That Botany Bay should have appeared to Captain Cook in a more advantageous light than to Governor Phillip, is not by any means extraordinary.  Their objects were very different; the one required only shelter and refreshment for a small vessel, and during but a short time:  the other had great numbers to provide for, and was necessitated to find a place wherein ships of very considerable burthen might approach the shore with ease, and lie at all times in perfect security.  The appearance of the place is picturesque and pleasing, and the ample harvest it afforded, of botanical acquisitions, made it interesting to the philosophical gentlemen engaged in that expedition; but something more essential than beauty of appearance, and more necessary than philosophical riches, must be sought in a place where the permanent residence of multitudes is to be established.

Chapter VII.

January 1788

Removal from Botany Bay—­Arrival of two French ships—­Account of them—­Preparations for encampment—­Difficulties—­Scurvy breaks out—­Account of the red and yellow gum trees.

24 January 1788

Preparations for a general removal were now made with all convenient expedition:  but on the morning of the 24th the greatest astonishment was spread throughout the fleet by the appearance of two ships, under French colours.  In this remote region visitors from Europe were very little expected, and their arrival, while the cause of it remained unknown, produced in some minds a temporary apprehension, accompanied by a multiplicity of conjectures, many of them sufficiently ridiculous.  Governor Phillip was the first to recollect that two ships had been sent out some time before from France for the purpose of discovery, and rightly concluded these to be the same.  But as the opposition of the wind, and a strong current prevented them at present from working into the harbour, and even drove them out of sight again to the south, he did not think proper to delay his departure for the sake of making further enquiry.

25 January 1788

On the 25th of January therefore, seven days after the arrival of the Supply, Governor Phillip quitted Botany Bay in the same ship, and sailed to Port Jackson.  The rest of the fleet, under convoy of the Sirius, was ordered to follow, as soon as the abatement of the wind, which then blew a strong gale, should facilitate its working out of the Bay.  The Supply was scarcely out of sight when the French ships again appeared off the mouth of the harbour, and a boat was immediately sent to them, with offers of every kind of information and assistance their situation could require.  It was now learnt that these were, as the Governor had supposed, the Boussole and the Astrolabe, on a voyage of discovery, under the conduct of Monsieur La Perouse.

26 January 1788