Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/245

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May.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
225

ſpite from their toils and dangers. The Commander, anxious about their fate, ſent a boat in the afternoon in queſt of them, as he knew that whilſt the wind remained ſo unfavourable, the long boat could not return to the ſhip without aſſiſtance. Towards cloſe of evening, we had the ſatisfaction of ſeeing them return on board. They told us that having proceeded along the coaſt in a S.S.E. direction, they found by ſome fires that the ſavages were near; that they had ſoon met with ſeveral of them, who were the ſame that had been ſeen the day before, but that they did not ſuffer them to approach them. They found ſome ſhell-fiſh broiling upon the fires which the ſavages had left with precipitation, and more than thirty kangarou ſkins which they found at a little diſtance, ſhewed them to be very expert in hunting.

It appeared that they had made uſe of the bread and water, which had been left for them on the preceding day; but the ſmell of the cheeſe had probably given them no inclination to taſte it, as it was found in the ſame condition in which it had been depoſited. They found at the ſame place one of the knives and handkerchiefs that had been left among the utenſils of the natives.

Some ſhots that were fired at birds, probably terrified theſe ſavages; for when ſome of our men

went