On November 2nd we sailed from Cape York on our way to Port Essington and Sydney, but owing to the prevalence of light airs, chiefly from the eastward, and calms, we did not reach Booby Island until the 4th, having passed out of Torres Strait by the Prince of Wales Channel.  The Bramble was left to perform some work in Endeavour Strait* and elsewhere along the Inner Passage, and after its completion to make the best of her way to Sydney down the eastern coast of Australia against the trade-wind, before successfully accomplished by only two other vessels besides herself.  Of course a considerable degree of interest has been excited by this intended procedure, as the two vessels start under pretty equal circumstances to reach the same place by two very different routes, of the merits of one of which comparatively little is known.

(Footnote.  Since the survey of Endeavour Strait in 1844 by Lieutenant Yule in the Bramble (then attached to the Fly under Captain F.P.  Blackwood) several sunken rocks have been discovered, thereby lessening the value of the passage through the Strait, as others, yet undetected, to be found only by sweeping for them, may be presumed to exist.  Captain Stanley was strongly of opinion that the Prince of Wales Channel was far preferable, especially for large ships, to Endeavour Strait.)

ARRIVE AT PORT ESSINGTON.

November 9th.

Since leaving Booby Island, the weather has been fine with light easterly winds, the westerly monsoon in these seas not usually setting in until the month of December.  We first made the land in the neighbourhood of Cape Croker, and soon afterwards saw the beacon on Point Smith.  Entering Port Essington we ran up the harbour, and anchored off the settlement of Victoria early in the afternoon.

On landing and walking over the place after an absence of more than three years, I might naturally have looked for some signs of improvement in the appearance of the settlement and condition of the unfortunate residents, had I not been aware of the non-progressive nature of the system which had long been established there.  I saw no such indications of prosperity except in the flourishing and improved appearance of the coconut-trees now in full bearing, as if nature boldly asserted her rights in opposition to the dormant or even retrograde condition of everything else in the place.

CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENT.  ITS UNHEALTHINESS.

We found the settlement in a ruinous condition.  Even the hospital, the best building in the place, had the roof in such a state that when rain came on some of the patients’ beds had to be shifted, and the surgeon found it necessary to protect his own bed by a tent-like canopy.  With few exceptions, everyone was dissatisfied, and anxiously looked forward to the happy time when the party should be relieved, or the settlement finally abandoned.  The unhealthiness* of the place, so often denied, had now shown itself in an unequivocal manner; everyone had suffered from repeated attacks of intermittent fever, and another fever of a more deadly character had occasionally made its appearance, and, operating upon previously debilitated constitutions, frequently proved fatal.