apply some tallow, and then to nail canvas over all. These operations being completed, he was to fix the tarpawling bulwark in a more secure and efficient manner, that we might be protected from the disagreeable intrusion of the spray. The other boats being in good order, and well-found, only required a bulwark, or railing, to render them completely sea-worthy.
The sail-makers were directed to convert the fore-royal into a lug-sail, and to make a jib from some spare canvas, that we might be enabled to make progress on a wind. The remainder of the crew were employed variously: some were picking bread, others filling water, some gathering oysters, and others cruizing about, in search of adventures, or amusing themselves with the loquacious prattle of a favourite cockatoo, which had been, by general consent, permitted to accompany us.
The Captain and his officers took several observations of the sun's altitude, which they were enabled to do by walking to the north-east side of the island. As the western extremity of Mulgrave Island bore due north of us, distant six or eight miles, and as no other land in that direction intervened, the sky being clear, and the horizon distinctly defined, we were enabled to obtain the meridian altitude of the sun to a great nicety; and the latitude thence deduced, by means of three observers, with well-adjusted sextants, was 10° 13' 27" south.
The carpenter and sail-makers having been very in-
