We first made the land in the neighbourhood of Cape Croker, and soon afterwards saw the beacon on Point Smith.

Entering Port Essington we ran up the harbour, and anchored off the settlement of Victoria early in the afternoon.
On landing and walking over the place after an absence of more than three years, I might naturally have looked for some signs of improvement in the appearance of the settlement and condition of the unfortunate residents, had I not been aware of the non-progressive nature of the system which had long been established there.

I saw no such indications of prosperity except in the flourishing and improved appearance of the coconut-trees now in full bearing, as if nature boldly asserted her rights in opposition to the dormant or even retrograde condition of everything else in the place.
CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENT.

ITS UNHEALTHINESS.
We found the settlement in a ruinous condition.

Even the hospital, the best building in the place, had the roof in such a state that when rain came on some of the patients' beds had to be shifted, and the surgeon found it necessary to protect his own bed by a tent-like canopy.