting sail, with an Otaheitan chief and a friend of his, we tried the Horn a second time, and succeeded in getting round,
