Part of the Island of Quelpaert …; Plan of the Island of Hoapinsu …; Plan of the Isle Dagelet …; Part of the Island of Botol…; Plan of the Island of Kumi, seen … May 1787 by the Boussole and Astrolabe.

Mapmaker:

Jean-François de Galaup La Perouse (1741-1788)

La Perouse entered the navy at 15 and was made lieutenant in April 1775 and captain in 1780 after France joined the American war.

In 1783 the French government appointed La Perouse in command of an expedition to the Pacific to complete Captain James Cook’s unfinished work, and in particular to explore the passages in the Bering Sea, which had been a mystery to Europeans since the C16th. In command of two ships, La Boussole and L’Astrolabe he on 1 August 1785 making for Brazil. Doubling Cape Horn he refitted in Chile, then sailed to the Sandwich Islands and onto Alaska, where he turned south exploring and surveying the coast as far as California. After a short refit at Monterey, he sailed across the Pacific, discovered uncharted islands, and visited Macao and Manila. After six weeks re provisioning he left on 10 April 1787 to survey the coasts and territories north of Korea, which had been described  by Christian missionaries. He sailed up the Gulf of Tartary, naming several points on both its shores and learned that Sakhalin was an island. In September he put in to Kamchatka to replenish his supplies. From there he turned south making for New Holland. In December, at Tutuila, Samoa, which Bougainville had called the Navigator Islands when he explored them in 1768, natives suddenly attacked a party from L’Astrolabe seeking water 12 men. La Perouse left without taking reprisals and sailed through the Pacific Islands to Norfolk Island and to Botany Bay. He was sighted off the coast there on 24 January 1788 but bad weather prevented his entering the bay for two days. La Perouse established a camp at Botany Bay on the northern shore, now named after him. After his six-week stay he sailed on 10 March and was not heard of again.