mmediately. But next
day proving stormy, and the boat not appearing, we much feared she was
lost, which would have been an irretrievable misfortune to us all. We
were relieved, however, from this anxiety on the third day after, by
the joyful appearance of her sails on the water, on which the cutter
was sent to her assistance, and towed her alongside in a few hours,
when we found that the long-boat had taken in six of the Gloucester's
sick men, to bring them on shore, two of whom had died in the boat.
We now learnt that the Gloucester was in a most dreadful condition,
having scarcely a man in health on board, except the few she had
received from us. Numbers of their sick were dying daily, and it
appeared, had it not been for the last supply sent by our long-boat,
that both the healthy and diseased must all have perished for want
of water. This calamitous situation was the more terrifying, as it
appeared to be without remedy; for the Gloucester had already spent a
month in fruitless endeavours to fetch the bay, and was now no farther
advanced than when she first made the island. The hopes of her
people of ever succeeding were now worn out, by the experience of
its difficulty; and, indeed, her situation became that same day more
desperate than ever, as we again lost sight of her, after receiving
our last supply of refreshments, so that we universally despaired of
her ever coming to anchor.

Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about, within a few leagues of
her intended harbour, while the near neighbourhood of that place, and
of these circumstances which could alone put an end to the calamities
under which her people laboured, served only to aggravate their
distress, by torturing them with a view of the relief they were unable
to reach. She was at length delivered from this dreadful situation at
a time when we least expected it: For, after having lost sight of her
for several days, we were joyfully surprised, in the morning of the
23d July, to see her open the N.W. point of the bay with a flowing
sail, when we immediately dispatched what boats we had to her
assistance, and within an hour from our first perceiving her, she
anchored safe within us in the bay.

We were now more particularly convinced of the importance of the
assistance and refreshments we had repeatedly sent her, and how
impossible it must have been for a single man of her crew to
have survived, had we given less attention to their wants. For,
notwithstand