If you do not consider waiting for the Porpoise’s repairs advisable, it is my intention to send her to England by a summer’s passage round Cape Horn; which it is thought she may perform in her present state.  But should you conceive it may ultimately forward the service you are employed on, to go to England in her, leaving this port when you judge proper, and taking the route most conducive to perfectioning any part of the surveys you have commenced; I shall direct the commander of that ship to receive you and as many of your officers and people as can be accommodated, as passengers; and to follow your directions and give you every assistance in every circumstance connected with the execution of the orders you have received from my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

You will, Sir, have the goodness to consider of the above and whatever the result of your deliberation may be, I will most cheerfully give my concurrence and assistance; knowing that your zealous perseverance in wishing to complete the service you have so beneficially commenced, could only be impeded by unforeseen and distressing circumstances; but which I hope, for the benefit of science and navigation, will only be a temporary delay.

I am, etc.

(Signed), Philip Gidley King.

Each of the plans proposed in the governor’s letter were attended with one common disadvantage:  a delay in the completion of the surveys.  Against the last proposition there did not seem to be any other objection; but the four first included so many more inconveniences and difficulties, either to the voyage, or to the colony, that I saw the necessity of concurring with the governor’s opinion; notwithstanding the reluctance I felt at returning to England without having accomplished the objects for which the Investigator was fitted out.  My election was therefore made to embark as a passenger in the Porpoise; in order to lay my charts and journals before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and obtain, if such should be their pleasure, another ship to complete the examination of Terra Australis.  The last service I could render to the colony with the Investigator and my people, was to lay down an additional pair of moorings in Sydney Cove; and that done, we left the ship as a storehouse hulk on the 21st, and prepared for our voyage to England.

The Porpoise was commanded by Mr. William Scott, a senior master in the navy; but he and the greater part of his people having expressed a wish to be discharged, it was complied with; and the command was given to Mr. Fowler, first lieutenant of the Investigator, and another crew of thirty-eight men selected from the ship’s company.  In disposing of the other officers and people their several inclinations were consulted.  The surgeon took his passage in the Bridgewater to India, the gunner remained charged with the care of the Investigator’s stores, and Mr. Evans, master’s mate, was left sick at the hospital; Messrs. Brown, Bauer, and Allen stayed at Port Jackson to prosecute their researches in natural history, until my arrival with another ship, or until eighteen months should expire without their having received intimation that the voyage was to be continued; nine men were discharged at their own request, and the twenty-two remaining officers and men, including myself, embarked in the Porpoise as passengers.