Two letters to Louis de Freycinet from Joseph Paul Gaimard and Jean René Constant Quoy while on Dumont d'Urville's Astrolabe expedition, 25 December 1827 and 18 October 1828

MLMSS 10413

fonds

25 December 1827, 18 October 1828

9649884

0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder)

Louis de Freycinet (1779-1842) sailed with Baudin on his expedition to the Pacific between 1800 and 1804, exploring the south and south-west coasts of Australia and visiting Sydney. In 1817, Freycinet was appointed commander of the Uranie on a voyage of exploration and scientific discovery to the Pacific which included visits to Western Australia and New South Wales. While writing the official account of the Uranie voyage in the 1820s and 1830s, Freycinet corresponded with friends to gain the most up-to-date information.

Joseph Paul Gaimard (1793 – 1858) and Jean René Constant Quoy (1790-1869) were French naval surgeons and naturalists. Both men served under Louis de Freycinet on the Uranie, 1817-1820, and under Jules Dumont d'Urville on the Astrolabe , 1826-1829. During the latter voyage they made landfalls at various ports in Australia, charted much of New Zealand, visited Fiji, New Caledonia, New Ireland, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Dumont d'Urville's Astrolabe was anchored off Hobart from 18 December 1827 to 5 January 1828. During this time, the French first heard the account of the Irish captain and sandalwood trader Peter Dillon, who had stumbled upon evidence of the fate of the La Pérouse expedition in Vanikolo. As a result, Dumont d'Urville's ship sailed directly to the island where the crew found one of the wrecks and salvaged some materials.

The two letters were originally part of Louis de Freycinet’s extensive archives which were dispersed during the last century, but they do not have the 'Archives de Laage' stamp common to many documents from the Freycinet family archive. They were purchased from a French dealer in the late 1970s, and became part of a private collection in Sydney. Reference: Information supplied by the vendor

Gaimard and Quoy report to Louis de Freycinet on the progress of their voyage, including news gathered in Hobart of Peter Dillon's discoveries concerning the location of La Pérouse's two shipwrecks, and their subsequent visit to Tikopia and Vanikolo where they find debris from one of the wrecks.

Item 1: Letter from Joseph Paul Gaimard and Jean René Constant Quoy to Louis de Freycinet, written at Hobart Town, Île Van Diemen, 25 December 1827

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

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales