by Don Alexandro Malaspina, with a
broad pendant as the commander of the expedition, and the latter by Don
Jose de Bustamante y Guerra. They had been three years and a half from
Europe on a voyage of discovery and information; and were now arrived
from Manilla, after a passage of ninety-six days; touching in their way
hither at Dusky Bay in New Zealand, from which they had sailed about a
fortnight.

On their coming up, they anchored just abreast of the two points which
form Sydney Cove, declining saluting, as it was not in our power to
return it. These ships were of three hundred and five tons burden each,
and were built for the particular voyage on which they were sent. Great
care was observable in their construction, both as to the strength of the
vessels and the accommodation of the officers and the equipage. They were
well manned, and had, beside the officers customary in king's ships, a
botanist and limner on board each vessel.

They had visited all the Spanish possessions in South America and other
parts of the world, ascertaining with precision their boundaries and
situations; gaining much information respecting their customs and
manners, their importance with regard to the mother country, their
various productions commercial, agricultural, botanical, and mineral. For
all which purposes the officers on board appeared to have been selected
with the happiest success. They most forcibly reminded us of the
unfortunate Count de la Perouse and his followers, of whom these
gentlemen had only heard that they were no more; and for whose destiny
they expressed a feeling arising from their having traversed the ocean in
the same pursuit, and followed in the same path. Equally sincere and
polite as Count de la Perouse, the Spanish commodore paid a tribute to
the abilities and memory of our circumnavigator Cook, in whose steps the
Chevalier Malaspina, who was an Italian marquis and a knight of Malta,
declared it was a pleasure to follow, as it left him nothing to attend
to, but to remark the accuracy of his observations. They lost at the
island of Luconia Don Antonio Pineda, a colonel of the Spanish guards,
who was charged with that department of the expedition which respected
the natural history of the places they visited. They spoke of him in high
terms as a man of science and a gentleman, and favoured us with an
engraving of the monument which they had caused to be erected over his
grave at the place where he died; and fro