8o
OCEANA.
spot remained unchanged, an opening into the awful solitude of unoccupied space.
At length the last day came. In a few hours we were to sight Kangaroo Island. Books were packed away, and preparations made to leave—my last reading was “Œdipus Coloneus,” the most majestic of all the Greek plays. Human imagination has conceived nothing grander, nothing so grand, as the mysterious disappearance of the blind old king, the voice calling him to come which no mortal lips had uttered, the sight which only Theseus was allowed to look on, and Theseus, shading his eyes with his hand before a scene too awful to be described. It was the highest point achieved by the Greek branch of Adam’s race. The Australians, among whom I was so soon to find myself, were the latest development of the same family. Among them there would be no Œdipus, no Theseus, no Sophocles, yet whatever has come out of man has its root in man’s nature ; and, if progress was not a dream, who could say what future of intellectual greatness might not yet lie before a people whose national life was still in its infancy?
CHAPTER VI.
First Sight of Australia.—Bay of Adelaide.—Sunday Morning.—The Harbourmaster.—Go on Shore.—The Port.—Houses.—Gardens.—Adelaide City.— The public Gardens.—Beauty of them.—New Acquaintances.—The Australian Magpie.—The laughing Jackass.—Interviewers.—Talk of Confederation.—Sail for Melbourne.—Aspect of the Coast.—Williamstown.
From the Cape to Australia—from political discord, the conflict of races, the glittering uniforms and the tramp of battalions—from intrigue and faction, and the perpetual interference of the Imperial Government, to a country where politics are but differences of opinion, where the hand of the Imperial Government is never felt, where the people are busy with their own affairs, and the harbours are crowded with ships, and the quays with loading carts, and the streets with men, where everyone seems occupied, and everyone at least moderately contented — the change is great indeed. The climate is the same. The soil, on the average, is equal; what