ure that, from the experience of our last
voyage, was considered absolutely necessary for our comfort as well as
for our personal safety, that, as soon as the operation of coppering and
caulking was finished, she was secured alongside of the hulk, and there
immersed in the water for several days, by which process we hoped
effectually to destroy them.

Upon the vessel being raised and the water pumped out, I was rejoiced to
find that the measure appeared to have had the desired effect; but,
before we left Port Jackson, she was again infested by rats, and we had
not been long at sea before the cockroaches also made their appearance in
great numbers. In sinking the cutter it seemed, in respect to the
insects, that we had only succeeded in destroying the living stock, and
that the eggs, which were plentifully deposited in the recesses and
cracks of the timbers and sides, proved so impervious to the sea-water,
that no sooner had we reached the warmer climate, than they were hatched,
and the vessel was quickly repossessed by them; but it was many months
before we were so annoyed by their numbers as had been the case during
the last voyage.

Our crew, after they had returned the stores and fitted the standing
rigging, were paid their wages; when, with only two exceptions, they were
at their own wish discharged, and it was some time before a new crew was
collected. Whilst we were repairing the defects, H.M. store-ship
Dromedary arrived from England and brought us a selection of stores, for
the want of which we should otherwise have been detained many months.

By this ship orders were received from the Admiralty to rig the cutter
with rope manufactured from the New Zealand hemp (Phormium tenax) but
there was a considerable difficulty in procuring enough even for a
boom-sheet. This specimen was prepared by a rope-maker of the colony, and
the result of the trial has fully justified the good opinion previously
formed of its valuable qualities.

In my communication to the Admiralty in June, 1818 from Timor, I had
mentioned the necessity of a medical man being attached to the vessel;
and upon my last return I found one had arrived with an appointment to
the Mermaid; but, to my great mortification, he was unable to join, from
being afflicted with mental derangement which continued so long and so
severely that I was under the necessity of sending him back to England.
We had now every prospect of encountering a third voyage without t