Friday 7 October 1836

OCTOBER 7.-The wind calmer, but the ship still going briskly on, making an average about two hundred miles in twenty-four hours. These scraps of nautical information I obtained chiefly from the captain, whom I did not scruple to question respecting anything that I thought worth recording, and as many of the passengers were aware that I kept a diary, they were usually willing to give me any information that lay in their power. Some of them did the same thing, I believe, but they were not so accurate in dates and many other circumstances, for I was applied to more than once after we arrived in Australia for information on several matters by our former shipmates, who confessed that they could not depend upon their own records.

This day we passed the rock called St. Paul’s. Had it been calm the captain intended to have lain-to for a few hours to fish, as a great quantity of fish may be taken there in a short time, but the wind being favourable, we pushed on and left the fishes in peace.