• Title
  Item 2: Letter from Joseph Paul Gaimard and Jean René Constant Quoy to Louis de Freycinet, written at Port Louis, Île de France, 18 October 1828
• Call number
  MLMSS 10413/Folder 1/Item 2
  
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  18 October 1828
• Type of material
  Textual Records
• Reference code
  9650532
• Physical Description
  1 manuscript letter
  
• Scope and Content
  Letter from [J.] P. Gaimard and [J. R. C.] Quoy to Louis de Freycinet in Paris, (letter number 17) sent from Port Louis de l'Île de France [Mauritius], 18 October 1828 (7 pages on two folded sheets, postmarks, red wax seal) [in unknown hand, with final lines in Gaimard's hand and signed by Gaimard and Quoy].
  
  In this letter Gaimard and Quoy give an account of the voyage after their departure from Hobart on 5 January 1828 with the intention of heading for Tikopia and Vanikolo, “acting on the somewhat vague information of Captain Peter Dillon.”
  
  At Tikopia, the French heard only vague information about “two men who might still survive from the La Pérouse expedition” and were shown a letter left by Dillon giving “no more than an indication of the direction to be followed” to Vanikolo. From this Gaimard and Quoy concluded that Dillon’s conduct was “narrow and mercantile.”
  
  Despite Dillon’s unhelpful letter, the French eventually arrived at Vanikolo (named Pitt’s Island by Captain Edward Edwards and Recherche by D’Entrecasteaux) where they had difficulty in finding a safe anchorage. Their enquiries as to survivors were answered in the negative by the natives but below the water they saw “masses of lead ingots, the anchors, the guns all close together” and managed to bring up a cannon, some cannon balls and a large anchor. In addition they received parts of scientific instruments from the natives.
  
  From all this, they deduced that one of La Pérouse’s ships was wrecked on the reefs and the second ship was also lost a short distance away. Some of the crew would have swum ashore and some may have made it to surrounding islands where they were probably killed. Those who remained on Vanikolo would have been finished by “misery and disease.”
  
  Based on their examination of the evidence, Gaimard and Quoy propose two possibilities: 1) One of the ships was lost on the reefs and the second ship, already too far advanced, entered the same passage and was also lost; or 2) while hoping to rescue the castaways of the first ship, they may have entered this break in the reefs and become stranded.
  
  Gaimard and Quoy conclude that the first possibility is more probable adding that they did not find any debris from the second ship. Before leaving Vanikolo they raised “a modest monument to the memory of La Pérouse and his companions.”
  
  In the rest of the letter, Gaimard and Quoy describe in some detail their voyage to Batavia by way of the Marianas, Guam, Amboine and the Moluccas. During their one month stay in Guam, Gaimard and Quoy renewed their acquaintance with Governor José de Medinilla who had been so generous to the Uranie crew on their visit nine years before. They also saw John Anderson again, who had deserted the Uranie in Guam. The letter concludes in Gaimard's hand with a greeting to Madame de Freycinet [Rose] and Madame Maillard [Stéphanie Pinon, sister of Rose], having heard that Stéphanie recently married.
• Language
  French
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright:
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• Published Information
  This letter, edited by Louis de Freycinet, was published in the Bulletin de la Société de géographie, vol. 11, 1829, pp. 201-208.
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Letter is jointly signed by Gaimard and Quoy.
  The letter has various corrections in ink throughout in the hand of Louis de Freycinet, including some isolating of sections of the letter and crossing out, which he made while preparing it for publication in the Bulletin de la Société de géographie for 1829.
• Subject
  Pinon, Stéphanie, 1796-
  
• Place
  Vanikolo (Solomon Islands)
  Santa Cruz Islands (Solomon Islands)
  Tikopia (Solomon Islands)
  Guam
  Port Louis (Mauritius)
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE20835074

View Media Files

1.

2.

3.

4.

Show more