Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/142

 are of a thick rind, and without juice; the orange trees are evidently from a state of nature, and the guavas are not of a good kind, but all appear to grow in the most luxuriant manner, and appear in the highest health.

"Of stock they have one English cow, and a bull, two Indian heifers and two cows, about fifty goats, and a few fowls, of which one cow, and several of the goats are the property of Sir Gordon Bremer; another cow, and the bull, besides six working oxen, thirty buffaloes, and six pigs the property of Government; five ponies, and thirty greyhounds for catching kangaroos, complete the amount of the live stock; these last are private property.

"Although the present state of Port Essington is by no means an inviting one to a casual visitor, it holds out, in my opinion, great hopes of success to a permanent settler. Mr. Earl informs me (and a more zealous, acute, or intelligent gentleman I have scarcely ever met,) that the land which is flooded and swampy on the peninsula is as one acre to twenty acres of the dry land; the swamp land can easily be cultivated with rice, and the land not fitted to receive that grain produces the finest cotton; the valleys which are not sufficiently extensive for the cultivation of rice, are admirably adapted for the growth of sugar; cocoa should also be tried, and paper mulberry for the production of silk-worms. Indigo grows wild and is of the best quality; the dry stony land is, in my opinion, well adapted for the cultivation of cactus