No mere worldly prosperity whatsoever can
compensate for the tremendous risk to which children in a penal
settlement are exposed, as many a heart-broken parent can testify.
It now remains for the author to offer a few observations
1. On the failures that occurred among the early settlers.
2. On the origin of the reports so widely circulated to the prejudice of
the country.
3. On the tardy progress of the colony, compared with what had been
expected.
The following extract from one of the earliest despatches of the
Governor (written in January 1830, and addressed to the Secretary of
State) will serve to preface these remarks, as it bears immediately on
the first point. Adverting to the circumstances under which the first
settlers came out, he thus proceeds: "There could not be a great number
with minds and bodies suited to encounter the struggle and distresses of
a new settlement. Many, if not all, have accordingly been more or less
disappointed on arrival, with either the state of things here, or their
own want of power to surmount the difficulties pressing round them.
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