Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/480

452 pass a part of this day on board, in order to describe and prepare them.

About five o'clock P.M. the tents belonging to the observatory were sent on shore to be pitched. I wished to embrace this opportunity to make another visit to the little island. As the tide was only beginning to rise, a landing could still be effected; but in a little time it would been impossible to get back to the boat, and we should have been obliged to pass the night on shore. This consideration prevented several of my companions from landing. The interval to be got over before reaching the shore, was about twenty feet, and at every surge, the water rose there above six feet perpendicularly. There was a necessity for seizing the moment between the two surges, or of running the risk of being swept into the sea, an accident which actually happened to the surgeon's mate of the Recherche. He had told us before hand, that he would get on shore with dry feet; but not being sufficiently quick in his motion, he was hurried along the shore by a violent surge. Fortunately he could swim, and returned towards the boat; but in a very different plight from what he had supposed, when he boasted of his agility.

Those who had landed were obliged to pass the