a passage was to be provided for his people to the Cape of Good Hope.  The governor was desirous of sending this vessel to England with the officers and people of the Sirius; but it was impossible to close with either of these offers, and he rejected them as unreasonable.  Her master therefore dropped the vessel down to the lower part of the harbour, meaning to sail immediately for Batavia.  Choosing, however, to try the success of other proposals, he wrote from Camp Cove to the secretary, offering to let the vessel for the voyage to England for twenty-thousand rix dollars, stipulating that thirty thousand rix dollars should be paid for her in the event of her being lost; the crew to be landed at the Cape, and himself to be furnished with a passage to England.  On receiving this his second offer, the governor informed him, that instead of his proposal one pound sterling per ton per month should be given for the hire of the snow, to be paid when the voyage for which she was to be taken up should be completed.  With this offer of the governor’s, the master, notwithstanding his having quitted the cove on his first terms being rejected, declared himself satisfied, and directly returned to the cove, saluting with five guns on coming to an anchor.

In adjusting the contract or charter-party, the master displayed the greatest ignorance and the most tiresome perverseness, throwing obstacles in the way of every clause that was inserted.  It was however at length finally settled and signed by the governor on the part of the crown, and by Detmer Smith, the master, on the part of his owners, he consenting to be paid for only three hundred tons instead of three hundred and fifty, for which she had been imposed upon Lieutenant Ball at Batavia.  The carpenter of the Supply measured her in this cove.

Directions were now given for fitting her up as a transport to receive the Sirius’s late ship’s company and officers; and Lieutenant Edgar, who came out in the Lady Juliana transport, was ordered to superintend the fitting her, as an agent; in which situation he was to embark on board her and return to England.

26th.  The Supply, after an absence of just five weeks, returned from Norfolk Island, having on board Captain Hunter, with the officers and people of the Sirius; and Lieutenant John Johnson of the marines, whose ill state of health would not permit him to remain there any longer.

We now found that our apprehensions of the distressed situation of that settlement until it was relieved were well founded.  The supply of provisions which was dispatched in the Justinian and Surprise reached them at a critical point of time, there being in store on the 7th of August, when they appeared off the island, provisions but for a few days at the ration then issued, which was three pounds of flour and one pint of rice; or, in lieu of flour, three pounds of Indian meal or of wheat, ground, and not