Title: French botany in the Enlightenment : the ill-fated voyages of La Pérouse and his rescuers /
Authors: Williams, Roger Lawrence, 1923-
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Year: 2003
Subjects: Entrecasteaux, Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, Travel Oceania.; La Pérouse, Jean-François de Galaup, Travel Oceania.; Botany France History; Botanists France History; Plant collectors France History; Botany history France.; Botany history Pacific Islands.; Oceania Discovery and exploration French.; France; Pacific Islands
Abstract: "This volume completes a trilogy meant to be a commentary on the botanophilia that captured the literate public in 18th-century France. Enthusiastic public support for any governmental initiative likely to expand botanical knowledge was an expression of immense curiosity about the natural world beyond Europe, which extended into a curiosity about primitive people and cultures little known. It amounted to a quest for universal knowledge that could benefit all mankind: useful knowledge that could improve the human condition in this life. That was the spirit of the Enlightenment, the sciences believed to be the key to humanity's advancement. The botanists exploring abroad brought back exciting quantities of new species and genera, but also a message about the condition of primitive people that undercut the fashionable image of noble savagery. No matter how dispiriting were some of the conditions they observed abroad, they retained a faith that ignorance and superstition could be vanquished."--Back of dust jacket.
Contents: Introduction -- Royal instructions for scientific exploration -- The French gardener overseas -- The voyage of La Pérouse. Part 1, From Brest to Monterey Bay ; Part 2, From Monterey to Botany Bay -- Adventures and misadventures : the bizarre story of the Dupetit Thouars brothers -- The voyage of Entrecasteaux. Part 1, Genesis and preparation ; Part 2, From Brest to Tasmania ; Part 3, New Caledonia to Ambon ; Part 4, Esperance Bay ; Part 5, Tasmania revisited ; Part 6, On to New Caledonia ; Part 7, Its woeful end -- Internment -- From explorer to closet botanist -- Epilogue.