s 



THE VALUE OF GLASS BEADS. 519 



"but one evening, during a Kamschatka gala ball, the arrival of a 

 courier from Okhotsk was announced, and the ball was inter- 

 rupted that the mail might be opened and delivered. The news 

 was favorable for all, though, after so long an absence, it was 

 natural that there should be evil tidings for some among so 

 many. Lape'rouse learned that he had been promoted in rank ; 

 and the Governor of Okhotsk caused this event to be celebrated 

 by a grand discharge of artillery. M. de Lesseps, the inter- 

 preter attached to the expedition, was detached from it at this 

 point by Laperouse and sent across the continent by way of 

 Okhotsk, Irkoutsk, and Tobolsk to St. Petersburg, and thence to 

 Paris, with the ships' letters and Laperouse's journal. It is 

 from this journal, published at Paris, that we have obtained the 

 details of the expedition as we have thus far chronicled them. 



The track of Laperouse was now directly south, through the 

 heart of the Pacific Ocean. He touched, on the 9th of De- 

 cember, at Maouna, one of Navigator's Isles. The vessels were 

 at once surrounded by a hundred or more canoes filled with pigs 

 and fruit, which the natives would only exchange for glass 

 beads, which in their eyes were what diamonds are to Europeans. 

 Delangle, the captain of the Astrolabe, went ashore with the 

 watering party. The islanders made no objection to their 

 landing their casks ; but as the tide receded, leaving the boats 

 high and dry upon the beach, they became troublesome, and 

 finally forced Delangle to a trial of his muskets. For this they 

 took a sanguinary vengeance. Delangle was killed by a single 

 blow from a club, as was Lamanon, the naturalist. Eleven marines 

 were savagely murdered, either with stones or heavy sticks, 

 while twenty were seriously wounded. The rest escaped by 

 swimming. Laperouse did not feel himself sufficiently strong to 

 attempt reprisals. The natives hurled stones with such force 

 and accuracy that they were more than a match for as many 

 musketeers. Besides, he had lost thirty-two men and two 

 boats, and his situation generally was such that the slightest 



