The Australian Colonies Author:William Hughes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PROGRESS OF DISCOVERx. 27 CHAP. IV. Progress of Australian Discovery along the Coasts and in the Interior. — Bass and Flinders. — First Passage of the Blue... more » Mountains. — Oxley, Cunningham, Sturt, Leichhardt, andc. While the fleet under Captain Phillip's charge was anchored in Botany Bay, and immediately prior to its removal thence to Port Jackson, two French vessels entered the bay for the purpose of refitment. They were the "Boussole" and the "Astrolabe,"—two ships which formed the expedition under the command of the gallant and unfortunate La Perouse, then in the prosecution of his well-known voyage of discovery. The French ships remained at Botany Bay for nearly two months, during which time a mutual interchange of civilities was kept up between the French and English commanders. La Perouse, full of hope and confidence in the future, was refitting his vessels and re-establishing the health of his crew in preparation for the further prosecution of his voyage; while the English officer was laying the foundations of the town of Sydney, and striving to plant the civilisation of an elder world on the then almost unknown shores of the southern continent. Each engaged in a worthy enterprise, but with how different a measure of success! La Perouse sailed from Botany Bay, and forty years elapsed before his after fate became known. On the shore of the bay there stands a monument erected to his memory, in the year 1825, by some of his countrymen whom accident had led to this distant region; as well as another monument erected by La Perouse himself, and commemorative of the death of one of the companions of his voyage,—a French physician, who died while staying there of wounds received during an affray with the natives of one of the island- groups of the southern Pacific. Sad re...« less