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About Julien-Marie Crozet

About the author: Julien-Marie Crozet (November 26, 1728 — September 24, 1782) born in Port-Louis, canton of Port-Louis, arrondissement of Lorient, Morbihan, died in Paris, Île-de-France. The Bibliothèque nationale de France entry on him says,

Navigua sur les navires de la Compagnie des Indes. Engagé comme lieutenant par Marion-Dufresne dans une mission qui reconnut en 1772 la première des îles de l’archipel des Kerguelen et débarqua en Tasmanie, puis en Nouvelle-Zélande où disparut Marion-Dufresne. Crozet revint en France en 1773. Fit un voyage aux Mascareignes en 1774-1776. En 1783 fut publié le Nouveau voyage à la Mer du Sud.

About the diary: Taken from Crozet’s voyage to Tasmania, New Zealand, the Ladrone Islands, and the Philippines in the years 1771-1772, translated by H. Ling Roth, Truslove & Shirley, London, 1891. The book was written on the basis of the journals of Crozet. Cambridge University Press summarizes the book as follows:

Published in 1891, Henry Roth’s translation of Crozet’s narrative provided the first English account of the infamous French expedition to the South Pacific. The ship left France in 1771 under the command of Marion De Fresne (1724-1772). After exploring Tasmania (the first Europeans to do so), De Fresne’s party set out for New Zealand, arriving shortly after Captain Cook. Crozet (1728-1782), took over command of the expedition when De Fresne and twenty-six crew members were killed and allegedly eaten by local Maori in the Bay of Islands. While much of the book is concerned with the exploration of New Zealand, Roth’s translation begins with the origins of the expedition, the journey through the Pacific islands, and Tasmania and the discovery of people there, ending with descriptions of Guam and Manila.

The Philippine Diary Project includes the entries of Crozet that cover the period starting on November 18, 1772, when he departed Guam headed for Manila, to March 8, 1773 when he weighed anchor from Manila Bay.