Lazare Picault

Lazare Picault (* around 1700 in Toulon , † February 21, 1748 in Pamplemousses ) was a French seafarer and early explorer and explorer of the Seychelles .

Life

Career as a seaman

Lazare Picault was born in Toulon around 1700 and became a seafarer. In 1735 he left France to travel to India as a third officer on the Apollon . Two years later he returned to France. In November 1739 he landed on the Isle de France as the second officer of the Thétis . Lazare Picault was working as a navigator for the French East India Company when Admiral Bertrand François Mahé de La Bourdonnais commissioned him to explore the sea route between French India and the colonies on the Mascarene Islands . Picault was given command of the Tartane Elisabeth and the Charles as escort ship .

Discovery of the Seychelles - the first trip

In August 1742, the Elisabeth and the Charles and the command of Picault sailed north from the Isle de France into unknown waters. Islands inhabited by giant tortoises were found along the way , but no drinking water. After more than three months at sea, the desperation grew. Finally, on November 19, 1742, Elisabeth's lookout point sighted a high, unknown island. As you got closer, you found that there were several islands. Picault believed to have discovered the legendary Três Irmãos islands .

On the afternoon of November 21st, the Elisabeth and her sister ship reached the main island. Although there was little time left until sunset, Picault sent two scouting parties ashore. Fresh water, turtles and fish were found in abundance in rivers and in the sea, so that Picault initially named the island L'Île d'Abondance (Island of Abundance).

On the morning of November 26th, Picault decided to leave for Rodrigues , where an assignment was waiting for him. On January 6, 1743, Picault reached the coast of Madagascar instead . He was almost 1,000 nautical miles away from his destination and had to realize that he had discovered a new, unknown group of islands that would later become known as the Seychelles.

Exploring the Seychelles - The second trip

On December 7th, 1743 Picault set off again to the group of islands he had discovered, with the task of exploring them more closely. On May 28, 1744 he reached L'Île d'Abondance , which he renamed Mahé in honor of his patron . Before Picault set off for the Malabar coast on June 15 , he visited the neighboring islands of La Digue , which he called Ìle Rouge because of their reddish granite rocks, Praslin , which he called Isle de Palmes because of the large palm forests, and Frégate , which he called it so baptized because of the large number of frigate birds.

Return to the Isle de France and death

In July 1744 Picault returned to the Isle de France. In the meantime, the effects of the Austrian War of Succession had also reached India and the Indian Ocean, so that no further expeditions to Mahé were undertaken. The Elisabeth sank in a naval battle against the English. Lazare Picault died on February 21, 1748 in Pamplemousses on the island of Mauritius .

effect

Although Lazare Picault was almost certainly not the first person to see and set foot on the Seychelles, he is considered to be the discoverer. According to him, beaches, hotels and also are in the Seychelles district Baie Lazare named.

literature

• William McAteer: Rivals in Eden. A history of the French settlement and British conquest of the Seychelles islands, 1742-1818 . The Book Guild, Sussex 1991. ISBN 0-86332-496-7 .
• Michel Perchoc: Marins français explorateurs . Editions Gerfault, Aix-en-Provence 2007. ISBN 978-2-35191-002-3 .