Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/116

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
106
VOYAGE IN SEARCH
[1792.

wiſhes for your ſucceſs, and the inviolable and perfect attachment with which I am, &c.

(Signed)Saint-Felix."
Iſle de France, 9th Nov. 1791.
Report delivered to Saint-Felix, Commander of the Naval Forces of the French Nation in the Indian Seas, by Captain Préaudet, Maſter of the Jaſon, from Batavia.

The Sirius Engliſh frigate, commanded by Commodore Hunter, and bound for New Holland, was caſt away off Norfolk Iſland in the South Sea, towards the end of the year 1790. The ſhip's company were taken on board a ſloop that accompanied the frigate, and carried to Botany Bay, where Commodore Philips engaged a ſmall Dutch veſſel to convey the ſhipwrecked crew, together with their commander, to England.

Having ſailed from Botany Bay in this veſſel, with an intent to touch at Batavia, they were carried by contrary winds and the force of the currents as far eaſtward as 167° E. long. meridian of Greenwich. Wiſhing to paſs through the Straits of St. George, they came within ſight of the Admiralty Iſlands, ſituated in 147° E. long. 3° 25′ S. lat. Near to the moſt eaſterly of theſe

iſlands