Carte de Cotes de L'Amerique et de L'Asie depuis la Californie jusqu'a Macao

Chart of the North Pacific, tracking part of the voyage of Jean Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Perouse.
Often compared to Cook, La Perouse sailed in the same waters and had the same aims. Ostensibly a scientific expedition, La Perouse was also secretly tasked to survey the possible areas for siting new French colonies in the Pacific, particularly Australia.

This chart shows La Perouse’s voyage in the North Pacific in 1786-7, first calling at Hawaii and then sailing to the northwest coast of America as far south as Monterrey, from where he turned west and sailed to Macao. From there, the expedition sailed north hugging the east coast of Asia until they reached the Kamchatka Peninsula. Upon reaching Petropavlovsk, the papers and results of the expedition so far were entrusted to crew member and interpreter, Barthelemy de Lesseps before La Perouse was informed that the English had sent a fleet to what they named New South Wales. La Perouse rapidly sailed south, only to find that the British had already landed in Port Jackson. After several cordial exchanges, this being one of the brief periods of peace between Britain and France, La Perouse sailed into the Pacific and contact with his ships was lost.

It was not until 1826 that a British whaling captain returned to Europe with several French artifacts which he obtained from the local inhabitants of the island of Vanikoro, in the Solomon Islands. In 1828, a French naval officer, Dumont D’Urville, returned to Paris with several other artifacts from the same source. De Lesseps confirmed that these were from the expedition. Early 21st century expeditions have established that both ships of the expedition were wrecked on the reefs of Vanikoro.

This chart shows Le Perouse’s track south to the west of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
Coloured.