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Extract of a letter from Governor Philip to the Right Honourable Lord Sydney dated Sydney Cove, February 12th. 1790.
I Had the honour of informing your Lordship, that a Settlement was intended to be made at a place I named Rose-Hill. At the head of this harbour there is a creek, which at half flood, has water for larger boats to go three miles up; and one mile higher the water is fresh, and the soil good. A very industrious man whom I brought from England, is employed there at present. and has under his direction one hundred Convicts, who are employed in clearing and cultivating the ground. A barn granary, and other necessary buildings are erected; and twenty-seven acres of corn promise a good crop. The soil is good; and the country, for twenty miles to the Westward, as far as I have examined, lies well for cultivation: but then the labour for clearing the ground is very great; and I have seen none that can be cultivated without cutting down the timber, except some few particular spots, which from their situation, (lying at a distance from either of the harbours) can be of no advantage to us at present: and I presume the meadows, mentioned in Captain Cook's voyage, were seen from the high grounds about Botany Bay, and from whence they appear well to the eye but, when examined, are found to be marshes, the drainings of which would be a waste of time and not to be attempted by ⟨the first⟩ settlers,
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