April 6.
evening entered Storm Bay. The light at the entrance of the Derwent was seen soon after midnight, and at nine the next morning the pilot came on board. The wind was blowing fresh down the river, so that it took us until late in the afternoon to beat up. Soon after noon the Governor's barge was seen standing towards us; and our kind friend, who was the last to leave us on our departure for the south, was the first to greet us with his warm and affectionate congratulations on our return. He was received with three hearty cheers from both ships. The vessels were moored in their former berths off the government gardens, convenient to the Rossbank Observatory, after an absence of five months.
In concluding the narrative of our first season's navigation of the Antarctic Seas, I will only further observe, that, amongst the many events which had occurred to call forth our gratitude to God for his guidance and preservation during the arduous and hazardous operations in which we had been engaged, it was a source of no ordinary gratification to me to reflect that the execution of the service had been unattended by casualty, calamity, or sickness of any kind, and that every individual of both ships had been permitted to return in perfect health and safety to this our southern home.
