As Captain Johnstone and I were on our way home, lamenting our disappointment, it struck me that this ship must be from Port Jackson, and that the commander was bound to China; had nothing on board for the island, and therefore did not choose to lose any time; but if this conjecture should be just, he must have known from our friends what the probable state of this island was, and therefore might readily suppose that five minutes conversation would have been a vast relief to our anxiety.

After having determined to believe that he was from Port Jackson, and that we should soon have something from thence, we kept a very good look-out, and, to our great happiness, on the 7th, a ship was discovered in the offing, and towards the evening, another appeared in sight; the surf being low, a boat was sent immediately off to go on board the nearest:  they proved to be the Justinian and the Surprize, from Port Jackson, with provisions for the relief of this island, and with an addition to the number of convicts, of about 200.  The masters informed us, that five ships had arrived in New South Wales with 980 convicts, and provisions for the settlement, and that they had been arrived about two months; a delay of great length, when it is considered that our situation, when the governor last heard from us, was rather an alarming one:  nothing had then been saved out of the wreck of the Sirius, so that there was no certainty that we had been able to exist.  Such were the reflections which I made during a moment of anxiety, and which, in a period of quiet, I do not wish to repeat.

We received information, by these ships, of the unfortunate accident which befel his Majesty’s ship Guardian, in her passage to this country, with provisions and stores; and also that the Gorgon was fitting, to bring farther supplies, with another lieutenant-governor, who commanded a corps that had been raised for this particular service, the marines being ordered for England.

The Justinian and Surprize, by the good fortune of an uncommon time of fine weather, were cleared in little more than three weeks, and proceeded upon their voyage to China on the 30th.  If these ships had been here two months before they did arrive, the weather was such that they could not have been cleared two days before the time that they were.  We were now looking eagerly for the arrival of the Gorgon, which ship, the governor informed me by letter, was to take the Sirius’s crew and marines off this spot, which has cost me so much distress.

As soon as the above ships arrived, and we had communication with them; for their safety, as well as for the more expeditiously landing the provisions, I sent Lieutenant Bradley on board the one, he being now perfectly acquainted with the set of the tides, their uncertainty, and all the other dangers around the island; I also sent Mr. Donovan, a midshipman, on board the other, he having been near two years upon duty on this island, and was well acquainted with the above particulars:  this assistance enabled them at all proper times to make more free with the shore.  Mr. Keltie, the master of the Sirius, and Mr. Brooks, the boatswain, attended with me the whole day at the landing-place.