There are a fine set of ships here: amongst them are the Great
Britain, Cleopatra, Ballaarat, Aberfoil, and an immense number of
others, great and small. The Great Britain leaves early to-morrow,
so I cannot finish my letter. We have been ninety-five days on our
passage. The Cleopatra has only arrived two days. There are a great
many vessels coming in. The day before yesterday we overtook and
passed the Jane, and Truth, of London, which left Plymouth a
fortnight before we sailed from Dartmouth. I hear already that
things are very dear in Melbourne. Our pilot says he gives 200
pounds a year for a small four-roomed cottage, two miles from the
town.

. . .

To show how well prepared the young adventurer was for life in
Australia,--notwithstanding letters of introduction and means of
obtaining money if required--after remaining only a few days in
Melbourne, and disbursing but a small modicum of the limited supply
of cash he had taken with him, anxious to see the interior of the
Island Continent, he obtained employment for himself and brother, a
lad only fifteen years of age, at a large sheep station two hundred
miles up the country. The following letter, dated February 12th,
1853, describes their proceedings to that date:--

MY DEAR FATHER,

We are at Deniliquin. And where in the world is that? you will say.
Well; it is about two hundred miles north from Melbourne, on the
Edward River, in the New South Wales district, and nearly five
hundred miles from Sydney. The station belongs to the Royal Bank