a ration of
flour instead of their salt provisions, the better to enable them to
sustain the labour and fatigue of traversing the woods of this country.

The necessity of procuring relief became every day more pressing. The
voyage of the _Sirius_ to China was at an end; and nothing had yet
arrived from England, though hourly expected. It was the natural and
general opinion, that our present situation was to be attributed to
accident rather than to procrastination. It was more probable, that the
vessels which had been dispatched by the British government had met with
some distress, that had either compelled them to return or had wholly
prevented them from any further prosecution of the voyage, than that any
delay should have taken place in their departure. The governor,
therefore, determined on sending the _Supply_ armed tender to Batavia;
and, as her commander was most zealously active in his preparations for
the voyage, she was soon ready for sea. Her tonnage, however, was
trifling when compared with our necessities. Lieutenant Ball was,
therefore, directed to procure a supply of eight months provisions for
himself, and to hire a vessel and purchase 200,000 pounds of flour,
80,000 pounds of beef, 60,000 pounds of pork, and 70,000 pounds of rice;
together with some necessaries for the hospital, such as sugar, sago,
hogs lard, vinegar, and dongaree. The expectation of this relief was
indeed distant, but yet it was more to be depended upon than that which
might be coming from England. A given time was fixed for the return of
the _Supply_; but it was impossible to say when a vessel might arrive
from Europe. Whatever might be our distress for provisions, it would be
some alleviation to look on to a certain fixed period when it might be
expected to be removed. Lieutenant Ball's passage lay through the regions
of fine weather, and the hope of every one was fixed upon the little
vessel that was to convey him; yet it was painful to contemplate our very
existence as depending upon her safety; to consider that a rough sea, a
hidden rock, or the violence of elemental strife, might in one fatal
moment precipitate us, with the little bark that had all our hopes on
board, to the lowest abyss of misery. In the well-known ability and
undoubted exertions of her commander however, under God, all placed their
dependance; and from that principle, when she sailed, instead of
predicting mischance, we all, with one wish for her safe return, f