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9608486

Title
Jean Roux Journal du voyage fait sur le vaisseau du Roi Le Mascarin, commandé par M. Marion, Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal et Militaire de St Louis, Capitaine de Brulot: accompagné de la Flutte Le Marquis de Castries, pour faire le voyage de l'Isle Taïty ou de Cythère, en faisant la découverte des Terres Australes, passant à la Nouvelle Hollande, à la Nouvelle Zélande, etc. etc., par le Sr Jean Roux, Lieutenant sur le susdit vaisseau Le Mascarin, 18 October 1771 - 7 May 1773, being a fair copy probably made by the French Admiralty, [between 1773 and 1776]
Creator
Jean Roux, active 1771-1773
Call number
MLMSS 10085
Level of description
fonds
Date

[between 1773 and 1776] (copy of original dated 18 October 1771 - 7 May 1773)
Type of material
Textual Records
Reference code
9608486
Physical Description
0.39 metres of textual material (1 box) - manuscript in ink, with plain paper wrappers, folios stitched with green ribbon - 38 x 24 cm
ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Jean Roux was an ensign under the command of Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne on his ill-fated voyage on board Le Mascarin. By his return, he had been promoted to lieutenant. Roux was one of the few survivors along with Julien Crozet.

Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne was a wealthy ship owner and merchant. After military service during the Seven Years War, in 1761 he took the astronomer Alexandre Gui Pingré to the Indian Ocean to observe the transit of Venus, and organized an expedition to the Seychelles in 1768, before settling on the Isle de France (Mauritius).

In 1770, the Polynesian Aotourou (who had journeyed to France with Bougainville) arrived at the island with orders that a passage to his native Tahiti should be arranged for him. Marion du Fresne volunteered to convey Aotourou home and to explore southern waters on the way. Largely financing the voyage himself, he purchased the Marquis de Castries, gained the use of Le Mascarin, and left the Isle de France on 18 October 1771, just a few months after James Cook's return from his first voyage to the South Pacific on the Endeavour. An outbreak of smallpox resulted in Aotourou dying at Port Dauphin, Madagascar. Undeterred, Marion du Fresne proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope for provisions and headed east in search of the great southern continent that Gonneville had once found and which Bouvet had searched for some thirty years before.

On 14 January 1772, Marion du Fresne’s vessels collided, one being left with a splintered bowsprit and no foremast. Despite the damage, he maintained an easterly course and on 21 January the Crozet Islands were seen. On 24 January, Marion sent Roux ashore to leave a bottle and take possession of the island in the name of the King of France.

In need of fresh water and timber to remast the Marquis de Castries, Marion du Fresne set a course for Van Diemen's Land. On 3 March 1772 his sailors sighted the coast, near High Rocky Point. Rounding the island's most southerly point on 5 March the vessels anchored off Cape Frederick Hendrick - in waters now called Marion Bay and North Bay - close to where Abel Tasman had anchored 130 years before. Marion du Fresne led a party ashore in two boats on 7 March 1772; they were the first French explorers to reach any part of Australia and are believed to be the first Europeans to encounter the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land (Dutch explorer Abel Tasman reported seeing fires and hearing voices but did not see any people). Initially relations were cordial. When a third boat approached, a shower of stones was thrown and Marion du Fresne ordered a retreat. Following another hail of hatchets and stones, which wounded him and several of his party, he ordered a volley of shots to frighten off the attackers. He then sought another landing place but was again showered with missiles. After one of his crew was speared in the leg, Marion du Fresne gave the order to fire and give chase. Several Aborigines were killed in the encounter.

Marion du Fresne then set sail for the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, where he attempted to re-mast his vessel. They set up three camps and were led to some fine Kauri trees which they were allowed to cut down and use for masts. It is likely that the French overstayed their welcome and inevitably, friction developed. At Te Hue on 12 June 1772, Marion du Fresne and at least nineteen of his crew were killed by the Maori. The ambush and ensuing death of Marion du Fresne and his crew was never fully explained. According to historians, it is possible that the attack was in reprisal for de Surville’s attack some eighteen months earlier or as a result of the French cutting down a sacred Maori tree. Various accounts obtained from the Maori years later give further insight into the cause of the incident. Possible causes include: reprisal attack as the French had arrested a chief who had stolen an axe; a clash had taken place in which several Maori had been killed; and a disagreement over a catch of fish. Regardless of the reason, the massacre appears to have been premeditated.

The expedition returned to the Isle de France in May 1773. Du Fresne's family was bankrupted by the expedition.

Marion du Fresne’s journal of the voyage has been lost, however his second-in-command Julien Crozet, published his account of the voyage in 1783 'Nouveau voyage à la mer du sud'.

References:
Library acquisition file

Dunmore, J. French explorers in the Pacific. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965.

Duyker, Edward. 'Marion Dufresne, Marc-Joseph (1724–1772)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/marion-dufresne-marc-joseph-13076/text23653, published first in hardcopy 2005 (accessed online 27 March 2018).
Collection history
The journal was bought by Maggs at an auction in France in 2017. It came from the estate of private collector André Fildier (1928-2001) who was a dealer in ephemera and postcards from the 1940s onwards.
Scope and Content
A complete account by Lieutenant Jean Roux of the voyage of the Mascarin commanded by Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, beginning with the departure from the Isle de France on 18 October 1771 and continuing through to their return in May 1773. The sixty-four page manuscript journal is written in a secretarial hand.

It details events of the voyage but also contains valuable ethnographic and nautical information. Seven pages of the journal are devoted to Van Diemen’s Land (‘Terre de Diemen’) and Roux provides detailed ethnographic descriptions. As with many European voyages of discovery of this time, Dufresne’s time in Van Diemen’s Land was not without incident, and this account is particularly rich in its documentation of violent encounters. There are also notable descriptions of the native wildlife of Van Diemen’s Land. The account of New Zealand occupies approximately forty-three pages of the journal and features rich descriptions of the landscape and Maori people. Again, of particular interest is the recounting of violent encounters, including a detailed description of the 'Massacre de M. Marion'.
Language
French
Copying Conditions
Copyright status:: In copyright
Research & study copies allowed: Author has been deceased for more than 50 years.
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
General note

One of four known manuscript copies. A copy is held by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF) and two copies are held by the French National Archives.
Paper watermarked 'D&C Blauw'.
Date note

The copy of the journal at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France is accompanied by a letter from Roux dated May 1776. It is assumed that the copies were made some time between the return of Le Mascarin in 1773, and 1776.
Name
Marion Du Fresne, M.-J. (Marc-Joseph)
Crozet, Julien Marie, b. 1728
Aotourou, -1772
Mascarin (Ship)
Marquis de Castries (Ship)
Subject
Voyages and travels--18th century.
Voyages of exploration.
Indian Ocean--Discovery and exploration--French.
Pacific Ocean--Discovery and exploration--French.
Aboriginal Australians--Tasmania.
Australia--Discovery and exploration--French.
Tasmania--Discovery and exploration--French.
New Zealand--Discovery and exploration--French.
Place
Tasmania
New Zealand
Crozet Islands
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