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My Dear Sister
As I wrote to you from Teneriffe, Rio Janeiro, & the Cape of Good Hope, which letters I hope you have recd, I shall now give you a short account of our voyage from the Cape to the Present time. We saild from thence on the 13th of November. Met with contrary winds & went on but slowly for the first week, the wind then came fair & on the 25th the Governor & Lieut King & Lieut Dawes came on board the Supply & we made all sail for New Holland, leaving the fleet to follow us under the care of H. M. Ship Sirius. We had a very wuick but windy passage & made Van Diemans Land, the south part of New Holland on the 3rd of Jany 1788, having run in 50 days the distance of very near 6000 miles. But it was the 19th before we arrivd at Botany bay, where we anchored at 4 in the afternoon, all in good health & on the 21st the rest of the fleet arrivd. The next day the Governor, Captn Hunter, the Master of the Sirius & my self went to examine a place where Capn Cook supposd there was a Harbour to which he gave the name of Port Jackson. We found it an excellent & extensive one & on the 25 returnd to Botany bay & conducted the whole fleet up up the Harbour to the place where the Camp and Storehouses now stand. it is aout 6 miles from the entrance. The Governor has namd it Sidney Cove. In the beginning of Feby we took on board six months provisions, with the necessary implements for settling a colony on Norfolk Island, discovered by Capn Cook, & on the 14th saild with Lieut King as Superintendant & Commandant of Norfolk Isle, a Surgeon, a Midshipman, a Master Weaver, with 9 men and 6 women convicts. We were soon overtaken by a very severe gale of wind which continued till the 16th but did us no dammage. On the 17th we discoverd an Island to which we gave the name Lord Howe Island. As the wind continued fair we put off examination of this Island till our return. We arrivd at Norfolk Isle on the 29th of Feby but it was the 3d of March before we were able to land, which we did with the utmost difficulty, but found it would be impossible to land the stores and provisions there as the sea broke with great violence on the shore. We therefore went in search of a better place, which I discoverd by going in a boat to the south end of the Island, where on the 6th & 7th we landed the colony with all their stores & provisions safe. To this place Lieut King gave the name of Sidney Bay. This colony is settled here with the idea of cultivating & improving the flax plant, and cutting down fir trees with which the Island is coverd & grow to an amazing height and size. Some of them measurd 27 feet round. This Island is about 15 miles round. It is in general surrounded by inaccessible rocks & high perpendicular cliffs on which the sea breaks with such violence that landing is always difficult & very often impossible. Having seen the colony settled in their tents, on the 9th in the evening took leave of them & now steerd for our new discoverd Island, which we made