| La Pérouse was a great admirer of James
Cook, tried to get on well with the Pacific islanders, and was
well-liked by his men. Among his 114 man of crew there was a large staff
of scientists: An astronomer, a physicist, three naturalists, a
mathematician, three draftsmen, and even both chaplains were
scientifically schooled.
He left Brest on August
1785, rounded Cape Horn, investigated the Spanish colonial government in
Chile, and by way of Easter Island and Hawaii he sailed to Alaska, where
he landed near Mount St. Elias, in late June 1786 and explored the
environments. A barge and two longboats, carrying 21 men, were lost in the
heavy currents of the bay they arrived in (called Port des Français by La
Pérouse, but now known as Lituya Bay). Next he visited Monterey,
where he examined the Spanish settlements and made critical notes on the
treatment of the Indians in the Franciscan missions.
He crossed the ocean to Macao, where he sold the
furs acquired in Alaska, dividing the profits among his men. The next
year, after a visit to Manila, he set out for the northeast Asian coasts.
He saw Quelquepart Island (Cheju),
only once before visited by Europeans, when a group of Dutchmen
shipwrecked there in 1635. He visited the mainland coast of Korea,
then crossed over to Oku-Yeso (Sakhalin). La Pérouse was enthousiastic
about the people of Sakhalin and their friendliness:
Since leaving France, we had not encountered
others, who so excited our interest and admiration... It went against
our preconceived ideas to find among a hunting and fishing people, who
neither cultivated the earth nor raised domestic animals, manners which
were in general more gentle and grave -and who perhaps had greater
intelligence- than that to be found in any European nation.
The inhabitants had drawn him a map, showing their
country, Yeso (also Yezo, now called Hokkaido) and the coasts of Tartary
(mainland Asia). La Pérouse wanted to sail through the channel between
Sakhalin and Asia, but failed, so he turned south, and sails through La Pérouse
Strait (between Sakhalin and Hokkaido), where he met the Ainu,
explored the Kuriles, and reached Petropavlovsk (on Kamchatka
peninsula) in September 1787. Here they rested from their trip, and
enjoyed the hospitality of the Russians and Kamchatkans. In letters
received from Paris he was ordered to investigate the settlement the
British were to erect in New South Wales. Barthélemy de Lesseps, the
French vice consul at Kronstadt, who had joined the expedition as an
interpreter, disembarked to bring the expedition's letters and documents
to France, which he reached after a one year lasting, epic journey across
Siberia and Russia.
His next stop were the Navigator Islands (Samoa).
Just before he left, the Samoans attacked a group of his men, killing
twelve of them, among which de Langle, commander of the Astrolabe.
He then sailed to Botany Bay, arriving on 26 January 1788, just as Captain
Arthur Phillip moved the colony from Botany Bay to Port Jackson. The
British received him courteously, but were unable to help him with food as
they had none to spare. La Pérouse sent his journals and letters to
Europe with a British ship, obtained wood and fresh water, and left for
New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, the Louisiades, and the western
and southern coasts of Australia. He nor any of his men was seen again.
In 1791-1793 Antoine
de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux looked for La Pérouse, but found
no trace of him, and it was not until 1826 that an English captain, Peter
Dillon, found evidence of the tragedy. In Tikopia (one of the islands
of Santa Cruz), he bought some swords he had reason to believe had
belonged to La Pérouse. He made enquiries, and found that they came from
nearby Vanikoro, where two big ships had broken up. Dillon managed to
obtain a ship in Bengal, and sailed for Vanikoro where he found cannon
balls, anchors and other evidence of the remains of ships in water between
coral reefs. He brought several of these artifacts back to Europe, as did
D'Urville in 1828. De Lesseps, the only member of the expedition still
alive at the time, identified them, as all belonging to the Astrolabe.
From the information Dillon received from the people on Vanikoro, a rough
reconstruction could be made of the disaster that struck La Pérouse,
which was confirmed by the find and search of the shipwreck of the Boussole
in 1964.
Both ships had been wrecked on the reefs, the Boussole
first. The Astrolabe was unloaded and taken apart. A group of
men, probably the survivors of the Boussole were massacred by
the local inhabitants. Others built a small boat from the wreckage of the Astrolabe,
and left westward about 9 months later. Apparently this boat shipwrecked
somewhere, possibly in the Solomon Islands.
For more
information on Samuel Wallis, go to: |
