194 HISTORY OF 



the ship's long boat, leaving the commander 

 and about 30 people to stay near the wreck. 

 The boat being got ready, 17 people embarked 

 in her, and sailed ; but meeting with very bad 

 weather they were again wrecked on the coast 

 near Point Hicks, and endeavoured to travel 

 Northward, but dropped off one by one and 

 lost each other daily, till the number was 

 reduced to five, the three who had arrived (the 

 supercargo, a sailor, and a Lascar), the first 

 mate of the ship, and the carpenter. These 

 two, from excessive fatigue, had been unable to 

 proceed, and had stopped the day before their 

 companions had been taken up by the fishing- 

 boat. 



To seek these unfortunates a boat was dis- 

 patched, provided with such comforts as were 

 necessary. The man who met with the super- 

 cargo was sent in the whale boat, and they 

 proceeded to the spot which Mr. Clarke had 

 described as the place where they lost sight of 

 their companions; but, after a long search, 

 they only found some trifling articles, and 

 these being bloody, it was naturally imagined 

 they had been killed by the natives, whom, in 

 the course of their long march, they had found 

 frequently very kind, and at other times on 

 the contrary very savage. 



Mr. Clarke, and the two other people, were 

 very much exhausted, but every care being paid 

 to their situation, they quickly recovered. . 1 



The Britannia anchored between the heads 

 from Ireland, on the 27th, with 150 male and 



