Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/75

 preserving the other." The Friendship's stores were removed into the Alexander, and the former "was bored and turned adrift." When but one seaman was fit for work, and even the sails could not be furled, the Alexander reached Batavia, and begged assistance from the Dutch (18th Nov.). Assistance was given promptly and humanely. From other English vessels, with the assistance of a few from the Dutch Commodore, a fresh crew was at length made up, in which four only of the original seamen remained, the rest being either dead or not enough recovered to return with the Alexander when she sailed again on the 7th Dec." When Hunter boarded her at Table Bay (18th Feb.) he was received with hearty cheers by his remaining friends. Such were the struggles of English seamen in the southern hemisphere. Tante molis erat (longinquam) condere gentem.

On the 20th Feb., with such accounts to render of the fortunes of his old comrades, Hunter sailed from Table Bay with twelve months' provisions for the ship's company and six months' supply of flour for the settlement at Sydney, every officer's apartment and all the store-rooms being completely filled."

In May, 1789, the Sirius arrived at Sydney. Her supplies were welcome, but they could not permanently alter the condition of the settlement. No tidings from England had reached the colony. Such disastrous voyages as that of the Alexander might indefinitely strangle the hope of receiving fresh supplies. It might be that the new experiment would end in gloom, like that of the French essay at colonizing in Cayenne in 1763, when (although two years' provisions had been carried with them) thousands of persons were annihilated utterly by fever, famine, and an overwhelming flood.

If the French might be thought unskilful in contending with the elements, was there not the rumoured fate in 1629 of hardy Dutchmen, prone to navigation and successful abroad? Was it not written that while Captain Pelsaert left comrades on an island on the west coast of Australia, and went in a skiff to Batavia, his countrymen were at deadly feud, and that before the captain returned with aid from Batavia, 125 persons had been murdered by mutineers? Was it not written of Pelsaert and his