Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/301

 AND HIS STAFF. 193 King sailed for England via Batavia a few days after his 1790 return to Sydney Cove in April, 1790, with despatches from Phillip. The narrative of his voyage might form a curious chapter in the history of navigation. The progress made Pro^rreas of in the art during the last century could not be better illus- trated than it is in his experience on that occasion. The traveller now-a-days between Sydney and London has many different routes to choose from; each of them offering a variety of temptations in the shape of luxurious voyaging, with an economy of time that seems marvellous when com- pared with the eight or ten months usually occupied on the passage home a hundred years ago. But the only means of reaching England open to King was by way of Batavia ; Sydney to and when there he had to trust to chance for a ship to the Cape of Good Hope, and so on to England. Having succeeded in obtaining a passage from Batavia to England in a small packet belonging to the Dutch East India Batavia to^ Company, he sailed in August ; but he had not been five * *** days at sea before the whole of the crew, captain included, with the exception of four men, were rendered unfit for work by an attack of putrid fever, caused by " the pestiferous air of Batavia." King was thus forced to take command of the ship and to navigate her with a crew of four men, while the rest, confined below, were rapidly becoming delirious ; a dangerow even the surgeon on board being so ill as to be incapable of rendering assistance. To prevent contagion, he put up a tent on deck for himself and his crew, whom he would not allow to go below. Under these circumstances, he saw that there was nothing to do but to bear up for the Isle of France, or Mauritius, where they arrived in a fortnight. During that time, seventeen of the crew died. On reaching Port Louis, a passage to France in a French frigate about to French sail was offered to King, but having " heard of a misunder- decUncd/ standing between England and Spain," he thought it his duty to remain on board the Dutch vessel, notwithstanding the risk of fever. N Digitized by Google