FATE OF LA PEYROUSE. 495* 



stranded vessels were those of La Peyrouse is beyond all doubt y 

 for years before and after no other large vessels had been lost 

 in those seas. The heavy cannons could only have belonged to- 

 ships of war such as La Peyrouse commanded, and several of 

 the instruments collected by Captain Dillon evidently belonged 

 to a scientific expedition. 



Before D'Urville left Vanikoro he resolved to raise a simple 

 monument to the memory of his unfortunate countrymen, a four- 

 sided pyramid resting on a square base. Neither nails nor iron 

 clasps fastened the coral blocks together, for fear of awakening 

 the cupidity of the savages ; and, if they have kept their word 

 to honour the Papalangi monument as they would a temple 

 erected to their own gods, it still reminds the navigator whom 

 chance may lead to that secluded island, of the renown and 

 tragical end of the ill-fated La Peyrouse. 



