2C2£ Voyages and Difcov cries. 



were unknown to me. I collected feventy fpecie*; It was 

 ihen I regretted that I had not been able to land on different 

 points ot the immenfe coaft along which we had failed. 

 Notwithstanding its appearance of fterility, what a ftore of 

 hidden curious and unknown productions it would have pre- 

 ferred to me ! 



c * On our departure from the Baye des Chicns Mar'ins we 

 difcovered a new ifland, which we marked on our chart. We 

 called it Vljle des ylmiranx, becaufe we faw a great many birds 

 of that name upon it. This ifland is about three leagues 

 from the land. Notwithstanding the good intentions of the 

 commodore, it was not poffible for any of the naturalifls to 



fo on more ; but the officer ordered to reconnoitre" it brought 

 ack feveral beautiful metis and plants. He obferved alio a 

 quadruped of the fize of a fhepherd's dog; and difcovered a 

 fpring of excellent water. 



v * We continued our voyage along the coafts of New Hol- 

 land, but no where went on fhore. At length, after a moft 

 difmal navigation, we anchored, on the 23d of Anguft, in the 

 harbour of Coupant, in the ill and of Timor. On the 25th we 

 took up our lodging on more in two houfes provided by the 

 governor for the commodore: the latter reticles in one of 

 them, and the naturalifts in the other. 



" How great a contrail this fertile and woody country, 

 cfpecially in the part which we inhabit, forms with the coafts 

 we have juft failed along ! The plants, indeed, are not fo un- 

 common as thofe of New Holland. A great many of them 

 are cultivated, in the Ifle de France. I have feet* the wild 

 bread-fruit tree, mango trees, and tamarind trees of a pro- 

 digious height, areca trees, cocoa-nut trees of different kinds, 

 the maringa, fophara, &c. The whole country around the 

 harbour oF Coupant is covered with thefe beautiful trees. I 

 have feen fig trees thirty feet in circumference, {hading the 

 ground to a great diftance with their branches, and capable 

 of flickering from the rain a whole battalion of foldiers. I 

 found the rizophora mangas, which I had before obferved in 

 America; but the tree which appeared to me moft remarkable 

 was the cafuvrina, the trunk of which grows to the fize of 

 ten feet in circumference, and rifes to the height of fifty. 



" This ifland is watered by a multitude of ftreams : it 

 contains beautiful plains, which are eafily laboured with the 

 plough. The principal objects of cultivation are rice, maize, 

 yams, and tobacco. 



" 1 have already made a great many herborizing excur- 

 fions in the ifland. In drying the plants for the horhis Jicenty 

 I do not forget to preferve living ones, to be conveyed to the 



Ifle 



