llowed Mr. Grimes with a double-barrelled gun, levelled at
the native, and fired it. He was supposed to be wounded, for he fell; but
rising again, he attempted a second time to throw the spear, and was
again prevented by Wilson. The effect of this second shot was supposed to
be conclusive, as he was not seen to rise any more. Mr. Grimes got back
to his boat without any other interruption.

Mr. House in his way thither ran close along the shore, and saw not any
shelter for a ship or vessel from Broken Bay to Port Stephens. The
schooner was only fourteen hours on her return.

About this time, the spirit of inquiry being on foot, Mr. Cummings, an
officer of the corps, made an excursion to the southward of Botany Bay,
and brought back with him some of the head bones of a marine animal,
which, on inspection, Captain Paterson, the only naturalist in the
country, pronounced to have belonged to the animal described by M. de
Buffon, and named by him the Manatee. On this excursion Mr. Cummings
received some information which led him to believe that the cattle that
had been lost soon after our arrival were in existence. The natives who
conversed with him were so particular in their account of having seen a
large animal with horns, that he shortly after, taking some of them with
him as guides, set off to seek them, but returned without success, not
having met with any trace that could lead him to suppose they might ever
be found.

On the 4th the _Britannia_ returned from the Cape of Good Hope, having
been absent six months and three days. Mr. Raven brought alive to his
employers, one stallion, twenty-nine mares, three fillies, and twelve
sheep. He sailed from the Cape with forty mares on board; but those that
died were the worst, and had not been kept up long enough on dry food
before they were embarked.

It was evident, on visiting the ship, that every attention had been paid
to their accommodation; but horses were generally supposed better
calculated than other cattle to endure the weather usually met with
between the Cape and this country*.

[* It may be remembered, that in a former voyage to the Cape on a similar
errand, she lost twenty-nine cows.]

We had the gratification of hearing that our fleet under Earl Howe had
been victorious in a gallant and severe action with the enemy.

On the 15th, when anxiously expecting an arrival from England, we saw
Mr. Dell come to anchor in the cove from Norfolk Island.

Though this