THE FRENCH VISITORS

Not long after Governor Phillip had decided to move the site of the settlement to Sydney Cove, two French frigates sailed into Botany Bay. They were the Boussole and Astrolabe, commanded by Count de La Pérouse, which were on a voyage of exploration in the Pacific. They had recently visited the Philippines and also the fur-trading port of Kamchatka, where they had heard of the proposed new English settlement at Botany Bay. Later, when they were visiting the Samoan islands, the natives killed several of their crew and destroyed their two longboats. La Pérouse then decided to call into Botany Bay to build new longboats, and also take on wood and water. His unexpected arrival off the coast caused a brief panic among the English navel officers, but when the reasons for his visit were made known, excellent relations were established, and social visits were exchanged between the French and the English officers. The French established a camp on the northern shore of Botany Bay, where one of their naturalists was buried, and they remained alone in Botany Bay from 26 January until 10 March 1788. It is thought that one or two of the English convicts may have escaped with them when they left. However, their ships were not heard of again, and many years later the recovery of relics proved that they had been wrecked on Vanikoro Island in the New Hebrides. The following account is from La Pérouse’s journal:

From Norfolk Island, till we got to sight of Botany Bay, we sounded every evening with a line of two hundred fathoms, but we found no bottom till we were within eight leagues of the coast, when we have ninety fathoms of water.

We made the land on the 23rd of January. It has little elevation, and is scarcely possible to be seen at a greater distance than twelve leagues. The wind then became very variable; and, like captain Cook, we met with currents, which carried us every day fifteen minutes south of our reckoning; so that we spent the whole of the 24th in plying in sight of Botany Bay, without being able to double Point Solander, which bore from us a league north. The wind blew strong from that quarter, and our ships were too heavy sailers to surmount the force of the wind and the currents combined: but that day we had a spectacle, to which we had been altogether unaccustomed since our departure from Manilla: this was a British squadron, at anchor in Botany Bay, the pendants and ensigns of which we could plainly distinguish.

All Europeans are countrymen at such a distance from home, and we had the most eager impatience to fetch the anchorage; but the next day the weather was so foggy, it was impossible to discern the land, and we did not get in till the 26th, at nine in the morning, when we let go our anchor a mile from the north shore, in seven fathoms of water, on a good bottom of gray sand, abreast of the second bay.

The moment I made my appearance in the centre of the bay, a lieutenant and a midshipman were sent aboard my vessel by captain Hunter, commanding the British frigate Sirius. They offered from him all the services in his power; adding, however, that, as he was just getting under way to proceed to the northward, circumstances would not allow him to furnish us with provision, ammunition, or sails; so that his offers of service were reduced to good wishes for the future success of our voyage. I dispatched an officer to return my thanks to captain Hunter, who by this time had his anchor a-peak and his topsails hoisted; telling him, that my wants were confined to wood and water of which we could not fail in this bay; and that I was sensible vessels intended to settle a colony, at such a distance from Europe, could not be of any assistance to navigators.

From the lieutenant we learned, that the British squadron was commanded by commodore Phillip, who had sailed from Botany Bay the preceding evening, in the Spy sloop, with four transports, in search of a more commodious place for settlement farther north. The lieutenant appeared to make a great mystery of commodore Phillip’s plan, and we did not take the liberty of putting any questions to him on the subject: but we had no doubt, that the intended settlement must be very near Botany Bay, since several boats were under the sail for the place, and the passage certainly must be very short, as it was thought unnecessary to hoist them on board. The crew of the English boat, less discreet than their officer, soon informed our people, that they were only going to Port Jackson, sixteen miles north of Point Banks, where commodore Phillip had reconnoitred a very good harbour, which ran ten miles into the land to the south west, and in which the ships might anchor within pistol-shot of the shore, in water as smooth as that of a basin. We afterwards but too frequent opportunities of hearing news of the English settlement, the deserters from which gave us a great deal of trouble and embarrassment.

- A Voyage Round the World, performed In the Years 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1788 , by the Boussole and Astrolabe, Under the Command of J. F. G. de la Pérouse, London, G. G. and J. Robinson, J. Edwards and T. Payne, 1799, vol. II, pp. 179-180