“Nothing more of these [the two ships] were seen ’till April the 5th, when the man who takes his station there at daybreak soon came down to inform me a sail was in sight.  On going up I saw her coming up with the land, and judged it to be the Supply, but was not a little surprised at her returning so soon, and likewise, being alone, my mind fell to foreboding an accident; and on going down to get ready to wait on the gov’r [Sidenote:  1790] I desired the gunner to notice if the people mustered thick on her decks as she came in under the headland, thinking in my own mind, what I afterwards found, that the Sirius was lost.  The Supply bro’t an account that on the 19th of March about noon the Sirius had, in course of loading the boats, drifted rather in with the land.  On seeing this they of course endeavoured to stand off, but the wind being dead on the shore, and the ship being out of trim and working unusually bad, she in staying—­for she would not go about just as she was coming to the wind—­tailed the ground with the after-part of her keel, and, with two sends of the vast surf that runs there, was completely thrown on the reef of dangerous rocks called Pt.  Ross.  They luckily in their last extremity let go both anchors and stopper’d the cables securely, and this, ’tho it failed of the intention of riding her clear, yet caused her to go right stern foremost on the rocks, by which means she lay with her bow opposed to the sea, a most happy circumstance, for had she laid broadside to, which otherwise she would have had a natural tendency to have done, ’tis more than probable she must have overset, gone to pieces, and every soul have perish’d.

“Her bottom bilged immediately, and the masts were as soon cut away, and the gallant ship, upon which hung the hopes of the colony, was now a complete wreck.  They [the Supply] brought a few of the officers and men hither; the remainder of the ships company, together with Captain Hunter, &c., are left there on acc’t of constituting a number adequate to the provision, and partly to save what they possibly can from the wreck.  I understand that there are some faint hopes, if favor’d with extraordinary fine weather, to recover most of the provision, for she carried a great quantity there on the part of the reinforcement.  The whole of the crew were saved, every exertion being used, and all assistance received from the Supply and colonists on shore.  The passengers fortunately landed before the accident, and I will just mention to you the method by which the crew were saved.  When they found that the ship was ruined and giving way upon the beam right athwart, they made a rope fast to a drift-buoy, which by the surf was driven on shore.  By this a stout hawser was convey’d, and those on shore made it fast a good way up a pine-tree.  The other end, being on board, was hove taut.  On this hawser was placed the heart of a stay