Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/93

Rh dreaded that old England would again leave her sons to imminent starvation after establishing all the marks of her power on her new possessions.

And now that the young settlements are rescued from the jaws of death, we may pause to observe the general features of the land, and how it was tenanted by the tribes which studded its surface throughout its length and breadth, its plains and mountains, marshes and lagoons; and who even in the stony deserts knew how to wring a livelihood from the land which threatened to become the grave of so many hundreds of Englishmen.