A. VOYAGE TO 
[ East Coast. 
‘422 
s 1 t 8 ° 3 i sr Wlt ^ ca P ta ' n Park to wait upon His Excellency governor King, 
Thursday 8. whom we found at dinner with his family. A razor had not passed 
over our faces from the time of the shipwreck, and the surprise of 
the governor was not little at seeing two persons thus appear whom 
he supposed to be many hundred leagues on their way to England; 
but so soon as he was convinced of the truth of the vision before 
him, and learned the melancholy 'cause, an involuntary tear started 
from the eye of friendship and compassion, and we were received in 
the most affectionate manner. 
His Excellency lost no. time in engaging the ship Rolla, then 
lying in port, bound to China, to go to the rescue of the officers and 
crews of the Porpoise and Cato ; I accompanied the governor on 
board the Rolla a day or two afterwards, and articles were signed 
by which the commander, Mr. Robert Gumming, engaged to call at 
Wreck Reef, take every person on board and carry them to Canton, 
upon terms which showed him to take the interest in our misfortune 
which might be expected from a British seaman. The governor 
ordered two colonial schooners to accompany the Rolla, to bring 
back those who preferred returning to Port Jackson, with such stores 
of the Porpoise as could be procured ; and every thing was done 
that an anxious desire to forward His Majesty's service and alleviate 
misfortune could devise ; even private individuals put wine, live stock, 
and vegetables, unasked, on board the Rolla for the officers upon the 
reef. 
My anxiety to get back to Wreck Reef, and from thence to 
England with the greatest despatch, induced the governor to offer 
me one of the schooners to go through Torres’ Strait and by the 
most expeditious passage to Europe ; rather than take the long route 
by China in the Rolla. This schooner was something less than a 
Gravesend passage boat, being only of twenty-nine tons burthen ; 
and therefore it required some consideration before acceding to the 
proposal. Her small size, when compared with the distance from 
Port Jackson to England, was not my greatest objection to the little 
