There he took in more than ten thousand saplings of different growths, which he intended to transport to the Malouines. When he left the group on the 27th of April following, the colony already numbered eighty persons, comprising a staff paid by the king. Towards the end of 1765, the same two vessels were sent back with provisions and new colonists.
The colony was beginning to make a show, when the English settled themselves in Port Egmont, reconnoitred by Byron. At the same time Captain Macbride attempted to obtain possession of the colony, on the ground that the land belonged to the English king, although Byron had not recognized the Malouines in 1765, and the French had then been settled there two years.
In the meantime Spain laid claim to it in her turn, as a dependency of Southern A
