Until they reached the gulf of Carpentaria, they saw no natives or canoes differing from those about Port Jackson.  But now they were chased by large canoes, jitted with sails and fighting stages, and capable of holding thirty men each.  They escaped by dint of rowing to windward.  On the 5th of June 1791 they reached Timor, and pretended that they had belonged to a ship which, on her passage from Port Jackson to India, had foundered; and that they only had escaped.  The Dutch received them with kindness and treated them with hospitality.  But their behaviour giving rise to suspicion, they were watched; and one of them at last, in a moment of intoxication, betrayed the secret.  They were immediately secured and committed to prison.  Soon after Captain Edwards of the Pandora, who had been wrecked near Endeavour straits, arrived at Timor, and they were delivered up to him, by which means they became passengers in the Gorgon.

I confess that I never looked at these people without pity and astonishment.  They had miscarried in a heroic struggle for liberty after having combated every hardship and conquered every difficulty.

The woman, and one of the men, had gone out to Port Jackson in the ship which had transported me thither.  They had both of them been always distinguished for good behaviour.  And I could not but reflect with admiration at the strange combination of circumstances which had again brought us together, to baffle human foresight and confound human speculation.]

April, 1791.  Notwithstanding the supplies which had recently arrived from Batavia, short allowance was again proclaimed on the 2nd of April, on which day we were reduced to the following ration: 

Three pounds of rice, three pounds of flour and three pounds of pork per week.

It was singularly unfortunate that these retrenchments should always happen when the gardens were most destitute of vegetables.  A long drought had nearly exhausted them.  The hardships which we in consequence suffered were great, but not comparable to what had been formerly experienced.  Besides, now we made sure of ships arriving soon to dispel our distress.  Whereas, heretofore, from having never heard from England, the hearts of men sunk and many had begun to doubt whether it had not been resolved to try how long misery might be endured with resignation.

Notwithstanding the incompetency of so diminished a pittance, the daily task of the soldier and convict continued unaltered.  I never contemplated the labours of these men without finding abundant cause of reflection on the miseries which our nature can overcome.  Let me for a moment quit the cold track of narrative.  Let me not fritter away by servile adaptation those reflections and the feelings they gave birth to.  Let me transcribe them fresh as they arose, ardent and generous, though hopeless and romantic.  I every day see wretches pale with disease and wasted with famine, struggle against the horror’s