The second, stranded to leeward, held up for some days. The natives gave the castaways a fair enough welcome. The latter took up residence on the island and built a smaller craft with rubble from the two large ones. A few seamen stayed voluntarily in Vanikoro. The others, weak and ailing, set sail with the Count de La Perouse. They headed to the Solomon Islands, and they perished with all hands on the westerly coast of the chief island in that group, between Cape Deception and Cape Satisfaction!"
第二只船渾天儀號擱淺在下方,仍然支持了好幾天。當(dāng)?shù)赝寥藢τ鲭y船員相當(dāng)歡迎,善意招待。遇難船員便住在島上,利用兩艘破損的大船,把材料拼湊起來,建造了一只較小的船。有些水手愿意居住在萬尼科羅群島上, 不想走了。別的船員,體弱有病,跟拉?白魯斯一同出發(fā).他們向所羅門群島開去,他們所有的一切,身體和財物,都在這群島的主島的西部海岸,失望呷和滿意呷之間沉沒了。
"And how do you know all this?" I exclaimed.
“您怎么知道呢?”我喊道。
"Here's what I found at the very site of that final shipwreck!"
“這不是我在那最后遇難失事的地方所找到的文件嗎!”
Captain Nemo showed me a tin box, stamped with the coat of arms of France and all corroded by salt water. He opened it and I saw a bundle of papers, yellowed but still legible.
尼摩船長給我看一個白鐵盒,上面印有法國國徽的標(biāo)記,全都被鹽水所侵蝕了。他打開鐵盒,我看見一卷公文,雖然紙色發(fā)黃,但字跡還清楚可讀。
They were the actual military orders given by France's Minister of the Navy to Commander La Perouse, with notes along the margin in the handwriting of King Louis XVI!
這公文是法國海軍大臣給拉,白魯斯船長的訓(xùn)令,邊緣還有路易十六親筆的批語呢!
"Ah, what a splendid death for a seaman!" Captain Nemo then said. "A coral grave is a tranquil grave, and may Heaven grant that my companions and I rest in no other!"
“?。?rdquo;尼摩船長于是說,“對于一位海員來說,這真是死得漂亮:這座珊瑚墳?zāi)箤嵲谑翘撵o了!愿上天讓我的同伴和我不要葬在別樣的墳?zāi)怪校?rdquo;