after her arrival at Sydney in 1791, gives us a not altogether gloomy picture of the colony. Some weeks were passed cheerfully, if not gaily. 'On my first landing everything was new to me—every bird, every insect, every flower, etc.—in short, all was novelty around me, and was noticed with a degree of eager curiosity and pertubation that, after a while, subsided into that calmness I have already described. In my former letters I gave you the character of Mr Dawes, and also of Captain Tench. Those gentlemen and a few others are the chief among whom we visit; indeed, we are in that habit of intimacy with Captain Tench that there are few days pass that we do not spend some part of together. Mr Dawes we do not see so frequently. He is so much engaged with the stars that, to mortal eyes, he is not always visible. I had the presumption to become his pupil, and meant to learn a little astronomy. It is true that I have had many a pleasant walk to his house (something less than half a mile from Sydney), have given him much trouble in making orrerys, and explaining to me the general principle of the heavenly bodies; but I soon found I had mistaken my abilities, and blush at my error.
'Still, I wanted something to fill up a certain vacancy in my time, which could neither be done by writing, reading or conversation. To the two first I did not feel myself always inclined, and the latter was not in my power, having no female friends to unbend
