But D'Entrecasteaux, ignoring this communication--
rather uncertain, besides--directed his course towards the Admiralty Islands,
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 Recherche 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.
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