Person
La Pérouse, Jean-François de Galaup (1741 - 1788)
- Born
- 22 August 1741
Albi, France - Died
- 1788
at sea - Occupation
- Naval officer and Navigator
- Alternative Names
- Comte de La Pérouse
Summary
Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, was a French naval officer who served with distinction, particularly against the British in Hudson Bay, Canada. In 1783 the French government determined to send an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to explore particularly around the Bearing Strait. La Pérouse was appointed to command the expedition, which left Brest on I August 1875 in the ships La Boussole and L'Astrolabe. Having sailed along the west coast of North America and then across the Pacific to Macao, La Pérouse turned north to investigate the seas around Korea and the Kamchatka Peninsula. He then went south and sailed into Botany Bay on 26 January 1788. After a stay of six weeks the expedition left New South Wales and was not heard from again. The fate of the expedition was determined when relics were found on Vanikoro, Santa Cruz, north of the New Hebrides, by Peter Dillon (1827) and French naval expedition under command of Jules Dumont d'Urville (1828).
Details
Chronology
- 1756
- Career event - Joined the French Navy
- 1775
- Career event - Promoted to Lieutenant
- 1780
- Career event - Promoted to Captain
- 1 August 1785
- Event - Embarked from Brest, France
- January 1787
- Event - Arrived in Macao
- 26 January 1788
- Event - Arrived in Botany Bay, New South Wales
- 10 March 1788
- Education - Sailed from Botany Bay
Related entries
Archival resources
Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales
- Jean-Francois de Galaup La Perouse - Records, 1777 - 1793, B1207; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
- Jean-Francois de Galaup La Perouse - Records, 1829 - 1832, A3973; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
- Pierre Anthonioz - Records, 1958, A4109 and FM 1; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
Published resources
Books
- Dunmore, John, Where Fate Beckons: the Life of Jean François de la Pérouse (Sydney: ABC Books, 2006), 292 pp. Details
- Dyer, Colin, The French Explorers and Sydney (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2009), 224 pp. Details
- Gaziello, Catherine, L'Expedition de Laperouse (1785-88), Replique Francaise aux Voyages de Cook (Paris: Comite des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, 1984). Details
- Horner, F, Looking for La Pérouse: D'Entrecasteaux in Australia and the South Pacific 1792-1793 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1995), 332 pp. Details
- La Pérouse, Jean François Galaup de, Le Voyage de Lapérouse: de Brest à Botany Bay (Barbizon: Pôles d'images, 2005), 207 pp. Details
- Lewis, Geoffrey, La Perouse: Why he Came to the Pacific (Randwick: Randwick and District Historical Society, 2006), 54 pp. Details
- Pons, Anne: editor Nicole Forest Green, LaPérouse sailing through the Enlightenment (Thales group Australia, 2015), 40 pp. Details
- Richard, Helene, Le Voyage de d'Entrecasteaux a la recherche de Laperouse (Paris: C.T.H.S., 1985). Details
- Williams, Glyn, Naturalists at Sea: Scientific Travellers from Dampier to Darwin (New Haven, Connecticut/London: Yale University Press, 2013), 309 pp. Details
- Williams, Roger L., French Botany in the Enlightenment: the Ill-fated Voyages of La Perouse and His Rescuers (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press, 2003), 240 pp. Details
Book Sections
- Douglas, Bronwen, 'Expeditions, encounters, and the praxis of seaborne ethnography: the French voyages of La Pérouse and Freycinet' in Expedition into empire: exploratory journeys and the making of the modern world, Thomas, Martin, ed. (New York: London: Routledge, 2015), pp. 109-26. Details
- Marchant, Leslie R., 'La Perouse, Jean-Francois De Galaup, Comte De (1741-1788), navigator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 85-86. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/la-perouse-jean-francois-de-galaup-2329. Details
Journal Articles
- Amalric, P., 'Ocular Manifestations uring the French Travels of Discovery to Australia From Laperouse (1741-1788) to Dumont D'Urville (1790-1842)', Documenta Ophthalmologica, 74 (1-2) (1990), 113-118. Details
- Cabourdin, Guy, 'On French Soil? The Monument to Laperouse at Botany Bay: an Historical Note', Journal of the Royal Historical Society, 72 (2) (1986), 149-152. Details
- Hustache, Catherine, 'Le Voyage de Laperouse (1785-1788)', Oceanis, 19 (4) (1993), 17-26. Details
- Morrison, Doug and Barko, Ivan, 'The Lapérouse expedition and geomagnetism: the unexpected discovery of Lamanon's 'lost' letter and Ledru's instructions', Historical Records of Australian Science, 26 (1) (2015), 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR14026. Details
- Rivière, Marc Serge, 'In Honour of a Fellow-Explorer: Flinders' and Bougainville's Monuments to La Pérouse in Mauritius and Botany Bay', Humanities Research, 10 (2) (2003), 9-20. Details
Resources
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/2472934. Details
- 'La Pérouse, Jean-François de Galaup (17410822-1788)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-900030. Details
See also
McCarthy, G.J. and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 7 October 2025
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education