Page:Hints on emigration to the new settlement on the Swan and Canning Rivers, on the west coast of Australia.djvu/15

 13 for ships, while small craft will navigate the rivers to the interior for many miles. So situated, every article may be produced for its own maintenance in the most convenient places, while its productions of export can be conveyed to the place of shipment by water carriage, with little trouble and expense. The safety of the harbour and coast, its contiguity to the islands and markets in the East Indian Archipelago, Java, Timor, the Celebee and Molucca Islands; its clear passage to the Continent of India, the short distance to the Mauritius, and favorable run to and from the Cape of Good Hope, and its convenient intercourse with Van Diemen's Land, being also nearer to England by 2000 miles, or 20 days' passage, are circumstances highly in its favor. How it has happened that this portion of Australia has remained so long unexplored, is difficult to conjecture; for certainly no spot appears more eligibly situated for receiving tropical luxuries at least cost and repaying their value both directly and circuitously in productions of utility!

It may now not be inapplicable to consider what raw productions of Europe and Asia, for which Great Britain is so large a customer to