LA PEROUSE, JEAN-FRANCOIS DE GALAUP, COMTE DE ( I 741—C. 1788), French navigator, was born near Albi, on Aug. 2 2, 1 741. As a lad of 18 La Perouse was wounded and made prisoner on board the "Formidable" when it was captured by Admiral Hawke in 1759; and during the war with England between 1778 and 1783 he served on the eastern coasts of Canada and in Hudson's bay, where he captured Fts. Prince of Wales and York (Aug. 8 and 21, 1782). In 1785 (Aug. I) he sailed from Brest in command of the French government expedition of two vessels ("La Boussole" under La Perouse himself, and "L'Astro labe," under de Langle) for the discovery of the North-West passage, vainly essayed by Cook on his last voyage, from the Pacific side. He was to explore the Pacific coasts, to collect in formation as to the whale fishery in the southern oceans and as to the fur trade in North America. He reached Mt. St. Elias, Alaska, on June 23, 1786. He was driven from these regions by bad weather; and after visiting the Hawaiian islands, and dis covering Necker island (Nov. 5, 1786), he crossed over to Asia (Macao, Jan. 3, 1787). Thence he passed to the Philippines, and so to the coasts of Japan, Korea and "Chinese Tartary," where his best results were gained. Touching at Quelpart, he reached De
Castries bay, near the modern Vladivostok, on July 28, 1787; and on Aug. 2, following discovered the strait, still named after him, between Sakhalin and the Northern island of Japan. On Sept. 7, he put in at Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka; thence he sent home Lesseps, overland, with the journals, notes, plans and maps re cording the work of the expedition. At Mauna in the Samoan group de Langle and ten of the crew of the "Astrolabe" were murdered. He quitted Samoa on Dec. 14, touched at the Friendly islands and Norfolk island and arrived in Botany bay on Jan. 26, 1788. After a letter written from Australia on Feb. 7, no more was heard of him and his squadron till in 1826 Captain Peter Dillon found the wreckage of what must have been the "Boussole" and the "Astrolabe" on the reefs of Vanikoro, an island to the north of the New Hebrides.