circumterrestrial / 2 ... Or the pride of kings moved ... ... Hungry for more stories salacious and small jars of raspberry jam to offer in a fairy delight ... But I defended him once ... though I defended him only in this case ... And how to fight against the fairies, I ask you, which I do not know any spell and have no pronounced vœuxxx ...??
Louis XVI donnant des instructions à Lapérouse le 26 juin 1785 ; Huile sur toile par Nicolas-André Monsiau, 1817
T abé des biels marins, la famillo fiérouzo,
Quan entend sous grans noums, fa bisté lugri l'el ;
Mais an aquel de Lapèyrouso
S'aluco, et tiro lou copèl !
Et joou tiro méou daban soun estatuyo,
Car lou puplé m'appren sa glorio tout à fèt,
Et l'entendi que fay brounzina dins la ruyo :
S'en enguèt lèn que pel fret ou pel fet,
Fusguet cambiata in brounzo ... brounzo and we turned.
Lapérouse Portrait (1741-1788), oil on canvas attributed to Francois-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775), eighteenth century
Youth and career of a browser ...
Jean-Francois de Galaup , count of La Perouse, was born August 23, 1741 at Castle Guo, in Albi, in the province of Languedoc.
Like most families Albigensian nobles, his family had grown rich in trade and had risen from the bourgeoisie to the nobility. In the sixteenth century, the family of Galaup is among the largest of Albi and will possess the eighteenth century, a considerable fortune which the land and a hotel of Guo considerable in the town of Albi, which still exists in the street School-Mage ...
In this family atmosphere that grows and will soon Lapérouse sea, fifteen years as a naval guard in 1756.
Area Map of Albi; Cassini map, 1780
While at Brest, he was hired at the age of 17 years in the maritime conflicts of the Seven Years War with Great Britain off North America, including Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence with his cousin Clement then with the Chevalier de Ternay, who would become her true guardian and the Caribbean. Interior view of the port of Brest, 1793, oil on canvas by Jean-Francois Hue (1751-1823), 1793
(Note ... the anachronism of the tricolor at the time or Lapérouse attended this port ... NDLA)
In 1759, aboard the Great, he was wounded and taken prisoner by a squadron English off the Quiberon peninsula until 1761.
In September 1763, braking mechanism Chézac takes with him a few Guard Navy, including La Perouse, to drive the ship in Brest Lorient nine The Six Corps. La Perouse will be promoted to the rank of teaches 1 October 1764.
After nearly ten years, during which he remained assigned to the recognition and supervision of the French coast, he was charged with two trips: the first of April 1773 to 1775 as commander of the flute the Seine, where He took part in the campaigns of Bengal, China and India.
A second trip will cause the traveler to the Ile de France (Mauritius), from 1776 to 1778, aboard the frigate La Belle Poule .
Landscape Mauritius
During this
navigation peacetime Lapérouse was promoted to lieutenant and May 24 following a knight of St. Louis, with a pension of three hundred books on the royal treasury.
The now Sieur de La Perouse, in his travels, when relaxed in the Ile de France, met a young Creole, the sweet name of Louise Broudou Eleanor, daughter of a colonial official .
Upon his return from India, Lapérouse planned to marry her and he imparted to his family. But the contender came from a layer Social smaller than the latter and her father meant her disagreement in a letter very virulent.
Rigobert Bonne (1727-1795) Isle de France, Paris 1791
Upon the resumption of hostilities (in 1778), he was given command of the frigate Amazon, and distinguished himself in the squadron of the Count d'Estaing by taking a British frigate, named Ariel.
He then took part in the War of Independence of the United States and fighting against the British West Indies to Labrador (shipping of Hudson Bay) where he demonstrates his value maritime and military capturing two British forts. In 1779, he returned to Freemasonry ...
Auguste-Louis de Rossel Cercy (1736-1824); Battle of Martinique, 1779
Joined captain in 1780 he went with the stars on the shores of New England, having met the frigate Hermione, commanded by Louis-René-Madeleine de Latouche-Treville, he met near the island royal enemy frigate and five smaller buildings. The frigate was taken with one of five buildings, the others escaped.
La Perouse then went to Cape French. is where we told him he was instructed to attack the British settlements on the Hudson Bay.
In 1783, after returning from combat and then he was forty-two years, he wrote to Mr and Mrs de Vesian, parents of Miss Vesian, when her parents seemed to want to see him married, because it was a noble one condition ... He wrote other letters to his parents' Promised Albigensian appearing to want to comply with the choice of his father. Nevertheless, he married Eleanor Broudou ...
In a letter to his mother, with accents very romantic, he writes: "I saw Eleanor. I could not resist I was consumed with remorse [...]. I forgot my vows, the vows of my heart, the cries of my conscience ... I can not be as Eleanor. I hope you give your consent ... "
The family still agrees to this marriage religiously celebrated in Paris, June 17, 1783 ... It then installs his wife in Albi.
During these two years he is not at sea, Lapérouse is often absent from the Albigensian, as shown in his earlier correspondence from Lorient, now in Paris.
Broudou Portrait of Eleanor, Countess of La Perouse (1755-1807)
Draft shipping ...
Then it is "highly recommended" to the king by the Minister of Marine and Fleurieu, director of ports and arsenals. Louis XVI entrusted a special mission: a trip around the world to continue and complete the work of Cook. The personality of Lapérouse intends it to such an expedition: "Bringing the liveliness of the inhabitants of southern countries spirit and pleasant natured, his gentleness and his amiable cheerfulness always made him look eagerly: matured by long experience, he joined a rare prudence that firmness of character which is the sharing of a strong mind and plus the kind of painful life of sailors, made him capable of attempting and successfully lead the largest companies. "
It was in 1785 that prepares passionate Lapérouse his journey in a century which saw shipments multiply and discoveries added discoveries, the century when the navy was at its peak. The Naval Academy, founded in 1752 in Brest, is restored as the Royal Academy in 1769. It will significantly improve the navigation instruments. Raising the longitude, big problem then becomes possible thanks to two recent inventions, respectively English and French: the marine chronometer and the "free exhaust.
card pre-trip Lapérouse erect the depot from the Navy in 1785. Copy of Louis XVI
The Franco-British colonial and competition (in India from 1745 to 1761, America from 1776) are compounded by the significant discoveries of English explorers. In ten years, made three voyages of Cook to the geography of the globe more progress than any of his predecessors combined. The increased travel is not just the result of a desire to know, as expressed for example in encyclopedists French, but also reflects the colonial ambitions of France, which came a century in competition with the British Empire.
At sea, France has less to offer than its competitor. The ports of Brest and Toulon are away from the central government and the passage to Toulon is blocked by the British in Gibraltar. France does not base on the Channel, controlled by two large arsenals of Plymouth and Portsmouth. As an island, England largely funded its fleet, while France held secure its land borders, there is investing a quarter of his credits. The disarmament of vessels in peacetime, the French tradition, interrupted the training of crews.
"Map of the Great Ocean or South Sea. Erected for the Relation of Discovery journey made by the French frigates and Boufsole aftrolabe in the Years 1785, 86, 87 and 88"
Lapérouse frequently mentions Cook, in a tone very flattering indeed, to criticize the errors, while flattering to be more accurate than him. Moreover, the instructions written in part by Louis XVI at Sieur de La Perouse clearly show that it is responsible for completing "whites left by Cook"
. There is cooperation: envoy yield of England Revenue antiscorbutic, two compasses that belonged to Cook and lent by the Royal Society, and two sextants of a new type. In the example of Cook, La Perouse combine several methods to achieve the most accurate readings possible. It embeds the works of Cook, also very popular with French readers. But the prevailing political and economic conflicts. This is opening new routes and establishing new outlets, particularly in Alaska and Kamchatka, to study the plans of the English in New Zealand, to prepare the fur trade between North America and China, prospecting for whaling in the South Atlantic Ocean, to establish a possible cooperation with the English colonial Philippines, to name a few. Lapérouse "[...] [...] will carefully all the research that will enable him to make known, in some detail the nature and extent of trade in each nation, and land forces Sea that each will maintain the relations of friendship or interest that may exist between each of them and the chiefs and natives of countries where they have operations, and generally anything that might be of interest policy and trade "
.
Beads and glass buttons used to trade, shipwrecks, the Compass and the Astrolabe
Travel Plan shall Lapérouse study trips Cook, and especially the third. Its objectives are fourfold:
"In the Southern Ocean, it would clarify the uncertainty regarding the direction of Bouvet and complete investigations by Cook the Sandwich Islands and South Georgia South. In the tropics, it should continue exploring the islands between the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea, then consider the Gulf of Carpentaria. On the coasts of Asia, Lapérouse should extend its research in China in Kamchatka, with particular attention to solving problems relating to the island of Yezo (Lapérouse wrote that Jesso) . Across the Pacific, he had to carefully explore the coast of America to discover a passage to the Atlantic across the continent. "
travel very ambitious about 150 000 km for 1300 days before completing alone the three voyages of Cook: "If, as we are entitled to expect from the zeal and skill of the commander of the expedition, all items listed in its instructions have been met, the trip by Mr. de la Perouse no longer leave the Mariners want to try discoveries, that the merit of giving us more detailed information on some positions of the globe ". Five cards are drawn up for the occasion "cards from the best French, English, English and Dutch" . Two copies of each ship, and one on which Louis XVI will travel.
Canon meridian
Two flutes, the Ostrich and the Porter, each of forty-five feet and five hundred tons (about 1400 m3 ), were armed frigate in the port of Brest and renamed. Lapérouse embarked on the Compass; the Astrolabe commanded by Viscount Fleuriot Langle, Captain, one of the most learned naval officers and former companion of war Lapérouse. Staffs, chosen by Lapérouse were composed of experienced officers; many scholars and artists will also join the expedition. Compass carries two lieutenants, three ensigns, four marine guards, eleven engineers scientists and artists, seven petty officers and pilots, eight gunners and riflemen, twelve carpenters, caulkers and sailboats, forty topmen, quartermasters and sailors, fourteen gunners gunners, seven domestic and seven supernumerary.
Sextant manufactured by Mercier in Brest before 1785 - Wreck the Compass (excavation 2005)
L'Astrolabe was composed of roughly the same way. Or about two hundred and thirty people on both vessels, including nearly half of Britons. This number will decrease significantly during the trip because of the sinking of the French port, Alaska (twenty and one death) and the massacre of Tutuila, Samoa (thirteen deaths, including one later after the injury). Six people will be landed in various places, sometimes a little sick. Approximately half of these will be replaced: two lieutenants, eight marines, one sailor and a servant will be shipped to Manila, twelve Chinese sailors and another lieutenant in Macao. Only two members of the crew died of disease, and end of trip only: a sign of dysentery on the Astrolabe and the cook officers Compass of scurvy in 1787.
That same year, a steward also died of a gunshot injury: "No browser has been protracted campaign [...] with crews as healthy [... ] [...] after thirty months and more than 16,000 miles of road. "
Food Marine. Extraordinary services. List of food on board for shipment Lapérouse will have to apply measures prevention of scurvy and hygiene recommended by Cook: "To visit and aired during his stays in port, the parts of these provisions, which would announce a principle of alteration [...] and it will be principally concerned all resources which may arise in the different breaks, [...] to provide fresh fish to their crews and [...] renew its cured. "
compass azimuth with the mica plate, made by Gregory in London before 1785 - Wreck of The Compass (excavation 2005)
Perfectly assisted by the indefatigable Rollin, a physician whom he holds in high esteem, he has complied with the following recommendations: "He will use all known means such as fans, fumigations, perfumes, to renew and purify the air from the dock and decks. It will be every day, if possible, expose to fresh air hammocks and clothes of the crew. ".
Scientific Instruments (dividers, foot king) of the shipment Lapérouse
Regarding Lapérouse relationship with his crew, "the reader will be somewhat surprised to [...] [...] confidence, sometimes even the deference he showed to his officers and his fatherly care towards his crew : [...] nothing escaped his surveillance, his solicitude. Not wanting to make a scientific enterprise mercantile speculation, leaving the entire benefit of trade goods for the benefit of the few sailors from the crew, he reserved for himself the satisfaction of having been useful to his country and Science ».
graphometers, angle measuring instrument - Wreck of The Compass (excavation 1999)
Among scholars, there is an engineer, surgeon, meteorologist, astronomer, physicist, doctor, interpreter, a botanist, a watchmaker, naturalist. Artists are responsible for "draw [...] all views of land and sites remarkable portraits of the natures of different countries, their costumes, their ceremonies, their games, their buildings, buildings, sea, and all productions of the earth and sea in the three kingdoms "
. Of the surplus, there is a baker, steward, butcher, cooper, cook, carpenter, blacksmith, master gunsmith. There are also chaplains on board and a drum. King liked to say that buildings of Cook were not as well stocked as those of La Perouse. It carries including three hundred and fifty tons of food, many scientific books and seeds to distribute to the people visited. Scientific equipment is far superior to that of Cook: More rigging and sails included (Cook had failed); more scientists on board, including an interpreter who had failed Cook. The resources allocated to Lapérouse are considerable, at the height of what he wrote before his departure Fleurieu: "If we meet the Minister's views, it is certain that this trip will be cited in the seed and keep afloat in our names space centuries after those of Cook and Magellan. "
The island Vanikoro
The start of the adventure ... and the tragic disappearance of the expedition ...
The two ships leave the harbor of Brest on the, in August 1785 and reached the island of Madeira on August 13 and Tenerife (19-30 August). After crossing the equator, September 29, they come to Trinidad and then head to St. Catherine, where they anchored on November 6. En route, vainly sought Lapérouse Ascension Island whose position was now very doubtful. Part of Sainte-Catherine November 19, the expedition finds the Big Island until December, in vain.
In January 1786, the ships through the Straits of Le Maire along Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn. they double on Feb. 8 to wet in La Conception at the end of this month. April 9, the vessels anchored at Easter Island in Cook's Bay. From there they head to the Sandwich Islands following a route roughly parallel to that of Cook in 1777, but paid about eight hundred miles farther east, across a sea quite unknown.
May 29, frigates anchored at the island of Mowee (Maui) in the Sandwich Islands, then head to the west coast of America (where Cook had been repeatedly postponed by currents) and along to the Monterey (June 23 to September 15). During this trip, Lapérouse recognizes the mouth of the Bering River and Mount Fairweather. He discovered and named the Bay of Marti, the port of the French, and the island called "Cenotaph" in tribute to the fallen. These findings are confirmed by Vancouver. It was during this journey that takes place in a sinking boat that engulfed six officers and fifteen men.
On 24 September, the Monterey boats leave for Macao, where they wet January 3, 1787 after having passed through the Marianas and Bashi. He learns that Nov. 2 was appointed head Wing. Macau is that it sends the first part of his journey by Dufresne, a naturalist. This would have left an account of the expedition under a pseudonym.
Map Vanikoro islands (or Lapérouse) extracted from the Atlas of travel of the corvette L'Astrolabe J. Dumont d'Urville (1826 -1829), published in 1833
During the trip, discovered a rock Lapérouse arid he called Necker Island, and a very dangerous rock, which he called French Frigate Low . He arrived in Manila on 28 February and April 9 restarts to recognize the coasts of Japan and those of Tartary. After recognizing the island of Formosa, the expedition into the Sea of Japan through the Korea Strait. May we discover an island called Island Dagelet. June 11, the vessels reached the coast of Tartary, the skirt and into the canal that separates the island Ségalien; Lapérouse then discovers berries Ternay de Suffren de Castries and Langle. Then, back down south, he discovered the strait which still bears his name and, through the channel of the compass the island chain that extends to Japan, it reached the Kamchatka on 7 September. From this anchorage, he sends in Europe Barthelemy de Lesseps, Consul of France speaking several languages (including Russian), which brings together some of his diary after thirteen months of travel in harsh conditions. He even had to learn to drive sled dogs. Thus, de Lesseps, Ferdinand de Lesseps uncle, escaped the doom that awaited Lapérouse and his companions. He left a fascinating account of his adventure.
Remains of the equipment of troops for the protection of shipping Lapérouse
starting again on September 29 Kamchatka Lapérouse abandons the project of recognizing the Kurile islands, due to westerly winds, and seeking in vain an island supposedly discovered by the Spaniards in 1620, then December 9, comes in Tutuila (he calls Maouna, named after the chief of the island). The browser crosses the equator for the third time. It is in this release that are killed, massacred by the inhabitants, Mr. Langle Mr. Lamanon, physicist, and ten crewmen.
Lapérouse kept his cool and made no retaliation. In Unlike Cook, who was murdered in Hawaii during a punitive expedition organized by him for reasons far less. After this tragedy, shipping recognizes the Friendly Islands, those Navigators (Samoa) and finally Norfolk Island before reaching Botany Bay near Sydney, where she anchored 26 January 1788.
From there left for France last Lapérouse letter dated February 7, 1788, and part of his journal, reported by the British who have always respected and admired the browser.
gun belonging to one of the passengers or officers of the Compass (excavations 1999)
He had explored the subtropical islands and the Gulf of Carpentaria, but we can not say what that he was able to achieve before his death in the vast South Pacific, probably during a tropical cyclone in 1788. He played a similar role in France than in England Cook. Bound to him until her tragic destiny, he did not have time for the match in his discoveries. However, representing very accurately the number of material facts, his statements and comments constitute a valuable heritage.
Ink and other items belonging to members of the expedition Lapérouse - Wreck the Compass
The journal of explorer ...
notes and letters Lapérouse, dictations, and sometimes written by him are preserved in the National Archives. In 1791, a decree of the Convention ordered the printing of maps and memoranda sent by the browser.
The author said about their eventual release: "If you print my diary before my return, that one takes care not to entrust the writing of letters to a man, or he will want to sacrifice pleasant turn of phrase as it may deem proper word hard and cruel, that the sailor and scholar [...] prefer, or, putting aside all the nautical and astronomical details, [...] it is likely, by [...] the lack of knowledge that will become fatal errors to my successors, but choose a writer versed in the sciences, which is capable of [...] rectify the mistakes that I might have missed, none at commit other. This writer will focus on the merits, it will not remove anything essential and will present the technical details with the style rough and rugged, yet concise, a sailor, and he will have fulfilled its task in my deputy, and publishing the book as I wanted to do it myself. "
The book did not appear until 1797, in four volumes at the end of the Management ...
Site de la Faille, Wreck the Compass
Reading Relationship Travel Lapérouse is interesting on several counts for a drive today. First one is surprised by the boldness, courage and ambition of the seaman trained, do not forget, in the hard school of maritime wars over more than twenty years. It is an experienced and capable browser. Then, some parts of his story can be considered an embryo and anthropological literature. The discovery of the world is the discovery of men. The descriptions of the inhabitants of Easter Island, Indian missions of California, populations of Kamchatka and China, very careful, reveal remarkable powers of observation, the desire to identify the other and see what is original, unexpected, even bizarre.
Lapérouse has the feeling that beneath the apparent diversity of forms of social life, there is a common principle that unites all beings, the unity of mankind.
In addition, a host of observations, geographical, climatic and so on., Which represent the amount of work done not only by Lapérouse, but also by scholars who embarked with him and with him perished all.
Shot glasses, wreck of the Compass (excavation 2005)
The narrative is not only interesting for what it brings us new information on the countries and peoples visited, but also by what he tells us about the ideology of a cultured and curious about the French Enlightenment. The vision is certainly, in most cases, purely Eurocentric and "naively" colonial. We note, for example, that at no time Lapérouse arises the question of whether it is fit to impose, not least in the form of grants, new animals or plants to the new "natural".
bearer rationalist optimism of his age and his faith in progress and utility, Lapérouse develops its exploration as an introduction to a possible colonization, exploitation profitable (the fur trade otter, for example) and an enhancement of territories and people. If he criticizes the English colonization, because it considers that it is not sufficiently effective, modern and "human" to convert the inhabitants of the colonies into producers and consumers.
battery bucket, weight balance precision wreck Compass (excavation 1999)
Lapérouse, it seems, attempted to use the least possible force in its relations with some people who seem to have been aggressive against the shipment, as evidenced by the massacre of Langle and eleven of his sailors. It will thus be attached "to imitate the conduct of a few browsers that have outperformed, and avoid the mistakes of others. Upon his arrival in each country and will take care to conciliate the friendship of the principal leaders, both by kindnesses as by present [...]. He will use all honorable means to form bonds with the natives. It will seek to know what goods or articles from Europe which they seem to attach more value, and he composed an assortment them enjoyable, and that can invite them to trade ".
To this end, we had won, among other items, medals the effigy of the king and 1400 packets of glass beads (beads). "M. La Perouse, in every opportunity, use it with great gentleness and humanity towards the various peoples he visits in the course of his journey. " These recommendations aimed at preventing violence against the Mariners. Let us not forget that Cook himself had been murdered in Hawaii and no vessel had dared to tackle for seven years.
These instructions were also designed to make the trip beyond criticism. Some philosophers disapproved shipments because they could lead to acts of barbarism in the history of letting some people damaging effects indeed indelible. The introduction of diseases (measles, influenza, syphilis) also put evil people visited. (The one in Hawaii, for example, passed in eighty years from 300 000 to 50 000.)
Sky Brest cliche Arnaud Abelard
However , Lapérouse not found everywhere he went what is commonly called "savages." Despite what he wrote about human nature: "It is impossible to make firm [...] with human nature because it is barbaric, wicked and deceitful ", despite it expresses disagreement with the" philosophers' "They do their books by the fire and I travel for thirty years" , indicating that "the people that we painted so good because they are very close to nature " are cruel and devoid of any sense of right and good, he adds these significant words: " This nature is sublime in its masses, it neglects all details. "
is why we find in his account of evidence that go against what he said about the man of nature, he in fact describes peaceful peoples, and with hospital, he said, a certain degree of "civilization."
Within these apparent contradictions, the reader will see emerge Lapérouse a number of new ideas that are the foundation of anthropological thought of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Such is the case, for example, the notion of unequal development of various sectors of social life and intellectual people at a time when people still believed in progress necessarily uniform across all these sectors.
is the way to read La Perouse, in all its Eurocentric approach to man of the Enlightenment, simultaneously humanistic and scientific colonialism.
story of adventure, loosely based, though widely copied freely, according to the instructions of the introductory edition of "Journey around the world on the Astrolabe and the Compass (1785-1788 ) "by Helen Patris, 2008 ...
(To be continued ...)