An account of his adventures.--Lieutenant King
returns to Port Jackson.--Sent by Governor Phillip to form a settlement
on Norfolk Island.--Leaves Port Jackson.--An island discovered.--Arrival
at Norfolk Island.--Difficulty in finding a landing-place.--Lands the
convicts, provisions, and stores.--Ground cleared, and tents fixed.--A
store-bouse erected.--Vegetables, and various sorts of grain sown.--
Distressed by rats.--General orders for the regulation of the settlement.

On the 1st of February, at day-light in the morning,
Lieutenant Dawes, of the marines, and myself, left Sydney Cove in
a cutter, in order to proceed to Botany-Bay, and visit Monsieur
De la Peyrouse, on the part of Governor Phillip, and to offer him
any assistance he might stand in need of. We soon got down to the
harbour's mouth, and finding a light breeze from the southward,
we were obliged to row all the way: we arrived on board the
Boussole at ten o'clock in the morning, and were received with
the greatest attention and politeness by Monsieur Peyrouse, and
the few officers he had.

After delivering my message to him, he returned his thanks to
Governor Phillip, and made us similar offers to those he had
received, adding at the same time, that he should be in France
within the space of fifteen months, and as he had stores, etc.
sufficient to serve him for three years, he should be happy to
send Governor Phillip any thing that he might want. Monsieur
Peyrouse informed me, that a number of the convicts had been to
him, and wanted to enter on board his ships, but that he had
dismissed them with threats, and had given them a day's
provisions to carry them back to the settlement.

The wind coming on to blow fresh from the northward, I
accepted Monsieur Peyrouse's invitation to pass the day with him,
and to return to Port Jackson the next morning.

In the course of our conversation, I learned that he had
touched at, and been off, the following places, viz. Madeira,
Teneriffe, and Santa Catherina: he had run down the coasts of
Chili and California, on the last of which he had lost boats,
officers, and men, by the surf. He had been at Kamschatka, where
he replaced the wooden inscription that had been erected to the
memory of Captain Clerke, (which was nearly defaced) with a
copper one: for this attention I thanked him. From Kamschatka, he
went to Macao; from thence to the Phillippines, the Sandwich
Islands, Isles des Navigateurs, Friendly Islands, and N