As he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is reported to have asked: “Is there news of Monsieur de la Pérouse?”
asserted
XVI → prepare → Pérouse
He was referring to Jean-François de Galaup, the count of Pérouse, a naval officer and navigator whom the French king had dispatched in 1785 on a round-the-world scientific mission to rival discoveries made by the English explorer Captain James Cook.
asserted
king → refer → explorer
The two ships under La Pérouse’s command, La Boussole and L’Astrolabe, disappeared three years later after leaving Botany Bay in Australia.
asserted
ships → disappear → Australia
The wrecks were only formally identified in 2005 and exactly what happened to them remains a mystery to this day.
asserted
happened → identify → day
Now rare letters written by an illustrious scientist who perished in 1788 have resurfaced, giving a new and personal account of the voyage.
asserted
who → write → voyage
They are described as veiled love letters addressed to the married daughter of an aristocratic family, and were discovered hidden in a book of engravings being examined in preparation for auction.
asserted
They → describe → auction
Ludovic Miran, a book and manuscript expert for the auctioneers selling the letters next month, described the find as “a miracle”.
asserted
Miran → sell → miracle
“We have a certain number of documents from the expedition but they are almost all scientific, so these personal letters are extremely rare,” Miran told the Guardian.
asserted
Miran → have → Guardian
“They throw a completely new light on what is in France an extraordinary scientific and historical event.”
asserted
what → throw → France
The La Pérouse expedition was launched at a time when Britain and France were in a period of intense rivalry over colonial expansion.
asserted
Britain → launch → expansion
La Pérouse was a great admirer of Cook and his maritime mapping and scientific discoveries, but Louis XVI had more political and trade ambitions.
asserted
XVI → have → ambitions
The French wanted to create trade routes and discover whether the secret information they had that Britain was planning to establish a permanent base at Botany Bay, giving it access to unexplored areas of the Pacific region, was correct.
asserted
Britain → want → region
La Pérouse’s ships, carrying 225 crew officers and scientists, sailed from Brest on France’s Atlantic coast on 1 August 1785 and for almost three years sent reports during stopovers including from Alaska, California, Asia, Russia and Samoa, where the captain of the Astrolabe and 11 men were killed.
asserted
captain → carry → Astrolabe
To La Pérouse’s dismay, Captain Arthur Phillip and Britain’s First Fleet had beaten him to the Australian coast – inhabited by an Indigenous population for tens of thousands of years – by just six days.
asserted
Phillip → beat → days
La Boussole and L’Astrolabe are believed to have foundered on coral reefs at Vanikoro east of the Solomon Islands during a tornado a few months later.
asserted
Boussole → believe → tornado
Wreckage was discovered in 1826 and 1964 but only formally identified in 2005.
asserted
Wreckage → discover → 2005
The letters were written by Jean-André Mongez, a brilliant scientist, director of an illustrious science revue and church canon who was with the expedition, to Louise Victoria Le Cloustier, the daughter of a minor noble family from Rouen, Normandy.
asserted
who → write → Rouen
Miran said Mongez used the letters to express his unhappiness at her marriage and appears to repent for previous bad behaviour.
asserted
Mongez → say → behaviour
“He writes several times: ‘I will be back, I will be another man, a better man’,” Miran said.
asserted
Miran → write → ?
“One has the impression he has not behaved well towards her and she has put him in his place.
asserted
she → have → place
This may, he added, have been behind Mongez’s decision to undertake such a long and perilous journey.
uncertain
he → add → journey
“The references are often veiled, but they seem to have had a very close relationship but he seems to have caused some offence at some point.
asserted
he → veil → point
They are intimate, very personal letters,” he said.
asserted
he → say → ?
“He tells her he is leaving ‘a bit for the love of fame and the desire to acquire new knowledge’, but he already had scientific glory and a good career and they would have all read James Cook’s works before leaving so they knew about the dangers.
“
asserted
they → tell → dangers
We will never know why he decided to join this perilous journey, but it is clear he was leaving in part because of this emotional relationship.”
asserted
he → know → relationship
Miran added: “The correspondence also provides answers as to how these young men endured three years of navigation around the world, a completely new and unimaginable experience.
asserted
men → add → world
We learn how they withstood the shock of such a crazy journey and horrible conditions.
asserted
they → learn → journey
“He recounts how his friend and others were massacred on one stop.
asserted
friend → recount → stop
In his last letter he tells her the expedition has taken a sad turn and he now only wants to come home because such unhappiness is not compensated for by the meagre scientific results they have.
asserted
they → tell → results
Le Cloustier died in 1821, like the rest of the world unaware of the fate of Mongez or the expedition.
asserted
Cloustier → die → Mongez
“But she kept the letters and we can tell they have been read, and reread.
asserted
they → keep → letters
I would imagine she had to hide them from her husband,” Miran said.
asserted
Miran → imagine → husband
The auctioneer Benoît Derouineau said he had discovered the letters in an “unremarkable” 19th-century book of engravings being prepared for sale.
asserted
he → say → sale
“I didn’t realise what they were at first.
asserted
they → realise → ?
They had clearly been carefully saved and hidden.
asserted
They → save → ?
Perhaps because they were a kind of love letter and the recipient didn’t want them seen.
asserted
them → want → letter
But she hadn’t thrown them away or burned them,” he said.
asserted
he → throw → them
“That Louis XVI is said to have asked about La Pérouse shows how much was invested in this expedition.
asserted
much → say → expedition
The letters, valued at €30,000-€50,000, are being sold as one lot by Daguerre at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, on 17 November.
asserted
letters → value → November
The Aporia
