Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/123

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Jan.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
113

been a common ſailor of the loweſt rank. If this be the fact, Captain Bligh diſguiſes the truth when he aſſerts, that he had always treated him with the greateſt liberality.

There were at that time eighteen ſhips lying at anchor at the Cape, of which twelve were Dutch, two French, two American, and two Engliſh.

At ſun-riſe we ſaluted the place with thirteen guns, which it returned with the ſame number.

18th. At nine o'clock the Commander of our expedition went on ſhore; upon which the town ſaluted him with fifteen guns, which we returned gun for gun. The Governor had ſent ſeveral carriages, and a large company of muſicians to attend General Dentrecaſteaux at the place where he landed. Accompanied by the muſicians, playing upon their inſtruments in a very boiſterous manner, he went with ſome of his officers to wait upon the members of the regency, who received him in a full aſſembly of the council, and ſoon after returned his viſit, at the houſe of the Chargé d'Affaires of France, where he lodged.

The greater part of our officers took lodgings in different houſes of the town. The Dutch inhabitants at the Cape are known to be very fond of lodging ſtrangers at their houſes. Their common price is a piaſtre a day. I took a lodging,

together