JDH writes to his sisters, Elizabeth [Bessy] & Mary [Mary Harriet] Hooker, describing the colony of Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania] & the town of Hobart. JDH explains the system of governance by military & civil power: a Lieutenant Governor & council subservient to Sydney, a General Officer to oversee the Army & Navy, & a Commissariat department to provide for the convicts. Describes the division of the island into districts governed by police constables & police magistrates. Describes the ships used to transport convicts, which he says are run strictly but with attention to order & health. Explains that convicts are given different duties depending on the severity of their crime with rewards or punishments depending on their behaviour. Those who aren't dangerous work in households as servants. Female convicts all work in factories. The system is vulnerable to uprisings & escapees. Escapees, known as bush rangers, often turn to murder, theft & cattle rustling. There are many colonial tails about the bush rangers, who are occasionally portrayed as romantic, popular figures like Robin Hood or Rob Roy but are mostly villains. The population has grown quickly & many of the emigrants have made their fortune by keeping sheep & buying & selling land. He describes the typical life of a poor emigrant, living in a hut with a convict servant & surviving on damper bread, kangaroo hash, salt pork, tea & sugar. He explains how they can become rich by clearing land & quickly increasing their livestock to the point they have excess to sell in rich markets such as Sydney, Port Philip, Adelaide, Swan River & New Zealand. They can then employ more people, such as a grubber to pull up tree stumps. It is also profitable to sell potatoes & wood. Shop keepers can make good money but are often 'ticket of leave' convicts & looked down on. Replies should be sent to JDH at Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands. At the end, the letter bears a second sender address & date: Sydney, New South Wales, July 15 1841.