and making their laps serve as tables, make an excellent supper on the haunch of poor wallaby.

After supper some one asks you for a song. You give one in your best style, making your voice echo through the adjoining forests, and frightening the poor variegated parrots who have gone to roost in the trees there. In token of the gratitude of the party for your condescension, the captain of the expedition proposes that the hill on which you are going to pass the night be called after you. All present instantly assent. A glass of wine is poured on the grass at the entrance of the tent, the party rise and give three hearty cheers, and the captain proclaims that henceforth the hill shall be called Mount Rosabel. We mark it so on the map.

A short speech of thanks from you succeeds, and then all go to rest, undisturbed by the howling of the native dogs, who are kept off by the fear of your firearms, and sleep till you hear the captain's bugle next morning, when you jump up, breakfast, strike your tents, and set off again, and so on, till after a few weeks' absence you return to headquarters, with all your zoological, botanical, geological, and topographical discoveries. How do you like this idea of an exploring party?

As for our occupations and amusements on board ship, they will be manifold; and as neither you nor I mean to be seasick, we shall make ourselves very comfortable. But I hope that you will make up your minds quickly to going out; for remember it is not safe or pleasant to leave England between Octo

ber 20 and the beginning of January: so that, as I am almost sure of going with papa in October, we shall not have the pleasure of forming one party on the voyage unless you make very great haste in your preparations, which, by-the-bye, are different in their magnitude when you are going to the other side of the world from when you are taking a trip to a watering-place. But I hope and trust that you will be ready by October 20, and we will all sail together, singing merrily, "The deep, deep sea!"

As your eldest brother is a poet and you are a musician, you ought to consult with him on writing a national song for us Australians, and setting it to some popular and spirited tune. Let the first verse be the invocation of "the future sons of Australia" to their mother to raise a future empire on the shores whither the blue waves of the Southern Ocean are bearing them along; then go on to describe in the following verses the landing of the colonists, the occupations to which they betake themselves, and the gradual rising of the city on the waste and barren coast, bringing in descriptions of the excitement and ambition of the settlers, and ending each verse with a spirited chorus. Let the tune be grand, but simple and marked, so that every South Australian may easily learn it, and sing it both on the voyage and on shore for we must practise a great deal of music, as it keeps the people in a good humour; so we will have concerts and private theatricals on board ship, balls and musical festivals on land, but no raffles or wheels of fortune.

:

NINA WAKEFIELD.

54. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

Columbus was fully sensible of his perilous situation. He had observed, with great uneasiness, the fatal operation of ignorance and of fear in producing disaffection among his crew, and saw that it was now ready to burst out into open mutiny. He retained, however, perfect presence of mind. He affected to Notwithstand

seem ignorant of their machinations. ing the agitation and solicitude of his own mind, he appeared with a cheerful countenance, like a man satisfied with the progress he had made, and confident of success.

Sometimes he employed all the arts of insinuation to soothe his men. Sometimes he endeavoured to work upon their ambition or avarice, by magnificent descriptions of the fame and wealth which they were about to acquire. On other occasions he assumed a tone of authority, and threatened them with vengeance from their sovereign. Even with seditious sailors, the words of a man whom they had been accustomed to reverence were weighty and persuasive, and not only restrained them from those violent excesses which they meditated, but prevailed with them to accompany their admiral for some time longer.

As they proceeded, the indications of approaching land seemed to be more certain, and excited hope in proportion. The birds began to appear in flocks, making towards the south-west. Columbus, in imitation of the Portuguese navigators, who had been guided in several of their discoveries by the motion (1,114)

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of birds, altered his course from due west towards that quarter whither they pointed their flight. But after holding on for several days in this new direction without any better success than formerly, having seen no object during thirty days but the sea and the sky, the hopes of his companions subsided faster than they had risen; their fears revived with additional force; impatience, rage, and despair appeared in every countenance.

The officers, who had hitherto concurred with Columbus in opinion, and supported his authority, now took part with the private men. They assembled tumultuously on the deck, expostulated with their commander, mingled threats with their expostulations, and required him instantly to tack about and return to Europe. Columbus perceived that it would be of no avail to have recourse to any of his former arts, which, having been tried so often, had lost their effect. It was necessary to soothe passions which he could no longer command, and to give way to a torrent too impetuous to be checked. He promised solemnly to his men that he would comply with their request, provided they would accompany him for three days longer; and if during that time land were not discovered, he would then abandon the enterprise and direct his course towards Spain.

Enraged as the sailors were, and impatient to turn their faces again towards their native country, this proposition did not appear to them unreasonable. Nor did Columbus hazard much in confining himself to a term so short. The presages of discovering land