avenge on the barbarous islanders the deaths of their murdered comrades; but he succeeded in appeasing them in some measure, and averted the evils that must have resulted from giving way to a sally of passion, at best unavailing, and perhaps unjust.

This second misfortune which befel the expedition must have thrown a great gloom over the minds of all who were engaged in it, and rendered them more suspicious in their intercourse with uncivilized tribes. It might have been owing, in some degree, to this circumstance that Perouse, in sailing by Vavaoo, and some other islands, of which Cook had heard glowing accounts from the Friendly islanders, did not endeavour to establish any communication with the natives. He made little delay in passing through this interesting archipelago, and continued his course to the southward, till he came in sight of Norfolk Island. His naturalists, however, were less fortunate than those who accompanied Cook, and were unable to effect a landing on this sequestered spot.

When the French ships arrived in Botany Bay, where they designed to refit themselves completely for their third campaign, they were overjoyed to see some English men of war lying at anchor there. The meeting of Europeans in the remotest quarter of the globe is like the meeting of old friends and relations. Perouse found that the English, who had come here for the purpose of establishing a colony, were removing their settlement to Port Jackson, a fine harbour situated a few miles to the north. He acknowledges that he received every attention from the settlers and governor of the new colony, with which, as it was distant from them only ten miles overland, he was able to maintain a constant intercourse. By the English ships he sent to Europe the remainder of his journal and charts since his departure from Kamtschatka. In a letter also written from Botany Bay, and dated February 7, 1787, he gives the following intimation of the plan he intended to pursue during the remainder of his vovage:-"I shall proceed," he says, "to the Friendly Islands, and do every thing enjoined in my instructions relative to the southern part of New Caledonia, to the island of Santa Cruz of Mendana, the southern coast of the Land of the Arsacides of Surville, and the Land of Louisiade of Bougainville, and shall endeavour to ascertain whether the latter constitutes a part of New Guinea, or is separated from it by a strait. Towards the end of July, 1788, I shall pass between New Guinea and New Holland by another channel than Endeavour Strait, if any such exist; and during the month of September and part of October I shall visit the Gulf of Carpentaria, and all the coast of New Holland, as far as Van Diemen's Land; but in such a manner that it may be possible for me to stretch northward time enough to arrive at the Isle of France in the beginning of December,

1788." Such was the tenour of the last communication received from this unfortunate navigator. He sailed from Botany Bay soon after the date of this letter, and nothing was known of his fate till our own days.

La Perouse appears to have been an enthusiastic admirer of captain Cook; and, among the immediate followers of that great man, there was no other who imitated him more successfully in his endeavours to preserve the health of his men. There was but little sickness on board the French ships; and the fatal accidents which took place at Port des François and the Navigators' Isles, are rather to be ascribed to the heedless impetuosity of the French than to the imprudence of their commander. Cook had ascertained with precision the position of so many places in the South Sea, as greatly to facilitate its navigation to those who came after him. In this also La Perouse laudably emulated the fame of our great navigator; and, being accompanied by men of abilities, and provided with the instruments which the advanced state of science rendered desirable, his observations formed a valuable accession to geography. He defined with truth, though not with minuteness, that part of the north-west coast of America which Cook had been prevented from examining; and uniting his survey with those of the English and Spanish navigators, he completed the general outline of that continent. His discoveries on the coast of Tatary were still more important; and, considering the difficulties he had to contend with, reflect the highest credit on his skill and perse

verance.

Above two years had now elapsed from the time which La Perouse had fixed on for his return home, and no intelligence whatever could be met with respecting his fate: there could be no doubt, therefore, that he had suffered shipwreck, and had either been swallowed up in the ocean, or, perhaps, still survived with the remnant of his companions on some sequestered island in the South Sea, tormented by the capricious enmity of the barbarous natives, and by the agonizing reflection that he was exiled forever from his native country. These considerations induced the National Assembly to pass a decree in February, 1791, in which they entreated the king of France to communicate with the sovereigns of European nations, and implore them, in the name of humanity, to enjoin their subjects navigating in every part of the world, and particularly in the South Sea, to collect what tidings they could respecting the unfortunate French expedition; and if they met with any of its survivors, to render them all the assistance in their power. The king was at the same time entreated to equip two ships, for the double purpose of investigating the fate of La Perouse and of completing the plans of geographical discovery which he had left unfinished.

S*

The command of this expedition was given to admiral d'Entrecasteaux. On his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope he received an express from India, informing him that among the Admiralty Isles, to the west of New Britain, the commander of a Dutch ship had seen the natives dressed in the uniform of the French navy; whence he concluded that the French ships had been thrown away there. Notwithstanding the intrinsic improbability and imperfect authenticity of this report, which placed the wreck of the expedition so far from its intended course, D'Entrecasteaux found himself obliged to disprove its correctness by ocular examination. Before he sailed from France, a report had been spread there by an English captain, a prisoner of war, that the wreck of a French ship had been seen by him on the south side of New Georgia, a portion of the Salomon Islands.

When D'Entrecasteaux reached the Admiralty Isles he was unable to discover any thing that could countenance the belief that French ships had at any time been lost there: he accordingly resumed his original plan of operations, sailed round New Holland on the west and south, and then proceeded from Botany Bay to examine the route which La Perouse, in his last letter, had intimated his intention to pursue. In order to accomplish satisfactorily the main object of his voyage, and to discover the traces, if any existed, of his shipwrecked countrymen, he made it a rule to sail as near the shore as could be done with safety; and this circumstance, added to the minuteness of his surveys and the accuracy of his observations, rendered this voyage productive of much geographical information; not, indeed, in discoveries of magnitude or importance; but in the exact delineation of long lines of coast. The observations of the naturalist La Billardière, who accompanied the expedition, have also contributed much to improve our knowledge of the productions of the globe. D'Entrecasteaux, however, could find no vestiges, nor collect any tidings, of La Perouse: he was satisfied, from his examination of the natives, that that unfortunate commander had never visited the Friendly Islands. On his return home the French admiral saw at a distance one of the Queen Charlotte group, which he named Isle de Recherche, and which, by a strange fatality, he omitted to examine as narrowly as he was accustomed. He died soon after, as well as the officer second in command. Sickness made such ravages among the crews, that nearly one third of the men was carried off before the arrival of the expedition at Java; where, to complete the train of misfortunes, the ships were seized by the Dutch as prizes, and the officers learned the fatal events of the French revolution, by which they were deprived of their commissions.

Thus terminated the expedition of D'Entrecasteaux, hardly less unfortunate than that which it went in search of. The confusion in which France was plunged prevented any further undertaking in search of La Perouse; and nearly forty years elapsed before a single ray of light appeared to dispel the cloud of mystery that hung over his fate.

In September, 1813, the Bengal ship Hunter, commanded by captain Robson, touched at the Feejee Islands to procure a cargo of sandal wood. The natives are now accustomed to trade with Europeans, sometimes assisting in furnishing the cargo, and are repaid for their trouble chiefly by fire-arms and ammunition. The European traders, also, uninfluenced by any sentiments but those of gain, not unfrequently assist them in their barbarous warfare, and help them, if not to devour their enemies, at least to provide the banquet. Hence deadly animosities naturally arise between the Europeans and some tribes of the natives; and while the Hunter lay at one of these islands, all the Europeans on shore, the majority of whom were profligate characters who had deserted from trading ships and settled there, were massacred and eaten by the Indians, with the exception of three: Martin Bushart, a Prussian, with his wife, a Feejee woman, and Achowlia, a Lascar, took refuge on board the Hunter, and begged to be put on shore at the first habitable island that should be met with. They were accordingly landed, with their consent, at Tucopia or Barwell Island, in lat. 12° 15' S., long. 169°, at the south-eastern extremity of the Queen Charlotte Islands, where they were kindly received by the natives.

In May, 1826, captain Dillon, who had been an officer on board the Hunter during the voyage of that ship to the Feejee Islands, and who was one of the three Europeans that escaped from the hands of the islanders, returning from Valparaiso to Pondicherry in the St. Patrick, came in sight of the island of Tucopia: curiosity prompted him to inquire after his old acquaintances who had been put ashore there. As he approached the land, canoes came off to him with the Lascar and Martin Bushart. The gunner of the ship bought from the Lascar a silver sword guard; and, in answer to the inquiries made respecting the mode in which the islanders had procured it, Martin Bushart related that on his first arrival on the island he found there several iron bolts, axes, knives, tea cups, one silver spoon, and some other articles, all of French manufacture. When, in the course of a couple of years, he had acquired the language of the natives, he learned that no ship had been seen at the island previous to the Hunter, but that all those articles had been brought from Manicolo, a group of islands situated two days' sail in a canoe to the westward. Captain Dillon thought

he could discern on the silver sword guard the initials of La Perouse's name; and prosecuting his inquiries among the natives, many of whom had visited the islands to windward, he heard from them that, many years before, two ships had been thrown away on the shores of Manicolo; that the crew of one had been all killed, while the people on the other got safe to shore, where they remained some time, until they built a small vessel with two masts from the wreck of the large one: the strangers then went away, leaving behind them, however, a few of their number, who proved very serviceable in warfare to the tribes with whom they were allied. The Lascar, who had visited Manicolo, had seen two of these Europeans, but he could not be induced to return again to that island. Martin Bushart, however, being weary of a savage life, was willing to accompany captain Dillon, and to assist him in his researches among the islands to windward; but when the ship had come within sight of Manicolo (the Recherche Island of D'Entrecasteaux,) the winds fell calm, provisions also began to fail; and, delay being particularly prejudicial to trading voyages, the captain was obliged to abandon his researches for the present, and to hasten his return to Pondicherry.

On his arrival in India, he lost no time in presenting a memorial to government, stating the clue which he thought he had discovered respecting the fate of La Perouse, and his own fitness, from long habits of intercourse with the islanders of the South Seas, to prosecute the inquiry; the result of which was not only interesting to mankind in general, but might redound also not a little to the honour of the government by whose liberality it was undertaken. This application immediately met with the attention it deserved. A ship, named the Research, was placed under the command of captain Dillon, who sailed on his voyage of investigation in January, 1827. He first touched at Tucopia, where he provided himself with a native pilot and interpreter, and then proceeded to Manicolo, which, after an accurate survey, he found to be almost entirely surrounded at a little distance by a reef of coral rocks, passable only at a few narrow openings. From the natives, with whom he was able to establish a friendly correspondence, he learned that one of the ships had struck at a place called Whannow, and sunk in deep water; the other ran on the rocks near Paiou, and from her the strangers landed, and remained on the island five months, during which time they built themselves a small vessel. They pointed out a place where these operations had been carried on, and it seemed well adapted to the purpose. The natives denied that they had attacked and killed the crew of one of the ships; nor was captain Dillon able to find any confirmation of the report, which he had heard from the Tuco