The first huts that were erected here were composed of very perishable materials, the soft wood of the cabbage palm, being only designed to afford immediate shelter.  The necessity of using the wood quite green made it also the less likely to prove durable.  The huts of the convicts were still more slight, being composed only of upright posts, wattled with slight twigs, and plaistered up with clay.  Barracks and huts were afterwards formed of materials rather more lasting.  Buildings of stone might easily have been raised, had there been any means of procuring lime for mortar.  The stone which has been found is of three sorts:  A fine free stone, reckoned equal in goodness to that of Portland; an indifferent kind of sand stone, or firestone; and a sort which appears to contain a mixture of iron.  But neither chalk, nor any species of lime-stone has yet been discovered.  In building a small house for the Governor on the eastern side of the Cove, (marked 1 in the plan) lime was made of oyster shells, collected in the neighbouring coves; but it cannot be expected that lime should be supplied in this manner for many buildings, or indeed for any of great extent.  Till this difficulty shall be removed by the discovery of chalk or lime-stone, the public buildings must go on very slowly, unless care be taken to send out those articles as ballast in all the ships destined for Port Jackson.  In the mean time the materials can only be laid in clay, which makes it necessary to give great thickness to the walls, and even then they are not so firm as might be wished.  Good clay for bricks is found near Sydney Cove, and very good bricks have been made.  The wood, from the specimens that have been received in England, appears to be good; it is heavy indeed, but fine grained, and apparently strong, and free from knots.  The imperfections that were found in it at first arose probably from the want of previous seasoning.

The hospital is placed on the west side of the Cove, in a very healthful situation, entirely clear of the town; and is built in such a manner as to last for some years.  On the high ground between the hospital and the town, if water can be found by sinking wells, it is the Governor’s intention to erect the barracks, surrounding them with proper works.  These were to have been begun as soon as the transports were cleared, and the men hutted, but the progress of work was rendered so slow by the want of an adequate number of able workmen, that it was necessary to postpone that undertaking for a time.  The ground marked out for a church lies still nearer to the town, so that this edifice will form in part one side of the principal parade.  The design which demanded the most immediate execution was that of a storehouse, which might be secure from the danger of fire.  In a country exposed to frequent storms of thunder and lightning, it was rather an uneasy situation to have all the provisions and other necessaries lodged in wooden buildings, covered with thatch of the most