Page:Descriptive account of the panoramic view, &c. of King George's Sound, and the adjacent country.djvu/15

 15 for boats only a few miles from their mouths, their channels penetrate far into the interior. The same observation applies to nearly all the rivers of Australia; and although the island is almost as large as Europe, few have been found of sufficient magnitude to admit vessels of burden. One, after traversing upwards of a thousand miles of country, is not, according to the account of its discover, Captain Sturt, H. M. 39th regiment, deep enough, where it communicates with the sea, for the entrance of the smallest boats.

One of the largest rivers in the interior is salt water. Most of the others, in the dry season, are either a chain of ponds, or else disappear in marshy, plains; "and as, on approaching the coast they have to pass through tracts scarcely elevated above the sea, their current is almost entirely exhausted before reaching it, and their embouchures are consequently blocked up by bars."

Yagan, whose portrait (by Mr. George Cruikshank) forms the frontispiece, was chief of the tribe of natives inhabiting the banks of the Swan, over whom his remarkable character had acquired an unusual ascendancy. He was strong and active, perfectly fearless, and the best spearsman of his tribe—but passionate, implacable and sullen; in short, a most complete and untameable savage. He very soon made his first essay against the settlers, by decamping with a bag of flour belonging to the commandant: the robbery was discovered, and a native, who gave