Published Resources Details
Book
- Title
- Lapérouse sailing through the Enlightenment
- Imprint
- Thales group Australia, 2015, 40 pp
- Format
- Description
Reproduced with permission from the French publication realised by the Laperouse Association of Albi. The Encyclopedia library holds a digitised copy.
- Abstract
From pages 24-25:
The crossing of the Pacific Ocean from north to south was probably the most arduous part of the trip. Storms both hit the men and the boats hard, and the need for fresh provisions was especially acute. After two months of navigation in a "vast loneliness", the expedition reached the Iles des Navigateurs (Samoan Islands) and cast anchor at Maouna (Tutuila) where cordial exchanges were established with the islanders. Things went smoothly until the day before their departure (11 th December 1787) when de Langle took 61 men to a fresh supply of water that he had found the day before. The two long boats ran aground in the cove and were soon attacked by local people; twelve men, including Fleuriot de Langle and Lamanon, were stoned to death.
After this tragedy which deprived the expedition of the Captain-in-Command of the Astrolabe, the ships cast off for Nouvelle-Hollande (Australia) and to treat the numerous wounded men and to build new long boats to replace those destroyed in Tutuila.
When they arrived in Botany Bay on 26th January 1788, an English fleet was already there: this was the fleet of Commodore Phillip who was there to disembark the first group of convicts intended to populate Port-Jackson (today Sydney); this was the point of departure of the English colonization of Australia. During their stay, the French worked at regaining their strength. One wounded man from Tutuila chaplain and scientist Pere Receveur, died. The English offered to take mail back to Europe, including the last letter by Laperouse to Fleurieu in which he outlined the program for the coming months: New Caledonia, New Guinea and the West Coast of Australia.
On the 10th March 1788, Commodore Phillip reported that the Boussole and Astrolabe were headed northeast with the aim of reaching the Tonga Islands, the west coast of New Caledonia, the archipelago of Santa Cruz and the Torres Strait; their hope was to be back in France in June 1789.