Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/340

282 but this conjecture appears to me improbable, as the wound cicatrized, and the man remained fourteen days in good health. Besides, we found that the arrows, left in the canoe by the savages, and afterwards taken possession of by our sailors, were not poisoned; for several birds that we pricked with them experienced no troublesome consequences from the puncture: but it is a common occurrence in hot climates, that the slightest puncture is followed by a general spasmodic affection, which almost always terminates fatally.

On the 12th, about ten in the morning, we descried the coasts of Louisiade, and at first mistook the most easterly extremity for Cape Deliverance, but soon discovered that to be 25′ farther north.

We were astonished to find that the rapidity of the currents had been so great as to carry us 44′ to the northward in the space of twenty-four hours. The observations made on board the Esperance gave the same result.

We now steered west, coasting along pretty high lands, from which, however, we were obliged to keep at a considerable distance, on account of the great number of shoals which extended very far into the sea, and rendered our navigation extremely dangerous.

On the 14th, at day-break, we found ourselves