expeditions of discovery, colonial matters, &c. we extract nearly the
whole of the communication:--

Perth Town, Swan River, Western Australia, Oct. 4, 1830.

My dear ----, a ship being about to sail in the course of a week for
England, I must not lose the opportunity of giving you a few lines
respecting our movements and the state of the colony. I am somewhat
late in my communications to my friends; but as this is the second ship
only that has sailed direct for England since our arrival, you must not
attribute the delay to any neglect on my part. The information which
I can give you may be implicitly depended on. By the late accounts from
England, it appears that the most exaggerated and false reports prevail
regarding the present state and probable prospects of the colony,
like all other reports that are a mixture of truth and falsehood; and
as it is usual to paint the latter in the brightest colours, so it
usually stands foremost in the picture: they have been industriously
disseminated by a set of idle, worthless vagabonds, and have been
eagerly taken up by the inhabitants of Cape Town and Van Dieman's
Land.--These two places are so excessively jealous of the colony of
Swan River, lest the tide of emigration should turn towards us, that the
former use every means in their power to induce the settlers in their
way here to remain with them; and they have been, I am sorry to say, too
successful, having detained nearly two hundred labourers. The grounds of
complaint are, that the colony is not equal to the representations given
of it, and that it has not answered their expectations. The account in
the _Quarterly Review_, as far as it goes, is correct, with one
exception; but the impression it is calculated to make, when in unison
with the hopes of needy adventurers, is too favourable to be realized.
The _Review_ observes, that the land seen on the banks of the Swan