LA PEBOUSBl 327 liplicate of my publick letter to you by the Prinoe. of Wales. 1788 With yoxnr despatdies I hare sent duplicates and triplicateB of my lo July, public^ lettera to the Admiralty and NaTy Board, and I have taken the liberty of troubling you with some private letters. lieutenant Shortland is likewise charged with a box of letters from Monsieur la P^rouse for the French Ambassador. The box of letters for the French Ambassador in London contained La Perouse's account of liis voyage from Kam- u p^roose's schatka to Botany Bay^ and of his stay there from the 26tli January to the 10th March. He had no doubt a good deal to say about the English ships he had met coming out of the bay while he was beating in^ and of the subsequent pro- ceedings of their commodore. In the last lines written by x^^t UnM him in the published narrative of his Voyage, he wrote that S" ^**°^ the lientenant sent on board his ship ^' appeared to make a great mystery of Commodore Phillip's plan, and we did not take the liberty of putting any questions to him on the subject. The crew of the English boat, less discreet than their officer, soon informed our people that they were going to Port Jackson, sixteen miles north of Point Banks, where Conmiodore Phillip had himself reconnoitred a very good harbour, which ran ten miles into the land to the south- west, and in which the ships might anchor within pistol-shot of the shore, in water as smooth as that of a basin."* The reason why the French ships stayed so long was not known to Phillip ; nor did he express any curiosity on the subject. The box of letters reached the French Ambassador in March of the following year ; and that was the last tidings received from poor Jean Fran9ois Galaup de la P^rouse. Yesterday twenty of the natives came down to the beach, each Natives armed with a number of spears, and seized on a good part of the ^^ ^ fish caught in the seina The coxswain had been ordered, however ^^ fl*^« small the quantity he caught, always to give them a part whenever any of them came where he was fishing, and this was the first time they ever attempted to take any by force. While the greatest number were seizing the fish, several stood at a small distance
- Voyage, voL ii, p. 180.
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