This is Port Adelaide! Port Misery would be a better name; for nothing
in any other part of the world can surpass it in everything that is
wretched and inconvenient, packages of goods and heaps of merchandise
are lying about in every direction as if they had cost nothing. Stacks
of what were once beautiful London bricks crumbling away like
gingerbread, and evidently at each returning tide half covered with the
flood; trusses of hay, now rotten, and Norway deals, scattered about as
if they had no owner--iron ploughs and rusty harrows--cases of
door-frames and windows that had once been glazed--heaps of the best
slates half tumbling down--winnowing-machines broken to pieces--blocks
of Roman cement, now hard as stone, wanting nothing but the staves and
hoops--Sydney cedar, and laths and shingles from Van Diemen's Land in
every direction; whilst on the high ground are to be seen pigs eating
through the flour-sacks, and kegs of raisins with not only the head out,
but half the contents; onions and potatoes apparently to be had for
picking up. The sight is disheartening. What with the sun and the
rain--the sand and the floods--the thieves with four legs and the
thieves with two--the passengers hug themselves at the recollection that
_they_ have brought no merchandise for sale, glad enough to be able to
take care of themselves. The sooner they get out of this horrid hole the
better, so they enquire if there is any coach to the town--they are
answered by a careless shake of the head, and so, like good settlers,
they determine to set off and walk, carrying their light parcels with
them, and leaving the heavy things with a friend who refuses to go any
further. They ask for a drink of water before starting--there is not
such a thing to be had; but the bullock carts are expected down every
minute with the usual supply! "What, no water?" exclaims our passenger.
"No, sir, but the Commissioners are sinking a well, though they have not
yet found any but salt water; but they are going to dig in another
place, shortly, we understand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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