By the indulgence of the Viceroy, the deficiency in the military stores observed at the departure of the transports from England, was made up by a supply purchased from the Royal arsenal; nor was any assistance withheld which either the place afforded, or the stores of government could furnish.

The circumstances, which in this place most astonish a stranger, and particularly a Protestant, are, the great abundance of images dispersed throughout the city, and the devotion paid to them.  They are placed at the corner of almost every street, and are never passed without a respectful salutation; but at night they are constantly surrounded by their respective votaries, who offer up their prayers aloud, and make the air resound in all quarters with the notes of their hymns.  The strictness of manners in the inhabitants is not said to be at all equivalent to the warmth of this devotion; but in all countries and climates it is found much easier to perform external acts of reputed piety, than to acquire the internal habits so much more essential.  It must be owned, however, that our people did not find the ladies so indulgent as some voyagers have represented them.

It was near a month before Governor Phillip could furnish his ships with every thing which it was necessary they should now procure.  At length, on the 4th of September he weighed anchor, and as he passed the fort, received from the Viceroy the last compliment it was in his power to pay, being saluted with twenty-one guns.  The salute was returned by an equal number from the Sirius; and thus ended an intercourse honourable to both nations, and particularly to the principal officer employed in the service of each.

Chapter V.

September 1787 to January 1788

Prospercus passage from Rio to the Cape—­Account of the Harbours there—­The Cape of Good Hope not the most Southern point—­Height of Table Mountain and others—­Supineness of the European nations in neglecting to occupy the Cape—­Live stock laid in—­Departure—­Separation of the fleet—­Arrival of the Supply at Botany Bay.

4 September 1787

A Prosperous course by sea, like a state of profound peace and tranquility in civil society, though most advantageous to those who enjoy it, is unfavourable to the purposes of narration.  The striking facts which the writer exerts himself to record, and the reader is eager to peruse, arise only from difficult situations:  uniform prosperity is described in very few words.  Of this acceptable but unproductive kind was the passage of the Botany Bay fleet from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope; uniformly favourable, and not marked by any extraordinary incidents.  This run, from about lat. 22 deg. south, long. 43 west of London, to lat. 34 deg. south, long. 18 deg. east of London, a distance of about four thousand miles, was performed in thirty-nine days:  for having left Rio on the 4th of September, on the 13th of October the ships came to anchor in Table Bay.  Here they were to take their final refreshment, and lay in every kind of stock with which they were not already provided.  In this period no additional lives had been lost, except that of a single convict belonging to the Charlotte transport, who fell accidentally into the sea, and could not by any efforts be recovered.