Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/99

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Feb.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
77

as well as the other inhabitants of Cape Diemen: yet I must observe, that we did not see a single person who had the least trace of any disease of the skin; which by no means agrees with the opinion of those, who maintain, that ichthyophagi are subject to a species of leprosy. Historians even assert, that such of the Greeks as would not adopt in Egypt the regimen prescribed by Orpheus, were attacked by the elephantiasis.

Soon after sun-set we arrived on board; when, the wind having become fair, we weighed, and proceeded two leagues farther, where we dropped anchor again.

19th. The next morning we got up our anchor pretty early, but were obliged to let it go again almost immediately, as the wind became foul.

I then landed on the eastern shore, whence I penetrated into the woods, taking paths much frequented by the savages. It was not long before I perceived a new species of exocarpos, which I call exocarpos expansa, because its branches spread much wider from each other than those of the exocarpos cupressiformis. Its fruit is larger than that of the latter species.

Two guns from the Recherche informed us, that she was preparing to get up her anchor, and immediately we repaired on board. By five o'clock we were under sail, but the breeze was so faint,that