21 



mand. The expedition arrived in Botany Bay in January, 

 1788, and shortly afterwards moved to Port Jackson. Of the 

 circumstances attending the start of this expedition it will be 

 necessary to speak further. 



Five days after these English ships had reached Botany 

 Bay two French frigates, the "Boussole" and the "Astrolabe," 

 under the command of La Perouse, arrived at the same har- 

 bourage, and in the March following sailed away, to be lost 

 with all hands, as was subsequently discovered, on one of the 

 islands of the Santa Cruz group. 



There are good grounds for excluding from suspicion the 

 crews of the French ships as the source of any communicated 

 disease. A perusal of the account of the voyage (5, I.) will 

 show that the expedition was fitted out with great care and 

 foresight, and that in the instructions to the commander a 

 whole chapter is especially devoted to the precautions which 

 are to be taken in order to preserve the health of the 

 crews (5, I., 55). That these were effectually carried out may 

 be gathered from the statement, several times repeated, that 

 there was no sickness on board, and in a letter written by 

 La Perouse on February 4, 1788 (5, IV., 201), after his arrival 

 at Botany Bay, he says: — "Nous sommes arrives a la nouvelle 

 Hollande sans qu'il y ait eu un seul malade dans les deux bati- 

 ments." These facts will sufficiently establish the freedom 

 from disease of the sailors of the great French navigator, and 

 we may dismiss them from suspicion as propagators of disease 

 of any kind. 



In April, 1789, fifteen months after* the departure of the 

 English ships and thirteen after that of the French, no. other 

 ships having visited the locality meanwhile, a virulent and 

 fatal epidemic was found to be raging among the natives 

 living round the shores of Port Jackson. The event is thus 

 described by Colonel David Collins, Judge- Advocate and 

 Secretary of the colony (6, 65): — 



"April. — Early in the month (1789), and throughout its 

 continuance, the people whose business called them down the 

 harbour daily reported, that they found, either in excavations 

 of the rock, or lying upon the beaches and points of the 

 different coves which they had been in, the bodies of many 

 of the wretched natives of this country. The cause of the 

 mortality remained unknown until a family was brought up, 

 and the disorder pronounced to have been the small-pox. It 

 was not a desirable circumstance to introduce a disorder into 

 the colony which was raging with such fatal violence among 

 the natives of the country; but the saving the lives of any 

 of these people was an object of no small importance, as the 

 knowledge of our humanity, and the benefits which we 



