There is another reef off Point Ross, which stretches about half a mile into the sea; and no vessel ought ever to go within the outer breaker of this reef, and the south point of Nepean-Isle. The tide sets right through between the islands, and when the flood runs to the westward, it sets very strong round Nepean-Island into the bight of Sydney-Bay; therefore all vessels ought to be particularly cautious not to go within Nepean-Island with an inblowing wind: should the wind be from the eastward or westward, vessels might stand very close in; but even this ought not to be done, except for the purpose of taking a boat up, and then the tide must be considered.
The passage between Point Hunter and Nepean-Island is a very good one, there being three fathoms water close to Nepean-Isle, and nine fathoms in mid-channel. There lies a rock off Point Hunter in the direction of south-west with one fathom and a half on it, but it is out of the passage. The tide occasions a very strong race between the islands, which makes it very difficult for vessels to have communication with the shore, as they cannot anchor, the bottom being rocky. The ebb runs nine hours to the east, and the flood three hours to the west, but at times, the flood has been observed to run five hours: it flows in this bay at seven hours and an half, full and change, and rises seven feet perpendicular.
ANSON-BAY, (which was named after George Anson, the member of parliament for Litchfield,) is a small bay with a sandy beach: the landing here is tolerably good in settled weather, and when the sea is quite smooth; but as the interior parts of the island are so very difficult of access from thence, no ship's boats have ever landed there.
BALL-BAY, (which was named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball,) goes in about three-quarters of a mile: the beach is formed of large loose stones, which renders beaching boats here dangerous, though it often happens that the landing here is very good when the surf has increased so much in Sydney-Bay as to render landing there impracticable. A good landing place was cleared away here, but in the course of three months the stones were washed into it again, although many of them weighed two hundred pounds each. This bay is surrounded by very steep hills, which renders the access to the settlement from hence rather difficult.
CASCADE-BAY.--The south-west winds, which generally prevail during the winter months, make this the best side of the island for landing on at that season. A good landing place may easily be made, where any thing might be landed from half ebb to half flood. It is the intention of the lieutenant-governor to erect a store-house, and make a good landing place; indeed this would have been done before, but the want of hands prevented it. The Golden-Grove and Supply have both lain at anchor in this bay, bringing the great Cascade to bear south-west, at one mile from the shore, in seventeen fathoms coral and sand, but the bottom is foul, as there is great reason to suppose it is all round the island.
Present state of cultivation.--The proper time for sowing wheat or barley is from May to August: that which is sown in sheltered situations, should be sown in May, June, and July: and that which is sown in places that are exposed to the sea-winds on the south side of the island, should not be sown before July; and if so late as August, it would yield well. The wheat, which has been sown, produced more than twenty fold; and, I think in future, it will yield a still greater increase. We have found a bushel and an half of seed sufficient for an acre of ground newly broke up. Two bushels of barley sown in May on an acre of ground yielded twenty-four bushels. Indian corn should be planted from June until August, in places not much exposed to the sea winds: it yields well, and is in my opinion the best grain to cultivate, on account of the little trouble attending its growth, and the manufacturing it for food.
The sugar-cane grows very strong, and I think will come to perfection; although it suffers much from the blighting winds, and the grub-worm. Vines, orange, and lemon trees, are in a very thriving state: the banana trees found growing on the island, will, I make no doubt, thrive very well, when those which have been planted out from the old trees come to perfection; indeed some of them have already yielded good fruit. That useful article of food, the potatoe, thrives amazingly, and two crops a year may be obtained with ease: I have seen 120 potatoes at one root, 80 of which were larger than an hen's egg. Every kind of garden vegetable (which the grub spares,) grows well and comes to great perfection: cabbages weigh from ten to twenty-seven pounds each: melons and pumpkins also grow very fine.
I think situations might be found on the island, where cotton and indigo will thrive: of the latter, there are two trees, both which are very large and fine, but the ant destroys the blossom as fast as it flowers. Rice has been sown twice, viz. once each year, but the south-east winds blighted a great part of it: that which escaped the blight, yielded a great increase. The quantity of ground cleared and in cultivation on the 13th of March, 1790, was thirty acres belonging to the crown, and about eighteen acres cleared by free people and convicts, for their gardens.
It was my intention to put as many labourers as could be spared from other necessary work, to clear ground for cultivation; and I had reason to believe that I should have had from fifty to seventy acres sown with grain by the end of October: I purposed to continue clearing ground in Arthur's Vale, and on the hill round it, in order to have all the cultivated lands belonging to the public as much connected together as possible; this would have answered much better for the growth of wheat, Indian corn, or barley, than their being sown in confined situations; which experience had shown were not at all productive: the parroquets and other birds would not have destroyed so much of the grain before it was got in, and it might be much better guarded from thieves than if the cultivated grounds were dispersed in different parts of the island: another very material reason for clearing all the ground in this particular situation was, that the barn was situated in the center of the vale.
I proposed building a strong log store-house at Cascade-Bay, and making the landing place there more easy of access; which, from the increased number of the inhabitants on the island, was now become absolutely necessary; especially as landing there is much oftener practicable than in Sydney-Bay: indeed, I should have got this business done, but that it would have been a great hindrance to cultivation, which I ever thought was the principal object to attend to. The other buildings which I meant to erect, were barracks for the soldiers, of 54 feet long by 16 feet wide; a granary, 36 feet long by 20 feet wide, and a store-house, 60 feet long by 24 feet wide; all which, I hoped, would have been completed by the ensuing December.