OF LA PEROUSE. XII 



for fome little time, the fhip would not anfwer 

 her helm, fo that we were in danger of running 

 foul of feveral veflels that were lying at the 

 anchorage. We very quickly pafled them all, 

 and foon gained an offing. 



On the 1 8th, about eight o'clock in the 

 morning, we loft our carpenter, Louis Gargau : 

 he died in confequence of the excefTes to which 

 he had abandoned himfelf during our Hay at 

 the Cape. A fever, flight in the beginning, 

 had acquired in the fequel a character of malig- 

 nity, to which he fell a vidtim. This lofs was 

 the more fenfibly felt, as a fkilful carpenter is 

 one of the moft ufeful of men, efpecially in a 

 voyage, the object of which is to make difco- 

 veries, in the midfl of feas itrewn with ihoals, 

 where, incefTantly expofed to fhipwreck, a navi- 

 gator may not only lofe his fhips, but with them 

 all hopes of revifiting his country, if he has not 

 the means of conftrucling a veffel to carry him 

 thither. 



Two men, who had concealed themfelves on 

 board at the time of our departure from the 

 Cape, did not appear on deck till it was no 

 longer poffible to fend them on fhore. Of 

 courfe, they were permitted to go with the ex- 

 pedition. The one was a foldier, a deierter 

 from the garrifon of the Cape ; the other a Ger- 

 man, a very ikilful workman in mathematical 

 i inltruments, 



