Here, as well as everywhere else that I have visited in these colonies, the males and females alike frequent the tap-room. They were all very hospitable, and it may be imagined how it sounded to our ears, for a matronly-looking woman, with a child held by the hand, to address us with, “What will you have to drink, Jack?” while everybody about seemed to regard it as a matter of propriety. At night, as there were not beds sufficient for our accommodation, we took a shake down in the dining-room, using kangaroo-skins as blankets. We had scarcely got settled, before we were rolling, pitching, and tossing, by way of a forced accompaniment to the flea-bites that were being inflicted upon us: the numbers of these pests being myriads. Although they are little heeded by those who are acclimated here and inured to their tortures, yet to us thinner-skinned gentry these fleas now proved objects of real terror. For hours, sleep was out of the question. All of us had been accustomed to considerable blood-letting aboard from the bed-bugs that always infest old ships in warm weather; but we were by no means prepared for a wholesale depletion by these vampires. At length, towards morning, we managed to gain some intermission from their attacks, and the sun had made a great portion of his daily journey ere we broke our slumbers. After breakfast was over, we took a tramp, and found that we were not deceived in our estimate of the country. Instead of the sandy surface we had been accustomed to see in the southern sections of the colony, there was here an excellent soil, and the appearance of the crops promised an abundant harvest; while the live stock we saw were in a good condition. The trees here embrace all the varieties of the she-oak, bankshire, mahogany, peppermint, blackberry and raspberry jam, and some little way in the interior the precious sandal-wood is found. The houses are of stone, and neatly fashioned: mahogany being applied to all the various purposes of the architect--its great plentifulness and durability rendering it preferable to any other wood they possess.