To look for these unfortunate people, a whale boat was dispatched the following day, properly provided with such comforts as were necessary for persons in their weak and wretched condition.  The man who had met with the supercargo was sent in the whale boat, and they proceeded to the spot which Mr. Clarke had described as that where they had lost sight of their companions; but, after a long search, they could only find some trifling articles, which were known to have been in their possession; and, these being bloody, it was conjectured that they had been killed in this very helpless condition by the natives, whom, in the course of their long march, they had found frequently very kind, and at other times extremely savage.  To add to the probability of this having been their end, Mr. Clarke mentioned the morose, unfeeling disposition of the carpenter, who often, when some friendly natives had presented him with a few fish, growled that they had not given him all, and insisted, that because they were black fellows, it would be right to take it by force.  By some illiberal and intemperate act of this nature, there was too much reason to believe he had brought on himself, and his ill-fated companion, the mate (a man cast in a gentler mould), a painful and premature death.

Mr. Clarke and the two other people who arrived with him were very much exhausted, and could not probably have borne up much longer against the toil that attends travelling in such a country as the unsettled part of New Holland every where presents.  All possible attention, however, being paid to their situation, they quickly recovered their strength and spirits.

In the account already published of this colony, several instances were given of the danger and difficulty that attended travelling through the woods, in which many people have either wandered till they died, or have been assassinated by the natives.  Every caution that humanity could suggest had been given; yet even at this day an instance occurred that proved to how little purpose.  A soldier who had taken his passage in a boat to go to the Hawkesbury prevailed on the crew to land him on the south shore of Broken Bay, intending to proceed to the settlement by land, but which he was never able to accomplish.  Several parties of soldiers were sent to look after their comrade, but all returned without finding him.  His end must have been truly deplorable; and not less so was that of the sergeant-major’s daughter, a fine girl of about 10 years of age, who was burnt to death by a stubble field having taken fire while she was in the midst of it.  The flames were so rapid, that she was totally unable to escape from them, and perished in this most extraordinary and terrible manner.

In the evening of the 27th, the ship Britannia anchored between the heads from Ireland, having on board 150 male and 50 female convicts from that kingdom, with an officer and 25 recruits for the New South Wales corps.  She got up to the settlement the following day, and the prisoners were all landed on the 30th.  A part of them were immediately sent up to Parramatta.