Note 283 — CONCLUSION

"Just before I embarked at Plymouth, I visited my grandmother, in order to take leave of her for ever. Poor old soul! she was already dead to the concerns of this life: my departure could make but little difference in the time of our separation; and it was of no importance to her which of us should quit the other. My resolution, however, revived for a day all her woman's feelings: she shed abundance of tears, and then became extremely curious to know every particular about the place to which I was going. I rubbed her spectacles whilst she wiped her eyes, and, having placed before her a common English chart of the world, pointed out the situation of New Holland. She shook her head. 'What displeases, you, my dear Madam P' said I. 'Why,' she answered, 'it is terribly out of the way; down in the very right-hand corner of the world.' The chart being mine, I cut it in two through the meridian of Iceland, transposed the parts laterally, and turned them upside down. 'Now,' asked I, 'where is England P' 'Ah, boy,' she replied, 'you may do what you like with the map; but you can't twist the world about in that manner, though they are making sad changes in it.'"—A Letter from Sydney; the principal town of Australia. Edited by Robert Gouger, 1829.