Anglo-Saxon fence which shall prevent the development of the New World
from being interfered with by the Old World.'

It was an abounding moment at which to be taken into partnership for the
carrying forward of the universe. Half the globe, as we are intimate with
it to-day, was then unknown, and North-West Australia was a no-man's
land, saving to the Aborigines. It was believed by geographers that a big
river, artery to an immense area of Australia, must here drain into the
sea. A Government expedition, as head of which Sir George Grey was
selected, should determine this, and familiarise the Aborigines with the
British name and character.

'It's odd,' Sir George said, 'to reflect that in the latitudes, for which
we were bound, human beings were everywhere eating one another. There was
a patch of settled civilisation at the Cape, a lighthouse beaming into
those seas, and that was about all, The full glow had to arrive from the
north, seeing that south of a line, drawn from the Cape to Australia and
New Zealand, there was only the Antarctic wilderness.

'You had ice in such parts as the savage could not inhabit; bleakness
eternal, with no promise of help in raising him to a higher life. Mostly,
in the history of mankind, civilisation has grown in upon a country from
several quarters. The contrary should be noted in respect to the lands,
which, as we left Plymouth, seemed to us so attractive, so full of
promise for generations yet unborn. We were to test that promise, and
Darwin's "Beagle," having brought him home from a voyage, was to bear us
on another.'

Sir George already knew Darwin enough to be a frequent caller on him in
London. They discussed evolution, and a host of subjects in which Darwin