174 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1819. formed at this harbour ; which, at present, is used 
May 21 only as a penal settlement : hitherto, no settlers 
have been permitted to take their grants at Port 
Macquarie ; but, when this is allowed, it will, 
from the superiority of its climate, and the great 
extent of fine country in the interior, become a 
very important and valuable dependency of the 
colony of New South Wales. 
The natural productions of this place are, in a 
great measure, similar to those of the neighbour- 
hood of Port Jackson; but many plants were 
found which are not known in the colony ; and as 
these grow in all parts within the tropic, the cli- 
mate of Port Macquarie, may naturally be sus- 
pected to be favourable to the cotton-plant and 
the sugar-cane, neither of which have yet been 
cultivated to the southward : among these plants, 
we found the pandanus pedunculatus, which Mr. 
Brown found in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and many 
other parts within the tropic, in Captain Flinders’ 
voyage. The face of the hill on the south side of 
the entrance possesses some good soil ; and, at the 
time of our visit*, was covered with a profusion 
* It is on this hill that the penal settlement of Port Macquarie 
is now built, the situation having’ been selected at the recommen- 
dation of Lieutenant Oxley. It was settled by Captain Allman of 
the 48th regiment, in the early part of the year 1821, 
