overed, and was received
as an inmate, with great kindness, in the family of Mrs Johnson,
the clergyman's wife. Her name was Booron; but from our mistake of
pronunciation she acquired that of Abaroo, by which she was generally
known, and by which she will always be called in this work. She shewed, at
the death of her brother more feeling than Nanbaree had witnessed for the
loss of his father. When she found him dying, she crept to his side, and
lay by him until forced by the cold to retire. No exclamation, or other
sign of grief, however, escaped her for what had happened.
May 1789. At sunset, on the evening of the 2d instant, the arrival the
'Sirius', Captain Hunter, from the Cape of Good Hope, was proclaimed, and
diffused universal joy and congratulation. The day of famine was at least
procrastinated by the supply of flour and salt provisions she brought us.
The 'Sirius' had made her passage to the Cape of Good Hope, by the route of
Cape Horn, in exactly thirteen weeks. Her highest latitude was 57 degrees
10 minutes south, where the weather proved intolerably cold. Ice, in great
quantity, was seen for many days; and in the middle of December (which is
correspondent to the middle of June, in our hemisphere), water froze in
open casks upon deck, in the moderate latitude of 44 degrees.
They were very kindly treated by the Dutch governor, and amply supplied by
the merchants at the Cape, where they remained seven weeks. Their passage
back was effected by Van Diemen's Land, near which, and close under
Tasman's Head, they were in the utmost peril of being wrecked.
In this long run, which had extended round the circle, they had always
determined their longitude, to the greatest nicety, by distances taken
between the sun and moon, or between the moon and a star. But it falls
to the lot of very few ships to possess such indefatigable and accurate
observers as Captain Hunter, and Mr. (now Captain) Bradley, the first
lieutenant of the 'Sirius'.
I feel assured, that I have no reader who will not join in regretting the
premature loss of Arabanoo, who died of the smallpox on the 18th instant,
after languishing in it six days. From some imperfect marks and indents
on his face, we were inclined to believe that he had passed this dreaded
disorder. Even when the first symptoms of sickness seized him, we continued
willing to hope that they proceeded from a different cause. But at length
the disease burst forth with irresistible f
|