Colony, thus placing the estuary of the river between it and the port of Fremantle. There were as yet no roads, and, though the river afforded a water way, there were no vessels or boats fitted for the transport of cargo. The land on the Swan, and between the Swan and the Vasse, had been for the most part taken up, and the time and labor of an increasing staff of surveyors, and even of the Governor himself, soon became occupied in finding new locations for settlement, and means of communication between already inhabited places. The want of system and concentration of strength tended greatly to neutralize the strenuous and persevering efforts of the colonists, who had to labor on for many years under depressing circumstances. It is not therefore surprising that, in the early days of the Colony, there should have been some discontent, and a desire for change in the land laws, and for the protection of Colonial produce, which could be undersold by that imported; and these conditions obtained, more or less, for many years.
These causes continued in operation, and the land in the settled districts of the Colony being all taken up, and servants and laborers who had saved money being unable to purchase, emigration increased; and as many as 42 left the Colony at one time.
Governor Stirling had discovered, in the course of his explorations, that the greater part of the land in the Colony was more fitted for pasturage than agriculture; and it soon became necessary for the settlers, who were sheep and cattle owners, to seek more extended runs for their stock, beyond the settled districts of the Colony. This caused a still greater dispersion of the already small population, which, in 1840, amounted only to 2,354 persons. The price of land had now
