Providence, and brought back to the colony.  They told a melancholy tale of their sufferings in the boat; and for many days after their arrival passed their time in detailing to the crowds both of black and white people which attended them their adventures in Port Stephens, the first harbour they made.  Having lived like the savages among whom they dwelt, their change of food soon disagreed with them, and they were all taken ill, appearing to be principally affected with abdominal swellings.  They spoke in high terms of the pacific disposition and gentle manners of the natives.  They were at some distance inland when Mr. Grimes was in Port Stephens; but heard soon after of the schooner’s visit, and well knew, and often afterwards saw, the man who had been fired at, but not killed at that time as was supposed, by Wilson.  Each of them had had names given him, and given with several ceremonies.  Wives also were allotted them, and one or two had children.  They were never required to go out on any occasion of hostility, and were in general supplied by the natives with fish or other food, being considered by them (for so their situation only could be construed) as unfortunate strangers thrown upon their shore from the mouth of the yawning deep, and entitled to their protection.  They told us a ridiculous story, that the natives appeared to worship them, often assuring them, when they began to understand each other, that they were undoubtedly the ancestors of some of them who had fallen in battle, and had returned from the sea to visit them again; and one native appeared firmly to believe that his father was come back in the person of either Lee or Connoway, and took him to the spot where his body had been burnt.  On being told that immense numbers of people existed far beyond their little knowledge, they instantly pronounced them to be the spirits of their countrymen, which, after death, had migrated into other regions.

It appeared from these four men, that the language to the northward differed wholly from any that we knew.  Among the natives who lived with us, there were none who understood all that they said, and of those who occasionally came in, one only could converse with them.  He was a very fine lad, of the name of Wur-gan.  His mother had been born and bred beyond the mountains, but one luckless day, paying a visit with some of her tribe to the banks of the Dee-rab-bun (for so the Hawkesbury was named) she was forcibly prevented returning, and, being obliged to submit to the embraces of an amorous and powerful Be-dia-gal, the fruit of her visit was this boy.  Speaking herself more dialects than one, she taught her son all she knew, and he, being of quick parts, and a roving disposition, caught all the different dialects from Botany Bay to Port Stephens.

We understood that Lieutenant-governor Grose in the Daedalus had reached Rio de Janeiro in eleven weeks from his sailing hence, and that all on board were in health.