"The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself; Yea, all which it inherit." SHAKESPERE. PREFACE. THE following notes of travel are the outcome of a long holiday taken by an Anglo-Australian, who, after twenty-five years of active occupation in Melbourne, was enabled to indulge his long-cherished desire of making a tour of the globe. Without companions, save those whom he found by the way, and unassisted by guide-books, he travelled through most of the principal countries in each of the world's five divisions, and recorded the impressions made upon his mind by all that he saw and heard while they were still fresh. The chapters in their present shape were actually written in the localities which they describe, and thence posted to a newspaper in Melbourne. In the columns of the Argus they have appeared at regular intervals during the last three years. Thus written, the Author ventures to think that they convey a more faithful description of the scenes and people visited than if they had been subsequently elaborated from the rough material of a diary, assisted by reference to the works of other travellers. The kindly welcome eagerly accorded to them in their serial form by his fellow-colonists has induced him to offer them collectively to the acceptance of a larger public at home. The present volume relates to those stages of his journey which began after leaving the American Continent, |