June 23.

At daylight land was seen to windward, which, from the distance we had ran, was supposed to be about Port Stevens; but we found ourselves at noon by a meridional observation, off Jervis Bay; so that the current during the gale had set us one hundred and fifty miles to the southward, and for the last twenty-four hours at the rate of nearly three knots per hour.

June 24.

Owing to this we did not arrive at Port Jackson until the following day at noon; and it was sunset before the cutter anchored in the cove.

It appeared on our arrival that the weather had been even worse on the land than we had experienced it at sea.  The Nepean and Hawkesbury Rivers had been flooded, by which the growing crops had been considerably injured, but happily the colony has long ceased to suffer from these once much-dreaded inundations:  a great portion of upland country out of the reach of the waters is now cultivated, from which the government stores are principally supplied with grain.  Individuals who, from obstinacy, persist in the cultivation of the low banks of the Hawkesbury, alone suffer from these destructive floods, which have been known to rise in a few hours to the height of eighty feet above the usual level of the river’s bed.  The evil, however, deposits its own atonement; and the succeeding crop, if it escapes a flood, repays the settlers for their previous loss:  this it is that emboldens them to persist in their ill-advised temerity.  At no very distant period a time will arrive when these very lands, the cultivation of which has caused so much distress to the colony and ruin to individuals, will, by being laid down in grass for the purposes of depasturing cattle, become a considerable source of wealth to their possessors.

There has been no general want of grain in the colony since the year 1817, although there have been several floods upon the Hawkesbury and the other rivers that fall into it, which have greatly distressed the farmers of that district.  One of the arguments, therefore, with which the enemies of colonizing in New South Wales have hitherto armed themselves, in order to induce emigrants to give the preference to Van Diemen’s Land, falls to the ground.

We were fortunate in finding in the naval yard, a spar of the New Zealand cowrie pine (dammara) large enough for our bowsprit.

1820.  July 13.

And on the 13th of July, having had our damages repaired, we resumed our voyage under more favourable omens, for we sailed with a fair wind and fine weather.

July 17.

On the 17th July we were off Moreton Bay, and in the afternoon communicated with a whaler which heaved in sight off the Cape (Moreton).  My object was to learn whether she had heard any tidings of a boat belonging to the Echo whaler, which ship had been lately wrecked on the Cato’s bank:  one of her boats, with part of her crew, arrived at Sydney a few days before we sailed; but another boat, in which the master and the remainder of her people embarked, had not been heard of; and I entertained hopes that this vessel had picked them up, but, on the master’s coming on board, I found that he was quite ignorant of her loss.