ing us, and it proved to be m y first guide and his wife, already
mentioned, coming towards uf, jfdispatched by the, others to our
assistance., They brought with them a fish of about.four pounds
Weight. Here was- another trait of the friendly disposition of
these poor people worthy of being, noticed,. Our quondam
guide told us, that there had been a boat seen with two white
men fishing in it a little before it grew dark, a short distance
from where .we then were. One of my people instantly sgt; off
with him in search of the boat, and soon after we heard the
noise of oars in the water. In this boat were a man and boy
going to the .southward a fishing ; but from the unsettled state
of the weather, they chose to remain for the night near the harbour’s
mouth, that they might be ready to push out in the
morning. They readily undertook, for a smallgratuity, to pull
us up to my house on Garden Island ; and having taken leave
pf the friendly natives, we pushed off, and I got home about
eleven o’clock at night.
The officer commanding the boat which went in search of the
fugitives, gave me Warning of his approach at seven the next
morning by sounding his bugle-horn. His success was similar to
mine: he picked up another unfortunate young man of the party
which ran off with the Norfolk sloop, ih the same starved condition
as the one I had found. He gave.an account of his having
remained with another of the runaways till he expired. On
my giving them up to Governor King, I stated to him in how
submissive and penitent a manner they had surrendered themselves
to nay p a rty ; and that had we not fallen in with them, it
was their intention to return. As an example to the Settlement
they were tried, and were condemned to suffer death ; but the
Governor was most humanely pleased to pardon them, on ac-
count,no doubt, of-their sufferings. Two of the most daring
of the same gang had some little time before suffered death.—
The
The youhgfest óf th iié that were pardoned, served afterwards on
board 5 theFrancilflbhooner;, and on my return from a cruize*,
cafiie and bfibred his services to'it&^ln the Bady NFelson, which
sihewed hiÿ gratl tu d e but I âëclmed ‘àeé'dpting ' them. ‘
I t being now determined by Gbvernbr‘King th a t we shOuld
again visit the Straits we had passed5 thrbugi&! on our voyage’
from England, aiid which had deservedly obtaified'Ahe name
of BàSs’s 'Straits, after Mr. Gèbrgè Bass1, late Surgeon to his
Majesty’s ship Reliance, that Gentleman having first entered
them in a Whale Boat to the Mstward,’ and discovered a harbour
to the .westward of Wilson’s Promontory ;(mostprobably
bpNbw Hollahd |)n which he named,
from its relative situation, Weston Port frobi Sydney it was
the westernmost «tóëht-bf the Strait known on the north-Side;'
It wasy however^ reserved for the Lady Nelson completely to
ascertain the extent of the Strait, she sailing along the land
nearly four degrees to the Westward of *W€itë5fn; Port* as will be
seen by the Eye Sketch annexed to this Volume.
I had before received an order from the Governor to send on
shore several articles, principally arms, among which were included
some brass carriage-guns ; four o f which were put into
the Store, with an eqdâl proportion o f every other description
of arms. The reason* as I understood, for this was, that if the
vessel was lost Government would be the less a sufferer. Shrewd
as this kind of reasoning may appear to many, I cannot on my
own account applaud it. My situation was not enviable, for
I had every thing to risk by the responsibility placed on my
shoulders ; and that, as already mentioned, with Colonial instead
of Navy pay. Several other circumstances might be here
enumerated o f a similar nature, but I do’not wish to intrude
them on my Readers, however galling they were to myself.
In a former p art of this narrative I mentioned that my crew
o 2 w a s