her and return to England.

26th. The _Supply_, after an absence of just five weeks, returned from
Norfolk Island, having on board Captain Hunter, with the officers and
people of the _Sirius_; and Lieutenant John Johnson of the marines, whose
ill state of health would not permit him to remain there any longer.

We now found that our apprehensions of the distressed situation of that
settlement until it was relieved were well founded. The supply of
provisions which was dispatched in the _Justinian_ and _Surprise_ reached
them at a critical point of time, there being in store on the 7th of
August, when they appeared off the island, provisions but for a few days
at the ration then issued, which was three pounds of flour and one pint
of rice; or, in lieu of flour, three pounds of Indian meal or of wheat,
ground, and not separated from the husks or the bran. Their salt
provisions were so nearly expended, that while a bird or a fish could be
procured no salt meat was issued. The weekly ration of this article was
only one pound and an half of beef, or seventeen ounces of pork. What
their situation might have been but for the providential supply of birds
which they met with, it was impossible to say; to themselves it was too
distressing to be contemplated. On Mount Pitt they were fortunate enough
to obtain, in an abundance almost incredible, a species of aquatic birds,
answering the description of that known by the name of the Puffin. These
birds came in from the sea every evening, in clouds literally darkening
the air, and, descending on Mount Pitt, deposited their eggs in deep
holes made by themselves in the ground, generally quitting, them in the
morning, and returning to seek their subsistence in the sea. From two to
three thousand of these birds were often taken in a night. Their seeking
their food in the ocean left no doubt of their own flesh partaking of the
quality of that upon which they fed; but to people circumstanced as were
the inhabitants on Norfolk Island, this lessened not their importance;
and while any Mount Pitt birds (such being the name given them) were to
be had, they were eagerly sought. The knots of the pine tree, split and
made into small bundles, afforded the miserable occupiers of a small
speck in the ocean sufficient light to guide them through the woods, in
search of what was to serve them for next day's meal. They were also
fortunate enough to lose but a few casks of the provisions brought to the
i