Wool, the staple commodity of Australia, would not grow there, and the country is not adapted for the support of cattle to any great extent.
(*Footnote.

I need not here enlarge upon the unfitness of Port Essington for agricultural pursuits--even that point has long ago been given up.
The quantity of land which might be made productive is exceedingly small, and although cotton, sugarcane, and other tropical productions thrive well in one of the two gardens, there is no field for their growth upon a remunerative scale.) Yet the little settlement at Port Essington has not been altogether useless.

The knowledge of the existence of such a military post, within a few days' sail of the islands in question, together with the visits of Commander Stanley in the Britomart, had completely prevented a repetition of the outrages formerly committed upon European trading vessels at the various islands of the group extending between Timor and New Guinea.

The crews and passengers of various vessels wrecked in Torres Strait had frequently found in Port Essington a place of shelter, after six hundred miles and more of boat navigation, combined with the difficulty of determining the entrance, owing to the lowness of the land thereabouts, which might easily be passed in the night, or even during the day, if distant more than ten or twelve miles.

I have myself been a witness to the providential relief and extreme hospitality afforded there to such unfortunates.