water was only to be found in the hollows of granite rock, or dug for in morasses, or in the white sea-sand.
Is it to be wondered at that the chilling aspect of the locality struck to the heart of the simple captives? Captain Bateman and others have described to me the despairing look of the people at their new home. A Government surveyor, engaged on the island at the time of the first arrivals,—the party from Gun Carriage,—informed me that when they saw from shipboard the splendid country which they were promised, they betrayed the greatest agitation, gazing with strained eyes at the sterile shore, uttering melancholy moans, and, with arms hanging beside them, trembling with convulsive feeling. They were not reconciled even when, upon landing, they found plenty of kangaroos in the interior, as the Straits' climate followed them. They were located on the south-western side, exposed to the ever-boisterous western breeze, unsheltered by forests, and unprotected by rising ground near. The winds were violent and cold; the rain and sleet were penetrating and miserable. With their health suffering from chills, rheumatism and consumption diminished their numbers, and thus added force to their forebodings that they were taken there to die.
The Charlotte carried thirteen females, twenty-six males, and one infant, from Gun Carriage, on January 25th, 1832, and landed them near the south-western point of Flinders, opposite the Green Island, at the Hummocky Point of the sealers. The east coast was more sheltered, but almost entirely unapproachable by reason of shoals. Some sheep, which had been presented to the Natives by Captain Dixon and other kind settlers, were taken to feed upon the Barilla, or Salt Bush, of Green Island.
Old Sergeant Wight reigned on the island. His soldiers had been directed to put up some long huts of wattle-and-daub (branches and mud), about twenty-five feet long each, leaving an entrance at one end, and a hole in the roof to let out the smoke of their fires. The Blacks were expected to keep these clean. But the commander, however fitted to govern military men, was ill able to control the contending elements around him. Though sixty-six years of age, it was said that he possessed considerable energy, with strength of will and passions.
Difficulties beset him at the outset in the hostility of the various tribes. Certain coalitions existed; but bitter quarrels,
