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 Revolution had not destroyed Louis XVI and blown his
exploration and colonisation schemes into thin air, is quite another
question; but "ifs" are not history. You can entirely reconstruct the
history of the human race by using enough "ifs," but with that
sort of thing, which an ironist has termed "Iftory," and is often more
amusing than enlightening, more speculative than sound, we have at
present nothing to do. Here is the version of the visit given by
Laperouse himself:--