ells,
which were beginning to fail. Several of the officers left the Briton,
their tents being completed. There were many beautiful shells of
various kinds found upon the beach. It was amusing to see such as are
generally made use of as mantel-piece ornaments, teeming with life,
and running about in every direction. A few fish were caught in nets
outside the Runnymede, quantities of small ones being driven into
shoal water by the large ones, which prey upon them.

_Friday, 29th._--The soldiers were employed burning a road to the
wells, the fallen trees being so interwoven that it was not possible
to cut one. The carpenters were cutting a keel for the boat. The crew
fishing and making nets. This evening there was a cry that a ship's
light was seen in the offing, which produced a considerable sensation
for the moment; but it turned out to be only Sirius rising.

_Saturday, 30th._--General parade for muster. The keel for the
intended boat brought in from the bush where it had been cut. A
carpenter, four sawyers, and a blacksmith from the 80th were ordered
to assist in building the new boat.

_Sunday, 1st December._--Divine service was performed. The guard on
board the Runnymede was now formed by convalescent soldiers, being one
serjeant and six privates of the 80th. The natives made very large
fires both to the northward and southward.

_Monday, 2d._--Bellows were finished for the forge, with the
pioneers' aprons for sides, and part of a gun-barrel for the pipe. The
tiller of the Briton's rudder was used for an anvil, and nails were
made out of the copper bolts from her stern posts. A sailor's canoe,
which was nearly finished, took fire, and both her gunwales were burnt
down.

_Tuesday, 3d._--Regular morning parades on the beach at 7 A. M.
commenced this day, the guards mounting immediately afterwards. The
bugle was sounded regularly, as in garrison, at daybreak, for parade,
for meals, and for bed at 8 P. M. The road still in progress of
burning. This, together with the tent-fires and those of the picquets,
had a very brilliant effect. Two officers went in search of water, and
found a running stream under the hills, about a mile from the camp,
which was very difficult to reach, from the denseness of the jungle.

_Wednesday, 4th._--A couple of punts have been made out of rattans,
covered with tarred canvas, and the canoe had plank sides put to it,
in lieu of the gunwales, which were burnt. There were some thunder and