GALAUP. Count de (1741-88?). A French navi gator, born near Albin. in the Department of Tarn. He entered the navy in 1756, fought against the English in the Seven Years' War, and was made a captain in 1780. In 178• he was sent to destroy the British forts in Hudson Bay. Three years later lie was chosen to com mand an expedition of discovery, sent out by the French Government for the purpose of com pleting the explorations of Cook and Clarke in the Japan Seas and southeast of Australia, and, incidentally, of attempting the Northwest Passage. Lapilrouse sailed in August, 1755, with two frigates, the Boussole and the Astro labe, taking with him specialists in botany, astronomy, geology, and geography. The expedi tion was carefully equipped. and did good work. The ships crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, rounded Cape Horn and skirted the coast of the Americas to latitude 60° North, Mount Saint Elias being sighted. On November 5, 1786, Necker Island, a small island some hundred leagues northwest of the Hawaiian group, was discovered. The ex plorers sighted the Marianne Islands. touched at the Philippines, and by May. 1787. would seem to have been in the neighborhood of Korea. These waters were for the Western world absolutely unknown, and Lap6rouse devoted some six or seven months to the exploration of the vicin ity. In August he discovered the strait be tween the islands of Saghalin and Yezo. which now bears his name. From the Bay of Avatseha in Kamtehatka, Lesseps, the interpreter of the expedition, was dispatched in September to France by the overland route across Siberia, car rying with him the records and maps of the expedition. Then, going south, Lapitrouse landed
on one of the Navigator islands, where twenty one of the expedition, including the captain of the Astrolabe, were massacred by the na tives. Lap6rouse touched Tasmania, and, on January 26, 1788, made Ifotany Bay. lie re ntained there until February 7, after which there is no trace of the movements of the expedition. The French Government offered a reward of 10.000 francs for information, and in 1791 sent an expedition in search of Lap(trou se, hut without success. ln 1826 an English captain, Dillon, found some remnants of the wreckage of Lap6 rouse's ships in the possession of the inhabitants. of Vanikoro, one of the New Hebrides. A Freneh expedition sent out in 1828 under Dumont d'Ur ville ascertained that both ships had been wrecked in a storm off the coast of this island, and that all on hoard had perished, and Dumont d'Urville erected a monument to the memory of Lapitrouse on the island. There are three editions of Lap6rouse's voyages, prepared from journals sent home by him, and published under the title Voyage (miaow du monde, in 1797, 1799, and 1831, the last edited by Lesseps. in April, 1888, the de (46ographie in Paris com memorated the one hundredth anniversary of La 1)i...rouse's death. Consult Bulletins de la Societe de la Geographic (Paris, 1SSS).