500 LETTERS The Lien- teoftnt- Oovernor and his grievances. On the parrish. Boss's prophecy. dark as well as myself. %ould his lordship expect letters from me, I hope you will think the ^bove a sufficient excuse ; for I can;' not see how I could write without informing him of the manner in which the QoTemor treats me as lieutenant-Govemor ; axid as to the detachment, they have just the same cause for complaint that I have. This you will see cannot be done without my letter comiii^ in the form of a complaiiit, which I by no means wish to be the case at this stage of the business, but I will not answer for what may be the case hereafter ; for, take my word for it, there is not a man in this place but wishes to return home ; and indeed they have no less than cause, for I believe there never was a set a£ people so much upon the parrish as this garrison is, and what little we want, even to a single nail, we must not send to the Commisaaiy for it, but must apply to his excellency ; and when we do, he alws3rs sayes, '^ There is but little come out," and of course it is but littie we get, and what we are obliged to take as a mark of &voar. If you want a true description of this country, it is only to be found amongst many of the private letters sent home ; however, I will in confidence venture to assure you that this country will never answer to settle in ; for aJtho' I think com will grow here, yet I am convinced that if ever it is able to maintain the people here, it cannot be in less time than probably a hundred years hence. I ther^ore think it will be cheaper to feed the convicts on turtle and venison at the London Tavern, than be at the expense of sending them hera A few months afterwards, Major Ross addressed the Under- Secretary in still stronger terms : — My dear sir, I do not feel myself at all at ease with respect to you, as X much fear you expect to hear from me by every ship which sails from here. The truth of the matter is, that I have no one thing Nothing to to communicate to you that can give you either pleasure or satis- write aSout. faction, for unless I attempted to give you a description of this country, and of the hardships, mortifications and, I had almost said, cruelties we are obliged to submit to, I have no subject worth taking up your time with. From our Governor's manner of expressing himself, for he communicates nothing to any person here but to his secretary (Captain Collins) he has, I dare say, described this country as capable of being made the empire of the east. But notwithstand- ing all he may, from interested motives, say — and as this letter is only for your own private perusal, I do not scruple to pronounce, that in the whole world there is not a worse country than what we have yet seen of this ; all that is contiguous to us is so very barren and forbidding that it may with truth be said — here nature is reversed, and if not so, she is nearly worn out, for Not a country in the whole worid. Digitized by Google
