During our stay here I took care to procure seeds and plants that would be valuable at Otaheite and the different places we might touch at in our way thither. In this I was greatly assisted by colonel Gordon, the commander of the troops. In company with this gentleman the loss of the Grosvenor East Indiaman was mentioned: on this subject colonel Gordon expressed great concern that from anything he had said hopes were still entertained to flatter the affectionate wishes of the surviving friends of those unfortunate people. He said that in his travels into the Caffre country he had met with a native who described to him that there was a white woman among his countrymen who had a child, and that she frequently embraced the child and cried most violently. This was all he (the colonel) could understand and, being then on his return home with his health much impaired by fatigue, the only thing that he could do was to make a friend of the native by presents and promises of reward on condition that he would take a letter to this woman and bring him back an answer. Accordingly he wrote letters in English, French, and Dutch desiring that some sign or mark might be returned, either by writing with a burnt stick or by any means she should be able to devise, to satisfy him that she was there; and that on receiving such token from her every effort should be made to ensure her safety and escape. But the Caffre, although apparently delighted with the commission which he had undertaken, never returned, nor has the colonel ever heard anything more of him, though he had been instructed in methods of conveying information through the Hottentot country.