Produced by Sankar Viswanathan and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA; OF A SHIPWRECK ON BOARD THE LADY CASTLEREAGH; AND A _DESCRIPTION OF NEW SOUTH WALES_. BY W. B. CRAMP. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND Co. BRIDE-COURT, BRIDGE-STREET. 1823. * * * * * NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA, &c. &c. &c. * * * * * SECTION I. THE AUTHOR'S DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND--DESCRIPTION OF THE CEREMONY ON CROSSING THE EQUINOCTIAL LINE, AND HIS ARRIVAL AT MADRAS. On the 8th or 9th of January, 1815, we proceeded, in the Princess Charlotte, Indiaman, to North-fleet Hope, and received on board our cargo. On February 28th, we sailed to Gravesend, in company with the Company's ships Ceres, Lady Melville, Rose, and Medcalfe, and arrived at the Downs on the 3d of March. Our dispatches not being expected for some time, we moored ship. Our time passed on very pleasantly till the 27th inst., when the weather became rather boisterous, and accompanied by a heavy swell. On the evening of the 28th, as the Hon. Company's ship Tarva, from Bengal, was rounding the Foreland, she struck on the Goodwin Sands, and was forced to cut away her masts to lighten her, and get her clear off. The Ceres drifted almost on board us; we slipped our cables, and with difficulty escaped the Goodwin Sands. On the 1st of April the pursers joined their respective ships, and on the 3d we made sail with a fair breeze, and soon cleared the English channel. Nothing was now heard but confusion; the pilot having just left the ship, the hoarse voice of the captain resounded through a speaking trumpet, while the seamen were busy in making sail. We had a fine steady breeze till we made the Bay of Biscay, when we had a strong gale for three days. After the hurry and bustle of the gale was over, we had a fine steady breeze; I then began to feel an inward pleasure, and to rejoice in the predilection I had imbibed from my earliest years.