49th California Book fairfebruary, 12th-14th 2016

Pasadena Convention CenterBooth 720

J e a n - F r a n ç o i s d e L a p é r o u s e

and his companions

Une version française est disponible sur le site www.deproyart.com

49th California Book fairfebruary, 12th-14th 2016

Pasadena Convention CenterBooth 720

21, rue Fresnel. 75116 Paris

M. + 33 (0)6 80 15 34 45 - T. +33 (0)1 47 23 41 18 - F. + 33 (0)1 47 23 58 65

jean-baptiste@deproyart.com

Conditions de vente conformes aux usages du Syndicat de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne

et aux règlements de la Ligue Internationale de la Librairie Ancienne

N° de TVA.: FR21 478 71 326

cahier n° 7

J e a n - F r a n ç o i s d e L a p é r o u s e

and his companions

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[Lapérouse, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de][A collection of manuscripts, most of them autographs].

A REDISCOVERY.

EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION OF LAPÉROUSE’S AND HIS COMPANIONS’ MANUSCRIPTS: 11 PIECES, INCLUDING:

FOUR AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS OF LAPÉROUSE, ALL PRESENTED AT THE 1888 “CENTENAIRE” EXHIBITION: (1) AT THE AGE OF 29 YEARS IN 1770, DURING A MISSION

ON THE COAST OF BRITANNY. (2) ON THE NECESSARY ORDER FOR THE PROPER RUNNING

OF A SHIP.(3) REMARKABLE DOCUMENT, AUTOGRAPHED ENTIRELY,

ENTITLED “INSTRUCTION POUR NAVIGUER DANS LE DÉTROIT D’HUDSON” (INSTRUCTIONS TO NAVIGATE IN THE HUDSON STRAIT). IT IS PREPARATORY TO HIS PERILOUS EXPEDITION TO HUDSON BAY (1782) DURING THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, AND THEREFORE A TRUE AMERICANA.

(4) ON FURNISHING EQUIPMENT FOR THE BOUSSOLE ON HIS GREAT CIRCUMNAVIVATION (1785).

AND SEVEN OTHER DOCUMENTS EMANATING PRIMARILY FROM HIS COMPANIONS (5 to 11).

BINDING ca. 1920. Ivory vellum, large gilt navy anchor and painting on the sides

PROVENANCE: M. Lacaille, former magistrate, according to the catalogue of the 1888 Centenaire -- Comte René Philipon, the Pope’s chamberlain, whose wife, born Pauline Dalmas de Lapérouse was the great-grand-niece of Lapérouse (by his sister, born in 1742) -- Charles Dupuy, nephew of the former, who added some documents -- René Bonnaud

$ 90,000

These documents were bound together in the early

1920’s for Comte René Philipon, one of the Pope’s

chamberlain, whose wife, born Pauline Dalmas de

Lapérouse was the great-grand-niece of Lapérouse

(by his sister, born in 1742). He bought them

separately but most of them had been exhibited

in the famous Centenary exhibition of Lapérouse

(1888) showing how important they have always

been seen to be, even back then. Four of the pieces

– one autograph by Lapérouse and the others by his

officers – deal with preparing the ships for the great

and tragic circumnavigation. Autograph material

by Lapérouse, or in fact any material relating to the

voyage, is very rare, thanks to the disappearance of

the entire expedition in 1788.

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1. The importance of Signals. «  Signaux pour La Côte. Isle d’Ouessant.  » (Signals for the Coast. Island of Ushant)

Manuscript document written by an unknown hand, with AUTOGRAPH CORRECTIONS BY LAPÉROUSE (nearly 72 words on the first two pages) and ONE LONG AUTOGRAPH COMMENTARY BY LAPÉROUSE ON 13 LINES, brown ink, 3 pp. folio, some folds consolidated by a discrete adhesive tape [1769-1770]. Autograph commentary :

“If the f leet consisted of 40 ships of the line, the lighthouse keeper of Ushant would raise the three f lags: red in the middle, blue on the North or South f lagpole depending on the route that the army was taking and white on the third f lagpole. If the army was friendly, he would put the white f lag in the middle and the red in place of the white and the blue would always designate the route that the army was taking. If the army moored, he would put a pennant of the same color as the f lag on each f lag and would fire three cannon shots. If the army sailed, he would lower the pennant and put the blue f lag on the north or south f lagpole depending on the broadside that the army would take and fire 5 cannon shots. If the army turned back, he would replace its blue f lag.”

Louis XV bought the island of Ushant in 1764 from the Marquis de Rieux whose family had owned it since the Middle Ages. The King immediately gave it to the Navy Department which was thus able to organize the guarding of the entrance to the English Channel and watch over Brest harbor thanks to a system of signals sent from the lighthouse of Stiff built by Vauban in 1695, and relayed by those on the islands of Mullein and Saint-Mathieu. These instructions were therefore given in 1769 or 1770 to the young Lapérouse then aged twenty-eight or twenty-nine. It was with his mentor the Chevalier de Ternay that in 1768-1769 he had accepted various missions on the waterways in Brittany. Ternay had “made accesses to Brest a specialty” (Mr. de Brossard, Lapérouse, 1978, p. 205). These instructions are annotated in the hand of Lapérouse because in 1770 Roquefeuil then commander of Brest harbor had commissioned him to establish a system of signals capable of informing the commander of Brest of the arrival and movements of war or merchant ships. Maurice de Brossard relates that:

“during the weeks of bad weather, in the impractical waters of the Ushant that he came upon, Lapérouse observed that the English had ceased their surveillance and had been planting f lagpoles and lookouts equipped with alarms from island to island. He returned in December [1770] mission accomplished (...) then gave his account” (Lapérouse, op. cit., p. 130).

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2. Order and discipline according to Lapérouse. « Du Service particulier des vaisseaux. » (On the chain of command on ships)

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF LAPÉROUSE, 2 p. folio, black ink, few after 1765:

“Ships of the 1st rank or with three bridges, their general staff will be made up of a cap[tan], a second cap[tan], lieutenants and 6 ensigns; ships of the 2nd rank: a captain in second, 3 lieutenants, 3 ensigns; ships from 74 to 70: a cap[tan] 4lt[ieutenants] 4 ensigns (...) corvettes with fewer than 18 cannons carry 6 or 4, a captain, two ensigns, a marine guard acting as officer. All orders given aboard a ship will come from the captain. All officers of his general staff will be responsible for the details under his authority, will each have individual inspection of a part of the crew, follow the works or exercises of the division they have been entrusted with, will target consumption sheets with the masters of their division, will present to the officer in charge of detail, will inform the captain of special talents of each of the men of their division, will inspect their belongings, making sure before the ship’s departure that each man who is entrusted to them has the quantity of belongings required by the captain (...) will be in charge of making sure that the sailors suffer no injuries, will serve as their advocate to the captain for any favors they may have to ask for, will make sure that the share of takings in time of war is correctly paid to them (...) [about] purchases that [the sailors] will have made onboard, from belongings or other items coming from the sale of the belongings of the deceased. The officers will be responsible for these various details under the authority of the captain”...

The text written here by Lapérouse is a kind of extract, a personal vade mecum, taken from the service regulations aboard war vessels. It deals with the composition of the staff on each type of vessel, frigates or corvettes, as well as the mission entrusted to each ship’s officer concerning the persons dependent on him. All these procedures seem to be derived from the famous Ordonnance de 1765 which ruled the organization of vessels in the f leet. In any case, we recognize the style of command of Lapérouse in the extreme attention to detail on the life of the men, to their survival, clothing, spirit. Louis XVI himself recommended to him in his famous Instructions to pay very particular attention to the morale and the physical health of his crews.

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3. The expedition to Hudson Bay. « Instruction pour naviguer dans le détroit d’Hudson traduite du pilote anglais. » (Instructions for navigation in the Hudson Strait translated from the English Pilot)

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF LAPÉROUSE, 4 pp. folio:

“On the coast of the southern entrance to the Hudson Strait and on the mainland of New Britain, usually called Labrador, is a cape which was named Cape Chidley by Captain Davis [John Davis1]. The strait is only 20 leagues wide. The tide there is very strong. The f low is as strong as the ebb. The bottom cannot be seen at 250 fathoms [400 meters]. On the south coast of the said strait is the island of Button 2 at S/SE of Price’s Cove 2a. The f low in the strait comes from the East. At the end of ebb tide, whirlpools and large waves are formed that we suppose come from the inequality of the depths and a multitude of rocks underwater. At one league from land, we find 140 fathoms of water, fine golden sand. From the south coast there is a place called Hopes advance 3.Further along on the strait on the north coast is the island of God mercy4. On the south coast is an island called Hold with hope 5 and on the north coast is the Cape of Queen Anne. The whole north coast is a broken land. And at one hundred and forty-four leagues from the cape of Queen Anne is a point called Broken point. It is a cape of the îles Rompues whose biggest is called Mill island at latitude 64° 23” 6. These islands are almost in the middle of the strait. There are several passages between them, impassable because of the swirls, currents and ice. The said currents f low towards land and vessels are in danger of getting lost. NE of Mill island is Cape Charles at latitude 64° 30”. Overlooking that is Stove point 7 at 64°. At a short distance are several islands of which there are two points that form the entrance to the bay that goes North and which has not yet been discovered. On port side is Cape Sord at latitude 66° 70” 8. In the middle of the bay that is filled with ice, are several islands that have not been visited.Let’s go back now to the Mill islands south of which is located the island of Salisbury. To the west of Salisbury is the island of Nottingham at latitude 63° 25”. There is moorage on the NW coast of this island sheltered from several small islands that form a good haven. The cape that is on the right when entering James Bay is called Wolstenholm 9.

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Seeing that he couldn’t go any further, he went back to Port Nelson by 57° 20”. The water is murky and the color of red sand. There is not much depth with 6, 7 and 8 fathoms. We cannot see land from atop the mounts and when you get closer to the land, the depth gets even shallower. South of Port Nelson. We must constantly probe. There are two small islands located at the point where the land starts to go south. At around 4 leagues from land, there is little depth and a lot of breakers”…

1. John Davis (1550-1605) explorations in the Arctic were published by Richard Hakluyt and appeared on his world map. Davis himself published a valuable treatise on practical navigation called The Seaman’s Secrets in 1594 and a more theoretical work called The World’s Hydrographical Description in 1595. The account of Davis’s last voyage was written by Michelborne on his return to England in 1606.2. Button Islands, north of Labrador, and north of Cape Chidley. 2a. Price’s Cove, creek named by Thomas James, supposedly at one Lat 61° N 24” and undoubtedly located south of Resolution island (Strange and Dangerous Voyages, 1633).3. Cape Hope’s advance is found on the southern bank of the Hudson Strait.4. We could not identify it. There is a God’s mercy bay but it is located in Hudson Bay itself, south of the island of Southampton. This island of God’s mercy is nevertheless represented on the north coast of the Hudson Strait as represented by E. Heawood, A History of Geographical Discovery in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, Cambridge, 1912, p. 37.5. Idem, it was called as such by Henry Hudson in 1610. 6. Island located at the extreme west of the Strait; the latitude given here is false.7. Undoubtedly on the island of Mill.8. That is to say, much further north; the name is hard to identify.9. Cape Westenholm is found at Lat 62° 40” and Long 77° 40”.10. Named in honor of Sir Duddley Digges (1583-1639), a friend of Henry Hudson, and sponsor of his last voyage.11. At the bottom of Hudson Bay, at the mouth at Churchill River. The Danish seafarer Josias Hubbart was, in 1613, the pilot of the Resolution commanded by Sir Thomas Baffin.

In the summer of 1782 during the American War of Independence, Lapérouse would lead an important mission to Hudson Bay with three ships. While his military significance was relative, it showed his great capacity in navigation and exploration. Lapérouse had taken command of the Sceptre, a ship with 74 canons, while the two frigates were entrusted to the Chevalier Fleuriot de Langle – who would subsequently take command of the Astrolabe before being assassinated by the natives in the Samoa islands in December 1787 – and to the Chevalier de La Jaille.

Prime Minister Maurepas himself gave this mission to Lapérouse in his office in Versailles. Marshal de Castries, Minister of the marine, had also imagined its implementation so the plan was therefore old and had been conceived a long time before as a sort of vengeance against the loss of French Canada. Lapérouse was to destroy two forts held by the English that protected their very successful fur trade of the Hudson Bay Company.

The last island when entering the bay is the island of Mansel. Between Mansel Island and the mainland is Digges Islands10. The lands on both sides of the strait are of unequal heights. From Resolution Island to Cape Charles, it is 120 leagues E/SE and W/SW. There are twenty leagues from the Digges Islands to Cape Charles. Between the islands of Salisbury and Nottingham, one can see land on both sides in clear weather. There are 120 fathoms in the middle of the strait, golden sand. The North coast is freer from ice. Along the coast, there are several very low small islands that can only be seen from close up. There are many land juts, like harbor entrances. From the depths of the strait, if you sail W/SW, you will look for the island of Mansel, which is low land, like a sandbar. It only has fresh water and grass. High tide is at 11 o’clock. From Digges Island to the west coast, it is 160 leagues. You must set W/SW. You get to Hubbart’s Hope 11 on 59° 4°”. The currents in the bay are constantly East and West. The deepest depth in Button Bay is 110 fathoms, muddy bottom. And approaching land, the depth reduces to 8 or 9 fathoms at the bottom of the bay. At latitude 59°, there are only two and a half fathoms. There are several rocks at nine or ten fathoms underwater, several of which Captain James touched. He passed over them with the help of several waves and was carried by three fathoms and three and a half fathoms. He probed and found all around was rock at the bottom except at one point where there were only two and a half fathoms of water. Then the bottom deepened by 3 or 4 fathoms to 14 and decreased to nine fathoms. The rocks are at latitude 57° 49” near Port Nelson where [the] Captain Bayley of the Company with Captain Gillam in the 1670s found such a large quantity of rocks that they were forced to drift in to James bay. However the river at Port Nelson is navigable, as you will see in the following instruction.On the river of Port Nelson, Fort York is located at latitude 57° and longitude 88° west of Cape Cesond [?]. The fort is built of wood with 32 columns and 70 men in the garrison. The entrance to this river is very dangerous. If one does not pay the greatest attention to probing between the banks that are dry at low tide. The river runs NE/E and SW. The tide rises nine feet. The vessel stays af loat in the harbor with two fathoms of water. There is a pit with four of five fathoms. It is outside the mouth of the river, inside an area of sandbanks. The south channel is navigable for the smallest vessels, but it is not as good as that of the north. At latitudes 61° to 62°, are several islands with several straits where Captain Thomas Button had great hopes of finding a passage. But he made sure to the contrary by examining it closer. He named it Hope’s check. From latitude 62°, he followed the coast from the west to latitude 64°. Searching the length of the land for a passage, he saw an opening of a bay in the north. Hoping there was a passage, he named it Lord hopes advanced. The continent is called New North Wales. Still skirting the land at 64°, he found a bay with several islands that he named Wellande [?]. He had spent time on this bay where he had great hopes of an opening but he found this bottom that he called Ne Ultra.

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The total absence of maps made the conditions for navigation particularly difficult in an arctic and austere region. The British Admiralty and the Hudson Bay Company jealously guarded what little information they had. The French “Dépôt des Cartes” which was founded in 1720, did not possess a chart of Hudson Bay (showing depth, currents, winds, rocks etc.). Doubtless unable to take along the meager printed documentation that was given to him, and perhaps wanting to make a personal aide-memoire, a sort of documentary reserve for this sailing that promised to be perilous, Lapérouse copied it out.

We see it here, the English Pilote translated almost word for word, easily identifiable thanks to the autograph mention which closes the title: “translated from the English Pilot”. The text is extracted from the book by John Seller (1630-1697) called The English Pilot a part of which relates to research on the famous Passage of the North-West (The English Pilot: describing the sea-coasts... harbors, rivers and ports in the Northern and Southern Navigation..., with new and exact draughts, charts, and descriptions... The first Book. Describing the sea-coasts... in the whole Northern Navigation, London, around 1675). The success of the book was such that there were thirty-seven editions between 1675 and 1794, with a number of maps varying between eighteen in the first editions and twenty-six in the last. The English Pilot that was so important to Lapérouse to justify his manuscript copy, offered the publication on a few folio pages, of the brief log-book by Zachariah Gillam (1636-1682), commander of the Nonsuch in 1668-1669: “A Breviate of Captain Zechariah Gillam’s Journal to the North-West, in the Nonsuch-Catch, in the Year 1668”. The resources printed prior to the expedition of the Nonsuch were absolutely unusable. The sailors and explorers thus shared a common experience, which they found in the narrative of the following publications:

“The record of exploration in the area begins with Henry Hudson’s voyage of 1610-11. It was followed with voyages in 1612 under Thomas Button, in 1614 under William Gibbons, and in 1615 under Robert Bylot and William Baffin. The Danish expedition of 1619 under Jens Munk may be set aside as the account was not published in English, and was little known outside Denmark. William Hawkeridge led an expedition in 1625. Then in 1631 there were two expeditions. Thomas James, financed by Bristol merchants, wintered at Charlton Island in the bay that now bears his name, and returned in 1632. Luke Foxe, backed by London financiers, safely returned in 1631. These were the last English voyages until Gillam set off in 1668. Most of these voyages produced written accounts (...) assiduously collected and edited for publication by Samuel Purchas in 1625 in his Hakluyt Posthumous or Purchas His Pilgrimes (...) Both James and Foxe also published accounts on their return”. (W. Glover).

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In addition to the printed narratives, some very imprecise maps of Hudson Bay had been engraved: one published by Hessel Gerritsz in Amsterdam (1611), and the theoretically better one by Henry Briggs (1561-1630) which had been drawn for the publication of the book by Purchas in 1625. However they still contained major gaps. The third map of any significance was the one by the navigator Thomas James in 1631-1632. But it was only with the publication of the Arcano del Mare by Sir Robert Duddley in 1646-1647, that large format maps likely to receive manual readings of the navigators were proposed. In any case, the information was meager; only Seller’s publication of the Breviate of Gillam’s expedition could therefore provide real help to the sailors

“In all, the charts and accounts did not provide very much information on which to despatch ships for a trading voyage. In reality, given the discrepancies and gaps in information, the voyage was almost akin to a passage into the unknown (...) The Breviate is set apart from all earlier accounts at the very first glance. It provides coastal views of some of the important shore lines. Given the difficulty of determining position, this must be considered an important step forward.” (W. Glover).

In spite of these defects, the Breviate by Gillam and Seller remained the only real reference for sailors until the end of the 18th century.

“For British trading in North America and for the colonists there, the publication of The English Pilot must have been a godsend. For the first time an English sea atlas presented charts of the whole eastern seacoast of North America. To modern eyes the charts are crude and sparse of detail; but to the navigator of American waters in that period, it was his Bible. Whatever its shortcomings, there was really no substitute, no real competitor, for over sixty years” (William P. Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America, Chicago & London, 1974, p. 39).

By copying The English pilot, Lapérouse was undoubtedly aware of the risk of his expedition. Hence we understand why the success of such navigation would arouse the enthusiasm of Louis XVI and his ministers. The role of this document for the French expedition on Hudson Bay is moreover substantiated by one of the very rare written testimonies that we have. Pierre de La Monneraie, second in command on Fleuriot de Langle’s ship (the Astrée), kept a journal which was published in the volume dedicated to the Centenaire de Lapérouse:

“De Langle, in good weather, made a very good observation of longitude with the help of which and as well as bearings that we had made of the primary directions, we could draw a map. The one by Mr. Bellin for the Labrador coast and its seas being very defective. We used with more confidence, a navigation chart made by an English captain whose name I have forgotten.” (Centenaire, p. 127).

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This “navigation chart” is, without a doubt, The English Pilot, that is, the Breviate of Captain Gillam, published by John Seller nearly a century earlier and copied here by Lapérouse. This manuscript, or one of its other copies that were on the ship of Chevalier de Langle, or perhaps even one of the precious copies of the book that had been used as an original for the copy (but then why would Lapérouse have copied it, if it was not already rare), were anyway the only text-based navigational instruments available in these so foggy seas of the Strait and Bay of Hudson that it made celestial tracking, necessary for the calculation of longitude, so improbable. In any case, this magnificent autograph text by Lapérouse, preparatory to his expedition to Hudson Bay, underlines the precariousness of the conditions of navigation on the east coast of America in the late 18th century.

Lapérouse moreover himself admitted it in a famous letter that he wrote on September 10, 1782 to his mother on the journey back on board the Sceptre. It should be read verbatim to better sense the scope of the rediscovery of this Instruction pour naviguer dans le détroit d’Hudson traduite du pilote anglais:

“I went, after unbelievable struggles on 1st of August into the bay of Hudson. I had been stalled for over a month in the ice where we thought our three ships would perish; they were so close to each other that the sailors crossed from one to the other on foot and from the top of the masts we couldn’t see the sea. To finish painting my situation, I must tell you that I had neither map not pilot1. No Frenchman has, in one hundred years, approached within three hundred leagues of this bay. The English who were looking at this struggle as the best defense for their establishment, prevented the publication of maps; and today that I am nearly back from it, I swear to you that they had good reason to believe that we wouldn’t go searching so far. They were mistaken, but that is losing a good game (...) I swear to you that this was the most laborious campaign that has ever been done. Now that I know the country, I will not be back a second time” 2

1. This is obviously a pilot in the sense of an onboard pilot, a sailor specially appointed by a ship to take the helm and guide it in through dangerous passages 2. Cited by Brossard, Lapérouse, p.438

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4. The stove of the Boussole. Autograph letter signed to Monsieur Gesnes

22 May 1785, addressed to bureau chief of the interpreters at the Hôtel des Affaires étrangères, or rue Royale, in Versailles, written from Paris, Mr. Le Couteulx, banker, rue Montorgueil, 3 pp. 4to, brown ink

“I went to your house last night, Sir, to have the honor of speaking to you on behalf of Marshal de Castries about a new invention stove, of which together with Mr. de Fourcroy, you were requested to make observations. As this stove will be extremely necessary on board the vessel that I will be commanding, less for the advantage it has of distilling, than because it makes prodigious savings in wood, you would be giving, Sir, the most signaled service to my expedition if, without taking it apart, you could have it packed up and sent right away by wagoner for Brest. I command, as you must know two ships for a very long campaign. We only had one stove brought from England, and to make matters worse, we had it taken apart to put on board a small English ship, which brought it to Brest. We don’t know how to put it back together now. Yours, Sir, would serve as a model. But what would be even better, would be to send a worker to Brest capable of handling this operation for which the King would pay the voyage and salary. Forgive me, Sir, for the task that I give you and the observation that I have the honor of giving you, that if the departure of this stove is delayed by six days, it will no longer be of any use. It is my honor to be, Sir, with great respect, your very humble and very obedient servant”...

The ships chosen for the expedition were robust cargo ships that were completely renovated. The Autruche, built in Le Havre in 1782 became the Astrolabe; the Portefaix built in Bayonne in 1783, the Boussole. Most of the amenities were redesigned and “new stoves were installed” (Cat. Exp. Lapérouse, p. 48). Lapérouse once again showed concern for the quality of life of his crews. He was in Paris, ordering this new stove while Fleuriot de Langle was ensuring the arming of the frigates in Brest. During that long expedition, no one as far as we know, complained about the food. Jean-Baptiste-Barthélémy de Lesseps, the happy officer who left the ships at Kamtchatka to cross Russia and bring news to Louis XVI, wrote “we had chocolate and tea (...) dinner was well served, simple, but enough and delicate; we had liqueurs twice a week”; it was therefore, still according to Lesseps, “a good ordinary bourgeois” (idem, p. 72). The document, lost a long time ago, was not quoted in any of the major studies dedicated to Lapérouse in a half a century.

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5. Candles for the priest of the Amazon. A receipt signed by Lapérouse

dated 15 February 1779, 1 p. 4to, brown ink

“The Amazon. Eight pounds of white candles to last for a complete [service] of one year for the chaplain”, signed Guyon de Mallière and by other officers with the autograph mention: “Veu Lapérouse”

At the resumption of hostilities against England in the fight for Independence of the United States in 1778, La Pérouse was given command of the frigate the Amazon which, incorporated into the division of La Motte-Piquet, left May 1, 1779 for the East Indies, escorting a convoy to Martinique. Rallying the f lag of vice-admiral Comte d’Estaing, La Pérouse participated in the taking of Grenada and the violent battle against the squadron of John Byron on July 4, 5 and 6. Later, on board the Amazon, he was positioned for surveillance opposite Charleston in South Carolina.

6. Scientific instruments for the circumnavigation. Autograph and signed receipt by the chevalier Paul-Antoine-Marie Fleuriot de Langle

Commander of the Astrolabe, Brest, 18 June 1785, 1 p. 4to

“Pour Monsieur le comte de Tessé : un baromètre en fer dont il paiera la valeur comptant” (“For the Compte de Tessé: an iron barometer for which he will pay the cash value”)

As early as March 1785, Lapérouse proposed that Paul Monneron who had been chosen as the expedition’s chief engineer, go to London  to find out about the anti-scurvy measures recommended by Cook and the exchange items used by Cook in his dealings with native peoples, and to buy scientific instruments of English manufacture. The best-known figure from Cook’s missions, Joseph Banks, intervened at the Royal Society to obtain for Monneron two inclining compasses that had belonged to Cook. Furnished with a list produced by Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, Monneron also bought scientific instruments from some of the largest English firms, particularly Ramsden. He even surpassed Fleurieu’s directives by acquiring two sextants of a new type.

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7. Autograph and signed receipt by the chevalier de Monti

Second-in-command on the Astrolabe. [Brest], 1 p. 8vo, 17 June 1785

“For the Astrolabe, the eau-de-vie (alcohol) necessary for twelve tierçons & thirty-six barrels... (...) 3 bottles of eau-de-vie

8. Autograph and signed receipt by the chevalier de Clonard

Second-in-command on La Boussole, commanded the Astrolabe after the death of Langle.

On board the Boussole, 6 July 1785, 1 p. 4to:

“The Boussole. Voucher of request, cobbler’s items. 12.twelve calfskins. 6. Six idem black. 6. Six idem white. 12. pieces of ribbon for borders. 100. One hundred awl handles. 40. Forty dowel pins. 2. Two wooden sheets. 2. Two cobbler’s coats. 2. Two pincers… Onboard, 6 July 1785”

9. A signature of Lapérouse cut in a letter.

10. AL’s of Marshal de Castries.

11. Document signed Delapérouse dated À Seyne, 2 janvier 1736, 2 pp. 8vo: “I am honored to address to you the accounts audited”, written by one of his ancestors

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21, rue Fresnel. 75116 ParisM. + 33 (0) 6 80 15 34 45 - T. + 33 (0) 1 47 23 41 18

F. + 33 (0) 1 47 23 58 65jean-baptiste@deproyart.com

EXHIBITION: 1. “Signaux pour la Côte. Isle d’Ouessant”. Exposition du centenaire [Centenary exhibition], 1888, n° 19 -- 2. “Du Service particulier des vaisseau”. Exposition du centenaire [Centenary exhibition], 1888, n° 26 -- 3. “Instruction pour naviguer dans le détroit d’Hudson”. Exposition du centenaire [Centenary exhibition], 1888, n° 27 -- 4. Autograph letter signed by Lapérouse, to M. Gesnès, Exposition du centenaire [Centenary exhibition], 1888, n° 13, quoted p. 175 -- 6. Autograph signed receipt by Fleuriot de Langle. Exposition du centenaire [Centenary exhibition], 1888, n° 116

REFERENCES: Centenaire de la mort de Lapérouse célébré le 20 avril 1888, Paris, Société de Géographie, 1888 -- A. Barrès, Lapérouse et ses compagnons dans la baie d’Hudson, La Rochelle, 2012 -- W. Glover, “The Navigation of the Nonsuch, 1668-69”, The Northern Mariner, XI, n° 4, 2001, pp. 49-63 -- Exhibition : Le Mystère Lapérouse ou le rêve inachevé d’un roi, Paris, 2008 -- M. de Brossard, Lapérouse. Des combats à la découverte, Paris, 1978 -- J. Dunmore, La Vie de Lapérouse, Paris, 2006 -- Voyage de Lapérouse autour du monde... publié par M. de Brossard, Paris, 1965

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