66 

 EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS RECENTLY RECEIVED 



FROM 



SWAN RIVER. 

 Continued and Concluded from Page 8. 



We have received letters from home by the Egyptian, and the 

 books, as well as some doors and v^indov^s, but by whom the two 

 latter were sent we have not any idea. The net arrived quite safe 

 and has been of the greatest use, as there has been a general scarcity. 

 This is the first time we have received any intelligence of our money, 

 and were delighted to hear that it has been remitted regularly to us. 



We have taken two thousand acres of our grant on the Black- 

 wood River : the place we have fixed upon to commence is a 

 peninsula of forty acres, between two and three hundred yards 

 across the neck, which we have fenced with a post and rail of split 

 mahogany. Our house, which is outside the fence, consists of four 



rooms, A 's, mine, the drawing room and kitchen : J has 



his detached, which is a very pretty little cottage called the library, 



having all the books ranged round* it. C has not a room, he 



being store keeper is obliged to be down at Augusta every fortnight, 

 and therefore has not had time to build one, for you must know 

 that these rooms are not built in public but in private time merely — 

 the hours before breakfast and two hours in the middle of the day ; 

 all the rest of the day is set apart for fencing, digging, &c. so that 

 you see we keep ourselves pretty well employed ; but, I think, by 

 the time we have our garden for this year in good training, the pub- 

 lic, that is all of us, will feel called upon to build C a room. 



We have now about five acres under cultivation, but our crops 

 have not succeeded well this year on account of our sowing the seed 

 too soon after the first turning up, for the land requires to lie fal- 

 low some time ; however, it is all ready for the next year, and by 

 that time we shall have added seven or eight more to it, that is if 

 we all of us remain here, but perhaps it will be advisable for some 

 of us to go to the Vasse, where we have taken three thousand seven 

 hundred acres, the remainder of our grant. What a misfortune we 

 did not know of that country before ; how much labour it would 

 have saved us ; no trees to get up — the land rich, bearing nothing 

 but grass — in fact it resembles an English park, only instead of deer 

 you see an abundance of kangaroo ; you cannot imagine any thing 

 so beautiful : but then the Blackwood River is open to the westerly 

 winds, which, in the summer time, make it a most delightful cli- 



