350 
SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS. 
Narrative and Successful Result of a Voyage in the South Seas, 
performed by order of the Government of British India, to ascer- 
tain the actual fate of La Perouse’s Expedition, &c. By the 
CHEVALIER Capr. P. Ditton. 2 vols. 8vo. London, Hurst, 
Chance, & Co. Edinburgh, Constable & Co. 1829. 
Tue words in which this work is dedicated to. the Honourable 
East India Company, are as a voyage of discovery, “‘ which has 
secured the gratitude of the French nation, and of the civilized 
world, by an act evincing a noble regard for the cause of humanity 
and science,” and the spirit with which the enterprize was founded, 
and the success which crowned the attempt have warranted this ad- 
dress. It has pleased some of our contemporaries to be sceptical 
on the gratitude of our continental neighbours, and never with less 
reason. Even the manner in which D’Urville, whose travels we 
have already noticed at length, (No. I. p. 50.) was reeeived by 
the Geographical Society, has been considered as. reflecting upon 
the merits of our navigator, but this is certainly from ignorance of 
the facts. The Globe, the Moniteur, the Bulletin de la Societé 
de Geographie, Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, and the Bulletin 
des Sciences Geographiques, vied with one ancther in reporting 
on the progress of Captain Dillen’s voyage. On his return to Eng- 
land he was charged by our sovereign with the amiable task of of- 
fering to his majesty Charles X. the remains of the shipwrecks of 
La Perouse, discovered on. the island of Mannicolo. He was ac- 
knowledged by the French authorities as the first discoverer of 
these remains,—was elected a member of the legion of honour,— 
and we believe, on the refusal of the East India Company to re- 
ceive any pecuniary indemnification, was very handsomely reward- 
ed for his labours, and admitted into the bedy of the Geographical 
Society, to which he was presented about two months ago by Mr. 
Charles Moreau, being received with enthusiasm by the president 
and members. It was not till the report had got abroad that some 
indications of La Perouse had been obtained, that the corvette La 
Coquille was fitted out, and the command given to Mr. D’Urville. 
Its operations were carried on with little or no knowledge of the 
researches of Captain Dillon. Its perseverance was crowned with 
success ; and theugh it followed in the wake of our countryman, 
it reached the island on which the Boussole and the Astrolabe had 
perished, and it returned loaded with objects of natural history, 
and observations on the physical sciences, which entitled the expe- 
dition to the unrestrained gratitude of the French nation. 
It was in a voyage undertaken in 1612 and 1813, to the Beetee 
Islands, (commonly called the Fejee islands,) for the purpese of 
‘ecommerce, that Captain Dillon first fell in with some objects of 
‘European art, which he was led to conceive might be the remaims 
