Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/16

10 composition of which had furnished the very fine quartzose sand, on which I walked for some time.

The Esperance had already found a watering-place, in a little cove to the north-west, where there was very good water, easily procured. The brook that furnished it fell into the sea from a height of more than three feet, so that it would readily run into the long-boat through wooden troughs.

We soon reached the head of the bay, where we found a hut, which the savages had constructed with much art. The ingenuity with which they had disposed the bark that covered its roof, excited our admiration; the heaviest rain could not penetrate it. It had an opening in the side towards the sea, and curiosity induced us to enter.

Some of the people on board the Esperance had told us, that the evening before they had seen three natives, sitting round a small fire, close to the hut, who, being frightened by the sound of a gun discharged at a bird, had fled with precipitation. We had soon another proof of their presence at this extremity of the bay; and it appeared to us, that they came regularly to sleep in this hut. In a very short time we repented our entering into it; for the vermin that stuck to our clothes, bit us in a very disagreeable manner.

The tide of flood had raised the sea to a height that