522 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



In 1827, Dumont d'Urville was sent out by the French Govern- 

 ment in the sloop-of-war Astrolabe to explore the great archi- 

 pelagoes of the Pacific, with incidental authority to follow up any 

 clue he might discover to the fate of Laperouse. At Hobart 

 Town, in Van Diemen's Land, he heard some account of the 

 efforts made by Dillon, and determined to conclude what he had 

 begun. He sailed at once for Manicolo, and, after examining 

 the eastern coast of the island without success, proceeded to the 

 western. Here he found numerous articles of European manu- 

 facture in possession of the savages, who steadfastly refused to 

 say whence they had obtained them or to point out the scene of 

 any catastrophe or shipwreck. At last, the offer of a piece of 

 red cloth induced a painted islander to conduct a boat's crew to 

 the spot which is now regarded as that at which the lamented 

 commander and his vessels met their untimely fate. Scattered 



REMNANTS OF THE WRECK. 



about in the bed of the sea, at the depth of about twenty feet,, 

 lay anchors, cannon, and sheets of lead and copper sheathing, 

 completely corroded and disfigured by rust. They succeeded in 

 recovering many of them from the water, — an anchor of four- 

 teen hundred pounds, a small cannon coated with coral, and 

 two brass swivels, in a good state of preservation. Thus pos- 

 sessed of evidence which after the lapse of forty years must be 

 considered as conclusive, d'Urville erected near the anchorage 

 a cenotaph to the memory of the hapless navigator. It was 

 placed in a small grove, and consecrated by a salute of twenty- 

 one guns and three volleys of musketry. 



