be more readily kept up.

The government officers had now to abandon their half-built stone
villas, and construct new habitations of wood, as there was no stone
to be found in the neighbourhood of Perth, and brick clay had not
then been discovered.

It was in one of these abandoned houses (called the Cantonment),
situate on the banks of the Swan, about half a mile from Fremantle,
that, by the advice of our friend, we resolved to take up our
quarters. The building was enclosed on three sides by a rough stone
wall, and by a wooden fence, forming a paddock of about three
quarters of an acre in extent. It comprised one large room, of some
forty feet by eighteen, which had a roof of thatch in tolerable
repair. The north side, protected by a verandah, had a door and two
windows, in which a few panes of glass remained, and looked upon the
broad river, from which it was separated by a bank of some twenty
feet in descent, covered with a variety of shrubs, just then
bursting into flower. A few scattered red-gum trees, of
the size of a well-grown ash, gave a park-like appearance to our
paddock, of which we immediately felt extremely proud, and had no
doubt of being very comfortable in our new domain. Besides the large
room I have mentioned, there were two others at the back of it,
which, unfortunately, were in rather a dilapidated condition; and
below these apartments (which were built on the slope of a hill) were
two more, which we immediately allotted to the dogs and sheep. This
side of the building was enclosed by a wall, which formed a small
court-yard. Here was an oven, which only wanted a little repair to
be made ready for immediate use.