Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/155

( 130 ) flash the eye felt a temporary suspension of sight, and the mind for a moment shuddered at the doubt of its total extinction, and recollected that a frail plank alone was the barrier between mortal existence and eternity. Now view the contrast in a few short hours; our vessel rides in safety where,

while the danger and the fatigue past are drowned in oblivion; and now we tread the verdant turf, and breathe the balmy atmosphere of odoriferous flowers, while, as we approach the town, parties of equestrian ladies attract our eyes, attended by their beaux, whose happiness we might envy, did not the call of honour, and the voice of patriotism, render us less vulnerable to the charms