sels struck on the unknown reefs of Vanikoro. The Boussole,
which went first, ran aground on the southerly coast. The Astrolabe
went to its help, and ran aground too. The first vessel was destroyed
almost immediately. The second, stranded under the wind, resisted some
days. The natives made the castaways welcome. They installed
themselves in the island, and constructed a smaller boat with the
debris of the two large ones. Some sailors stayed willingly at
Vanikoro; the others, weak and ill, set out with La Perouse. They
directed their course towards the Solomon Islands, and there perished,
with everything, on the westerly coast of the chief island of the
group, between Capes Deception and Satisfaction."

"How do you know that?"

"By this, that I found on the spot where was the last wreck."

Captain Nemo showed me a tin-plate box, stamped with the French arms,
and corroded by the salt water. He opened it, and I saw a bundle of
papers, yellow but still readable.

They were the instructions of the naval minister to Commander La
Perouse, annotated in the margin in Louis XVI's handwriting.

"Ah! it is a fine death for a sailor!" said Captain Nemo, at last. "A
coral tomb makes a quiet grave; and I trust that I and my comrades will
find no other."

CHAPTER XIX

TORRES STRAITS

During the night of the 27th or 28th of December, the Nautilus left the
shores of Vanikoro with great speed. Her course was south-westerly,
and in three days she had gone over the 750 leagues that separated it
from La Perouse's group and the south-east point of Papua.

Early on the 1st of January, 1863, Conseil joined me on the platform.

"Master, will you permit me to wish you a happy New Year?"

"What! Conseil; exactly as if I was at Paris in my study at the Jardin
des Plantes? Well, I accept your good wishes, and thank you for them.
Only, I will ask you what you mean by a `Happy New Year' under our
circumstances? Do you mean the year that will bring us to the end of
our imprisonment, or the year that sees us continue this strange
voyage?"

"Really, I do not know how to answer, master. We are sure to see
curious things, and for the last two months we have not had time for
dullness. The last marvel is always the most astonishing; and, if we
continue this progression, I do not know how it will end. It is my
opinion that we shall never again see the like. I think then, with no
offence to master, that a happy year would