Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/391

] success. Many European fruit-trees likewise succeed very well upon those heights, on account of the mild temperature of their atmosphere. It was necessary for us to procure a new order from the Governor before we could undertake this expedition; but Dauribeau, who had offered to request it for us, brought us information that the Governor had shortly received new instructions from the Council at Batavia, according to which he could not permit us to go to any great distance from the town; a walk of three or four hours, being all that was allowed us. I went several times to see a spring situated at the distance of about 7,500 toises to the westward. A great quantity of petroleum rises to the surface of its water, and is carefully collected by the inhabitants, who mix it with pitch. Abundance of pumice-stone is found in the surrounding country.

Citizen Riche and I lodged in the same house. We generally went out together to pursue our researches, and returned in the evening to Sourabaya with the new specimens we had collected. It was always with regret that we found our labours suspended by the approach of night. But on the 19th of February 1794, about four o'clock in the morning, Chateauvieux, the commandant of the place, came with a troop of thirty soldiers under arms, to inform us, in the name of Dauri-