not able to get from this miserable island to the mainland. Mr.
Bass' boat was too small to accommodate them with a passage, and,
as his provision was nearly expended, he could only help them to
the mainland, where he furnished them with a musket and ammunition
and a pocket compass, with lines and fish-hooks. Two of the seven
were very ill, and those he took into his boat, and shared his
provisions with the other five, giving them the best directions in
his power how to proceed, the distance" (to Sydney) "being not
less than five hundred miles. He recommended them to keep along
the coast the better to enable them to get food. Indeed, the
difficulties of the country and the possibility of meeting hostile
natives are considerations which will occasion doubts of their
ever being able to reach us.

"When they parted with Mr. Bass and his crew, who gave them what
cloaths they could spare, some tears were shed on both sides. The
whale-boat arrived in this port after an absence of twelve weeks,
and Mr. Bass delivered to me his observations on this adventur'g
expedition. I find he made several excursions into the interior of
the country wherever he had an opportunity. It will be sufficient
to say that he found in general a barren, unpromising country,
with very few exceptions; and, were it even better, the want of
harbours would render it less valuable.

"Whilst this whale-boat was absent I had occasion to send the
colonial schooner to the southward to take on board the remaining
property saved from the wreck of the ship _Sydney Cove_, and to
take the crew from the island she had been cast upon. I sent in
the schooner Lieutenant Flinders, of the _Reliance_ (a young man
well qualified), in order to give him an opportunity of making