Archives and Manuscript Catalogue

Scope and Contents The author was serving as a lieutenant on board the `Pontchartrain`, a 56-gun vessel of the Compagnie Royale des Indes Orientales, bound from Lorient to Surat in Bombay, and on board the `Aurore` on his return to France. He kept the journal for the entertainment of an unnamed French lady, and although he recorded the distances covered, wind directions, etc., most of the journal concerns life on board, with lively descriptions of the passengers and of local customs in Africa and especially in...