Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/139

 most philanthropic motives in their endeavours to ameliorate the moral condition of the Australian Aborigines. They were probably misled by the natives, and thoughtlessly made a general accusation against the squatters, without sufficiently reflecting on the grave nature of the charge, and the odium which would rebound on themselves, if they failed in making it good. According to the account of the squatters, it would appear, that some sheep, diseased and scabby, had been dressed as usual with arsenic, which, with corrosive sublimate, is the ordinary remedy for scab. These sheep had been rushed by the blacks, and a number of them carried off, and it is supposed that the arsenic caused the death of some of the thieves.

I have before observed that the Government of New South Wales are about to send out an expedition of discovery, which is to endeavour to reach the settlement of Victoria, at Port Essington, on the northern coast of New Holland, about two thousand miles from Sydney This enterprise will create the most intense interest in the scientific world, as Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell has offered his valuable services to conduct it. The indomitable energy, accurate judgment, and untiring scientific research, which that distinguished officer displayed in his previous well known expeditions