Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/492

460 astronomical observations. Citizen Riche had also landed there. The rendezvous was fixed for two o'clock in the afternoon, at the landing place; but the boat's crew waited in vain till seven in the evening, when they were obliged to return to the ship, from their want of provisions, and the dangerous situation of the boat, if the surge had risen ever so little. They left upon the beach a written note, acquainting Citizen Riche, in case he should return thither, that they would return and take him off very early the next morning, if the weather would permit.

The geographical engineer, who had been sent to survey the little islands, returned in the evening, having determined the position of more than twenty of them, scattered in the space of a degree in longitude, and as much in latitude. He landed in several places, without finding a commodious watering place, and the only rill of fresh water which he discovered could scarcely furnish a sufficiency for the daily consumption of the ships. But he had found an anchoring place, behind the point of the main land, which bore from us, E.N.E. but it was not so deep as that which we occupied.

The discoveries of Nuyts terminated at this archipelago. We were astonished at the precision with which the latitudes had been determined by