of his people having expressed a wish
to be discharged, it was complied with; and the command was given to Mr.
Fowler, first lieutenant of the Investigator, and another crew of
thirty-eight men selected from the ship's company. In disposing of the
other officers and people their several inclinations were consulted. The
surgeon took his passage in the Bridgewater to India, the gunner remained
charged with the care of the Investigator's stores, and Mr. Evans,
master's mate, was left sick at the hospital; Messrs. Brown, Bauer, and
Allen stayed at Port Jackson to prosecute their researches in natural
history, until my arrival with another ship, or until eighteen months
should expire without their having received intimation that the voyage
was to be continued; nine men were discharged at their own request, and
the twenty-two remaining officers and men, including myself, embarked in
the Porpoise as passengers.

Of the nine convicts who had been received into the Investigator, one had
died; another had behaved himself so improperly, that I could not
recommend him to the governor; and the remaining seven were fully
emancipated by His Excellency from their sentence of transportation,
their conduct having been such throughout, as to receive my approbation.
Four of these were entered into the complement of the Porpoise; but I am
sorry to add, that the subsequent behaviour of two was different to what
it had been when their liberty was at stake, and that a third was
condemned to the hulks not very long after he reached England.

Being about to take leave of Port Jackson, it might be expected that I
should give some account of our colony there, and could this voyage have
appeared in due time, a chapter would have been devoted to it; but a much
later account being now before the public, dispenses me from speaking of
it in other than a few general terms. In 1803, it was progressively
advancing towards a state of independence on the mother country for food
and clothing; both the wild and tame cattle had augmented in a proportion
to make it probable that they would, before many years, be very abundant;
and manufactures of woollen, linen, cordage, and leather, with breweries
and a pottery, were commenced. The number of inhabitants was increasing
rapidly; and that energetic spirit of enterprize which characterises
Britain's children, seemed to be throwing out vigorous shoots in this new
world. The seal fishery in Bass' Strait was carried