o excite an
ardent wish for the speedy arrival of a ship from England, seemed to
throw the probability of one at a greater distance, particularly as
Mr. Raven could not learn with any certainty of a ship being preparing for
New South Wales.

Among other circumstances which he mentioned was one which deserved
notice. The _Royal Admiral_ East Indiaman, Captain Bond, was lying on the
19th of last December in the Tigris. She sailed hence on the 13th of
November, and, admitting that she had only arrived on the day on which
she was stated to a certainty to be at anchor in the river, she must have
performed the voyage in thirty-seven days from this port. This ship, it
may be remembered, made the passage from the Cape of Good Hope to this
place in five weeks and three days; a run that had never before been made
by any other ship coming to this country.

From the length of time which the _Britannia_ had been absent, our
observation was forcibly drawn to the distance whereat we were placed
from any quarter which could furnish us with supplies; and a calculation
of the length of time which had been taken by other ships to procure them
confirmed the necessity that existed of using every exertion that might
place the colony in a state of independence.

When the _Sirius_ went to the Cape of Good Hope in 1788, she was absent
seven months and six days.

The _Supply_, which was sent for provisions in 1789, returned herself in
six months and two days; but the supplies which had been purchased for
the colony were two months longer in reaching it.

The _Atlantic_ sailed hence for Calcutta on the 26th of October 1791,
touching at Norfolk Island, from which place she took her departure on
the 13th of November; and, calculating her passage from that time, she
will be found to have been seven months and one week in procuring the
supplies for which she was sent out.

The _Britannia_ too was eight months absent. From all this it was to be
inferred, that there should not only be always provisions in the stores
for twelve months beforehand; but that, to guard against accidents,
whenever the provisions in the colony were reduced to that quantity and
no more, then would be the time to dispatch a ship for supplies.

The difficulty of introducing cattle into the colony had been rendered
evident by the miscarriage of the different attempts made by this and
other ships. In this particular we had indeed been singularly
unfortunate; for we had not