hospital, guard-room, the cells, and a few straggling huts built without art or elegance, (except a neatly finished cottage, the residence of the Commissariat and Medical officers,) constituted the camp.
This deficiency of buildings did not arise from any supineness on the part of the existing authorities, but in consequence of orders from head-quarters not to erect any expensive buildings; as it was probable that the settlement might be removed to Port Essington.
The greatest attention was paid to horticulture;—besides the garden, sometime formed, and abounding in useful and ornamental articles, there was another of considerable extent, fenced in, and the ground properly prepared for use, when the orders came to abandon the place.
The site of the settlement was by no means judiciously chosen;—an extensive mud bank being right in front of it, through which, at low water, people embarking or disembarking were obliged to wade nearly a furlong. About a quarter of a mile farther to the northward, there was a much more eligible spot, where permanent buildings were intended to be formed, and which might easily have been erected, as good clay abounded.
Captain Stirling was actuated in his choice of the site by its being near a fresh water lagoon; that the people might be protected from the natives while procuring water—but water could not always be procured, as the lagoon was dry, excepting during the rainy
