# Transportation and colonization/Chapter 14

CHAPTER XIV.
A THIRD MODE OF EMPLOYING CONVICTS AT GOVERNMENT LABOUR ON THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT.
Following up the judicious suggestions of Earl Bathurst, and the recommendations of Mr. Commissioner Bigge, in as far at least as the principle involved in these suggestions and recommendations is concerned, I would earnestly recommend the formation of a distinct penal colony on the north coast of New Holland, as well for the immediate employment of such convicts as it might be expedient to remove from the districts, whether already settled or to be settled, within the present colonial territory; as for the eventual establishment of a free settlement of a somewhat different character from those recommended for the district of Moreton Bay. The particular object of such a ​settlement, and its vast importance to Great Britain in a variety of lights, will appear in the sequel, and will doubtless suggest themselves to every intelligent reader whenever its proposed situation is indicated. That situation is Port Essington, a harbour second only to Port Jackson, and beyond all comparison the best yet discovered on the north coast of the Australian continent. It is situated at the northern extremity of the Coburg peninsula, to the westward of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and forms unquestionably one of the most commanding positions for a British settlement, whether in a commercial, in a political, or in a moral and religious light, on the face of the globe. Such a settlement, for example, would eventually command the commerce of the Great Eastern Archipelago, with its rich and varied productions, and its millions of inhabitants. It lies in the track of the Malay fleet that annually visits the northern coasts of New Holland, for trepang, or beche la mer, as well as in the direct route of all vessels bound from the east coast of that continent, through Torres's Straits, to India or China. And, besides the likelihood of its speedily becoming a favourite and extensive emporium of trade for the Eastern world, a settlement in that locality would doubtless very soon attract numerous Hindoos, Chinese, and ​Cingalese, who would introduce the various arts and industry of their respective countries.
In the formation of such a settlement, several thousand convicts could be employed advantageously for a series of years—in the erection of public buildings, whether of immediate necessity or of permanent utility; in the clearing of land for gardens and for agricultural purposes suited to the soil and climate; in the formation of roads, tanks, piers, bridges, &:c. The supplying of a settlement of this kind with the necessaries of life, by means of convict labour employed in the cultivation of land within the settlement itself, should not, I conceive, be attempted. These, with the exception of vegetables and the more common species of tropical fruits, which could be easily raised on the spot, would be procurable in the first instance at a much cheaper rate from New South Wales. Free emigrant British subjects, who might eventually settle in such a colony, would do so as merchants and capitalists, and not as cultivators of the soil on their own account, or by their own labour. A class of cultivators, with the advantage of a previous knowledge of all the processes of inter-tropical agriculture and a perfect adaptation to the climate, could be easily procured in the vicinity of Port Essington, (as is testified by ​Captain Lawes, of His Majesty's ship Satellite,) of natives of the East; ticket of leave men and convicts, who had served out their term of sentence in the settlement, being allowed to settle in a similar capacity.
As a penal colony, a settlement in the proposed locality could scarcely be unsuccessful in the attainment of its object, provided the grand errors and gross mismanagement, that have hitherto proved causes of failure in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, were carefully guarded against, and the dear-bought experience of the past converted into a useful lesson for the future. But even if it should prove unsuccessful in that object, as is scarcely to be anticipated, the loss would be comparatively small; as a settlement at Port Essington would, doubtless, prove the foundation of another noble superstructure of British power, British commerce, and British influence in the East. Should it prove successful as a penal settlement, a series of settlements could be formed successively on the same model all along the north coast of New Holland, from Cape Yorke to Cape Maria Van Dieman, as well as within the gulf of Carpentaria; the penal character of such settlements to be temporary only, and to prepare the way for future colonies of freemen.
​It may, doubtless, be urged, in reference to these suggestions, that two attempts have already been made within the last twelve years to colonize the north coast of New Holland; viz. at Melville Island and Raffles Bay; both of which, however, proved unsuccessful. But the former of these settlements was not more injudiciously formed than the latter was injudiciously abandoned. Melville Island—a low, swampy, and unhealthy situation, covered with thick jungle, surrounded by hostile natives, and withal quite out of the usual track of Malay vessels—proved to be quite unfit for the purposes contemplated; and the settlement was accordingly transferred eventually to Raffles Bay, on the eastern side of the Coburg peninsula, and within a few miles of the splendid harbour of Port Essington. In that locality the usual difficulties of a first settlement had already been happily surmounted; the salubrity of the climate and the adaptation of the soil for all tropical productions had been incontestably established; the surrounding tribes of natives, who were at first hostile, in consequence of acts of unwarrantable aggression, had been conciliated; a friendly intercourse had been opened with the Malay vessels that frequent the coast; and the prospects of the settlement generally were in the highest degree favourable; when orders from home, ​dictated in consequence of accounts transmitted in the first moments of despondency, were received by way of New South Wales, for its immediate abandonment. It was consequently abandoned forthwith, with great loss to the British government, and with extreme reluctance on the part of those more immediately concerned in its welfare and advancement.
In addition to the other motives that should induce His Majesty's government to re-establish the settlement which was thus so unhappily given up, on the north coast of New Holland, I may observe, that Port Essington and Raffles Bay are in the immediate vicinity of Torres's Straits; a narrow passage, of which the navigation is unusually perilous, and which has hitherto proved a frequent source of shipwreck or disaster to British vessels. Besides, as hardships of various kinds, difficulties of unexpected magnitude, and disease in unlooked-for aspects, are almost uniformly experienced in the formation of new settlements, even in situations that are afterwards found remarkably salubrious, as was eminently the case even in New South Wales; it is surely fitting and reasonable, that these hardships, difficulties, and diseases should be encountered and surmounted by transported felons, rather than by a free emigrant population. In short, under a proper system of ​management, and at a comparatively small expense to government, a line of penal settlements, and settlements of a mixed character, like the one proposed at Moreton Bay, might be formed successively along the east and north coasts of New Holland, from Port Macquarie to Dampier's Archipelago, to be successively converted into absolutely free colonies, in the order of their formation; ticket of leave men, and convicts who had earned conditional pardons by their good behaviour, to be left in the capacity of servants or labourers for hire, to the free emigrant population, on the abandonment of each establishment as a penal settlement.
By the three modes of employing convict labour, which I have thus described,—1st, on roads and other public works within the present colonial territory, or rather from Port Macquarie to Bass's Straits; 2nd, in clearing land, and making the other preparations requisite for the establishment of free emigrant settlers on the east coast of New Holland, from Port Macquarie to the southern tropic; and, 3rd, at one or more penal settlements on the north coast of the Australian continent;—there would not only be found sufficient employment for all the convicts that might be transported from Great Britain and Ireland for a century to come, without increasing the present ​burdens of the mother country; but that employment would also afford the means of establishing a regular gradation of punishments, in some measure corresponding to the various degrees of criminality among the convicts; while it would enable the officers, who might in future be entrusted with their management, to enforce in all cases "strict discipline, incessant labour, and constant superintendence.
In alluding to the future employment of a large number of the convicts, who may hereafter be transported to New South Wales, in preparing the way for the establishment of free emigrant settlers of the humbler classes of society, I have hitherto confined my observations to the settlement of Moreton Bay, because that settlement has been already occupied as a penal settlement for twelve years past, and because it could therefore be converted into a free settlement immediately. There are various other localities, indeed, on the east coast, to the northward of Port Macquarie, which is situated on the thirty-first parallel of south latitude, that would probably be found equally eligible for such settlements, as well to the southward as to the northward of Moreton Bay; there being navigable rivers, with a large extent of eligible land on their banks, in both directions. It would not be expedient, however, for various ​reasons, to attempt the formation of settlements of this kind to the southward of Port Macquarie, or on any part of the coast between that settlement and Bass's Straits. To the northward of Port Macquarie it would be comparatively easy to exclude ardent spirits from any settlement on the coast, but it would scarcely be possible to do so to the southward. Besides, the southern districts of the colony being the division of the territory to which the tide of voluntary emigration is now rapidly tending, while the open and pastoral character of the country in that direction would greatly facilitate the escape of convicts to the neighbouring colony of Southern Australia; it would be highly expedient to confine the experiment of employing convicts in preparing settlements for free emigrants to the northern parts of the territory.