her passage had been performed
in two months and one day. The master said, he found the prevailing winds
were from the NW and described the weather as the most boisterous he had
ever known for such a length of time. By one sea, his caboose was washed
over the side, and one of his people going with it was drowned. He
observed, when about the South-cape of this country, that the weather was
clear; but after passing the latitude of the Maria Islands, he found it
close, hazy, and heated, and had every appearance of thick smoke. About
that time we had the same sort of weather here; and the excessive heats
which at other times have been experienced in the settlements have been
also noticed at sea when at some distance from the land.

By this ship we were not fortunate enough to receive any European news.
The master saw only one English ship at the Cape, the _Chesterfield_
whaler, commanded by a Mr. Alt, who had formerly been a midshipman in his
Majesty's ship _Sirius_, and who went home on board of the _Neptune_
transport."

In a few days after the arrival of the _Hope_, the signal was again made
at the South Head, and in a few hours the _Chesterfield_, the ship just
mentioned to us by the American, anchored in the cove. She sailed from
the Cape of Good Hope shortly after Mr. Page; and the master said he
touched at Kerguelan's Land, where, some other ship having very recently
preceded him (which he judged from finding several sea elephants dead on
the beach, and a club which is used in killing them) he remained but a
short time, having very bad weather. He supposed the ship which preceded
him to have been the first which had visited those desolate islands since
Captain Cook had been there, as he found the fragments of the bottle in
which that officer had deposited a memorial of his having examined them.
This was conjecture and might be erroneous, as the mere pieces of the
bottle afforded no proof that it had been recently broken.

Mr. Alt spoke of meeting with very bad weather, and of his ship having
thereby suffered such injury, that he was compelled on the representation
of his people to put in here for the purpose of getting repairs. Indeed
her appearance very amply justified their representations; and it was a
wonder how she had swam so far, for her complaints must have been of very
long standing.

To expedite the building of the new barracks, which formed the most
material labour at Sydney, two overseers and forty men