624 



HOBATIT TOWN — KING GEOEGE SOUND. 



Jan. 



del Fuego. But this was only a first impression, on a bluster- 

 ing wet day. Fields of ripe corn, dotted, as it were, about the 

 hilly woodlands, told us that the climate must generally be 

 favourable ; and the number of red brick cottages, thickly scat- 

 tered about, though apparently at random, proved an extent 

 of population incompatible with an unproductive place. 



During a few days' stay in Sullivan Cove, the chief anchor- 

 age, we had opportunities of going to some distance into the 

 country, and seeing things which led me to think that there is 

 a more solid foundation for future prosperity in Van Diemen's 

 Land than can be found near Sydney. Natural advantages 

 are greater ; and likely to increase as the country is cleared and 

 inhabited — because rain is now almost too plentiful, though 

 corn ripens well and is of excellent quality. As a convict colony, 

 it of course partakes of the evils I have mentioned ; but it does 

 so in a far less degree, partly because the convicts sent there 

 were of a less profligate and more reclaimable class than those 

 landed at Sydney, and partly because an excellent local govern- 

 ment restrained the licentious, and encouraged the moral to a 

 far greater extent than was, or perhaps could be effected among 

 the more numerous and dispersed population of Sydney and 

 its environs. 



On the 17th, we sailed out of the picturesque Derwent, an arm 

 of the sea extending inland many miles beyond Hobart Town, 

 and thence worked our way southward round the Land of Van 

 Diemen. We then steered westward, or as much so as the 

 contrary winds would admit, until we made the land off King 

 George Sound on the 6th of March ; and a few hours after- 

 wards moored in the principal anchorage, called Princess Royal 

 Harbour ; a wide but shallow place, with a very narrow en- 

 trance. The country round King George Sound has a dull, 

 uniform aspect ; there are no mountains or rivers ;* few trees 

 are visible ; white, sandy patches ; scrubby bushes ; bare masses 

 of granite ; and a slightly undulating outline meet and disap- 

 point the eye of a stranger. 



* Unless a few brackish, indeed salt-water, brooks can be termed 



