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Wreck Reef.]

visit the south-west coast of New Caledonia; and he might have encountered in the night, as we did, some one of the several reefs which lie scattered in this sea. Less fortunate than we were, he probably had no friendly sand bank near him, upon which his people might be collected together and the means of existence saved out of the ships; or perhaps his two vessels both took the unlucky direction of the Cato after striking, and the seas which broke into them carried away all his boats and provisions; nor would La Pérouse, his vessels, or crews be able, in such a case, to resist the impetuosity of the waves more than twenty-four hours. If such were the end of the regretted French navigator, as there is now but too much reason to fear, it is the counterpart of what would have befallen all on board the Porpoise and Cato, had the former ship, like the Cato, fallen over towards the sea instead of heeling to the reef.

An opinion that La Pérouse had been lost in this neighbourhood, induced me when examining the main coast to seek carefully at every place, amongst the refuse thrown upon the shores, for indications of shipwreck to windward; and could the search have been then prosecuted to the 15th, or 12th degree of latitude, I am persuaded it would not have been in vain. Besides the extensive reefs which skirt the western side of New Caledonia, and the Barrier Reefs on the opposite coast of New South Wales, we are now ac-