MONUMENT TO LA PHROUSE. 



249 



erected to the memory of La Perouse, that being 

 the last spot at which the distinguished navigator 

 was heard of, from 17S8, until 1826, when the Che- 

 valier Dillon was furnished with a clue to his me- 

 lancholy fate by finding the handle of a French 

 sword fastened to another blade in the possession of 

 a native of Tucopia, one of the Polynesian group. 

 Bv this means he was enabled to trace him to the 

 island of Mannicolo, on the reefs fronting which 

 his ship was lost. 



Close by, on the same point, stands the tomb of 

 a French Catholic priest, named Le Receveur, who 

 accompanied La Perouse, as naturalist, in his cir- 

 cumnavigation of the globe, and died at this great 

 distance from his native land. A large stump of a 

 tree rising near, " marks out the sad spot" where 

 lie mouldering the bones of the wanderer in search 

 of materials to enrich the stores of science. No 



