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 Grulf 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 "Kesearch" to make 

 further inquiries on the scene of the catastrophe. On the 13th of 

 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 apiece of red cloth effectually overcame their scruples. 



