JUDICIOUS PROCRASTINATION.
According to his expressed intention, Captain Graves, on arriving at St. John's, despatched Captain Charles Douglas in the Tweed to superintend the removal of the British settlers from the two islands, and Cook accompanied him with orders to press on the survey as rapidly as possible in order that it might be completed before the arrival of the French. Unfortunately, M. d'Anjac, who was charged with the duty of receiving the islands on behalf of the French king, arrived on the same day as the Tweed, off the islands. Captain Douglas refused to permit the French to land until the islands had been formally handed over by his superior officer, and by a little judicious procrastination in communicating with Captain Graves, and persistent energy on the part of Cook in conducting the survey, sufficient time was gained to complete it. Graves writes to the Admiralty on 20th October 1763:
"Meanwhile the survey went on with all possible application on the part of Mr. Cook. At length, Monsieur d'Anjac's patience being quite exhausted, I received a letter from him on the 30th of June, of which I enclose a copy together with my answer returned the same day. This conveyance brought me a letter from Captain Douglas, expressing his uneasiness on the part of Monsieur d'Anjac and pressing to receive his final instructions, and at the same time gave me the satisfaction to learn St. Peter's was completely surveyed, Miquelon begun upon and advanced so as to expect it would be finished before the French could be put in possession: so that any interruption from them was no longer to be apprehended."
In a paper amongst the Shelbourne manuscripts, said to be an extract from a Journal of Cook's, there is a short description of these islands, and it conveys the impression that the writer looked upon them as absolutely worthless as either naval or military stations, but for all that Captain Graves's successor, Pallisser, was kept continually on the alert to defeat the efforts of the French to strengthen their position.
