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the passage from Ilo Ilo was a very
rough one we was Battened down
during this trip all the way to Hong
Kong, & the heat was terrible we got
the fag end of a typhoon and for
the size of the vessel she behaved in
a grand style. I would not wish to
be in a Better Ship, of Course we shipped
a lot of water during the trip, we
arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday the
9th of September & made fast to number
9 buoy we found ships of war from
all nations in harbour Hong Kong is a fine
well protected Harbour we had a lot of
stores to draw from the N.Y. I obtained 4.45
Maxim Guns & complete outfit & ammunition for
them. The naval authorities could not
believe that we was armed with [illegible]
Guns & it quite astonished the great
number of Naval officers that visited
us during our stay to see that we
was so heavily armed, they all
was of an opinion that the ship
was a very formidable one & the
kind of ship required for [illegible] work
in China, & was quite surprised to hear
that the ships company was composed
purely of N. Reserve Australian a thing
not yet attempted by the imperial
authorities to send a ship in active
service manded by N.R. on the 11th
at 8.0 am the Ship was Commissioned Captain
Creswell reading out & presenting each officer
with his acting Commission [illegible]