Charles Guillou Charles Fleury Bien - aimé Guilloû ( 1813 – 99 ) was an American military physician . He served on a major exploring expedition that included both scientific discoveries and controversy , and two historic diplomatic missions . He ran a hospital in the Hawaiian Islands , before returning to the US . Life . Charles Fleury Bien - aimé Guilloû was born in Philadelphia on July 26 , 1813 . His father was Victor Gabriel Guilloû ( 1776 – 1841 ) , who had escaped from the French Revolution and fought in the Haitian Revolution . His father introduced him to Marquis de Lafayette when he visited the US in 1824 . Guilloû attended a military academy and then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical school in 1836 . During 1836 , he visited his father , who had moved to Cuba to start a sugar plantation after running a dance academy in Philadelphia . Exploration . On February 9 , 1837 , Guilloû was appointed assistant surgeon for the in the United States Navy . It was one of the ships sent on the United States Exploring Expedition commanded by Charles Wilkes , although it was 1838 before the squadron could depart . After a dispute with Cadwalader Ringgold , he was transferred to the . He befriended young midshipman William Reynolds , whose journals provide a non - official version of the events of the voyage . In December 1839 , the squadron headed farther south , and in January 1840 provided the first sighting of the continent of Antarctica by a US Navy ship . Guilloû provided a sketch when the " Peacock " was stuck in the ice . They returned to Sydney for repairs , before resuming exploration . Wilkes ' imperious manner included dismissing many of the officers , leading to further low morale . Guilloû attended to sailors injured by frequent floggings . In September 1841 the squadron arrived in Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands to spend the winter . The three - year planned time of the voyage was over , and several members requested to leave . Wilkes insisted on reading all journals and letters . When Guilloû removed some pages from his journal , saying they were of a personal nature , Wilkes suspended Guilloû and prepared charges for various offenses . After the " Peacock " was lost in July 1841 while exploring the Pacific Northwest , Guilloû was shuttled between various ships , officially under arrest . On his return in 1842 , Guilloû helped organize the Navy ' s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery under William P . C . Barton . He was sentenced to dismissal at the court - martial trials in 1843 related to the Wilkes expedition , but President John Tyler reduced the sentence to a year suspension . Guilloû filed seven charges against Wilkes , including questioning his claim to have " discovered " Antarctica . Wilkes was found guilty of only one : illegal punishment . Wilkes was sentenced to a public reprimand . Diplomacy . After being reinstated , Guilloû served on the , under Commodore James Biddle . In June 1845 the ship was sent to Guangzhou ( then known as Canton ) , on a diplomatic mission with the first treaty between the US and China . It then visited Japan . When returning via Honolulu , at the outbreak of the Mexican - American War , the " Columbus " was recalled to Monterey , California and the ranch of William A . Richardson . Guilloû met John Sutter , and spoke French with the Swiss native on July 4 , 1847 ; a year later the discovery of gold near Sutter ' s mill would spark the California Gold Rush . On August 28 , 1847 he was promoted to the rank of full Navy Surgeon . The " Columbus " returned to Hampton Roads in March 1848 . Guilloû was then assigned to the which took another diplomatic trip , this one to Europe . On July 30 , 1849 , while at Gaeta , the multilingual Guilloû acted as interpreter for a visit to the palace of King Ferdinand II by local diplomat John Rowan . They also met Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli , who was secretary of state for the Papal States . On July 31 they visited Pope Pius IX , and invited him and Ferdinand to visit the ship , with Guilloû again interpreting . On August 1 , Ferdinand and Pius had their formal visit to the " Constitution " . Pius began to feel ill , and Guilloû treated him for seasickness . The grateful pope delivered rosaries to the Catholics on the ship ; Guilloû received inscribed prayerbooks and a medalion , along with a plenary indulgence . The visit , however , proved to be a diplomatic embarrassment for the US , which was officially neutral in the Italian revolutions that were happening at the time . A visit to a navy ship was considered equivalent to stepping on " US territory " , which had never been done before by a pope . Captain John Gwinn died before he could be formally reprimanded . On his return , Guilloû was stationed at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard from 1852 to 1854 . He married Dinah Postlethwaite ( 1815 – 85 ) , daughter of Samuel Postlethwaite ( 1772 – 1824 ) from Natchez , Mississippi in September 1852 . They had one daughter , Margaret Acelie Guilloû ( born September 13 , 1853 ) , who married George Alfred Blackmore . They also adopted Eloise ( " Polly " ) Thibault . Hawaii . Guilloû sailed to Honolulu in 1854 . He first tried to establish a hospital with Robert W . Wood , but that failed . Active in Freemasonry , he helped reactivate Lodge Le Progrés de l ' Océanie in Honolulu that had been chartered from the French organization . He was an early member of the Hawaiian Agricultural Society . He evidently decided to stick to medicine , since in 1856 , he was one of the founding members of the Hawaiian Medical Society , with other prominent doctors such as Gerrit P . Judd and Thomas Charles Byde Rooke . In 1857 Darius A . Ogden , the American Consul to the Kingdom of Hawaii , appointed him as the Honolulu U . S . Seamen ' s Hospital physician in 1857 . On April 23 , 1858 , he gave a speech proposing to improve health care for native Hawaiians by opening a hospital . Although the plan would later be adopted , the resulting Queen ' s Hospital ( now the The Queen ' s Medical Center ) would pass up Guilloû and appoint German William Hillebrand to head the new institution . Guilloû was appointed by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy as the Consul of Italy to the Kingdom of Hawaii while he was there . The State Department suspected overcharging for the seaman ' s hospital . Commander William E . Hunt in of the was sent to investigate . James W . Borden , the new United States Minister to Hawaii , published letters in the " Pacific Commercial Advertiser " newspaper of Henry Martyn Whitney with accusations against Guilloû and Abner Pratt , the American Consul who replaced Ogden . Pratt had already headed back to Marshall , Michigan where he built a majestic mansion , while the " Levant " was lost at sea . Although Pratt was asked to return the funds , the American Civil War caused the government to never pursue the case . By 1861 , the Seamen ' s Hospital was run by Seth Porter Ford ( 1817 – 1866 ) . Young Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa became ill in August 1862 . Guilloû was one of many physicians called in to help , but they could do nothing and the young prince died , leading to a series of succession crises . He returned to the US in 1867 . He lived for a while in Petersburg , Virginia , and then New York City . Death and legacy . Guilloû died on January 2 , 1899 in New York of pneumonia . He wrote a book of his reminiscences ( never published ) , and took many sketches during his travels . His sketches of Oregon and California were published in 1961 . Grandson Charles Thomas Blackmore was born July 3 , 1888 , joined the British army in World War I , and died on June 16 , 1915 in the Battle of Bellewaarde . His widow donated Guilloû ' s papers to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1974 . Some of his effects such as medals are on display at the museum there . Grandson Philip Guillou Blackmore was born January 18 , 1890 in Virginia and entered the Virginia Military Institute in 1908 . After graduating , he was commissioned into the coast artillery of the US Army on December 20 , 1911 . During World War I he also went to Hawaii , where he served at Fort Kamehameha and rose to be commander of Fort Ruger . During World War II he rose to the rank of temporary brigadier general . In August 1947 he assumed command of the White Sands Proving Ground . He married Emily Van Patten and had four children . He retired in 1950 and died April 7 , 1974 .