Page:Narrativeavoyag01wilsgoog.djvu/127

Rh Amity, and I was to accompany the Commandant in the Thompson.

This chartering of the Thompson was judicious; she was to remain ten days; and if, during that interval, the Governor Phillips did not arrive, she was then definitively engaged to proceed to Swan River for the sum of 400l. Should, however, the Grovernor Phillips arrive, she was to receive 50l. as demurrage, and the charter to be void. This afternoon the Reliance sailed for India.

On Sunday, the 9th, several of the natives visited the settlement; the timorous Olobo received a mambrual, which he stowed carefully away in his basket, lest, as I imagine, Wellington might perceive and wish to have it.

In the afternoon a vessel hove in sight, which it was hoped might be the Governor Phillips; but she proved to be the schooner Admiral Gifford, from Sydney, employed in the Trepang fishery, in which she had been pretty successful.

In the evening, as several of the midshipmen were amusing themselves by firing at the marines' weather-cock, one of the balls whistled over the heads of Olobo and his company, who were enjoying themselves with a large dish of rice; and who (being previously rather alarmed by the foolish and reprehensible conduct of the gun-room steward, in snapping an unloaded pistol at Olobo's breast) started off like lightning into the bush. This event caused us much annoyance.