Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. We leave Somerset—The Australian coast—The " Black fellows "— A wreck—Brisbane—Aspect from the river—Signs of progress— Hotels—Loungers at the bars—The streets—Houses of Parliament—View of the city—Queensland a fine " poor man's " country. After leaving Somerset we encountered heavy squalls and almost incessant rain. The decks were sloppy and miserable; a blinding sheet of hissing rain hid the blurred outlines of the coast from view, and we had to anchor each night, it was so thick. We discharged our Chinese passengers at Cook-town on the 23rd, and were glad to be relieved of their unsavoury presence. A poor digger, who had come all the way from Singapore, died here within a day's sail of his home, and was consigned to his deep-sea grave that morning. Next day the weather was worse than ever, and seemed to affect the spirits of every one on board. Our captain shone out to-day. He growled at everything and everybody, and his very hair seemed stiff. After passing Bowen, a small seaport some 700 miles from Somerset, we enjoyed a beautiful warm Sunday, passing some of the finest coast scenery we had yet beheld. The coast is bold and rocky; great mountains, literally clothed with dark green foliage, rise there from the water's edge; huge boulders and' rocky cliffs peer out from their nests of pine and bushy scrub; numerous cascades and torrents leap down from cliff to cliff; islands lie scattered on all sides. A long glistening line of beach, with dark masses of trees behind, and the water rippling among the sand and shells—indeed a vision of beauty. We could make out several natives among the rocks and bush on the shore, and one or two came out in their light bark canoes, and cried out for tobacco and biscuits, some of which we threw to them. They are a repulsi...