Page:The three colonies of Australia.djvu/79

 THE DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS OR PARADOX.

through the country on both sides the river; and on Sunday, 7th May, 1815, fixed on a site suitable for the erection of a town at some future period, to which he gave the name of Bathurst."

This discovery, made by the courageous perseverance of the three gentlemen before named, rendered available by the wise energy of Macquarie, and profitable by the fine-woolled sheep of M'Arthur, assured the future fortunes of the Three Colonies of Australia, and laid the foundation of an empire on the sweepings of our gaols.

Macquarie was vain, hopeful, ambitious, and not unjustly proud of what, in his despatches to Earl Bathurst, he called "his discovery;" but his utmost expectation only extended to supporting a considerable but isolated population by pastoral and agricultural pursuits. He expressly stated, in his curious general order, that "The difficulties which present themselves in the journey from hence [Sydney] are certainly great and inevitable; those persons who may be inclined to become permanent settlers will probably content themselves with visiting the capital rarely, and of course will have them seldom to encounter." And under this impression the grants of land were made chiefly in large blocks of several thousand acres.

What would have been his pride and admiration could he have