building materials. 
‘extremely hard and heavy, does not ap- 
| 
300 
‘vantages, exposed to the rays of a ver- 
‘tical sun, yet very few cases of fever oc- 
‘curred, and they readily yielded to me- 
dicine, | 
Much cannot as yet be said as to 
The timber being 
spear well adapted for slender work. 
The stone, which is in abundance, being 
generally soft sandstone, may be easily 
‘cut into blocks of any dimensions; and, 
by being exposed to the sun, would 
harden in a short period, so as to be fit 
for any purpose, of building: and, at a 
little distance from the fort, was found 
a bank of sheils, from which lime for 
present use might readily be procured. 
However, it would be desirable that set- 
tlers, or others coming out, should 
bring with them houses of light scant- 
ling, in frame; for the labour of felling 
the trees, and sawing them up, would 
in the first instance be attended with 
great expense, and: certainly with much 
‘inconvenience and delay, 
* Fort Dundas, which commands the 
whole anchorage, is rectangular, se- 
venty-five yards in length, by fifty yards 
wide; with turrets en barbette at each 
angle, surrounded by a ditch fifteen feet 
wide by ten feet deep, with a drawbridge 
on the land side. The curtain, at the 
base, is seven feet in width, and five at 
the top, and is about seven feet high ; 
and is armed with four 18-pounders and 
‘one 12-pounder carronades, and two 
long 9-pounders; the latter will do exe- 
cution on Bathurst Island, crossing the 
outer edge of Harris’s Island in its 
course, andis built with the same strong 
durable materials as the pier. I should 
have observed, that at the distance of 
about a mile and a-half to the south- 
eward of the settlement, is Sawyer’s River 
—a most beautiful harbour, with a suffi- 
cient depth of water for ships of any 
tonnage, which it carries to the shore ; 
and so completely is it land-locked and 
secured, that ships of any size might be 
hove down with very little preparation 
or expense, without risk from any alte- 
vation of weather. 
» Names of the different Positions on 
Melville Island, running from North to 
South in Apsley Strait :— 
.. Piper’s Point ; Luxmore Head; Gar- 
den Point; - Point Barlow ; “Point Her- 
bert ; “Sawyer River; - Point. Gordon ; 
John's River ;- Tamar’ River ; Point 
Bremer ; - Point wre ee aiid Point 
Fletcher. * 
oyoThe whole-of: abies rdartos ‘being com- 
pleted on th the Pthof imoweniber, and wis 
“NG BATISD 
woRans 
4 of ot ey 
HHO! OF Ais 
Voyage to Australia, &c. 
[Nov. I, 
defences of the place being quite équal 
to any attack from much more formis 
" dable enemies than the natives.of Mel- 
ville and Bathurst Islands; and the ob- 
ject of the expedition being fully and 
successfully accomplished, we prepared 
for sea, weighed, and dropped into the 
fairway. On the 10th saluted by the 
fort with thirteen guns, which was re- 
turned from the ship. 11th ‘and 12th, 
calm,and excessively hot, 13th ,weighed 
and made sail, Countess of Harcourt in 
company; and bade farewell to Melville 
Island, and our dear friends composing 
the garrison of Fort Dundas, from whom 
we parted with infinite regret, being more 
like a band of brothers, than strangers 
casually met on public service, and by 
whose cordial co-operation the arduous 
and fatiguing duties going forward wereso 
happily and speedily carried into execu- 
tion ; having, in the short space of forty- 
four days, explored the country, cleared 
a considerable piece of land, built a 
strong fort and magazine, railed in and 
planted two large gardens, sunk wells, 
built and covered in twenty comfortable 
cottages’ for the troops and_ convicts, 
and a commissariat storehouse, capable 
of containing two years’ provisions ; be- 
sides the wharf, and survey of the har- 
bour, and various other things which 
took up labour and time; leaving on the 
island, Captain. M. Barlow, 3d regt., 
commandant; Lieut. C. C. Williamson, 
royal marines, engineer; Lieut. C.-C. 
Everard, ensign of the 3d regt.; G. Mil- 
ler, commissariat department; Mr, Wil- 
son, commissary’s clerk ; Mr. Talmash, 
ditto, storekeeper; Mr. surgeon ; 
Royal Marines, 26 non-commissioned 
officers and privates ; 3d regt., 22 ditto ; 
47 convicts; 2 free convicts ; 4 women; 
4 children ; in all 112— besides the brig 
Lady Nelson, Capt. S. Johns, and I2 
men; making altogether 125,* 
14th 
* The Greenock Herald of the 25th Jan. 
1825, speaking of Melville Island, places 
it in 136° 52! east ; and states it to ‘be only 
five miles long, and one or two broad ;, and 
that it was intended to be a penal settlement 
for incorrigible convicts, from New Hol- 
land and Van Diemen’s Land. This, how-= 
ever, is not the fact.. Melville Island is 
situated in 134° east ; and the extent already 
explored proves it ‘to be, at least, from 
eighty to 100 miles in circumference (in- 
dependent of Bathurst Island, pupnoese 
to be equally large, and which is ante 
gun-shot—(divided from Melville Isl 
Apsley and Clarence” Straits). dep 
it intended to’ be a penal. pie mr 
cotiviets already sent to Melville. Island 
é have 
