516 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



escaped the notice of preceding navigators. This harbor or bay 

 seems to have been a remarkable place. The water is unfathom- 

 able, and is surrounded by precipices which rise perpendicularly 

 from the water's edge into the regions of eternal snow. Not a 

 blade of grass, not a green leaf, grows in this desolate and 

 sterile spot. No breeze blows upon the surface of the bay : its 

 tranquillity is never troubled except by the fall of enormous 

 masses of ice from numerous overhanging peaks. The air is 

 so still and the silence so profound that the noise made by a 

 bird in laying an egg in the hollow of a rock is distinctly heard 

 at the distance of a mile and a half. To this wonderful bay 

 Laperouse gave the name of Frenchport. 



A painful accident occurred as the vessels, after a somewhat 

 prolonged stay, were about departing from the spot. Three 

 boats, manned by twenty-seven men and officers, were sent to 

 make soundings in the bay, in order to complete the «?hart of 

 the survey. They had strict orders to avoid a certain dan- 

 gerous current, but became involved in it unawares. Two 

 boats' crews perished, consisting of twenty-one men, the greater 

 part of them under twenty-five years of age. Two brothers, by 

 the name of Laborde, whom their superior officers never sepa- 

 rated, but always sent together on missions of peril, were among 

 the victims of the disaster. A monument was erected to their 

 memory, and a record buried in a bottle beneath it. The 

 inscription was thus conceived : — 



"At the entrance of this bay twenty-one brave sailors perish'd: 

 Whoever you may be, mingle your tears with ours." 



On the 13th of September, Laperouse arrived at Monterey, 

 after a cursory examination of the coast, determining its direc- 

 tions, but without exploring its sinuosities and inlets. The 

 Spanish commander of the fort and of the two Californias 

 had received orders from Mexico to extend all possible hospi- 

 tality to the adventurers. He executed his instructions to the 



