ning the very articles which had been shown him
here, had been put on board him at Bengal, to be delivered as a present
to a gentleman at Batavia, the initials of whose name were marked on the
bale. On his stating these circumstances to the judge-advocate, that part
of the property which had been found, and placed in the custody of the
provost-marshal, was given up to Mr. McClellan. Rogers, who had been
either the principal or the receiver, perhaps foreseeing that the offence
might sooner or later be brought home to him, had taken himself off in
the _Endeavour_, and was one of those persons who had been unavoidably
left behind at Dusky Bay by Mr. Waine when he quitted that place in the
_Assistance_.

From the address with which this business must have been managed, masters
of ships might see the necessity that existed for their keeping a
vigilant eye over the people whom they admitted on their decks, and be
perfectly assured, that many visited them for the express purpose of
discovering what vigilance was observed by the master, his mates, and
people. Many instances of this kind had occurred, although it might have
been readily supposed, that a stranger would have been on his guard, and
never have lost the idea of the description of people by whom he was
likely to be visited. A large quantity of tobacco had been stolen out of
the _Bellona_ storeship shortly after she arrived here; half a cask of
gunpowder had been stolen out of the _Britannia_, at the very time that
the master was entertaming some of the gentlemen of the settlement in the
cabin; Mr. Page, the master of the American ship _Hope_, was robbed of
several articles, and the buckles out of his shoes, which stood in the
cabin wherein he lay asleep; and this theft of the bale from on board the
_Experiment_ was an additional instance of the management and ability
displayed by our people in conducting an affair of that kind.

From this recapitulation of some of the offences which had been committed
on board of ships while riding in this cove (to which many others might
have been added), let the masters of those which may hereafter be sent
out, and who may have perused this account, be cautious who they receive
on board during the day, let their pretext of business, or coming from an
officer, be what it may; never should they be suffered to mix with their
seamen, nor to see where the stores of the ship are placed; nor should a
boat be ever permitted to come alongsid