e
governor, either for sale or for hire, after she should be cleared of her
cargo, mentioned the circumstance to his excellency, and proposed to him
to sell the vessel with all her furniture and provisions for the sum of
thirty-three thousand rix dollars, about L6,600, or to let her to hire at
fifteen rix dollars per ton per month; in either of which cases a passage
was to be provided for his people to the Cape of Good Hope. The governor
was desirous of sending this vessel to England with the officers and
people of the _Sirius_; but it was impossible to close with either of these
offers, and he rejected them as unreasonable. Her master therefore
dropped the vessel down to the lower part of the harbour, meaning to sail
immediately for Batavia. Choosing, however, to try the success of other
proposals, he wrote from Camp Cove to the secretary, offering to let the
vessel for the voyage to England for twenty-thousand rix dollars,
stipulating that thirty thousand rix dollars should be paid for her in
the event of her being lost; the crew to be landed at the Cape, and
himself to be furnished with a passage to England. On receiving this his
second offer, the governor informed him, that instead of his proposal one
pound sterling per ton per month should be given for the hire of the
snow, to be paid when the voyage for which she was to be taken up should
be completed. With this offer of the governor's, the master,
notwithstanding his having quitted the cove on his first terms being
rejected, declared himself satisfied, and directly returned to the cove,
saluting with five guns on coming to an anchor.

In adjusting the contract or charter-party, the master displayed the
greatest ignorance and the most tiresome perverseness, throwing obstacles
in the way of every clause that was inserted. It was however at length
finally settled and signed by the governor on the part of the crown, and
by Detmer Smith, the master, on the part of his owners, he consenting to
be paid for only three hundred tons instead of three hundred and fifty,
for which she had been imposed upon Lieutenant Ball at Batavia. The
carpenter of the _Supply_ measured her in this cove.

Directions were now given for fitting her up as a transport to receive
the _Sirius's_ late ship's company and officers; and Lieutenant Edgar,
who came out in the _Lady Juliana_ transport, was ordered to superintend
the fitting her, as an agent; in which situation he was to embark on
board