Note 13 — INTRODUCTION.

Captain Denham, R.N., who has been sent on an exploratory cruise in the various Archipelagoes of the Southern Pacific, in hope of meeting with an eligible depôt for convicts, whom the cessation of transportation to Australia (or at least to all except the Western portion) has thrown on the hands of the home government, very much to the embarrassment of the executive, and to the consternation of the community; for, as was foreseen when the project was first mooted, not only do the British public dread the introduction among them of the class known in France as libres forçats, but the former honest associates of these domesticated ‘emancipatists,’ to use an antipodean phrase, will not consort with them; hasten to denounce them to their employers as ‘black sheep;’ forcibly drive them from amongst them; and, in fact, surround them with such annoyances that their existence becomes intolerable in the society of any but those who are qualifying for, or have already graduated at, the hulks. The consideration of this subject will be found pursued at some length in treating of the Falklands. These islands are in every way admirably adapted, both to meet the difficulties just mooted, as to the disposal of our felonrie, and to supersede the labour of Capt. Denham, should he even be successful in discovering a spot in the southern hemisphere that is not open to innumerable objections on the score—1st, of propinquity to other islands; 2nd, being at double the distance of the Falklands from the mother country; and 3rd, the cost of conveyance being proportionably great; saying nothing of the expensiveness of founding a new settlement in a place that is already deserted, or from which the aborigines, if any, must be removed.