Laperouse

by

Ernest Scott

DEDICATION

To my friend T. B. E. 

CONTENTS

 I. FAMILY, YOUTH and INFLUENCES. II. THE FRENCH NAVAL OFFICER. III. THE LOVE STORY OF LAPEROUSE. IV. THE VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION. V. THE EARLY PART OF THE VOYAGE. VI. LAPEROUSE IN THE PACIFIC. VII. AT BOTANY BAY. VIII. THE MYSTERY, AND THE SECRET OF THE SEA. IX. CAPTAIN DILLON'S DISCOVERY. X. THE FAME OF LAPEROUSE. 

FOREWORD

All Sydney people, and most of those who have visited the city, haveseen the tall monument to Laperouse overlooking Botany Bay. Many haveperhaps read a little about him, and know the story of his surprisingappearance in this harbour six days after the arrival of GovernorPhillip with the First Fleet. One can hardy look at the obelisk, and atthe tomb of Pere Receveur near by, without picturing the departure ofthe French ships after bidding farewell to the English officers andcolonists. Sitting at the edge of the cliff, one can follow Laperouseout to sea, with the eye of imagination, until sails, poops and hullsdiminish to the view and disappear below the hazy-blue horizon. We maybe sure that some of Governor Phillip's people watched the sailing, andthe lessening, and the melting away of the vessels, from just about thesame place, one hundred and twenty four years ago. What they saw, andwhat we can imagine, was really the end of a romantic career, and thebeginning of a mystery of the sea which even yet has not lost itsfascination. 

The story of that life is surely worth telling, and, we trust, worthreading; for it is that of a good, brave and high-minded man, a greatsailor, and a true gentleman. The author has put into these few pageswhat he has gleaned from many volumes, some of them stout, heavy anddingy tomes, though delightful enough to "those who like thatsort of thing. " He hopes that the book may for many readers touch withnew meaning those old weatherworn stones at Botany Bay, and make thepersonality of Laperouse live again for such as nourish an interest inAustralian history. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

(Not included in etext)

 Portrait of Laperouse, with Autograph Laperouse's Coat of Arms The Laperouse Family Comte de Fleurieu Louis XVI Giving Instructions to Laperouse Australia as known at the time of Laperouse's visit The BOUSSOLE and ASTROLABE Chart of Laperouse's Voyage in the Pacific Massacre of Captain de Langle's Party Tomb of Pere Receveur Monument to Laperouse at Botany Bay Admiral Dentrecasteaux Map of Vanikoro Island Relics of Laperouse

Life of Laperouse

Chapter I. 

FAMILY, YOUTH and INFLUENCES

Jean-Francois Galaup, Comte De Laperouse, was born at Albi, on August23, 1741. His birthplace is the chief town in the Department of Tarn, lying at the centre of the fruitful province of Languedoc, in the southof France. It boasts a fine old Gothic cathedral, enriched with muchnoble carving and brilliant fresco painting; and its history gives itsome importance in the lurid and exciting annals of France. From itsname was derived that of a religious sect, the Albigeois, who professeddoctrines condemned as heretical and endured severe persecution duringthe thirteenth century. 

But among all the many thousands of men who have been born, and havelived, and died in the old houses of the venerable city, none, not evenamong its bishops and counts, has borne a name which lives in thememory of mankind as does that of the navigator, Laperouse. The sturdyfarmers of the fat and fertile plain which is the granary of France, who drive in to Albi on market days, the patient peasants of thefields, and the simple artisans who ply their primitive trades underthe shadow of the dark-red walls of St. Cecile, know few details, perhaps, about the sailor who sank beneath the waters of the Pacificso many years ago. Yet very many of them have heard of Laperouse, andare familiar with his monument cast in bronze in the public square ofAlbi. They speak his name respectfully as that of one who grew upamong their ancestors, who trod their streets, sat in their cathedral, won great fame, and met his death under the strange, distant, southernstars. 

His family had for five hundred years been settled, prominent andprosperous, on estates in the valley of the Tarn. In the middle of thefifteenth century a Galaup held distinguished office among the citizensof Albi, and several later ancestors are mentioned honourably in itsrecords. The father of the navigator, Victor Joseph de Galaup, succeeded to property which maintained him in a position of influenceand affluence among his neighbours. He married Marguerite deResseguier, a woman long remembered in the district for her qualitiesof manner and mind. She exercised a strong influence over heradventurous but affectionate son; and a letter written to her by him atan interesting crisis of his life, testifies to his eager desire toconform to his mother's wishes even in a matter that wrenched hisheart, and after years of service in the Navy had taken him far andkept him long from her kind, concerning eyes. 

Jean-Francois derived the name by which he is known in history from theestate of Peyrouse, one of the possessions of his family. But hedropped the "y" when assuming the designation, and invariablyspelt the name "Laperouse, " as one word. Inasmuch as the finalauthority on the spelling of a personal name is that of the individualwho owns it, there can be no doubt that we ought always to spell thisname "Laperouse, " as, in fact, successors in the family who have borneit have done; though in nearly all books, French as well as English, itis spelt "La Perouse. " In the little volume now in the reader's hands, the example of Laperouse himself has been followed. 

On this point it may be remarked concerning another navigator who wasengaged in Australian exploration, that we may lose touch with aninteresting historical fact by not observing the correct form of aname. On maps of Tasmania appears "D'Entrecasteaux Channel. " It wasnamed by and after Admiral Bruny Dentrecasteaux, who as commander ofthe RECHERCHE and ESPERANCE visited Australian waters. We shall havesomething to say about his expedition towards the close of the book. Now, Dentrecasteaux sailed from France in 1791, while the Revolutionwas raging. All titles had been abolished by a decree of the NationalAssembly on July 19th, 1790. When he made this voyage, therefore, theAdmiral was not Bruny D'Entrecasteaux, a form which implied aterritorial titular distinction; but simply Citizen Dentrecasteaux. Thename is so spelt in the contemporary histories of his expeditionwritten by Rossel and Labillardiere. It would not have been likely tobe spelt in any other way by a French officer at the time. Thus, the Marquis de la Fayette became simply Lafayette, and so with allother bearers of titles in France. Consequently we should, by observingthis little difference, remind ourselves of Dentrecasteaux' period andcircumstances. 

That, however, is by the way, and our main concern for the present iswith Laperouse. 

As a boy, Jean-Francois developed a love for books of voyages, anddreamt, as a boy will, of adventures that he would enjoy when he grewto manhood. A relative tells us that his imagination was enkindled byreading of the recent discoveries of Anson. As he grew up, and himselfsailed the ocean in command of great ships, he continued to read allthe voyaging literature he could procure. The writings of Byron, Carteret, Wallis, Louis de Bougainville, "and above all Cook, " arementioned as those of his heroes. He "burned to follow in theirfootsteps. "

It will be observed that, with one exception, the navigators who areespecially described by one of his own family as having influenced thebent of Laperouse were Englishmen. He did not, of course, read all oftheir works in his boyhood, because some of them were published afterhe had embraced a naval career. But we note them in this place, as theguiding stars by which he shaped his course. He must have been a youngman, already on the way to distinction as an officer, when he cameunder the spell of Cook. "And above all Cook, " says his relative. Tothe end of his life, down to the final days of his very lastvoyage, Laperouse revered the name of Cook. Every Australian readerwill like him the better for that. Not many months before his own lifeended in tragedy and mystery, he visited the island where the greatEnglish sailor was slain. When he reflected on the achievements of thatwonderful career, he sat down in his cabin and wrote in his Journal thepassage of which the following is a translation. It is given here outof its chronological order, but we are dealing with the influences thatmade Laperouse what he was, and we can see from these sincere andfeeling words, what Cook meant to him:

"Full of admiration and of respect as I am for the memory of that greatman, he will always be in my eyes the first of navigators. It is he whohas determined the precise position of these islands, who has exploredtheir shores, who has made known the manners, customs and religion ofthe inhabitants, and who has paid with his blood for all the lightwhich we have to-day concerning these peoples. I would call him theChristopher Columbus of these countries, of the coast of Alaska, and ofnearly all the isles of the South Seas. Chance might enable the mostignorant man to discover islands, but it belongs only to great men likehim to leave nothing more to be done regarding the coasts they havefound. Navigators, philosophers, physicians, all find in his Voyagesinteresting and useful things which were the object of his concern. Allmen, especially all navigators, owe a tribute of praise to his memory. How could one neglect to pay it at the moment of coming upon thegroup of islands where he finished so unfortunately his career?"

We can well understand that a lad whose head was full of thoughts ofvoyaging and adventure, was not, as a schoolboy, very tame and easy tomanage. He is described as having been ardent, impetuous, and ratherstubborn. But there is more than one kind of stubbornness. There is thestupid stubbornness of the mule, and the fixed, firm will of theintelligent being. We can perceive quite well what is meant in thiscase. On the other hand, he was affectionate, quick and clever. Helonged for the sea; and his father, observing his decided inclination, allowed him to choose the profession he desired. 

It may well have seemed to the parents of Laperouse at this time thatfine prospects lay before a gallant young gentleman who should enterthe Marine. There was for the moment peace between France and England. A truce had been made by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. Buteverybody knew that there would be war again soon. Both countries werestruggling for the mastery in India and in North America. The sense ofrivalry was strong. Jealousies were fierce on both sides. In India, theFrench power was wielded, and ever more and more extended, by thebrilliant Governor Dupleix; whilst in the British possessions therising influence was that of the dashing, audacious Clive. In NorthAmerica the French were scheming to push their dominion down theOhio-Mississippi Valley from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, inthe rear of the line of British colonies planted on the seaboard fromthe Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida. The colonists were determined toprevent them; and a young man named George Washington, who afterwardsbecame very famous, first rose into prominence in a series of toughstruggles to thwart the French designs. The points of collision betweenthe two nations were so sharp, feeling on either side was so bitter, the contending interests were so incapable of being reconciled, that itwas plain to all that another great war was bound to break out, andthat sea power would play a very important part in the issue. The youngLaperouse wanted to go to sea, and his father wanted him to distinguishhimself and confer lustre on his name. The choice of a calling for him, therefore, suited all the parties concerned. 

He was a boy of fifteen when, in November, 1756, he entered the Marineservice as a royal cadet. He had not long to wait before tasting"delight of battle, " for the expected war was declared in May, andbefore he was much older he was in the thick of it. 

Chapter II. 

THE FRENCH NAVAL OFFICER. 

Laperouse first obtained employment in the French navy in the CELEBRE, from March to November, 1757. From this date until his death, thirty-one years later, he was almost continuously engaged, duringpeace and war, in the maritime service of his country. The officiallist of his appointments contains only one blank year, 1764. He hadthen experienced close upon seven years of continuous sea fighting andhad served in as many ships: the CELEBRE, the POMONE, the ZEPHIR, theCERF, the FORMIDABLE, the ROBUSTE, and the SIX CORPS. But the peace ofParis was signed in the early part of 1763. After that, having beenpromoted to the rank of ensign, he had a rest. 

It was not a popular peace on either side. In Paris there was a currentphrase, "BETE COMME LA PAIX, " stupid as the peace. In England, thegreat Pitt was so indignant on account of its conditions that, allswollen and pinched with gout as he was, he had himself carried to theHouse of Commons, his limbs blanketted in bandages and his facecontorted with pain, and, leaning upon a crutch, denounced it in aspeech lasting three hours and forty minutes. The people cheered him tothe echo when he came out to his carriage, and the vote favourable tothe terms of the treaty was carried by wholesale corruption. Butall the same, Great Britain did very well out of it, and bothcountries--though neither was satisfied--were for the time being tiredof war. 

For Laperouse the seven years had been full of excitement. The mostmemorable engagement in which he took part was a very celebrated one, in November, 1759. A stirring ballad has been written about it by HenryNewbolt:--

 "In seventeen hundred and fifty-nine When Hawke came swooping from the West, The French King's admiral with twenty of the line Came sailing forth to sack us out of Brest. "

Laperouse's ship, the FORMIDABLE, was one of the French fleet oftwenty-one sail. What happened was this. The French foreign minister, Choiseul, had hatched a crafty plan for the invasion of England, butbefore it could be executed the British fleet had to be cleared out ofthe way. There was always that tough wooden wall with the hearts of oakbehind it, standing solidly in the path. It baffled Napoleon in thesame fashion when he thought out an invasion plan in the next century. The French Admiral, Conflans, schemed to lure Sir Edward Hawke intoQuiberon Bay, on the coast of Brittany. A strong westerly gale wasblowing and was rapidly swelling into a raging tempest. Conflans, piloted by a reliable guide who knew the Bay thoroughly, intended totake up a fairly safe, sheltered position on the lee side, and hopedthat the wind would force Hawke, who was not familiar with theground, on to the reefs and shoals, where his fleet would be destroyedby the storm and the French guns together. But Hawke, whose namesignally represents the bold, swift, sure character of the man, understood the design, took the risk, avoided the danger, and clutchedthe prey. Following the French as rapidly as wind and canvas could takehim, he caught their rearmost vessels, smashed them up, battered thewhole fleet successively into flight or splinters, and himself lostonly two vessels, which ran upon a shoal. Plodding prose does scantjustice to the extraordinary brilliancy of Hawke's victory, describedby Admiral Mahan as "the Trafalgar of this war. " We cannot pass onwithout quoting one of Mr. Newbolt's graphic verses:--

 "'Twas long past the noon of a wild November day When Hawke came swooping from the west; He heard the breakers thundering in Quiberon Bay, But he flew the flag for battle, line abreast. Down upon the quicksands, roaring out of sight, Fiercely blew the storm wind, darkly fell the night, For they took the foe for pilot and the cannon's glare for light, When Hawke came swooping from the West. "

"They took the foe for pilot:" that is a most excellent touch, bothpoetical and true. 

The FORMIDABLE was the first to be disposed of in the fight. She was an80-gun line-of-battle ship, carrying the flag of Admiral duVerger. Her position being in the rear of the squadron, she was earlyengaged by the RESOLUTION, and in addition received the full broadsideof every other British ship that passed her. The Admiral fell mortallywounded, and two hundred on board were killed. She struck her coloursat four o'clock after receiving a terrible battering, and was the onlyFrench ship captured by Hawke's fleet. All the others were sunk, burnt, or beached, or else escaped. The young Laperouse was amongst thewounded, though his hurts were not dangerous; and, after a brief periodspent in England as a prisoner of war, he returned to service. 

An amusing rhyme in connection with this engagement is worth recalling. Supplies for Hawke's fleet did not come to hand for a considerable timeafter they were due, and in consequence the victorious crews had to beput on "short commons. " Some wag--it is the way of the British sailorto do his grumbling with a spice of humour--put the case thus:--

 "Ere Hawke did bang Monsieur Conflans, You sent us beef and beer; Now Monsieur's beat We've nought to eat, Since you have nought to fear. "

An interesting coincidence must also be noted. Thirty-five years later, only a few leagues from the place where Laperouse first learntwhat it meant to fight the British on the sea, another young officerwho was afterwards greatly concerned with Australasian exploration hadhis introduction to naval warfare. It was in 1794 that MidshipmanMatthew Flinders, on the BELLEROPHON, Captain Pasley, played hisvaliant little part in a great fleet action off Brest. Both of theseyouths, whose longing was for exploration and discovery, and who areremembered by mankind in that connection, were cradled on the seaamidst the smoke and flame of battle, both in the same waters. 

During the next twenty-five years Laperouse saw a considerable amountof fighting in the East and West Indies, and in Canadian waters. He wascommander of the AMAZON, under D'Estaing, during a period when eventsdid not shape themselves very gloriously for British arms, not becauseour admirals had lost their skill and nerve, or our seamen their gritand courage, but because Governments at home muddled, squabbled, starved the navy, misunderstood the problem, and generally made a messof things. We need not follow him through the details of these years, but simply note that Laperouse's dash and good seamanship won him ahigh reputation among French naval officers, and brought him under theeye of the authorities who afterwards chose him to command anexpedition of discovery. 

One incident must be recorded, because it throws a light on thecharacter of Laperouse. In 1782, whilst serving under AdmiralLatouche-Treville in the West, he was ordered to destroy the Britishforts on the Hudson River. He attacked them with the SCEPTRE, 74 guns. The British had been engaged in their most unfortunate war with theAmerican Colonies, and in 1781, in consequence of wretchedly badstrategy, had lost command of the sea. The French had been helping therevolted Americans, not for love of them, but from enmity to theirrivals. After the capitulation of the British troops at Yorktown, anumber of loyalists still held out under discouraging conditions inCanada, and the French desired to dislodge them from the importantwaterway of the Hudson. 

Laperouse found little difficulty in fulfilling his mission, for thedefence was weak and the garrisons of the forts, after a briefresistance, fled to the woods. It was then that he did a thingdescribed in our principal naval history as an act of "kindness andhumanity, rare in the annals of war. " Laperouse knew that if he totallydestroyed the stores as well as the forts, the unfortunate British, after he had left, would perish either from hunger or under thetomahawks of the Red Indians. So he was careful to see that the foodand clothing, and a quantity of powder and small arms, were leftuntouched, for, as he nobly said, "An enemy conquered should havenothing more to fear from a civilised foe; he then becomes a friend. "

Some readers may like to see the verses in which a French poethas enshrined this incident. For their benefit they are appended:--

 "Un jour ayant appris que les Anglais en fuite Se cachaient dans un bois redoutant la poursuite, Tu laissas sur la plage aux soldats affames, Par la peur affoles, en haillons, desarmes, Des vivres abondantes, des habits et des armes; Tu t'eloignas apres pour calmer leurs alarmes, Et quand on s'etonnait: 'Sachez qu' un ennemi Vaincu n'a rien a craindre, et devient un ami. '"

The passage may be rendered in English thus: "One day, having heardthat the fleeing English were hidden in a forest dreading pursuit, youleft upon the shore for those soldiers--famished, ragged, disarmed, and paralysed by fear--abundance of food, clothes and arms; then, tocalm their fears, you removed your forces to a distance; and, whenastonishment was expressed, you said: 'Understand that a beaten enemyhas nothing to fear from us, and becomes a friend. '"

Chapter III. 

THE LOVE STORY OF LAPEROUSE. 

"My story is a romance"--"Mon histoire est un roman"--wrote Laperousein relating the events with which this chapter will deal. We have seenhim as a boy; we have watched him in war; we shall presently follow himas a navigator. But it is just as necessary to read his charming lovestory, if we are to understand his character. We should have no trueidea of him unless we knew how he bore himself amid perplexities thatmight have led him to quote, as peculiarly appropriate to his own case, the lines of Shakespeare:--

 "Ay me! for ought that ever I could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth, "

During the period of his service in the East Indies, Laperousefrequently visited Ile-de-France (which is now a British possession, called Mauritius). Then it was the principal naval station of theFrench in the Indian Ocean. There he met a beautiful girl, the daughterof one of the subordinate officials at Port Louis. Louise EleonoreBroudou is said to have been "more than pretty"; she was distinguishedby grace of manner, charm of disposition, and fine, cultivatedcharacter. The young officer saw her often, admired her much, fell in love with her, and asked her to marry him. Mademoiselle lovedhim too; and if they two only had had to be consulted, the happy unionof a well-matched pair might have followed soon. 

It signified little to Laperouse, in love, that the lady had neitherrank nor fortune. But his family in France took quite a different view. He wrote to a favourite sister, telling her about it, and she lost notime in conveying the news to his parents. This was in 1775. Then thetrouble began. 

Inasmuch as he was over thirty years of age at this time, it may bethought that he might have been left to choose a wife for himself. Buta young officer of rank in France, under the Old Regime, was not sofree in these matters as he would be nowadays. Marriage was much morethan a personal affair. It was even more than a family affair. Peopleof rank did not so much marry as "make alliances"--or rather, submitto having them made for them. It was quite a regular thing for amarriage to be arranged by the families of two young people who hadnever even seen each other. An example of that kind will appearpresently. 

The idea that the Comte de Laperouse, one of the smartest officers inthe French King's navy, should marry out of his rank and station, shocked his relatives and friends as much as it would have done if hehad been detected picking pockets. He could not, without grave risk ofsocial and professional ruin, marry until he had obtained theconsent of his father, and--so naval regulations required--of hisofficial superiors. Both were firmly refused. Monsieur de Ternay, whocommanded on the Ile-de-France station, shook his wise head, and toldthe lover "that his love fit would pass, and that people did notconsole themselves for being poor with the fact that they weremarried. " (This M. De Ternay, it may be noted, had commanded a Frenchsquadron in Canada in 1762, and James Cook was a junior officer on theBritish squadron which blockaded him in St. John's Harbour. He managedto slip out one night, much to the disgust of Colville, the BritishAdmiral, who commented scathingly on his "shameful flight. ")

The father of Laperouse poured out his forbidding warnings in a longletter. Listen to the "tut-tut" of the old gentleman at Albi:--

"You make me tremble, my son. How can you face with coolness theconsequences of a marriage which would bring you into disgrace with theMinister and would lose you the assistance of powerful friends? Youwould forfeit the sympathies of your colleagues and would sacrifice thefruit of your work during twenty years. In disgracing yourself youwould humiliate your family and your parents. You would prepare foryourself nothing but remorse; you would sacrifice your fortune andposition to a frivolous fancy for beauty and to pretended charms whichperhaps exist only in your own imagination. Neither honour nor probitycompels you to meet ill-considered engagements that you may havemade with that person or with her parents. Do they or you know that youare not free, that you are under my authority?" He went on to draw apicture of the embarrassments that would follow such a marriage, andthen there is a passage revealing the cash-basis aspect of the oldgentleman's objection: "You say that there are forty officers in theMarine who have contracted marriages similar to that which you proposeto make. You have better models to follow, and in any case what waslacking on the side of birth, in these instances, was compensated byfortune. Without that balance they would not have had the baseness andimprudence to marry thus. " Poor Eleonore had no compensating balance ofthat kind in her favour. She was only beautiful, charming andsweet-natured. Therefore, "tut-tut, my son!"

In the course of the next few months Laperouse covered himself withglory by his services on the AMAZON, the ASTREE, and the SCEPTRE, andhe hoped that these exploits would incline his father to accede to hisardent wish. But no; the old gentleman was as hard as a rock. He"tut-tutted" with as much vigour as ever. The lovers had to wait. 

Then his mother, full of love for her son and of pride in hisachievements, took a hand, and tried to arrange a more suitable matchfor him. An old friend of the family, Madame de Vesian had amarriageable daughter. She was rich and beautiful, and her lineage wasnoble. She had never seen Laperouse, and he had never seen her, but that was an insignificant detail in France under the old Regime. Ifthe parents on each side thought the marriage suitable, that wasenough. The wishes of the younger people concerned were, it is true, consulted before the betrothal, but it was often a consultation merelyin form, and under pressure. We should think that way of makingmarriages most unsatisfactory; but then, a French family of position inthe old days would have thought our freer system very shocking andloose. It is largely a matter of usage; and that the old plan, whichseems so faulty to us, produced very many happy and lasting unions, there is much delightful French family history to prove. 

Laperouse had now been many months away from Ile-de-France and thebright eyes of Eleonore. He was extremely fond of his mother, andanxious to meet her wishes. Moreover, he held Madame de Vesian in highesteem, and wrote that he "had always admired her, and felt sure thather daughter resembled her. " These influences swayed him, and he gaveway; but, being frank and honest by disposition, insisted that nosecret should be made of his affair of the heart with the lady acrossthe sea. He wrote to Madame de Vesian a candid letter, in which hesaid:--

"Being extremely sensitive, I should be the most unfortunate of men ifI were not beloved by my wife, if I had not her complete confidence, ifher life amongst her friends and children did not render herperfectly happy. I desire one day to regard you as a mother, and to-dayI open my heart to you as my best friend. I authorise my mother torelate to you my old love affair. My heart has always been a romance(MON COEUR A TOUJOURS ETE UN ROMAN); and the more I sacrificed prudenceto those whom I loved the happier I was. But I cannot forget therespect that I owe to my parents and to their wishes. I hope that in alittle while I shall be free. If then I have a favourable reply fromyou, and if I can make your daughter happy and my character isapproved, I shall fly to Albi and embrace you a thousand times. I shallnot distinguish you from my mother and my sisters. "

He also wrote to Monsieur de Vesian, begging him not to interfere withthe free inclinations of his daughter, and to remember that "in orderto be happy there must be no repugnance to conquer. I have, however, "he added, "an affair to terminate which does not permit me to disposeof myself entirely. My mother will tell you the details. I hope to befree in six weeks or two months. My happiness will then beinexpressible if I obtain your consent and that of Madame de Vesian, with the certainty of not having opposed the wishes of Mademoiselle, your daughter. "

"I hope to be free"--did he "hope"? That was his polite way of puttingthe matter. Or he may have believed that he had conquered his love forEleonore Broudou, and that she, as a French girl who understood hisobligations to his family, would--perhaps after making a fewhandkerchiefs damp with her tears--acquiesce. 

So the negotiations went on, and at length, in May, 1783, the de Vesianfamily accepted Laperouse as the fiance of their daughter. "My projectis to live with my family and yours, " he wrote. "I hope that my wifewill love my mother and my sisters, as I feel that I shall love you andyours. Any other manner of existence is frightful to me, and I havesufficient knowledge of the world and of myself to know that I can onlybe happy in living thus. "

But in the very month that he wrote contracting himself--that isprecisely the word--to marry the girl he had never seen, Eleonore, thegirl whom he had seen, whom he had loved, and whom he still loved inhis heart, came to Paris with her parents. Laperouse saw her again. Hetold her what had occurred. Of course she wept; what girl would not?She said, between her sobs, that if it was to be all over between themshe would go into a convent. She could never marry anyone else. 

"Mon histoire est un roman, " and here beginneth the new chapter of thisreal love story. Why, we wonder, has not some novelist discovered theseLaperouse letters and founded a tale upon them? Is it not a betterstory even told in bare outline in these few pages, than nine-tenths ofthe concoctions of the novelists, which are sold in thousands? Think ofthe wooing of these two delightful people, the beautiful girl and thegallant sailor, in the ocean isle, with its tropical perfumes andcolours, its superb mountain and valley scenery, bathed ineternal sunshine by day and kissed by cool ocean breezes by night--theisle of Paul and Virginia, the isle which to Alexandre Dumas was theParadise of the World, an enchanted oasis of the ocean, "all carpetedwith greenery and refreshed with cooling streams, where, no matter whatthe season, you may gently sink asleep beneath the shade of palms andjamrosades, soothed by the babbling of a crystal spring. "

Think of how he must have entertained and thrilled her with accounts ofhis adventures: of storms, of fights with the terrible English, of thechasing of corsairs and the battering of the fleets of Indian princes. Think of her open-eyed wonder, and of the awakening of love in herheart; and then of her dread, lest after all, despite his consolingwords and soft assurances, he, the Comte, the officer, should beforbidden to marry her, the maiden who had only her youth, her beauty, and her character, but no rank, no fortune, to win favour from theproud people who did not know her. The author is at all events certainof this: that if the letters had seen the light before old AlexandreDumas died, he would have pounced upon them with glee, and would havewritten around them a romance that all the world would have rejoiced toread. 

But while we think of what the novelists have missed, we are neglectingthe real story, the crisis of which we have now reached. 

Seeing Eleonore again, his sensitive heart deeply moved by her sorrow, Laperouse took a manly resolution. He would marry her despiteall obstacles. He had promised her at her home in Ile-de-France. Hewould keep his promise. He would not spoil her beautiful young lifeeven for his family. 

But there was the contract concerning Mademoiselle de Vesian. What ofthat? Clearly Laperouse was in a fix. Well, a man who has been overtwenty-five years at sea has been in a fix many times, and learns thata bold face and tact are good allies. Remembering the nature of hissituation, it will be agreed that the letter he wrote to his mother, announcing his resolve, was a model of good taste and fine feeling:

"I have seen Eleonore, and I have not been able to resist the remorseby which I am devoured. My excessive attachment to you had made meviolate all that which is most sacred among men. I forgot the vows ofmy heart, the cries of my conscience. I was in Paris for twenty days, and, faithful to my promise to you, I did not go to see her. But Ireceived a letter from her. She made no reproach against me, but themost profound sentiment of sadness was expressed in it. At the instantof reading it the veil fell from my eyes. My situation filled me withhorror. I am no better in my own eyes than a perjurer, unworthy ofMademoiselle de Vesian, to whom I brought a heart devoured by remorseand by a passion that nothing could extinguish. I was equally unworthyof Mademoiselle Broudou, and wished to leave her. My only excuse, my dear mother, is the extreme desire I have always had toplease you. It is for you alone, and for my father, that I wished tomarry. Desiring to live with you for the remainder of my life, Iconsented to your finding me a wife with whom I could abide. The choiceof Mademoiselle de Vesian had overwhelmed me, because her mother is awoman for whom I have a true attachment; and Heaven is my witnessto-day that I should have preferred her daughter to the most brilliantmatch in the universe. It is only four days since I wrote to her on thesubject. How can I reconcile my letter with my present situation? But, my dear mother, it would be feebleness in me to go further with theengagement. I have doubtless been imprudent in contracting anengagement without your consent, but I should be a monster if Iviolated my oaths and married Mademoiselle de Vesian. I do not doubtthat you tremble at the abyss over which you fear that I am about tofall, but I feel that I can only live with Eleonore, and I hope thatyou will give your consent to our union. My fortune will suffice forour wants, and we shall live near you. But I shall only come to Albiwhen Mademoiselle de Vesian shall be married, and when I can be surethat another, a thousand times more worthy than I am, shall have swornto her an attachment deeper than that which it was in my power tooffer. I shall write neither to Madame nor Monsieur de Vesian. Join toyour other kindnesses that of undertaking this painful commission. "

There was no mistaking the firm, if regretful tone, of thatletter; and Laperouse married his Eleonore at Paris. 

Did Mademoiselle de Vesian break her heart because her sailor fiancehad wed another? Not at all! She at once became engaged to the Baron deSenegas--had she seen him beforehand, one wonders?--and married himin August! Laperouse was prompt to write his congratulations to herparents, and it is diverting to find him saying, concerning the lady towhom he himself had been engaged only a few weeks before, that heregretted "never having had the honour of seeing her!"

But there was still another difficulty to be overcome before Laperouseand his happy young bride could feel secure. He had broken a regulationof the service by marrying without official sanction. True, he hadtalked of settling down at Albi, but that was when he thought he wasgoing to marry a young lady whom he did not know. Now he had marriedthe girl of his heart; and love, as a rule, does not stifle ambition. Rather are the two mutually co-operative. Eleonore had fallen in lovewith him as a gallant sailor, and a sailor she wanted him still to be. Perhaps, in her dreams, she saw him a great Admiral, commandingpowerful navies and winning glorious victories for France. Madame laComtesse did not wish her husband to end his career because he hadmarried her, be sure of that. 

Here Laperouse did a wise and tactful thing, which showed that heunderstood something of human nature. Nothing interests oldladies so much as the love affairs of young people; and old ladies inFrance at that time exercised remarkable influence in affairs ofgovernment. The Minister of Marine was the Marquis de Castries. Insteadof making a clean breast of matters to him, Laperouse wrote a long anddelightful letter to Madame la Marquise. "Madame, " he said, "monhistoire est un roman, " and he begged her to read it. Of course shedid. What old lady would not? She was a very grand lady indeed, wasMadame la Marquise; but this officer who wrote his heart's story toher, was a dashing hero. He told her how he had fallen in love inIle-de-France; how consent to his marriage had been officially andpaternally refused; how he had tried "to stifle the sentiments whichwere nevertheless remaining at the bottom of my heart. " Would sheintercede with the Minister for him and excuse him?

Of course she would! She was a dear old lady, was Madame la Marquise. Within a few days Laperouse received from the Minister a most paternal, good natured letter, which assured him that his romantic affair shouldnot interfere with his prospects, and concluded: "Enjoy the pleasure ofhaving made someone happy, and the marks of honour and distinction thatyou have received from your fellow citizens. "

Such is the love story of Laperouse. Alas! the marriage did not bringmany years of happiness to poor Eleonore, much as she deserved them. Two years afterwards, her hero sailed away on that expeditionfrom which he never returned. She dwelt at Albi, hoping until hope gaveway to despair, and at last she died, of sheer grief they said, nineyears after the waters of the Pacific had closed over him who had wooedher and wedded her for herself alone. 

Chapter IV. 

THE VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION. 

King Louis XVI of France was as unfortunate a monarch as was ever bornto a throne. Had it been his happier lot to be the son of a farmer, ashopkeeper, or a merchant, he would have passed for an excellent man ofbusiness and a good, solid, sober, intelligent citizen. But heinherited with his crown a system of government too antiquated for thetimes, too repressive for the popular temper to endure, and was notstatesman enough to remodel it to suit the requirements of his people. It was not his fault that he was not a great man; and a great man--aman of large grasp, wide vision, keen sympathies, and penetratingimagination--was needed in France if the social forces at work, theresult of new ideas fermenting in the minds of men and impelling them, were to be directed towards wise and wholesome reform. Failing suchdirection, those forces burst through the restraints of law, custom, authority, loyalty and respect, and produced the most startlingupheaval in modern history, the Great French Revolution. Louis lostboth his crown and his head, the whole system of government wasoverturned, and the way was left open for the masterful mind and strongarm needed to restore discipline and order to the nation: NapoleonBonaparte. 

Louis was very fond of literature. During the sad last months ofhis imprisonment, before the guillotine took his life, he read over 230volumes. He especially liked books of travel and geography, and one ofhis favourite works was the VOYAGES of Cook. He had the volumes nearhim in the last phase of his existence. There is a pleasant drawingrepresenting the King in his prison, with the little Dauphin seated onhis knee, pointing out the countries and oceans on a large geographicalglobe; and he took a pride in having had prepared "for the education ofMonsieur le Dauphin, " a History of the Exploration of the South Seas. It was published in Paris, in three small volumes, in 1791. 

The study of Cook made a deep impression on the King's mind. Why, heasked himself, should not France share in the glory of discovering newlands, and penetrating untraversed seas? There was a large amount ofexploratory work still to be done. English navigators were always busysailing to unknown parts, but the entire world was by no means revealedyet. There were, particularly, big blank spaces at the bottom of theglobe. That country called by the Dutch New Holland, the eastern partof which Cook had found--there was evidently much to be done there. What were the southern coasts like? Was it one big island-continent, orwas it divided into two by a strait running south from the head of theGulf of Carpentaria? Then there was that piece of country discovered bythe Dutchman Tasman, and named Van Diemen's Land. Was it anisland, or did it join on to New Holland? There were also many islandsof the Pacific still to be explored and correctly charted, the map ofEastern Asia was imperfect, and the whole of the coastline ofNorth-Western America was not accurately known. 

The more Louis turned the matter over in his mind, the more he studiedhis globes, maps and books of voyages, the more convinced he was thatFrance, as a maritime nation and a naval Power, ought to play animportant part in this grand work of unveiling to mankind the fullextent, form, nature and resources of our planet. 

He sent for a man whose name the Australian reader should particularlynote, because he had much to do with three important discovery voyagesaffecting our history. Charles Claret, Comte de Fleurieu, was theprincipal geographer in France. He was at this time director of portsand arsenals. He had throughout his life been a keen student ofnavigation, was a practical sailor, invented a marine chronometer whichwas a great improvement on clocks hitherto existing, devised a methodof applying the metric system to the construction of marine charts, andwrote several works on his favourite subject. A large book of his ondiscoveries in Papua and the Solomon Islands is still of muchimportance. 

As a French writer--an expert in this field of knowledge--has writtenof Fleurieu, "he it was who prepared nearly all the plans for navaloperations during the war of 1778, and the instructions for thevoyages of discovery--those of Laperouse and Dentrecasteaux--forwhich Louis XVI had given general directions; and to whose wise andwell-informed advice is due in large part the utility derived fromthem. " It was chiefly because of Fleurieu's knowledge of geography thatthe King chose him to be the tutor of the Dauphin; and in 1790 hebecame Minister of Marine. 

Louis XVI and Fleurieu talked the subject over together; and thelatter, at the King's command, drew up a long memorandum indicating theparts of the globe where an expedition of discovery might mostprofitably apply itself. 

The King decided (1785) that a voyage should be undertaken; two shipsof the navy, LA BOUSSOLE and L'ASTROLABE, were selected for thepurpose; and, on the recommendation of the Marquis de Castries--rememberMadame la Marquise!--Laperouse was chosen for the command. 

All three of the men who ordered, planned and executed the voyage, theKing, the scholar, and the officer, were devoted students of the workand writings of Cook; and copies of his VOYAGES, in French and English, were placed in the library of navigation carried on board the ships forthe edification of the officers and crews. Over and over again in theinstructions prepared--several times on a page in some places--appearreferences to what Cook had done, and to what Cook had left to be done;showing that both King Louis and Fleurieu knew his voyages andcharts, not merely as casual readers, but intimately. As for Laperousehimself, his admiration of Cook has already been mentioned; here it maybe added that when, before he sailed, Sir Joseph Banks presented himwith two magnetic needles that had been used by Cook, he wrote that he"received them with feelings bordering almost upon religious venerationfor the memory of that great and incomparable navigator. " So that, wesee, the extent of our great sailor's influence is not to be measuredeven by his discoveries and the effect of his writings upon his owncountrymen. He radiated a magnetic force which penetrated far; down toour own day it has by no means lost its stimulating energy. 

In the picture gallery at the Palace of Versailles, there is an oilpainting by Mansiau, a copy of which may be seen in the MitchellLibrary, Sydney. It is called "Louis XVI giving instructions toMonsieur de Laperouse for his voyage around the world. " An Australianstatesman who saw it during a visit to Paris a few years ago, confessedpublicly on his return to his own country that he gazed long upon it, and recognised it as being "of the deepest interest to Australians. " Soindeed it is. A photograph of the picture is given here. 

The instructions were of course prepared by Fleurieu: anyone familiarwith his writings can see plenty of internal evidence of that. ButLouis was not a little vain of his own geographical knowledge, and hegave a special audience to Laperouse, explaining the instructionsverbally before handing them to him in writing. 

They are admirably clear instructions, indicating a full knowledge ofthe work of preceding navigators and of the parts of the earth wherediscovery needed to be pursued. Their defect was that they expected toomuch to be done on one voyage. Let us glance over them, devotingparticular attention to the portions affecting Australasia. 

The ships were directed to sail across the Atlantic and round CapeHorn, visiting certain specified places on the way. In the Pacific theywere to visit Easter Island, Tahiti, the Society Islands, the Friendlyand Navigator groups, and New Caledonia. "He will pass Endeavour Straitand in this passage will try to ascertain whether the land of Louisiade(the Louisiade Archipelago), be contiguous to that of New Guinea, andwill reconnoitre all this part of the coast from Cape Deliverance tothe Island of St. Barthelomew, east-northeast of Cape Walsh, of whichat present we have a very imperfect knowledge. It is much to be wishedthat he may be able to examine the Gulf of Carpentaria. "

He was then to explore the western shores of New Holland. "He will rundown the western coast and take a closer view of the southern, thegreater part of which has never been visited, finishing his survey atVan Diemen's Land, at Adventure Bay or Prince Frederick Henry's, whencehe will make sail for Cook's Strait, and anchor in QueenCharlotte's Sound, in that Strait, between the two islands whichconstitute New Zealand. "

That direction is especially important, because if Laperouse had notperished, but had lived to carry out his programme, it is evident thathe would have forestalled the later discoveries of Bass and Flinders insouthern Australia. What a vast difference to the later course ofhistory that might have made!

After leaving New Zealand he was to cross the Pacific to the north-westcoast of America. The programme included explorations in the China Sea, at the Philippines, the Moluccas and Timor, and contemplated a returnto France in July or August, 1789, after a voyage of about three years. 

But although his course was mapped out in such detail, discretion wasleft to Laperouse to vary it if he thought fit. "All the calculationsof which a sketch is given here must be governed by the circumstancesof the voyage, the condition of the crews, ships and provisions, theevents that may occur in the expedition and accidents which it isimpossible to foresee. His Majesty, therefore, relying on theexperience and judgment of the sieur de Laperouse, authorises him tomake any deviation that he may deem necessary, in unforeseen cases, pursuing, however, as far as possible, the plan traced out, andconforming to the directions given in the other parts of the presentinstructions. "

A separate set of instructions had regard to observations to be made byLaperouse upon the political conditions, possibilities of commerce, andsuitability for settlement, of the lands visited by him. In thePacific, he was to inquire "whether the cattle, fowls, and otheranimals which Captain Cook left on some of the islands have bred. " Hewas to examine attentively "the north and west coasts of New Holland, and particularly that part of the coast which, being situated in thetorrid zone, may enjoy some of the productions peculiar to countries insimilar latitudes. " In New Zealand he was to ascertain "whether theEnglish have formed or entertain the project of forming any settlementon these islands; and if he should hear that they have actually formeda settlement, he will endeavour to repair thither in order to learn thecondition, strength and object of the settlement. "

It is singular that the instructions contain no reference to BotanyBay. It was the visit paid by Laperouse to this port that brought himinto touch with Australian history. Yet his call there was made purelyin the exercise of his discretion. He was not directed to pay anyattention to eastern Australia. When he sailed the French Governmentknew nothing of the contemplated settlement of New South Wales by theBritish; and he only heard of it in the course of his voyage. Indeed, it is amazing how little was known of Australia at the time. "We havenothing authentic or sufficiently minute respecting this part of thelargest island on the globe, " said the instructions concerning thenorthern and western coasts; but there was not a word about the easternshores. 

The reader who reflects upon the facts set forth in this chapterwill realise that the French Revolution, surprising as the statementmay seem, affected Australian history in a remarkable way. If Louis XVIhad not been dethroned and beheaded, but had remained King of France, there cannot be any doubt that he would have persisted in theinvestigation of the South Seas. He was deeply interested in thesubject, very well informed about it, and ambitious that his countryshould be a great maritime and colonising Power. But the Revolutionslew Louis, plunged France in long and disastrous wars, and broughtNapoleon to the front. The whole course of history was diverted. It wasas if a great river had been turned into a fresh channel. 

If the navigator of the French King had discovered southern Australia, and settlement had followed, it is not to be supposed that GreatBritain would have opposed the plans of France; for Australia then wasnot the Australia that we know, and England had very little use evenfor the bit she secured. Unthinking people might suppose that theFrench Revolution meant very little to us. Indeed, unthinking peopleare very apt to suppose that we can go our own way without regardingwhat takes place elsewhere. They do not realise that the world is one, and that the policies of nations interact upon each other. In point offact, the Revolution meant a great deal to Australia. This country is, indeed, an island far from Europe, but the threads of her history areentwined with those of European history in a very curious andoften intricate fashion. The French Revolution and the era of Napoleon, if we understand their consequences, really concern us quite as muchas, say, the gold discoveries and the accomplishment of Federation. 

Chapter V. 

THE EARLY PART OF THE VOYAGE. 

The expedition sailed from Brest rather sooner than had at first beencontemplated, on August 1, 1785, and doubled Cape Horn in January ofthe following year. Some weeks were spent on the coast of Chili; andthe remarks of Laperouse concerning the manners of the Spanish rulersof the country cover some of his most entertaining pages. He has an eyefor the picturesque, a kindly feeling for all well-disposed people, apleasant touch in describing customs, and shrewd judgment in estimatingcharacter. These qualities make him an agreeable writer of travels. They are fairly illustrated by the passages in which he describes thepeople of the city of Concepcion. Take his account of the ladies:

"The dress of these ladies, extremely different from what we have beenaccustomed to see, consists of a plaited petticoat, tied considerablybelow the waist; stockings striped red, blue and white; and shoes soshort that the toes are bent under the ball of the foot so as to makeit appear nearly round. Their hair is without powder and is dividedinto small braids behind, hanging over the shoulders. Their bodice isgenerally of gold or silver stuff, over which there are two shortcloaks, that underneath of muslin and the other of wool of differentcolours, blue, yellow and pink. The upper one is drawn over thehead when they are in the streets and the weather is cold; but withindoors it is usual to place it on their knees; and there is a gameplayed with the muslin cloak by continually shifting it about, in whichthe ladies of Concepcion display considerable grace. They are for themost part handsome, and of so polite and pleasing manners that there iscertainly no maritime town in Europe where strangers are received withso much attention and kindness. "

At this city Laperouse met the adventurous Irishman, Ambrose O'Higgins, who by reason of his conspicuous military abilities became commander ofthe Spanish forces in Chili, and afterwards Viceroy of Peru. His nameoriginally was simply Higgins, but he prefixed the "O" when heblossomed into a Spanish Don, "as being more aristocratic. " He was thefather of the still more famous Bernardo O'Higgins, "the Washington ofChili, " who led the revolt against Spanish rule and became firstpresident of the Chilian Republic in 1818. Laperouse at once conceivedan attachment for O'Higgins, "a man of extraordinary activity, " and one"adored in the country. "

In April, 1786, the expedition was at Easter Island, where theinhabitants appeared to be a set of cunning and hypocritical thieves, who "robbed us of everything which it was possible for them to carryoff. " Steering north, the Sandwich Islands were reached early in May. Here Laperouse liked the people, "though my prejudices werestrong against them on account of the death of Captain Cook. " A passagein the commander's narrative gives his opinion on the annexation of thecountries of native races by Europeans, and shows that, in common withvery many of his countrymen, he was much influenced by the ideas ofRousseau, then an intellectual force in France--

"Though the French were the first who, in modern times, had landed onthe island of Mowee, I did not think it my duty to take possession inthe name of the King. The customs of Europeans on such occasions arecompletely ridiculous. Philosophers must lament to see that men, for nobetter reason than because they are in possession of firearms andbayonets, should have no regard for the rights of sixty thousand oftheir fellow creatures, and should consider as an object of conquest aland fertilised by the painful exertions of its inhabitants, and formany ages the tomb of their ancestors. These islands have fortunatelybeen discovered at a period when religion no longer serves as a pretextfor violence and rapine. Modern navigators have no other object indescribing the manners of remote nations than that of completing thehistory of man; and the knowledge they endeavour to diffuse has for itssole aim to render the people they visit more happy, and to augmenttheir means of subsistence. "

If Laperouse could see the map of the Pacific to-day he would find itsgroups of islands all enclosed within coloured rings, indicatingpossession by the great Powers of the world. He would be puzzledand pained by the change. But the history of the political movementsleading to the parcelling out of seas and lands among strong Stateswould interest him, and he would realise that the day of feebleisolation has gone. Nothing would make him marvel more than thefloating of the Stars and Stripes over Hawaii, for he knew that flagduring the American War of Independence. It was adopted as the flag ofthe United States in 1777, and during the campaign the golden lilies ofthe standard of France fluttered from many masts in co-operation withit. Truly a century and a quarter has brought about a wonderful change, not only in the face of the globe and in the management of its affairs, but still more radically in the ideas of men and in the motives thatsway their activities!

The geographical work done by Laperouse in this part of the Pacific wasof much importance. It removed from the chart five or six islands whichhad no existence, having been marked down erroneously by previousnavigators. From this region the expedition sailed to Alaska, on thenorth-west coast of North America. Cook had explored here "with thatcourage and perseverance of which all Europe knows him to have beencapable, " wrote Laperouse, never failing to use an opportunity ofexpressing admiration for his illustrious predecessor. But there wasstill useful work to do, and the French occupied their time veryprofitably with it from June to August. Then their ships sailed downthe western coast of America to California, struck east acrossthe Pacific to the Ladrones, and made for Macao in China--then as nowa Portugese possession--reaching that port in January, 1787. 

The Philippines were next visited, and Laperouse formed pleasantimpressions of Manilla. It is clear from his way of alluding to thecustoms of the Spanish inhabitants that the French captain was not atobacco smoker. It was surprising to him that "their passion forsmoking this narcotic is so immoderate that there is not an instant ofthe day in which either a man or woman is without a cigar;" and it isequally surprising to us that the French editor of the history of thevoyage found it necessary to explain in a footnote that a cigar is "asmall roll of tobacco which is smoked without the assistance of apipe. " But cigars were then little known in Europe, except amongsailors and travellers who had visited the Spanish colonies; and thevery spelling of the word was not fixed. In English voyages it appearsas "seegar, " "segar, " and "sagar. "

Formosa was visited in April, northern Japan in May, and theinvestigation of the north-eastern coasts of Asia occupied untilOctober. 

A passage in a letter from Laperouse to Fleurieu is worth quoting fortwo reasons. It throws some light on the difficulties of navigation inunknown seas, and upon the commander's severe application to duty; andit also serves to remind us that Japan, now so potent a factor in thepolitics of the East and of the whole Pacific, had not then emergedfrom the barbarian exclusiveness towards foreigners, which shehad maintained since Europe commenced to exploit Asia. In the middle ofthe seventeenth century she had expelled the Spaniards and thePortugese with much bloodshed, and had closed her ports to all tradersexcept the Chinese and the Dutch, who were confined to a prescribedarea at Nagasaki. Intercourse with all other foreign peoples wasstrictly forbidden. Even as late as 1842 it was commanded that if anyforeign vessel were driven by distress or tempestuous weather into aJapanese port, she might only remain so long as was necessary to meether wants, and must then depart. Laperouse knew of this jealousJapanese antipathy to foreign visitors, and, as he explains in theletter, meant to keep away from the country because of it. He wrote:--

"The part of our voyage between Manilla and Kamchatka will afford you, I hope, complete satisfaction. It was the newest, the most interesting, and certainly, from the everlasting fogs which enveloped the land inthe latitudes we traversed, the most difficult. These fogs are suchthat it has taken one hundred and fifty days to explore a part of thecoast which Captain King, in the third volume of Cook's last voyage, supposes might be examined in the course of two months. During thisperiod I rested only ten days, three in the Bay of Ternai, two in theBay de Langle, and five in the Bay de Castries. Thus I wasted no time;I even forebore to circumnavigate the island of Chicha (Yezo) bytraversing the Strait of Sangaar (Tsugaru). I should have wished toanchor, if possible, at the northern point of Japan, and would perhapshave ventured to send a boat ashore, though such a proceeding wouldhave required the most serious deliberation, as the boat would probablyhave been stopped. Where a merchant ship is concerned an event of thiskind might be considered as of little importance, but the seizure of aboat belonging to a ship of war could scarcely be otherwise regardedthan as a national insult; and the taking and burning of a few sampanswould be a very sorry compensation as against the people who would notexchange a single European of whom they were desirous of making anexample, for one hundred Japanese. I was, however, too far from thecoast to include such an intention, and it is impossible for me tojudge at present what I should have done had the contrary been thecase. 

"It would be difficult for me to find words to express to you thefatigue attending this part of my voyage, during which I did not onceundress myself, nor did a single night pass without my being obliged tospend several hours upon deck. Imagine to yourself six days of fog withonly two or three hours of clear weather, in seas extremely confined, absolutely unknown, and where fancy, in consequence of the informationwe had received, pictured to us shoals and currents that did not alwaysexist. From the place where we made the land on the eastern coast ofTartary, to the strait which we discovered between Tchoka(Saghalien) and Chicha, we did not fail to take the bearing of everypoint, and you may rest assured that neither creek, port, nor riverescaped our attention, and that many charts, even of the coasts ofEurope, are less exact than those which we shall bring with us on ourreturn. "

"The strait which we discovered" is still called Laperouse Strait onmost modern maps, though the Japanese usually call it Soya Strait. Itruns between Yezo, the large northerly island of Japan, and Saghalien. Current maps also show the name Boussole Strait, after Laperouse'sship, between Urup and Simusir, two of the Kurile chain of smallislands curving from Yezo to the thumblike extremity of Kamchatka. 

At Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka the drawings of the artists and thejournals of the commander up to date were packed up, and sent to Franceoverland across Asiatic Russia, in charge of a young member of thestaff, J. B. B. De Lesseps. He was the only one of the expedition whoever returned to Europe. By not coming to Australia he saved his life. He published a book about his journey, a remarkable feat of land travelin those days. He was the uncle of a man whose remarkable engineeringwork has made Australia's relations with Europe much easier and morespeedy than they were in earlier years: that Ferdinand de Lesseps who(1859-69) planned and carried out the construction of the Suez Canal. The ships, after replenishing, sailed for the south Pacific, where we shall follow the proceedings of Laperouse in rather closerdetail than has been considered necessary in regard to the American andAsiatic phases of the voyage. 

Chapter VI. 

LAPEROUSE IN THE PACIFIC. 

On the 6th December, 1787, the expedition made the eastern end of theNavigator Islands, that is, the Samoan Group. As the ships approached, a party of natives were observed squatting under cocoanut trees. Presently sixteen canoes put off from the land, and their occupants, after paddling round the vessels distrustfully, ventured to approachand proffer cocoanuts in exchange for strings of beads and strips ofred cloth. The natives got the better of the bargain, for, when theyhad received their price, they hurried off without delivering their owngoods. Further on, an old chief delivered an harangue from the shore, holding a branch of Kava in his hand. "We knew from what we had read ofseveral voyages that it was a token of peace; and throwing him somepieces of cloth we answered by the word 'TAYO, ' which signified'friend' in the dialect of the South Sea Islands; but we were notsufficiently experienced to understand and pronounce distinctly thewords of the vocabularies we had extracted from Cook. "

Nearly all the early navigators made a feature of compilingvocabularies of native words, and Cook devoted particular care to thistask. Dr. Walter Roth, formerly protector of Queensland aboriginalsa trained observer, has borne testimony as recently as last year(in THE TIMES, December 29, 1911) that a list of words collected fromEndeavour Strait blacks, and "given by Captain Cook, are all more orless recognisable at the present day. " But Cook's spellings wereintended to be pronounced in the English mode. Laperouse and hiscompanions by giving the vowels French values would hardly be likely tomake the English navigator's vocabularies intelligible. 

The native canoes amused the French captain. They "could be of use onlyto people who are expert swimmers, for they are constantly turned over. This is an accident, however, at which they feel less surprise andanxiety than we should at a hat's blowing off. They lift the canoe ontheir shoulders, and after they have emptied it of the water, get intoit again, well assured that they will have the same operation toperform within half an hour, for it is as difficult to preserve abalance in these ticklish things as to dance upon a rope. "

At Mauna Island (now called Tutuila) some successful bargaining wasdone with glass beads in exchange for pork and fruits. It surprisedLaperouse that the natives chose these paltry ornaments rather thanhatchets and tools. "They preferred a few beads which could be of noutility, to anything we could offer them in iron or cloth. "

Two days later a tragedy occurred at this island, when Captain deLangle, the commander of the ASTROLABE, and eleven of the crew weremurdered. He made an excursion inland to look for fresh water, and found a clear, cool spring in the vicinity of a village. The shipswere not urgently in need of water, but de Langle "had embraced thesystem of Cook, and thought fresh water a hundred times preferable towhat had been some time in the hold. As some of his crew had slightsymptoms of scurvy, he thought, with justice, that we owed them everymeans of alleviation in our power. Besides, no island could be comparedwith this for abundance of provisions. The two ships had alreadyprocured upwards of 500 hogs, with a large quantity of fowls, pigeonsand fruits; and all these had cost us only a few beads. "

Laperouse himself doubted the prudence of sending a party inland, as hehad observed signs of a turbulent spirit among the islanders. But deLangle insisted on the desirableness of obtaining fresh water where itwas abundant, and "replied to me that my refusal would render meresponsible for the progress of the scurvy, which began to appear withsome violence. " He undertook to go at the head of the party, and, relying on his judgment, the commander consented. 

Two boats left the ship at about noon, and landed their casksundisturbed. But when the party returned they found a crowd of over athousand natives assembled, and a dangerous disposition soon revealeditself amongst them. It is possible that the Frenchmen had, unconsciously, offended against some of their superstitious rites. Certainly they had not knowingly been provoked. They hadpeacefully bartered their fruits and nuts for beads, and had beentreated in a friendly fashion throughout. But the currents of passionthat sweep through the minds of savage peoples baffle analysis. Something had disturbed them; what it was can hardly be surmised. Oneof the officers believed that the gift of some beads to a few, excitedthe envy of the others. It may be so; mere envy plays such a large partin the affairs even of civilised peoples, that we need not wonder tofind it arousing the anger of savages. Laperouse tells what occurred inthese terms:--

"Several canoes, after having sold their ladings of provisions on boardour ships, had returned ashore, and all landed in this bay, so that itwas gradually filled. Instead of two hundred persons, including womenand children, whom M. De Langle found when he arrived at half past one, there were ten or twelve hundred by three o'clock. He succeeded inembarking his water; but the bay was by this time nearly dry, and hecould not hope to get his boats afloat before four o'clock, when thetide would have risen. He stepped into them, however, with hisdetachment, and posted himself in the bow, with his musket and hismarines, forbidding them to fire unless he gave orders. 

"This, he began to realise, he would soon be forced to do. Stones flewabout, and the natives, only up to the knees in water, surrounded theboats within less than three yards. The marines who were in theboats, attempted in vain to keep them off. If the fear of commencinghostilities and being accused of barbarity had not checked M. DeLangle, he would unquestionably have ordered a general discharge of hisswivels and musketry, which no doubt would have dispersed the mob, buthe flattered himself that he could check them without shedding blood, and he fell a victim to his humanity. 

"Presently a shower of stones thrown from a short distance with as muchforce as if they had come from a sling, struck almost every man in theboat. M. De Langle had only time to discharge the two barrels of hispiece before he was knocked down; and unfortunately he fell over thelarboard bow of the boat, where upwards of two hundred nativesinstantly massacred him with clubs and stones. When he was dead, theymade him fast by the arm to one of the tholes of the long boat, nodoubt to secure his spoil. The BOUSSOLE'S long-boat, commanded by M. Boutin, was aground within four yards of the ASTROLABE'S, and parallelwith her, so as to leave a little channel between them, which wasunoccupied by the natives. Through this all the wounded men, who wereso fortunate as not to fall on the other side of the boats, escaped byswimming to the barges, which, happily remaining afloat, were enabledto save forty-nine men out of the sixty-one. "

Amongst the wounded was Pere Receveur, priest, naturalist andshoemaker, who later on died of his injuries at Botany Bay, and whosetomb there is as familiar as the Laperouse monument. 

The anger of the Frenchmen at the treachery of the islanders wasnot less than their grief at the loss of their companions. Laperouse, on the first impulse, was inclined to send a strongly-armed partyashore to avenge the massacre. But two of the officers who had escapedpointed out that in the cove where the incident occurred the trees camedown almost to the sea, affording shelter to the natives, who would beable to shower stones upon the party, whilst themselves remainingbeyond reach of musket balls. 

"It was not without difficulty, " he wrote, "that I could tear myselfaway from this fatal place, and leave behind the bodies of our murderedcompanions. I had lost an old friend; a man of great understanding, judgment, and knowledge; and one of the best officers in the Frenchnavy. His humanity had occasioned his death. Had he but allowed himselfto fire on the first natives who entered into the water to surround theboats, he would have prevented his own death as well as those of elevenother victims of savage ferocity. Twenty persons more were severelywounded; and this event deprived us for the time of thirty men, and theonly two boats we had large enough to carry a sufficient number of men, armed, to attempt a descent. These considerations determined mysubsequent conduct. The slightest loss would have compelled me to burnone of my ships in order to man the other. If my anger had requiredonly the death of a few natives, I had had an opportunity after themassacre of sinking and destroying a hundred canoes containingupwards of five hundred persons, but I was afraid of being mistaken inmy victims, and the voice of my conscience saved their lives. "

It was then that Laperouse resolved to sail to Botany Bay, of which hehad read a description in Cook's Voyages. His long-boats had beendestroyed by the natives, but he had on board the frames of two newones, and a safe anchorage was required where they could be puttogether. His crews were exasperated; and lest there should be acollision between them and other natives he resolved that, whilereconnoitring other groups of islands to determine their correctlatitude, he would not permit his sailors to land till he reachedBotany Bay. There he knew that he could obtain wood and water. 

On December 14 Oyolava (now called Upolu) was reached. Here again theships were surrounded by canoes, and the angry French sailors wouldhave fired upon them except for the positive orders of their commander. Throughout this unfortunate affair the strict sense of justice, whichforbade taking general vengeance for the misdeeds of particular people, stands out strongly in the conduct of Laperouse. He acknowledged inletters written from Botany Bay, that in future relations withuncivilised folk he would adopt more repressive measures, as experiencetaught him that lack of firm handling was by them regarded as weakness. But his tone in all his writings is humane and kindly. 

The speculations of Laperouse concerning the origin of thesepeoples, are interesting, and deserve consideration by those who speakand write upon the South Seas. He was convinced that they are allderived from an ancient common stock, and that the race ofwoolly-haired men to be found in the interior of Formosa were thefar-off parents of the natives of the Philippines, Papua, New Britain, the New Hebrides, the Friendly Islands, the Carolines, Ladrones, andSandwich Groups. He believed that in those islands the interior ofwhich did not afford complete shelter the original inhabitants wereconquered by Malays, after which aboriginals and invaders mingledtogether, producing modifications of the original types. But in Papua, the Solomons and the New Hebrides, the Malays made little impression. He accounted for differences in appearance amongst the people of theislands he visited by the different degrees of Malay intermixture, andbelieved that the very black people found on some islands, "whosecomplexion still remains a few shades deeper than that of certainfamilies in the same islands" were to be accounted for by certainfamilies making it "a point of honour not to contaminate their blood. "The theory is at all events striking. We have a "White Australiapolicy" on the mainland to-day; this speculation assumes a kind of"Black Australasia policy" on the part of certain families of islandersfrom time immemorial. 

The Friendly Islands were reached in December, but the commanderhad few and unimportant relations with them. On the 13th January, 1788, the ships made for Norfolk Island, and came to anchor opposite theplace where Cook was believed to have landed. The sea was running highat the time, breaking violently on the rocky shores of the north east. The naturalists desired to land to collect specimens, but the heavybreakers prevented them. The commander permitted them to coast alongthe shore in boats for about half a league but then recalled them. 

"Had it been possible to land, there was no way of getting into theinterior part of the island but by ascending for thirty or forty yardsthe rapid stream of some torrents, which had formed gullies. Beyondthese natural barriers the island was covered with pines and carpetedwith the most beautiful verdure. It is probable that we should thenhave met with some culinary vegetables, and this hope increased ourdesire of visiting a land where Captain Cook had landed with thegreatest facility. He, it is true, was here in fine weather, that hadcontinued for several days; whilst we had been sailing in such heavyseas that for eight day, our ports had been shut and our dead-lightsin. From the ship I watched the motions of the boats with my glass; andseeing, as night approached, that they had found no convenient placefor landing, I made the signal to recall them, and soon after gaveorders for getting under way. Perhaps I should have lost much time hadI waited for a more favourable opportunity: and the exploring ofthis island was not worth such a sacrifice. "

At eight in the evening the ships got under way, and at day-break onthe following morning sail was crowded for Botany Bay. 

Chapter VII. 

AT BOTANY BAY. 

When, in 1787, the British Government entrusted Captain Arthur Phillipwith a commission to establish a colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales, they gave him explicit directions as to where he should locate thesettlement. "According to the best information which we have obtained, "his instructions read, "Botany Bay appears to be the most eligiblesituation upon the said coast for the first establishment, possessing acommodious harbour and other advantages which no part of the said coasthitherto discovered affords. " But Phillip was a trustworthy man who, inso serious a matter as the choice of a site for a town, did not followblindly the commands of respectable elderly gentlemen thousands ofmiles away. It was his business to found a settlement successfully. Todo that he must select the best site. 

After examining Botany Bay, he decided to take a trip up the coast andsee if a better situation could not be found. On the 21st January, 1788, he entered Port Jackson with three boats, and found there "thefinest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line mayride in the most perfect security. " He fixed upon a cove "which Ihonoured with the name of Sydney. " and decided that that wasthere he would "plant. " Every writer of mediaeval history who has hadoccasion to refer to the choice by Constantine the Great of Byzantium, afterwards Constantinople, as his capital, has extolled his judgmentand prescience. Constantine was an Emperor, and could do as he would. Arthur Phillip was an official acting under orders. We can neversufficiently admire the wisdom he displayed when, exercising his owndiscretion, he decided upon Port Jackson. True, he had a greatopportunity, but his signal merit is that he grasped it when it waspresented, that he gave more regard to the success of his task than tothe letter of his instructions. 

While he was making the search, the eleven vessels composing the FirstFleet lay in Botany Bay. He returned on the evening of the 23rd, andimmediately gave orders that the whole company should as soon aspossible sail for Port Jackson, declaring it to be, in King's quaintwords, "a very proper place to form an establisht. In. "

To the great astonishment of the Fleet, on the 24th, two strange shipsmade their appearance to the south of Solander Point, a projection fromthe peninsula on which now stands the obelisk in memory of Cook'slanding. What could they be? Some guessed that they were Englishvessels with additional stores. Some supposed that they were Dutch, "coming after us to oppose our landing. " Nobody expected to see anyships in these untraversed waters, and we can easily picture theamazement of officers, crews, and convicts when the white sailsappeared. The more timid speculated on the possibility of attack, andthere were "temporary apprehensions, accompanied by a multiplicity ofconjectures, many of them sufficiently ridiculous. "

Phillip, however, remembered hearing that the French had an expeditionof discovery either in progress or contemplation. He was the first toform a right opinion about them, but, wishing to be certain, sent theSUPPLY out of the bay to get a nearer view and hoist the Britishcolours. Lieutenant Ball, in command of that brig, after reconnoitring, reported that the ships were certainly not English. They were eitherFrench, Spanish or Portuguese. He could distinctly see the white fieldof the flag they flew, "but they were at too great a distance todiscover if there was anything else on it. " The flag, of course, showedthe golden lilies of France on a white ground. One of the ships, Kingrecords, "wore a CHEF D'ESCADRE'S pennant, " that is, a commodore's. 

This information satisfied Phillip, who was anxious to lose no time ingetting his people ashore at Sydney Cove. He, therefore, determined tosail in the SUPPLY on the 25th, to make preliminary arrangements, leaving Captain Hunter of the SIRIUS to convoy the Fleet round as soonas possible. The wind, just then, was blowing too strong for them towork out of the Bay. 

Meanwhile, Laperouse, with the BOUSSOLE and the ASTROLABE, was meetingwith heavy weather in his attempt to double Point Solander. Thewind blew hard from that quarter, and his ships were too heavy sailersto force their passage against wind and current combined. The whole ofthe 24th was spent in full sight of Botany Bay, which they could notenter. But their hearts were cheered by the spectacle of the pennantsand ensigns on the eleven British vessels, plainly seen at intervalswithin, and the prospect of meeting Europeans again made them impatientto fetch their anchorage. 

The SIRIUS was just about to sail when the French vessels entered theBay at nine in the morning of January 26, but Captain Huntercourteously sent over a lieutenant and midshipman, with his complimentsand offers of such assistance as it was in his power to give. "Idespatched an officer, " records Laperouse, "to return my thanks toCaptain Hunter, who by this time had his anchor a-peak and his topsailshoisted, telling him that my wants were confined to wood and water, ofwhich we could not fail in this Bay; and I was sensible that vesselsintended to settle a colony at such a distance from Europe could not beof any assistance to navigators. " The English lieutenant, according toLaperouse, "appeared to make a great mystery of Commodore Phillip'splan, and we did not take the liberty of putting any questions to himon the subject. " It was not the business of a junior officer to giveunauthorised information, but perhaps his manner made a greater mysteryof the Governor's plans than the circumstances required. 

It was at Kamchatka that the French had learnt that the Britishwere establishing a settlement in New South Wales; but Laperouse, whenhe arrived at Botany Bay, had no definite idea as to the progress theyhad made. According to Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, he expected to finda town built and a market established. Instead of that he found thefirst colonists abandoning the site where it was originally intendedthat they should settle, and preparing to fix their abode at anotherspot. But after he had seen something of Botany Bay he expressedhimself as "convinced of the propriety and absolute necessity of themeasure. "

The later relations between the English and French were of the mostpleasant kind. It does not appear from the writings of those who haveleft records that Phillip and Laperouse ever met, or that the latterever saw the beginnings of Sydney. His ships certainly never enteredPort Jackson. But we learn from Captain Tench that "during their stayin the port" (i. E. In Botany Bay) "the officers of the two nations hadfrequent opportunities of testifying their mutual regard by visits andother interchanges of friendship and esteem;" and Laperouse gratifiedthe English especially "by the feeling manner in which he alwaysmentioned the name and talents of Captain Cook. "

Not only in what he wrote with an eye to publication, but in hisprivate correspondence, Laperouse expressed his gratification at thefriendly relations established. He spoke of "frequent intercourse"with the English, and said that "to the most polite attentionsthey have added every offer of service in their power; and it was notwithout regret that we saw them depart, almost immediately upon ourarrival, for Port Jackson, fifteen miles to the northward of thisplace. Commodore Phillip had good reason to prefer that port, and hehas left us sole masters of this bay, where our long-boats are alreadyon the stocks. "

The fullest account is given in the journal of Lieutenant King, afterwards (1800-6) Governor of New South Wales. On February 1 Phillipsent him in a cutter, in company with Lieutenant Dawes of the Marines, to visit Laperouse, "and to offer him whatever he might have occasionfor. " King relates that they were "received with the greatestpoliteness and attention by Monsieur de Laperouse and his officers. " Heaccepted an invitation to remain during the day with the French, todine with the Commodore, and to return to Port Jackson next morning. The complete history of the voyage was narrated to him, including ofcourse the tragic story of the massacre of de Langle and hiscompanions. 

After dinner on the BOUSSOLE, King was taken ashore, where he found theFrench "quite established, having thrown round their tents a stockade, guarded by two small guns. " This defence was needed to protect theframes of the two new longboats, which were being put together, fromthe natives; and also, it would appear, from a few escaped convicts, "whom he had dismissed with threats, giving them a day'sprovision to carry them back to ye settlement. " Laperouse himself, inhis history--in the very last words of it, in fact--complains that"we had but too frequent opportunities of hearing news of the Englishsettlement, the deserters from which gave us a great deal of troubleand embarrassment. "

We learn from King a little about the Pere Receveur--a very little, truly, but sufficient to make us wish to know more. From thecircumstance that his quarters were on the ASTROLABE, and that, therefore, he was not brought very much under the notice of Laperouse, we read scarcely anything about him in the commander's book. Onceduring the voyage some acids used by him for scientific purposesignited, and set fire to the ship, but the danger was quicklysuppressed. This incident, and that of the wounding of Receveur atManua, are nearly all we are told about him from the commander. But hestruck King as being "a man of letters and genius. " He was a collectorof natural curiosities, having under his care "a great number ofphilosophical instruments. " King's few lines, giving the impressionderived from a necessarily brief conversation, seem to bring the Abbebefore us in a flash. "A man of letters and genius": how gladly wewould know more of one of whom those words could be written! Receveurdied shortly before Laperouse sailed away, and was buried at the footof a tree, to which were nailed a couple of boards bearing aninscription. Governor Phillip, when the boards fell down, hadthe inscription engraved on a copper plate. The tomb, which is now soprominent an object at Botany Bay, was erected by the Baron deBougainville in 1825. The memorials to the celebrated navigator and thesimple scholar stand together. 

King, in common with Tench, records the admiring way in which Laperousespoke of Cook. He "informed me that every place where he has touched orbeen near, he found all the astronomical and nautical works of CaptainCook to be very exact and true, and concluded by saying, 'Enfin, Monsieur Cook a tant fait qu'il ne m'a rien laisse a faire que d'admirer ses oeuvres. '" (In short, Mr. Cook has done so much that he hasleft me nothing to do but to admire his works). 

There is very little more to tell about those few weeks spent at BotanyBay before the navigator and his companions "vanished trackless intoblue immensity, " as Carlyle puts it. A fragment of conversation ispreserved by Tench. A musket was fired one day, and the nativesmarvelled less at the noise than at the fact that the bullet made ahole in a piece of bark at which it was aimed. To calm them, "anofficer whistled the air of 'Malbrook, ' which they appeared highlycharmed with, and greeted him with equal pleasure and readiness. I mayremark here, " adds the Captain of Marines, "what I was afterwards toldby Monsieur de Perousse" (so he mis-spells the name) "that the nativesof California, as throughout all the isles of the Pacific Ocean, and in short wherever he had been, seemed equally touched and delightedwith this little plaintive air. " It is gratifying to be able to recordCaptain Tench's high opinion of the efficacy of the tune, which ispopularly known nowadays as "We won't go home till morning. " One hasoften heard of telling things "to the Marines. " This gallant officer, doubtless, used to whistle them, to a "little plaintive air. "

It was the practice of Laperouse to sow seeds at places visited by hisships, with the object of experimenting with useful European plantsthat might be cultivated in other parts of the world. His own lettersand journal do not show that he did so at Botany Bay; but we have otherevidence that he did, and that the signs of cultivation had notvanished at least ten years later. When George Bass was returning toSydney in February, 1798, at the end of that wonderful cruise in awhaleboat which had led to the discovery of Westernport, he wasbecalmed off Botany Bay. He was disposed to enter and remain there forthe night, but his journal records that his people--the six pickedBritish sailors who were the companions of his enterprise--"seemedinclined to push for home rather than go up to the Frenchman's Garden. "Therefore, the wind failing, they took to the oars and rowed to PortJackson, reaching home at ten o'clock at night. That is a veryinteresting allusion. The Frenchman's Garden must have been somewherewithin the enclosed area where the Cable Station now stands, and itwould be well if so pleasant a name, and one so full ofhistorical suggestion, were still applied to that reserve. 

It may be well to quote in full the passage in which Laperouse relateshis experience of Botany Bay. He was not able to write his journal upto the date of his departure before despatching it to Europe, but thefinal paragraphs in it sufficiently describe what occurred, and what hethought. Very loose and foolish statements have occasionally beenpublished as to his object in visiting the port. In one of thegeographical journals a few years ago the author saw it stated thatthere was "a race for a Continent" between the English and the French, in which the former won by less than a week! Nonsense of that sort, even though it appears in sober publications, issued with a scientificpurpose, can emanate only from those who have no real acquaintance withthe subject. There was no race, no struggle for priority, no thought ofterritorial acquisition on the part of the French. The reader of thislittle book knows by this time that the visit to Botany Bay was notoriginally contemplated. It was not in the programme. 

What would have happened if Laperouse had safely returned home, and ifthe French Revolution had not destroyed Louis XVI and blown hisexploration and colonisation schemes into thin air, is quite anotherquestion; but "ifs" are not history. You can entirely reconstruct thehistory of the human race by using enough "ifs, " but with thatsort of thing, which an ironist has termed "Iftory, " and is often moreamusing than enlightening, more speculative than sound, we have atpresent nothing to do. Here is the version of the visit given byLaperouse himself:--

"We made the land on the 23rd January. It has little elevation, and isscarcely possible to be seen at a greater distance than twelve leagues. The wind then became very variable; and, like Captain Cook, we met withcurrents, which carried us every day fifteen minutes south of ourreckoning; so that we spent the whole of the 24th in plying in sight ofBotany Bay, without being able to double Point Solander, which borefrom us a league north. The wind blew strong from that quarter, and ourships were too heavy sailers to surmount the force of the wind and thecurrents combined; but that day we had a spectacle to which we had beenaltogether unaccustomed since our departure from Manilla. This was aBritish squadron, at anchor in Botany Bay, the pennants and ensigns ofwhich we could plainly distinguish. All Europeans are countrymen atsuch a distance from home, and we had the most eager impatience tofetch the anchorage; but the next day the weather was so foggy that itwas impossible to discern the land, and we did not get in till the26th, at nine in the morning, when we let go our anchor a mile from thenorth shore, in seven fathoms of water, on a good bottom of grey sand, abreast of the second bay. 

"The moment I made my appearance in the entrance of the Bay, alieutenant and midshipman were sent aboard my vessel by Captain Hunter, commanding the British frigate SIRIUS. They offered from him all theservices in his power; adding, however, that, as he was just gettingunder way to proceed to the northward, circumstances would not allowhim to furnish us with provision, ammunition or sails; so that hisoffers of service were reduced to good wishes for the future success ofour voyage. 

"I despatched an officer to return my thanks to Captain Hunter, who bythis time had his anchor a-peak, and his topsails hoisted; telling himthat my wants were confined to wood and water, of which we could notfail in this Bay; and I was sensible that vessels intended to settle acolony at such a distance from Europe, could not be of any assistanceto navigators. 

"From the lieutenant we learnt that the English squadron was commandedby Commodore Phillip, who had sailed from Botany Bay the previousevening in the SUPPLY, sloop, with four transports, in search of a morecommodious place for a settlement further north. The lieutenantappeared to make a great mystery of Commodore Phillip's plan, and wedid not take the liberty of putting any questions to him on thesubject; but we had no doubt that the intended settlement must be verynear Botany Bay, since several boats were under sail for the place, andthe passage certainly must be very short, as it was thought unnecessaryto hoist them on board. The crew of the English boat, less discreetthan their officer, soon informed our people that they were onlygoing to Port Jackson, sixteen miles north of Point Banks, whereCommander Phillip had himself reconnoitred a very good harbour, whichran ten miles into the land, to the south-west, and in which the shipsmight anchor within pistol-shot of the shore, in water as smooth asthat of a basin. We had, afterwards, but too frequent opportunities ofhearing news of the English settlement, the deserters from which gaveus a great deal of trouble and embarrassment. "

Pieced together thus is nearly all we know about Laperouse during hisvisit to Botany Bay. It is not much. We would gladly have many moredetails. What has become of the letter he wrote to Phillip recommending(according to King) the Pacific Islands as worthy of the attention ofthe new colony, "for the great quantity of stock with which theyabound"? Apparently it is lost. The grave and the deep have swallowedup the rest of this "strange eventful history, " and we interrogate invain. We should know even less than we do were it not that Laperouseobtained from Phillip permission to send home, by the next British shipleaving Port Jackson, his journal, some charts, and the drawings of hisartists. This material, added to private letters and a fewmiscellaneous papers, was placed in charge of Lieutenant Shortland tobe delivered to the French Ambassador in London, and formed part of thesubstance of the two volumes and atlas published in Paris. 

* * * * *

It may be well to cite, as a note to this chapter, the books inwhich contemporary accounts of the visit of Laperouse and his ships toBotany Bay are to be found. Some readers may thereby be tempted to lookinto the original authorities. Laperouse's own narrative is containedin the third and fourth volumes of his "Voyage autour du Monde, " editedby Milet-Mureau (Paris, 1797). There are English translations. A fewletters at the end of the work give a little additional information. Governor Phillip's "Voyage to Botany Bay" (London, 1789) contains agood but brief account. Phillip's despatch to the Secretary of State, Lord Sydney, printed in the "Historical Records of New South Wales, "Vol. I. , part 2, p. 121, devotes a paragraph to the subject. King'sJournal in Vol. II. Of the "Records, " p. 543-7, gives his story. Surgeon Bowes' Journal, on page 391 of the same volume, contains arather picturesque allusion. Hunter's "Voyage to Botany Bay" (London, 1793) substantially repeats King's version. Captain Watkin Tench, ofthe Marines, has a good account in his "Narrative of an Expedition toBotany Bay" (London, 1789), and Paterson's "History of New South Wales"(Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1811) makes an allusion to the French expedition. 

Chapter VIII. 

THE MYSTERY, AND THE SECRET OF THE SEA. 

The BOUSSOLE and the ASTROLABE sailed from Botany Bay on March 10, 1788. After recording that fact we might well inscribe the patheticlast words of Hamlet, "the rest is silence. "

We know what Laperouse intended to do. He wrote two letters to friendsin France, explaining the programme to be followed after sailing fromBotany Bay. They do not agree in every particular, but we may take thelast letter written to express his final determination. According tothis, his plan was to sail north, passing between Papua ( New Guinea)and Australia by another channel than Endeavour Strait, if he couldfind one. During September and October he intended to visit the Gulf ofCarpentaria, and thence sail down the west and along the south ofAustralia, to Tasmania, "but in such a manner that it may be possiblefor me to stretch northward in time to arrive at Ile-de-France in thebeginning of December, 1788. " That was the programme which he was notdestined to complete--hardly, indeed, to enter upon. Had he succeeded, his name would have been inscribed amongst the memorable company of theworld's great maritime explorers. As it is, the glint on hisbrow, as he stands in the light of history, is less that of achievementthan of high promise, noble aims, romance and mystery. 

One of the letters sent from Sydney concluded with these words: "Adieu!I shall depart in good health, as are all my ship's company. We wouldundertake six voyages round the world if it could afford to our countryeither profit or pleasure. " They were not the last words he wrote, butwe may appropriately take them as being, not merely his adieu to afriend, but to the world. 

Time sped on; the date given for the arrival at Ile-de-France waspassed; the year 1789 dawned and ticked off the tally of its days. Butnothing was heard of Laperouse. People in France grew anxious, oneespecially we may be sure--she who knew so well where the ships wouldanchor in Port Louis if they emerged out of the ocean brume, and wholonged so ardently that renewed acquaintance with scenes once sweetlyfamiliar would awaken memories meet to give wings to speed and spurs todelay. Not a word came to sustain or cheer, and the faint flush of hopefaded to the wan hue of despair on the cheek of love. By 1791 allexpectation of seeing the expedition return was abandoned. But couldnot some news of its fate be ascertained? Had it faded out of beinglike a summer cloud, leaving not a trace behind? Might not some inklingbe had, some small relics obtained, some whisper caught, in thosedistant isles, "Where the sea egg flames on the coral, and the long-backed breakers croon Their endless ocean legend to the lazy, locked lagoon. "

France was then in the throes of her great social earthquake; but itstands to the credit of the National Assembly that, amidst manyturbulent projects and boiling passions, they found time and had thedisposition to cause the fitting out of a new expedition to search fortidings of those whose disappearance weighed heavily on the heart ofthe nation. The decree was passed on February 9, 1791. 

Two ships, the RECHERCHE and the ESPERANCE, were selected and placedunder the command of Dentrecasteaux. He had already had some experiencein a part of the region to be searched, had been a governor ofIle-de-France, and during a South Sea voyage had named the cluster ofislands east of Papua now called the D'Entrecasteaux Group. The secondship was placed under the command of Captain Huon Kermadec. The HuonRiver in Tasmania, and the Kermadec Islands, N. E. Of New Zealand, arenamed after him. 

Fleurieu again drew up the instructions, and based them largely uponthe letter from Laperouse quoted above, pointing out that remains ofhim would most probably be found in the neighbourhood of coasts whichhe had intended to explore. It was especially indicated that there was, south of New Holland, an immense stretch of coastline so farutterly unknown. "No navigator has penetrated in that part of the sea;the reconnaissances and discoveries of the Dutch, the English and theFrench commenced at the south of Van Diemen's Land. "

Thus, for the second time, was a French navigator directed to explorethe southern coasts of Australia; and had Dentrecasteaux followed theplan laid down for him he would have forestalled the discoveries ofGrant, Bass and Flinders, just as Laperouse would have done had hiswork not been cut short by disaster. 

It has to be remembered that the instructions impressed uponDentrecasteaux that his business primarily was not geographicaldiscovery, but to get news of his lost compatriots. But even so, is itnot curious that the French should have been concerned with theexploration of Southern Australia before the English thought about it;that they should have had two shots at the task, planned with knowledgeand care, officially directed, and in charge of eminently competentnavigators; but that nevertheless their schemes should have gone awry?They made a third attempt by means of Baudin's expedition, during theNapoleonic Consulate, and again were unsuccessful, except in a verysmall measure. It almost seems as if some power behind human endeavourshad intended these coasts for British finding--and keeping. 

The full story of Dentrecasteaux' expedition has not yet been told. Twothick books were written about it, but a mass of unpublishedpapers contain details that were judiciously kept out of those volumes. When the whole truth is made known, it will be seen that the bitterstrife which plunged France in an agony of blood and tears was notconfined to the land. 

The ships did not visit Sydney. Why not? It might have been expectedthat an expedition sent to discover traces of Laperouse would have beencareful to make Botany Bay in the first instance, and, after collectingwhatever evidence was available there, would have carefully followedthe route that he had proposed to pursue. But it would seem that anEuropean settlement was avoided. Why? The unpublished papers mayfurnish an answer to that question. 

Neither was the south coast of Australia explored. That great chancewas missed. Some excellent charting--which ten years later commandedthe cordial admiration of Flinders--was done by Beautemps-Beaupre, whowas Dentrecasteaux' cartographer, especially round about the S. W. Corner of the continent. Esperance Bay, in Western Australia, is namedafter one of the ships of this expedition. But from that corner, hisships being short of fresh water, Dentrecasteaux sailed on a directline to Southern Tasmania, and thence to New Zealand, New Caledonia, and New Guinea. Touch with the only European centre in these partswas--apparently with deliberation--not obtained. 

Dentrecasteaux died while his ships were in the waters to thenorth of New Guinea. He fell violently ill, raving at first, thensubsiding into unconsciousness, a death terrible to read about in thepublished narrative, where the full extent of his troubles is notrevealed. Kermadec, commander of the ESPERANCE, also died at NewCaledonia. After their decease the ships returned to France as rapidlyas they could. They were detained by the Dutch at Sourabaya for severalmonths, as prisoners of war, and did not reach Europe till March, 1796. Their mission had been abortive. 

Five French Captains who brought expeditions to Australia at thisperiod all ended in misfortune. Laperouse was drowned; de Langle wasmurdered; Dentrecasteaux died miserably at sea; Kermadec, the fourth, had expired shortly before; and Baudin, the fifth, died at Port Louison the homeward voyage. 

Nor is even that the last touch of melancholy to the tale of tragedy. There was a young poet who was touched by the fate of Laperouse. AndreChenier is now recognised as one of the finest masters of song who haveenriched French literature, and his poems are more and more studied andadmired both by his own countrymen and abroad. He planned and partlyfinished a long poem, "L'Amerique, " which contains a mournful passageabout the mystery of the sea which had not then been solved. Atranslation of the lines will not be attempted here; they are mentionedbecause the poet himself had an end as tragic, though in adifferent mode, as that of the hero of whom he sang. He came under thedispleasure of the tyrants of the Red Terror through his friends andhis writings, and in March, 1794, the guillotine took this brilliantyoung genius as a victim. 

 J'accuserai les vents et cette mer jalouse Qui retient, qui peut-etre a ravi Laperouse

so the poem begins. How strangely the shadow of Tragedy hangs over thisill-starred expedition; Louis XVI the projector, Laperouse and deLangle the commanders, Dentrecasteaux and Kermadec the searchers, AndreChenier the laureate: the breath of the black-robed Fury was upon themall!

Chapter IX. 

CAPTAIN DILLON'S DISCOVERY. 

The navigators of all nations were fascinated by the mystery attachingto the fate of Laperouse. Every ship that sailed the Pacific hoped toobtain tidings or remains. From time to time rumours arose of thediscovery of relics. One reported the sight of wreckage; another thatislanders had been seen dressed in French uniforms; another that across of St. Louis had been found. But the element of probability inthe various stories evaporated on investigation. Flinders, sailingnorth from Port Jackson in the INVESTIGATOR in 1802, kept a sharplookout on the Barrier Reef, the possibility of finding some tracebeing "always present to my mind. " But no definite news came. 

A new French voyage of exploration came down to the Pacific in 1817, under the command of Louis de Freycinet, who had been a lieutenant inBaudin's expedition in 1800-4. The purpose was not chiefly to look forevidence concerning Laperouse, though naturally a keen scrutiny wasmaintained with this object in view. 

An extremely queer fact may be mentioned in connection with thisvoyage. The URANIE carried a woman among the crew, the only one of hersex amidst one hundred men. Madame de Freycinet, the wife of thecommandant, joined at Toulon, dressed as a ship's boy, and it was givenout in the newspapers that her husband was very much surprised when hefound that his wife had managed to get aboard in disguise. But Arago, one of the scientific staff, tells us in his Memoirs, published in1837, that--as we can well believe--Freycinet knew perfectly who the"young and pretty" boy was, and had connived at her joining the ship asa lad, because she wanted to accompany her husband, and the authoritieswould have prevented her had they known. She continued to wear herboy's dress until after the ships visited Gibraltar, for Arago informsus that the solemn British Lieutenant-Governor there, when he saw her, broke into a smile, "the first perhaps that his features had worn forten years. " If that be true, the little lady surely did a little goodby her saucy escapade. But official society regarded the lady introusers with a frigid stare, so that henceforth she deemed it discreetto resume feminine garments. It does not appear that she passed for aboy when the expedition visited Sydney, and of course no hint ofMadame's presence is given in the official history of the voyage. 

We now reach the stage when the veil was lifted and the mysteryexplained. In 1813 the East India Company's ship HUNTER, voyaging fromCalcutta to Sydney, called at the Fiji Islands. They discovered thatseveral Europeans were living on one of the group. Some had beenshipwrecked; some had deserted from vessels; but they had becomeaccustomed to the life and preferred it. The HUNTER employed a party ofthem to collect sandal wood and beche-de-mer, one of her juniorofficers, Peter Dillon, being in charge. A quarrel with nativesoccurred, and all the Europeans were murdered, except Dillon, aPrussian named Martin Bushart, and a seaman, William Wilson. After theaffray Bushart would certainly have been slain had he remained, so heinduced the captain of the HUNTER to give him a passage to the firstland reached. Accordingly Bushart, a Fiji woman who was his wife, and aLascar companion, were landed on Barwell Island, or Tucopia. 

Thirteen years later Peter Dillon was sailing in command of his ownship, the ST. PATRICK, from Valparaiso to Pondicherry, when he sightedTucopia. Curiosity prompted him to stop to enquire whether his oldfriend Martin Bushart was still alive. He hove to, and shortly aftertwo canoes put off from the land, bringing Bushart and the Lascar, bothin excellent health. 

Now, Dillon observed that the Lascar sold an old silver sword guard toone of the ST. PATRICK'S crew in return for a few fish hooks. This madehim inquisitive. He asked the Prussian where it came from. Bushartinformed him that when he first arrived at the island he saw inpossession of the natives, not only this sword guard, but also severalchain plates, iron bolts, axes, the handle of a silver fork, someknives, tea cups, beads, bottles, a silver spoon bearing a crest andmonogram, and a sword. He asked where these articles wereobtained, and the natives told him that they got them from theMannicolo (or Vanikoro) cluster of islands, two days' canoe voyage fromTucopia, in the Santa Cruz group. 

"Upon examining the sword minutely" wrote Dillon, "I discovered, orthought I discovered, the initials of Perouse stamped on it, whichexcited my suspicion and made me more exact in my inquiries. I then, bymeans of Bushart and the Lascar, questioned some of the islandersrespecting the way in which their neighbours procured the silver andiron articles. They told me that the natives of Mannicolo stated thatmany years ago two large ships arrived at their islands; one anchoredat the island of Whanoo, and the other at the island of Paiou, a littledistance from each other. Some time after they anchored, and beforethey had any communication with the natives, a heavy gale arose andboth vessels were driven ashore. The ship that was anchored off Whanoogrounded upon the rocks. 

"The natives came in crowds to the seaside, armed with clubs, spears, and bows and arrows, and shot some arrows into the ship, and the crewin return fired the guns and some musketry on them and killed several. The vessel, continuing to beat violently against the rocks, shortlyafterwards went to pieces. Some of the crew took to their boats, andwere driven on shore, where they were to a man murdered on landing bythe infuriated natives. Others threw themselves into the sea; but ifthey reached the shore it was only to share the fate of theirwretched comrades, so that not a single soul escaped out of thisvessel. "

The ship wrecked on Paiou, according to the natives' story, was drivenon a sandy beach. Some arrows were fired into her, but the crew did notfire. They were restrained, and held up beads, axes, and toys, making ademonstration of friendliness. As soon as the wind abated, an old chiefcame aboard the wrecked ship, where he was received in friendlyfashion, and, going ashore, pacified his people. The crew of thevessel, compelled to abandon her, carried the greater part of theirstores ashore, where they built a small boat from the remains of thewreck. As soon as this craft was ready to sail, as many as couldconveniently be taken embarked and sailed away. They were never heardof again. The remainder of the crew remained on the island until theydied. 

Such was the information collected by Captain Peter Dillon in 1826. Hetook away with him the sword guard, but regretted to learn that thesilver spoon had been beaten into wire by Bushart for making rings andornaments for female islanders. 

When he reached Calcutta, Dillon wrote an account of his discovery in aletter to the government of Bengal, and suggested that he should besent in command of an expedition to search the Vanikoro cluster in thehope of finding some old survivor of Laperouse's unhappy company, or atall events further remains of the ships. He had prevailed uponMartin Bushart to accompany him to India, and hoped, through this man'sknowledge of the native tongue, to elicit all that was to be known. 

The Government of British India became interested in Dillon'sdiscovery, and resolved to send him in command of a ship to search forfurther information. At the end of 1826 he sailed in the RESEARCH, andin September of the following year came within sight of the high-peakedisland Tucopia. The enquiries made on this voyage fully confirmed andcompleted the story, and left no room for doubt that the ships ofLaperouse had been wrecked and his whole company massacred or drownedon or near Vanikoro. Many natives still living remembered the arrivalof the French. Some of them related that they thought those who came onthe big ships to be not men but spirits; and such a grotesque bit ofdescription as was given of the peaks of cocked hats exactly expressedthe way in which the appearance of the strangers would be likely toappeal to the native imagination:--"There was a projection from theirforeheads or noses a foot long. "

Furthermore, Dillon's officers were able to purchase from the islandssuch relics as an old sword blade, a rusted razor, a silver sauce-boatwith fleur-de-lis upon it, a brass mortar, a few small bells, a silversword-handle bearing a cypher, apparently a "P" with a crown, part of ablacksmith's vice, the crown of a small anchor, and many otherarticles. An examination of natives brought out a few furtherdetails, as for example, a description of the chief of the strangers, "who used always to be looking at the stars and the sun and beckoningto them, " which is how a native would be likely to regard a man makingastronomical observations. Dillon, in short had solved the forty years'mystery. The Pacific had revealed her long-held secret. 

It happened that a new French expedition in the ASTROLABE, under thecommand of Dumont-D'Urville, was in the southern hemisphere at thistime. While he lay at Hobart on his way to New Zealand, the captainheard of Dillon's discoveries, and, at once changing his plans, sailedfor the Santa Cruz Islands. He arrived there in February, 1828, andmade some valuable finds to supplement those of the English captain. Atthe bottom of the sea, in perfectly clear water, he saw lying, encrusted with coral, some remains of anchors, chains, guns, bullets, and other objects which had clearly belonged to the ships of Laperouse. One of his artists made a drawing of them on the spot. They wererecovered, and, together with Dillon's collection, are now exhibited ina pyramid at the Marine Museum at the Louvre in Paris, in memory of theill-fated commander and crew who perished, martyrs in the great causeof discovery, a century and a quarter ago. 

It is interesting to note that descendants of Captain Dillon areresidents of Sydney to this day. 

Chapter X. 

THE FAME OF LAPEROUSE. 

Intellectually, and as a navigator, Laperouse was a son of James Cook, and he himself would have rejoiced to be so described. The allusions tohis predecessor in his writings are to be numbered by scores, and thenote of reverent admiration is frequently sounded. He followed Cook'sguidance in the management of his ships, paying particular attention tothe diet of his crews. He did not succeed in keeping scurvy at bayaltogether, but when the disease made its appearance he met it promptlyby securing fresh vegetable food for the sufferers, and was so farsuccessful that when he arrived in Botany Bay his whole company was ingood health. 

The influence of the example and experience of Cook may be illustratedin many ways, some of them curious. We may take a point as to which hereally had little to fear; but he knew what had occurred in Cook's caseand he was anxious that the same should not happen to him. Thepublished story of Cook's first South Sea Voyage, as is well known, wasnot his own. His journal was handed over to Dr. Hawkesworth, agentleman who tried to model his literary style on that of Dr. Johnson, and evolved a pompous, big-drum product in consequence. Hawkesworthgarnished the manly, straightforward navigator's simple and directEnglish with embellishments of his own. Where Cook was plain Hawkesworthwas ornate; where Cook was sensible Hawkesworth was silly; where Cookwas accurate, Hawkesworth by stuffing in his own precious observationsmade the narrative unreliable, and even ridiculous. In fact, thegingerbread Johnson simply spoiled Cook. 

Dr. Johnson was by no means gratified by the ponderous prancings of hisimitator. We learn from Boswell that when the great man met CaptainCook at a dinner given by the President of the Royal Society, he saidthat he "was much pleased with the conscientious accuracy of thatcelebrated circumnavigator, who set me right as to many of theexaggerated accounts given by Dr. Hawkesworth of his voyages. " Cookhimself was annoyed by the decorating of his story, and resented thetreatment strongly. 

Laperouse knew this, and was very anxious that nobody in France shouldHawkesworthify him. He did not object to being carefully edited, but hedid not want to be decorated. He wrote excellent French narrativeprose, and his work may be read with delight. Its qualities of clarity, picturesqueness and smoothness, are quite in accord with the finetraditions of the language. But, as it was likely that part of thehistory of his voyage might be published before his return, he did notwant it to be handed over to anybody who would trick it out infinery, and he therefore wrote the following letter:

"If my journal be published before my return, let the editing of it byno means be entrusted to a man of letters; for either he will sacrificeto the turn of a phrase the proper terms which the seaman and man oflearning would prefer, but which to him will appear harsh andbarbarous; or, rejecting all the nautical and astronomical details, andendeavouring to make a pleasing romance, he will for want of theknowledge his education has not allowed him to acquire, commit mistakeswhich may prove fatal to those who shall follow me. But choose aneditor versed in the mathematical sciences, who is capable ofcalculating and comparing my data with those of other investigators, ofrectifying errors which may have escaped me, and of guarding himselfagainst the commission of others. Such an editor will preserve thesubstance of the work; will omit nothing that is essential; will givetechnical details the harsh and rude, but concise style of a seaman;and will well perform his task in supplying my place and publishing thework as I would have done it myself. "

That letter is a rather singular effect of Laperouse's study of Cook, which might be illustrated by further examples. The influence of thegreat English sailor is the more remarkable when we remember that therehad been early French navigators to the South Seas before Laperouse. There was the elder Bougainville, the discoverer of the NavigatorIslands; there was Marion-Dufresne, who was killed and eaten by Maorisin 1772; there was Surville--to mention only three. Laperouse knew ofthem, and mentioned them. But they had little to teach him. In shortand in truth, he belonged to the school of Cook, and that is anexcellent reason why English and especially Australian people shouldhave an especial regard for him. 

The disastrous end of Laperouse's expedition before he had completedhis task prevented him from adequately realising his possibilities as adiscoverer. As pointed out in the preceding pages, if he had completedhis voyage, he would in all probability have found the southern coastsof Australia in 1788. But the work that he actually did is not withoutimportance; and he unquestionably possessed the true spirit of theexplorer. When he entered upon this phase of his career he was athoroughly experienced seaman. He was widely read in voyagingliterature, intellectually well endowed, alert-minded, eager, courageous, and vigorous. The French nation has had no greater sailorthan Laperouse. 

De Lesseps, the companion of his voyage as far as Kamchatka, has left abrief but striking characterisation of him. "He was, " says thiswitness, "an accomplished gentleman, perfectly urbane and full of wit, and possessed of those charming manners which pertained to theeighteenth century. He was always agreeable in his relations withsubordinates and officers alike. " The same writer tells us thatwhen Louis XVI gave him the command of the expedition he had thereputation of being the ablest seaman in the French navy. 

Certainly he was no common man to whose memory stands that tallmonument at Botany Bay. It was erected at the cost of the FrenchGovernment by the Baron de Bougainville, in 1825, and serves not onlyas a reminder of a fine character and a full, rich and manly life, butof a series of historical events that are of capital consequence in theexploration and occupation of Australia. 

It will be appropriate to conclude this brief biography with a tributeto the French navigator from the pen of an English poet. ThomasCampbell is best remembered by such vigorous poems as "Ye Mariners ofEngland, " and "The Battle of the Baltic, " which express a tense andelevated British patriotism. All the more impressive for that veryreason is his elegy in honour of a sailor of another nation, whosemerits as a man and whose charm as a writer Campbell had recognisedfrom his boyhood. The following are his. 

LINES WRITTEN IN A BLANK LEAF OF LAPEROUSE'S "VOYAGES"

 Loved Voyager! whose pages had a zest More sweet than fiction to my wondering breast, When, rapt in fancy, many a boyish day I tracked his wanderings o'er the watery way, Roamed round the Aleutian isles in waking dreams, Or plucked the fleur-de-lys by Jesso's streams, Or gladly leaped on that far Tartar strand, Where Europe's anchor ne'er had bit the sand, Where scarce a roving wild tribe crossed the plain, Or human voice broke nature's silent reign, -- But vast and grassy deserts feed the bear, And sweeping deer-herds dread no hunter's snare. Such young delight his real records brought, His truth so touched romantic springs of thought, That, all my after life, his fate and fame Entwined romance with Laperouse's name. Fair were his ships, expert his gallant crews, And glorious was the emprise of Laperouse-- Humanely glorious! Men will weep for him, When many a guilty martial fame is dim: He ploughed the deep to bind no captive's chain-- Pursued no rapine--strewed no wreck with slain; And, save that in the deep themselves lie low, His heroes plucked no wreath from human woe. 'Twas his the earth's remotest bounds to scan, Conciliating with gifts barbaric man-- Enrich the world's contemporaneous mind, And amplify the picture of mankind. Far on the vast Pacific, 'midst those isles O'er which the earliest morn of Asia smiles, He sounded and gave charts to many a shore And gulf of ocean new to nautic lore; Yet he that led discovery o'er the wave, Still finds himself an undiscovered grave. He came not back! Conjecture's cheek grew pale, Year after year; in no propitious gale His lilied banner held its homeward way, And Science saddened at her martyr's stay. An age elapsed: no wreck told where or when The chief went down with all his gallant men, Or whether by the storm and wild sea flood He perished, or by wilder men of blood. The shuddering fancy only guess'd his doom, And doubt to sorrow gave but deeper gloom. An age elapsed: when men were dead or gray, Whose hearts had mourned him in their youthful day, Fame traced on Vanikoro's shore at last, The boiling surge had mounted o'er his mast. The islesmen told of some surviving men, But Christian eyes beheld them ne'er again. Sad bourne of all his toils--with all his band To sleep, wrecked, shroudless, on a savage strand! Yet what is all that fires a hero's scorn Of death?--the hope to live in hearts unborn. Life to the brave is not its fleeting breath, But worth--foretasting fame that follows death. That worth had Laperouse, that meed he won. He sleeps--his life's long stormy watch is done. In the great deep, whose boundaries and space He measured, fate ordained his resting place; But bade his fame, like th' ocean rolling o'er His relics, visit every earthly shore. Fair Science on that ocean's azure robe Still writes his name in picturing the globe, And paints (what fairer wreath could glory twine?) His watery course--a world-encircling line.