[It is observable that this custom prevails as a pledge of friendship and kindness all over Asia, and has also been mentioned by Captain Cook to exist among the natives in the South Sea Islands.]

CHAPTER VI.

Transactions of the Colony, from the Beginning of the Year 1790 until the End of May following.

Our impatience of news from Europe strongly marked the commencement of the year.  We had now been two years in the country, and thirty-two months from England, in which long period no supplies, except what had been procured at the Cape of Good Hope by the ‘Sirius’, had reached us.  From intelligence of our friends and connections we had been entirely cut off, no communication whatever having passed with our native country since the 13th of May 1787, the day of our departure from Portsmouth.  Famine besides was approaching with gigantic strides, and gloom and dejection overspread every countenance.  Men abandoned themselves to the most desponding reflections, and adopted the most extravagant conjectures.

Still we were on the tiptoe of expectation.  If thunder broke at a distance, or a fowling-piece of louder than ordinary report resounded in the woods, “a gun from a ship” was echoed on every side, and nothing but hurry and agitation prevailed.  For eighteen months after we had landed in the country, a party of marines used to go weekly to Botany Bay, to see whether any vessel, ignorant of our removal to Port Jackson, might be arrived there.  But a better plan was now devised, on the suggestion of captain Hunter.  A party of seamen were fixed on a high bluff, called the South-head, at the entrance of the harbour, on which a flag was ordered to be hoisted, whenever a ship might appear, which should serve as a direction to her, and as a signal of approach to us.  Every officer stepped forward to volunteer a service which promised to be so replete with beneficial consequences.  But the zeal and alacrity of captain Hunter, and our brethren of the ‘Sirius’, rendered superfluous all assistance or co-operation.

Here on the summit of the hill, every morning from daylight until the sun sunk, did we sweep the horizon, in hope of seeing a sail.  At every fleeting speck which arose from the bosom of the sea, the heart bounded, and the telescope was lifted to the eye.  If a ship appeared here, we knew she must be bound to us; for on the shores of this vast ocean (the largest in the world) we were the only community which possessed the art of navigation, and languished for intercourse with civilized society.

To say that we were disappointed and shocked, would very inadequately describe our sensations.  But the misery and horror of such a situation cannot be imparted, even by those who have suffered under it.

March, 1790.  Vigorous measures were become indispensable.  The governor therefore, early in February, ordered the ‘Sirius’ to prepare for a voyage to China; and a farther retrenchment of our ration, we were given to understand, would take place on her sailing.