lake is a shallow sheet of water, sixty miles in length and forty miles in breadth, which interposes between the sea and the river, thus presenting an impassable obstacle to ocean communication. The hopes excited by the discovery of this picturesque river have hitherto not been realised. Although broad, deep, and bordered by rich land for many score miles, the perpetual recurrence of shallows limits the draught of water to two feet, at which depth steamers cannot be profitably navigated. Captain Sturt, having made this important discovery, returned by reascending the river. In consideration of these and other services rendered to South Australia, the new Legislative Council of that colony have recently voted to Captain Sturt, who has unfortunately become blind, a pension of 500 an act of liberality for which no precedent is to be found in the proceedings of the other settlements.
In October, 1831, General Darling resigned his government, and after an interregnum of two months, filled by Colonel Lindsay, was succeeded by General Sir Richard Bourke.
CHAPTER VIII.
GOVERNOR BOURKE.
1831 TO 1838.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR RICHARD BOURKE, K.C.B., became Governor of New South Wales in December, 1831, and retired in November, 1837. He was, without question, the ablest man who had as yet occupied that office; equal in zeal, energy, and plain common sense to Macquarie; superior in the liberality, humanity, and statesman-like far-sightedness of his views. With wise self-reliance he resisted the blandishments of the official clique who have been the curse of all our colonies, and the opposition of the faction of white slave-drivers, who looked upon the colony as a farm to be administered for their sole benefit. He had courage, too, of a rare quality, for he dared to differ from his chief, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on a vital point of administration. His recorded objections to the Wakefield land system are remarkable for their prophetic wisdom. Sir Richard was, and his memory still is, deservedly popular among the humble, or the wealthy sons of the once humble settlers—a rare merit, and not a qualification for favour at the Colonial Office. The six years of his reign were crowded
