LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY. 



I9f 



3ON8 IN <:i:<><;i; AI'IIV. VII 



KBKTR 



.if taking her shore in the progreM of mari- 



tiiMK ,!. it, in 1786, a now i-\|i.'iiiti<m m, 



::,! nl' I.:L I'.T use, nil ill.:. r. TllO 



li squa- 



.1 north-wcM Aiiu-rii-ii, ami tlm Mhorei of 



Tartary ami Japan. Th.-ir\- . 1- / ' ItauMoU and L'Attrolabe, 



. -ii IH!CH, and reached 



coiwt of America. Th ex- 



witli great oaro a largo extent of thin lim- .,:' 



Uurini; their hydrographical operations, a sad aooidont 



bffrll them, whii-ii r<>*t twenty-one persons tlioir HTOH, while 



attempt to land. -..j-iitmiis l..-in^ liiii^hr.l, 



1 tli.' I'a.-itii 1 , ilrtiT-iii r way the poitiou 



. uinl iirrivod at Macao on tho 2nd of 



Jiuiimry, 17^7. At tho uut.-ut of his second expedition, La 



so disa*trouly , bo purposed to explore the Tonga Isles, the tooth 



part of New Caledonia, tho Lonisiade Archipelago, New Gain** 



Carpentaria, and the coast of An*- 



tralia from thiu gulf to Van Diemen'i Land. He left the shore* 

 of New Holland full of hope and enterprise ; but his task, no 

 courageously self-imposed, was left unfinished ; his career cam* 

 to a clone. From that moment he was never more heard of; 

 for two yean, expectation wan kept on tho stretch, looking for 

 news of tho squadron. La Peroiuo and hu companion* were 

 lost to their country. The cruel uncertainty which remained in 

 France regarding the fate of tho expedition, ceased the National 

 Assembly to para a deereo in February, 17D1, by which it en* 

 treated tho king, Louis XVI., to solicit tbo assistant* of the 

 other soTuroigns of Kuropo in tho search for La Perooso. 

 This decree also directed tho organisation of an expedition, 

 wliic-li hail the double object of endeavouring to find some trace 

 I" tin- unfortunate navigator, and of completing the discoveries 

 which had beon left unachieved. This expedition took place 

 under tho command of Admiral D'Entrecauteaux, but without 



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ENTRANCE TO POET JACKSON, NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Perouse went along the coast of Coroa, and discovered Capo 

 Nota on the coast of Japan. Tho officers of tho expedition 

 applied themselves particularly to tho determination of the lati- 

 tudes and longitudes of the places which they visited. In latitude 

 45, they discovered a harbour which they called the Bay of 

 Tornay. They next discovered the strait which separates the 

 island of Jcsso from Tchoka or Saghalien, and which is called 

 tho Strait of La Perouse. The expedition then sailed for 

 Kamtschatka, where it was hospitably received. At this point 

 M. Lesseps, who hod accompanied La Perouso aa interpreter 

 of the Russian languages, was sent overland to France. This 

 intrepid young man, to whom had been entrusted the journals 

 and charts of tho voyage, traversed the old continent through 

 its whole extent from east to west, and happily arrived at Paris 

 with the valuable observations which had been made during the 

 expedition. La Perouse returned to Oceania, to meet severe 

 trials. At Mamma, one of the Navigators' Islands, his com- 

 panion, De Langle, the captain of L' 'Astrolabe, and twenty of 

 his attendants, were cruelly murdered by tho natives. Lamanon, 

 the naturalist of tho expedition, perished in this attack. After 

 a short stay at Botany Bay, on the oast coast of New Holland, 

 now called Australia, La Perouso prepared for his third and 

 lost expedition. In this new voyage of discovery, which ended 



VOL. I. 



success. It was almost as unfortunate as that of La Peronaw, 

 although it was useful in making those coasts better known 

 which had been carefully explored in search of him. The place 

 of his shipwreck, in fact, was not discovered till 1827, by Captain 

 Dillon, who ascertained that he and his unfortunate companions 

 were lost on tho rocks of one of the Feejee Islands, and found 

 tho remains of the vessel and part of the articles that belonged 

 to him. The singular voyage of Captain Bligh, who, owing to 

 tho mutiny of his crew, was obliged to traverse an immense 

 extent of ocean in an open boat, led to the discovery, in 1789. 

 of some of the southern islands of the Feejeo Archipelago. 

 The surprising explorations, also, of Captain Flinders and 

 Surgeon Bass, who attempted to effect tho circumnavigation of 

 New Holland, in a sorry boat, ended in the discovery of the 

 strait which separates that continent from Tasmania, then called 

 Van Dicmen's Land, and which still retains tho name of Bass ; 

 and, at the same time, in tho delineation of an immmne line of 

 coast on the same continent. Flinders especially has a right 

 to the remembrance of geographers, for the steadiness with 

 which he pursued, during many years, his difficult and dangerous 

 labours, almost always in an open boat or frail skiff which the 

 smallest storm would have fonndared in a moment. To him we 

 owe tho discovery of Kangaroo Island, the hydrography of Van 



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