Public attention had been strongly directed towards the question of Steam Communication with India and England, the facilitating of which was one of the principal objects of the Voyage of the Rattlesnake.* Meetings to discuss the practicability of forming railroads** had also been held.

Dr.Leichhardt, the well-known, indefatigable traveller, had started with a party to attempt to traverse the Continent of Australia, and reach Swan River--and Mr.
Kennedy had returned from tracing the Victoria River of Sir Thomas Mitchell, which he found to become lost in the stony desert of Sturt, instead of disemboguing into the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, as some had conjectured.
(*Footnote.

This project, I regret to add, has not yet been carried into effect, nor does there appear to be any reasonable prospect of its speedy accomplishment.) (**Footnote.

I have lately heard that the first Australian railroad has actually been commenced at Sydney.) FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY.
During our stay the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the colony was celebrated, and a large proportion of the 50,000 inhabitants of Sydney and the neighbourhood joined in the festivities and amusements commemorating so glorious a day in the annals of their adopted country.
When witnessing the gaieties of the regatta, I could not help reflecting on the simple narrative of the first founder of what may hereafter become a great empire, a mighty monument of the genius of the Anglo-Saxon race.
"The spot chosen for our encampment," says Colonel Collins, "was at the head of the cove near the run of fresh water which stole silently along through a very thick wood, the stillness of which had then, for the first time since the creation, been interrupted by the rude sound of the labourer's axe, and the downfall of its ancient inhabitants; a stillness and tranquillity which from that day were to give place to the voice of labour, the confusion of camps, and the busy hum of its new possessors."* (Footnote.

Collins' New South Wales 2nd edition page 10.) Finding that there was yet some time to spare before the arrival of the usual period for leaving Sydney to pass through Torres Strait, Captain Stanley resolved upon acting in accordance with the expressed wishes of the Colonial Government, that he should make an inspection of the various lighthouses in Bass Strait, and for that purpose sailed from Sydney on February 2nd, with the Rattlesnake and Bramble.