508 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Governmental Instructions and his own conduct show, 

 was a voyage of curiosity ; and, when he called at Botany 

 Bay, he had three objects only in mind knowledge, 

 refreshment, and opportunity to put together a new long 

 boat. 1 He obtained what he sought, and sailed away ; and, 

 thirty-eight years afterwards, the relics of his ships were found 

 at the bottom of the sea near an island in the Santa Cruz 

 group. Laperouse has no place in the story of Australian 

 discovery, yet we would not willingly forget the radiant 

 figure, true knight of Humanity, that stands so bright 

 against the drab circumstances of our beginning. 



Dentre- Laperouse was a hero to all Frenchmen, to the men 



of the Revolution as to the men of the old regime ; and 

 the romance of his name strengthened the determination 

 that Frenchmen should take large share in the exploration 

 of the Pacific. In 1791 the National Assembly decreed 

 that two ships should be sent under Dentrecasteaux, to 

 search for tidings of Laperouse, and, while searching, 

 to complete his work. The voyage was a failure. No 

 trace of Laperouse was found. No explanation of unknown 

 Australia was made. In two places, however, noteworthy 

 work was done. Dentrecasteaux surveyed that part 

 of the South Coast which had been surveyed by the Gulden 

 Zeepaart in 1627, and which had never been visited 

 since that date. He did not, however, sail quite so far 



On the Eastward as the Dutch seaman had sailed, and the unknown 



South coast, coast rema i nec i unknown. The French hydrographer, 

 Beaupre, gave high praise to the old Dutch chart, and 

 himself made a chart of which Flinders says " no chart 

 of a coast so little known as this was will bear a comparison 

 with its original better." The voyage left on the map 

 the names of Esperance Bay and Recherche Archipelago. 

 The other place a far more pleasant place in which 

 Dentrecasteaux did noteworthy work, was, as we have 



and in Van already seen, the lovely channel in Van Diemen's Land, 

 wmc h still bears his name. Here at last a thoroughly 

 attractive region had been discovered, and it had been 

 discovered by Frenchmen. Why not a French colony 

 1 Cf. Scott in Victorian Historical Magazine, Dec. 1912. 



