than deteriorates, and in some places alluvial soil is found within a few miles of the sea. Captain Stirling has just gone to the Southward, to survey a reported barbour off Cape Leeuwin, which if found good and situation in other respects eligible, will no doubt be eventually placed the capital of a range of country extending from King George's Sound to Swan River; the report made by Dr. Wilson of the land eighty miles in shore of the former was most favorable in point of quality of soil, clearness of ground and supply of water, and the distance from one to the other is barely two hundred miles: a kingdom may thus be formed of about seven hundred square miles, with an extent of coast of three hundred, which for the purposes of trade in general must be confessed to possess a situation unequalled on the face of the globe. But the first object of this infant colony must be, (as soon as by industry the cravings of nature are actually supplied) to find an export, bearing in mind that they have not there, as the Eastern Colonies had, a large government demand for their surplus produce; on their own resources they entirely depend; the example of their neighbours will probably induce them to turn their attention to wool, for which if we may judge from New South Wales, both in soil and climate the country is well adapted; and if care be taken to introduce a proper breed of sheep in the first instance much subsequent trouble will be saved, and a supply of fine wool thereby insured. Their timber will also serve as dead weight for ships, and in England would always fetch a remunerating price for the trouble of bringing it home, exclusive of freight for the ship. Mimosa bark, of which there is great abundance would answer the same purpose. The cultivation of tobacco has been tried in small quantity, and found to succeed admirably, if proper skill and climate be employed in drying it, and there is no doubt but it also will form an article of commerce. Horses to India might also form a considerable export, while the conveniency of situation would enable them to be sent at half the expense of those from New South Wales: in India the English horse is much esteemed, and a supply for the cavalry greatly wanted; and as on the East coast of New Holland, horses as well as all other stock have been found to increase with amazing rapidity, it is natural to suppose the same will be the case here.

:

The greatest inconvenience the settlers at present experience, is, the scarcity of labour, and unless some other means are devised to remedy this, they must have convicts; but were it possible even at the sacrifice of many years to avoid this dreadful alternative it would be better, as the bare idea of a state of society springing up similar to that in Sydney, would be sufficient to deter many from visiting their shores various schemes have been proposed, one to get a supply of Malays, another of Chinese, but the most feasible seems Mr. Wilmot Horton's plan of exporting the surplus Poor of England at the Parish expence, here, they would find a certain provision and an ample remuneration for industry; at present wages are so high that the indented servants all scorn to stay with their masters, and earning eight and ten shillings per day, by labour two days of the week are sufficient to keep them in a state of drunkenness the remaining five; and until in this, as well as in other things, competition brings it to its natural level, such must continue to be the case. Cheap labour in a new country is the greatest requisite for its rapid improvement, and when we see the thousands idle famished wretches in England, whose utmost exertions could barely procure a morsel of bread for their starving families, whose children grow up indebted to crime for a livelihood, one cannot but regard this country with a hope that when the prejudice against compulsive emigration shall have a little worn away, it may prove an asylum to some, before from desperation they become quite abandoned. Could those flocks of Irish who now annually visit England, reducing the wages and corrupting the morals of the English labourers be prevailed upon to expatriate themselves still farther and visit these shores, they would find themselves instead of a burden to all connected with them, instead of objects which all are anxious to rid themselves of; useful members of society.

Gage's roads as an anchorage is extremely insecure, being perfectly open to any wind from West to North, the most severe that blow along this coast, and which throw into it a tremendous sea; but about ten miles South of the entrance to Swan River is Cockburn Sound formed by the Island of Buache or Garden Island, a very secure and sheltered barbour-the access to it is difficult and dangerous to

those unacquainted and in consequence of its being too rashly attempted several ships have been nearly lost, there is however a very good channel in, which only requires being buoyed off to make it perfectly easy of entrance. Garden Island is, for the most part sand, yet vegetables grow on it very well and come to maturity, and water is abundantly obtained by digging a depth of three feet in the sand. On this Island are the Government Stores and some Huts that have been built by the Navy, in which the officers and men reside, it also abounds with small Kangaroos, Mangle's Bay on the South side of the Island is a most secure and sheltered Cove, and particularly adapted for a whaling station or fishing town.

But it must be confessed that the appearance of the place is not such as to gratify the eye on a first arrival, particularly, fastidious as we may imagine one to be, that has just emerged from the fertile meadows of England, but let it be compared with Port Jackson, let its sand and timber be compared with the barren rocks and stunted bushes of the latter, let the journey by water from Freemantle to Perth be compared to the same from Sydney to Parramatta, and I do not think the former will lose by the comparison; take again the Cape of Good Hope, let a man be landed at Simon's Bay, and during a fresh South Easter ride the first part of the way to Cape Town, should he be fortunate enough not to be entirely blinded by the sand, what he did see would only draw from him the remark that from "Dan even to Beersheba all is barren." yet the settlements of Southern Africa have succeeded as also New South Wales, why then should Western Australia, which I repeat in situation is unequalled on the face of the globe, be doomed to failure without a trial? Or take the Southern side of Sydney and travel thence by land to Botany Bay, what says M. Perou who visited it in 1802 and was rather than otherwise inclined to speak favorably of it "all the intermediate country (between Sydney and Botany Bay) is sandy, barren and unfit for cultivation, as you approach Bo "tany Bay the land gradually sinks till you reach the dangerous swamps formed "by Cook's and George's River, on their banks are a thousand species of trees "and shrubs, whose delightful appearance deceived Captain Cook and his brave "companions and led them to suppose the land to be unparallelled in point of "fertility. It would have been well if the event had justified the great ideas which they formed of it, obstructed by banks of mud, the anchorage does not "afford the shelter required while the marshy nature of the soil and its environs "renders it at once unhealthy and unfit for ordinary cultivation." Such may be considered a correct description of the whole of New Holland within a few miles of the Sea, in the interior one may be led to conclude the good soil is distributed in equal quantities, but the convenience which the Western Colony possesses of water carriage to the Sea, cæteris paribus, must give it a decided advantage.

way

The progress of the Colony to the time of my visiting it was as great as could reasonably have been expected; they arrived at the commencement of winter and houseless were exposed to all the inclemencies of a stormy season for four months during which time it was hardly to be expected much could be done in the of cultivation since which the major part have gone up to their locations and though as yet from the scarcity of working hands but little land has been cleared yet the vegetables and garden stuff which has been sown have turned out very well and the sheep and cattle that bave wandered into the Bush whenever refound have invariably been found fat and in good condition.

Though there is no scarcity of Provisions for some time they will naturally bear a high price and will afford a handsome remuneration for any one will take them, not in too large quantities at a time, but there is very much wanted a Merchant or go, between who possesses capital enough to buy up a Ship's Cargo, disposing it by retail as he can at his own prices; for want of this indispensable connecting link between the freighter of a Ship and the consumer of his goods, most of the Vessels that have yet arrived have found so much time taken up in the tedious retail of their cargoes that they have incurred in preference a loss on their goods, to such lengthened demurrage; this is an evil however that will very soon work its own cure, the interest of money in England is at too low a rate to prevent its being brought wherever it can be employed to advantage.

Many of the present evil reports of this settlement have been caused by the too rapid arrival of settlers; when nearly a thousand people are landed at once on

a sandy beach with wives and families, the ships that conveyed them anxious to get away, their outfit which it has taken nearly their all to purchase placed by their sides exposed to the weather, with no land surveyed on which to choose a location, and with only a small tent to shelter themselves, it is not to be wondered at if some daunted by those unpromising appearances, in despair fly to more known lands and as an excuse for their own want of energy endeavour to impress upon others, that they have been deluded and imposed upon; but there was certainly nothing in any of the printed reports, which could lead one to suppose this a country where the earth brought forth its fruits spontaneously, on the contrary those not inclined to labour were warned of the inutility of their going there, yet here we find a number of half pay officers, men in general not calculated for primitive settlers and who with the exception of one or two are not likely ever eventually to make it answer.

Most of the above information on part of the Colony which I had not an opportunity of visiting were derived from a Mr. Heaty who may be considered perhaps as the most respectable settler there, he has embarked considerable capital, and has taken up a grant of sixty thousand acres with which he expressed himself perfectly satisfied, though of course allowing that the country did not answer the glowing description in which it had been represented in England, of him at least it may be said that he does not want the means of returning and nothing but a thorough conviction of the capabilities of the place for a settlement would induce him to continue investing capital, now that a year's residence must have given him a tolerable knowledge of the place and its probable resources.- Bengal Hurkaru.

LUCKNOW.

I have often visited the Court of His Majesty the King of Oude, in his capital of Lucknow; and I own I always derived considerable amusement from the scene. During the present year, I passed through that city on my way to the Upper Provinces, but a short period after the accession of his present Majesty to the throne; taking my way from Benares through the Company's District of Juanpore, and the South Eastern frontier of His Majesty's dominions; which I was glad of an opportunity of comparing with our own. The Oude territory will certainly bear no comparison with the fertile and highly cultivated districts of Babar; but I could name many of the Company's Provinces where the band of the cultivator is probably more inactive; and where the jungle is even more wild and exuberant. At Midnapore for example such is the excessive luxuriance of the vegetation that a single year will over-grow with underwood a road not perhaps very much frequented, so as to leave little more than a pathway.

The Districts of Ramghur and the Jungle Mehals are nearly similarly circumstanced. All that we read of the contention of planters with nature in the back settlements of America, may certainly be matched without going many miles from Calcutta.

I have mentioned these circumstances in justice to the King of Oude's Govern. ment; because I know it is the fashion to attribute to the misgovernment of his officers the wild and uncultivated state of the greater portion of his provinces: and though to man unquestionably belongs some portion of the desolation, to nature likewise, as in the Company's better governed territory, certainly may be ascribed a share.

The road I took from Juanpore to Lucknow was much covered with low underwood; and even where the prospect opened, the cultivation appeared to be scanty. Patches of wheat and barley (rice cultivation is little practised above Patna) were visible here and there. The scene offered little to indicate the approach to a great capital. Here were no carriages whether for purposes of profit or pleasure, -no foot passengers,-no horsemen.- A drove of brinjarah bullocks sauntered lei

Burely along; the drivers practising a sort of oriental psalmody of which the rugged tones and nasal twang disagreeably interrupted the solemn stillness of the clear and starry night.

At length I became sensible of my approach to the suburbs of a great Eastern City. The continued baying of the Pariah dog struck upon the ear,-the shrill cry of the jackall was heard at intervals,-lights glimmered in the distance.-A rocket occasionally soared into the air, and partially illuminated for a moment the tall white minaret, and graceful dome,t-the hum of voices proclaimed that the congregated abodes of men were at hand. I entered Lucknow; and was receiv. ed at the Residency; with oriental hospitality.

This city is of very modern erection. About the year 1775, Asoph-ool Dowlab, son of Soojah-ool Dowlah, first established his residence here, and from an ob scure village on the banks of the Goomtee, it gradually assumed the name and character of a large and populous capital. The date of its erection precludes the possibility of its affording any object of interest to the historian or the antiquary: though as the capital of one of the few remaining princes of India, to whom the means are yet supplied to keep up something of the state and splendor of an Eastern Court, a visit to Lucknow is not devoid of interest.

The principal street has an appearance which is presented by no other city of that part of India. From the intimate connexion subsisting between the present Royal family, and the East India Company, a connexion which has scarcely been interrupted since the battle of Buxar, in 1764, the English taste in building predominates; and the great street is composed of very fine houses, and lines of shops, as regu. larly and architecturally disposed as in Calcutta. These have been constructed principally by Europeans, in the employ of the preceding Nawaubs; and it is to be presumed, that their taste was not checked as in Calcutta by some of those rights, under which people build their houses to please themselves, and not the sovereign. The building of houses has been a taste or "shoke" to use the Hindoostanee term, of all the princes of this family; and not one appears to have fancied as a residence, his father's habitation, or that of his ancestor. The city therefore, and the environs are full of fine houses; few of which are well preserved, and repaired, for the reason above stated. Across the principal street are two very elegant gateways, which must have been built for ornament rather than use; for were the gates closed, his Majesty could not enter his own palace. These gate-ways have certainly an imposing effect; though as an interruption to the coup d'œil of a long and handsome street, their removal might be desirable. Occasional gate-ways on each side of the street, mark the entrances to the King's residences, stables, and houses principal officers; and although the orders of architecture have not been very strictly observed in their construction; the proportions are not inelegant, and the taste displayed, considering the mode in which the designs were supplied, must strike every observer.

his

The city, or rather that part of it occupied by the native population, extends about two and a half miles on the right bank of the Goomty; over which a superb bridge has been erected. Of the height to which rivers in India suddenly rise during the rains; some idea may be formed from the fact, that large boats have sailed over the bridges both of Lucknow and Juanpore. That of the latter city is of con siderably greater elevation.

The breadth of the city is irregular; but it may be roughly estimated at three miles. The houses are built very close to each other, and have some of them two

* The brinjarahs are a class of people of whose manners, customs, and sin gular mode of life much yet remains to be learnt. They derive their subsistence from the sale of grain; which they carry on their bullocks in droves of seven or eight hundred, to astonishing distances: pursuing their occupation unmolested even in the most wild and lawless parts of India. Although few of them have ever had any fixed habitation their wandering mode of life does not render them disorderly; and I never recollect a complaint against a brinjarah; though the city in which I long resided was a thoroughfare for thousands.

The natives of Upper India are extremely fond of fireworks. In the large towns, they scarcely cease letting them off till the dawn. In Bengal, the thatched roofs render such an amusement the dangerous for general adoption.

or three stories. After all that has been said of the rapacity of this Prince's Govern. ment, there are probably more good, substantial, well built houses in Lucknow (and I take Jobuson's definition of the term as distinguished from a hut) than in any other city, of equal extent within the Ganges and the Indus. To municipal re gulation, the claim is slender; for the streets are much encumbered with filth; and olfactory nuisances are far more frequent than might have been expected, where a river flowing, if I may use the expression, at the very doors of the houses, allows every convenience for drainage and every facility to ablutionary precaution. There are few countries of the world to which Nature has been so bountiful of her gifts, as the territory of Oude. Previously to the cession, the Ganges, the Gogra, the Goomty, the Sve-four vast streams which are navigable at all seasons of the year, contributed to its fertility, and facilitated those communications, which make fertility a blessing beyond its own sphere. These vast irvers should always have opposed barriers to foreign invasion; nevertheless although the people are warlike, and its districts afford large bodies of recruits to our armies, Oude has always been a prey to every foreign invader. Even the little state of Furruckabad, a branch only of the Patan state of Rohileund, overran the country under its heroic chieftain Ahmed Khan and plundered Lucknow itself.

Of the administration of the country, I scarcely like to hazard any remark; aware that such is, or is supposed to be, the intimate nature of our connexion with this state, that whatever may be the public opinion as to any good that may be apparent in its government, that which is mischievous is very certainly attributed to us. I have repeatedly heard men of education in the Western Provinces declare that the British Government encouraged the disorders of the Oude administration, in order that there might be a pretext for another cession, of what remains of its territory.

I arrived at Lucknow at an interesting moment. His late Majesty Ghaz-oodDeen Hyder, who died November 1827, had raised up from the lowest classes of society, a man named Aga Meer; to whom he had entrusted unlimited power; and in whose favor a treaty had been concluded with the British Government, under which the late Governor General guaranteed to him and his heirs, a large portion of the interest of a second crore of rupees; which he had the influence to extract from his master's coffers in aid of our operations against the Burmese Empire.

When the late King felt himself at the point of death, he began to entertain ap. prehension as to the full execution of the terms of this treaty; as far at least as regarded the favourite; and he therefore attempted to reconcile his son and successor to him, and the stipulations for bis benefit: a task one should suppose of some difficulty; for the heir apparent had been long in confinement, and the severo treatment be experienced during his father's life, was always attributed to the minister. However, the reconciliation took place in the dying monarch's presence. The young Prince ascended the Musnud; and the minister, instead of the instant disgrace apprehended by himself and his partizans, appeared to have succeeded to power as unlimited, and influence as unbounded in the Councils of the son, as he had exercised for years, in those of the father. The Kellaats, or dresses of bonor, and presents made to bim at the coronation, exceeded in magnificence those of the Royal Family; and I believe there was not an individual in the Western Provinces, Native or European, who foretold the storm; and who was not effectually deceived by these proceedings. The whole was a blind, more securely to effect his ruin without disturbance or éclat.

One morning after a short conference at the Residency, Aga Meer was informed, that he was to consider himself a close prisoner to his own palace, under the charge of the British troops, and the guarantee of person and property of British authority. He submitted to this startling and unexpected change, it must be owned, with the greatest fortitude. Neither his voice faltered, nor was there agitation even in his manner, as he expressed his conviction, that as he had served our Government, with at least as much zeal, as his own, the provisions of the treaty would be carefully and strictly adhered to. Aga Meer however, is still in confinement, (August 1828,) and it must be owned, that his position is one of great embarrassment.