Would attend
forming distinct convict settlements, beyond the bounds I have delineated;
or of the difficulty which would attend a system of communication
between such establishments and Port Jackson, is not intended here.
Until that period shall arrive, the progress of cultivation,
when it shall have once passed Prospect Hill, will probably steal along
to the southward, in preference to the northward, from the superior nature
of the country in that direction, as the remarks inserted in the map
will testify.
Such is my statement of a plan which I deem inevitably entailed on
the settlement at Port Jackson. In sketching this outline of it
let it not be objected that I suppose the reader as well acquainted with
the respective names and boundaries of the country as long residence
and unwearied journeying among them, have made the author. 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. To imperfect
husbandry, and dry seasons, must indubitably be attributed part
of the deficiency of former years. Hitherto all our endeavours to derive
advantage from mixing the different soils have proved fruitless,
though possibly only from want of skill on our side.
[*In my former narrative I have particularly noticed the sudden disappearance
of the cattle, which we had brought with us into the country. Not a trace
of them has ever since been observed. Their fate is a riddle, so difficult
of solution that I shall not attempt it. Surely had they strayed inland,
in some of our numerous excursions, marks of them must have been found.
It is equally impossible to believe that either the convicts or natives
killed and ate them, without some sign of detection ensuing.]
The spontaneous productions of the soil will be soon recounted.
Every part of the country is a forest:
