_loan_ of a _dump_, on pretence of treating his sick _gin_ [wife] to a cup
of tea, but in reality with a view of treating _himself_ to a porringer of
"Cooper's best," to which his majesty is most royally devoted. You land at
the government wharf on the right, where carts and porters are generally
on the look-out for jobs; and on passing about fifty yards along the
avenue, you enter George-street, which stretches on both hands, and up
which, towards the left, you now turn, to reach the heart of the town.

* * * * *

Although all you see are English faces, and you hear no other language but
English spoken, yet you soon become aware that you are in a country very
different from England, by the number of parrots and other birds of
strange notes and plumage which you observe hanging at so many doors, and
cagesful of which you will soon see exposed for sale as you proceed. The
government gangs of convicts, also, marching backwards and forwards from
their work in single military file, and the solitary ones straggling here
and there, with their white woollen Paramatta frocks and trousers, or gray
or yellow jackets with duck overalls, (the different styles of dress
denoting the oldness or newness of their arrival,) all bedaubed over with
broad arrows, P.B.'s, C.B.'s, and various numerals in black, white, and
red, with perhaps the jail-gang straddling sulkily by in their jingling
leg-chains,--tell a tale too plain to be misunderstood. At the corners of
streets, and before many of the doors, fruit-stalls are to be seen,
teeming, in their proper seasons, with oranges, lemons, limes, figs,
grapes, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, apples, pears, &c. at very
moderate prices.--_Two Years in New South Wales_.

* * * * *