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[Page 2]
your ideas, in many instances they admit of useful extracts being made. What I call Reflections, is no more than what I shall publicly avow, exclusive of the two last notes. Tho you were at the discovery of the country, I make no Doubt, but what you are a warm advocate for its colonization and welfare, but how unpleasant it must be at your advanced point of life, to be continually hearing a disagreeable [indecipherable]! If you comfort yourself in thinking, that the Colony is composed of rogues on one part, and on the other of a quarrelsome sort of people, that will be only a momentary relief. I am apt to think, as simple as the government of this colony appears, it is a [indecipherable] point than you are thoroughly aware of.
The subject that I am now going to mention, will probably yield some pleasure. There are distant hopes of some pieces of Banksia affording a useful beverage. Though I knew the Natives suck the honey juice of them, yet till I went to the Cataract, I was totally ignorant of them collecting the heads of flowers, and steeping them in water, and afterwards drinking it as I well knew the Natives preferred sweetness in a greater degree than Europeans, it immediately occurred to my mind, that this liquor on being fermented would become an agreeable beverage. I mean to try the experiment on the B. serrata when it comes in flower, which will be about Christmas. The one which the Natives had been using was the B. spinulosa. They call it Tng'gra, or rather Tng'era. Dr Smith has erroneously called it Wattangre; but this I think is a corruption of Wattangarry, the Native name of B. serrata. I have heard that different tribes afsemble frequently where Tng'era is abundant, purposely to drink it, which may be truly called a native feast. I now flatter myself, that this last journey has been attended with great success, both in the way of curiosity, and by giving hopes in adding to the comforts of sanity. I have always given ear to what the Natives had to say, and thought I was possessed of all they knew, as what might be deemed useful, but I candidly own, I had liked to have missed the main chance. This narrative I shall relate more largely when I write my account of the journey. I have a deal to communicate respecting the geography of the country, but I hope I shall do it personally. Understanding a deal of timber tops are taken to England, if there should be any of the Pear-tree, (Xylomelum). I think the sawdust is worth being tried in drying.
I am uneasy in not hearing from you, the last letter I received was last June two years. I think Mr Brown has prevented you writing, as he knew that