Voyages and Dlfcoverles. 203 



an intrenchment around us, lighted a large fire, and ap- 

 pointed a guard of three men to keep watch during the 

 night. Next day parted away without hearing any news 

 from the (hip. The day following ftill nothing was feen. 

 The fea, however, appeared to be vifibly rougher, and to 

 become more and more threatening. We began to be in 

 want of provifions and water. At laft, on the third day, we 

 faw a boat coming from the Gcograpbc, which brought us 

 all the afliftance we Hood in need of. We learned, that the 

 one which carried to the commodore the news of our diftrefs 

 had been thirty-fix hours in reaching the veffel, having had 

 to ftruggle againft a very hollow fea ; that the barometer had 

 fallen more than fix lines in the courfe of a very fhort time; 

 and that every thing announced a violent ftorm. The com- 

 modore requefled us to haflen our embarkation ; and to leave 

 on more our arms and ammunition, together with all our 

 baggage, and even all the plants which I had carefully col- 

 lected, and for which there was no room in the canoe. It 

 was juft time : two hours later we mould not have been able 

 to reach the (hip : it would even have been impoflible to 

 embark. 



" A canoe having been difpatched from the Naturalifle to 

 recover the effects we had left on more, one of the failors, an 

 excellent fwimmer, threw himfelf into the fea to tow it on 

 more; but, being thrown down by the waves, he funk and 

 difappeared. The canoe returned without landing, and 

 brought back nothing but the melancholy intelligence of the 

 lofs it had fuitained. 



" We were three days in getting from this bay. The 

 clay after, the Naturali/ie feparated from us ; and we did not 

 fee her again till fhe reached Timor, a month after our arrival 

 at that ill and. 



" After we left the bay, and when the bad weather was 

 over, we approaehed the land, and ft retched along the coaft 

 as near to it as poflible. Never in my life did I fee a country 

 more arid or barren: not a drop of good water to be got; 

 little or no vegetation; and the land inaccefuble, and fur- 

 rounded by reefs and deep water. Sometimes, when at the 

 diftance of fix leagues from the coaft, we had thirty-fix fa- 

 thoms water, and in a few minutes we found only five. 



" In this manner we reached the Buye des Cbiens Marins, 

 where the veill'l anchored- During the time we ftaid here 

 I had an opportunity of vifiting two illands, which may be 

 each twelve or fourteen leagues in extent. I traverfed them 

 nearly in every direction, obferving with great care their na- 

 tural productions, particularly the plants, feveral of which 



were 



