1849 VOYAGE OF THE ' RATTLESNAKE ' 63 



Port Essington, which is a mere military post, without 

 any certain means of communication with England. We 

 were ten weeks on our passage from Port Essington to 

 Sydney and touched nowhere, so that you may imagine 

 we were pretty well tired of the sea by the time we 

 reached Port Jackson. 



Thank God we are now safely anchored in our old 

 quarters, and for the next three months shall enjoy a few 

 of those comforts that make life worth living. . . . 



The only place we have visited since my last budget 

 to you was Port Essington, a military post which has 

 been an object of much attention for some time past in 

 connection with the steam navigation between Sydney 

 and India. It is about the most useless, miserable, ill- 

 managed hole in Her Majesty's dominions. Placed 

 fifteen miles inland on the swampy banks of an estuary 

 out of reach of the sea breezes, it is the most insufferably 

 hot and enervating place imaginable. The temperature 

 of the water alongside the ship was from 88 to 90, i.e. 

 about that of a moderately warm bath, so that you may 

 fancy what it is on land. Added to this, the commandant 

 is a litigious old fool, always at war with his officers, and 

 endeavouring to make the place as much of a hell morally 

 as it is physically. Little more than two years ago a 

 detachment of sixty men came out to the settlement. 

 At the parade on the Sunday I was there, there were 

 just ten men present. The rest were invalided, dead, or 

 sick. I have no hesitation in saying that half of this 

 was the result of ill-management. The climate in itself 

 is not particularly unhealthy. We were all glad to get 

 away from the place. 



Another is to his sister, under date Sydney, 

 March 14, 1849 : 



By the way, I may as well give you a short account 

 of our cruise. We started from here last May to survey 



