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Dear Peter,

Excellent Work and Congratulations for your work on La Pérouse ! I enjoyed very much reading it.

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As regards the correct spelling of his name :

although the offical spelling of his name should be "La Pérouse" and with no longer any different spelling to be used from now on - at least this is what very reputable historians have officially established with their view point officially endorsed by France - it looks like our Great Explorer himself most often (if not always?) signed "Lapérouse".

This is probably because there was not at these times a definite requirement or any compelling need to spell Family names with any utmost exactitude standard.

Just another similar kind of example about generally low standard on strict family spelling : two brothers could invert parts of their name, such as "M. du Plessix de Parscau" could just sign the same official a document next to his elder brother's signature showing as "M. de Parscau du Plessix" ... while their cousins having the very same Grand-Father would sign as "M. du Plessis" only, or "M. de Parscau".

We still have in France a popular motto which claims "no spelling required for last names". It might probably date from this epoch, and of course, it is often invoked nowadays by (younger) writers to be absolved from incorrect (i.e. ignorant) spelling at school ...

Obviously, and for a number of reasons, Family names nowadays have been - like everywhere else - very carefully copied / transcripted from one generation to the following one into our Official Documents (Passports, I.D. cards, Birth, Wedding and Death Certificates, ...) established by our Public Authorities.

So, probably no more and no less here than what could look to us at a first glance now like some sort of "complacency" then.

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La Pérouse's Voyage was extremely important to France as a Nation, which fully explains the inquiries of our King Louis XVI even until his very last moments on Earth as George Huxtable indicated.

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You probably know that the wreckage sites of both La Boussole and L'Astrolabe have most recently (a couple of years back) been identified beyond any doubt from a number of items found on the Vanikoro sites, with more to become soon public. From the various detailed accounts I could lately read - mainly from the French Naval Academy Alumni review - I would personnally feel that these wreckage sites now definitely belong to the "100(.0000)% identified" wreckage sites category, than still to the "presumed" wreckage sites category as was indicated here earlier.

So, now you have your so long awaited answer to a series of queries and inquiries which kept raising attention, investigation and research for some 220 Years.

Congratulations, and Best Regards again

Antoine

Antoine M. "Kermit" Couëtte

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