Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/493

] by that navigator, at a time when nautical and astronomical instruments were so imperfect. I ought to extend the same observation, to almost all those ascertained by Lewen on this coast.

For some days the winds had blown from the east, inclining to the north in the morning, and to the south in the afternoon. The sands, strongly heated by the solar rays, caused this diurnal variation. The equilibrium of the atmosphere was not affected by those winds, and hence the mercury in the barometer commonly stood at 28 inches, 3 or 4 lines.

17th. This day the weather being favourable, a boat was sent in quest of Citizen Riche. That naturalist, enraptured with the riches and novelty of all the productions of that region, which no observer had hitherto visited, had doubtless been so absorbed in admiration of them, that he had quickly lost his way; and he had not yet returned to the appointed rendezvous.

When advancing in the direction which he was seen to take on the preceding day, our people saw, at a small distance, some savages, with whom, however, any communication was impossible; for they always fled when our people offered to approach them.

The situation of Riche was so much the more alarming, as he had been absent nearly a day and a half,