278 BOATS ARRIVE AT CHAMPION BAY. 



our course to the northward; the wind being ahead, 

 ■we had to pull in the teeth of wind and sea. At 

 dark we again came to anchor in fourteen fathoms 

 of water, and passed the night in the same manner 

 as the preceding one. At daylight, seeing nothing 

 of the entrance, the feasibility of a return to the 

 ship was mooted, but as our supply of water had 

 dwindled to a gallon in both boats, we were loath to 

 adopt this measure, except as a dernier resort ; but 

 the wind, fortunatel}' for us, having hauled during 

 the night, we set sail, and at nine o'clock in the 

 morning discovered the wished for haven within a 

 few miles of the peak we had sighted the first night — 

 a very fortunate conclusion to our misadventure. On 

 reflection, we could now see the dangers of our late 

 situation. Had a g-ale come on from the westward we 

 could not possibly have escaped being driven on 

 shore ; and if it had come from the eastward, even 

 provided our boats had not been swamped, we were 

 without a supply of water, and must have perished 

 from thirst before we could have reached the ship. 



On our landing at Champion Bay we were met 

 upon the beach by the three magistrates of the set- 

 tlement, and a large proportion of the inhabitants, 

 who anxiously inquired if we had been wrecked. 

 On our answering in the negative, they inquired 

 where we were from. On our again answering, the 

 barques Pacific and Europa, at the Abrolhas' Islands, 

 they evidently regarded us with suspicion — thinking 

 that we were either mutineers or deserters, who had 

 fabricated this story for our own purposes ; and I be- 

 lieve that, had they dared, or even had they thought 

 themselves the strongest party, they would have 



