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ping at Port William, could not fail to prosper, if a free port
were offered there to ships of all nations. Homeward-bound
ships from our rapidly growing colonies in Australia, as well
as those from Mexico, Peru, and Chile, are often in want of a
port to which they can resort ahout the middle of their voyage.
The River Plata is out of the way and dangerous; Santa
Catharina is almost as much out of reach, and deficient in
many articles of supply ; Rio de Janeiro and Bahia are also
out of the line and very expensive, though they are often
resorted to ; St. tielena is too far east, scantily supplied, and
more expensive than the Brazils. But almost every one of
those ships ‘sight’ the eastern end of theFalklands as they pass
by, to correct or verify their longitude, and how very little
delay then would they experience, if the course were shaped
so as to pass a little nearer Port William, and there heave to
under the lee of the land, or let go an anchor, as might be most
suitable. Water and fresh provisions might be speedily procured,
at a price now moderate, and if a colony were once well
organized, in a short time as low as in any part of the world.
A few small vessels should be attached to the colony, and two
small men of war, one of which should be always about the
chief harbour, and the other visiting the various ports of the
archipelago. I have alluded more than once to the fact of
excellent fresh water being plentiful every where, and I may
here add, that if a sailing tank-vessel were kept at Port William
in readiness to supply ships without delay, that one convenience
only, when generally known, would ensure the visits
of almost every Australian and Mexican trader, besides many
others. No one making a long voyage hesitates to take in an
additional supply of good water during his passage, if he can do
so without delay (of consequence) and without danger. It is
the natural unwillingness to get in with the land—to be delayed
in port—to pay heavy port dues, and to risk losing men—that
generally induces seamen in command of vessels to avoid ever}»
port excepting that to which they are bound ; but if you could
ensure to a ship loading at Sydney a safe ‘ halffway house’ at
theFalklands, she would hardly prefer carrying a quantity of
water, no longer necessary, to the proportion of cargo that
might be stowed in its place.
Local circumstances, such as the relative position of the
land, the set of the tides and currents, the prevailing winds,
and the accessibility of Port William or Berkeley Sound, contribute
to make the easternmost part of the Falklands safer
and more easy to approach than almost any place that I am
acquainted with.
With the supply of shipping, and the establishment of a frequented
free port in view, as the first source of prosperity, colonists
should augment the number of animals, birds, and vegetables,
which they see thrive so well there,and take little thought
about corn, except for home consumption (unless indeed oats
should be found to grow well). They should assiduously
increase their stock of cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, make
butter and cheese, rear calves, and breed horses; they should
salt meat and fish; bring wood and lime from Tierra del Fuego
and Patagonia, and turn then-thoughts to supplying ships with
water, fuel (perhaps dried peat), and provisions, in the quickest
and cheapest manner. Hides, pig-skins, goat-skins, sheep-skins,
wool, foxes’ fur, rabbit-skins, bird-skins and down, horns,
salt meat, salt butter, cheese, potash, orchiUa weed, potatoes,
salt-fish, seal-skins, seal-oil, whale-oil, and whale-bone, would
form no indifierent return cargo for vessels carrying there
implements of husbandry, stores of various kinds, flour and
biscuit, clothing, lumber, furniture, crockery-ware, glass, cutlery,
and household utensils. North American vessels, laden
with flour or lumber, might make very profitable voyages.
I have always thought the Falklands an admirable place for
a penal establishment, a thorough convict colony. A healthy,
temperate climate, far removed from civilized countries, and
(if used for such a purpose only) incapable of being injured
by the presence of bad characters, as our mixed settlements
have been—fully supplied with necessaries, yet without any
luxuries—suificiently extensive to maintain a large population,
though small enough to be kept under the strictest martial
law, and inspected every where, by water as well as by land
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