England, and at his departure, to make him the instrument of
conveying to the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, the
most exalted opinion of the greatness and generosity of the British
nation.

While the Resolution lay at the Nore, Mr King made several observations
for finding the longitude by the watch. The mean of them all gave 0 deg. 44'
0" for the longitude of the ship. This, reduced to Sheerness, by the
bearing and estimated distance, will make that place to be 0 deg. 37' 0" E.
of Greenwich, which is more by seven miles than Mr Lyons made it by the
watch which Lord Mulgrave had with him, on his voyage toward the North
Pole. Whoever knows any thing of the distance between Sheerness and
Greenwich, will be a judge which of these two observations is nearest
the truth.

The variation of the needle here, by a mean of different sets, taken
with different compasses, was 20 deg. 37' W.

On the 25th, about noon, we weighed anchor, and made sail for the Downs
through the Queen's Channel, with a gentle breeze at N.W. by W. At nine
in the evening we anchored, with the North Foreland bearing S. by E. and
Margate Point S.W. by S.

Next morning, at two o'clock, we weighed and stood round the Foreland;
and when it bore north by the compass, the watch gave 1 deg. 24' E.
longitude, which, reduced to the Foreland, will be 1 deg. 21' E. Lunar
observations made the preceding evening, fixed it at 1 deg. 20' E. At eight
o'clock the same morning we anchored in the Downs. Two boats had been
built for us at Deal, and I immediately sent on shore for them. I was
told that many people had assembled there to see Omai, but, to their
great disappointment, he did not land.

Having received the boats on board, and a light breeze at S.S.E.
springing up, we got under sail the next day at two o'clock in the
afternoon; but the breeze soon died away, and we were obliged to anchor
again till ten o'clock at night. We then weighed with the wind at E. and
proceeded down the Channel.

On the 30th, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored in Plymouth
Sound, where the Discovery had arrived only three days before. I saluted
Admiral Amherst, whose flag was flying on board the Ocean, with thirteen
guns, and he returned the compliment with eleven.

It was the first object of our care on arriving at Plymouth, to replace
the water and provisions that we had expended, and to receive on board a
supply of port wine. This was the employment w