Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/14

 of the old tree still circulates, but which themselves presently take root, becoming in time sources of strength and nourishment to the parent stem.

Nothing so forcibly struck me on my arrival at Port Phillip, in 1840, as the state of advancement in civilization already attained by the colony. I had frequently to pause in order to realize the fact, that where I saw a civilized town of considerable extent, supplied with most of the comforts and luxuries of life, there, only four years before, had been an untrodden wild; that where I found the bustle and excitement of business, and din of trade, so short a time before, the echoes had only been awakened by the hum of insects, or the cry of the savage; that the tame, quiet-looking teams of horses and oxen were the immediate successors of the wild dog and kangaroo, and that the substantial brick houses by which I was surrounded, had so lately superseded the rude mi-mis of the native. But the wonder did not stop here; for still more astonishing was it to see the comfortable villas, with their smiling gardens and thriving crops, in the neighbourhood of the town; and to reflect that not only had all this been done within such a limited space of time, but that in addition to this, a territory, superior in extent to Ireland, had been explored, occupied, and, in a great measure, stocked with sheep and cattle, during this period, while roads and lines of communication had been established, not