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[Page 3]
Ration from July 19th till Aug 4th
Flour 3 lbs, Rice 1 lb per Week. No more Meat being issued from the Store since that time, on order of the Council, till our Providential resource of Mount Pitt, fail'd us, and had the relief kept back 3 more Days, our ration of flour was agreed to have been shortened one pound per Week, in lieu of which we were to have half a pint of Callavances [beans].
We had also collected all the Gunners, Boatswains, and Carpenters Stores, that could be got together, with all the Shore Sails, Haulsers [hawsers], and the small Bower Cable the Galley compleat &c, &c, and a survey was held upon them the 25th of April, when they were secured in the Store, built for their reception. By stating the above rations altogether, I need not enter into the general Order of those Days, as the occasion and necessity of them are obvious.
No doubt you will wonder when I tell you that the same tasks were performed on these very, very reduced Rations, as when on full allowance; but this was owing to a Divine and providential resource from and about Mount Pitt; which place supplied the whole Settlement with Birds; from the latter end of March, till the middle of August. The Bird is a Specie of the Petrel which comes to this Island about the beginning of March, when they burrow under Ground for laying. They were, at first, taken out of their Holes in the Day, but, soon after, we found Night to be the time for slaughter, as our whole Horizon, (in the Woods), was then covered with them, and there was no walking without kicking them before you.
The Mould being soft and loose on the Mount, they found