gradually to improve under his government, until the close of the
year 1792. Numberless obstructions existed, during this early
period, to check the growth of the colony; amongst the principal
of which may be remarked:--1st, the discordant materials of which
the settlement was to be constructed; 2dly, the disputes with the
natives; and 3dly, the occasional pressure of want, which, for a
long time, was unavoidable, on account of its remoteness from the
European quarter. The continual disorders amongst the convicts,
which no lenity could assuage, no severity effectually check,
were injurious to the well-doing of the colony, whose true
interests required a combination of reciprocal confidence and
mutual exertion; but on men inured to crime, and hardened in
guilt--on men almost divested of the common principles and
feelings of their species--on those whom a course of depravity
had rendered obnoxious to every other pursuit, it was not
possible to make impressions of a liberal and enlightened nature.
Their intentions uniformly tended to vice, and no good was to be
expected from them, except such as was the effect of compulsory
measures; so that the task which industry might have achieved
with comparative ease, proved, under existing circumstances, a
work of difficulty, requiring time and perseverance to bring it
to the desired perfection. It was not to the commission of
depredations upon each other that the restless and dishonest
dispositions of the convicts confined themselves, even the poor
and miserable natives of the country were made the dupes of a
system of knavery which they could not penetrate; and their
spears, their shields, their canoes, and their persons, were
equally exposed to the violence of the new settlers. It was easy
to foresee the consequences of such conduct: the natives at first
discovered symptoms of justifiable reserve, and subsequently