He Had Prevailed Upon
Martin Bushart To Accompany Him To India, And Hoped, Through This Man's
Knowledge Of The Native Tongue, To Elicit All That Was To Be Known.
The Government of British India became interested in Dillon's
discovery, and resolved to send him in command of a ship to search for
further information.
At the end of 1826 he sailed in the RESEARCH, and
in September of the following year came within sight of the high-peaked
island Tucopia. The enquiries made on this voyage fully confirmed and
completed the story, and left no room for doubt that the ships of
Laperouse had been wrecked and his whole company massacred or drowned
on or near Vanikoro. Many natives still living remembered the arrival
of the French. Some of them related that they thought those who came on
the big ships to be not men but spirits; and such a grotesque bit of
description as was given of the peaks of cocked hats exactly expressed
the way in which the appearance of the strangers would be likely to
appeal to the native imagination: - " There was a projection from their
foreheads or noses a foot long."
Furthermore, Dillon's officers were able to purchase from the islands
such relics as an old sword blade, a rusted razor, a silver sauce-boat
with fleur-de-lis upon it, a brass mortar, a few small bells, a silver
sword-handle bearing a cypher, apparently a "P" with a crown, part of a
blacksmith's vice, the crown of a small anchor, and many other
articles. An examination of natives brought out a few further
details, as for example, a description of the chief of the strangers,
"who used always to be looking at the stars and the sun and beckoning
to them," which is how a native would be likely to regard a man making
astronomical observations. Dillon, in short had solved the forty years'
mystery. The Pacific had revealed her long-held secret.
It happened that a new French expedition in the ASTROLABE, under the
command of Dumont-D'Urville, was in the southern hemisphere at this
time. While he lay at Hobart on his way to New Zealand, the captain
heard of Dillon's discoveries, and, at once changing his plans, sailed
for the Santa Cruz Islands. He arrived there in February, 1828, and
made some valuable finds to supplement those of the English captain. At
the bottom of the sea, in perfectly clear water, he saw lying,
encrusted with coral, some remains of anchors, chains, guns, bullets,
and other objects which had clearly belonged to the ships of Laperouse.
One of his artists made a drawing of them on the spot. They were
recovered, and, together with Dillon's collection, are now exhibited in
a pyramid at the Marine Museum at the Louvre in Paris, in memory of the
ill-fated commander and crew who perished, martyrs in the great cause
of discovery, a century and a quarter ago.
It is interesting to note that descendants of Captain Dillon are
residents of Sydney to this day.
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