VANCOUVER. LA PEYROUSE. 493 
merely sketched in its most important outlines, having been 
prevented by his untimely end from investigating it more fully 
on a second visit. Vancouver began his hydrographical labours 
at Cape Mendocino, examined the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and, 
having convinced himself of the non-existence of a passage to 
the eastward, accurately investigated the labyrinth of bays, isles, 
sounds, and inlets, extending between 50° and 60° N. lat., thus 
establishing the important fact of the uninterrupted continuation 
of the American continent in these parts. Vancouver's Island 
will transmit his name to the latest posterity, and British 
Columbia remember him as the first navigator that accurately 
mapped her shores. 
The fame of La Peyrouse is owing more to his misfortunes than 
to his eminent services. After having distinguished himself as a 
naval officer, he was sent by the equally unfortunate Louis XVI. 
on the voyage of discovery from which he was never to return. 
On the coast of Tartary and in the Japanese seas he examined a 
part of the world which hitherto no European had visited, and 
after having rectified many geographical errors sailed to Botany 
Bay, whence he forwarded his last despatches (7th Feb. 1788) 
to Europe. With the design of sailing through Torres’ Straits 
to the Gulf of Carpentaria, he left the new-born English colony, 
but disappeared in the trackless ocean, and years and years 
passed on without solving the mystery of his fate. 
At length, in 1826, Captain Dillon, an Englishman, was 
informed by Martin Bushart, a Prussian sailor whom he found 
settled on the Island of Tikopia, that many years since two 
large ships had been wrecked on the neighbouring Island of 
Vanikoro. Having brought this intelligence to Calcutta, he was 
sent out by the East India Company in the “ Research” to make 
further inquiries on the scene of the catastrophe. On the 13th ot 
Sept., 1827, Dillon anchored at Vanikoro, and, having collected 
the most interesting relics of the shipwreck, left it after a few 
weeks. 
These facts became known at Hobart Town to the French cir- 
cumnavigator Dumont d’Urville, who immediately resolved to 
sail to Vanikoro. He arrived there on the 22nd Feb., 1828, 
but at first found it very difficult to persuade the suspicious 
natives to point out to him the remains of the wrecked ship, until 
the offer of a piece of red cloth effectually overcame their scruples. 
