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HISTORY OF THE IXDIAX NAYY. 191)
recovering his health, he purchased a vessel at Macao, and
returned to the Pelew Islands, v\^hence he proceeded with several
Natives of both sexes to Bombay. On his way he touched at
Bencoolen, wliere he met the Hon. Company's ship ' Europa,'
Captain Applegath, bound for England, and the frigate
' Bombay,' belonging to the Marine, bound to Bombay. By
this latter ship he sent some of the Natives to that port, and
sailed, in his own little vessel, with the remainder, for Calcutta.
But nothing more was ever heard of this gallant seaman, nor of
his ill-fated crew, and it is supposed that the craft in which they
embarked foundered in the Bay of Bengal.
The women sent to Bombay, being without friends, were for
many years charitably maintained by Lieutenant Snook, of the
' Endeavour,' out of his slender resources, the Government
being unable to send them back to their friends, as owing to
war, they could not spare a ship of the Marine for the purpose.
At length, in 17'J7, Captain Wedgeborough, being on the eve
of sailing to England, in command of the 'Princess Royal,'
made a representation of these matters, and Captain Wilson, the
commander of the 'Antelope' when she was lost, took them in
his ship, the ' Warley,' undercharge of Lieutenant Snook, from
Bombay to Macao ; here that officer, whose conduct throughout
seems to be characterised by singular charity and forgetfulness
of self, purchased a small vessel, at Government expense, and,
having fitted her out and provisioned her, sailed on the 4th of
March, and, after being forced to return through stress of
weather, at length reached the islands in safety. The women
were landed with the gifts supplied by Government, and Lieu-
tenant Snook, having embarked some Chinese left on the island
by Captain McCluer, returned to Macao, and thence to Bombay.
The only other occasion on which a ship of the Bombay Marine
visited the Pelew Islands was in March, 1802, when Captain
Nathaniel Tucker, commanding the Hon. Company's brig
' Antelope,' of fourteen guns, wliile on his way from Bombay
to China with despatches, touched at the group, when four
canoes came off to the ship, in one of which was an English
seaman who had escaped from a vessel.
We trust tliat this episode of Captain McCluer, a forgotten
worthy of the Service, may not be deemed one of the least inte-
resting in the History of the Indian Navy.
The following were the results of the labours of Captain
McCluer between the years 17i)0-93. He completed a survey
of the Pelew Islands, though on too small a scale to be of
much practical benefit to navigators. The survey of the New
Guinea coast was attended with what was then regarded as a
considerable accession to our knowledge of the hydrography of
that almost nnknown part of the world. A chart, embracing
a space from the Equator to 7° South lat., between the meri-