Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/17

 PAPERS READ

BEFORE THE

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

IN the infancy of the Royal Geographical Society of London, and in this early stage of our proceedings, the Council may perhaps not be indisposed to receive such communications as may convey useful information, though not possessing that degree of minute accuracy which may be expected from the proceedings of the Society in its more mature state, when the higher objects for which it was instituted shall claim more marked attention, and when a more extended knowledge of its views shall have been diffused at home and abroad.

With this feeling I have been induced to submit to the Society a paper, drawn up from an authentic source, on the actual state of the Swan River Colony, at the commencement of the year 1830, about six months after its establishment. The subject may fairly be considered as not altogether unimportant at this moment, when so many conflicting statements and opinions have been promulgated, by which persons disposed to emigrate to that quarter are left in suspense as to the steps it may be advisable for them to take.

It would seem desirable, for other reasons, to collect and distribute information regarding New Holland, or as it is now more generally called, Australia. Hitherto, a country as large as Europe has been represented on our maps nearly as a blank. Yet, as this extensive territory will, in all probability, in process of time, support a numerous population, the progeny of Britons, and may be the means of spreading the English language, laws, and