The letter-press with which the Engraving was circulated contains little
beyond the earliest settlement. The most recently received account is
that conveyed through the _Literary Gazette_, a fortnight since;
and as no paper is more to be relied on for information connected with
expeditions of discovery, colonial matters, &c. we extract nearly the
whole of the communication:--
Perth Town, Swan River, Western Australia, Oct. 4, 1830.
My dear ----, a ship being about to sail in the course of a week for
England, I must not lose the opportunity of giving you a few lines
respecting our movements and the state of the colony. I am somewhat
late in my communications to my friends; but as this is the second ship
only that has sailed direct for England since our arrival, you must not
attribute the delay to any neglect on my part. The information which
I can give you may be implicitly depended on. By the late accounts from
England, it appears that the most exaggerated and false reports prevail
regarding the present state and probable prospects of the colony,
like all other reports that are a mixture of truth and falsehood; and
as it is usual to paint the latter in the brightest colours, so it
usually stands foremost in the picture: they have been industriously
disseminated by a set of idle, worthless vagabonds, and have been
eagerly taken up by the inhabitants of Cape Town and Van Dieman's
Land.
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