But how different is Australia
from Europe! Instead of containing, as Europe does, a number of grand
kingdoms, it has not one single king. Instead of being filled with
people, the greater part of Australia is a desert, or a forest, where a
few half naked savages are wandering.
A hundred years ago, there was not a town in the whole island; but now
there are a few large towns near the sea-coast, but only a very few. It
is the English who built these large towns, and who live in them.
Australia is not so fine a land as Europe, because it has not so many
fine rivers; and it is fine _rivers_ that make a fine _land_. Most of the
rivers in Australia do not deserve the name of rivers; they are more like
a number of water-holes, and are often dried up in the summer; but there
is one very fine, broad, long, deep river, called the Murray. It flows
for twelve hundred miles. Were there several such rivers us the Murray,
then Australia would be a fine land indeed.
Why is there so little water? Because there is so little rain. Sometimes
for two years together, there are no heavy showers, and the grass
withers, and the trees turn brown, and the air is filled with dust. I
believe the reason of the want of rain is--that the mountains are not
high; for high mountains draw the clouds together. There are no mountains
as high as the Alps of Europe; the highest are only half as high.[13]
THE NATIVES.--The savages of Australia have neither god, nor king.
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