There Are Plenty Of Signs Of La Perouse, Says

La Perouse, Says An Old Hand

In Sydney, in July, old Solomon Islands skipper Walter Buckley seemed surprised at the excitement caused by the discovery of r ec relics from La Perouse’s vessel, “Astrolabe ”, at Vanikoro (see p. 59).

“mHERE’S a place in the passage X on the Vanikoro reef where the outline of a ship is quite plain,” he said. He claimed old Solomon Islands hands had seen the anchors in the coral years ago and could indicate a spot at the head of the bay at Pau where La Perouse’s men had camped and begun to build a ship. Rumours current in the Solomons 30 years ago were that the Frenchmen had buried treasure there. Buckley lived at Grasciosa Bay, “Big” Santa Cruz, for years and knows of interesting relics on that island, too. He describes a point on which long, low walls have been erected from squared stone blocks.

“No native would build that sort of thing/’ he says. “They were obviously defence works of some sort.”

There is a flat at the head of Grasciosa Bay which Buckley says was a battleground where rival tribes often met in warfare. It would re pay investigation by anthropologists, Buckley says.

There is also a giant meteorite which Buckley reported to the Syd ney Museum authorities. They asked him to break off a few samples and ship them to Sydney.

“It’s as hard as an anvil and big as a house, so I wasn’t haying it on,” Buck says.— Bill Baverstock.