Just one page of Philemon's Journal survives (perhaps no more were ever written as he seems not to have liked writing). He outlines the idyllic scene he found and realises his problems.

We anchored off Boca del Toro about 11 a.m. 0n the 31st March 1836. I found myself in a beautiful extensive Archipelago the bay sufficiently spacious to contain the navy of all Europe and so completely sheltered that they might anchor with packthreads!!
The whole scene was strongly marked with the peculiar features of the Torrid Zone.
The beach was fringed with plantain and banana trees, growing amongst figs and limes, and numberless rich shrubs shaded by the tamarind and cotton trees rising higher than any others excepting the tall and graceful cocoa nuts. Close to the ground and almost hid by the foliage were clustered groups of cane built huts, thatched with palm leaves, and on the sandy beach before them lay the canoes of the natives, hollowed out of single trees; while others were paddling around the bay or skimming along under a shoulder of mutton sail hoisted on a bamboo mast; all contributing with the clear sky to give a decidedly tropical aspect to the scene.

My surprise on landing was considerable when I heard the inhabitants all speaking English with a strong accent which I recognized as that of the West Indies peculiarly acquired (as I afterwards found) from the constant intercourse kept up across the Caribbean with Jamaica

The ready hospitality I received (they not knowing then my official appointment) would surprise a stranger landing at an European port but in distant regions all travellers are received with warmth, attention and confidence unknown in this civilized country. This cordial reception of which I understand is universal in every part of the world remote from our own shores was to me a most welcome and agreeable as I found myself a stranger in a strange land without money, without means, and without resources and to complete the whole no government authority of any description whatsoever to whom I could apply for aid or assistance.