Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/243

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May.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
223

They likewiſe left behind them ſeveral kangarou ſkins and drinking veſſels.

The officers forbade the ſailors to take away any of the utenſils of the ſavages: they, however, ſelected two baſkets, a kangarou ſkin, and a drinking veſſel of fucus, to carry to the Commander. The ſavages had no reaſon to regret the loſs of theſe utenſils, as they left, in place of them, ſeveral knives and handkerchiefs, with ſome biſcuit, cheeſe, and an earthen pot, perhaps too brittle, but certainly a very good ſubſtitute for that which had coſt them ſo little labour to manufacture.

The ſavages, though they took very few of their utenſils with them, dropped ſome of them from time to time on their flight. Whether they might do this in order to be able to run the faſter, or whether it was with a deſign to amuſe the Europeans who followed them, I cannot tell.

A boat belonging to the Eſperance had been to examine a creek ſituated to the eaſtward, at the diſtance of about 5,000 toiſes. They had met with one of the natives, who, notwithſtanding all the ſigns of amity they made him, would not let them come within two hundred paces diſtance of him. A fine rivulet diſcharges itſelf into the ſea near the fartheſt extremity of the creek. The ſituation of this creek, oppoſite to an iſland which

ſhelters