SETTLEMENT OF NORFOLK ISLANB. 



reef with an empty cask, and a hawser hauled on shore and made 

 fast to a tree. At 5 o'clock the surgeon's mate was hauled 

 ashore through the surf on a traveller fastened to the hawser, 

 and by dark Captain Hunter and most of the seamen were 

 landed, having been dragged through a heavy surf, many being 

 much bruised. The captain was so exhausted that he was 

 nearly drowned. The rest of the crew got ashore next day. 



The situation of the settlement was extremely critical. There 

 were now on the island 506 souls on half allowance of pro- 

 visions, which would last a very short time unless the stores 

 could be saved from the Sirius. Lieut.-Governor Ross there- 

 fore assembled the officers, and it was resolved that, as under 

 the ordinary law there was no power to punish serious offences 

 on the spot, it was absolutely necessary for the general safety 

 to establish martial law. Further, that all provisions, public 

 and private, should be thrown into a common stock in the 

 storehouse, and put under the charge of three persons, viz., 

 Captain Hunter, a person appointed by the Governor, and a 

 third person to be named by the convicts. On the fifth day 

 after the wreck, and before any of the provisions had been 

 saved from the Sirius, the Supply sailed for Sydney, with 

 Lieut. King and part of the crew of the Sirius, to carry 

 the disastrous news to Port Jackson, where it created fresh 

 consternation and deepened the prevailing gloom ; the more 

 so from the impossibility of sending relief to the unfortunate 

 Norfolk Islanders. 



Fortunately, after the Supply left they were able to get out 

 of the wreck a large part of the provisions, though much 

 was lost or spoiled. For some weeks Lieut.-Governor Ross, 

 Captain Hunter, and the people shut up in the lonely isle 

 entertained a glimmering hope that they might see the Supply 

 return with the comfortable news of arrivals from England. 

 Long and anxiously they scanned the sea, and when hope 

 failed and they had come to the reluctant conclusion that 

 Governor Phillip could not relieve them, but had been obliged 

 to send Lieut. Ball on more pressing service, their situation 

 began to wear a very alarming aspect. 



The weekly allowance of food was now still further reduced, 

 and Captain Hunter records in his journal his apprehension 

 that before long many of the convicts, who often ate at one 

 meal the whole week's allowance, would be dead from star- 

 vation, or executed for depredations. This gloomy anticipation 

 would doubtless have been realised but for an unexpected 

 resource which was discovered. 



In the month of April the people who were searching 

 the island for food found that Mount Pitt was crowded with 

 birds. These sea-birds were away all day in search of food, 

 but as soon as dark came on they hovered in vast flocks over the 



