Description
Cyrille-Pierre-Theodore Laplace had a long and illustrious career in the French Navy. Appropriately, he was born at sea on 7 November 1793. He began his naval career as a midshipman during the early years of the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant by the age of thirty after having seen action in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. In 1825 he was awarded the Cross of Saint Louis and cited as being full of zeal and highly resourceful. He achieved the rank of Commander in 1828.
On orders of the French Government, Laplace undertook his first voyage of circumnavigation late in 1829 onboard the corvette, La Favorite. He returned to the Pacific waters in 1837 on the frigate. Artemise. In 1841, with the rank of Rear Admiral, Laplace took command of the naval division of the Antilles. He gained promotion to Vice Admiral in 1853 and a year later became a member of the French Admiralty Council. Laplace died in Brest in 1875 at the age of eighty-one.
The voyage which Laplace initiated in 1830, the Journal of which follows in the first English translation, was undertaken on detailed instructions given in a letter dated 15 December 1829 written by Naval Minister Baron d'Haussez. Laplace was to mount an expedition to the India and China Seas. He was to call at Tenerife. Bourbon and Pondicherry and then to proceed through the Straits of Malacca to the Anambas which the 1824-1826 voyage of Captain Hyacinthe Bougainville had brought to the attention of the authorities. From the nearby Natunas, the expedition was to sail to Cochin China, Hainan, Macao and to Manila for refitting. Then sailing back to Natunas, Laplace was to go on to Samarang or Surabaya and on to Timor where he could decide his own return itinerary either by way of the Cape of Good Hope or by continuing around the world via Australia, Chile and Brazil.
