ON.

In order to develop the resources of a colony, always provided it
possesses any such, surely something more is required than the mere
presence of a party of soldiers, but it appears throughout, that
Government were opposed to giving encouragement to the permanent
settlement at Port Essington, of any of her Majesty's subjects. It is
well perhaps that such has been the case, as I can conceive few positions
more distressing than that which a settler would soon find himself placed
in were he tempted by erroneous and highly coloured reports of the
productiveness of the place--and such are not wanting--to come there with
the vain hopes of being able to raise tropical productions* for export,
even with the assistance of Chinese or Malay labourers. Wool, the staple
commodity of Australia, would not grow there, and the country is not
adapted for the support of cattle to any great extent.

(*Footnote. I need not here enlarge upon the unfitness of Port Essington
for agricultural pursuits--even that point has long ago been given up.
The quantity of land which might be made productive is exceedingly small,
and although cotton, sugarcane, and other tropical productions thrive
well in one of the two gardens, there is no field for their growth upon a
remunerative scale.)

Yet the little settlement at Port Essington has not been altogether
useless. The knowledge of the existence of such a military post, within a
few days' sail of the islands in question, together with the visits of
Commander Stanley in the Britomart, had completely prevented a repetition
of the outrages formerly committed upon European trading vessels at the
various islands of the group extending between Timor and New Guinea. The
crews and passengers of various vessels wrecked in Torres Strait had
frequently found in Port Essington a place of shelter, after six hundred
miles and more of boat navigation, combined with the difficulty of
determining the entrance, owing to the lowness of the land thereabouts,
which might easily be passed in the night, or even during the day, if
distant more than ten or twelve miles. I have myself been a witness to
the providential relief and extreme hospitality afforded there to such
unfortunates. Still, as a harbour of refuge, it is obvious that Cape York
is the most suitable place, situated as it is within a short distance of
the spot where disasters by shipwreck in Torres Strait and its approaches
have been most frequent.

Port