at eight or ten knots, when we passed Antonia; therefore it was not in sight more than three or four hours. We saw neither human beings beast, bird, nor tree upon it; nothing but the bare perpendicular rocks. On the first of June we were caught in a tremendous gale of wind, which increased during the night to a complete hurricane. For two days and nights we were either lying to or drifting before the tempest, with no other stitch of canvas than our close-reefed mizzen-top-sail; during which time the winds blew so terribly that we expected every minute to see the masts torn out of the ship, and heavy seas kept continually sweeping the deck. About the fourth evening after the storm abated we sighted a vessel in a dismasted condition. We saw lights of distress during the first part of the night, but on the following morning the horizon of the waters was without a speck. It would seem she went down in the night. We afterwards spoke a vessel from Newcastle, bound to India, which told us of the Red Rover being a total wreck on the Island of St. Jago. The Red Rover sailed out of Plymouth Sound while we were lying there, bound to Sydney. On the 20th July we made King's Island, at the entrance of Bass's Strait, having had cold
