In the afternoon we cleaned out the boat, and it employed us till sunset
to get everything dry and in order. Hitherto I had issued the allowance
by guess, but I now made a pair of scales with two cocoanut shells, and
having accidentally some pistol-balls in the boat, twenty-five of which
weighed one pound, or sixteen ounces, I adopted one ball as the
proportion of weight that each person should receive of bread at the
times I served it. I also amused all hands with describing the situation
of New Guinea and New Holland, and gave them every information in my
power, that, in case any accident happened to me, those who survived
might have some idea of what they were about, and be able to find their
way to Timor, which at present they knew nothing of more than the name,
and some not even that. At night I served a quarter of a pint of water
and half an ounce of bread for supper.
_Saturday, 9th._--About nine in the evening the clouds began to gather,
and we had a prodigious fall of rain, with severe thunder and lightning.
By midnight we caught about twenty gallons of water. Being miserably wet
and cold, I served to the people a teaspoonful of rum each, to enable
them to bear with their distressed situation.
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