The Sturdy
Farmers Of The Fat And Fertile Plain Which Is The Granary Of France,
Who Drive In To Albi
On market days, the patient peasants of the
fields, and the simple artisans who ply their primitive trades under
the
Shadow of the dark-red walls of St. Cecile, know few details,
perhaps, about the sailor who sank beneath the waters of the Pacific
so many years ago. Yet very many of them have heard of
Laperouse, and are familiar with his monument cast in bronze in the
public square of Albi. They speak his name respectfully as that of one
who grew up among their ancestors, who trod their streets, sat in their
cathedral, won great fame, and met his death under the strange,
distant, southern stars.
His family had for five hundred years been settled, prominent and
prosperous, on estates in the valley of the Tarn. In the middle of the
fifteenth century a Galaup held distinguished office among the citizens
of Albi, and several later ancestors are mentioned honourably in its
records. The father of the navigator, Victor Joseph de Galaup,
succeeded to property which maintained him in a position of influence
and affluence among his neighbours. He married Marguerite de
Resseguier, a woman long remembered in the district for her qualities
of manner and mind. She exercised a strong influence over her
adventurous but affectionate son; and a letter written to her by him at
an interesting crisis of his life, testifies to his eager desire to
conform to his mother's wishes even in a matter that wrenched his
heart, and after years of service in the Navy had taken him far and
kept him long from her kind, concerning eyes.
Jean-Francois derived the name by which he is known in history from the
estate of Peyrouse, one of the possessions of his family. But he
dropped the "y" when assuming the designation, and invariably
spelt the name "Laperouse," as one word. Inasmuch as the final
authority on the spelling of a personal name is that of the individual
who owns it, there can be no doubt that we ought always to spell this
name "Laperouse," as, in fact, successors in the family who have borne
it have done; though in nearly all books, French as well as English, it
is spelt "La Perouse." In the little volume now in the reader's hands,
the example of Laperouse himself has been followed.
On this point it may be remarked concerning another navigator who was
engaged in Australian exploration, that we may lose touch with an
interesting historical fact by not observing the correct form of a
name. On maps of Tasmania appears "D'Entrecasteaux Channel." It was
named by and after Admiral Bruny Dentrecasteaux, who as commander of
the RECHERCHE and ESPERANCE visited Australian waters. We shall have
something to say about his expedition towards the close of the book.
Now, Dentrecasteaux sailed from France in 1791, while the Revolution
was raging. All titles had been abolished by a decree of the National
Assembly on July 19th, 1790.
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