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5
spectators. The ladys dress in the most fashionable London taste with the addition of some beautiful black and white ostrichfeathers on the [?] & left side of the waist. The gentlemen were chiefly on horseback, the ladies in carriages apparently made in England.
The exercise was very indifferently performd. I have seen 40 sailors fire a much better volley & it was with the greatest difficulty the horse could be kept in a line. There are no taverns or inns. The custom is for gentlemen to live at a merchant's house as part of the family for which they pay weekly about two dollars equal to 12 [?] sterling not including wind &c which together with washing for which they charge 6d per shirt & makes living on shore very expensive. However they live well & supper is always servd up hot & in greater quantitys than dinner. The weather here is very unsteady I have seen from day light to noon as great a variety of winds & weather as ever I saw. The prevailing winds in the summer are from the E S E which is directly from the high mountain above the town & is calld the table land on account of its rising almost perpendicular to the great height & being flat on the top. When a strong wind in this direction begins the clouds come pouring with vast rapidity over the top of the mount where they meet a calm (in consequence of the perpendicular form of the land) & fall down like an extensive cataract to about one third the way down where they are met by an eddy wind which forces them upwards again till they join the prevailing wind a very curious sight to any person unaccustomd to high & perpendicular land. Being amply provided here we took on board the provision for the live stock intended for the colony, bulls, cows, horses, mares & colts, sheep & hogs. The signal for sailing was made on Sunday the 12 of Novr but calm prevented our sailing till next day when we went to sea with a S E wind & stood off shore we made but little progress the first week but on Wednesday 12 Novr when we were about 340 miles distant from the Cape the wind came fair W N N E & we pushd the fleet on very fast & on Sunday 23 Governor Phillip, attended by Lieut King of the navy & Lieut Dawes of the marines, came on board the Supply ordering the fleet to follow in two divisions, the three fastest sailing ships together & the rest of the fleet under the convoy of Capt Hunter of H M Ship Sirius. We had previously taken on board from the different ships some usefull convicts principally carpenters & joiners. At noon we made all sail & left the fleet and on Monday lost sight of them from this time we had a constant fair wind from NW to SW the latter sometime blew very strong & cold raising a very high sea & for 12 or 13 days we ran at the rate of 130 miles a day, it is remarkable that the wind during so long a run should never come to the eastward nor ever remaind more than 30 hours at one quarter but shifted suddenly from one quarter to the other; on the 2d of January 1788 we met with a violent gale of wind at North which lasted 12 hours & made a most