100
A small vessel (the Eagle) has arrived from Hobart Town; others are daily expected. By this vessel I have received your letters from the 16th to the 21st July, 1830. They are inexpressible cheering to my feelings, as they show the deep interest which all my friends take in my welfare. Before this time you must have received many from me, descriptive of myself, my feelings, and real situation, without the slightest attempt at colour, ornament, concealment, or disguise. This I promised, this I have performed hitherto, and every day gives me better hopes and prospects; however, be the case as it may, I shall continue as I have begun. If any of my letters breathe a spirit of impatience, or betray any lurking anxiety or feverish discontent, pray forgive me, and attribute these expressions to the real cause—the natural anxiety of one separated totally from his relatives, the irritability of suspense, and the honest intention of showing myself to you just as I am. It would be very easy for me to dress up a tempting account: there are materials enough for the ground work; but as I have no object to obtain, and no purpose to serve, but to inform you truly and minutely how I live and what I see (so that you may almost live with me, as it were, from day to day), I prefer giving you this unembellished journal. Many of those things which came from England by the David Owen have been left at Hobart Town. Mr. Tanner has been greatly disappointed on this account. By the way, I mentioned in a former letter that his brother-in-law, Mr. Viveash, had proceeded to Van Diemen's Land; letters have been received from him which tend to prove that that boasted place is not a Paradise. Many people hurried away there without giving our colony a fair trial, or perhaps desirous of postponing the day of industrious labour as long as possible. Mr. Viveash is not one of these; he possesses energy and capital; yet, with these advantages, he writes that "if he were not so shackled by the purchase of the farm which he holds within ninety miles of Hobart Town, he would leave it
