Captain Watkin Tench, Of
The Marines, Has A Good Account In His "Narrative Of An Expedition To
Botany Bay" (London, 1789), And Paterson's "History Of New South Wales"
(Newcastle-On-Tyne, 1811) Makes An Allusion To The French Expedition.
Chapter VIII.
THE MYSTERY, AND THE SECRET OF THE SEA.
The BOUSSOLE and the ASTROLABE sailed from Botany Bay on March 10,
1788. After recording that fact we might well inscribe the pathetic
last words of Hamlet, "the rest is silence."
We know what Laperouse intended to do. He wrote two letters to friends
in France, explaining the programme to be followed after sailing from
Botany Bay. They do not agree in every particular, but we may take the
last letter written to express his final determination. According to
this, his plan was to sail north, passing between Papua ( New Guinea)
and Australia by another channel than Endeavour Strait, if he could
find one. During September and October he intended to visit the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and thence sail down the west and along the south of
Australia, to Tasmania, "but in such a manner that it may be possible
for me to stretch northward in time to arrive at Ile-de-France in the
beginning of December, 1788." That was the programme which he was not
destined to complete - hardly, indeed, to enter upon. Had he succeeded,
his name would have been inscribed amongst the memorable company of the
world's great maritime explorers. As it is, the glint on his
brow, as he stands in the light of history, is less that of achievement
than of high promise, noble aims, romance and mystery.
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