ceed to Bombay,
by consent of the East India Company, and load home with cotton upon
private account under the inspection of the company's servants at that
settlement, provided the cotton should be afterwards sold at the
company's sales, subject to the usual expenses (their duty only
excepted), and provided the ships did not interfere with any other part
of the company's exclusive commerce*.

[* Notwithstanding this provision, which was expressed more at large in
the licence given by the company, and which extended to the prohibition
of every article except the stores and provisions put on board by
government, there was on board of these ships a very large quantity of
iron, steel, and copper, intended for sale at a foreign settlement in
India, with the produce of which they were to purchase the homeward-bound
investment of cotton.]

The quantity of provisions received by these ships being calculated for
the numbers on board of each for nine months only after their arrival,
and as, so large a body of convicts having been sent out, it was not
probable that we should soon receive another supply, the governor judged
it expedient to send one of the transports to Bengal, to procure
provisions for the colony; for which purpose he hired the _Atlantic_ at
fifteen shillings and sixpence per ton per month. In the way thither she
was to touch at Norfolk Island, where lieutenant-governor King, with some
settlers, was to be landed; and the _Queen_ transport was hired for the
purpose of bringing back lieutenant-governor Ross, and the marine
detachment serving there, relieved by a company of the New South Wales
corps.

On the 25th, the anniversary of his Majesty's accession to the throne, a
salute of twenty-one guns was fired by the _Gorgon_, and the public dinner
given on the occasion at the government-house was served to upwards of
fifty officers, a greater number than the colony had ever before seen
assembled together.

The following morning the _Atlantic_ sailed for Norfolk Island and
Calcutta. For the first of these places, she had on board
Lieutenant-Governor King and his family; Captain Paterson of the New
South Wales corps (lately arrived in the _Admiral Barrington_); Mr.
Balmain, the assistant-surgeon, sent to relieve Mr. Considen; the Rev.
Mr. Johnson, who voluntarily visited Norfolk Island for the purpose of
performing those duties of his office which had hitherto been omitted
through the want of a minister to perform t