Enderby Island, and about one and a balf miles from its N.E. cape.
'It is well protected from all winds except those from the S.E., and the holding ground is a good tenacious clay. It is probable that there may be found good anchorage also to the west of Enderby Island. After passing Ocean and Rose Islands, a ship may anchor in perfect safety in any part, but the most convenient will be found to be between those islands and Erebus Cove, where abundance of wood and water may be obtained, as also at Terror Cove.
'The upper end of the inlet, called Laurie Harbour, is the most suitable for ships wanting to heave down or to undergo any extensive repairs. It is perfectly land-locked, and the steep beach on the southern shore affords the greatest facility for clearing and re-loading the vessel.
'I was so struck with the many advantages this place possesses for a penal settlement over every other I had heard named, to which to remove convicts from the now free colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, and Van Dieman's Land, that I addressed a letter on the subject to Sir John Franklin on my return to Hobart Town, recommending its adoption.
'This letter was forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies; but I believe Chatham Island, as being seated in a milder climate, has been preferred, although I am not aware of any other advantage it possesses, whilst the want of good harbours will be found a great drawback; and the two tribes of New Zealanders, from Port Nicholson, who took possession of it in 1835, after eating one half of the aborigines they found there, and making slaves of the other half, will prove a difficult people to dispossess of the land they have gained by conquest.
'Laurie Harbour is well calculated for the location of an establishment for the prosecution of the whale fishery. Many black, and several sperm whales, came into the
