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Updated: June 13, 2025
On inquiring how these stones came to be there, I was told by "Lizzie" that they were the remains of an old wall that once enclosed one of the ancient villages. Afterwards we came across many similar sites, which seemed to bear out the statements of Duperrey and other navigators, that Strong's Island was once inhabited by over twenty thousand people.
"Sometimes they are known," says Duperrey, "to receive under their protection vanquished enemies and become their defenders; but the motive prompting them to this seemingly generous conduct is always one of special vindictiveness; the fact being that their real object is the total extermination of some tribe allied with the opposite party.
"This scene of our recent calamity," Duperrey observes, "wore an aspect of desolation which was rendered still gloomier by the barrenness of the land and the dark rainy weather prevailing at the time of our visit.
The principal anomalies observed by Captain Duperrey were at the Isle of France, Mons, Guam, and the Island of Ascension. At Ascension, the acceleration, as noticed by Captain Sabine, was five or six oscillations, even supposing the depression to be 1.228. At other stations the difference was almost nothing; and in some, the motion of the pendulum was retarded.
Great pains were taken to prepare a chart of St. George's Channel, after which Duperrey paid a visit to the islands previously surveyed by Schouten to the north-east of New Guinea. Three days the 26th, 27th, and 28th were devoted to a survey of them.
Nevertheless, it had for us an inexplicable sort of attraction and left a melancholy impression on our minds, which was not effaced till long after we had left the Falkland Islands well behind us." The stay of Duperrey at the Falklands was prolonged to the 17th December.
The sea close outside is profoundly deep; but, in front of the main breaches, soundings can sometimes be obtained. Some low islets have been formed on the reef. VANIKORO, from the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Astrolabe'," by D. D'Urville. GAMBIER ISLAND, from Beechey. MAURUA, from the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Coquille'," by Duperrey.
The Coquille set sail again on the 30th October. When to the east of Rio de la Plata she was caught in one of those formidable gales, there called pampero, but had the good fortune to weather it without sustaining any damage. While in this part of the ocean Duperrey made some interesting observations on the current of the Plate River.
RAIATEA, in the Society Archipelago; from the map given in the quarto edition of "Cook's First Voyage;" it is probably not accurate. BOLABOLA, in the Society Archipelago, from the survey of Captain Duperrey in the "Coquille:" the soundings in this and the following figures have been altered from French feet to English fathoms; height of highest point of the island 4,026 feet.
The principal small detached reefs within the lagoon-channel have in this instance been represented. HOGOLEU, or ROUG, in the Caroline Archipelago; taken from the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Astrolabe," compiled from the surveys of Captains Duperrey and D'Urville; the depth of the immense lagoon-like space within the reef is not known.
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