July.] The signal for a sail was made at the South Head between seven and eight o’clock in the morning of the 5th of July; and soon after the Hope, an American ship from Rhode Island, anchored in the cove, having on board a cargo of salted provisions and spirits on speculation.  This ship was here before with Captain Page, the commander of the Halcyon, and now came in the same employ, the house of Brown and Francis at Providence.  Brown was the uncle of Page, between whom there being some misunderstanding, Page built and freighted the Halcyon after the departure of the Hope, whose master being ordered to touch at the Falkland’s Islands, Page determined to precede him, in his arrival at this country, and have the first of the market, in which he succeeded.

This proved a great disappointment to the master of the Hope, who indeed sold his spirits at three shillings and sixpence per gallon; but his salted provisions no one would purchase.

The Hope was seven days in her passage from the South Cape to this port; and the master said, that off Cape St. George he met with a current which carried him during the space of three days a degree to the southward each day.

On the 8th the Indispensable and Halcyon sailed on their respective voyages, the former for Bengal, and the latter for Canton.  The Indispensable was a large stout ship, provided with a letter of marque, well manned and armed; and had been captured from the French at the beginning of the present war.  The master was permitted to receive on board several persons from the colony, on his representing that he was short of hands to navigate his ship; and two convicts found means to make their escape from the settlement.  A third was discovered concealed on board for the same purpose, and being brought on shore, it appeared that the coxswain of the lieutenant-governor’s boat had assisted him in his attempt; for which he was punished and turned out of the boat, such a breach of trust deserving and requiring to be particularly noticed.

By the Halcyon were sent some dispatches to be forwarded by the way of China to his Majesty’s secretary of state for the home department.  The day following the departure of these two ships, the Fancy snow arrived from Bombay, having on board a small quantity of rice and dholl*, intended as part of the contract entered into by Captain Bampton, who, we now learned, had arrived safe at Bombay, after a long passage from this place of between six and seven months.  This vessel was commanded by Mr. Thomas Edgar Dell, formerly chief mate of Mr. Bampton’s ship the Shah Hormuzear, from whom the following information was received.

[* Thirty-eight tons of rice, and thirty-eight tons of dholl.  Captain Bampton also sent twenty-four bags of seed-wheat.]