ABSTRACT
James Cook’s voyages provided many tangible benefits to England, one of which was the considerable prestige the country gained because of the accomplishments of its great explorer. National pride was not something to be scoffed at, and England’s great rival, France, took that into account when it sent forth its own exploratory voyage in 1785 to capture some of the fame that could be derived from a successful voyage in the Pacific. During one of the most ambitious exploratory voyages ever attempted, Jean-Francois de Galaup Comte de La Pérouse visited Hawa‘i and oversaw the compilation of this chart. His extremely short stay, however, precluded his hydrographer, Bernizet, from completing the charting of shorelines which were missed during Cook’s voyage. Interested in the sections of Hawa‘i not explored by Cook, La Perouse called only at the southern shore of Maui near the bay which bears his name.
