The _Sirius_ brought 127,000 weight of flour for the settlement, and a twelvemonth's provisions for her ship's company; but this supply was not very flattering, as the short space of four months, at a full ration, would exhaust it. It was, however, very welcome, and her return seemed to have gladdened every heart. Eager were our inquiries after intelligence from that country from which we had been now two years divided, and to whose transactions we were entire strangers. With joy, mingled with concern that we were not personal sharers in the triumph, did we hear of our country's successful efforts in the cause of the Stadtholder, and of the noble armaments which our ministers had fitted out to support it. We trusted, however, that while differently employed, our views were still directed to the same object; for, though labouring at a distance, and in an humbler scene, yet the good, the glory, and the aggrandizement of our country were prime considerations with us. And why should the colonists of New South Wales be denied the merit of endeavouring to promote them, by establishing civilization in the savage world; by animating the children of idleness and vice to habits of laborious and honest industry; and by showing the world that to Englishmen no difficulties are insuperable?
We heard with concern that Lieutenant Shortland was near five months in reaching Batavia in the _Alexander_, in which ship he sailed from this port on the 14th of last July, in company with the _Friendship_, _Borrowdale_, and _Prince of Wales_. From this ship and the _Borrowdale_ he parted company very shortly after leaving our harbour; they proceeded round Cape Horn, to Rio de Janeiro, where in last December they were left lying ready for sea. The _Alexander_ and _Friendship_ proceeding to the northward kept company together as far as the island of Borneo, where, the crews of both ships being so much reduced by the scurvy (the _Alexander_ had buried seventeen of her seamen) that it was impossible to navigate both vessels against the strong currents which they met with, and the western monsoon which had then set in, both ships were brought to an anchor, and most of the _Friendship's_ stores, with all her people, being taken out and received on board the _Alexander_, she was scuttled and sunk. When the Alexander arrived at Batavia, she had, of both ship's crews, but one man who was able to go aloft.