ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY 



[Marc ft, 



the officers/and the equipage. They were well manned, and had, he- 

 fide the officers cuftomary in kings' fhips, a botanift and a limner on 

 board, each veffel. 



They had vifited all the Spanifh poffeffions in South America and 

 Other parts of the world, afcertaining with precifion their boundaries 

 and fituations ; gaining much information refpe&ing their cuftoms and 

 manners, their importance with regard to the mother-country, and 

 their various productions commercial, agricultural, botanical, and 

 mineral. Fof all which purpofes the officers on board appeared to 

 have been fele&ed with the happieft fuccefs. They moft forcibly re- 

 minded the gentlemen of the colony of the unfortunate Count de la 

 Peyroufe and his followers, of whom the Spaniards had only heard 

 that they were no more ; and for whofe deftiny they exprefTed a feel- 

 ing, arifing from their having traverfed the ocean in the fame purfuits^ 

 and followed in the fame path. Equally fincere and polite as Count 

 de la Peyroufe, the Spanifh commodore paid a tribute to the abilities 

 and memory of our circumnavigator Cook, in whofe fteps the Che- 

 valier Malafpina, who was an Italian Marquis and a Knight of Malta, 

 declared it was a. pleafure to follow, as it left him nothing to attend 

 to, but to remark the accuracy of his obfervations. They loft at the 

 ifland of Luconia, Don Antonia Pineda, a colonel of the Spanifh 

 guards, who was charged with that department of the expedition, 

 vvhich refpecled the natural hiftory of the places that they vifited. 

 They fpoke of him in very high terms as a man of fcience and a 

 gentleman. 



. Having requefted to erect an obfervatory, they chofe the Point of 

 the Cove on which a hut had been built for Bennillong, making ufe 

 of the hut to fecure their inftruments. They did not profefs to be in 

 want of much affiftance ; but fuch as they did require was directed 1 

 to be furnifhed them.' without any expence ; it was indeed too incon- 

 fiderable to become an. object of charge. 



The arrival of thefe ftrangers, together with that of the fhip from 

 Bengal, gave a pleafant diverfity to the dull routine that commonly 



prevailed 



12 



