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Parramatta
October 8th 1814.
Dear Sir
I received your last and we were glad to hear that you and your family were all pretty well.
By this conveyance I have sent you the first pair of stockings made in this Colony from my Spanish Wool. I have also sent you samples of wool from some of my sheep. Five samples from five Rams and two from two Ewes. From these you will see the quality of our wool. I have made great progress since my return in the improvement of my flocks. I have for years been convinced that the Wool would be the gold mines of this Country and of vast national importance and I trust a spirit of improvement will be excited through the farmers of this Colony to grow fine wool. We must have an export or the Settlement will never prosper and this promises to be the first. I have also sent you a sample of Cotton Wool grown in the South Sea Islands. With a little encouragement the Natives of Otaheite and the other Islands would grow great quantities. You will also find one Skeen of thread made from the Flax which I had lately brought from New Zealand. This is a natural production of that Island and may turn to great national account.
You will learn from other accounts that it is my intention to visit that Island in a little time. No doubt but many natural productions will be found there advantageous for Commerce when that Country is once examined. We greatly want a person here in authority who has a turn for examining the Islands in these Seas. [53] I am fully convinced that there will be found in them many valuable articles. With respect to this Colony it improves fast and must be in time a great Country. The Mountains have lately been crossed which hitherto had prevented all communication between the present settlements and the Country beyond thm. A number of men are now employed making a road over the mountains as a pass has been found. The country is said to be very fine beyond them. One Gentleman travelled more than 100 miles after he had passed the Mountains and found the Country very good, and a fine river running through it towards the west and abounding in fish. I have no doubt but when we get into the Country beyond the Mountains we shall find some of the finest ground and very probably some large rivers which may empty themselves into the Sea on the west side of New Holland. The road is now completed on the Mountains which extend near 30 miles and I wish much to visit them and that part of the Country but shall not be able till my return from New Zealand as the passage will not be opened before I sail.
We are getting on with good schools for the Children in all the districts. I am now putting a roof upon a Female Orphan House at Parramatta which will contain about 200 Girls. It is a noble building. If the young girls are only taken care of and kept from vice the Colony will prosper as it will be the principal means of checking the growing national sins by checking the vicious inclinations of young men. No young man need be afraid to marry here lest he should not be able to provide for a family. In a new country like this there are always plenty of means at hand for a man to support himself & those belonging to him.
I have just wrote these few lines in great haste. We all beg to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Stokes and all the branches of your family. I shall ever entertain a grateful remembrance of your past kind attentions. Mrs. M. is a little better she often mentions Mrs. Stokes with the warmest affection.
I remain
Dear Sir
Yours very sincerely
Samuel Marsden
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