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and resided for some months in New South Wales; but this kind idea was frustrated by a squall of wind, which took us aback while in sight of the island, and night coming on, it was not considered prudent to approach the land; we therefore hauled our wind, and shaped our course to the southward.
Captain King had given orders to the ship's steward, that I should receive his (Captain King's) own ration of provisions, on which I was to subsist as well as I could. This quota (according to the usual allowance of the navy,) would, have been amply sufficient, but by some unaccountable want of management, the Buffalo, notwithstanding the length of time occupied in preparation, was at last sent to sea with a very limited supply of provisions; nor was what she really had of the kind or quality invariably allowed in the King's service; the consequence was, that on the very day of our sailing, all hands were put upon half-allowance of bread, (that is, half a pound per day,) and the other half of rice: this latter grain was also substituted on banyan days for pease and for oatmeal: of cheese and butter we were also destitute; so that we had not a prospect of much good living before us. Of the rice, the crew soon became so much tired, that they ceased to draw any from the purser, leaving it in his hands, to be compensated for at the end of our voyage. The salt-meat was also barely adequate to the computed length of our
