CHAPTER XXIV 

 " L' ASTROLABE " AND "LA ZELEE "'(1840) 



DUMONT-D'URVILLE 



A FRENCH SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION ADMIRABLY EQUIPPED AND CARRIED OUT. DARNLEY 

 ISLAND. CHANGED AND ALMOST CIVILISED. BARTERING WITH NATIVES. 

 WARRIOR ISLAND. THE " MAUVAIS CANAL " THROUGH REEF. AGROUND. SHIPS 

 FLOATED AND REPAIRED. INHABITANTS OF PAPUAN TYPE. THEIR WATER 

 SUPPLY SCHEME. BLIGH CHANNEL CLEARED. TIMOR. THE NAPOLEON PASSAGE. 



THIS admirably planned and equipped expedition left Toulon 

 on yth September, 1837, and returned to that port on 

 6th November, 1840. Its brilliant achievements and 

 scientific reports 1 form a valuable and permanent addition 

 to the world's knowledge of south polar as well as of tropical regions. 

 As usual, however, we confine ourselves to that portion of the work 

 bearing on the region dealt with in this book. 



The two vessels of the expedition, coming from New Zealand, 

 sailed westward, to the north of the PORTLOCK REEFS and ANCHOR 

 CAY, and dropped anchor in Treacherous Bay, DARNLEY ISLAND, on 

 3 1st May, 1840. (SEE MAP A.) A boat was sent ashore, and the 

 NATIVES greeted their visitors with waving palm branches. They 

 endeavoured to entice the sailors to accompany them inland, 

 using women as decoys. This invitation having been declined, 

 they displayed a desire for iron articles of all kinds, but indicated 

 a preference for axes. They had, however, no eatables to offer 

 in exchange, and would not take the hint when palm trees bearing 

 fine coco-nuts were pointed out to them. When, after what the 

 Surgeon called " an agreeable hour " had been spent ashore, and 

 the visiting party turned back on the sound of the recall from the 

 flagship, the natives were so friendly as to carry them to the boat 

 and to repeat the word " to-morrow " again and again. 



In 1886, the Hon. John Douglas described Darnley Island 8 

 as the most important in the Strait, and as having a native popula- 



1 Voyage, an Pol Sud et dans U Oceanic sur les Corvettes " L' Astrolabe " et " La Zelee," 

 1837-40, sous le Commandement de M. ]. Dumont-D'Urville, Capitaine de Vaisseau. 

 Publie par Ordonnance de Sa Majeste. Paris, 1846. 10 Volumes and 2 Atlases. 



Voyage autour du Monde de " L' Astrolabe " et de" La Zelee," sous les Ordres du Contre- 

 Amiral Dumont-D'Urville, 1837-40, par Elie Le Guillou, Surgeon-Major de "La Zelee." 

 Paris, 1843. 



a The Islands of Torres Strait (with Map), by the Hon. John Douglas, F.R.G.S., 

 Special Commissioner of British New Guinea, ist April, 1886. Proc. Queensland Branch 

 of the Geogr. Soc. of Australasia, Vol. I, p. 70. 



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