The Total Want Of Almost Every Comfort Was
Not Attractive; But Future And Certain Prosperity Was Before
Their Eyes, And That Not Far Distant.
The next day we passed through large tracts of country in
flames, volumes of smoke sweeping across the road.
Before
noon we joined our former road, and ascended Mount Victoria.
I slept at the Weatherboard, and before dark took
another walk to the amphitheatre. On the road to Sydney
I spent a very pleasant evening with Captain King at Dunheved;
and thus ended my little excursion in the colony of
New South Wales.
Before arriving here the three things which interested me
most were - the state of society amongst the higher classes,
the condition of the convicts, and the degree of attraction
sufficient to induce persons to emigrate. Of course, after
so very short a visit, one's opinion is worth scarcely anything;
but it is as difficult not to form some opinion, as it is
to form a correct judgment. On the whole, from what I
heard, more than from what I saw, I was disappointed in the
state of society. The whole community is rancorously
divided into parties on almost every subject. Among those
who, from their station in life, ought to be the best, many
live in such open profligacy that respectable people cannot
associate with them. There is much jealousy between the
children of the rich emancipist and the free settlers, the
former being pleased to consider honest men as interlopers.
The whole population, poor and rich, are bent on acquiring
wealth:
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