At Batavia Mr. Raven learned that the Shah Hormuzear sailed from thence for Bombay three months before he arrived there; and the report we had heard of the disaster which befel the boat and people from that ship, in the passage through the Straits between this country and New Guinea, was confirmed at Batavia.  As, however, Mr. Bampton had not since been heard of, it was more than probable he had fallen a prize to some of the privateers which were to be met with in those seas.

His Majesty’s birthday did not pass without that distinction which we all, as Englishmen devoted to our sovereign, had infinite pleasure in showing it.

On the 8th the Speedy, a storeship commanded by Mr. Melville, who was here in 1791 in the Britannia whaler, anchored in the cove from England, with a cargo of stores and provisions for the colony, and clothing for the New South Wales corps.  Mr. Melville sailed a few hours before the Indispensable, and touched at Rio de Janeiro, whence he had a long passage of several weeks.  He made the south cape of this country the 2nd instant; and arrived here in a leaky and weak condition.

Good fortune befriended us in the passage of this ship; for she ran safely through every part where there could be danger, without a gun on board to defend her from an enemy if she should have met with any.

On the 14th, a few hours after the signal was made at the South Head, arrived in the harbour the Halcyon, a ship from Rhode Island, commanded by Mr. Benjamin Page, who was here in the ship Hope at the close of the year 1792, and who had ventured here again with a cargo of provisions and spirits* on speculation.

[* Eight hundred barrels of beef and pork, American cured.  About five thousand gallons of spirits; a small quantity of tobacco, tea, nankeens, etc.]

Mr. Page made his passage from Rhode Island in one hundred and fifteen days, and without touching at any port.  His run from the south cape of New Holland was only five days.  The ship he built himself at Providence, after his return from China in the Hope.  That ship was only two months in her voyage from hence to Canton, and Mr. Page did not see any land until he made the Island of Tinian.  This place he now represented as well calculated to furnish a freight of cattle for this colony.

Of the convicts that Mr. Page was permitted to ship at this port in his last voyage, William Murphy behaved so extremely ill, having more than once endeavoured to excite the crew to mutiny, that at St Helena he delivered him to the captain of his Majesty’s ship Powerful, whom he found there.  This proved in the event a circumstance of great good fortune to Murphy, for, being directly rated on that ship’s books (his abilities as a sail-maker entitling him to that situation), and a French East Indiamen being captured by the Powerful a very few hours after, he became entitled to a seaman’s share of the produce of her cargo, which was a very valuable one.