A VOYAGE TO {Cape of Good Hope. 
oSeV. By the end ° f 0ctober ' our provisions and stores were received ; 
the sails had been examined and repaired on board the Lancaster, and 
were rebent ; and the caulkers having completed their work, the 
ship was fresh painted. Being anxious to commence the investiga- 
tion of the coasts of Terra Australis, the stripping of the masts and 
reparation of the rigging were deferred to King George's S^und, 
and no more was done at the ship than necessity required ; for I 
preferred passing the time necessary to a complete re-equipment 
in a port where astronomical observations and surveys could ba at 
the same time usefully carried on, and the naturalists employ them- 
selves in a field almost unexplored, rather than in a bay already 
well known, and where the surrounding country had been so often 
traversed. 
Mr. Crosley had been frequently unwell during the passage 
from Madeira ; and after trying the effect of a few days on shore, 
he decided to remain at the Cape of Good Hope, and relinquish 
the expedition. The instruments supplied by the Board of Lon- 
gitude he agreed to leave in my care ; after having consulted 
with the commander in chief upon the subject, and received his ap- 
probation. The loss of the astronomer was severely felt by me, both 
from being deprived in the surveys of his more accurate observa- 
tions, and from being called upon to supply his place so far as was 
in my power. The duties of commander joined to the occupation of 
surveyor, left little time for other employment ; but through an in- 
crease of -effort, and with the assistance of my officers, I hoped to 
carry on the surveys and fulfil the most essential parts of the instruc- 
tions from the Board of Longitude, at the same time. Of these in- 
structions, Mr. Crosley permitted me to take a copy. 
The rates of going with mean solar time of the four time keepers 
committed to my charge, were deduced by Mr. Crosley from three 
November. days observation of e q ua! altitudes, with a sextant and quick-silver 
Sunday i. horizon, between the 21st and 27th of October. These rates, which 
he left with me, I extended to November 1, by equal altitudes taken 
