With a settlement at each extremity of the Archipelago, we could readily protect the trade of the natives, and obtain minor posts, and free-trade ports, whence the best principles of commerce and good government might be disseminated, and our interests best promoted, by the general prosperity of the countries under our sway, or in our own vicinity. It is scarcely necessary to say more on this subject, but before closing these remarks, I cannot help adverting to the colony at Port Essington. The former settlement, which existed in the immediate neighbourhood of Port Essington, was after a trial (of a few years) abandoned as useless, and the same difficulties which checked the progress of the first will probably impede the present colony. It was a striking feature of this settlement, that the natives, though frequenting the coasts to the northward of New Holland,[16] seldom if ever visited or offered to trade with the settlement. This has, I know, been attributed to the natives being ignorant of the existence of the place, but this reason appears to me improbable in the highest degree, and we may with more justice surmise the cause to be our utter disinclination and local inability to protect traders from the consequences attendant on a breach of Dutch regulations. This conjecture gathers confirmation from the facts that the inhabitants of the Eastern portion of the Archipelago are not addicted to maritime adventure, being supplied by the traders of the Western Islands with such articles of European or Chinese manufacture as are suited to their tastes. The Bugis vessels that frequent the north coast of New Holland chiefly carry on the trade with the Arafura group, and it is evident that going and returning from this voyage they are at the mercy of the Dutch cruisers. Is it probable, then, that the Dutch would allow an intercourse with a British settlement which it was in their power to prevent? And whilst the Bugis are the carriers, is it not in the power of the Dutch to restrict and harass, if not totally to prevent, their communication with us? The natives of the Archipelago cannot look to the British for protection, but they can and do look for Dutch vengeance, and dread it. These considerations are not urged against advantages to be derived from the possession of Port Essington, but rather as a warning against the over-sanguine expectations of its having a trade of any considerable extent, whilst our relations with the Archipelago continue on their present eclipsed footing. The good to result from this colony must be looked for on the continent of New Holland, where it will probably extend and make the same progressive strides to importance as the sister colonies in the same country: but with reference to the Archipelago, its government will want authority to control the evil influence sufficiently to ameliorate the present system.