LaPerouse
The French Captain Visits Maui
from Voyages and Adventures of La Perouse, by Julius S. Grassier
compiled by Henry Lau, member and former Trustee of the Maui Historical Society
Kihei, Keawekapu, Wailea, Makena, then suddenly, La Perouse Bay! La Perouse Bay? Why? How come? Who?
Amidst the many traditional typical Hawaiian name places, we find a beautiful bay in south Maui named after a foreigner - French Admiral Jean Francis Gallup Comte de La Perouse. Who was this man?
La Perouse was a distinguished French naval officer and explorer, who helped the colonists defeat the British in the Revolutionary War of 1781 at Hudson Bay. He was distinguished as an excellent navigator and humanitarian. He was commissioned by the King of France to sail throughout the Pacific Ocean to discover new lands, establish commercial trade and collect scientific data. La Perouse sailed the Pacific from Chile to California, Alaska, Japan to the Phillippines, Australia and the Pacific Islands which included a stop in Hawaii on the island of Maui.
La Perouse commanded the Boussole that sailed with a sister ship, the Astrolabe. Both ships not only carried soldiers and the crew but also astronomers, botanists, geographers, zoologists and oceanographers.
While Captain Cook, an Englishman, had discovered the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, he never set foot on the island of Maui. It was the French Captain La Perouse who, eight years later, landed on Maui.
On the morning of May 28, 1789, Captain La Perouse sighted the snow-capped mountains of Hawaii and soon after, the mountain peaks of Maui. He sailed toward Maui along the coastline observing water cascades from shoreline cliffs into the sea. Searching for a safe anchorage, he observed that "the sea broke upon the shore with great force!" La Perouse continued sailing along the southwestern coast (Hana, Kipahulu, Kaupo, Kanaio) and watched the land change from verdant forests with cascading waterfalls to a dry desert land. He finally anchored in a sheltered area next to an ancient lava flow. This area is known today as La Perouse Bay.
Many canoes followed La Perouse's ship and many more were launched along the way from Hana to Kanaio. The Hawaiians were eager to trade their bananas, taro, pigs and other produce for metals, hatchets and pieces of iron. After securing the sails, Captain La Perouse launched four boats that landed on the beach of the bay. On shore, he visited and studied four small villages. Each possessed approximately a dozen thatched roof, grass houses with matted flooring. The cooking utensils were gourds painted in various colors. The early Hawaiians also painted their skins with tattoos and hung rings in their pierced ears and nostrils. An officer of Captain La Perouse's ship obtained a cape and a helmet made of fine red feathers from a native chief of Maui.
La Perouse stopped on Maui for only two days. Then he sailed westward passing between Kahoolawe and Lanai and into the channel between Molokai and Oahu.
Captain La Perouse's expedition ended two years after leaving Maui when he was shipwrecked in the vicinity of the Fiji Islands.
A suitable lava rock inscription monument has been erected by the roadside at the beginning of La Perouse Bay in honor of one of Maui's first visitors from abroad.
