HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: FOUNDED ON THE EXPERIENCE OF A THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN THAT COLONY. BY J. F. BENNETT. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., CORNHILL. 1843. Price Two Shillings. PREFACE. IN presenting the following pages to the Public, the writer has only one object in view, and that is to place the British Public, and especially that portion of it which takes an interest in Emigration in general, and South Australian Emigration in particular, as well as such as may entertain an intention of emigrating, in possession of a plain unvarnished statement of facts, as to the character and capabilities of a Colony which has never been fairly represented in this country-a Colony which has been slandered by enemies interested elsewhere on the one hand, and perhaps as much injured by the well-meant but injudicious statements of its friends on the other-a Colony which has had to grapple with difficulties and anomalies of no ordinary kind-a Colony which, I feel convinced, must ere long rank high among the Foreign possessions of this vast empire. There have been various writers on South Australia, from most of whom I have found it necessary to differ on many points; and while I claim no superiority over any one of these gentlemen either in point of talent, sagacity, or erudition, I claim, and think I am fully entitled to, one advantage over them all-namely, that of speaking from |