after its celebration, the captain put his passengers safely ashore, and resigned his curatorship of the lovers' portraits.
A few hours after passing the island of Rottnest we dropped anchor in Gage's Roads, about half a mile from the shore, and just opposite to the town of Fremantle, the chief port of Swan River. There is no regular harbour here, but only a roadstead, the bar at the mouth of the river prohibiting the entrance of any but very small vessels. The long line of shore was backed by forest, above which rose here and there the smoke of a bush fire as from a far-off colliery. The tall heavy-topped trees reminded me, at a distance, of Scotch firs; to which, however, they bear no other resemblance on near approach than the great height to which they reach, and the fact that their foliage is principally upon the uppermost branches. The pleasurable feeling of seeing the mainland was marred by the view of the first building that we could distinguish plainly upon it, namely, a long white prison on the hill-top erected for the reception of convicts, which, by way of flattering the imagination both of those within and without its walls, is commonly called the "Establishment." There were three other merchant vessels at anchor in the roads near our own ship, one of which had met with rough treatment from the same gale which we had encountered off St. Paul's. Part of her bulwarks and her galley had been washed overboard, and she had now come in for repairs.
Our voyage terminated upon a Saturday, and as there was no possibility of getting our heavy goods landed before Monday, we had nearly made up our minds to spend two
