144 ADVANTAGES OF PORT ESSINGTON. 



with tlie assistance of Chinese or Malay labourers. 

 Wool, the staple commodity of Australia^ would 

 not gTow there^ and the country is not adapted for 

 the support of cattle to any g-reat extent. 



Yet the little settlement at Port Essing-ton has 

 not been altoofether useless. The knowledg-e of 

 the existence of such a military post^ within a few 

 days' sail of the islands in question^ tog-ether with 

 the visits of Commander Stanley in the Britomart^ 

 had completely prevented a repetition of the out- 

 rag-es formerly committed upon European trading- 

 vessels at the various islands of the g-roup extending- 

 between Timor and New Guinea. The crews and 

 passeng-ers of various vessels wrecked in Torres 

 Strait had frequently found in Port Essing-ton a 

 place of shelter, after six hundred miles and more 

 of boat navig-ation, combined with the difficulty of 

 determining- the entrance, owing- to the lowness of 

 the land thereabouts, which mig-ht easily be passed 

 in the nig'ht, or even during* the day, if distant more 

 than ten or twelve miles. I have myself been a 

 witness to the providential relief and extreme hos- 

 pitality afforded there to such unfortunates. Still, 

 as a harbour of refug-e, it is obvious that Cape York 

 is the most suitable place, situated as it is within a 

 short distance of the spot where disasters by ship- 

 wreck in Torres Strait and its approaches have been 

 most frequent. 



tropical productions thrive well in one of the two gardens, there 

 is no field for their growth upon a remunerative scale. 



