CHAPTER IX.
On arriving at Circular Head, we found the Conch, bound for the Isle of France and the Cape of Good Hope, lying at the jetty, where she had taken shelter from adverse winds. On landing, a young man was waiting with assistants, to convey our luggage to a small cottage, which Edward Curr had kindly appropriated to our use, his large family fully occupying his own house: he received us kindly, and invited us to take our meals at his table during our stay here.
Circular Head is a basaltic peninsula, on a flat part of the coast: it takes its name from a large circular bluff, facing the east, and at the south side of which is the anchorage. Portions of the peninsula, which contains about 4,000 acres, are hilly and clothed with wood: much of the soil is good, and notwithstanding some of it is light, it is very productive. On the main land, the coast is sandy, or swampy, and further in, the forest is dense and lofty.
The whole grant of the V. D. Land Company here, is 20,000 acres. The dwellings of persons in their employment, are chiefly on the portion of the peninsula called Highfield Plain, which lies to the north-west of the bluff. We had several meetings with the work-people at this place, generally in the carpenter's shop. Their remote situation excited our sympathy, and we endeavoured to direct them
