Published by The Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, NZ, 1985. No dustjacket.

Frenchman Jean-François de La Pérouse, was a naval officer and navigator known for the wide-ranging explorations in the Pacific Ocean that he conducted in the second half of the 1780s.

In 1788 he left Australia detailing how he planned to leave the Pacific Ocean via Torres Strait, the narrow waterway separating Australia and New Guinea, and be back in France by June 1789. Concern mounted when they did not arrive as expected. In 1791 the French National Assembly commissioned an expedition to search for the overdue navigator, without success. It is said that King Louis XVI, on his way to the guillotine in 1793, enquired of his captors ?Is there news of La Pérouse??