Part 1: Before the Pacific Voyage

  Plans for a Pacific Voyage

France was now at peace and the navy had little for most of its ships and sailors to do. La Pérouse, though, was entering a frantic period of 18 months during which he travelled extensively between Paris, Lorient, Brest and Albi. He had become involved in plans to make an expedition to the Pacific.

The exploits of Captain James Cook in the Pacific between 1768 and 1779 had given much prestige to Britain. The discoveries, the charts and the scientific information brought back had taken exploration to a new level. Now, the French Government was keen to match this by sending out an expedition of their own.

1784

A small group including Claret de Fleurieu, Castries and La Pérouse met regularly to plan the route of the voyage and to determine what scientific and other activities would be attempted. Other experts were involved to give advice on particular subjects. Bougainville, the first Frenchman to lead an expedition around the world was a regular adviser. The naturalist, Buffon, was consulted about natural history and the chemist, Lavoisier, helped with scientific matters. Various projects were devised for participants in the voyage to carry out. Even King Louis XVI, himself, was involved in the planning the voyage. Louis had been a good geography student as a child and had shown keen interest in the voyages of Cook.

In February 1784, La Pérouse's father, Victor-Joseph de Galaup, died, leaving Jean-François as head of the family.

1785

Early in the year, La Pérouse was informed that he had been chosen to lead the voyage and that the voyage was expected to last for at least three years. He quietly told Eleonore of their impending separation. The next stages involved choosing ships, crew and other persons to sail.

Selection of ships

The secrecy surrounding the voyage reached as far as the selection of the ships. De Castries instructed La Touche-Treville, the Port-Captain at Rochefort to find two vessels for an expedition but did not tell him anything about the expedition such as who was sailing and to where. La Pérouse did not even know about this approach, which was embarrassing as La Touche-Treville was a friend, who had commanded the Hermione on La Pérouse's campaign to the St. Lawrence. La Touche found a storeship, the Portefaix, and a transport, the Utile but while the Portefaix was suitable, the transport needed much rebuilding. This became more evident when the details of the expedition became known. The Portefaix sailed to Brest where the Comte d'Hector located a nearly identical ship, a storeship called the Autruche. The French had chosen two ships very similar in size and type to those sailed successfully by Captain Cook.

Work began in earnest to modify the ships and make them ready for a voyage of possibly four years duration to the Pacific. The upgrade enabled the ships to be described as frigates. They were given new names so that the Portefaix became the Boussole and the Autruche became the Astrolabe. La Pérouse would sail in the Boussole. The ships were both 500 - 600 tons weight, 41.15 metres (135 feet) long and 8.75 metres (28.7 feet) wide. Several small boats and yawls were obtained for each ship.

Crew

Paul-Antoine-Marie Fleuriot de Langle was chosen to captain the Astrolabe. Well-known and liked by La Pérouse, who had sailed with him on several occasions, de Langle was a very capable sailor who was skilled in navigation and had been involved in new developments regarding longitude. Many of the other young officers were known to La Pérouse and de Langle, and most of them had served at Grenada, the Iles des Saintes and other actions in the recent American War of Independence. La Pérouse's First Officer was de Closnard who had fought alongside La Pérouse at Mahe in India in 1775.

Scientists

The voyage would have a scientific purpose to it and a group of scientists was assembled to cover a wide range of subjects - astronomy, geology, mineralogy and botany. Artists would travel to record the views, the people they met and the botanical and other specimens collected. A cartographer was taken to draw charts depicting their route.

The Voyage

Brest to Easter Island

1785 August - October    Brest to Ihla de Trindade

On 1 August 1785, the Boussole and the Astrolabe sailed from Brest into the Atlantic. The ships sailed south without incident as everyone on board settled in. They arrived at their first port of call, Madeira, on the 13th. Immediately upon arrival, they were given large quantities of fresh fruit by William Johnston, a local British businessman. In a foretaste of their reception in other ports, the British Consul, Charles Murray, entertained them. News of the French voyage preceded them and the Portuguese and Spanish would be equally welcoming at Santa Catarina, Concepcion and other ports. More fruit and vegetaables were given to the French when they sailed on 16 August.

Passing to the east of the Iles Salvages on the 18th, La Pérouse brought the ships the next day into the harbour at Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The scientists quickly went ashore to take astronomical readings, check the chronometers and collect botanical and geological specimens. A small party climbed El Pico de Teide, the highest mountain on the island.

They were entertained by Miguel de la Grue Talamanca, the Governor General of All the Canaries. La Pérouse was occupied checking the state of the ships and arranging more supplies, including taking on 60 pipes (24,000 litres approximately) of wine. He anticipated being able to obtain wood and water at Ihla de Trindade, further to the south. They left Tenerife on 30 August 1785.

La Pérouse decided to miss the Cape Verde Islands and sailed on, crossing the Equator on 29 September. On 16 October, the Martin Vaz Islands, in reality three large, bare rocks were sighted. La Pérouse sailed past them to the south to reach Ihla de Trindade, xx kilometres to the west. Vaujuas led a small group from the Astrolabe ashore where they found a Portuguese fort with 200 men. The island barely supported the Portuguese so was unable to furnish anything for the French. Boutin had also gone in a small boat from the Boussole but did not attempt to land and instead allowed Bernizet to sketch the island from close range offshore.

1785 November - 1786 January    Santa Catarina to Cape Horn

La Pérouse decided to make for the Ihla Santa Catarina, off the southern coast of Brazil, to replenish his fresh water and other supplies but first he made a search for an island, Ihla Asencaon, supposed to be in the area. On the 24th, he gave up the search (the island does not exist) and, in bad weather, made for Santa Catarina. On 6 November, the two ships anchored between Santa Catarina and the mainland. La Pérouse sent de Pierrevert ashore to report to the local garrison, who sent word on to the Governor in Nossa Senhora do Destoro (now Florianopolis), the capital of the island. The Governor, Don Francisco de Baros, had expected their arrival, having read of it in the Lisbon Gazette. He sent his Chief of Staff, Don Antonio de Gama, to liaise with the French and to assist in the purchase of wood, fresh meat and vegetables, and water.

On the 9th, La Pérouse moved the ships closer to the town and the next day sent Boutin to the Governor to pay their respects. The French went ashore and were made welcome on the island. On 16 November, La Pérouse paid his respects to the Governor and made ready to leave. However, winds kept the ships in harbour until the 19th, when they departed. La Pérouse and de Langle agreed that should the ships be separated they would rendezvous at the Bay of Good Succcess in Tierra del Fuego or, failing that, Point Venus on Tahiti.

The ships headed southeast out into the South Atlantic as La Pérouse wanted to locate or disprove the existence of Isle Grande, an island supposed to have been seen by Antoine de la Roche in 1695. For most of December, they searched in vain for the island but with no success. On 27 December 1785, La Pérouse, convinced the island did not exist (it does not) gave up and headed for Cape Horn.

1786

The ships approached the Patagonian coast on 14 January 1786. The mouth of the Rio Gallaegos was sighted on the 21st and they passed Cabo Virgenes, the northern cape of the entrance to the Straits of Magellan, on the 22nd. La Pérouse was not using the Straits but rounding Cape Horn, so he continued south following the coast of Tierra del Fuego. On 25 January, the Boussole and the Astrolabe reached Cabo San Diego and the Strait of Le Maire. Conditions were so favourable that they passed straight through and, as they were together, did not stop at Bay of Good Success. As they sailed, whales surrounded the ships. From the ships, they could see fires being lit on the Tierra del Fuego shore. They gave Cape Horn a very wide berth and sailed round into the Pacific with unexpected ease.

1786 February - April    Concepcion to Easter Island

By 9 February, they were abreast of the western end of the Straits of Magellan. La Pérouse decided that they would now make for Concepcion in Chile where they would be able to restock on supplies. They passed the Isla Mocha on the 22nd and steered closer to land so as not to overshoot Concepcion. On 23 February, the ships rounded the northern tip of Isla Quiriquine and sailed into Bahia de Concepcion, only to find the town did not exist. Amadee Francois Frezier's chart of 1716 showed Concepcion as being situated in the southeast corner of the bay. However, they soon learned that the town had been destroyed in an earthquake in 1751 and had been rebuilt 15 kilometres away on the banks of the Rio Biobio.

La Pérouse anchored the ships in the bay close to the settlement of Talcahuano. De Postigo, a Spanish frigate captain, visited the ships bringing large quantities of fresh fruit and meat. La Pérouse was pleased to report that there was no one sick on the two ships. The local Governor, Ambrosio O'Higgins, was away and his deputy, Quexada, received the French and helped entertain them over the next two weeks. O'Higgins, the father of the future liberator of Chile, Bernado O'Higgins, returned as La Pérouse decided it was time to leave. They were ready on 15 March but conditions prevented their sailing until the 17th.

La Pérouse had been given lengthy instructions and an exact itinery before leaving France but he now began to exercise his authority to change plans as the situation demanded. The seasons and the weather determined the best time of the year to visit locations. Summer and warmer temperatures were preferable for exploring higher latitudes so, instead of now making for Tahiti and beyond, La Pérouse decided to head for Easter Island on the way to the North Pacific.

Leaving sight of the South American coast on 19 March 1786, the Boussole and the Astrolabe sailed northwest to the north of the Islas Juan Fernandez. Reaching the latitude of Easter Island, they headed west and arrived off the island on 8 April. They worked the ships round to anchor in Cook's Bay, off Hanga Roa on the island's west coast on the 9th. They were well received and welcomed ashore. La Pérouse and de Langle took a party of 70 men ashore and exchanged gifts with the locals.

The French split into two groups with de Langle taking his group for a walk as far as was possible. They proceeded eastwards through barren hills, denuded of trees, before turning south to reach the southeast coast near Vaihu. From the ships, they had been able to see clusters of large statues standing on terraces on this coast and now they were able to examine them. In a village, they were shown houses, including one low building 100 metres long and resembling a long overturned canoe. They were taken to see the volcanic crater, Rano Kau, at the southwest corner of the island before returning to Hanga Roa.

La Pérouse's group had, in the meantime, stayed in Hanga Roa close to the ships. La Pérouse had some goats and pigs brought ashore and they were presented as gifts. Many local people visited the ships and, as happened at many places they visited, articles of clothing and pieces of equipment were stolen. It was to be only a very brief stay and La Pérouse sailed on 10 April for the North Pacific.

The journey north was long, through a large expanse of empty ocean. From 20 April, until they approached Hawaii, they were followed by a shoal of bonito. The fish provided a welcome source of fresh food. On 18 May, they had reached 20ºN, the latitude of Hawaii but about 25º to the east of the postion for the islands determined by James Cook. La Pérouse now turned west to find Hawaii.

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Maui to Macao

1786 April to June    Maui to Alaska

The French had copies of maps that showed the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands) visited by Cook but also showed other islands, approximately in the same latitudes but further east. Information about these islands had come from Spanish charts. For two centuries, the Spanish Manila Galleons had used a broad, sweeping route through the North Pacific when returning from the Philippines to Mexico. La Pérouse now began to look for these islands. As he sailed through the area they were supposed to be without finding them, La Pérouse began to speculate that these missing islands and Hawaii were one and the same, and that the Spanish had either badly miscalculated their longitude or had recorded it incorrectly. It is highly possible that one or more Spanish Galleon visited the Hawaiian Islands before Cook.

The Big Island of Hawaii was sighted on 28 May and the adjacent island of Maui was seen the next day. La Pérouse decided to make for Maui and sailed through the Alenuihaha Channel between Hawaii and Maui to reach that island's southwest point. They were accompanied to their anchorage by over 150 canoes full of people, who were already trading for fruit and pigs.

On the 30th, La Pérouse took a party ashore in four small boats. The ships were still surrounded by canoes, with more people hoping to trade. The French landed at a small village where they were welcomed ashore. They then went for a short walk beyond the village. Many of the people showed signs of what La Pérouse took to be venereal disease but which may have been yaws, a disease with very similar symptoms. In his journal, La Pérouse recorded that he had made no attempt to take possession of the island for France as he regarded such an action as ridiculous when there was an extant resident population.

At midday, La Pérouse and his party were back on board the ships. Conditions were forcing the ships to drag their anchors and they were drifting toward the tiny island of Molokini. The French managed to weigh anchor and stood off Maui waiting for the conditions to change. Instead of sailing away between Maui and Lanai as he had hoped, La Pérouse was forced to take the ships out through the Kealaikahiki Channel between Lanai and Kahoolawe. The small bay off which La Pérouse anchored is now known as La Perouse Bay and a small marker near the beach at Keoneoio records the visit.

Having rounded Lanai, the Boussole and the Astrolabe continued along the south coast of Molokai before passing through the Kawau Channel, which separates Molokai from Oahu. The stay in the Hawaiian Islands had been a short one and indicated La Pérouse's desire to reach Alaska as soon as possible. What did not realise was that his journey through the Hawaiian Islands had been mirrored by two British ships under the command of Nathaniel Portlock. In fact, the King George and the Queen Charlotte had been sailing a very similar route to La Pérouse since leaving Britain in May 1785. They had reached Hawaii on 24 May and had stood off Kealakekua Bay before moving on to Oahu on the 28th. The British and French ships, therefore, passed within a few kilometres of each other just off the coast of Maui without meeting.

The French left the Hawaiian Islands and sailed north, on 1 June 1786. Another empty stretch of ocean lay before them. Conditions deteriorated as they sailed and, on the 9th, at 34ºN they encountered thick fog. On the 14th, at 41ºN, temperatures had dropped sufficiently for La Pérouse to reissue warm clothing to the crew. A week later, they saw massive seaweed, whales and birds, all indicative of the proximity of land, and, on 23 June, the snow-capped mountain range that fringes the southeastern Alaskan coast was sighted.

1786 June - July    Alaska

The coast of Alaska was known from charts produced by earlier European explorers. The Russians had sent an expedition of two ships to the area in 1741, led by the Dane, Vitus Bering. The ships had been parted in fog and the second ship, commanded by Chirikov, had reached the Alaskan coast only to suffer the loss of men in accidents. Bering, himself, had partially charted the coast but he died on the Komandor Islands off Kamchatka. When the British explorer, James Cook, arrived in the area in 1778, he had charts based on information from the Russians and also the Spanish. The Spanish were thought to have kept much information to themselves and it was not known how reliable their charts were. Cook added to them considerably but the charts were still far from complete. The rugged coast with its hundreds of islands and poor weather conditions was still a daunting place to explore in small ships.

On 24 June, Mount St. Elias, seen and named by Vitus Bering 45 years earlier, was clearly visible and helped to fix their position on the coast. Over the next few days, they tacked back and forth as fog alternatively enveloped them and cleared. The ships approached the land and anchored, allowing small boats from both ships to investigate a large inlet. De Monti, in one of the Astrolabe's boats was the senior officer to go ashore and La Pérouse gave de Monti's name to the inlet. It has been retained for a small bay just inside the eastern point to the bay, now known as Yakutat Bay.

They began to move slowly southeast and, on 30 June, the ships stopped to investigate another inlet. Boats went off but did not enter the inlet. This was Dry Bay but La Pérouse was certain it was the large bay described by Bering and known as Bering's Bay. On 1 July, they could see clearly and identify Cook's Mount Fairweather. At other times, however, the fog that both explorers experienced along the coast often made it very difficult to match what the French were seeing with Cook's charts.

1786 July    Port des Francais / Lituya Bay

The next day, the narrow entrance to an inlet was located to the east of Cape Fairweather. De Pierrevert, from the Boussole, and Flassan, from the Astrolabe, were dispatched in small boats to investigate the inlet. Their favourable reports encouraged a somewhat reluctant La Pérouse to take the ships in. Their first approach was unsuccessful and they tacked offshore through the night before the tide carried them in the next morning. Even then, it was a precarious passage and the ships both nearly were driven onto rocks. They anchored just inside the entrance but La Pérouse was not happy with this spot, it having a shallow, rocky bottom. He sent men off to a find safer anchorage. D'Escures found a better location behind the large island in the inlet and the two ships transferred there. It was 3 July 1786.

Local people watched their arrival and they quickly came out in canoes to begin trading, especially in sea otter skins. A chief came on board to welcome them. An observatory was erected on the island and tents were put up for members of the crew to make repairs. However, thieving of items forced them back on to the ships.

The inlet, which La Pérouse named Port des Francais and which is now known as Lituya Bay, is most dramatic and La Pérouse was struck by the majesty of the place. He led a party to explore the head of the bay, which separates into two arms, both of which have glaciers feeding into them. The inlet eats into the coastal mountain range so on all sides it is dwarfed by high snow-capped mountains. The effect of the glaciers was felt when an iceberg was calved and the wave generated sped across the water and capsized one of the longboats. They ventured a little way up one of the glaciers but progress was very slow and dangerous so they gave up and returned to the ships.

By the 12th, La Pérouse was ready to leave. Bernizet had charted the inlet but some depth soundings were still required. Three boats set off early on the morning of 13 July to complete the charting. D'Escures was the senior officer of the party and he was in charge of the Boussole's Biscay boat. La Pérouse was wary of d'Escures' tempestuousness and went so far as to issue written instructions warning d'Escures not to lead the party close to the inlet's entrance should the sea be breaking over it. De Marchainville was in charge of the Astrolabe's Biscay boat while Boutin was in charge of the third boat.

They departed at 6.00am and at 10.00am Boutin returned in a distraught state. Despite his instructions, d'Escures had ventured too close to the entrance and his boat had been swamped. De Marchainville had then directed his boat to attempt to rescue the occupants of the first boat but his boat had also been overturned. Boutin had realised that a similar fate would befall them and had pulled back. Search parties were dispatched and scoured both shores of the inlet. However, all 21 occupants of the two Biscay boats were lost and their bodies were never found.

The whole of the expedition was stunned. They remained for another two weeks, hoping to find survivors or at least remains. They also needed to come to terms with the loss and reorganise the duties and structure of the crews. The plans for the next part of the voyage needed revising. A cenotaph was erected on the island and a plaque listed the names of the men lost. The island was named Cenotaph Island. On the positive side, they had produced detailed descriptions of the inlet and its people. A small vocabulary had been compiled and charts drawn. Finally, on 30 July, the two ships sailed out of Port des Francais.

In the 1860s, the Western Union Telegraph Company had plans to build a telegraph line from the United States via Alaska and Siberia to Russia. An expedition visited this part of Alaska in 1871, investigating the proposed route, and many of the features of the area now carry names of people and ships of La Pérouse's expedition, bestowed by the Western Union people. The men who died in 1786 were not forgotten with two mountains being called Mount Marchainville and Mount Escures.

1786 August - September    Alaska to California

The delay at Lituya Bay meant that the voyage down the coast would now be down at speed with few stops. It was arranged that, in the event of separation, they would proceed to Monterey in California. Their first day out at sea marked the first anniversary since leaving Brest. A search for the Northwest Passage had been one of the tasks of the voyage and, as he sailed south, La Pérouse made a half-hearted attempt to locate it. He knew from meeting Samuel Hearne at Hudson Bay in 1782 that any passage must lie far to the north and did not link with Hudson Bay.

The French sailed on following the coast where they could see it and keeping outside the hundreds of small islands that were known from the charts of Cook and the Spanish. The French produced charts of their own as went south. As they had no contact with local people they devised used existing European names or devised new names themselves. Most of the French names have disappeared but a few have been retained.

A mountain overlooking Lituya Bay was named Mount Crillon after a friend of La Pérouse, Felix-Francois-Dorothee de Bretton, Comte de Crillon. It was later applied to nearby glaciers. On 4 August, the Boussole and the Astrolabe passed Cross Sound and Cape Cross on Yakobi Island.

Over the next few days they sighted Port Los Remedios (Salisbury Sound) and Cape Engano (Sitka Point) at either end of Kruzof Island. The high volcano on the island was sighted and called Mount St. Hyacinthe (it was Cook's Mount Edgecumbe). They suspected a deep bay but fog obscured Sitka Sound.

On 7 August, they sailed down the coast of Baranof Island and two inlets were sighted and named. Port Necker (Necker Bay) was named for Jacques Necker, a French Minister of Finance. The name was later applied to some islands just to the northwest. The next inlet was called Port Guibert (it is now Whale Bay). The southern point of Baranof Island was named Cap Tschirikow to honour the companion of Bering, Chirikov, who visited the area in 1741. The cape is now called Cape Ommaney. Fog was making sightings difficult. The Chatham Strait behind Baranof Island was suspected, while the next group of islands they passed, now known as the Hazy Islands, were called Isles La Croyere. Louis de Lisle de la Croyere, a frenchman, had sailed with Chirikov.

The Spanish had produced detailed charts of the next part of the coast. Francisco Mourelle had named Port Bucarelli (Bucareli Bay) after the Viceroy of Mexico, Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursua. La Pérouse sailed past the islands hiding Port Bucarelli without seeing them. Early on the morning of 9 August, he sighted the Islas San Carlos (Forrester Island), sailing past them to their west. Cape Muzon, on Dall Island was seen in the distance to the east as they crossed a wide stretch of water, Dixon Entrance, to arrive off the northern coast of Graham Island, one of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Langara Island at the northwest tip of Graham Island was sighted on 10 August but thick fog forced the ships to the west and comparative safety. They approached land again on the 11th near Fleurieu Point and north of Baie de Clonard (Beresford Bay), north of Pivot Mountain. Fog forced them away from land once more but they regained it on the 17th further to the south. It was, by now, Moresby Island, which is only separated from Graham Island by a narrow stretch of water, Skidegate Channel. Graham Island has a Clonard Point and Mount La Perouse at its southern end.

A mountain on Moresby Island was named Mount de la Touche and a nearby inlet was named Baie de la Touche (Tasu Sound). (De Latouche-Treville had sailed with La Pérouse). They continued sailing southeast following the line of the coast at a distance to reach the southern headland on 20 August. La Pérouse named the point Cap Hector, after the Port Captain of Brest, the Comte d'Hector. Some small islands off the point were called the Isles Kerouard after Hector's niece who also happened to be de Langle's wife, Georgette de Kerouartz. Cap Hector is now Cape St. James.

Rounding the point, the ships were able to sail to the northeast. La Pérouse named a cape on the east coast of Moresby Island, Cape Buache after the French geographer. Its exact location is unknown. There is a Prevost Point on this coast. Sailing on across Hecate Strait, La Pérouse speculated about the existence of navigable channels running north-south between the islands and the mainland. Their progress was halted by small islands, which La Pérouse named the Iles Fleurieu. This name has disappeared and the ships were off Aristazabal and Price Islands. Turning south once more on 23 August, La Pérouse sighted the southern point of Goose Island and called it Cape Fleurieu.

The Boussole and the Astrolabe were successfully keeping together despite the fog and now they were sailing south across Queen Charlotte Sound. On 24 August they sighted and named Sartine Island. This tiny island is one of the Scott Islands, off the northwest tip of Vancouver Island, and Sartine was Minister of Marine, Antoine-Raymond-Jean-Gualbert-Gabriel de Sartine, Comte d'Alby.

La Pérouse was aware he was approaching Nootka Sound, a safe harbour on Vancouver Island used by James Cook. He was aiming for the inlet and had seen Cook's Woody Point (Cape Cook) when more fog drove him away from land on the 25th. Three days later he sighted Estevan Point and passed over a shallow submarine mound of stones, the origin of which puzzled La Pérouse. On 29 August, the ships were close to Amphitrite Point on Vancouver Island but more dense fog set in and La Pérouse directed the ships south, parallel to the coast, thereby missing the mouth on Juan de Fuca Strait.

They passed the mouth of the Columbia River and Cabo Redondo (Tillamook Head) on 3 September but conditions remained hazy. Two days later, the ships reached Cabo Blanco where La Pérouse named some rocks, Necker Islands, but the name has not been retained. Sailing on, he saw a volcano erupting inland from Cabo Mendocino. The volcano was probably Mount Shasta, which is 4316 metres high, about 200 kilometres inland, and which shows evidence of having erupted about the time of La Pérouse's visit. Expecting gales, La Pérouse took the ships further out to see but by the 10th and 11th he was approaching land again only to have fog obscure sightings of Monterey, their destination.

1786 September    Monterey

The land could be seen through haze on 12 September and, on the 13th, the ships sailed into Monterey Bay. In the afternoon, they could see the fort at the Presidio and anchored. They moved the ships closer to the fort the next morning. The Governor of Alta (or New) California, Pedro de Fages, was expecting the ships, word having arrived from Concepcion. He welcomed the French and offered them the use of all the faclities.

The Spanish had only recently moved north from Mexico through Baja California to colonise this area. A network of Catholic Missions was established. The settlement of Monterey, begun 16 years earlier in 1770, comprised a small military detachment and a Franciscan Mission. The Franciscans had moved from their original location in Monterey to found the San Carlos Mission over the hill in Carmel, by the Carmel River. The head of the Mission, Padre Firmin Francisco de Lasuen extended an equally warm welcome to the visitors. Over the next few days, La Pérouse and his colleagues closely observed the Mission and its relationship with the local Native Americans. Members of two tribes of Indians, the Achastla and the Eccelemachs, were living at the Mission and short vocabularies were obtained along with descriptions of their living conditions.

The French were back on board on 22 September but winds prevented their sailing. The next objective was Macao on the south coast of China from which they would strike north to Japan and the northwest Pacific. La Pérouse had obtained a chart from the Spanish in Monterey, which showed more supposed islands so his first action was to attempt to find the islands. There is a small memorial to La Pérouse, marking his visit in 1786, in the grounds of the San Carlos Mission in Carmel.

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1786 September - 1787 January    Monterey to Macao

On 24 September 1786, the Boussole and the Astrolabe left Monterey sailing southwest into the Pacific to search for Nuestra Senora de la Gorta. The ships reached 28ºN and turned west to follow that latitude. No sign of land was seen and, by late October, they were sailing to the north of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands). Many seabirds, a good sign of nearby land, surrounded the ships on 3 November and the next day a small island, approximately one kilometre long and 200 metres wide, appeared ahead.

La Pérouse passed to the south of the island and, on the 5th, approached close to inspect it. It appeared to be uninhabited. No trees were visible but the ridge of the island was grassed. La Pérouse honoured the ex-Minister of Finance again by calling the island Necker Island. It is possible that the Polynesian name, Mokumanamana, applies to the island. Remains of a heiau were discovered there, together with artifacts more associated with the Marquesas Islands.

In bright moonlight, La Pérouse sailed on westwards but the expedition nearly foundered. Breakers were sighted just ahead and only quick action managed to save the ships from running on to coral reefs. They turned south away from the danger, which was appreciated the next morning when the expanse of coral and shoals could be seen. La Pérouse named the feature Basse des fregates francaises (French Frigate Shoals). A central rock, 35 metres high and a remnant of the original volcanic island, is now known as La Perouse Pinnacle.

A line of volcanic activity stretches across the north-central Pacific from Midway Island in the west to Hawaii Island in the east. The active vulcanism has moved very gradually southeastwards from Midway to Hawaii where it occurs today. As the vulcanism has moved on, the islands have been reduced to rocky stumps or fringing coral reefs surrounding submerged rocky cores. La Pérouse had stumbled across two examples of the extended island chain.

The charts that La Pérouse had on board showed yet more possible islands between their present position and their next intended objective in the Northern Mariana Islands. La Pérouse set a course to follow 20ºN and find Mira Island and Los Jardines. Neither existed so no land was seen until they reached Asuncion (Assomption) Island. The ships anchored off the island's southwest point on 14 December 1786.

Despite finding land, La Pérouse and his crew were desperately disappointed with the island. The island was round, about 3 kilometres across, and a near perfect volcanic cone, 900 metres high. Black lava flows covered most slopes with only a few coconut palms near the shore. On the 15th, de Langle led a shore party that returned with coconuts and reported the presence of large crabs but hardly any birds.

A small cluster of islands could be seen to the north and, when La Pérouse sailed, he skirted just to the west of them. This was Maug (Mang), which comprises three remnants of the caldera walls of an old volcano. The Mariana Islands lie along the meeting place of two continental plates. The Philippines plate to the west is being subsumed by the Pacific plate to the east causing a line of volcanic instability, represented by Asuncion and Maug.

La Pérouse was keen to reach Macao in order to catch European ships that could conveys letters and reports back to France. Moving on from Maug, he took the ships through the Bashi Channel between Luzon Island in the Philippines and Formosa (Taiwan) on 28 December 1786.

1787

On 2 January 1787, the Boussole and the Astrolabe passed the Pedro Blanco (Ta-hsing-tsan Yen), south of China, and, shortly after, took on pilots to guide their passage to Macao. Macao was a small Portuguese territory on the south coast of the Chinese mainland, with four small offshore islands, close by the mouth of the Zhu Jiang River. The pilots took the ships between Hong Kong and the Lema Islands to reach the anchorage by the island of Taipa on 3 January.

The journey from Monterey had caused some friction between La Pérouse and some of the scientists on board the ships, especially the naturalists. They had little to do in the long passages from one landing to the next and boredom had set in. Several scientists, led by Lamanon, went straight ashore at Macao and then complained when not invited to official receptions. La Pérouse was not standing for such rebellion and had them brought back on board and kept under arrest for 24 hours. The problem quickly dissipated.

Boutin was sent to announce their arrival to the Portuguese Governor of Macao, who turned out to be Bernado Alexis de Lemos. Lemos had been the official at Goa on the coast of India with whom La Pérouse had had problems over customs duties twelve years earlier but on this occasion, all were friends. La Pérouse and de Langle had gone to meet the Governor and pay their respects. The French were able to restock their ships.

The French found many European ships at anchor at Macao and among them was the Marquis-de-Castries, a French ship commanded by Joseph de Richery. They were able to gain some news from France but, disappointingly, the ship carried no mail for them. La Pérouse had taken on a considerable number of sea otter pelts in Alaska and he now arranged for Elstockenstrom, a Swedish businessman to sell them on their behalf.

1787 February - May    Macao to Formosa

In early February, La Pérouse was ready to sail with the ships prepared and many of the crew having begun to develop fevers. Each ship had taken on six Chinese sailors to replace the men lost in the tragedy at Lituya Bay. The ships sailed on 5th February, this time passing to the south of the Ladrone and Lema Islands. La Pérouse was on the lookout for an area of shoals known as Pratas Reef (Tung-Sha Tao) but missed it to the south. He was making for Manila in the Philippines and on, 15 February, he sighted the island of Luzon.

Progress down the west coast was, at first, very slow until they passed Cabo Buliano on the 20th. Point Capones (Sampaloc Point) was sighted on the 21st and on 23 February they turned east at the mouth of Manila Bay. They tried to sail to the south of Isla Corregidor and then between that island and Isla Monga only for currents and winds to stop them. On the 24th, La Pérouse decided to wait at Mariveles, at the southern end of the Battan peninsula, for better conditions. He sent men ashore looking for wood and followed himself in the afternoon.

Conditions improved on 25 February and, with the assistance of a local pilot, the ships sailed round to the south of the islands of Corregidor and Caballo into Manila Bay. It still took them three days to sail the short distance to Cavite, where they anchored on the 28th, having also nearly gone aground on the Santa Nicolas shoal.

Manila to Kamchatka

A local Spanish official visited the ships and asked to remain on board while they sought instructions from Manila, across the bay. Word soon arrived indicating their arrival was expected and they were welcome and should proceed on to Manila. La Pérouse sent, as usual, Boutin to politely decline the offer and inform the Governor-General, Jose de Basco y Vargas, that Cavite would meet their requirements. Senor de Bermudes at Cavite was instructed to give the French all the assistance he could and he proved very friendly and helpful.

Manila Bay, on Luzon Island, was an inlet approximately 40 kilometres long, with Manila, the capital of the territory situated at its head. Cavite was the original port and it was located on the south shore, about ten kilometres southwest of Manila. While Luzon was controlled by Spain, many of the other Philippine Islands were not and pirates based in those islands preyed on ships in Luzon waters. The French needed to move around carefully.

On 2 March 1787, La Pérouse visited Manila and dined with the Governor. The Governor instructed his Intendant, Ciriaco Gonzalez Carvajal, to supervise the restocking of the ships and this was done with the utmost speed and efficiency. Meanwhile, Monsieur Sebir, a French businessman living in Manila made his carriage available to La Pérouse for the duration of his visit, enabling La Pérouse to see around Manila, the Bay and the neighbouring Lagoon.

Sadly some of the crew were still affected by the fevers caught at Macao and Daigremont died on 25 March. Word arrived from Macao that all the sea otter pelts had been sold and the money was distributed among all the crew. They also heard that two more French ships, the Resolution and the Subtile had arrived at Macao they day after they themselves had left that port. The Resolution was under the command of Joseph-Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, who a few years later would be given command of the expedition sent out from France to search for La Pérouse and his ships.

All repairs had been completed by 28 March and La Pérouse was keen to sail when the Subtile, commanded by Anne-Jean-Jacques-Scipion de la Croix de Vagnas, Vicomte de Castries, arrived at Cavite. De Castries had been sent on by d'Entrecasteaux to intercept La Pérouse. He brought more news but sadly no mail. He could take more mail, intended for families in France and copies of logs, journals and charts. De St. Ceran, another ailing officer transferred to the Subtile, while Guyet, an ensign, joined the Boussole and le Gobien, a garde de la Marine, joined the Astrolabe.

It now remained to farewell and thank the Governor, his Intendant and Monsieur Sebin before sailing from Cavite on 10 April 1787. De Bermudes warned them correctly about the monsoon conditions they would soon encounter off the Philippines and Formosa. By the 17th, the ships had reached Cabo Bojeador, the northwest point of Luzon, and began crossing the Bashi Channel. The next day, they crossed their path of late December on their way to Macao and, on 21 April, they sighted Formosa.

The island of Formosa (the old Portuguese name for the island, now known as Taiwan) lies off the coast of mainland China. The Qing Dynasty had conquered the island in 16xx and had run it from Fukien Province on the mainland since that time. Chinese rule was resented and uprisings were a regular event in Formosa. La Pérouse was aware that Lin Shuang-wen of the T'ien-ti hui (Heaven and Earth Society) had led a particularly large revolt in 1786, which had caused the Chinese to send over a large fleet and army of over 10,000 soldiers to suppress them.

La Pérouse was now intending to sail between Formosa and China, believing it to be safer route because of the possibilities of monsoons. On 22 April 1787, he approached the southwest coast of the island and sailed past the island of Lumai (Liu-chiu Hsu). The ships were heading just north of west on the 24th and towards China when they encountered the shallows of a shoal, causing La Pérouse to turn and head back for Formosa. Regaining the coast on 27 April, La Pérouse turned north to sail along it. Close to T'ai-nan, where the Dutch had built Fort Zeelandia, La Pérouse began to see parts of the Chinese fleet operating between a group of offshore islands, the Pescadores (Penghu Chuntao), and the mouth of a large river, north of Pu-tai.

The French tried to make contact with local fishermen to find out what was happening but the locals either could not understand or were afraid to have contact. La Pérouse thought it prudent not to approach the Chines fleet and, once more, turned west away from Formosa only to come up against southern outliers of the Pescadores Islands. Conditions became very hazy and the sea very rough so La Pérouse turned south to avoid the rocks and islands, and to round Formosa's southern point and sail up the island's east coast.

1787 May    Formosa to Korea

La Pérouse sailed eastward through the Bashi Channel at the beginning of May 1787. He rounded some rocks, Vela Rete (Chhsing Yen), off the twin southern points of Formosa (Taiwan) and began their journey to the north again. On 3 May, the French ships approached a small island from the south. This was Hung-t'ou Hsu, which La Pérouse called Bottol. La Pérouse did not attempt to land but pulled back and sailed to the south of the island and another smaller one, Hsiao-hung-t'ou Hsu.

Two days later the Boussole and the Astrolabe reached another island, Yonagumi-shima. La Pérouse skirted to the west of the island, which he called Kumi, without attempting to land. Canoes from the island visited the ships and there was some trading. Yonagumi-shima is the westernmost island in the Sakashima group and they represent the last link before Taiwan in a long chain of volcanic islands that stretch from Japan. That chain of islands forms the southern boundary of the East China Sea and in passing Yonaguni-shima, La Pérouse was entering that sea. On the 6th of May, he reached another cluster of small islands, Senkaku gunto. The ships passed to the west of Uoturi-shima, the largest and westernmost island but La Pérouse could see no trace of habitation and sailed on. He called the island Hoapinsu and another one just to the northeast he named Tyaoynsa (Kobi-syo).

For the next two weeks the ships sailed north in miserable conditions making very poor progress. La Pérouse had considered investigating the Yellow Sea between China and Korea but time was running out and he decided to press on. Thick fog caused the ships to lose sight of each other but they kept in touch by noise. On 19 May, when they had reached the latitude of the mouth of the Yangtse River in China, La Pérouse headed norhteast toward the Korea Strait.

If European contact with China had been limited, its contact with and knowledge of Korea and Japan was nearly non-existant. The two countries had little contact with each other and positively deterred contact with outsiders. The Dutch had ventured into the region and La Pérouse was carrying French copies of charts that the Dutch had drawn. Their reliability was open to question though and La Pérouse knew he had to proceed with care.

On 21 May, the island of Cheju-do was sighted off the south coast of the Korean peninsula. Marked on his chart as Quelpaert, La Pérouse could clearly see habitations on the island and its central mountain, Halla San. It was the first of hundreds of small islands along the north side of the Korea Strait. Despite these islands La Pérouse chose to sail close to the Korean shore where he often saw bonfires being lit, leading him to believe that their progress was being monitored by the Koreans. La Pérouse could see the Japanese island of Kyushu in the distance to the southeast. On the 25th, the ships passed between the Korean island, Koje-do, and the Japanese island, Tsushima, to leave the Korea Strait and enter the East Sea or Sea of Japan.

La Pérouse still chose to follow the Korean coast as it now turned north. Many small, Korean ships were seen but none of the occupants would try to communicate with the French. La Pérouse named a headland near Pohang, Pointe Clonard, after his officer but the name has disappeared. On 27 May, an island was sighted to the northeast and La Pérouse steered for it. The next day he sent Boutin closer to examine the island, Ullung-do, as the ships stood off. Boutin saw signs that suggested the island was used by Koreans as a base. La Pérouse called it Dagalet Island after the scientist on board and sailed on.

1787 June - July    Japan to Tartary

La Pérouse set course for Japan to the southeast. On 2 June, they passed close to two Japanese ships but, again, no communication took place. Four days later, the French reached the Noto Hanto peninsula on the north coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu. During clear weather they were able to take fixes on the coast to help determine their position and draw charts. No attempt was made to land. They sighted a small offshore island, Hegura-jima (the French called it Jaolsissima) before fog set in and they sailed off to the north.

To the north lay Tartary but its shape and relationship with neighbouring lands, especially northern parts of Japan, was hardly known to Europeans. La Pérouse carried a chart drawn by Buache in 1752, based on information gathered from the Dutch and the Russians. It showed approximately the Tartary coast but also showed very incorrect lands and islands to the east that La Pérouse would soon be able to disprove or radically change.

As they sailed north, the fog cleared by the 10th, and, on the 11th, they sighted the coast near Mys Ostovnoy. The could see a high mountain range, Khrebet Sikhote-alin, just inland but the coast appeared totally uninhabited. It seemed to offer few bays or river mouths suitable as an anchorage. The scientists were keen to get ashore to explore and acquire specimens. By the 14th, they were back in mist and becalmed at latitude 44ºN. About this location, according to Buache's chart, they should find the entrance to the narrow Strait of Tessoy that they would follow to the northeast. Over the next two days, in thick fog, there was an illusion of land to the southeast and similar conditions in the past may have led people to believe that a strait existed. However, the French soon began to realise that a narrow strait did not exist and that, in fact, the Tartary coast was bounded by the wide Gulf of Tartary.

The depiction of the coast on Buache's chart was good if only they had been able to see in the thick fog that hindered their progress. During a break in the fog on the 19th, La Pérouse sent de Monti to sound a bay but fog quickly returned and de Monti was summoned back on board. Finally, on 23 June, the weather cleared and they anchored in a bay. La Pérouse called it Baie de Ternay after his early mentor in the French navy and it is still called Bukhta Terney. They remained here a few days and spent the time restocking wood and water, exploring, and hunting bears and deer. There were plenty of fresh vegetables to collect and the river mouths were full of fish to catch. They met no people but discovered a burial tomb and other signs of recent occupation.

The ships left Baie de Ternay on 27 June and continued the voyage to the northeast along the Tartary coast. They were able to sail close to the coast until the 29th, when winds drove them out to sea but they were back close to shore the next day. On 1 July, thick fog enveloped the ships again but they could at least fish and caught over 800 cod. Three days later they could see a bay clearly and La Pérouse sent small boats ashore under the command of Vaujuas and d'Arbaud. It proved to be very similar to Baie de Ternay but showed signs of more recent human occupation. La Pérouse named the bay Baie de Suffren after Pierre-Andre de Suffren Saint-Tropez, a French naval officer, renowned for his exploits in India. (There is a Bukhta Syufren today south of Mys Zolotoy at the mouth of the River Adami but I believe the latitude for that bay is incorrect and La Pérouse's bay is further north, at the mouth of the Nel'ma River).

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1787 July - August    Gulf of Tartary and Sakhalin

Leaving Baie de Suffren, La Pérouse continued to the northeast until, on 7 July 1787 and at 48º35'N, he could see land to the east. He determined to sail across to examine this land and headed across the Gulf of Tartary. He could see, on this new coast, a mountain, which he named Pic Lamanon. This mountain is now known as Kamabuse-yama but the nearby headland is still called Mys Lamanon. The crossing of the gulf proved slow with yet more fog but, during a clear spell, La Pérouse could see the gulf stretching far to the north. They approached the coast near present day Tomori and, as de Langle in the Astrolabe was already anchored and ready to go ashore, La Pérouse named the bay, Baie de Langle.

De Langle went ashore on the 12th of July and found abandoned huts with fires still burning. He left gifts and began to return to his ship but seven canoes appeared and cordial exchanges took place. The next morning, La Pérouse went ashore at sunrise. More canoes appeared and a very friendly meeting followed. They managed to communicate and told the French much about themselves and where and how they lived. An old man drew a map that showed where they were standing was an island and that the Gulf of Tartay narrowed and shallowed to the north but small boats could get through to the mouth of the Amur River and the Sea of Okhotsk beyond. The map also showed a pass bewteen their island and the Japanese islands to the south. The people referred to their island as Tapschoka and the Amur River was called the Segalien. The Buache map had a much smaller island to the north called Isle de Saghalien. La Pérouse used both names and called the island Ile de Tchoka ou de Seghalien. It is now known as Sakhalin.

La Pérouse admired the local people, who were Ainu and who inhabited this island and parts of neighbouring Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands. A vocabulary of the local language was drawn up. Later the French met some other visitors. They were Manchu Tartars from across the gulf and were on Sakhalin to fish. One of the Chinese sailors, taken on at Macao, was able to converse with these visitors and they confirmed what the locals had said.

On 14 July,La Pérouse took the ships back into the gulf only to encounter another thick fog that surrounded the ship for several days. They plied back and forth until the 19th, when they sighted Pic Lamanon. They anchored once more, off a small bay to the north of Mys Lamanon. The French went ashore and met more people but these were Manchu Tartars from near the mouth of the Amur River. The Chinese sailor again acted as translator. Everyone was back on board that evening and the ships sailed again on the 20th of July.

La Pérouse called the bay, Baie d'Estaing, after the famous French admiral, the Comte d'Estaing. The name has not been retained. The bay is probably at Horokishi, south of Uglegorsk. Over the next few weeks, La Pérouse gave names to many features around the Gulf of Tartary but hardly any are still in use so it is often difficult to match his names with the features he intended to use them for.

The west coast of Sakhalin ran south-north and La Pérouse now sailed north, parallel to it. He named a mountain Pic Monges, after one of the scientists (it may be a mountain of 674 metres, just inland from Kamenka). Another peak further north was called Pic La Martiniere and again it is uncertain which mountain was meant (it may be a 1374 metres mountain, inland from Mys Korsakova or another of 686 metres, north of Komsomol'skiy). On 22 July, the Boussole and the Astrolabe anchored at the mouth of a river, which La Pérouse called Salmon Stream after de Clonard, who had gone to survey the river, returned with the boats full of fish. The river is probably the Agnevo that enters the gulf north of Mys Porlong-kry.

They sailed north again, first thing on 23 July, but soon anchored off a wide bay, opposite some houses that could be seen on shore. Nobody went ashore. The houses were probably close to present day Mgachi in Aleksandrovskiy Zaliv (La Pérouse called the bay Baie de la Joncquiere, after his relative and early benefactor, Clement-Taffanel de la Joncquiere). By now, La Pérouse was confident that the Strait of Tessoy was, in fact, the Gulf of Tartary.

As predicted by the people at Baie de Langle, the gulf was now much narrower and was becoming very shallow when the ships sailed on. The shallows forced the ships west before they could go north again but, on the 26th, La Pérouse anchored the ships as he was unsure how to proceed. He dispatched small boats to see if they could locate navigable channels through to the Sea of Okhatsk. Boutin went east and returned without finding a route (his name was given to the point now known as Mys Lakh). Vaujuas went north and was slow in returning, giving La Pérouse cause for concern as the seas became rough and he needed to sail. Vaujuas then returned but he had not found a route either (his name was given to Mys Nevel'skogo).

It is possible to take a ship of the size of Boussole through the channel but La Pérouse did not realise and decided, instead, to return south. Firstly, though, he wanted to find a safe anchorage so that he could replenish their fresh water. On the evening of 27 July, they anchored by the northern point of a large, sheltered bay and entered it first thing the next morning. De Langle led the way in the Astrolabe and the two ships anchored behind one of several islands in the bay. A good source of water was located while a river entering the bay from the west provided many salmon.

The scientists set up an observatory on one island (Observatory Island) and examined the rocks on its neighbour (Basalt Island). The French made contact with local people in a small settlement on the north shore. The local people, Oroki, made them very welcome. La Pérouse wrote descriptions of the people and the bay, which he called Baie de Castries, after the Minister of Marine and the name, De Kastri, is still used for the settlement. The bay is now called Zaliv Chikhacheva.

The ships sailed out of Baie de Castries on 2 August 1787 past Pointe de Clostercamp (Castries had fought at the Battle of Klosterkamp; the point is now Mys Orlova)) and began the return journey down the Gulf of Tartary. He hoped to inspect more of the Tartary coast but conditions forced him to ply back and forth as he sailed south. Various features were named after colleagues: Cap Duche (Mys Khoy?); Cap Monti (Murashko Mys?); Pic Receveur (mountain of 876 metres west of Mys Buena?); Cap Lesseps (Mys Buena?) and Ile Blondelas (small island south of Datta?). None of these names have been retained.

They passed Baie de Langle on the 10th of August and took more sightings to confirm its location. The ships were heading for the strait between Sakhalin and Hokkaido that the people at Baie de Langle had told them about. Later that day, an island off the coast of Sakhalin was named Ile Moneron (Ostrov Moneron) after the engineer and a mountain, Pic Bernizet, after the surveyor (it may be a 581 metre peak south of Maoka).

1787 August    La Perouse Strait and Kuril Islands

On 11 August, they reached the southwestern point of Sakhalin Island, which La Pérouse named Cap Crillon (Mys Kril'on). The ships anchored near Mys Kril'on and Vaujuas went ashore where he met more Ainu people, some of whom also visited the ship. The ships began to sail through the strait the next day. La Pérouse called it Canal de Castries but it would later be called La Perouse Strait. The south side of the strait is the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. It was also known by La Pérouse as Jesso or Yesso. On the 10th, La Pérouse had seen a high mountain to the south, which he had named Pic de Langle. It is Rishiri-jan on a small island, Rishiri-to, off the northwestern point of Hokkaido.

The ships drifted toward Hokkaido, near Esashi, on the 12th, before heading off to the northeast to enter the southern reaches of the Sea of Okhotsk. The Dutch sailor, Maarten Gerritszoon Vries, sailing in the Castricum, had visited this region in 1643 and La Pérouse carried a copy of his chart. He therefore knew that a chain of islands, the Kurils, separated the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean and he would have to negotiate a passage through them. The French sighted Cap Tron (Zal Prostor) on one of the Kuril Islands, Iturup (Vries' Staten Landt), on 19 August. The next day they saw Urup (Vries' Compagnies Landt) and the strait between the two islands, Proliv Friza (Vries Strait).

The indigenous people of the Kurils were Ainu but other peoples had also lived there and left their mark. Kamchadals from Kamchatka had been followed by Japanese and Russians, so there is a complicated nomenclature for the islands and each island has several variant names. Even now, the Russians and Japanese dispute ownership of several of the southern islands.

La Pérouse continued northeast and, on the 20th, sighted Mys Kastrikum, the eastern point of Urup, and some smaller islands off this point (La Pérouse called the islands the Four Brothers but there are, in fact, only three of them; Broutona, Chirpoi and Brat Chirpoev). He had decided to pass between Urup and the next large island to the northeast, Simushir (La Pérouse termed it Marikan). However, fog descended once more and for several days the ships tacked to the north of Simushir. Eventually, on the 29th, they were able to sail south through the passage and into the Pacific. The passage is now called Proliv Boussol' and the southwestern point of Simushir is Mys Rollin (after the ship's surgeon).

La Pérouse was greatly relieved to have made it through and his descriptions of the Kuril Islands were not flattering. He now headed for Kamchatka but more fog gave him only scattered glimpses of the inhospitable island chain with its many volcanoes. The Kamchatka peninsula was sighted on 5 September. The ships reached the entrance to Avacha Bay the next day and, on the 7th, the Russians welcomed them when they anchored near Petropavlosk.

1787 September    Petropavlosk and Kamchatka

Sub-Lieutenant Kaborov, the local Russian Intendant, welcomed them and informed the French that the Governor of Okhotsk, in whose province Kamchatka now lay, was about to visit Petropavlosk and would wish to welcome them himself. Governor Grigor Kozlov-Ugrenin was in Bolsheretsk on the opposite side of the peninsula and word was sent to him announcing the arrival of the French expedition. De Lesseps had been included in the party for this part of the voyage when his ability to speak Russian would be invaluable. He also wrote to the Governor.

The French began restocking the vessels while the scientists were quickly about their tasks ashore. An observatory was set up and a party set out to successfully climb the volcano, Sopka Avacha, just to the north of the bay. The Priest at Paratunka, who had been a good friend to the British in 1779, invited them to go duck shooting.

Everyone was disappointed to find that, yet again, there was no mail waiting for them from France on their arrival. The Governor arrived and he carried no mail for them either. The French entertained the Governor on board the ships and, in return, he gave a ball. After several dances, a courier burst into the room carrying their long sought after mail, which caused the termination of the ball so everyone could read their letters. As well as personal letters, La Pérouse received official notifications from Paris, including one announcing that he had been promoted to the rank of Commodore. Another informed La Pérouse that the British had sent vessels to Botany Bay in Australia and that he should go there as soon as possible to find out the intentions of the British. He had planned to visit Botany Bay at some stage but he now decided to head there via Samoa in the central Pacific.

Charles Clerke, who had commanded the British expedition to the Pacific after the death of James Cook in Hawaii in 1779, had died himself at sea off Kamchatka later that year and had been buried in Petropavlosk. La Pérouse had the grave tidied up and a new copper plate placed at the tomb. On 29 September, La Pérouse set sail for Botany Bay.

De Lesseps did not sail with his colleagues. La Pérouse had entrusted him with letters and copies of charts and journals and instructed him to return to France overland through Siberia and Russia. He left Petropavlosk with the Governor on 7 October 1787 and reached Paris via St. Petersburg over one year later on 17 October 1788. He had had a slow, frustrating journey involving many problems, including unpassable swollen rivers and uncrossable marshland.

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Kamchatka to Botany Bay

1787 October - December    Kamchatka to Samoa

Meanwhile, the French ships were sailing south into the empty North Pacific Ocean. Despite his antipathy to the Kuril Islands, La Pérouse intended to inspect them again but the ships were soon driven to the southeast and he sailed on. The charts he carried on board showed more possible islands at about 37ºN and he sailed south to reach that latitude on 14 October. He turned east and sailed for 8 days over 15º longitude without finding any trace of land. The islands of Rica de Ora and Rica del Plata do not exist.

On 22 October, La Pérouse turned south and followed longitude 175ºE for a month during which time they saw a few birds but no signs of land. The ships passed to the east of Midway Island, an island on the same underwater ridge as Necker, at the beginning of November and crossed their route after leaving Necker on 5 November. As they entered the tropics, conditions became most unpleasant with torrential rain, oppressive heat and humidity. The ships crossed the Equator on 21 November and La Pérouse changed course to the southeast. On 6 December, the easternmost island of the Samoan group was sighted.

1787 December    Samoa

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville had sailed past the Samoan Islands 19 years earlier and called them the Navigators. La Pérouse, however, was not very complimentary about the charts produced by his predecessor. The Boussole and the Astrolabe skirted the northern coast of Ta'u (La Pérouse believed it was called Opoun) and passed through the channel between it and Olosega (Leone) to the northwest on 7 December. Canoes visited the ships as they passed through the channel and La Pérouse could see people and houses on the west coast of Ta'u. Olosega has a twin island, Ofu (Fanfou), to its west and the ships sailed past their south coasts and then turned north along Ofu's west coast. More canoes came out to the ships.

Another larger island was known to lie to the west and La Pérouse, needing water, wood and other items, felt it would be more likely to be able to supply them. He approached the island's northern point, Matalia Point, late on 8 December. The ships stood off the coast for the night and looked for an anchorage the next morning. This island was Tutuila (La Pérouse's Maouna). An anchorage was located off Fagasa Bay and de Langle went ashore in the afternoon, when he received a friendly reception. Meanwhile, canoes came out to surround the ships. De Langle returned on board and it was agreed the anchorage was unsafe. The next morning de Clonard and de Monti took boats into Fagasa Bay where they obtained fresh water. La Pérouse followed later and went for a walk. He was shown around by friendly villagers, who invited him into their homes. The houses were surrounded by trees laden with fresh fruit and La Pérouse mused about the beauty of the place. When La Pérouse returned to the Boussole, he found a Chief and seven other men on board to whom he then gave gifts.

De Langle had been to Aasu Bay, just to the west and, on his return, argued with La Pérouse that they still needed more freshwater and should visit Aasu Bay the next day to obtain it. La Pérouse felt they were ready to sail having obtained water plus 500 pigs, fresh fruit and hens. De Langle pointed out there were signs of scurvy and La Pérouse very reluctantly gave in and agreed for de Langle to take a party ashore. A storm forced them to tack off the coast through the night.

At 9.00am on the 11th, de Langle led a party of 61 men ashore in four of the boats. The bay was out of sight of the ships and de Langle had forgotten about the tides so he found the approach to the shore more difficult. Men began loading water into barrels but they were soon surrounded by about 1,000 people. Something happened and rocks were thrown, one at least of which hit de Langle. Mayhem ensued and 12 of the French and, it is understood, 39 of the Samoans were killed. It was not possible to refloat all the boats and the surviving 49 French scrambled back to the ships in two boats led by Vaujuas and Mouton. Many of the survivors were seriously injured. After hearing the news, La Pérouse forced away the 100 canoes that, even then, were still trading with the French.

Years later, Europeans visiting Samoa learned that Tutuilans had not been responsible for the attack. According to the story, Tutuila was subject to the neighbouring island of Upolu at the time. Upoluans were present and they had started the trouble.

De Langle was among the dead. He had been a friend of La Pérouse for many years and Jean-François felt the loss acutely. He contemplated revenge while he tacked for two days off the coast before, thinking better of it, he sailed to the northwest on 14 December. De Monti took provisional charge of the Astrolabe. Before La Pérouse left, he called Aasu Bay, Baie des Assassins (Massacre Bay). In 1883, a monument was erected to commemorate the tragic incident. It was restored in 1937.

La Pérouse was now intent on reaching Botany Bay with as few stops as possible so he sailed along the north coast of Upolu (Oyolava). Canoes came out from a village, possibly present day Apia but La Pérouse pressed on. On 17 December, he sailed north of Savai'i (Pola) and then turned to sail south. He was, by now, more philosophical about events and wrote a description of Samoa.

1787 December - 1788 January    Tonga to Botany Bay

A small high island was sighted on 20 December 1787 and as the French approached they could see an adjacent lower second island. The high, uninhabited island was Tafahi and the other inhabited island was Niutoputapu. The ships anchored off the west point of Niutoputapu, before sailing around the island. La Pérouse identified the islands, northern outliers of the Tongan group, with islands previously visited by Schouten and Le Maire in 1616 and Wallis in 1767. On the 24th, he set sail for the south and Vava'u, more Tongan islands.

The Spanish sailor, Fransisco Antonio Maurelle, had visited this region in 1781 and La Pérouse carried his journal, which had descriptions of Vava'u. The French sighted Fonualei and Toku on 27 December before coming to the main island of Vava'u. Bad weather prevented the French landing and they headed west toward a small, high island that could be seen in the distance. This was Late, which the French passed to the southeast.

They sighted Kao and Tofua, two volcanic islands at the northwest of the Ha'apai Group, the middle group of Tongan islands. Cook had left detailed charts of the group showing the many coral reefs so La Pérouse steered a course to the west of the islands to keep clear of the danger. They were clear of Tofua by 29 December 1787 and continued on to reach Tongatapu on the 31st. The ships rounded the northwest point and tacked off the south coast of Tongatapu for most of 1 January 1788. Canoes visited the ship.

1788

The French sailed late on 1 January 1788 to the southwest, passing 'Ata Island the next day. Dagalet fixed the position of the island and, to La Pérouse's amusement, corrected Cook's calculations. On 13 January, La Pérouse sighted Norfolk Island and approached to anchor off the north coast. He allowed de Clonard to attempt to take a party of scientists ashore in one of the small boats but large breaking waves stopped them. After they had tried for several hours, La Pérouse called them back on board. An alarm was raised on the Astrolabe when a fire broke out but it was quickly extinguished. The ships sailed that evening.

Three days later many seabirds were seen but not the island, Lord Howe, from which they originated. The ships sailed on and, on 23 January, the coast of New Holland (Australia) was sighted. They were just south of Broken Bay, close to Narrabeen. The ships were then driven south and past Botany Bay. On the 24th, they were tacking off Cape Solander, trying to enter Botany Bay when they were surprised to see the masts of the British ships already in the bay. The next day was foggy and so it was on the 26th, that the French entered Botany Bay and anchored near the northern shore.

The surprise of the French was nothing to that of the British. The "First Fleet", as it has become known, had, itself, only just arrived five days earlier. The fleet, comprising two frigates, six transports and three storeships had had a long voyage and was in no state to offer much assistance to the French. Nor had Botany Bay lived up to expectations and it bore little relationship to the positive portrait given by Sir Joseph Banks. Arthur Phillip, the new Governor of the colony had been immediately disappointed by what he found and had gone off to Port Jackson, a few kilometres to the north where he had found a much more suitable location for the convict settlement. When La Pérouse arrived, Phillip was at Port Jackson and it was left to Captain John Hunter of the Sirius to perform the duties of welcoming the French.

Hunter quickly dispatched a Lieutenant to appraise La Pérouse of the situation. All the British ships had been summonsed by Phillip and were on the point of departing for Port Jackson. They themselves were short of food, supplies and sails and could offer the French very little. La Pérouse replied that all they needed was wood and water and they would help themselves.

The Boussole and the Astrolabe were anchored by a small cove on the northern side of Botany Bay. La Pérouse had a stockade built on shore and here the French built two new small boats to replace ones they had lost at Samoa and Alaska. The British and the French held many meetings over the next few days making visits to each other's ships and camps though there is no evidence that La Pérouse and Phillip ever met.

La Pérouse wrote several letters and sent de Clonard to Port Jackson to ask the British to carry them to Europe. In the letters, La Pérouse detailed the events of the voyage from Kamchatka and, especially, his distress at the tragedy on Tutuila. He also set out the route he proposed to take when he left Botany Bay. They would be the last the world heard from La Pérouse.

On 17 February, Receveur died from injuries he had received at Tutuila. He was buried ashore, becoming the first Frenchman buried in Australia. His grave now lies in the grounds of the La Perouse Museum in the suburb of La Perouse, which is the name given to the northern shore of Botany Bay. The cove where they anchored is Frenchman Bay.

The French were ready to leave having taken on water and sailed on 10 March 1788. The British saw them leave the bay and turn to sail to the north. It was the last occasion they were seen by Europeans.

The search for La Pérouse

In letters sent via the British to Paris, La Pérouse gave an outline of his proposed route on leaving Botany Bay. He would visit Tonga, New Caledonia, the Santa Cruz islands and New Guinea before passing between New Guinea and Australia and heading for the Ile de France (Mauritius). He expected to be there by December that year, 1788. The ships would then sail for France and be home in the spring of 1789.

Late in 1789, Fleurieu was concerned that the expedition had not returned, nor was there any news. By mid-1790, others were also worried and the Government began drawing up plans for a rescue mission. Eleonore was sufficiently worried that she moved to Paris from Albi to be closer should news arrive. 1791 arrived and still there was no news.

The events concerning La Pérouse were taking place while one of the major events of history, the French Revolution, was developing. The fate of the expedition was, therefore, a minor incident in the background of more important happenings. King Louis XVI, a major backer of La Pérouse's expedition, was rapidly losing power and other key figures were losing influence. Finding the resources and the authority to mount a rescue expedition was becoming increasingly difficult.

Fleurieu, who had become Minister of Marine in October 1790, discussed the matter with the King. The Societe d'Histoire Naturelle and the Academie des Sciences organised an appeal to the National Assembly through Deputy Bosc on 22 January 1791. Fleurieu probably had a hand in this action. It was accepted and Fleureiu next declared the expedition officially lost on 14 February. The next day the National Assembly passed a decree authorising payment of a reward for news of the expedition. Ten days later money was authorised to pay for a rescue expedition and Louis XVI ratified this by signing it on 7 April 1791.

Fleurieu had already been manoeuvring behind the scenes to begin the organisation of the expedition. However, he resigned as Minister in May.

1791-1793 Antoine-Raymond-Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux

On 2 May 1791, Antoine-Raymond-Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux was commissioned to lead the official expedition to search for La Pérouse. He was 54 years old with a long record of service in the French Navy, including a period in charge of the French fleet in the Far East from 1786 to 1788. During this time, he had nearly met La Pérouse, when he had sailed the Resolution, accompanied by the Subtile, to Macao, arriving on 7 February 1787, a few days after La Pérouse had sailed for Manila. D'Entrecasteaux had sent the Subtile on to Manila to offer assistance.

D'Entrecasteaux would lead an expedition involving two ships, the Recherche, under his own command, and the Esperance, commanded by Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. During 1791, the ships were slowly prepared and the crews chosen. France was already affected by the Revolution and people aboard the two ships reflected the two factions of the country, Royalists and Republicans.

The ships finally sailed on 28 September 1791 and reached Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on May 1792. Reports of sightings of Europeans on islands north of New Guinea caused D'Entrecasteaux to decide to visit that region first. Leaving Van Diemen's Land on 28 May, the French sailed north to New Ireland and the Admiralty Islands. They found no trace so continued on and circumnavigated New Holland (Australaia), returning to Van Diemen's Land in February 1793. When they left again on 27 February, they sailed for that part of the Pacific La Pérouse had indicated he would visit when he left Botany Bay five years earlier. They went to Tonga and New Caledonia without finding any confirmable signs of La Pérouse. While at Balade, New Caledonia, Huon de Kermadec, the captain of the Esperance, died.

On 19 May, d'Entrecasteaux sighted an island on the horizon to the southeast. He was keen to reach the island of Ndende, the largest of the Santa Cruz Group and thought to be one of La Pérouse's destinations so he did not change course to visit the other island. He simply named it Recherche Island, after his ship. What he would never know was that the two ships he was seeking had been wrecked on this very island five years before. Indeed, there was a remote chance that some of the crew were still alive and living on the island. It is hoped that, if they were, they did not see the ships sailing past in the distance.

D'Entrecasteaux died two months later on 20 July as the ships sailed once more to the north of New Guinea. Chaos ruled on the ships as the Royalist and Republican factions vied for control in the absence of the captains. Eventually they returned to France.

Most other European ships entering the Pacific over the next few decades maintained a watch for anything that might lead to the whereabouts of the La Pérouse expedition. However, the island of Vanikoro, where the ships rested, lay outside normal shipping routes and the secret of the fate of the expedition would remain undiscovered for many years.

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1826 Peter Dillon

Over thirty years later, in May 1826 Peter Dillon, a young Irish sailor, en route from New Zealand to Bengal in the St. Patrick, called in at the tiny island of Tikopia. Tikopia is an outlier of the Santa Cruz Group, 250 kilometres east of Vanikoro.

Peter Dillon was born in Martinique in 1788, the year of La Pérouse's disappearance, of Irish and French parents. Dillon had been in the Pacific for some years when, in September 1813, he had been commanding the Elizabeth, which had dropped off three people on Tikopia. One of the three, Martin Buchert (or Burkhardt) had been with Dillon on a hill in Vanua Levu in Fiji when they had withheld a siege by local Fijians. Dillon was charged with taking Buchert, his wife and another man, Lascar Joe away from Fiji to safety.

In 1826, Dillon called in to see how the three were and one of them, Lascar Joe, was on the first canoe to approach the ship. Joe was carrying a silver sword-guard, which immediately caught Dillon's attention. Buchert confirmed that various things of European origin had been obtained from the island of Vanikoro. Some, even, had inscriptions in French and were of French manufacture.

Dillon left Tikopia intending to land on Vanikoro but conditions prevented this and he sailed on to reach Calcutta at the end of August, 1826. In Calcutta, he persuaded the British East India Company to put the Research under his command and to equip the ship for a voyage to investigate the possibility of finding evidence of La Pérouse. The French settlement at Chandernagore was informed and Eugene Chaigneau was invited to accompany the expedition. Dillon met Dr. Robert Tytler in Calcutta and Tytler sailed as the scientist on board.

On 23 January 1827, the Research sailed down the Hooghly River from Calcutta and into the Bay of Bengal. Dillon sailed to Hobart in Tasmania but en route Dillon had problems with Tytler, who succeeded in having Dillon arrested on their arrival in Hobart on 5 April. Tytler also managed to undermine the belief in Dillon's findings and intent, which, a few months later, nearly caused Dumont d'Urville not to follow-up the reports.

Dillon managed to regain his freedom on 10 May and sailed a few days later to Tikopia via Sydney, New Zealand and Tonga. The ship arrived at Tikopia on 5 September and Dillon met Ratia (Dillon wrote the name as Rathea). Ratia, a Tikopian, had been to Vanikoro and told Dillon more about the events that had led to the artifacts being on the island. He agreed to guide Dillon and be a translator. They immediately set off for Vanikoro and arrived to be off the islands two days later, the 7th September. Vanikoro is, in fact, two islands. Banai is the larger island and Tevai is the smaller island in the northeast.

Dillon tacked off the northeastern point of the islands and sent two whale boats ashore to investigate. They met local people in villages on Tevai and heard stories from them about two ships that had been wrecked on the reefs many years before. Men had survived from one ship and had built a stockade ashore. Here they had been able to build a small boat, which they used to sail away. Two men had stayed, however, but were now dead. Dillon took the Research into the large inlet on the east coast and anchored there on 11 September.

The proper investigation of the island began as Dillon sent parties out in small boats to Vanou in the northwest and Paeu on the southwest coast. They found axe-hewn tree stumps near Paeu, indicating the site of the stockade. A brass bell and four brass cannons, with makers' marks, were also recovered. At the end of the month, Dillon, himself, made a tour of the island and recovered copper sheeting and a candlestick. Dillon was absolutely convinced that he had found the resting place of La Pérouse's expedition and left the island on 8th October 1827.

He sailed first to the neighbouring Santa Cruz Islands of Utupua and Ndene but they offered no signs that the French had visited there in their escape boat. Dillon needed to get to Paris to show the French authorities what he had found, especially as he was aware of Dumont d'Urville's presence in the region, First though, Dillon went south to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand and then on to Sydney. In April 1828, he reached Calcutta where he learned he was bankrupt through the dealings of business colleagues. He continued and reached Plymouth in Britain in October.

Over the next few months he travelled between London and Paris. In Paris he met Barthelemy de Lesseps, who had sailed with La Pérouse, leaving the expedition at Kamchatka. De Lesseps was shown the pieces and identified them as having come from La Pérouse's ships. The French awarded Dillon a pension and a grant, and on 2 March 1829, he met Charles X who made Dillon a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. Back in London, Dillon arranged for publication of his narrative of the expedition before returning to the Pacific.

1828 Jules Dumont d'Urville

Jules Dumont d'Urville, commanding the Astrolabe (another ship, not that of La Pérouse), was in the Pacific and part of his instructions included looking for evidence of La Pérouse and his expedition. In December 1827, Dumont d'Urville arrived in Hobart where he learned of Dillon's discoveries at Vanikoro. The officials in Hobart were sceptical about Dillon and discredited him but Dumont d'Urville felt he could not ignore even a remote possibility. He sailed, therefore, from Hobart on 6 January 1828 and reached Tikopia on the 9th of February.

Dumont d'Urville met Buchert who confirmed the information about Vanikoro but declined to accompany the French when they left a few days later. Arriving at the island on the 14th, the French were unable to land at first. Eventually, they anchored in Manevai Bay on 21 February. The local people were reluctant to co-operate at first but the French gradually gained their trust. There was evidence of Dillon's visit five months earlier, especially numerous gifts that had been distributed.

The French visited the reefs lining the island's southwest coast and were able to recover an anchor, a cannon and a brass swivel-gun, all identifiable as coming from a French ship. Like Dillon before him, Dumont d'Urville was certain that the pieces came from the ships of La Pérouse. Charts were made of the island before fever affected many of the crew. Even Dumont d'Urville succumbed but he gave instructions for a monument to be erected on or near Nelone Reef in Manevai Bay. This was unveiled on 14 March 1828, and the French sailed from Vanikoro three days later.

Later searches

Other ships visited the islands in following years but it was not until the second half of the twentieth century and the development of diving equipment and techniques that new discoveries were made. In the 1960s Reece Discombe, a New Zealander, showed that there were two distinct clusters of wreckage thus confirming that both the Astrolabe and the Boussole had been driven onto the reef. The probable remains of the Boussole were located a kilometre to the southeast of the Astrolabe, suggesting the ships were sailing abreast when disaster struck.

La Pérouse's possible last few months

La Pérouse left Botany Bay in New Holland (Australia) in March 1788 and his ships were found on the island of Vanikoro. What happened between can only be surmised. He had forwarded a letter to France setting out his probable route and the Santa Cruz Islands, of which Vanikoro is one, were on that route so it may be supposed that he was following his plan. No other Europeans saw him or his ships and no one can, therefore, confirm events. Pacific Islanders were questioned much later and, while there are some possible sightings, they should be treated carefully. As should the veracity of artifacts found on other islands that may have come from Laperose's ships.

La Pérouse possibly sailed first to Nomuka in the Ha'apai Group of central Tonga. This was his plan and Dumont d'Urville, when he visited the island in 1827, learned that two ships had been there many years before. They had been after Cook's visit, which was still remembered, and before that of d'Entrecasteaux.

La Pérouse had indicated that New Caledonia was next on the possible route. Among the material found on the reef at Vanikoro was a pile of rocks, probably used as ballast. This particular rock is only found naturally in New Caledonia in this region. The find has been used as evidence that La Pérouse visited the island before proceeding to Vanikoro. Another possible clue that he had been to New Caledonia first occurred when a graphometer, possibly from one of La Pérouse's ships was found near Noumea in southwest New Caledonia.

The evidence for the visit to New Caledonia is not conclusive but La Pérouse probably called in somewhere on the island. The ships continued and eventually reached the vicinity of the Santa Cruz Islands. It was possibly June or July 1788 by this time. La Pérouse knew the approximate location of the islands and it seems very unlikely that both ships would simply sail on to the coral reefs, even at night-time. More probably a storm or even hurricane overtook the ships and drove them on to Vanikoro.

What happened next is pure supposition based on accounts given by Vanikorons to Dillon and Dumont d'Urville 40 years later. The Astrolabe hit the reef first and was destroyed with hardly any survivors. The Boussole followed but fared a little better. Though driven on to the reef, the ship largely held up and many of the crew reached the shore and were even able to rescue many things from the ship. They were able, with material recovered from the ship and with timbers cut on shore, to build a small vessel in which many of them later sailed away from the island.

The local people attacked the survivors and killed some of them. The French built a stockade near Paeu to protect themselves from such attacks. If, in fact, a small vessel was built and sailed away, its fate is completely unknown for no trace has ever been found of it. Two men reportedly stayed behind and survived on the island only to die a few years before Dillon arrived in 1827.

Postscripts

1. De Lesseps returned to Paris from Kamchatka in late 1788 with copies charts and journals. These, together with other material that had been sent back to France from Macao, Manila and Botany Bay, formed the basis of an account of the La Pérouse voyage. It was commissioned in May 1791 and entrusted to the Baron Milet de Mureau, who hastily changed his name to Milet-Mureau to suit the times. Milet-Mureau was a poor choice as his background was army and he had little knowledge or sympathy for maritime actions. He also edited out references to the King and nobility. The book was eventually published in 1797 but did not sell many copies.

2. La Perouse is often termed the Comte de La Pérouse but there is no evidence that this title was ever bestowed upon Jean-François.

Eleonore after La Pérouse's death

When La Pérouse left on his expedition Eleonore stayed at their house in the Rue de l'Ecole Mage but, by 1790, when Jean-François had failed to return, she moved to Paris to be on the spot should news come. Money was in short supply and pensions promised to her were not paid. It was finally decided that Eleonore would receive money from the sale of the Official Account of the Voyage that appeared in 1797 but it sold poorly. It was left, in 1804, to Napoleon to order that Eleonore should receive a pension of 2,400 Francs a month. Eleonore and Jean-François had only had two interrupted years together and there had been no children. She died in 1807 at the age of 52, not knowing the fate of her husband.

Assessment of La Pérouse and his voyage

The reputation of Jean-François de Galaup de La Pérouse rests upon an assessment of his voyage to the Pacific, begun in1785. The aim of the voyage had been to emulate, at least, the voyages of his illustrious predecessor, Captain James Cook, and in this, despite the tragic end to the voyage, La Pérouse succeeded admirably. To that end, La Pérouse deserves to be considered as one of the greatest explorers of all time. Sadly, like Cook, his life was cut short and we cannot know what else he might have achieved. However, the Pacific voyage had accomplished sufficient before its demise to be regarded as one of the greatest single voyages of all time.

The rest of his life prior, to the voyage, had been solid and reliable. It had not been a exceptional life but consisted of a series of actions and events which developed his skills and abilities to the point where he was the only choice when the French Government looked for a leader for its Pacific expedition.

La Pérouse had demonstrated great abilities in seamanship and navigation during his time in the Indian Ocean and in the American War of Independence. To these qualities, he had added strong leadership skills, indicated by the readiness of officers such as de Langle and de Clonard to keep sailing with him. On the voyage, he was able to overcome the problems of many people sharing the cramped conditions of life on board the small ships for long periods of time.

He represented a sympathetic approach in his dealings with the peoples he encountered on the voyage. Added to this, he refused to take possession of lands he visited if they were populated, stating that he had no moral right to do so.

The loss of the ships also meant the loss of the collections of specimens acquired over three years, the loss of many of the drawings and charts, and the loss of many of the original journals, notebooks and diaries maintained by members of the expedition. However, the precaution of sending copies home to France from Macao, Kamchatka and Manila ensured that the remarkable exploits of the voyage would be known and celebrated.

Cook had left little to discover in the Pacific Ocean but La Pérouse was not daunted and proved a worthy successor by disproving many supposed islands indicated on earlier maps and verifying the co-ordinates of many other features. He "discovered" very few new islands. He provided detailed descriptions of life in communities as diverse as Concepcion, Lituya Bay, Sakhalin and Samoa. He visited parts of the region, especially the northwest Pacific around Tartary, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which were previously little known in Europe, and produced detailed charts.

Memorials to La Pérouse

Albi, the birthplace of La Pérouse, has opened a La Pérouse Museum in Botany Square on the north side of the Tarn. A statue of La Pérouse, surrounded by cannons recovered from Vanikoro, stands in a central square in the town. The central Lycee, which grew out of the scjool that La Pérouse, himself, attended is now called the Lycee La Pérouse. The house that La Pérouse bought for himself and Eleonore in the Rue de l'Ecole Mage is identified by a plaque while the family home at Le Go is still occupied by descendants of the family.

Various ships of the French Navy have been named La Pérouse.

The area of Botany Bay, Australia where La Pérouse made his camp ashore is now known as La Perouse. It is a suburb of Sydney. There is now a La Pérouse Museum, close by the location of the camp while in the grounds are the grave of Receveur, and a monument to La Pérouse erected by French sailors, including Hyacinthe Bougainville, the eldest son of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville.

Dumont d'Urville erected a memorial in Manevai Bay on Vanikoro in 1827, while another was erected between Paeu and Sapalome Bay. Southeastern Alaska has a Mount La Pérouse and a La Pérouse Glacier near Lituya Bay while the names of other members of the expedition and the ships were used for other features in the area. Further south, there is a small memorial at the Carmel Mission, south of Monterey, to mark his visit. Maui has a La Perouse Bay while further west the central rock in the French Frigate Shoals is now called La Perouse Pinnacle. The French school in San Francisco is called the Lycee La Pérouse. Most of the names La Perouse gave in the Tartary-Sakhalin region have long disappeared but a few remain, including La Perouse Strait between Sakhalin and Hokkaido.

Two memorials and a street name in Curepipe record La Pérouse's time on the island of Mauritius (Ile de France). Just to the east of Churchill on Hudson Bay in Canada is La Perouse Bay, remembering the French attack on Fort Prince of Wales in 1782. Lituya Bay in Alaska and Massacre Bay in Tutuila, American Samoa have both memorials remembering the two tragedies of the voyage.

La Pérouse never visited Tasmania or New Zealand but both have mountains named after him. Mount La Pérouse is in Tasmania while La Pérouse is a mountain in the Southern Alps of Te Wai Pounamu. Close by is Mount Cook and it is appropriate that one of the glaciers coming off that mountain and feeding the Cook River is the La Pérouse Glacier. Finally, a crater on the Moon is called La Pérouse Crater.

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Part 1: Before the Pacific Voyage

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