On Mr. Raven’s arrival at the settlement, we learned that he had been forced to go to Batavia instead of Bengal, having been attacked in the Straits of Malacca by a fleet of piratical Proas, which engaged him for six hours, and from whom he might have found some difficulty to escape, had he not fortunately killed the captain of the one which was nearest to the Britannia when in the act of making preparations for boarding him.  At Batavia he was informed that his passage to Bengal was very precarious, from the number of French privateers which infested the bay, as well as the west coast of Sumatra, several vessels having arrived at Batavia which had been chased by them.  Mr. Raven, therefore, determined to load the Britannia at Batavia, and, after some necessary arrangements with the governor-general and council, purchased the following cargo at the annexed prices for the settlements in New South Wales, viz

Rix dollars Stivers

250 Casks of beef—­111,2641/4 lbs. at 9 stivers* 20,862 2 250 Casks of pork—­83,8651/2 lbs. at ditto 15,724 37 500 Pecols** of sugar, at 7 rix dollars
   27 stivers per Pecol 3,781 12
35 Coyangs*** of rice, at 55 rix dollars per Coyang 1,925 0

[* Forty-eight stivers the rix dollar.]

[** Pecol, one hundred and thirty-three pounds English.]

[*** Coyang, three thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds Dutch.]

To these must be added for extra boat hire.  Hire of twenty black people for twenty days, and commission on the purchase at 21/2 per cent. 1493 0
          
                                           ----------
Rix dollars 42,786 3

The bills drawn on the treasury for this cargo bearing
a premium of 16 per cent, there was deducted from
the whole                                            6,040    0
Which reduced the total amount to rix dollars       37,746    3

L s d
Or in sterling money of Great Britain 7,549 4 3 To which the hire* of the ship being added, 2,210 7 7
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The whole of the expense amounted to L9,759 11 10

[* She was chartered at fourteen shillings and sixpence per ton per month, and to be paid for two hundred and ninety-six tons, her registered measurement.]

Captain Nepean, who left this place as a passenger in the Britannia, and took with him some dispatches for government, and the private letters of the officers, left Batavia on the 17th of February last in the Prince William Henry, a fast sailing schooner, bound direct for England.

The Britannia arrived at Batavia on the 11th of February, and sailed for this country on the 10th of April following.  While she lay at Batavia, the season was extremely unhealthy, and some of her people fell victims to the well-known insalubrity of the climate.