Excerpt from The Coming of the British to Australia Australia has reached an interesting stage in her history. She has completed the first five years of her life as a Commonwealth, a sufficiently long period for her to gain a consciousness of her duties and her destinies as a united nation. The volume of her annals up to the 1st of January, 1901, while she was still composed of separate Colonies, is finished. But it is not closed and done with. On the contrary, its early chapters have acquired a new meaning and value. Australians should look backwards as well as forwards. They will find in the records of the discovery and settlement of their country guidance and inspiration for the future. They will understand more clearly how their land and people have been moulded and fashioned in their present shape by climate, soil and circumstances. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.