_Abridged from the United Service Journal._
The fate of this celebrated French navigator, which for upwards of forty
years has remained enveloped in mystery, has at length been satisfactorily
ascertained, a result that is owing to the active and spirited exertions
of our gallant and enterprising countryman Captain Dillon.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that the discovery of the relics of La
Perouse, arose out of the massacre of the ship Hunter's crew, at the
Feejee Islands, in 1813.
In this unfortunate affair, fourteen persons in all, from the ship Hunter,
lost their lives. The two that escaped with Mr. Dillon, were William
Wilson and Martin Buchart, a Prussian, who resided for two years at Bough.
The latter entreated captain Robson to give him and his Bough wife a
passage to the first land at which he might arrive, as they would
certainly be sacrificed if they returned to the island. Having made
Tucopia on the 20th of September, Buchart, his wife, and a Lascar, were
put on shore, and the Hunter proceeded on her voyage to Canton.
On the 13th of May, 1826, while in command of the St. Patrick, bound from
Valparaiso to Pondicherry, captain Dillon came in sight of the island of
Tucopia. Prompted by curiosity, as well as regard for old companions in
danger, he lay to, anxious to ascertain whether the persons left there in
1813, were still alive. A canoe, in which was the Lascar, soon afterwards
put off from land and came alongside. This was immediately succeeded by
another canoe, containing Martin Buchart, the Prussian. They were both in
excellent health, and exceedingly rejoiced to see him. They informed him,
that the natives had treated them very kindly; and that no ship had
touched at the island from the time they were first landed, until about a
year previous to his arrival, when an English whaler visited them, and was
soon after followed by a second. The Lascar had an old silver sword-guard,
which he bartered for a few fishing-hooks. Captain Dillon inquired where
he had obtained it; the Prussian informed him, that on his arrival at the
island, he saw it in the possession of the natives, also several
chainplates belonging to a ship, a number of iron bolts, five axes, the
handle of a silver fork, a few knives, tea-cups, glass beads and bottles,
one silver spoon with a crest and a cipher, a sword, &c. As soon as he
became sufficiently acquainted with the language, he asked the natives how
they obtained those articles, as they said that the Hunter was the first
ship with which they had ever held communication. They replied, that about
two days' sail in their canoes to leeward, there was a large group of
islands, known generally by the name of Manicolo, to which they were in
the habit of making frequent voyages, and that they had procured these
articles from the inhabitants, who possessed many more of a similar
description.
Buchart proceeded to state, that the Tucopians asserted that a great
number of articles were on the Manicolo Islands in a state of preservation,
and such articles were evidently obtained from the wreck of a vessel.
About seven months before captain Dillon touched at Tucopia, a canoe had
returned from Manicolo, and brought away two large chain plates, and an
iron bolt, about four feet in length. He spoke with some of the crew of
the canoe which had last made the voyage to Manicolo. They told him that
there was abundance of iron materials still remaining on the island. Those
which Martin Buchart saw were much oxydized and worn. The only silver
spoon brought to Tucopia, as far as captain Dillon could learn, was beaten
out into a wire by Buchart, for the purpose of making rings and other
ornaments for the female islanders. Upon examining the sword-guard
minutely, captain Dillon discovered, or thought he discovered, the
initials of Perouse stamped upon it, which circumstance prompted him to be
more eager in his inquiries.
The Prussian said he had himself never made a trip to Manicolo with the
Tucopians, but the Lascar had gone once or twice. He positively affirmed,
that he had seen and conversed at Paiow, a native town, with the Europeans
who spoke the language of the islanders. They were old men, he said, who
told him that they had been wrecked several years ago in one of the ships,
the remnants of which they pointed out to him. They informed him also that
no vessel had touched at the islands since they had been there; that most
of their comrades were dead, but they had been so scattered among the
various islands, that they could not tell precisely how many of them were
still living.
On hearing so many circumstances all tending to confirm his suspicions,
from the moment he saw the silver sword-guard with the cipher, captain
Dillon determined to proceed as quickly as possible to the Manicolo
Islands, examine the wrecks himself, and, if practicable, bring off the
two men with whom the Lascar had spoken, and whom, he said, were Frenchmen.
For this purpose he begged the latter to accompany him, but as he was
married and comfortably settled on the island, neither promises nor
threats were of any avail, although captain Dillon offered to bring him
back to Tucopia. Martin Buchart, on the contrary, was tired of the savage
life he had led for the last fourteen years, and gladly acceded to the
wishes of captain Dillon, who after prevailing with a Tucopian also to
come on board, sailed for the island. Unfortunately, as the ship neared
the land, it fell a perfect calm, and continued so for seven days. At this
time the stock of dry provisions was nearly exhausted, and there was no
animal food to be procured on Tucopia. The crew lived principally on New
Zealand potatoes and bananas. The vessel became every day more leaky from
a long continuance at sea; and a person on board, who was interested in
the cargo, had, during captain Dillon's stay in the islands, shown himself
particularly discontented, and had frequently and warmly remonstrated at
what he considered an unnecessary and useless delay; for these reasons,
therefore, captain Dillon determined, though with the greatest reluctance,
to take advantage of a breeze which sprang up, continued his voyage, and
arrived at Bengal with much difficulty, his ship being in a very leaky
condition.
Unwilling to abandon his favourite object, captain Dillon now applied to
the Asiatic Society, and to the Bengal Government; and in consequence of
his representations, his suggestions were at length carried into effect.
He was appointed to the command of one of the Company's cruisers, of
sixteen guns and eighty-five men, called the Research; and on the 27th of
January, 1827, he sailed from Bengal, visited Van Dieman's Land, New South
Wales, New Zealand, the Friendly Islands, Ro-Thoma, or Granville Island of
the Pandora, Tucopia, and arrived at Manicolo on the 27th of September.
This island (Manicolo, or Vanicolo) is not the Mallicolo of captain Cook,
being situated only 118 miles to the leeward of Tucopia, in latitude 11
deg. 47 min., whilst the former lies in south latitude 16 deg. 15 min.
Captain Dillon personally visited the reefs on which the French ships are
ascertained to have struck and gone to pieces, according to the accounts
of the natives, from which the following particulars have been obtained of
that disastrous event:--"Many years ago two large ships arrived at the
islands; one anchored off the island of Whanoo, and the other off that of
Paiow, a little distance from each other. Soon after, and before they had
any communication with the natives, a heavy gale arose, and both vessels
were driven ashore. The ship off Whanoo grounded upon the rocks. The
natives came in crowds to the sea-shore, armed with clubs, spears, bows
and arrows, and discharged some arrows into the vessel; the crew in return
fired, and killed several of the islanders. The vessel continued to strike
violently against the rocks, and soon went to pieces. Some of the crew
took to their boats, but were driven on shore, and murdered by the natives;
others threw themselves into the sea, and such as reached the land, shared
the fate of their unfortunate companions, so that not a single soul
belonging to this vessel escaped alive."
"The ship which grounded on Paiow, was driven on a sandy beach, and the
natives came down and also discharged their arrows into her; but the crew
prudently did not resent the aggression, but held up axes, beads, and toys,
as peace-offerings, upon which the assailants desisted from farther
hostilities. As soon as the wind had moderated, an aged chief, in a canoe,
put off to the ship. He was received with caresses, accepted the presents
offered to him: and upon going ashore, pacified the islanders by
assurances that the ship's crew were peaceably inclined towards them. Upon
this, several natives went on board, and were all presented with toys. In
return, they supplied the crew with yams, fowls, bananas, cocoa-nuts, hogs,
&c. and confidence was established between them. The ship was now
abandoned, and the crew went on shore, bringing with them part of her
stores. Here they remained for some time, and built a small vessel with
the materials from the wreck. When it was ready to put to sea, as many as
could conveniently, embarked in her, being plentifully supplied with fresh
provisions by the islanders. The commander promised those who were left
behind, to return immediately with presents for the natives, and to bring
them off; but, as the little vessel was never afterwards heard of, the men
sought the protection of the neighbouring chiefs, with whom they lived.
Several muskets and some gunpowder had been left them by their comrades,
and by means of these, they proved of great service to their friends, in
encounters with the neighbouring islanders."
The natives of Manicolo are not cannibals; but when an enemy falls into
their power he is immediately killed, and his body is deposited in
sea-water, and kept there until the bones become perfectly bare. The
skeleton is then taken up, the bones of the extremities scraped and cut
into various forms, to point arrows and spears. Their arms consist of
heavy clubs, spears, and bows and arrows. They poison the latter with a
kind of reddish gum, extracted from a species of tree peculiar to the
island. When any one is struck by a poisoned arrow in any of the limbs,
the part is quickly cut out, and his life is sometimes saved; but if the
wound happens to be in the body, where it cannot be easily excised, he
resigns himself quietly to death without a murmur, though he frequently
lingers for four or five days in excruciating agony.
The Manicolans differ from almost all the other islanders in the South Sea;
they are as black as negroes, have short woolly hair, and resemble them in
their features. Their religion also is different; in every village in the
island there is a house dedicated to the Deity. At the principal chapel,
the skulls of all the people who were killed, belonging to the ship that
grounded at Whanoo, are still preserved. The natives of Tucopia,
unaccustomed to the sight of human bones, avoid, as much as possible, when
they visit the island, approaching the sacred house where the skulls are
deposited.
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