Narrative and Successful Result of a Voyage in the South Seas, Performed by Order of the Government of British India, to ascertain the actual Fate of La Perouse's Expedition
Author: Peter Dillon (1788-1847)
Year: 1829
Publisher: Hurst, Chance, and Company
Place: London
Description:
2 Volumes. lxxvii+302 with folding frontispiece; 436. pages with folding color frontispiece and one folding map. Royal octavo (9¼" x 5½"), rebound in half morocco, gilt to spine, raised bands. (Ferguson, 1255; Hill, 480; Hocken, p. 44; Kroepelien, 296; McLaren, 'Lapérouse in the Pacific', 71; Spence, 'Bligh', p.15) First Edition.
In 1826, Dillon had command of the St. Patrick and was attempting to get to Fiji when he happened upon Tikopia, one of the Santa Cruz Islands. There he found many of the inhabitants in possession of items of European manufacture such as sword guards, teacups, knives, and glass beads. He learned from the Tikopians that the items had come from two ships wrecked some years before on the neighboring island of Vanikoro. Dillon was convinced he'd happened on the wreckage of Boussole and Astrolabe, the two French frigates of the La Pérouse expedition. The ships had disappeared in the Pacific after calling at Botany Bay in 1788, and their fate had been a mystery for nearly 40 years.
Dillon sailed to Calcutta to report his discovery and garner support for an exploration of Vanikoro. The British government in India of Lord Amherst commissioned him and gave him command of the British East India Company's survey vessel Research. In January 1827 Dillon sailed for Vanikoro. After a long and difficult journey he reached Vanikoro in September 1827. While there he recovered items from the wrecks, including a ship's bell of French make.
He also tried to learn more about the fate of the French explorers from the older inhabitants of the island. According to Dillon's account in his Narrative and Successful Result, he learned that both ships had been wrecked on the reefs during a storm, that some of the survivors had built a boat from the wreckage and sailed off in it, and that two survivors had remained on the island but had since died.
Dillon eventually made his way to France, where he met Barthélemy de Lesseps, the only living survivor of the La Pérouse expedition. De Lesseps had served the expedition as a Russian interpreter; he'd left the expedition in Petropavlovsk, Siberia and made his way overland back to Europe. He identified the items brought back by Dillon as items that had been carried on the French ships.
In 1829, Dillon published his Narrative and Successful Result. He also received a knighthood and pension from the French government. Much of the remainder of his life was spent in a disappointing search for greater recognition for his achievements. Although generally not recalled, he was one of the character witnesses called by Sir Fitzroy Kelly in the defence of John Tawell for the poison murder of Sarah Hart in March 1845.
Condition:
Light rubbing to boards; minor starting at hinges with slight foxing throughout interiors else very good.
