Having Entered The Harbour, It Appears Fine
And Spacious, With Cliff-Formed Shores Of Horizontally
Stratified Sandstone.
The nearly level country is covered with
thin scrubby trees, bespeaking the curse of sterility.
Proceeding further inland, the country improves:
Beautiful
villas and nice cottages are here and there scattered along the
beach. In the distance stone houses, two and three stories high,
and windmills standing on the edge of a bank, pointed out to us
the neighbourhood of the capital of Australia.
At last we anchored within Sydney Cove. We found the
little basin occupied by many large ships, and surrounded by
warehouses. In the evening I walked through the town, and
returned full of admiration at the whole scene. It is a most
magnificent testimony to the power of the British nation.
Here, in a less promising country, scores of years have done
many more times more than an equal number of centuries
have effected in South America. My first feeling was to
congratulate myself that I was born an Englishman. Upon
seeing more of the town afterwards, perhaps my admiration
fell a little; but yet it is a fine town. The streets are
regular, broad, clean, and kept in excellent order; the houses
are of a good size, and the shops well furnished. It may be
faithfully compared to the large suburbs which stretch out from
London and a few other great towns in England; but not even near
London or Birmingham is there an appearance of such rapid
growth.
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