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Wed-Sun 10am-4pm; $5.50. Bus #393, #394, #L94. The Laperouse Museum , run by the NPWS, traces Laperouse's voyage in great detail, the displays enlivened by relics from the wrecks, exhibits of antique French maps and copies of etchings by the naturalists on board. The voyage was commissioned by the French king Louis XVI in 1785 as a purely scientific exploration of the Pacific to rival Cook's voyages, and strict instructions were given for Laperouse to "act with great gentleness and humanity towards the different people whom he will visit". After an astonishing three-and-a-half-year journey through South America, the Easter Islands, Hawaii, the northwest coast of America, and past China and Japan to Russia, the Astrolobe and the Boussole struck disaster - first encountering hostility in the Solomon Islands and then in their doomed sailing from Botany Bay, on March 10, 1788. (Even as he was about to be guillotined Louis XVI asked "At least, is there any news of Monsieur de Laperouse?") Their disappearance remained a mystery until 1828, when relics were discovered on Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands; the wrecks themselves were found only in 1958 and 1964. An additional exhibition looks at local Aboriginal history and culture
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