The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 24, 1864.

THE GOAL IS REACHED,

" Thursday, 24th July, Thring Creek, Entering the
Marsh —Started at 4.70 course north. I have taken this
course in order to make the sea coast, which I suppose to
be distant about eight miles and a half, as soon as possible ;
by this I hope to avoid the marsh, I shall travel along the
beach to the north of the Adelaide. I did not inform any
of the party, except Thring and Auld, that I was so near to
the sea, as I wished to give them a surprise on reaching it.
Proceeded through a light soil, slightly elevated, with a
little ironstone on the surface, the volcanic rock cropping
out occasionally; also some flats of black alluvial soil.
The timber much smaller and more like scrub, showing
that we are nearing the sea. At eight miles and a halt
upon a broad valley of black alluvial soil, covered with long
grass; from this I can hear the wash of the sea. On the
other side of the valley, which is rather more than a quarter
of a mile wide, is growing a lino of thick heavy bushes,
very dense, showing that to be the boundary of the beach,
Crossed the valley, and entered the scrub, which was a
complete network of vines. Stopped the horses to clear a
wan whilst I advanced a few yards on to the beach, and
was gratified and delighted to behold the water of the Indian
Ocean in Van Diemen Gulf, before the party with the
horses knew anything of its proximity. Thring, who rode
in advance of me, called cut "The sea I" which so took
them all by surprise, and they were so astonished, that he
had to repeat the call before they fully understood what was
meant. Then they immediately gave three long and hearty
cheers. The beach is covered with soft blue mud, It being
ebb tide, I could see some distance; found it would be im-
possible for me to take the horses along it; I therefore
kept them where I had halted them, and allowed half the
party to come en to the beach and gratify themselves by a
sight of the sea, while the other half remained to watch the
horses until their return. I dipped my feet, and washed
my face and hands in the sea, as I promised the late Gover-
nor Sir Richard McDonnell I would do if I reached it. The
mud has nearly covered all the shells; we got a few, how-
ever. I could see no sea-weed. There is a point of land
some distance off, bearing 70°. After all the party had had
some time on the beach, at which they were much pleased
and gratified, they collected a few shells ; I returned to the
valley, where I had my initials (J. M. D. S.) cut on a large
tree, as I did not intend to put up my flag until I arrived
at the mouth of the Adelaide. Proceeded, on a course of
32°, along the valley ; at one mile and a half, coming upon
a'small creek, with running water, and the valley covered
with beautiful green grass, I have camped to give the
horses the benefit of it. Thus have I, through the instru-
mentality of Divine. Providence, been led to accomplish the
great object of the expedition, and take the whole party
safely as witnesses to the fact, and through one of the finest
countries man could wish to behold—good to the coast, and
with a stream of running water within half a mile of the
tea."

The enthralling interest of some of the perilous
experiences recounted in these journals may be
readily surmised, and many readers will follow
with lively sympathy the weary path first
trodden by these pioneers of civilisation. The book
is illustrated by excellent maps and some very
spirited illustrations.

A Diplcmate's _Residence in Persia. By Edward
B. Eastwick, F.R.S., F.S.A., of the Middle Tem-
ple, late H.M. Chargé d'Affaires at the Court of
Teheran. Two Vols. Smith, Elder, and Co.
Mr. Eastwick has given us a very amusing ac-
count of his experiences during a three years' resi•
dente in Persia. The style is lively and animated,
perhaps occasionally evincing a little too much
effort to be entertaining. He tells us.at the outset
that the great ignorance evinced by his friends and
countrymen as to the condition and the very where-
abouts of Persia distressed him beyond measure on
his first accepting his mission, and it was to
his appreciation of this ignorance that we are
indebted for his book. One acquaintance bid-
ding him farewell on his departure, exclaimed,

" I wish you a safe arrival ispahan."
" Why," inquired the new dinlomate, " talk of
Ispahan.. Surely my journey of three thousand
miles is enough, without sending me four hundred
and fifty further to Ispahan. Know that Tehran
is the capital of Persia since 1786—is it not so in
the copy-books ? " Other acquaintances evince
similar ignorance, and' the intending traveller's
perplexities are thus amusingly described :

As I walked away I met another acquaintance, who, on
hearing I was going to Persia, asked if the Parsis were not
worshippers of the sun, A. third friend consigned me to
Baghdad, and a fourth envied my coming propinqu'ty to
Caslimeer, and supposed I should often run up in sum-
mer.

Those remarks of my friends, intelligent parties enough,
struck ins as a very good index of the indifference and igno-
rance about Persia which are so observable in England,
and which, it is said, were the cause of an incurable indi-
gestion to the last Persian ambassador, who went back and
died from it—though, to be sure, he
died any way. The same thinr-6 returned to my recollection
was old enough to "'Lye
as I found myself in the. (rain on my way to Tehran. I
felt positive disquiet-4de iu going
seemed to know or care about. to a place that no one

" Reall it is curious," thought I; "of ancient empires,
not ole was so splendid as the Persian I Greece, Rome,
vad Palestine excepted, n 3 ancient country fills so many
pages in history as Persia—yet who knows and who cares
aught about Persia as it really is ? A region thrice as large
as la belle France, with ten millions of the wittiest, hand-
somest, most agreeable people in the world for its inhabi-
tants, ought to be inore in the market than this. Such
were my rem3.-aations as the Dover express hurried melilong
on my w 4 to take up my duties as Secretary of Legation
at T.. ehran. " Secretary of Legation, that's very well, but
at Tehran, aid that spoils it. Hand me the scales of
judgment that I may weigh the question—Persia or Eng-
land ? I begin to think I have been wrong in changing.
Let me see, pleasure of visiting new countries, leisure for
learning new languages, possible promotion, wider sphere
of usefulness. Drop that into one scale ; now for the
other. Comfort and cleanliness, general immunity from
filth, fleas, flies, and fivers, civilised society, England,
home and no mosquito curtains wanted I Hi I stop the
train—l will return. Well, it is too late now to talk of re-
turning ; let as see, as the Persians say, what the veil of
the future will disclose."

From this extract it may be seen that any one
anxious to gain an easy and agreeable acquaintance
with Persia and the Persians, may do well to acceFt
Mr Eastwick as their cicerone.

The Invasion of Denmark, 1864. By A. Galenga,
Special Corresponent of The Ti'lnes at the Head-
quarters of the Danish Army. TwoV o 1 a . Richard
Bentley.

A melancholy interest is attached to these two
volumes, which were written during the crisis of
events in Denmark by one well qualified for the
task. The rise and progress of the war, and every
event and incident of importance are fully de-
tailed, and the whole picture is complete, until
that dreadful climax of hopes and fears
doubts, difficultiee, and disppointments the
Conference. So dilttory (as we all know) was that
Conference, that the anihor could not wait for its
termination ! " I have hesitated,'' he writes
in his concluding chapter, dated Jan© 15, " for
several days about making my few remain •
ing pages ready for the press, because I hoped the
London Conference would come to the end of its labours ere
the time stipulated for lie accomplishment of my own task.
The historian has, hovever, in this instance, outstripped
diplomatist, and I must close my narrative of the invasion
of Denmark, without 'flowing whether the tale has an end
as well as a beginning, or whether my last chapter only
drops the curtain on thg first act of a drama, of which time
and events are to work out the dencuemeq at a distant
period. Up to this racment the London ponference has
Achieved nothing, and all that remains for me, to do is to
throw out some conjectures as to the probable results of its
final proceedings."

Those results (or no•results) being now only too well
known, we need not dwell upon them. The Danes
were many of them well-prepared for disappoint-
ment, according to this account from an eye-
witness ;

If you ask me whether I think any person in this country
eat, ects any results whatever fro.n the proceedings of the
Louden Conference, I shall not hesitate to give you a
frank negative answer. The Danes think they have
gained little, as yet, from their deference to foreign
Powers, and bitterly regret their compliance with well-
meant but improvident advice. " Had it not bean espe-
cially for England's officiousness," they say, " they would
not have yielded their ground inch by inch at the outbreak
of the war, nor would they have consented to the rasing
of the blockade at the armis It was not her sympathy
for the weaker side, nor regard for the justice of their cause,
that England listened to." They say, " She merely con •
suited her own c tmmercial interests, and satisfied Denmark
to her anxiety for the genera. peace and the uninterrupted
freedom of the seas. Those objects are henceforth more
easily to be attained by dropping than by sustaining the
rights of the Danish nation, anl when, after the loss of a
month or two, the London negotiation breaks up, as sensi-
ble men foresaw it would from the outset, leaving matters
exactly as they were, England will consider she has done
her duty by Denmark, and the latter will be left at the
merry of her overbearing foes." It is not for me to inquire
how much justice there may be in this complaint, which is
everywhere audible here. Unquestionably, by their dila-
torinesa and by thoic lack cf energy in carrying out their
own resolutions, it would appear as if the statesmen now
assembled in London were not greatly in earnest. The
skein is tangled beyond the unravelling powers of all human
ingenuity, and there is hardly a reap who would not shrink
from proposing to cut the knot by that terrible sword of a
European war, to avoid whirl; so many other questions of
vital importance have been fir many years left in abey •
ante.

The writer of these voltrnes has endeavoured to
express no personal opinion, but to maintain (ac-
cording to examples in high quarters), a strict neu-
trality. As a background picture of the war, he
has given a very pleasing view of the home
life and customs of Denmark and the Danes. Hero
is a charming giinpse of what the author de-
scribes as