ries of his expedition
written by Rossel and Labillardiere. It would not have been likely to
be spelt in any other way by a French officer at the time. Thus,
the Marquis de la Fayette became simply Lafayette, and so with all
other bearers of titles in France. Consequently we should, by observing
this little difference, remind ourselves of Dentrecasteaux' period and
circumstances.

That, however, is by the way, and our main concern for the present is
with Laperouse.

As a boy, Jean-Francois developed a love for books of voyages, and
dreamt, as a boy will, of adventures that he would enjoy when he grew
to manhood. A relative tells us that his imagination was enkindled by
reading of the recent discoveries of Anson. As he grew up, and himself
sailed the ocean in command of great ships, he continued to read all
the voyaging literature he could procure. The writings of Byron,
Carteret, Wallis, Louis de Bougainville, "and above all Cook," are
mentioned as those of his heroes. He "burned to follow in their
footsteps."

It will be observed that, with one exception, the navigators who are
especially described by one of his own family as having influenced the
bent of Laperouse were Englishmen. He did not, of course, read all of
their works in his boyhood, because some of them were published after
he had embraced a naval career. But we note them in this place, as the
guiding stars by which he shaped his course. He must have been a young
man, already on the way to distinction as an officer, when he came
under the spell of Cook. "And above all Cook," says his relative. To
the end of his life, down to the final days of his very last
voyage, Laperouse revered the name of Cook. Every Australian reader
will like him the better for that. Not many months before his own life
ended in tragedy and mystery, he visited the island where the great
English sailor was slain. When he reflected on the achievements of that
wonderful career, he sat down in his cabin and wrote in his Journal the
passage of which the following is a translation. It is given here out
of its chronological order, but we are dealing with the influences that
made Laperouse what he was, and we can see from these sincere and
feeling words, what Cook meant to him:

"Full of admiration and of respect as I am for the memory of that great
man, he will always be in my eyes the first of navigators. It is he who
has determined the precise position of these islands, who has explore