Rare love letters to French aristocrat shed light on Louis XVI maritime mystery
‘Miracle’ cache of letters written by French scientist who died in ill-fated La Pérouse mission give personal account of 1785 voyageAs he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is…
By · October 29, 2026 · 1 min read
This article was originally published by
The Guardian World
and is republished here under license.
‘Miracle’ cache of letters written by French scientist who died in ill-fated La Pérouse mission give personal account of 1785 voyage
As he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is reported to have asked: “Is there news of Monsieur de la Pérouse?”
He was referring to Jean-François de Galaup, the count of Pérouse, a naval officer and navigator whom the French king had dispatched in 1785 on a round-the-world scientific mission to rival discoveries made by the English explorer Captain James Cook.
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