The first aspect of the place was very
inferior to that of Sydney; the latter might be called a city, this
is only a town. It stands at the base of Mount Wellington, a
mountain 3100 feet high, but of little picturesque beauty; from
this source, however, it receives a good supply of water. Round the
cove there are some fine warehouses and on one side a small fort.
Coming from the Spanish settlements, where such magnificent care
has generally been paid to the fortifications, the means of defence
in these colonies appeared very contemptible. Comparing the town
with Sydney, I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of
the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, from the
census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, and the whole of
Tasmania 36,505.
All the aborigines have been removed to an island in Bass's
Straits, so that Van Diemen's Land enjoys the great advantage of
being free from a native population. This most cruel step seems to
have been quite unavoidable, as the only means of stopping a
fearful succession of robberies, burnings, and murders, committed
by the blacks; and which sooner or later would have ended in their
utter destruction.
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