William's death in England, which reached Augusta in June '35. ' John is a great solace to Mamma, who seems to depend upon him almost as she did on Papa in every affliction or trouble. He is looking well but harassed and distressed. This recent news from England was a severe blow to him, for he loved William dearly. Lenox '—then at the Vasse-' has written to me once since our last accounts from England. I wrote to apprise him of it, for I dreaded the shock upon so sensitive a mind. I wish you could see him now; he has grown so good and industrious and ingenious. His brothers all understand him, and pronounce" The Admiral" an admirable old fellow.

'Vernon and Alfred, both so young when you parted from them, would interest you equally, though in different ways. The former, steady, persevering and prompt in all his undertakings, of principles of the strictest honour, and in his own family so tender, so affectionate, so buoyant in spirits. His whole soul is in the success of the farm. Unlike the Bussells in general, activity to him is not an act of duty, but of inclination. His industry and promptitude render him one of the main props of the family. In person he is scarcely at all altered except that he has added a pair of whiskers of very respectable dimensions, and an imperial which Mr. Green tells him is worth a hundred a year to him at least. He is the same height as John, but more stoutly made, and with remarkably broad shoulders. Alfred's character is still unformed, remarkably so for his years, I think, but minds do not develop in this secluded region so rapidly as in the great world, where everything combines to call forth the passions and indurate the feelings. I often think of Alfred with much anxiety. He has many dangerous talents, a strong predilection for social life, a taste for its refinements, and at

times a yearning for its pleasures. But he is a dear good fellow, and when time and religion have modified the sudden impulses of youth and taught him that harsh lesson that "all is not gold that glitters", he will cease to seek for happiness where it is not to be found. His temper is in wonderful subjection, and his fear of wounding the feelings of others almost amounts to a foible.

'I have not mentioned Charley. He is writing to you himself, and his letters are a complete index of his most beautiful mind.'-Fanny B. to Capel Carter, 4th June 1835.

The Lady Mamma, as the black servants called Mrs. F. L. Bussell, in her first letter home from Perth, expresses indignation that, with the church exactly what Fanny described, and Mr. and Miss Wittenoom excellent worthy creatures, they have opened a conventicle here.' Her letters are none the less vivid by reason of their oldworld flavour. The following breathless story of a matron's trials and fortitude was dashed off at Augusta, on 1st February 1835, in the very crisis of preparing dinner for the Governor and his suite, on a surprise visit:

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'A few lines to my most dear girl, to acknowledge all the thirteen packages by the "Adam", all in perfect order. Most thankful are we. The Ellen schooner is in, and has brought so many visitors and so much business that we are half beside ourselves, but we are all well and happy. The Governor dines with us to-day, and sails this even. A parcel [of letters] which will go in Mr. Turner's box will tell you much. We shall appear the victims of misfortune and ill-luck, but it is not so. Are we not blessed with health, spirits and content? The wreck of all our property you will have heard, but we will soon have another opportunity. My dear, we have no servant. Think of our difficulties, but do not pity us. The wreck

E

has been found and plundered. Seven men have been transported, but very little property recovered, nothing valuable except my feather beds and a few blankets. You must not grieve for us. We have ceased to do so long since. Oh, my Capel! how your feelings have been harrowed! Your dear, dear letters are rich cordials. Continue to write such. The bonnets were most acceptable. We have sent Vernon's papers, and by this shall send duplicates. Our cow ran away again but returned with the heifer. Conceive our joy. I think affairs are taking a prosperous turn. We only want you and some others to feel no wish or want. I snatch this from my company to which I must return. God for ever bless and reward my Capel and all my benefactors, relations, friends. The caps were most à propos. Mr. Mackie* wants a description of some of our property. He expects to convict more. The iniquity of the thing beggars description. God forgive them. Emma has taken her departure from my service. She is the most abandoned creature. She has violated every commandment. But I did not send her away; she would go. I hear poor Attwood+ is not flourishing at the Sound. The person who deluded him away from my service has forsaken him. Adieu, my own. I am yours for ever. Do not be troubled about us, a more happy, cheerful group cannot be found. F. L. Bussell.'

* The Judge-Advocate, or senior magistrate.

↑ An indentured servant who came out with Mrs. Bussell and Mary, but left them on their arrival.

V

JOHN AND YULIKA, EXPLORERS

IN December 1831 John Bussell discovered the fine natural pastures, sixty miles north of Augusta, on the south side of Geographe Bay. Twenty years earlier, M. Vasse, botanist on a French vessel of exploration, had gone ashore there to look for specimens, and had vanished. In all likelihood he was speared by the natives who were attracted in great numbers by the abundant game there. John Bussell was at once impressed by its fertile appearance, but took care to visit the Vasse again' in the heat of summer and in the depth of winter, to ascertain the capabilities of the port for shipping in stormy weather, and the state of herbage in droughts.' There exists an undated account of one of these later journeys, evidently during spring, probably that undertaken at Captain Molloy's instance in November 1832. If identical with ' a journal of an expedition to the Vasse River', a copy of which John sent to Wells, it was 'written rather for the amusement of my private friends in England than for public perusal.' His eyes, accustomed to the rough grassless floor of the jarrah forests, feasted on the pastures growing, between tuart and peppermint, from the limestone soil. The country as we advanced improved rapidly; the ground on which we trod was a vivid green, unsullied with burnt sticks and blackened grass trees. Not that it was covered with a decided turf, but the vegetation seemed more succulent than woody, and the plants

growing to about the same height presented to the eye a smooth surface,

'With daisies pied and violets blue

'And ladies' smocks all silver white.

Though the flowers were perhaps not precisely the same that characterise an English meadow, they were not the less beautiful in appearance, varied in form, and brilliant in colour. Grass was in plenty and the clover (?) I have noticed above, with its bright scarlet and yellow flower, the daisy, the buttercup and a purple marigold. The whole effect reminded me of that confusion of rich tints that is produced in the Indian loom, and as I looked upon it I could not but feel inclined to believe that such a scene as this must have presented to the imagination of the Hindoo the high colouring of his fabric and the prototype of the gaudy chintz.

'Half a mile brought us to a small river deep and so slow that I could hardly ascertain the existence of a current. I concluded it to be, as it afterwards proved, the Vasse. The sound of rushing waters proclaimed a rapid near. Walking therefore a short distance up the stream we found what we sought, a passage over.

'Here was a spot that the creative fancy of a Greek would have peopled with Dryad and Naiad and all the beautiful phantoms and wild imagery of his sylvan mythology. Wide waving lawns were sloping down to the water's edge. Trees thick and entangled were stooping over the banks. One in the centre of the rapids had taken root among the very rocks over which the waters tumbled; its bended trunk and tortuous roots seemed to indicate that it had struggled more than once to regain the perpendicular from which it has been thrust by the rude