Count Bougainville, the French Circumnavigator. 373 
but no wood for: fuel or erecting houses was to be procured. 
Rose bushes and excellent rich grass were found in abundance. 
The foundations of a fort were laid, and the walls were raised of 
earth. Bougainville set the example, and all the colonists took 
part in their erection: in the centre of the fort an obelisk was 
raised, and the hemistich “ Tibi serviat ultima Thule’? was in- 
scribed under a portrait of the French king: another inscription 
exhibited the lin@ in Horace, “ Conamur tenues grandia.” 
When these first labours were over, Bougainville returned to 
France, leaving the government of the infant colony to one of 
his relations. Next year he returned with a supply of provisions 
and new inhabitants. An excursion to the Straits of Magellan 
procured him wood for the purposes of building, and ten thou- 
sand young forest-and fruit-trees. An alliance was concluded with 
the Patagonians; most kinds of the grain cultivated in Europe were 
naturalized, and cultivated with success: the multiplication of 
the cattle was a matter of certainty, and the number of the in- 
habitants rapidly increased from 80 to 150. But these acquisi- 
tions did not satisfy the active mind of the founder. They had 
alarmed the Spaniards, however, and complaints had been made 
by them to the French government. Bougainville was finally 
ordered to déliver up his possession, and the court of Spain agreed 
to pay him for his works, and to refund his expenditure. As a 
further consolation, the court of France appointed him to make 
a voyage round the world. The command of the frigate la Bou- 
deuse was given him, and the store-ship E/foile was ordered to 
join him. ‘The naturalist Commercon and the astronomer Ve- 
ron were embarked with him, at his request, to examine the new 
methods of finding the longitude. 
It was on the third of May 1765 that Bougainville surren- 
dered to the Spaniards the colony, which had been scarcely two 
years in existence, and of which he foresaw the speedy destruc- 
tion; he regretted in particular the loss of an observatory which 
he wished to build there, and which from its position of 51° south 
latitude must have been an useful addition to the great observa- 
tories of Europe. While preparing to quit the island he saw a 
comet for several days, which had ceased to be visible in Europe. 
It was the second comet of 1766; and Pingré, who has care- 
fully collected all the observations made of it at the Isle of France, 
seems to have been ignorant that it was mentioned in Bougain- 
ville’s Voyage round the World. 
Sinee his projects were overthrown his island became of a se- 
condary interest to him: all his thoughts were turned to the 
brilliant expedition which he was about to undertake; but the 
store-ship which was to join him with provisions not having ar- 
rived, he thought that some obstacle must have occurred to pre- 
Aa3 vent 
