A HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, FROM ITS SETTLEMENT ΤΟ THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1844. BY THOMAS HENRY BRAIM, ESQ. OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; FORMERLY HEAD MASter of the RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. MDCCCXLVI. PREFACE. THE nature and object of the Work now issued to the world are sufficiently explained in the opening Chapter. The toils of an Author in Australia are not of that pleasing character, which suggested to the poet the expression "Labor ipse voluptas." While his fellow-citizens, the Great Republic of Letters at home, trim their lamps at leisure, and relax their bows, when Apollo ceases to be propitious, the Author in this hard-working country is compelled to pursue his task under the pressure of daily avocations; his lamp often expires while his labours are incomplete, and his bow is broken from too great severity of tension. I have not been exempted from the general sentence. My professional calls are neither few, nor light; and such is the best apology I have to offer for imperfections, which the critical reader will not fail to detect. Let this candid confession bespeak his indulgence. It is my pleasing duty to acknowledge the assistance and sympathy, which I have received in the execution of my undertaking. To the Hon. Edward Deas Thomson, Colonial Secretary, and the Gentlemen connected with Public Departments, I am under the greatest obligations for the readiness with which they have supplied me with documentary information, so necessary to the elucidation of the important questions in which the Colonists are at present interested, and which are discussed in this Work. With regard to "the Climatology and Diseases of Australia," I am greatly indebted to Charles Nicholson, Esq., M.D. M.L.C.; a gentleman to whom the Australian Public are under many and lasting obligations. I have also to acknowledge the assistance, I have received from George Arden, Esq., and Mr. Slatterie, as well as from J. B. Laughton, Esq. B.A. all of whom aided me greatly in the preparation of the historical parts of the Work. LONDON, DECEMBER, 1845. |