crockery. Alike in the wats and private dwellings, a trace of Egyptian architecture exists in the tapering forms of all the windows and doors.

Siam has considerable commerce. At least two hundred Chinese junks, some of a thousand tons burden, ply regularly between China and Bankok. The annual exports from Bankok amount to five millions of dollars: these are principally sugar, supan-wood, tin, timber, rice, stick-lac, gamboge, frankincense, ivory, pepper and cotton. The imports are arms, ammunition, anchors, dry goods, cutlery, crockery, mirrors, and many other productions of Europe and China. Sugar and the other staple exports are raised in Siam by the industry of the Chinese emigrants, a class of people, through whose exertions principally, the country has arisen from barbarism.

Our traveler remained seven weeks in Siam, and from thence set sail for China, and on the 25th of March, 1838, was again in his native land. During his absence of two years and a-half, he made nineteen voyages by sea, fourteen voyages by river, and several journeys by land, passing over a space of more than fifty-three thousand miles. "In all these wanderings," says he, "often in dangerous and ill-fitted vessels, and regions unhealthy, or infested with robbers, I was neither hurt nor molested; nor was any person hurt or taken sick where I was."

DISCOVERY of Australia-The Great Desert-Climate-Soil and productions-The Aborigines-The Transportation system-Convicts first transported to America-Story of Moll Flanders, of the early settlers of Virginia-Kidnapping and Transportation of persons from England to America-Case of Peter Williamson-The Revolutionary War closes America against British Convicts-Australia selected as a penal colony-Horrible condition of Society, and the sufferings of the early settlers - The Bush Rangers-Introduction of flocks and herds-A new class of Emigrants, and life among them-The discovery of gold-The future of Australia.

AUSTRALIA, Sometimes denominated the Fifth, or Pick-pocket Continent, is the largest island in the world, and about the size of Europe. Its form approaches a square, and the extreme distance across it from east to west, is 3000, and from north to south 2000 miles-the first measurement being something greater than the distance from Boston, Mass., across the continent of North America to San Francisco in California, and the second twice the distance from New York to the Mississippi River.

A few discoveries were made on the coast of Australia one hundred and thirty years after the discovery of America, but no reliable information was obtained until a century later, when it was successively visited by several Dutch navigators, and the name of New Holland given. Yet it was not until five years previous to the outbreak of the American Revolution, that

was revealed to the civilized world that it was a continent.

This was through the instrumentality of the celebrated Capt. Cook, who surveyed its eastern coast, and came to the conclusion perhaps dimly surmised by previous navigators.

The island is mostly surrounded by almost continuous ranges of low mountains. Its habitable portions are limited to their slopes, and the space between them and the coast. The width of this habitable belt where explored, in no case exceeds over two or three hundred miles, and elsewhere is probably much less. The interior is one vast sunken desert, more hopelessly barren and uninhabitable than Sahara. Australia, therefore, presents a small proportion of habitable territory compared to the other continents.

"This great interior desert has probably never been traversed by the foot of man; and only two or three expeditions have ever penetrated far into its depths. The farthest point attained was by Captain Sturt in 1844. He made his way some four hundred miles beyond the habitable limits, which brought him very nearly into the geographical center of the island. This he found occupied by an immense plain covered with ridges of drifting sand, often rising to the height of eighty or a hundred feet, and stretching away in either direction as far as the eye could reach. In isolated spots grew a few solitary tufts of grass, the necessary moisture for whose sustenance was supplied by infrequent thunder showers. Permanent water there was none, and the sand was heated to such a degree that a match dropped upon it became instantly ignited. The thermometer on one occasion rose to 153° in the coolest place to be found. In the midst of this sterile tract was a desert of still deeper gloom, which was traced for a distance of eighty miles in one direction, and thirty-five miles in the other. Its surface was paved with a solid bed of dark ironstone, upon which the horses' hoofs rung as upon a metallic floor, but left not the least impression, and in which not the slightest trace of water or vegetation was found.

Mr. Leichardt, a German naturalist, succeeded in penetrating from the settlements on the eastern coast through the unexplored interior to the northern side of the island; but his course only led him along the skirts of the great central desert; yet more than once even here, he was saved from perishing with thirst by following the flight of the bronze-winged pigeon directing its course to some solitary water-hole. In 1846 he set out on a new journey intending to pass from the east through the central desert to the little colony on the western shore. The journey was expected to occupy two and a half years. In April, 1848, a letter was received from him written upon the verge of habitation, since which time his fate is unknown; but he doubtless perished long ago in the great desert."

As the settled parts of Australia are as far south of the equator as Virginia and the Carolinas are north, their seasons are the reverse of ours, July being there in mid-winter. From the dryness of the atmosphere, the absence of marshes, and of rank vegetation, those great curses of new countries, agues and intermittent fevers are unknown in the settled parts, and the climate is such, that the traveler can sleep in the open air with impunity.

"The soil presents some singular anomalies, especially in respect to the dis

tribution of the fertile portions. In other countries the fertile tracts lie usually in masses, and generally along the courses of the rivers. In Australia they occur in isolated patches, and most frequently upon the sides and summits of hills. These fertile tracts are continually intersected by broad plains, the soil of which is too light for cultivation, though forming the most admirable pasturage in the world, or by barren tracts furrowed by ravines, and clothed with scrub, entirely destitute of value. The best authorities assure us that of the land worth occupying, not more than one-third is fit for cultivation; the remaining two-thirds being only available for pasturagegrounds." But of that which is fit for cultivation, much of it is so rich that four and five successive crops of wheat are grown abundantly. The wheat frequently attains to the height of seven feet, and yields seventy bushels to the acre; oats ninety, and maize a hundred bushels.

"The productiveness of the land adapted for agricultural purposes is very great, and the range of available productions is wide. With few exceptions the trees, fruits, vegetables, and cerealia of the temperate zone flourish, beside many of those belonging to those tropical regions farthest removed from the equator. This is the more remarkable, because everything of the kind is exotic.

When Australia was taken possession of by the European race, scarcely half a century ago, it was by far the most destitute of natural productions of any habitable land on the globe. No species of grain was known to the natives; not a single fruit worthy of notice grew wild; not an edible root of any value was produced. The only game was the shy kangaroo, and a few species of birds; domestic animals were unknown; and the only carnivorous animal was the dingo or native dog.

In some districts, especially upon the seaward slope of the hills, where there is an accumulation of moisture, the forests present something of a tropical character; lofty trees spread their umbrageous branches about, with great cable-like creepers climbing from tree to tree, forming an almost impervious mass. But the prevalent native tree is the 'gum-tree.' These trees usually stand wide apart, their bare stems covered with ragged bark like worn-out matting. The leaves are few and scattered, so that they afford but little shade. They spread over the most barren and rocky ground, where there is apparently not a particle of soil. The ground is destitute of underbrush, but scattered around on the brown surface are old decayed branches and trunks often blackened by fire, with which also the still living trees are frequently scarred. This is the Bush'-the scene of so much wild romance and startling adventure in the early days of the colony.

These are

But the Plains' are the characteristic feature of Australia. open park-like intervals, where the gum-trees stand singly or in clumps, and the undulating ground is covered with rich and luxuriant grass. These plains sometimes stretch away for hundreds of miles, over the broad plateaux and table-lands, or are broken by rocky ranges, and end in deep gullies Over these plains the stockman drives his herds, or the shepherd his flocks, for days or weeks, without meeting any serious interruption to his progress. or without failure of the pasturage except in seasons of drought. These

plains are the feeding-places of those mighty herds of cattle and horses, and those vast droves of sheep, of noble race, whose feet'-so runs the old Spanish saying-turn all they touch to gold.' Those plains are the sources of wealth to Australia, more permanent, and perhaps not less valuable than her new-found gold-deposits."

The first settlers, in the natives, found none to dispute with them possession of the country, and to repeat upon the soil of Australia, those horrid acts of cruelty and massacre, which mark the early history of the settlement of the American continent. The aborigines were comparatively few, they cultivated no soil, and their only dwellings consisted merely of a few bits of bark set upright as a protection from the wind; a fire in front, completed their habitation. They never probably numbered over a 100,000. Since the settlement they have fast melted away before the rough convicts and settlers, who have shot them down as recklessly as if they had been wild animals. They are exceedingly degraded, entirely destitute of any form of government or chieftainship, and all attempts to civilize them have been signal failures. Like our own Utah Indians, nothing comes amiss to their appetites; worms, the larvæ of insects, and human flesh, are eaten with the keenest relish. A large white grub with a black head, found in the honeysuckle and cherry tree, is a peculiarly favorite article of food. They discover the grubs by knocking on the tree and then putting their ears to it to listen, they will open it with a tomahawk at the very spot where the grubs are to be found. The women carry their children on their backs in a basket or bag; and "when they suckle them," writes a late lady resident, "they generally put their breast under their arm; and I have seen them put it over their shoulder."

They seem to have little idea of the Supreme Being; and like all uncivilized people, are profound believers in enchantment and sorcery. The notion of their own origin is most absurd, viz: that they were brought to this island from some unknown land, on the backs of crows. When a person sleeps, they say, "he is away over the water," fancying that the spirit has returned during slumber to its native land. Their code of honor is unique. The challenged offers his hand to the challenger, who gives it a smart blow. The other in turn reciprocates the compliment, and thus they alternately continue, until the wounded honor of the offended party is satisfied.

Their treatment of the female sex is the most atrocious. Their courtship consists in the most brutal violence. The intending husband, having contrived to find alone the unhappy victim of his inclination, begins by beating her to the ground with a club, then accumulating blows upon blows, till she becomes altogether senseless, when he drags her to his hovel, regardless of her striking against shrubs and stones, till, under such promising auspices, she is fixed in his domestic establishment. All their subsequent life is of a piece with this outset. Several of the colonists in vain attempted to count the scars with which the heads of these unfortunate females were variegated. The grandest ceremony of their life consists in a sort of initiation of the youth, by which they are entitled to assume spear and shield, and to fight. There is a general assemblage of the tribe and neighborhood, and, after a variety of strange ceremonies or dances, consisting chiefly in imitating the gestures