e convoy longer in this
port, every article having been procured that could tend to the present
refreshment of the colonists, or to the future advantage of the colony,
the _Sirius_ was unmoored in the evening of Sunday the llth, Captain
Phillip purposing to put to sea the following morning; but the wind at
that time not being favourable, the boats from the _Sirius_ were once
more sent on shore for a load of water, in order than no vessel which
could be filled with an article so essential to the preservation of the
flock might be taken to sea empty.

The south-east wind now beginning to blow, the signal was made for
weighing, and at ten minutes before two in the afternoon of Monday the
12th of November the whole fleet was under sail standing out with a fresh
of wind to the northward of Robin Island.

It was natural to indulge at this moment a melancholy reflection which
obtruded itself upon the mind. The land behind us was the abode of a
civilized people; that before us was the residence of savages. When, if
ever, we might again enjoy the commerce of the world, was doubtful and
uncertain. The refreshments and the pleasures of which we had so
liberally partaken at the Cape, were to be exchanged for coarse fare and
hard labour at New South Wales. All communication with families and
friends now cut off, we were leaving the world behind us, to enter on a
state unknown; and, as if it had been necessary to imprint this idea more
strongly on our minds, and to render the sensation still more poignant,
at the close of the evening we spoke a ship from London*. The metropolis
of our native country, its pleasures, its wealth, and its consequence,
thus accidentally presented to the mind, failed not to afford a most
striking contrast with the object now principally in our view.

[* The _Kent_--southern whaler.]

Before we quitted the Cape Captain Hunter determined the longitude of the
Cape-town in Table-bay to be, by the mean of several sets of lunar
observations taken on board the _Sirius_, 18 degrees 23 minutes 55
seconds east from Greenwich.

SECTION III

Proceed on the voyage
Captain Phillip sails onward in the _Supply_, taking with him three of
the transports
Pass the island of St. Paul
Weather, January 1788
The South Cape of New Holland made
The _Sirius_ and her convoy anchor in the harbour of Botany Bay.

Every precaution being absolutely necessary to guard against a failure of
water on board the different ships, the