] Mr. Melville sailed on his intended fishing voyage on the second
of this month. He talked of returning in about fourteen days, during
which time he meant to visit Jervis and Bateman Bays to the southward, as
well as to try once more what fortune might attend him as a whaler upon
the coast. He returned, however, on the 8th, without having seen a fish,
or visited either of the bays, having experienced a constant and heavy
gale of wind at ESE since he left the port, which forced him to sail under
a reefed foresail during the whole of its continuance.
In the evening of the day on which he sailed hence, the people at the
South Head made the signal for a sail; but it was imagined, that as they
had lost sight of the _Speedy_ in the morning, they had perhaps seen her
again in the evening on another tack, as the wind had shifted. But when
this was mentioned to Mr. Melville at his return, he said that it was not
possible for the _Speedy_ to have been seen in the evening of the day she
sailed, as she stood right off the land; and he added, that he himself,
in the close of the evening, imagined he saw a sail off Botany Bay. No
ship, however, making her appearance during the month, it was generally
supposed that the people at the Look-out must have been mistaken.
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