Laperouse | Page 6

thoughts of
voyaging and adventure, was not, as a schoolboy, very tame and easy to
manage. He is described as having been ardent, impetuous, and rather
stubborn. But there is more than one kind of stubbornness. There is the
stupid stubbornness of the mule, and the fixed, firm will of the
intelligent being. We can perceive quite well what is meant in this case.
On the other hand, he was affectionate, quick and clever. He longed for
the sea; and his father, observing his decided inclination, allowed him
to choose the profession he desired.

It may well have seemed to the parents of Laperouse at this time that
fine prospects lay before a gallant young gentleman who should enter
the Marine. There was for the moment peace between France and
England. A truce had been made by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748. But everybody knew that there would be war again soon. Both
countries were struggling for the mastery in India and in North America.
The sense of rivalry was strong. Jealousies were fierce on both sides. In
India, the French power was wielded, and ever more and more
extended, by the brilliant Governor Dupleix; whilst in the British
possessions the rising influence was that of the dashing, audacious
Clive. In North America the French were scheming to push their
dominion down the Ohio-Mississippi Valley from Canada to the Gulf
of Mexico, in the rear of the line of British colonies planted on the
seaboard from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida. The colonists were
determined to prevent them; and a young man named George
Washington, who afterwards became very famous, first rose into
prominence in a series of tough struggles to thwart the French designs.
The points of collision between the two nations were so sharp, feeling
on either side was so bitter, the contending interests were so incapable
of being reconciled, that it was plain to all that another great war was
bound to break out, and that sea power would play a very important
part in the issue. The young Laperouse wanted to go to sea, and his
father wanted him to distinguish himself and confer lustre on his name.
The choice of a calling for him, therefore, suited all the parties
concerned.
He was a boy of fifteen when, in November, 1756, he entered the
Marine service as a royal cadet. He had not long to wait before tasting
"delight of battle," for the expected war was declared in May, and
before he was much older he was in the thick of it.
Chapter II.

THE FRENCH NAVAL OFFICER.
Laperouse first obtained employment in the French navy in the

CELEBRE, from March to November, 1757. From this date until his
death, thirty-one years later, he was almost continuously engaged,
during peace and war, in the maritime service of his country. The
official list of his appointments contains only one blank year, 1764. He
had then experienced close upon seven years of continuous sea fighting
and had served in as many ships: the CELEBRE, the POMONE, the
ZEPHIR, the CERF, the FORMIDABLE, the ROBUSTE, and the SIX
CORPS. But the peace of Paris was signed in the early part of 1763.
After that, having been promoted to the rank of ensign, he had a rest.
It was not a popular peace on either side. In Paris there was a current
phrase, "BETE COMME LA PAIX," stupid as the peace. In England,
the great Pitt was so indignant on account of its conditions that, all
swollen and pinched with gout as he was, he had himself carried to the
House of Commons, his limbs blanketted in bandages and his face
contorted with pain, and, leaning upon a crutch, denounced it in a
speech lasting three hours and forty minutes. The people cheered him
to the echo when he came out to his carriage, and the vote favourable to
the terms of the treaty was carried by wholesale corruption. But all the
same, Great Britain did very well out of it, and both countries --though
neither was satisfied--were for the time being tired of war.
For Laperouse the seven years had been full of excitement. The most
memorable engagement in which he took part was a very celebrated
one, in November, 1759. A stirring ballad has been written about it by
Henry Newbolt:--
"In seventeen hundred and fifty-nine When Hawke came swooping
from the West, The French King's admiral with twenty of the line
Came sailing forth to sack us out of Brest."
Laperouse's ship, the FORMIDABLE, was one of the French fleet of
twenty-one sail. What happened was this. The French foreign minister,
Choiseul, had hatched a crafty plan for the invasion of England, but
before it could be executed the British fleet had to be cleared