The Dutch vessel, which had been hired at Batavia to bring provisions purchased for the Colony, and which arrived at Port Jackson on the 17th of December, 1790, was cleared, and was ready for sea by the 5th of February.  The provisions brought in her consisted of one hundred and seventy-one barrels of beef, one hundred and seventy-two barrels of pork, thirty-nine barrels of flour, one thousand pounds of sugar, and seventy thousand pounds of rice:  five pounds in the hundred were to be allowed as loss on the rice; and after that deduction, there was a deficiency of forty-two thousand nine hundred pounds; for which, the master of the vessel would only allow the commissary at the rate of one halfpenny a pound; or, if paid in butter, at the rate of one pound of butter for eighteen pounds of rice:  he had rice and flour on board, which he called his own property; and as he was a foreigner, and particularly circumstanced, the commissary was ordered to accept the butter in lieu of the deficiency of rice.

This vessel was hired by the officer, who commanded the Supply armed tender, and who was obliged to accept her at three hundred and fifty tons measurement, though she did not measure three hundred tons:  the freight for bringing the provisions was fixed at twenty-eight thousand rix-dollars; bills for which had been given at Batavia.  The master on his arrival, said, that after leaving Port Jackson, he should proceed to New Guinea in search of spices, which that island was supposed to produce; he was also to stop at Timur and several other settlements before he returned to Batavia:  at the same time, he offered the vessel for sale, or to lett her on freight; but as he conjectured that the colony wanted such a vessel, his demands were exorbitant.  He first valued her at sixty thousand rix-dollars, and before he was ready to sail, he offered her for two and thirty thousand rix-dollars.  If she was hired, he talked of eleven pounds sterling per month; but no attention being paid to any of these demands, he came down to forty shillings sterling a ton per month, if let on freight to carry the officers and seamen who had belonged to the Sirius to England; that freight to be paid until the vessel should return to Batavia.  He was now ready to sail, and finding no attention would be paid to any such proposals, he offered to sell the vessel for thirty thousand rix-dollars, or to go to England on freight at forty shillings per ton; the vessel to be continued in pay for two months after her arrival at Portsmouth or Plymouth; or to have twenty thousand rix-dollars for the voyage.

A considerable time had passed since Governor Phillip had reason to expect the arrival of some ships from England, and he wished to secure a vessel for sending home the officers and men who had belonged to the Sirius, or to send for a farther supply of provisions, should no ships arrive before the month of March:  the Dutch vessel was, therefore, hired at twenty shillings per ton.