the above
rate of 17.27" was what it kept in the box, during the last three days.
Arnold's No. 89, altered its rate on the last day, from 2.98" to
1' 18.68", without any apparent cause; no rate could therefore be fixed
for it, with any probability of its being kept. Of the excellent watch
No. 465 of Earnshaw, being Mr. Crosley's private property, we were
deprived at the same time with the astronomer; he also took with him the
reflecting circle, No. 74 of Troughton, both of which I considered to be
an addition to our loss.

So soon as the corresponding altitudes of Sunday afternoon were obtained,
I took on board the time keepers and instruments, with the tents and
observatory. The ship was then ready for sea; but the wind blew a gale
from the south-eastward, which continued until Tuesday [3 NOVEMBER 1801].
It then fell calm, and we unmoored; but before getting under way, the
same wind again set in, and obliged us to drop a second anchor.

Through the kind attention of sir Roger Curtis, the commander in chief,
the state of the ship and our provisions and stores were as complete as
when leaving Spithead. The ship's company had been regularly served with
fresh meat every day, beef and mutton alternately; vegetables were not to
be purchased, but we several times received small quantities, with
oranges and lemons, from the naval hospital in Cape Town; and a
proportion of these for a week, with a few days fresh meat, were carried
to sea. Two of my ship's company, whose dispositions required more
severity in reducing to good order than I wished to exercise in a service
of this nature, were exchanged by the vice-admiral; as also two others,
who from want of sufficient strength, were not proper for so long a
voyage. In lieu of these, I received four men of good character from the
flag ship, who made pressing application to go upon a voyage of
discovery. Mr. Nathaniel Bell, one of the young gentlemen of the quarter
deck, having expressed a wish to return to England, he was discharged;
and Mr. Denis Lacey, midshipman of the Lancaster, received in his place.

Simon's Bay is known to be a large and well-sheltered cove, in the
north-western part of the sound, called False Bay. Since the loss of the
Sceptre in Table Bay, it has been more frequented than formerly; and I
found it to be a prevailing sentiment, that were it not for the
advantages of Cape Town, Simon's Bay would, in every respect, be
preferable for the royal dockyard, an