HO BART TOWN 



475 



on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania. The 

 first aspect of the place was very inferior to that of Sydney ; 

 the latter might be called a city, this only a town. It stands 

 at the base of Mount Wellington, a mountain 3100 feet high, 

 but of little picturesque beauty ; from this source, however, it 

 receives a good supply of water. Round the cove there are 

 some fine warehouses, and on one side a small fort. Coming 

 from the Spanish settlements, where such magnificent care has 

 generally been paid to the fortifications, the means of defence in 

 these colonies appeared ver>' contemptible. Comparing the town 

 with Sydney, I was chiefly struck w^th the comparative fewness 



HOBART TOWN AND MOUNT WELLINGTON. 



of the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, 

 from the census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, and 

 the whole of Tasmania 36,505. 



All the aborigines have been removed to an island in Bass's 

 Straits, so that Van Diemen's Land enjoys the great advantage 

 of being free from a native population. This most cruel step 

 seems to have been quite unavoidable, as the only means 

 of stopping a fearful succession of robberies, burnings, and 

 murders, committed by the blacks ; and which sooner or later 

 would have ended in their utter destruction. I fear there is no 

 doubt that this train of evil and its consequences originated in 

 the infamous conduct of some of our countrymen. Thirty years 



