FIRST EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUTENANTS GREY AND LUSHINGTON, TO HANOVER BAY AND PRINCE REGENT'S RIVER. DISCOVERY OF THE GLENELG

In introducing the expeditions of Western Australia, it will be as well to note the date of the founding of that colony.

Western Australia was originally founded to afford a place of emigration to those who objected to settle in a penal colony. The neighbourhood of Swan River had been explored by Captain Sterling, of Her Majesty's ship Success, while on his return from Raffles Bay, in 1827, and it was determined to found a colony there for free emigrants. A similar project had been entertained by the French, and it was only by fortunately having anticipated them that the Australian continent was saved from being the abode of the two rival races, French and English, and all the certain consequences of such an antagonism as must have arisen. Free grants of land were offered by the English Government to emigrants to the amount of forty acres for every sum of £3 sterling, which they invested in goods and implements for importation to the settlement. Thus large tracts of land might be obtained at a very cheap rate, and the consequence was, a sudden influx of people of the middle ranks, who hoped to settle down on good estates, and live as those with larger fortunes did in England. Retired military and naval officers, younger sons of men of property in England, merchants, tradesmen, and West India planters, flocked over in great numbers.