1J22 Mr King on New South Wales. 



e 



was tossing on the swelling and roaring ocean, is now in water 

 as smooth as a mill-pond. This is the case on entering Port 

 Jackson. After a few windings and turnings the ship in half 

 an hour is at safe anchor in Sydney Cove, within ten or twenty 

 yards of the houses on the rocky beach. Ships of 500 tons 

 come and discharge alongside the pier, which is only about 

 fifty feet long. Port Jackson is more an arm or inlet of the 

 sea than a river, and is composed of a number of projecting 

 points or heads between each. The most commodious and 

 safe harbours are formed by nature. Botany Bay was too 

 shallow water ever to be of importance for shipping ; and the 

 soil around it is very barren. There is scarcely as much grass 

 as would feed a cow in a square mile ; and such is the state 

 of it for miles round. The soil is sand, covered with stunt- 

 ed shrubs. It was consequently abandoned, and the settle- 

 ment formed on Port Jackson. The soil here is very little 

 better ; but the harbour was the inducement. At present there 

 are three papers published here, one three times a-week, the 

 other two twice a-week. A quarterly journal is just com- 

 menced. I fear it won't do for want of original matter. Two 

 others are advertised, but the people who have taken them up 

 are unfit for the task. We have trade with China here on paying 

 ten per cent. duty. The cheapness of their manufactures is 

 surprising. Tea is Is., what sells at home for 6s. There is 

 considerable trade with New Zealand for flax, &c. and with 

 manv other islands in the eastern seas. 



A great many New Zealanders come over" here. They are 

 a stout race of men. The natives here are nearly all as dif- 

 ferent as any two individuals at home — some of them tatooed 

 all over the face and body in the most minute and fanciful 

 manner. They are formidable fellows as a body in their own 

 country. They have some thousand stands of fire-arms among 

 them of English manufacture. They exchange pork and pota- 

 toes for these articles. These are the potatoes and hogs Captain 

 Cook left with them. Some of them recollect him. I am, &c. 



James King. 



New South Wales, Sydney, 

 August 1, 1827. 



