" One has
often heard of telling things "to the Marines." This gallant officer,
doubtless, used to whistle them, to a "little plaintive air."

It was the practice of Laperouse to sow seeds at places visited by his
ships, with the object of experimenting with useful European plants
that might be cultivated in other parts of the world. His own letters
and journal do not show that he did so at Botany Bay; but we have other
evidence that he did, and that the signs of cultivation had not
vanished at least ten years later. When George Bass was returning to
Sydney in February, 1798, at the end of that wonderful cruise in a
whaleboat which had led to the discovery of Westernport, he was
becalmed off Botany Bay. He was disposed to enter and remain there for
the night, but his journal records that his people--the six picked
British sailors who were the companions of his enterprise--"seemed
inclined to push for home rather than go up to the Frenchman's Garden."
Therefore, the wind failing, they took to the oars and rowed to Port
Jackson, reaching home at ten o'clock at night. That is a very
interesting allusion. The Frenchman's Garden must have been somewhere
within the enclosed area where the Cable Station now stands, and it
would be well if so pleasant a name, and one so full of
historical suggestion, were still applied to that reserve.

It may be well to quote in full the passage in which Laperouse relates
his experience of Botany Bay. He was not able to write his journal up
to the date of his departure before despatching it to Europe, but the
final paragraphs in it sufficiently describe what occurred, and what he
thought. Very loose and foolish statements have occasionally been
published as to his object in visiting the port. In one of the
geographical journals a few years ago the author saw it stated that
there was "a race for a Continent" between the English and the French,
in which the former won by less than a week! Nonsense of that sort,
even though it appears in sober publications, issued with a scientific
purpose, can emanate only from those who have no real acquaintance with
the subject. There was no race, no struggle for priority, no thought of
territorial acquisition on the part of the French. The reader of this
little book knows by this time that the visit to Botany Bay was not
originally contemplated. It was not in the programme.

What would have happened if Laperouse had safely returned home, and if
the French