Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/196

118 degree of latitude. For I was well aware how ill-adapted their ships were for a service of that nature; from not being fortified to withstand the shocks and pressure they must have been necessarily exposed to had they ventured to penetrate any extensive body of ice, they would have equally failed had they tried it upon the meridian I had now chosen, for it will be seen we met with a broad belt of ice, upwards of two hundred miles across, which would have been immediate destruction to them to have encountered; but which, in our fortified vessels, we could confidently run into, and push our way through into the open sea beyond; without such means it would be utterly impossible for any one, under such circumstances, however bold or persevering, to attain a high southern latitude.

The colony of Van Diemen's Land was in a most flourishing condition at the time of our visit; although, in common with all the other Australasian settlements, it afterwards suffered severely from the ruinous system of over-trading, but not to any thing like the same extent. Under the wise and judicious government of Sir John Franklin the revenue of the colony had so greatly increased, that although involved deeply in debt when he arrived in the country, by prudent and well-arranged measures, the debt had been liquidated, and a superabundant income produced. A great amount of statistical information which I collected during our stay at Hobart-town, by the kind permission of Sir John Franklin, from Mr. Forster, acting as colonial