Captain Downie to Earl Bathurst.

I arrived at this anchorage yesterday from Port Jackson and N. Zealand. At the latter place I succeeded, after great difficulty, in procuring a cargo of topmasts for H. Majesty’s Navy. His Excellency Governor Macquarie put on board two boxes containing public dispatches and the Judge Advocate at Sydney one box, all addressed to Your Lordship. His Excellency has also given in my charge two emues for Your Lordship, page 573 and suffering, I may say, two winters, the first round Cape Horn, they are lively and hearty. I wait Your Lordship’s pleasure respecting the whole. The Coromandel is ordered into Portsmouth Harbour to discharge her cargo; afterwards paid off. I find there is not a package of any size or description but must first be taken to the Custom house, there opened and examined. Even a small box contained in the Sydney male was taken to the Custom house, and, although sealed and directed to the Postmaster-General in London, it was opened and examined.