Commodore Phillip Had Good Reason To Prefer That Port, And He
Has Left Us Sole Masters Of This Bay, Where Our Long-Boats Are Already
On The Stocks."
The fullest account is given in the journal of Lieutenant King,
afterwards (1800-6) Governor of New South Wales.
On February 1 Phillip
sent him in a cutter, in company with Lieutenant Dawes of the Marines,
to visit Laperouse, "and to offer him whatever he might have occasion
for." King relates that they were "received with the greatest
politeness and attention by Monsieur de Laperouse and his officers." He
accepted an invitation to remain during the day with the French, to
dine with the Commodore, and to return to Port Jackson next morning.
The complete history of the voyage was narrated to him, including of
course the tragic story of the massacre of de Langle and his
companions.
After dinner on the BOUSSOLE, King was taken ashore, where he found the
French "quite established, having thrown round their tents a stockade,
guarded by two small guns." This defence was needed to protect the
frames of the two new longboats, which were being put together, from
the natives; and also, it would appear, from a few escaped convicts,
"whom he had dismissed with threats, giving them a day's
provision to carry them back to ye settlement." Laperouse himself, in
his history - in the very last words of it, in fact - complains that
"we had but too frequent opportunities of hearing news of the English
settlement, the deserters from which gave us a great deal of trouble
and embarrassment."
We learn from King a little about the Pere Receveur - a very little,
truly, but sufficient to make us wish to know more.
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