PORT ESSINGTON A MILITARY POST. 143 



be reg-arded as a complete failure. Yet it could not 

 well have been otherwise. It was never more than a 

 mere militar}^ post^ and the smallness of the 

 party^ almost always further lessened by sickness^ 

 was such that^ even if judiciously managed^ little 

 more could be expected than that they should be 

 employed merely in rendering- their oAvn condition 

 more comfortable. And now after the settlement 

 has been established for eleven years^ they are not 

 even able to keep themselves in fresh vegetables^ 

 much less efficiently to supply any of Her Majesty's 

 vessels which may happen to call there. 



In order to develope the resources of a colony^ 

 always provided it possesses any such^ surely some- 

 thing* more is required than the mere presence of a 

 party of soldiers^ but it appears throug-hout^ that 

 Government were opposed to giving* encourag*ement 

 to the permanent settlement at Port Essington^ of 

 any of her Majesty's subjects. It is well perhaps 

 that such has been the case^ as I can conceive few 

 positions more distressing* than that which a settler 

 would soon find himself placed in were he tempted 

 by erroneous and highly coloured reports of the 

 productiveness of the place — and such are not want- 

 ing*^ — to come there with the vain hopes of being* 

 able to raise tropical productions* for export^ even 



* I need not here enlarge upon the unfitness of Port Essing- 

 ton for agricultural pursuits — even that point has long ago been 

 given up. The quantity of land which might be made productive 

 is exceedingly small, and although cotton, sugar cane, and other 



