Fort Philip stands on the highest part of the same neck of
land, and nearly in the centre of that part of the town which
goes by the name of "the Rocks." This fort was erected by
Governor King, immediately after the insurrection, to which I
have alluded. It is a regular hexagon, but it never was quite
finished, and there are no guns yet mounted on it. The glacis, in
fact, is not sufficiently levelled to allow a proper range for
artillery, and the circumjacent ground is so irregular and rocky,
that an enemy might at once erect batteries at fifty yards
distance. Besides, this fort is so completely hemmed in with
houses, that a great part of the town would be inevitably
destroyed by the fire from it. Its situation, therefore, is in
every point of view objectionable, and succeeding governors have
evinced their good sense, in not perfecting a work which would be
attended with a very considerable expense, and could never become
of any utility.

A new battery has lately been commenced on Bennilong's Point;
but this and Dawe's Battery are both too near the town to protect
it from the most insignificant naval force. It is indeed a matter
of surprise, that during the last American war, not one of the
numberless privateers of that nation, attempted to lay the town
of Sydney under contribution, or to plunder it. A vessel of ten
guns might have effected this enterprise with the greatest ease
and safety; and that the inhabitants were not subjected to such
an insulting humiliation, could only have arisen from the enemy's
ignorance of the insufficiency of their means of defence.

The climate of the colony, particularly in the inland
districts, is highly salubrious, although the heats in summer are
sometimes excessive, the thermometer frequently rising in the
shade to ninety, and even to a hundred degrees and upwards of
Fahrenheit. This, however, happens only during the hot winds; and
these do not prevail upon an average, more than eight or ten days
in the year. The mean heat during the three summer months,
December, January, and February, is about 80 degrees at noon.
This, it must be admitted, is a degree of heat that would be
highly oppressive to Europeans, were it not that the sea breeze
sets in regularly about nine o'clock in the morning, and blows
with considerable force from the N. E. till about six or seven
o'clock in the evening. It is succeeded during the night by the
land breeze from the mountains, which varies from W.