This rare, large chart was created to accompany Jacques Julien Houton de Labillardiere's Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de La Pérouse regarding the search for la Perouse's shipwreck. During his voyage around the world, la Perouse periodically sent reports and letters back to France regarding his discoveries and his journey. On 10 March 1788, he sent a final letter indicating that he was leaving New South Wales bound for New Caledonia and the western and southern coasts of Australia. La Perouse and his expedition were never seen again. In 1791, the French assembled an expedition to search for la Perouse and his ships, commanded by Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux on the ships Recherche and Along for the journey was botanist Jacques Labillardière, who wrote an account of the expedition upon his return to France, which was published in 1800. This chart shows the tracks of d'Entrecasteaux's ships as well as his discoveries in the South Pacific and along the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. D'Entrecasteaux did not locate evidence of la Perouse's expedition, and the mystery of the disappearance wasn't solved until Peter Dillon and Dumont d'Urville discovered remnants from the shipwrecks in Vanikoro of the Solomon Islands in 1826-28. Engraved by D'Houdan and Dien.

References: Perry & Prescott #1800.07; Tooley (Australia), p. 21 #139.

Condition: A

A sharp impression on a bright sheet with minor soiling at center and a soft horizontal crease.