but all the cargo was lost.

A tent was pitched on shore near the wreck, but as there was no
vessel in the bay by which they could return to Launceston, the four
men, Captain Mills, D. Fermaner, Charles Ferris, and Richard
Jennings, on December 31st, 1837, set sail in a whaleboat for Port
Philip. Davy had stolen Jennings from the 'Rhoda' brig at
Launceston, when seamen were scarce. He was afterwards a pilot at
Port Philip, and was buried at Williamstown.

The whaleboat reached Port Philip on January 3rd, 1838, having got
through the Rip on the night of the 2nd. Ferris was the only man of
the crew who had been in before, he having gone in with Batman, in
the 'Rebecca' cutter, Captain Baldwin. Baldwin was afterwards before
the mast in the 'Elizabeth' schooner; he was a clever man, but fond
of drink.

The whaleboat anchored off Portsea, but the men did not land for fear
of the blacks.

At daylight Davy landed to look for water, but could not find any;
and there were only three pints in the water-bag. The wind being
from the north, the boat was pulled over to Mud Island, and the men
went ashore to make tea with the three pints of water. Davy walked
about the island, and found a rookery of small mackerel-gulls and a
great quantity of their eggs in the sand. He broke a number of them,
and found that the light-coloured eggs were good, and that the dark
ones had birds in them. He took off his shirt, tied the sleeves
together, bagged a lot of the eggs, and carried them back to the
camp. Mills broke the best of them into the great pot, and the eggs
and water mixed together and boiled made about a quart for each man.

After breakfast the wind shifted to the southward, and the 'Henry'
brig, from Launceston, Captain Whiting, ran in, bound to Point Henry
with sheep; but before Mills and his men could get away from Mud
Island the brig had passed. They pulled and sailed after her, but
did not overtake her until she arrived off the point where Batman
first settled, now called Port Arlington; at that time they called
the place Indented Heads.

When the whaleboat came near the brig to ask for water, two or three
muskets were levelled at the men over the bulwarks, and they were
told to keep off, or they would be shot. At that time a boat's crew
of prisoners had escaped from Melbourne in a whale boat, and the
ship-wrecked men were suspected as the runaways. But one of the crew
of the 'Henry', named Jack Macdonald, looked