They furnished us liberally with provisions,
and administered cheerfully to all our wants." It may not be improper
to remark, that Owhyee was not one of the islands visited by this gentleman.
In the short stay made by these ships at Botany Bay, an Abbe, one of the
naturalists on board, died, and was buried on the north shore. The French
had hardly departed, when the natives pulled down a small board, which
had been placed over the spot where the corpse was interred, and defaced
everything around. On being informed of it, the Governor sent a party over
with orders to affix a plate of copper on a tree near the place,
with the following inscription on it, which is a copy of what was written
on the board:
Hic jacet L. RECEVEUR,
E.F.F. minnibus Galliae, Sacerdos, Physicus, in
circumnavigatione mundi, Duce De La Perrouse.
Obiit die 17 Februarii, anno 1788.
This mark of respectful attention was more particularly due, from
M. De Perrouse having, when at Kamschatka, paid a similar tribute of gratitude
to the memory of Captain Clarke, whose tomb was found in nearly as ruinous
a state as that of the Abbe.
Like ourselves, the French found it necessary, more than once, to chastise
a spirit of rapine and intrusion which prevailed among the Indians
around the Bay.
