On the 26th, the transports and store ships, attended by the Sirius, finally evacuated Botany Bay; and in a very short time they were all assembled in Sydney Cove, the place now destined for their port, and for the reception of the new settlement.  The French ships had come to anchor in Botany Bay just before the departure of the Sirius; and during the intercourse which then took place, M. la Perouse had expressed a strong desire of having some letters conveyed to Europe.  Governor Phillip was no sooner informed of this, than he dispatched an officer to him with full information of the time when it was probable our ships would sail, and with assurances that his letters should be punctually transmitted.  By this officer the following intelligence was brought back concerning the voyage of the Astrolabe and Boussole.

These vessels had sailed from France in June 1785.  They had touched at the Isle of Santa Catharina on the coast of Brasil, from thence had gone by the extremity of South America into the Pacific Ocean, where they had run along by the coasts of Chili and California.  They had afterwards visited Easter Island, Nootka Sound, Cook’s River, Kamschatka, Manilla, the Isles des Navigateurs, Sandwich and the Friendly Islands.  M. la Perouse had also anchored off Norfolk Island, but could not land, on account of the surf.  In this long voyage he had not lost any of his people by sickness; but two boats crews had unfortunately perished in a surf on the north-west coast of America; and at Masuna, one of the Isles des Navigateurs, M. L’Angle, Captain of the Astrolabe, had met with a fate still more unfortunate.  That officer had gone ashore with two long boats for the purpose of filling some water casks.  His party amounted to forty men, and the natives, from whom the French had received abundance of refreshments, and with whom they had been uniformly on the best terms, did not on their landing show any signs of a change of disposition.  Malice unprovoked, and treachery without a motive, seem inconsistent even with the manners of savages; the French officers therefore, confiding in this unbroken state of amity, had suffered their boats to lie aground.  But whether it were that the friendly behaviour of the natives had proceeded only from fear, or that some unknown offence had been given, they seized the moment when the men were busied in getting out the boats, to make an attack equally furious and unexpected.  The assault was made with stones, of which prodigious numbers were thrown with extraordinary force and accuracy of direction.  To this treachery M. L’Angle fell a sacrifice, and with him twelve of his party, officers and men, the long-boats were destroyed, and the remainder of those who had gone ashore escaped with difficulty in their small boats.  The ships in the mean time were under sail, and having passed a point of land that intercepted the view, knew nothing of this melancholy and unaccountable affray till the boats returned.  This fatal result from too implicit