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Rh colonists. The struggle, at first, had been one of life and death, and when experience proved that starvation was no longer to be dreaded, the minds of individuals naturally reverted to the original purpose with which they had left England—namely, that of making their fortunes.

Now the mistake had been committed of settling the country without duly scanning it beforehand, and time, which revealed its many valuable commercial products, brought also the disheartening conviction that there were scarcely any means of turning them into money. An impracticable desert was found to lie between West Australia and its neighbours on the landward side, and the exploring of the long stretch of seaboard convinced the colonists that in a coast-line of some three thousand miles, King George's Sound, in the extreme south of the settlement, was the only natural harbour of which their territory boasted, that was fit for large vessels. Moreover, though the dimensions of Western Australia comprise geographically one-third of the continent, its available land extends no farther back from the coast than two hundred miles at the utmost, nor is this narrow fringe otherwise than disconnected, and consisting of watered patches here and there, rather than of an uninterrupted line of good country. Behind this circumscribed belt the utmost exertions have as yet failed to discover either fresh-water lakes or rivers.

This want of a background to the colony has been of course very detrimental to its prospects, but in an infinitely less degree than its scanty means of communication with the rest of the world. On this last account the settlers have been driven to look upon wool as their staple