The coral reef which forms an enormous girdle round Vanikoro approaches the land opposite to the village of Paiou, so that the distance between them is hardly a mile. There, in a channel dividing the breakers, the savage caused the boat to stop, and made signs to the Frenchmen to look down to the bottom, where they saw anchors, cannons, and other objects scattered about and overgrown with corals. No doubt now remained, and with deep emotion they gazed on these last memorials of the unfortunate expedition of La Peyrouse. Metal alone had been able to resist the tooth of time, the rolling waters, or the gnawing ship-worm; all wood-work was gone.
I have already stated that on D'Urville's arrival he found the natives extremely distrustful and shy, answering all his questions by negations. It was evident that their conduct towards La Peyrouse had been anything but hospitable, and that they now feared the tardy vengeance of the white men. But, finding themselves treated with invariable kindness, their fears gradually gave way, and thus it became possible to gather some information about the catastrophe from some old men who had witnessed it, and from the most intelligent of the chiefs.
After a dark and stormy night the islanders saw early on the following morning an enormous pirogue stranded on the coral reef on the south side of the island. The surf soon destroyed the ship, and but a small number of the crew reached the shore in a boat. On the following day a second large pirogue stranded opposite Paiou. But this wreck lying on the lee-side of the island, less exposed to the surf, and resting on a more even ground, remained a longer time without going to pieces. The whole of the crew escaped in the boats to Paiou, where they built a small vessel, and after a stay of five months once more embarked, and were never heard of since. Most likely they had steered towards New Ireland, with the intention of ultimately reaching the Moluccas or the Philippine Islands, and perished on some unknown reef. The unhealthy condition of D'Urville's crew prevented him from extending his researches any further along the western coasts of the Solomon Islands. That the stranded vessels were those of La Peyrouse is beyond all doubt; for years before and after no other large vessels had been lost in those seas. The heavy cannons could only have belonged to ships of war such as La Peyrouse commanded, and several of the instruments collected by Captain Dillon evidently belonged to a scientific expedition.
Before D'Urville left Vanikoro he resolved to raise a simple monument to the memory of his unfortunate countrymen, a four-sided pyramid resting on a square base. Neither nails nor iron clasps fastened the coral blocks together, for fear of awakening the cupidity of the savages; and, if they have kept their word to honour the Papalangi monument as they would a temple erected to their own gods, it still reminds the navigator whom chance may lead to that secluded island, of the renown and tragical end of the ill-fated La Peyrouse.
[CHAP. XXVII.]
Scoresby.—The Arctic Navigators.—Ross.—Parry.—Sufferings of Franklin and his Companions on his Overland Expedition in 1821.—Parry's Sledge-journey to the North Pole.—Sir John Franklin.—M'Clure.—Kane.—M'Clintock.—South Polar Expeditions.—Billinghausen.—Weddell.—Biscoe.—Balleny.—Dumont d'Urville.—Wilkes.—Sir James Ross.—Recent scientific Voyages of Circumnavigation.
Although the undaunted courage and indomitable perseverance of the great navigators whom I have named in the preceding chapters had gradually circumscribed the bounds of discovery, and no vast ocean remained to be explored by some future Cook or Magellan, yet at the beginning of this century many secrets of the sea still remained unrevealed to man.
The north coast of America and the Arctic Ocean beyond were still plunged in mysterious darkness; and although Cook in several places had advanced far into the Antarctic seas, yet here also a wide field still lay open to the adventurous seaman.