Jean-François Galaup de la, a distinguished French navigator of the eighteenth century, was born in 1741 at Albi, in the department of Tarn. After passing through the marine school, he entered the navy; and in 1756 was made a midshipman. Three years later, he took part in the battle of Belleisle, was wounded, taken prisoner, and carried to England, where he was detained till the peace of 1763 set him free. On returning to France, he rose through the various grades of promotion, served in the East Indies from 1773 to 1777, and when war again broke out with England in 1778, he signalized himself by several brilliant exploits. In 1782 he was sent to destroy the English settlements on the shores of Hudson's Bay. He took and destroyed Fort York, which was found undefended. Hearing that some of the garrison had fled into the woods, and were in danger of perishing from cold and hunger, or at the hands of the savages, he humanely left a supply of arms and provisions for their use. The only things of value that La Pérouse found in the fort were the papers of the governor, which, when claimed as private property, he promptly restored. When peace was restored in 1783, the French, taking up the idea of maritime discovery from their late rivals, fitted out an expedition to the Pacific. The chief command of the squadron (which consisted of two frigates, Boussole and Astrolabe) was given to La Pérouse. Setting sail from Brest on the 1st of August 1785, he doubled Cape Horn, coasted along the shores of South America, turned aside to the Sandwich Islands, and setting sail thence, spent the autumn of 1786 in exploring the coasts of Upper California. He then steered across the ocean to China; discovering Necker Island on the way, and examined the almost unknown coasts of Eastern Asia as far as Avatcha in Kamchatka, where the orders of the Russian empress procured him a kindly welcome. From this point he despatched his comrade De Lesseps overland to France with his diaries, maps, plans, &c. Leaving Avatcha towards the end of 1787, La Pérouse turned his prow to the Navigator Islands, where he lost an officer and twelve men in an encounter with the natives. To refit in peace, he next sailed to Botany Bay, where the English were then establishing their first Australian colony. Here he brought down the narrative of his travels to the latest date, and transmitted it to Europe, with a letter, in which he gave a short sketch of his plans for the future. From this time he was never again heard of. Various expeditions were sent out in quest of him, but without effect. His fate was involved in mystery till the year 1826, when an English seaman, Captain Dillon, came upon the wrecks of his squadron in the island of Wanikoro (or, as it is called by the French, Ile de la Recherche), one of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The relics, consisting of cannons, anchors, &c., were brought home, and deposited in the national galeries of the Louvre, where they are now preserved. La Pérouse's journals and letters were published at Paris in 1797, in 4 vols. 4to.