Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/547

423 JAMES MARIA MATRA'S PROPOSAL. A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales. I AM going to offer an object to the consideration of our Govern- 1783 ment which may in time atone for the loss of our American Loss of colonies. America. By the discoveries and enterprise of our officers, many new countries have been found which know no sovereign, and that hold New fleids out the most enticing allurements to European adventurers. None JlSnr^^"*"^* are more inviting than New South Wales. Captain Cook iirst coasted and surveyed the eastern side of that fine country from the 38th degree of south latitude down to the Cook's 10th, where he found everything to induce him to give the most SJew^souOi favourable account of it. In this immense tract of more than Wales, two thousand miles there was every variety of soil, and great parts of it were extremely fertile, peopled only by a few black inhabitants, who, in the rudest state of society, knew no other arts than such as were necessary to their mere animal existence, and which was almost entirely sustained by catching fish. The climate and soil are so happily adapted to produce every various and valuable production of Europe and of both the Indies, its dimate that with good management and a few settlers, in twenty or "'*^ ®™^" thirty years they might cause a revolution in the whole system of European commerce, and secure to England a monopoly of some part of it, and a very large share in the whole. Part of it lies in a climate parallel to the Spice Islands, and is fitted for the production of that valuable commodity, as well as i^r^cai the sugar-cane, tea, coffee, silk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and the p"*^"*^- other articles of commerce that have been so advantageous to the maritime powers of Europe. I must not omit the mention of a very important article which may be obtained in any quantity, if this settlement be made, the Flax, proper use of which would be of very considerable consequence, both among the necessaries and conveniences of life. I mean the New Zealand hemp or flax plant, an object equally of curiosity and utility. By proper operating it would serve the various pur- poses of hemp, flax, and silk, and it is more easily manufactured 2 P Digitized by Google