Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 5.djvu/122

98 Two months after, they learned from Bowen, commander of the Albemarle, that the débris of shipwrecked vessels had been seen on the coasts of New Georgia. But D'Entrecasteaux, ignoring this communication—rather uncertain besides—directed his course toward the Admiralty Isles, mentioned in a report of Captain Hunter's as being the place where La Perouse was wrecked.

They sought in vain. The Esperance and the Récherché passed before Vanikoro without stopping there, and in fact this voyage was most disastrous, as it cost D'Entrecasteaux his life, and those of two of his lieutenants, besides several of his crew.

Captain Dillon, a shrewd old Pacific sailor, was the first to find unmistakable traces of the wrecks. On the 15th of May, 1824, his vessel, the St. Patrick, passed close to Tikopia, one of the New Hebrides. There a Lascar came alongside in a canoe, sold him the handle of a sword in silver, that bore the print of characters engraved on the hilt. The Lascar pretended that six years before, during a stay at Vanikoro, he had seen two Europeans that belonged to some vessels that had run aground on the reefs some years ago.

Dillon guessed that he meant La Perouse, whose disappearance had troubled the whole world. He tried to get on to Vanikoro, where according to the Lascar he would find numerous débris of the wreck, but winds and tide prevented him.

Dillon returned to Calcutta. There he interested the Asiatic Society and the Indian Company in his discovery. A vessel, to which was given the name of the Récherché, was put at his disposal, and he set out, January 23, 1827, accompanied by a French agent.

The Récherché, after touching at several points in the Pacific, cast anchor before Vanikoro, July 7, 1827, in this same harbor of Vanon where the Nautilus was at this time.

There it collected numerous relics of the wreck—iron utensils, anchors, pulley-strops, swivel-guns, an eighteen-pound shot, fragments of astronomical instruments, a piece of crown-work, and a bronze clock, bearing this inscription: "Bazin m'a fait," the mark of the foundry of the arsenal at Brest about 1785. There could be no further doubt.