Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne was born in…
June 1772 CE
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne was born in Saint Malo and, until recently, was thought to have joined the French East India Company at the age of eleven as a sub-lieutenant aboard the Duc de Bourgogne.
However, the Australian historian Edward Duyker, in the (revised) French edition of his biography of Marion Dufresne, has revealed that this was in fact the future explorer's elder brother.
Marin du Fresne had commanded several ships during the War of the Austrian Succession, and was a captain by 1745.
He was engaged in various naval operations in the Seven Years' War, after which he again sailed on the East India routes and eventually settled in Port Louis on Mauritius, where he also was the harbormaster for some time.
Du Fresne found himself suddenly unemployed when the French East India Company collapsed and was dissolved in 1769, and convinced Pierre Poivre, the civil administrator, to equip him with two ships and send him on a twofold mission: first, he was to bring Ahu-toru, a Tahitian who had been brought to Paris and displayed there, but brought back only as far as Mauritius, back to Tahiti; and second, he was to search for the southern continent.
Du Fresne had been given two ships, the Mascarin and the Marquis de Castries.
Ahu-toru had died of smallpox shortly after their departure from Port Louis.
On this expedition, du Fresne had discovered first the Prince Edward Islands and then the Crozet Islands before sailing towards Australia.
They had spent a few days in Tasmania, where Marion Bay in the southeast is named after him.
He is the first European to explore the island and, due to his interaction with the Tasmanian Aboriginies, is the first person to show that Australia is not terra nullius.
He sights New Zealand's Mount Taranaki on March 25, 1772, and names the mountain Pic Mascarin without knowing that James Cook had named it "Mount Egmont" three years earlier.
Over the next month, the French crew explores the islands, repairs their ships and treats their scurvy, first anchoring at Anchor Cove and later in the Bay of Islands.
Apparently their relations with the Māori were peaceful at first; they can communicate, thanks to their Tahitian vocabulary learned from Ahu-toru, and the Māori had even held a ceremony for them.
However, the French appear to have broken tapu by fishing in Manawaora Bay.
Tapu had been placed on the area after members of the local tribe drowned here some time earlier, and their bodies had been washed up at Tacoury's Cove.
The local Māori believe that the violation will anger not only the gods but neighboring tribes, provoking war.
Accordingly, on June 12, 1772, a few hundred Māori warriors set on du Fresne and his fishing crew, who have unsuspectingly arrived in his favorite fishing area in a small "gig".
Du Fresne and twenty six men of his crew are killed and eaten, including the second pilot and the steersman.
Lieutenant Crozet goes with a small party in search of du Fresne when he does not return to the Mascarin.
When Crozet learns of their deaths, he returns to the ship.
In retaliation, the French burn down a village named Paeroa, killing two hundred and fifty Māori.
They name the bay "Anse des Assassinats" (Assassination Cove).
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