quarrel with them, and as they had
hatchets and bill-hooks with them, it is believed they might have
been rash enough to use violence with some of the natives, who
had, no doubt, been numerous there; be that as it might, the
officer who went to look after those unfortunate men, and to see
what work they had done, after hailing some time for them without
any reply, set his boat's crew upon the search, who, having found
a considerable quantity of blood near their tent, suspected what
they soon found to be the case: for they discovered the two men
immediately after, lying in different places, both dead; the one
had his brains beat out with a club or stone, besides several
other wounds; the other had many wounds, and part of a spear,
which had been broke, sticking quite through his body. Their
tent, provisions, and cloaths remained, but most of the tools
were taken away.

The 4th of June being the birth-day of our much beloved
sovereign, and the first we had seen in this most distant part of
his dominions, it was celebrated by all ranks with every possible
demonstration of loyalty, and concluded with the utmost
chearfulness and good order.

Having at this time of the year much bad weather, and very
heavy gales of wind, I must observe, that I had, as well as many
others, believed till now, that the gales had never blown upon
the coast in such a direction, but that a ship, on being close in
with the land when such a gale commenced, might gain an offing on
one tack or the other; but we now found, that those gales are as
variable in their direction upon this coast as any other during
the winter season: I would, therefore, recommend it to ships
bound to any port here to the southward of latitude 30 deg. 00'
south, at this time of the year to get in or near the parallel of
their port, before they attempt to make the land; as in that
case, if a gale from the eastward should take them when near the
land, they would have their port under their lee, for it would be
next to an impossibility for a ship to keep off the land with
such a sea as these gales occasion.

In the month of July, our scorbutic patients seemed to be
rather worse; the want of a little fresh food for the sick was
very much felt, and fish at this time were very scarce: such of
the natives as we met seemed to be in a miserable and starving
condition from that scarcity. We frequently fell in with families
living in the hollow part of the rocks by the sea-side, w