Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/64

48 of the Leay family, and of several of the gentlemen of the Australian Club, who had done us the honour to invite all the principal officers of the expedition to a grand public dinner.

We dined, and spent our last evening at Sydney, with the Governor and a number of friends he had invited to meet us; and, on our return on board at night, we found the ships had been unmoored in the afternoon, and were in every respect ready to sail at daylight in the morning, if the light westerly wind which was then blowing should continue favourable.

Late at night Commander T.R. Sulivan arrived in a merchant vessel from the East Indies, he having been appointed by the Commander-in-Chief to fill the vacancy occasioned by the melancholy death of Commander Croker, of H.M.S. Favourite; and as we had every reason to believe that vessel to be in some of the ports of New Zealand, his opportune arrival gave me the pleasure of Commander Sulivan's company to the Bay of Islands, where I expected we should meet the Favourite.

A perfect calm in the morning, and the flowing tide, prevented our sailing so early as I wished; but a westerly wind springing up on the turn of tide at 11, we weighed, and made sail out of the harbour. At noon we were at sea, running with all sail before a favourable and freshening breeze. At 4, the light-house on the South Head bore E. by S, distant 20 miles, from which we took our departure, and shaped our course for