d; but its baneful
effects were not experienced by any white person of the settlement,
although there were several very young children in it at the time.
From the first hour of the introduction of the boy and girl into the
settlement, it was feared that the native who had been so instrumental in
bringing them in, and whose attention to them during their illness
excited the admiration of every one that witnessed it, would be attacked
by the same disorder; as on his person were found none of those traces of
its ravages which are frequently left behind. It happened as the fears of
every one predicted; he fell a victim to the disease in eight days after
he was seized with it, to the great regret of every one who had witnessed
how little of the savage was found in his manner, and how quickly he was
substituting in its place a docile, affable, and truly amiable
deportment.
6th.] After an absence of seven months and six days, to the great
satisfaction of every one, about five in the evening his Majesty's ship
_Sirius_ anchored in the cove from the Cape of Good Hope. Captain Hunter
sailed from this port on the 2nd of October 1788, and, during the space
which had elapsed between his departure and his return, had
circumnavigated the globe. He made his passage by Cape Horn, arriving on
the 2nd of last January at the Cape of Good Hope, from which place he
sailed on the 20th of the following month. Off the southern extremity of
this country the _Sirius_ met with a gale of wind, when so close in with
the land that it was for some time doubtful whether she would clear it.
In this gale she received considerable damage; the head of the ship, the
figure of the Duke of Berwick, was torn from the cutwater, and she was
afterwards found to have been very much weakened.
The _Sirius_ brought 127,000 weight of flour for the settlement, and a
twelvemonth's provisions for her ship's company; but this supply was not
very flattering, as the short space of four months, at a full ration,
would exhaust it. It was, however, very welcome, and her return seemed to
have gladdened every heart. Eager were our inquiries after intelligence
from that country from which we had been now two years divided, and to
whose transactions we were entire strangers. With joy, mingled with
concern that we were not personal sharers in the triumph, did we hear of
our country's successful efforts in the cause of the Stadtholder, and of
the noble armaments which our minis
|