Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/631

 FROM SYDNEY COVE. 607 Much cannot now be done, limited in food and reduced as 1790 people are, w ho have not had one ounce of fresh animal food since first in the country ; a country and place so forbidden and so hateful as only to merit execration and cui'ses ; for it has been a source of cune the expence to the mother country, and of evil and misfortune to us, «>^*'y- without there ever being the smallest likelihood of its repaying or recompensing either. From what we have already seen, we may con- elude that there is not a single article in the whole country that in Not a sinffie the nature of things could prove of the smallest use or advantage JJ^^iS^' to the mother country or the commercial world. In the name of Heaven, what has the Ministry been about? Surely they have quite forgotten or neglected us ; otherwise they would have sent to see what had become of us, and to know how we were likely to succeed. However, they must soon know from the heavy bills which will be presented to them, and the misfortunes No hope for and losses which have already happened to us, how necessary it mentf***^ becomes to relinquish a scheme that in the nature of things can never answer. It would be wise by the first steps to withdraw the settlement, at least such as are living, or remove them to some other place. This is so much out of the world and tract of commerce that it Out of the could never answer. How a business of this kind (the expence of ^^^^^ which must be great) could first be thought of without sending to examine the country, as was Captain Thompson's errand to the coast of Africa, is to every person here a matter of great surprisa Mons. Peyrouse and Clonard, the French circumnavigators, as well as us, have been very much surprised at Mr. Cook's descrip- Mr. Cook, tion of Botany Bay. The wood is bad, the soil light, poor, and sandy, nor has it anything to recommend it. Accurate observers have surveyed the country without being able to see anything like the meadow land that Mr. Cook and others mention. The French- French men declare the same, and that in the whole course of their voyage <>p*°*o"- they never saw a place half so unpromising for a settlement as this. They laid at Botany Bay eight weeks, just after their arrival in the country, repairing some damages which the Boussole and Astrolabe under their command received while at the Navigators' Islands. Before they came to Botany Bay they had been at Norfolk Island, but could neither anchor nor land. They made an observa- tion with respect to it which, from its singularity, propriety, and force I cannot suppress, that it was only a place fit for angels and An epigram, eagles to reside in. The Supply tender sails to-morrow for Batavia, in hopes the The onhr Dutch may be able to send in time to save ua Should any c'^^o© i®**- accident happen to her, Lord have mercy on us ! She is a small vessel to perform so long and unexplored a voyage, but we rely much on the abilities and active attention of Lieutenant Ball, who commands her. Lieutenant King, 2nd of the Sirius, takes his Digitized by Google