[Illustration: The waterfall of Port Praslin. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)]
The student Porel de Blossville--the same who afterwards lost his life with the Lilloise in the Polar regions--undertook a journey to the village of Praslin, in spite of all the means adopted by the savages to deter him. When there he was shown a kind of temple, where several ill-shaped, grotesque idols had been set up on a platform surrounded by walls.
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. The explorer, after this, searched ineffectually for the islands Stephen and De Carteret, and after comparing
