John Francis Galaup de la Perouse Commodore in the French Navy, born at Alby in 1741.

Portrait of the famous French explorer who went missing after being sighted at Botany Bay by the First Fleet and was never seen again. Remains of the ship were found on the island of Vanikoro by Dumont D’Urville.

La Pérouse’s expedition was one of the most important French voyages of exploration scientific explorations ever undertaken to the Pacific and the west coast of North America. La Perouse had been instructed

The charge to the expedition [which took place between 1785 and 1788] was to examine such parts of the region as had not been explored by Captain Cook; to seek for an interoceanic passage; to make scientific observations on the various countries, peoples, and products; to obtain reliable information about the fur trade and the extent of Spanish settlements in California; and to promote the inducements for French enterprise in that quarter.La Pérouse and his men did important geographical research.The voyage also included the first foreign scientific group ever to visit Alta California [two of the plates depict a bee-eater and a male and female partridge of California. There are also maps and plans of San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego].La Pérouse sent dispatches back to France from Kamchatka and Botany Bay. The two ships then set sail from Botany Bay, in 1788, and were never heard from again” – Hill. It was not until the 1820s that the wrecks of his ships were discovered on a reef in the Santa Cruz group. Among the most significant results of the voyage are the series of charts that were produced as a result of the expedition’s surveys of Asiatic side of the Pacific; and the ethnographic details of “the peculiarities [La Pérouse].observed in the natives of the northwest coast of North America” (Sabin). In addition, he was the first westerner to safely navigate and chart the Japan Sea and the strait between the island of Sakhalin and the northernmost island of Japan. En route for Australia in 1788, La Pérouse sailed via Samoa, where he discovered the islands of Apolima, Manono, and Savaii. The atlas provides a fascinating pictorial record of this important voyage.

From The English edition of; Charts and Plates to La Pérouse’s Voyage.

References; Ferguson 287, Hill 975, Wagner pp.199-201.