STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 269 



Cruz. Coastino; aloncr the north side of St. Christoval and the south 

 side of Malaita, he recognised in Surville's Terre des Arsacides the 

 Malaita of the Spaniards. He then set himself to work to clear up 

 the difficulty with reference to the position of the islands named by 

 the Spaniards, Galera, Florida, Buena Vista, Sesarga, &c., islands 

 which had never been since explored, but he ultimately contented 

 himself with viewing these islands from off the north coast of Buena 

 Vista. After endeavouring imperfectly to identify them with the 

 description of their first discoverers, he anchored in Thousand Ships 

 Bay, which was originally discovered by Callego and Ortega ; and 

 he named his anchorage Astrolabe Harbour, after one of his ships. 

 From the circumstance that the natives, who came off to the ships, 

 made use of such expressions as " veri gout," " captain," " manoa " 

 (man of war), D'Urville concluded that they had recently been 

 visited by other voyagers.^ Leaving Thousand Ships Bay, he sailed 

 along the south coast of Isabel, and passing through Manning Strait, 

 he skirted the north side of Choiseul and Bougainville Islands and 

 then left the group. 



Dumont D'UrviUe was the last of the Fiench navigators to 

 whom the re-discovery and exploration of the Solomon Islands are 

 in the main due. A singular fatality seems to have attended the 

 careers of nearly all the French commanders who visited these seas. 

 With the exception of Bougainville, who lived to superintend, in 

 1804, the fitting out of the flotilla, at Boulogne, for the invasion of 

 England, all died during the voyage or shortly after their return. 

 Surville was drowned on his arrival at Peru. La Perouse met with 

 his untimely fate at Vanikoro, and neither of the two commanders 

 of the expedition that was sent in search of him survived the 

 voyage ; Dentrecasteaux died from scurvy off New Britain, and 

 Huon Kermadec died before the ships left New Caledonia. Lastly, 

 D'Urville was killed in a railway accident at Paris, whilst engaged 

 in the completion of the narrative of his expedition. 



In July, 1840, Captain Sir Edward Belcher,^ whilst ou his 

 voyage to New Ireland, in H.M.S. " Sulphur," made the south coast 

 of Guadalcanar ; but after looking in vain for an anchorage, he con- 

 tinued his course. In 1844, Capt. Andrew Cheyne, in the trading- 

 schooner "Naiad," visited Simbo Island and the neighbouring islands. 



1 According to his narrative, Jacobs, in the " Margaret Oakley," anchored in the vicinity 

 of Thousand Ships Bay, two or three years (?) before the visit of D'Urville. 



2 " Narrative of a Voyage round the World in H. M.S. ' Sulphur : ' " vol. II., p. 70. 



