264 STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 



called Salomon Islands in 1567, Dampier afterwards named New 

 Britain in 1700. In the introduction to the narrative of his second 

 voyage round the world, when he followed up Bougainville's explora- 

 tion of the Australia del Espiritu Santo of Quiros,^ Captain Cook 

 supported this view. The arguments, however, of M. Buache had 

 no weight with Mr. Dalrymple, who in 1790 re-stated his opinion 

 that the Solomon Islands of the Spaniards and the New Britain 

 of Dampier were one and the same, and he referred to the discoveries 

 of Bougainville and Surville as showing no similitude in form to the 

 Solomon Islands of the old maps.^ 



But in the minds of French geographers there was little doubt 

 as to the correctness of the views of M. Buache. Amongst the de- 

 tailed geographical instructions given by Louis XVI. in 1785 to La 

 IMrouse, when he was setting out on his ill-fated expedition, was 

 one which directed the attention of this illustrious navigator .to the 

 examination of the numerous islands of the Solom.on Group, and 

 especially to those which lay between Guadalcanar and Malaita.^ It 

 was considered almost indubitable, as M. Fleurieu informs us, that 

 the intended exploration by La P^rouse of this archipelago would 

 convert probability into certainty. But when in the vicinity of the 

 islands he was never destined to behold, La Pdrouse experienced 

 that mysterious fate which has excited sympathy throughout the 

 civilised world. On the reef-girt shores of Vanicoro his ships were 

 wrecked, and the French commander and his men were never seen 

 again by any Europeans. As Carlyle wrote, ..." The brave navi- 

 gator goes, and returns not ; the seekers search far seas for him in 

 vain, .... and only some mournful mysterious shadow of him 

 hovers long in all iieads and hearts."* 



The ominous silence that had fallen over the doings o£ the absent 

 expedition, on account of the non-arrival of the long expected dis- 

 patches, must have been, in a double sense, a cause of disappoint- 

 ment to M. Fleurieu, who had hoped to demonstrate the correctness 

 of the views of the French geographers by the results of the explo- 

 lations of La Perouse. It Avas with the object of showing that the 

 New Georgia of Shortland^was one and the same with the Terre des 



1 This group, which had been previously named by Bougainville, L'Archipel des grandea 

 Cyclades, was designated The New Hebrides by Cook, a name which it retains on tln3 

 present charts. 



2 "Nautical IMemoirs of Alexander Dalrymple." 



3 " Voyage de la Perouse," redige par M. L. A. Milet-Mureau ; London, 1799. 



4 Carlyle's "French Kevolution," ch. V., p. 37. 



