262 NEW SOUTH WALE?. 



under. The banns were then announced by the parson for three 

 Sundays, when the lucky swain returned to claim his bride. 



From the known licentious and unruly character of the female 

 convicts, it is not to be supposed that these marriages can be very 

 fruitful of happiness ; but as both parties had been felons, they are 

 probably as well matched as could be expected. 



The greatest difficulty the superintendent of a station has to con- 

 tend with, is the management of the female convicts. 



Captain Furlong, commandant of the garrison, was kind enough to 

 show the convict stockade ; it encloses a prison for the convicts, and 

 a guard-house for the soldiers. The convicts all belong to the iron- 

 gang, composed here, as at Sydney, of those who have been guilty of 

 some crime in the colony. They were kept constantly in irons, and 

 are employed on the public works. They eat and sleep in the same 

 apartments, and their bed is a blanket on the floor; to guard two 

 hundred convicts, there are seventy soldiers stationed here. 



At Dr. Brook's they had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Dawson, 

 the first agent of the Australian Land Company, and the founder of 

 Port Stephens, who is well acqtiainted with this colony, and has pub- 

 lished a popular work in relation to it. He of course possessed much 

 information, and among other opinions seemed to entertain the idea 

 that no free colony can succeed, and that in all cases the first settlers 

 of a new country ought to have the use of slave labour, in order to 

 be successful. He argued that these only had realized fortunes ; 

 where they had been left to their own resources they had generally 

 failed, and left it to their successors to reap the advantages of their 

 labour. As evidence of this opinion he contrasted the settlements of 

 New South Wales and Swan River. At the latter establishment it 

 is well known that the first settlers have lost almost every thing, and 

 have struggled with every difficulty, and that they now desire to 

 have the advantages of convict labour. This remark, however, is 

 not true as respects South Australia ; and its general accuracy would 

 undoubtedly much depend upon the location. 



In their walks they came across a group of several blacks (natives) 

 seated around a little fire ; they were pointed out as the remnant of 

 the tribes which about forty years ago wandered in freedom over the 

 plains of the Hunter and around the borders of Lake Macquarie. 

 Their appearance was wretched in the extreme : emaciated limbs, 

 shapeless bodies, immense heads, deep-set glaring eyes, thickly- 

 matted hair, and the whole begrimed with dirt and red paint, gave 



