beyond, the crystal waters of the Derwent thread their evervarying way in graceful curves around lofty hills, and into sheltered nooks dotted with farms, smiling villages, ruddy apple orchards, and cottages overtrailed with geraniums, on the borders of its pleasant shores, all being thrown into bold relief by the heavy forest masses in the back ground.

A wide quay, crowded with oil casks, stacks of timber, cases and packages of merchandise of every description, fringes the

cove which laves Hobart Town; a broad pathway on the wharf close to the water's edge being preserved for foot-passengers; and there, in line with rice ships from India, Mauritius sugar ships, and discharging whalers, the Petrel lay safely moored.

The deck had been well scrubbed, as was the wont of her careful chief officer, who loved his ship; the yards, standing and running rigging, were all taut and trim, and the ensign lay upon the locker, bent to the halyards, ready for hoisting on the first stroke of the eight bells, which would summon the crew to breakfast.

Shortly before this hour a portly personage, holding a young maiden by the hand, walked up the gangway, and replied by a

kindly touch of his hat to the salute of the chief officer, who advanced to meet the visitor; at the same moment the signalman ran the ensign up to the peak, for the visitor was worthy of all honor-it was the Governor, Sir John Franklin.

He had been attracted by the fine bows of the Petrel, and her clean run astern, and therefore came on board; he now scanned

the masts and gear aloft, and next noticed the decks and lower tackle.

66 Smart, clean ship, officer," said the Arctic Navigator; "she reflects great credit upon you, sir. I have always observed that as are the officers so is their vessel. I like to see officers take pride in their ships." After a little further conversation on various topics the good-natured Governor departed, saying, "Present my compliments to your commander; good morning, sir."

"Good morning, your Honor," replied the well-pleased chief

officer, as he conducted the veteran to the quay along which Sir John and his little friend continued their morning walk.

On the peninsula of Port Arthur is the settlement for the doubly-convicted and worst criminals; here, guarded by a cordon of bloodhounds, the wretched men pass their weary lives, and callous indeed must that mind be which can witness unmoved these thousand chained men, cast off and spurned by society for their crimes, worshipping the God of justice and love.

The convicts having formerly expressed a preference for a minister of the Wesleyan denomination, one of those worthy men has ever since been stationed at the place as chaplain.

A file of armed soldiers being arrayed on either side of the pulpit, the minister ascends, and after a simple hymn, and the offering of devout prayer amid intense silence, the sacred sublime lessons of peace towards God, and good will to man, are taught to many who never before experienced human sympathy, and hear now for the first time of duty, truth, morals, and religion.

Van Dieman's Land formerly received many cargoes of female convicts; of these some were employed in washing and sewing for the male convicts, and also for the colonists generally; others were assigned to the residents as domestic servants, and a sadly incorrigible set they were.

A newly-arrived lady of our acquaintance obtained a convictservant from the depôt, in the usual manner, and the new inmate seemed a model of neatness, industry, and politeness. On the second day of her residence, the maid requested permission to remove to her new home a box containing her best clothes, which, by her statement, had been left at her former situation. The unsuspecting mistress consented to the requisite temporary absence, and great was the alarm in the house at the non-return of the servant, fear lest some accident had befallen her being the uppermost sentiment.

The next day, Sunday, was passed in anxious suspense, some

what alleviated by the assurance of older residents, that the girl would probably be discovered on the Monday morning, and most likely in the lock-up; which surmise proved correct, for the model housemaid had been found by the police at midnight, drunk and uproarious, and in that state conveyed to the prison. Of course the tale of the box turned out to be a fib, a ruse 66

to get a fly." Oft they would intimate that the only difference between them and their mistresses was just the accidental circumstance that one class had emigrated for fear of being transported, and the other class, the "government people," as they termed themselves, not having been quite so prudent, had been caught; and so all had arrived at the same place.

One young lady, indignant at the prudence of her mistress in locking drawers and cupboards, assured her that suspicion against her attendant on that ground was unnecessary; she, the maid, would scorn to be a thief, she had not been sent out for stealing, she had been sentenced for murder.

For many years a desultory warfare was carried on by the outlying stock-keepers and farmers against the aborigines; and to "knock over a native" was almost as good sport as to bag a kangaroo. A wholesale attempt was once made to capture the poor wretches en masse, and all free colonists who were so disposed joined in the amusement of the hunt; and the country being thoroughly beaten for the game, the blacks were driven into a small peninsula; strange to say, the cooped up natives escaped one night through the camp of their pursuers, whether by connivance or by their own cunning has never been clearly made out. No one was the better for the battue, save the parties who contracted to provision the huntsmen, the government defraying the cost of their sustenance. At a subsequent period, a benevolent gentleman, Mr. Robinson, undertook by kindness and persuasion to bring in the natives, and what the armed host failed to achieve he accomplished single handed.

The few remaining aborigines, the last of their race, were afterwards removed to Flinder's Island, in Bass's Strait, where, living in idleness upon rations supplied by the government, they have become, or will soon be, as extinct as the Dodo, or the Megatherium.

Heavy crops of wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, potatoes, turnips, and fruit, annually prove sources of solid wealth to the farmers, particularly on the Launceston side of the island, where the rich and fertile vale of the Tamar, blessed with ample rain and sunshine, produces matchless cereals and vegetables, of vast service to the neighbouring colony of New South Wales in seasons of drought, to which it is sometimes subject.

To Tasmania, happy land, for climate, soil, health and beauty, for a while farewell. We leave the little round islet known as the Iron Pot, and almost touch the organ pipes of Cape Pillar; next we pass the cocks-comb of Maria Island, and looming high up there above the mist which veils the face of ocean we perceive the Three Patriarchs on Barren Island; and running along the coast of New South Wales, pass the broad entrance of Botany Bay; and shooting beyond the South Bluff, open out the lovely harbour of Sydney.