Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/473

] ed upon the rocks, where the waves broke in a tremendous manner.

In the evening, we let go a third anchor, to give us more security against such violent agitation.

12th. The mercury in the barometer, which had sunk to 27 inches 8½ lines, sensibly rose, as soon as day light appeared, and announced to us the termination of the tempest.

The surge having considerably abated, Captain Huon sent his boat to tell us, that on the preceding day, the Esperance was driving towards the land so rapidly, that she was on the point of being stranded, when Citizen Legrand, an officer of distinguished merit, went to the mast-head, in the very midst of the tempest, and almost immediately came down, exclaiming with enthusiasm, that the ship was out of danger! He then pointed out the anchoring-place, which he had viewed, and in which he was certain that she would ride in safety. This discovery saved both the ships; for the Recherche, obliged to beat about in the night among dangerous rocks, after struggling as long as she could, against the tempest, in hopes that a change of the wind would enable her to get into the open sea, would at last have been infallibly wrecked.

We gave to that bay the name of Citizen Le- grand,