n the coast, had they come down to see us.

A few days before I contemplated commencing the renewal of my journey, I
requested the Captain to allow a blacksmith he had on board to shoe my
horses, and to this he kindly consented, but as a scarcity of iron
prevailed, some old harpoons and lances had to be worked up for this
purpose. The blacksmith who was a Frenchman, made his shoes and nails in
so different, and apparently in so much more clumsy manner than I was
accustomed to, that I was almost afraid of letting him put them on, and
tried hard, but in vain, to get him to imitate the English shoe and nail
in ordinary use.

Finding that I was likely to derive no advantage from my officious
interference, I determined to let him have his own way, and was surprised
and delighted to find that he performed his work well and skilfully, the
only unusual part of the operation to me, being the necessity he appeared
to be under, of always having a man to hold up the leg of the horse
whilst he put the shoe on, instead of holding the foot up himself, as an
English blacksmith does; such however, he assured me was the practice
always in France, and he appeared to think it the best too. Having had my
horses shod, I got some canvass from the Captain, to make bags for
carrying my provisions, and then giving him a list of stores that I
wished to take with me, I commenced preparations for leaving my
hospitable entertainer. Every thing that I wished for, was given to me
with a kindness and liberality beyond what I could have expected; and it
gives me unfeigned pleasure, to have it now in my power to record thus
publicly the obligations I was under to Captain Rossiter.

On the 14th, I landed the stores, to arrange and pack them ready for the
journey. They consisted of forty pounds of flour, six pounds of biscuit,
twelve pounds of rice, twenty pounds of beef, twenty pounds of pork,
twelve pounds of sugar, one pound of tea, a Dutch cheese, five pounds of
salt butter, a little salt, two bottles of brandy, and two tin saucepans
for cooking; besides some tobacco and pipes for Wylie, who was a great
smoker, and the canteens filled with treacle for him to eat with rice.
The great difficulty was now, how to arrange for the payment of the
various supplies I had been furnished with, as I had no money with me,
and it was a matter of uncertainty, whether the ship would touch at any
of the Australian colonies. Captain Rossiter however, said that he had