Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse

Jean François Galaup, comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741Novaresio, Paolo (1996). The Explorers. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, NY ISBN 1-55670-495-X p. 180 "La Pérouse was born in 1741" – 1788) was a French naval officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.

Early career

Jean-François Galaup was born near Albi, Franceibid. p. 180 "La Pérouse was born at Albi". La Pérouse was the name of a family property which he added to his name. He studied in a Jesuit college, and entered the naval college in Brest when he was fifteen, and fought the British off North America in the Seven Years' War.ibid. p. 180 "involved in the Seven Years War." In the beginning of the war he was wounded in a naval engagement off the French coast and was briefly imprisoned.ibid. p. 180 "was wounded and captured by the British" He was promoted to rank of commodore when he defeated the English frigate Ariel in the West Indies. In August 1782 he made fame by capturing two English forts on the coast of the Hudson Bay, but left the survivors with food and ammunition when he departed. The next year his family finally consented in his marriage to Louise-Eléonore Broudou, a young creole from modest origins he had met on Ile de France (present-day Mauritius).ibid. p. 181 "married a young Creole girl ... met ... at Mauritius"

Scientific expedition

La Pérouse was appointed in 1785 to lead an expedition to the Pacific. His ships were the Astrolabe and the Boussoleibid. p. 181 "La Pérouse's ships, the Astrolabe and the Boussole", both 500 tons. They were storeships, reclassified as frigates for the occasion.

La Pérouse was a great admirer of James Cook, tried to get on well with the Pacific islanders, and was well-liked by his men. Among his 114 man crew there were ten scientists: Dagelet, an astronomer and mathematician, Lamanon, a geologist, La Martinière, a botanist, a physicist, three naturalists, and three illustrators, Duché de Vancy and the Prévosts (uncle and nephew).ibid. p. 184 "the mathematician and astronomer Dagelet, the botanist La Martiniére and the geologist Lamanon. Then there were the geographers, the physicists, the physicians, and the illustrators like Duché de Vancy and the two Prévosts (uncle and nephew)." Even both chaplains were scientifically schooled.

Alaska

He left Brest on August 1 1785,ibid. p. 181 "The expedition ... left the port of Brest on the 1st of August, 1785" rounded Cape Horn, investigated the Spanish colonial government in Chile,ibid. p. 186 "stopping on the coast of Chile" and, by way of Easter Island(where he stayed for only two days) and Hawaiiibid. p. 186 "La Pérouse headed for Easter Island ... left the island two days after his arrival ... after a brief stop in the Hawaiian Islands", sailed on to Alaska, where he landed near Mount St. Elias in late June 1786ibid. p. 186 "Towards mid-June ... the coast of Alaska, dominated by ... Mount Saint Elias" and explored the environs. On July 13, 1786, a barge and two longboats, carrying 21 men, were lost in the heavy currents of the bay called Port des Français by La Pérouse, but now known as Lituya Bay.ibid. p. 186-187 "entered a deep inlet that was baptised French Port (now Lituya Bay) ... On the 13th of July, 1786 .. Only one of the three boats that landed returned ...engulfed by a particularly violent ebb tide. ... Around twenty men perished" Next he visited Monterey, arriving on September 14, 1786.ibid. p. 187 "Monterey ... was reached on the 14th of September" He examined the Spanish settlements and made critical notes on the treatment of the Indians in the Franciscan missions.

He again crossed the Pacific Ocean in 100 days, arriving at Macao, where he sold the furs acquired in Alaska, dividing the profits among his men.ibid. p. 187 "After 100 days of sailing ... reached the port of Macao. ... trying to trade the furs they had acquired in North America" The next year, on April 9, 1787,ibid. p. 187, 191 "On the 9th of April, 1787, ... set sail for Japan." after a visit to Manila, he set out for the northeast Asian coasts. He saw the island of Quelpart (Cheju), which had been visited by Europeans only once before when a group of Dutchmen shipwrecked there in 1635. He visited the mainland coast of Korea, then crossed over to Oku-Yeso (Sakhalin).

Japan and Russia

The inhabitants had drawn him a map, showing their country, Yeso (also Yezo, now called Hokkaido) and the coasts of Tartary (mainland Asia). La Pérouse wanted to sail through the channel between Sakhalin and Asia, but failed, so he turned south, and sailed through La Pérouse Strait (between Sakhalin and Hokkaido), where he met the Ainu, explored the Kuriles, and reached Petropavlovsk (on Kamchatka peninsula) on September 7 1787.ibid. p. 191 "On the 7th of September, the expedition reached the coast of Kamchatka. The Russian authorities at Petropavlosk" Here they rested from their trip, and enjoyed the hospitality of the Russians and Kamchatkans. In letters received from Paris he was ordered to investigate the settlement the British were to erect in New South Wales. Barthélemy de Lesseps, the French vice consul at Kronstadt, who had joined the expedition as an interpreter, disembarked to bring the expedition's letters and documents to France, which he reached after a year-long, epic journey across Siberia and Russia.ibid. p. 191 "to send a young officer across Siberia and Russia to France with the ships' logs and the valuable charts."

Pacific

His next stops were in the Navigator Islands (Samoa), on December 6 1787.ibid. p. 191 "On the 6th of December, ... the explorers dropped anchor off a Samoan island." Just before he left, the Samoans attacked a group of his men, killing twelve of them, among which were Lamanon and de Langle, commander of the Astrolabe. Twenty men were wounded.ibid. p. 191 "The squad ... was attacked as they were returning to their boats, and 12 men were killed, including De Langle, Lamanon and another officer. Another 20 were seriously wounded." The expedition continued to Tonga and then to Australia,ibid. p. 192 "After having reached Tonga, he headed toward Australia" arriving at Botany Bay on 26 January 1788, just as Captain Arthur Phillip moved the colony from Botany Bay to Port Jackson. The British received him courteously, but were unable to help him with food as they had none to spare. La Pérouse sent his journals and letters to Europe with a British ship, the Siriusibid. p. 192 "At Botany Bay he consigned his charts to the captain of the British ship Sirius", obtained wood and fresh water, and left for New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, the Louisiades, and the western and southern coasts of Australia. Although he wrote that he expected to be back in France by December 1788, neither he nor any of his men was seen again. Fortunately, before he set sail, de Galaup had sent the valuable written details of his expedition to Paris where it was published posthumously.

Epilogue

Rescue mission of D'Entrecasteaux

In 1791-1793 Bruni d'Entrecasteaux looked for La Pérouse. His expedition followed La Pérouse's proposed path through the islands northwest of Australia. D'Entrecasteaux died during the voyage, and the expedition found no trace of La Pérouse's expedition.

Discovery of the expedition

It was not until 1826 that an English captain, Peter Dillon, found evidence of the tragedy. In Tikopia (one of the islands of Santa Cruz), he bought some swords he had reason to believe had belonged to La Pérouse. He made enquiries, and found that they came from nearby Vanikoro, where two big ships had broken up. Dillon managed to obtain a ship in Bengal, and sailed for Vanikoro where he found cannon balls, anchors and other evidence of the remains of ships in water between coral reefs. He brought several of these artifacts back to Europe, as did D'Urville in 1828.ibid. p. 192 "Dumont d'Urville locate the remains of a wreck on the reef around the coral atoll of Vanikoro ... The material recovered ... belonged to the Astrolabe." De Lesseps, the only member of the expedition still alive at the time, identified them, as all belonging to the Astrolabe. From the information Dillon received from the people on Vanikoro, a rough reconstruction could be made of the disaster that struck La Pérouse, which was confirmed by the find and search of the shipwreck of the Boussole in 1964.

Both ships had been wrecked on the reefs, the Boussole first. The Astrolabe was unloaded and taken apart. A group of men, probably the survivors of the Boussole, were massacred by the local inhabitants. According to natives, surviving sailors built a two-masted craft from the wreckage of the Astrolabe, and left westward about 9 months later, but what happened to them is unknown.

The La Perouse Strait between Hokkaido and Sakhalin is named in his honour, as is La Perouse, a Sydney suburb and the northern headland of Botany Bay both in New South Wales, Australia, and La Perouse Pinnacle, in the French Frigate Shoals.

References

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