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no bounds. The River Thames is indeed in every respect the properest place we have yet seen for establishing a Colony; a ship as large as Ours might be carried several miles up the river, where she would be moord to the trees as safe as alongside a wharf in London river, a safe and sure retreat in case of an attack from the natives, as she might even be laid on the mud and a abridge built to her. The Noble timber, of which there is such abundance, would furnish plenty of materials either for the building defences, houses, or Vessels. The River would furnish plenty of Fish, and the Soil make ample returns of any European Vegetables sown in it. I have some reason to think from observations made upon the vegetables that the Winters here are extreemly mild, much more so than in England; the Summers we have found to be scarce at all hotter, tho more equably Warm.
The South part, which is much more hilly and barren than the North, I firmly beleive to Abound with minerals in a very high degree. This however is only conjecture; I had not, to my great regret, an opportunity of landing in any place where the signs of them were promising except the last; nor indeed in any one, where from the ship the Countrey appeard likely to produce them, which it did to the Southward in a very
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 165, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-195.html