To have subjoined
perpetual explanations would have been tedious and disgusting. Familiarity
with the relative positions of a country can neither be imparted,
or acquired, but by constant recurrence to geographic delineations.
On the policy of settling, with convicts only, a country at once so remote
and extensive, I shall offer no remarks. Whenever I have heard this question
agitated, since my return to England, the cry of, "What can we do with them!
Where else can they be sent!" has always silenced me.
Of the soil, opinions have not differed widely. A spot eminently fruitful
has never been discovered. That there are many spots cursed with everlasting
and unconquerable sterility no one who has seen the country will deny.
At the same time I am decidedly of opinion that many large tracts of land
between Rose Hill and the Hawkesbury, even now, are of a nature
sufficiently favourable to produce moderate crops of whatever may be sown
in them. And provided a sufficient number of cattle* be imported
to afford manure for dressing the ground, no doubt can exist that subsistence
for a limited number of inhabitants may be drawn from it.
