Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/114

104 the tay which Commodore Hunter made at that place, upon his return from Botany Bay in a Dutch veel, after he had been hipwrecked off Norfolk iland.

"I learn from private correpondence that you do not purpoe to touch at Ile de France till on your return from the important expedition in which you are engaged. Diappointed in the hope, with which I had flattered myelf, of having the honour to convere with you, I haten to dipatch, in order that they may find you at the Cape of Good Hope, two reports relative to the object of your miion, which I have lately received from the maters of two French veels arrived here from Batavia. You will thereby be informed of the particulars, how a Dutch veel, having on board Commodore Hunter of the Sirius English frigate, together with his hip's company, dicovered near the Admiralty Ilands, in the South Sea, everal perons clothed in European manufactures, ome of which, in particular, appeared to be French uniforms. You will alo be informed that the Commodore did not doubt that thee