ed, newer and more capable of
rendering service to the colony. One of them, the _Buffalo_, commanded by
Mr. William Raven, late master of the _Britannia_, is on the point of
sailing, and is to take cattle to New South Wales from the Cape of Good
Hope. The other is named the _Porpoise_, and has the same service to
perform. A ship, called the _Minerva_, is also proceeding to Cork to take
in a number of Irish convicts.

* * * * *

Letters have been received from New South Wales, dated about six weeks
after the author sailed from that colony. Governor Hunter had received by
the _Sylph_ and _Prince of Wales_ storeships two thousand six hundred and
fifty casks of salted provisions. Several persons had been tried by the
court of criminal judicature for robbing the public stores, and had been
found guilty. One man had been executed for murder, and his body hung in
chains on Rock Island, a small spot at the mouth of Sydney Cove, and by
which every boat and ship coming into the cove must necessarily pass. The
governor was on the point of visiting Portland Head, some high land on
the banks of the Hawkesbury, where he purposed establishing a settlement.

Had that river and its fertile banks been discovered before the
establishment at Sydney Cove had proceeded too far to remove it, how
eligible a place would it have been for the principal settlement! A
navigable river possesses many advantages that are unknown in other
situations. Much benefit, however, was to be derived from this even as an
inferior settlement. Its extreme fertility would always insure a certain
supply of grain; and the settlers on its banks must produce a quantity
equal to the consumption of the civil and Military, and of their own
families; and thus, while rendering a service to the state, they might in
time become opulent farmers. Yet our pity is excited, when it is
considered, that they are of so unworthy a description as has clearly
been made appear in the preceding narrative. That a river justly termed
the Nile of New South Wales should fall into such hands is to be
lamented. In process of time, however, their productive farms will have
yielded them all that they aspire to, and may then fall into the
possession of persons who will look beyond the mere gratification of the
moment, and cause the settlements in New South Wales to stand as high in
the public estimation as any colonies in his Majesty's dominions.

APPENDICES

GENERAL REMARKS

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