The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-13 00:00:00

VAN DIEMAN'S LAND.

Extract of a letter, dated Hobart-town, Van
Dieman's Land, March 26, 1829 :—" This is
indeed a lovely country. Take the climate of
Italy, the mountain scenery of Wales, the ferti-
lity of England—combine these, and you have
Van Dieman's Land. Of fruits, and other pro-
ductions of the earth, there is a constant suc-
cession, for in this place there is no winter, un-
less about two months of' rain and wind in June
and July may deserve the name of the season.
All fruit, grain, and vegetables, have a finer
flavour, and grow to much greater perfection,
than in England. I think if Dr. Gall had exa-
mined the cranium of the world, he would have
discovered the bump of philo-progenitiveness on
this spot ; for, positively, cattle, sheep, kanga-
roos, hogs, dogs, children, and other animals,
increase so fast as to become a nuisance. They
cattle brought by the early settlers strayed away
and have bred among the mountains. The
stock of timber is most beautiful, and appa-
rently inexhaustible. Pine, oak, stringy-bark,
peppermint-wattle, cedar, gum-wood, rose-wood,
and light wood, abound in trees of majestic
growth inconceivable to an Englishman. The
heaths, wild-flowers, and fruits are exquisitely
delicate and delightful. The air is impregnated
with the perfumes of odoriferous plants. The
peppermint, which gives a cinnamon scent, the
camphor plant, musk plant, geraniums, myrtles,
and honeysuckles, grow spontaneously to the
size of trees. There is only one native wild
beast, a small kind of panther, which is timid,
and avoids the approach of man. The most
formidable animals are of the insect and reptile
tribes ; providentially they do not attack escu-
lent vegetables, but they will devour a timber-
tree in a little time. Of the tarantula spider,
as large as a walnut in the body, I have de-
stroyed many in the sitting-rooms ; these,
with the horrible centipedes, are very poi-
sonous. There are sixteen species of
snakes of deadly venom. From the plenty
of horned cattle, their prices are low--
a live ox, or a cow and calf, may be had for 3/.
sterling ; good fat sheep alive, are from 2s. 6d.
to ss. a head ; pigs, just now, are dear, 6d. per
lb.; kangaroos, which all the frequenters of the
Zoological Garden in the Regent's Park may
not know, is equal to venison, any body may
have for shooting. You may fill a bushel basket
in five minutes with oysters and muscles at any
of the bays. In half an hour, the other day, I
and two companions caught seventeen tray-fish,
weighing from two to four lbs. each, equal in
flavour to English lobsters, in company with a
delicate eating parrot-fish, of 121b5., besides a
rascally young shark, that would not let our
baits alone. Beef and mutton are finer flavoured
than ill England, which may be ascribed to the
rich and odoriferous herbage the animals feed
upon, and to tile state of repose they uninter-
ruptedly enjoy. Flour is lid. to Lid. per lb.,
which is deemed a fair average price, neither
cheap nor dear. Potatoes are ss. per cwt.
Peaches are a penny a dozen ; and apples are
in such quantities that they lie and rot. Grapes
are fine and abundant, but as yet not much cul-
tivated. We have capital French wines very
cheap ; good Burgandy at 4s. 6d. per gallon.
Hops grow luxuriantly, and malt is begun to be
made. You may readily catch almost every
known and delicious kind of fish in any of the
noble bays which abound ill this country, or
buy them in the town for a mere trifle. There
are all sizes, from the whale to the minnow.
There are no Game Laws ; the possession of a
gull is the only qualification, and your ability to
walk and take good aim your only certificate for
shooting when, where, and what you please.—
We have eagles, hawks, and almost every va-
riety of the feathered race. Wild ducks are fine
and fat, and so numerous, that I saw a man
bring down twenty-four at one discharge of his
gun. They abound in the extensive rushy la-
croons. Poultry is plentiful, and all birds thrive
well. There is no want here ; there are none of
afiuit sirycgosevere,
those pallid, care-worn, anxious faces, that look
from every corner and street in London. There
is no misery but what results from idleness, de-
bauchery, or. unwarrantable speculation. The
black population is not very numerous, but ut-
terly insensible to the blessings of civilization.
They are such arrant idiots as to prefer naked •
mess in a climate where clothes are not requisite,
to being encased in woollens proffered to them
in exchange for liberty ; and they prefer a life of
ease and independence to one of labour and re-
straint. The whites, wisely disgusted by such
brutal folly, express their difference of opinion
by arguing upon them from the mouth of the mus-
ket ; and the blacks acknowledge these appeals to
their understanding by spearing the whites at all
convenient opportunities. The controversy must
be interminable, until one colour has extin-
guished the other. The blacks have great mus-
cular strength, and are the most deformed and
ugly of the human species. They go in herds ;
but, from all that can be collected, they have no
chiefs, nor any idea of a form of government.
Young ones have been taken and brought up in
families, but at puberty they have invariably te-
turned to the woods. What we heard in Eng-
land concerning the reformation of convicts in
this colony was fudge. They are as profligate
and idle as the thieves and vagabonds of the
United Kingdom. All that
regulations
amtiosnscisao;
the
iso b
rsevelurt observe
rendered
learn upon the subject amounts to this :—the
temptation to crime is lessened by compara-
tivethenl and inidooatnrebceeceoart
hence, as I conceive, it is
will
timnaieonnr
cer-
tainly
that robberies and such offences are less frequent
a.wbfaock thoseu or::
are
the pains of selecting their associations, the po-
pulation inflictedun more fr
e‘b;vdyaari:el:°ad;d°
this beautiful. climate ; to those who will, a set
Clement here is easy. It is a country in whit'
than in England. 'To
E -mers and men of handif Aft trade,'

Josoph Sparrow—l am one of the constables of tan'
teed,which it is impossible for any hones
—cr.. trades must suc.
Wolverhampton, and was sent for to apprehend the and in
prisoner ; I found the prisoner sitting on the side oft man to starve who is willing and able to work.'