Vanikoro

Vanikoro is a mountainous, reef-fringed island in the Santa Cruz group, southeast of Nendö. Its people maintained connections with nearby islands, through which objects could travel across the sea. In 1788 the French expedition led by La Pérouse was wrecked on Vanikoro’s reefs. Survivors built a small vessel, and objects from the ships passed into island exchange networks. In 1827 Peter Dillon followed clues from Tikopia to Vanikoro, where he gathered evidence of the expedition’s fate; Dumont d’Urville visited the following year.