The barracks, so long talked of, so long promised, for the
accommodation and discipline of the troops, were not even begun when I left
the country; and instead of a new hospital, the old one was patched up and,
with the assistance of one brought ready-framed from England, served to
contain the sick.

The employment of the male convicts here, as at Rose Hill, was the public
labour. Of the women, the majority were compelled to make shirts, trousers
and other necessary parts of dress for the men, from materials delivered
to them from the stores, into which they returned every Saturday night the
produce of their labour, a stipulated weekly task being assigned to them.
In a more early stage, government sent out all articles of clothing ready
made; but, by adopting the present judicious plan, not only a public saving
is effected, but employment of a suitable nature created for those who
would otherwise consume leisure in idle pursuits only.

On the 26th of November 1791, the number of persons, of all descriptions,
at Sydney, was 1259, to which, if 1628 at Rose Hill and 1172 at Norfolk
Island be added, the total number of persons in New South Wales and its
dependency will be found to amount to 4059.*

[*A very considerable addition to this number has been made since I quitted
the settlement, by fresh troops and convicts sent thither from England.]

On the 13th of December 1791, the marine battalion embarked on board His
Majesty's ship Gorgon, and on the 18th sailed for England.

CHAPTER XVII.

Miscellaneous Remarks on the country. On its vegetable productions. On its
climate. On its animal productions. On its natives, etc.

The journals contained in the body of this publication, illustrated by the
map which accompanies it (unfortunately, there is no map accompanying this
etext), are, I conceive, so descriptive of every part of the country known
to us, that little remains to be added beyond a few general observations.

The first impression made on a stranger is certainly favourable. He sees
gently swelling hills connected by vales which possess every beauty that
verdure of trees, and form, simply considered in itself, can produce; but
he looks in vain for those murmuring rills and refreshing springs which
fructify and embellish more happy lands. Nothing like those tributary
streams which feed rivers in other countries are here seen; for when I
speak of the stream at Sydney, I mean only the drain of a morass; a