Western Australia Coast First Sighted 1687 |
A newly discovered diary includes the first ever verified French sighting of Australia in March 1687.
The handwritten diary recounts the voyage of the L'oiseau under captain Abraham Duquesne-Guitton as part of the second French embassy to Thailand in 1687.
Five ships left Brest, in northwestern France, on March 1, and sailed to Cape Town, from where they departed on June 28 aiming for Batavia, now modern Jakarta. But a week of violent storms drove them further east than planned, causing their unexpected landfall in Western Australia, north of the mouth of the Swan River.
"At first sight we thought that it was some ships but as we sailed onward at speed in a short time we saw that it was rocks," he wrote. " At the same time as we were saying 'there's land', M Duquesne came close to us, and we said to him that we had just seen land; he much surprised climbed the main shrouds [and] found that it was true.."
Bremond, who wrote that the fleet had been blown off course days earlier due to a storm, said that they did not precisely know what people inhabited the land.
The visit of L'oiseau to Western Australia is the first verified French sighting of Australia, and the 33rd verified sighting of the coast by any European vessel.
Newly discovered diary records landmark sighting of Australia in 1687
LONDON: A newly discovered 330-year-old journal found to contain an eyewitness account of the first verified French sighting of the Australian coastline is expected to fetch more than $500,000 when it goes up for auction in London in March 2023.
Unpublished and unknown to historians, the handwritten diary of the senior surgeon on Louis XIV royal fleet , known only as " Bremond'' , recounts the voyage of the L'oiseau under captain Abraham Duquesne-Guitton , as part of the second French embassy to Thailand in 1687.
Five ships left Brest, in northwestern France, on March 1, and sailed to Cape Town, from where they departed on June 28 aiming for Batavia, now modern Jakarta. But a week of violent storms drove them further east than planned, causing their unexpected landfall in Western Australia, north of the mouth of the Swan River.
The journal, which will go on sale in the region of £350,000 ($643,105) through Christie's Private Sales, is thought to be the only 17th century manuscript description of Australia to have come to market - the earliest mention of Australia ever offered for sale.
Thomas Venning, head of books and manuscripts at Christie's in London, said such a find was " extremely rare'' .
" In 25 years as an autographs specialist at Christie's, I've never seen anything similar,'' he said.
Venning said when his research showed up that the ship had made an unexpected landfall on the Australian coast he started frantically turning the journal's pages to see what Bremond wrote.
" It was a really heart-in-mouth moment,'' he said. " I had no idea if he would describe it at all. When I saw the words Terra Australis (or of the first [to see it] with the chaplain as we walked on the poop [deck]. At first sight we thought that it was some ships but as we sailed onward at speed in a short time we saw that it was rocks,'' he wrote. " At the same time as we were saying 'there's land', M Duquesne came close to us, and we said to him that we had just seen land; he much surprised climbed the main shrouds [and] found that it was true.. ''
Bremond, who wrote that the fleet had been blown off course days earlier due to a storm, said that they did not precisely know what people inhabited the land.
" Perhaps there is no one but for a few people; what makes one think this is that the earlier navigators having been in these lands found the mark of the foot of a man which was a foot and a half long.''
The visit of L'oiseau to Western Australia is the first verified French sighting of Australia, and the 33rd verified sighting of the coast by any European vessel. Little more is known about Bremond, apart from records that show he continued in his career for 20 more years after 1688.
Venning said the journal is thought to have only changed hands once, when it was sold at auction in Christie's Paris in 2012 to the current owner. Bremond's description of Australia was overlooked at the time.
Before 2012, it was in the library of a well-connected family in western France where the manuscript was written.
" We can speculate that it had been there since shortly after it was written - but there is no way of knowing for sure,'' he said. 'terre auxtralles' in this rather eccentrically spelled French) in a manuscript written in 1688, I was completely dumbstruck.''
Translated from French, Bremond records seeing " Eendrachtsland or Terra Australis'' on August 4. " I was one
This article by Rob Harris is from the March 27, 2023 issue of The Age Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit "https://www.theage.com.au".
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