196 



porter's journal. 



gable exertions, however, they were both drawn into 

 deeper water, and soon secured, in the best manner that 

 circumstances would permit. The garden had now, for 

 some time, yielded them regularly a mess of cucumbers 

 three times a week ; and on the 4th of April, they had the 

 pleasure to gather from it several fine musk-melons. The 

 violence of the rain, during the early part of the 5th, far 

 exceeded every thing lieut. Gamble had ever witnessed ; 

 and on the following morning, torrents were seen in every 

 direction, rushing down the hills in beautiful cascades. 

 Such was the extent of the sudden inundation, that the men 

 on shore were under the necessity of abandoning their 

 dwelhngs, and seek shelter in a lumber house, upon a 

 more elevated spot. Lieut. Gamble found the water at 

 least two feet deep in all the other buildings, and alongside 

 the Greenwich it had become sufficiently fresh to slake his 

 thirst. 



The hands were now employed in removing every arti- 

 cle from the shore on board the ships ; and Heut. Gambley 

 beginning to despair of my return, deemed it most prudent 

 to put the vessels in a condition to meet the worst. Ac- 

 cordingly, several boatloads of provisions and other arti- 

 cles were sent on board the Sir Andrew Hammond and 

 Seringapatam, and stowed so as to bring them down by the 

 stern. On the 14th, the men commenced rigging the 

 ships, and otherwise preparing them for sea. The Sir 

 Andrew Hammond was armed with fourteen carronades ; 

 and the Seringapatam with ten long nine pounders, four 

 twelve pound carronades, and four long six pounders. 

 Being considerably straitened in the article of linseed oil, 

 lieut. Gamble, after several unsuccessful experiments, had 

 the good fortune to find an excellent substitute in the juice 

 of a nut, called by the natives Haamah. In mixing this 

 with paint, it proved to answer equally as well as the lin- 

 seed oil ; and though the nuts were at first reported to be 

 very scarce, yet seven men, in the course of a day, gathered 

 twelve baskets, at a place distant about six miles from the 

 Bay. 



The natives of the adjacent valley had, for the last six 

 weeks, been employed in making preparations to celebrate 

 a great feast, called by them the Coeecah ; which com- 

 menced on the morning of the 28th. From all parts of the 



