Page:Narrativeavoyag01wilsgoog.djvu/258

226 were allowed—Rottenest, Buache, and the exclusive right to a considerable part of the coast, with other immunities, for fourteen years. The Governor very handsomely offered them a lease of seven years; but they did not consider these terms advantageous enough, and the speculation dropped.

Besides Perth and Freemantle, there is a station at Garden Island, where the stores are kept. The government have also hired, as a depôt for stores, the stranded ship Marquis of Anglesey, for a hundred pounds per annum, from an individual who purchased her for a hundred and fifty pounds.

There were several government regulations which, as is usual in all new colonies, did not meet universal approbation; but, without entering into any discussion on this subject, I may mention, that the exaction of pilotage and harbour dues,—there being no pilots,—appeared rather premature.

I shall conclude this brief account of Swan River, by stating the geographical position of Arthur's Head, according to our observations:—

As this longitude is more than twenty miles farther east than that given by Captain Stirling, it may be