SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

* * * * *


DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF LA PEROUSE.

_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