Geographical Collections. 53 
gence that Captain d’Urville had discovered the true place of shipwreck of the il- 
lustrious though unfortunate La Peyrouse. It was on the southern coast of the 
island Vanikoro, and not Malicolo, that the two ships which composed the expe- 
dition perished amidst the reefs in a very obscure night. The natives intexrogat- 
ed on this subject, by an interpreter of English origin, taken in by the Astrolabe, 
declared having seen opposite one of their districts, an immense ship wrecked 
among the reefs, which was soon demolished and borne away by the waves; 
about thirty only of those who were in it, were enabled to gain the island in an 
open boat. The next day the savages perceived another ship like the first, wreck- 
ed before Paiou. This one, less acted upon by the winds and waves, and placed 
on a regular bottom only 15 to 18 feet deep, remained some time in that situa- 
tion before it was broke up. The whole of the persons on board got on shore at © 
Paiou, where they established themselves with those of the other ship, and set to 
work constructing a small vessel with the remains of the one which had not gone 
down. The French, whom they called Mara, were, they said, always respected 
by the natives, who never approached them without kissing their hands, a cere- 
mony which they often practised towards the officers of the Astrolabe. Never- 
theless several disputes took place ; and in one of them the natives lost five men, 
of which three were chiefs, the French two of theirs. At length, after seven 
months labour, the little vessel was finished, and all the strangers quitted the is- 
land according to the most received opinion. Some affirmed that there remained 
two, but that they did not live long. With respect to that fact there can be no 
doubt ; and their unanimous statements prove that there is no Frenchman either 
at Vanikoro, or in the Ourry islands, or Edgiasmeda, (Toupoua in their lan- 
guage,) nor even in Sainte Croix, (Intendi,) or in the neighbouring islands. 
There is at Sainte Croix only one white man, the offspring of a whaling vessel. 
As to the road which the French took on their departure from Vanikoro, Mr. 
d’Urville thinks that they directed themselves towards New Ireland, to gain 
the Molluccas or the Philippine Islands by the north of New Guinea, and that 
it is at the western coast of the Solomon Islands that traces of their passage may 
perhaps be found in future times. The state in which they were, could not have 
allowed them to hazard themselves through the straits of Torrés. 
Mr. d’Urville’s instructions were to direct himself towards these straits ; but 
the deplorable state in which the crew of the Astrolabe found themselves, more 
than forty men on the sick list, and only two officers capable of exerting them- 
selves, the fever on board, which had attacked the commander himself, and 
lastly, contrary winds, which prevented him gaining the south, made Mz. d’Ur- 
ville give up that direction, and take the road to Guam, where he hoped to find 
the means of giving his crew rest, and of re-establishing the health of the sick, the 
number of which were increasing every day; so that after another endeavour to 
find the island of Taumako, which had no more success tian the first, the Astro- 
labe took its departure on the 26th of March, to arrive at the Ladrone Islands. 
he navigation was neither exempt from danger, nor unfruitful in science; and that 
part of the Caroline Islands which Mr. Duperrey did not visit, was examined by 
the officers of the Astrolabe. At length, on the 2d of May, the vessel came into 
the harbour of Umata, upon the island of Guam. Before quitting Vanikoro, 
Mr. d’Urville constructed upon that island a monument, bearing the inscription, 
“ To the memory of La Peyrouse and his companions! The Astrolabe, 14th 
March 1828.” After several delays, the Astrolabe arrived on the 29th of Sep- 
tember at the island of Mauritius. 
The Academy of Sciences, in its meeting of the 16th of March, heard two let- 
ters read from MM. Quoy and Gaimard, dated the Isle of France, 28th August 
1828. Besides details on the researches of the’ Astrolabe in the island of Mani- 
colo, these letters announced, that among the objects in natural history which 
the expedition was bringing back, was an echidna, whese feet are armed with spurs 
provided with a gland, as in the ornythorynchus, and whose wounds are apparent- 
ly poisonous, like those made by that animal. 
The “ Journal de Caén et Normandie,” published at the same time a letter 
