Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/213

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May.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
197

an aromatic nature, and might be employed for economical uſes in the place of thoſe aromatics with which we have hitherto been furniſhed excluſively by the Molucca Iſlands.

On the ſeventh, I was obliged to employ almoſt the whole day in preparing my collections, which accumulated prodigiouſly from day to day. I could therefore extend my reſearches only to a very ſmall diſtance from our anchoring-ſtation. But on the following day, I ſet out in the afternoon with a deſign of ſpending three or four days in the woods without returning at night to the ſhips. I was obliged to take this reſolution in order to collect ſpecimens of ſuch plants as only grew at a conſiderable diſtance from our ſtation.

We had a great variety of different kinds of European grain on board, which might be advantageouſly propagated at this extremity of New Holland. The temperature that generally prevails in this country led us to hope that they would ſucceed. Our gardener was directed to prepare a ſpot of ground ſo as to render it fit for receiving this depoſit. He dug a ſmall garden for this purpoſe on the eaſt coaſt of the harbour, ſituated E.N.E. of our place of anchorage.

We ſlept on the banks of a rivulet near the weſtern extremity of the great lake, along the

ſouthern