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Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux | |
|---|---|
 Portrait inVoyage to Australia and the Pacific 1791–1793 | |
| Born | (1737-11-08)8 November 1737 Aix-en-Provence, France |
| Died | 21 July 1793(1793-07-21) (aged 55) Off theHermits |
| Cause of death | Scurvy |
| Years active | 1754–1793 |
Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux (French:[dɑ̃tʁ(ə)kasto]; 8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was aFrench Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator who served as theGovernor of Isle de France from 1787 to 1789. He is best known for his exploration of theAustralian coast in 1792 while searching forJean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was born to Dorothée de Lestang-Parade and Jean Baptiste Bruny, inAix-en-Provence in 1739. His father was a member of theParlement ofProvence. Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was educated at aJesuit school in Aix-en-Provence and reportedly intended to become a priest in theSociety of Jesus, but his father intervened and enlisted him in theFrench Navy in 1754. In theBattle of Minorca, which secured theBalearic Islands for France, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux served as a midshipman aboard the 26-gunMinerve, and in April 1757 he was commissioned as anensign. His further naval career as a junior officer was uneventful, and he appears in this period to have done general service in the French Navy.
For a time Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was assistant director of ports and arsenals, after which (1785) he was transferred to command a French Squadron in theEast Indies, comprisingRésolution andSubtile.[1] During this service he opened up a new route toCanton by way of theSunda Strait and theMoluccas, for use during the south-east monsoon season. In 1787 he was appointedGovernor of the French colony ofIsle de France (nowMauritius) and the Isle of Bourbon.[2]
In September 1791, the French Assembly decided to send an expedition in search ofJean-François de La Pérouse, who had not been heard of since leavingBotany Bay in March 1788. Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was selected to command this expedition. He was given a frigate,Recherche (500 tons), with Lieutenant Jean-Louis d'Hesmity-d'Auribeau as his second-in-command andÉlisabeth Rossel among the other officers. A similar ship,Espérance, was placed underJean-Michel Huon de Kermadec,[2] withde Trobriand as his second-in-command. A distinguished hydrographical engineer,Beautemps-Beaupré, served as thehydrographer of the expedition.
When the expedition leftBrest on 28 September 1791, Entrecasteaux was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. The plan of the voyage was to proceed toNew Holland (Australia), to sightCape Leeuwin at its southwest extremity, then to hug the shore closely all the way toVan Diemen's Land (Tasmania), inspecting every possible harbour in a rowing boat, and then to sail forTonga (aka "the Friendly Islands") via the northern cape ofNew Zealand allowing gardenerFélix Delahaye to collect livebreadfruit plants for transport to the French West Indies. D'Entrecasteaux was next to follow La Pérouse's intended route in thePacific. It was thought that La Pérouse had meant to exploreNew Caledonia and theLouisiade Archipelago, to pass throughTorres Strait, and to explore theGulf of Carpentaria and the northern coast of New Holland.
However, when Bruni d'Entrecasteaux reachedTable Bay,Cape Town on 17 January 1792, he heard a report that CaptainJohn Hunter (later to beGovernor of New South Wales) had recently seen – off theAdmiralty Islands – canoes manned by indigenous people wearing French uniforms and belts. Although Hunter denied this report, and although the Frenchmen heard of the denial, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux determined to make directly to the Admiralty Islands, nowadays part ofPapua New Guinea, taking water and refreshing his crew at Van Diemen's Land. On 20 April 1792, that land was in sight, and three days later the ships anchored in a harbour, which he namedRecherche Bay. For the next five weeks, until 28 May 1792, the Frenchmen carried out careful boat explorations which revealed in detail the beautiful waterways and estuaries in the area.
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was fortunate in having good officers and scientists, most importantly from the exploration point-of-view the expedition's first hydrographical engineer,Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré, who is now regarded as the father of modern French hydrography. The work this officer did in the field was excellent, and his charts, when published in France in 1807,[3] were very detailed. The atlas contains 39 charts, of which those of Van Diemen's Land were the most detailed; they remained the source of the English charts of the area for many years.
Beautemps-Beaupré, while surveying the coasts with Lieutenant Crétin, discovered thatAdventure Bay, Tasmania, which had been discovered byTobias Furneaux and named after his ship in 1773, was on an island which was separated from the mainland by a fine navigable channel. On 16 May, d'Entrecasteaux commenced to sail the ships through the channel, and this was accomplished by the 28th.Port Esperance, theHuon River, and other features were discovered, named, and charted, the admiral's names being given to the channel (D'Entrecasteaux Channel) and the large island (Bruny Island) separated by it from the mainland.
On 28 May 1792 the ships sailed into the Pacific to search for La Pérouse. On 17 June they arrived off theIsle of Pines, south ofNew Caledonia. From there, d'Entrecasteaux sailed northward along the western coast of New Caledonia. (The Bruni d'Entrecasteaux reefs at the northwestern end of theNew Caledonia Barrier Reef are named for him.) He then passed theSolomon Islands along their southern or western coasts, sailed throughSaint George's Channel betweenNew Ireland andNew Britain, and on 28 July sighted the south-east coast of theAdmiralty Islands. After three days spent in scrutinizing the eastern and northern coastline, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux decided that the rumours he had heard in Table Bay must be false, and he therefore set sail forAmbon, in modern-day Indonesia, where his ships replenished their stores.
Leaving Amboina on 14 October, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux made forCape Leeuwin, the south-western extremity of Australia, to carry out his original instructions of searching southernNew Holland for La Pérouse. On 6 December land was sighted near Cape Leeuwin, and named D'Entrecasteaux Point. This event was celebrated by feastings and parties, one result of which was that the smith on boardRecherche, Jean-Marie Marhadour over-indulged and died next day from anapoplectic fit. The weather proved boisterous, and the ships failed to findKing George Sound, originally discovered byVancouver. As they sailed further east, they penetrated numerous islands and dangerous shoals, to which they gave the nameD'Entrecasteaux Islands – later changed to theRecherche Archipelago.
While the Frenchmen were still in that dangerous area, on 12 December a violent storm descended upon them, and both ships were nearly wrecked. Fortunately, however, they found an anchorage where they were able to ride out the worst of the gale. Landings took place here on the mainland, and the locality was named in honour of Legrand, who had spotted the anchorage, and of the ship he was on,Espérance. Beautemps-Beaupré made a hasty survey of the off-lying islands of the archipelago. No water was found, and on 18 December the ships continued eastward to the head of theGreat Australian Bight, but here the coast was found to be even more arid, and the water position more serious.
On 4 January 1793, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was forced to leave the coast at a position near Bruni d'Entrecasteaux Reef and sail direct to Van Diemen's Land. In this decision the French explorer was unfortunate, for if he had continued his examination of the southern coast of New Holland, he would have made all the geographical discoveries that fell to the lot ofBass andFlinders a few years later. Then, indeed, a FrenchTerre Napoléon[further explanation needed] might well have become a fact.[citation needed]
The ships anchored in Recherche Bay on 22 January, and the expedition spent a period of five weeks in that area, watering the ships, refreshing the crews, and carrying out explorations into bothnatural history andgeography. Beautemps-Beaupré, in company with other officers, surveyed the northern extensions toStorm Bay – the western extension was found to be a mouth of a river which received the nameRivière du Nord – it was renamed theDerwent River a few months later by the next visitor to this area, CaptainJohn Hayes inDuke of Clarence andDuchess.
It was probably no coincidence that the d'Entrecasteaux expedition should have spent time investigating that part of Van Diemen's Land, as that region had been recommended for colonization byHenri Peyroux de la Coudrenière in hisc. 1784–85Mémoire sur les avantages qui résulteraient d'une colonie puissante à la terre de Diémen.[4] Although Peyroux's proposal fell on deaf ears at the time, it may have influenced d'Entrecasteaux's choice of the location to investigate. An inset map of Frederick Henry Bay, the place recommended by Peyroux for a settlement, was included in the map of Van Diemens Land prepared by C. F. Beautemps-Beaupré, the hydrographer with the d'Entrecasteaux expedition.[5]
On 28 February d'Entrecasteaux sailed from Van Diemen's Land towardsTonga, sightingNew Zealand and theKermadec Islands en route. At Tonga, he found that the local people rememberedCook andBligh well enough, but knew nothing of La Pérouse. He then sailed back to New Caledonia, where he anchored at Balade. The vain search for La Pérouse then resumed withSanta Cruz, then along the southern coasts of the Solomon Islands, the northern parts of theLouisiade Archipelago, through theDampier Strait, along the northern coast ofNew Britain and the southern coast of the Admiralty Islands, and thence north ofNew Guinea to the Moluccas.
By this time, the affairs of the expedition had become almost desperate, largely because the officers were ardent royalists and the crews equally ardent revolutionaries. Kermadec had died oftuberculosis in Balade harbour, and on 21 July 1793, d'Entrecasteaux himself died ofscurvy,[2] off theHermit Islands, part of theBismarck Archipelago inPapua New Guinea.
Commands were re-arranged, with Auribeau taking charge of the expedition, with Rossel in Kermadec's place. The new chief took the ships toSurabaya in eastJava. Here it was learned that a republic had been proclaimed in France, and on 18 February 1794 Auribeau handed his vessels to the Dutch authorities so that the new French Government could not profit by them. Auribeau died a month later and Rossel sailed from Java in January 1795 on board a Dutch ship, arriving atTable Bay in April 1795. There his ship sailed unexpectedly with the expedition's papers, leaving him behind, but this vessel was captured by the British. Rossel then took passage on a brig-of-war, but this too was captured by the British. After thePeace of Amiens in 1802, all the papers of the expedition were returned to Rossel, who was thus enabled to publish a narrative of the whole enterprise.
D'Entrecasteaux is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard endemic to Australia,Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii.[7]: 84, Entrecasteaux
