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INDEX
WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?
COLONIAL EXPLORATION
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French Exploration: François-Alesno de St Alouarn, 1772
Kerguelen firmly believed that a massive continent had to exist on the southern hemisphere, just as there was on the northern hemisphere. When he discovered the Fortune Islands on 12 February, 1772, which he named after his ship, he believed he had all but found it. He publicly gave 20 écus (as he had promised) to the sailor who had first discovered land, and promised double that amount to the one who would first see the continent, certain that a sighting would be made by noon the next day. On the morrow, he erroneously believed he had found 'the continent'; Once back in France, Kerguelen boasted about the 'continent' he had just discovered. King Louis, overjoyed, promoted him to captain (thereby passing over eighty-six lieutenants, who were not pleased) and awarded him the Cross of Saint Louis. Also, Kerguelen received authorization for another expedition to the 'Southern Continent'. This expedition left Brest on March 16, 1773, with the vessels Roland and Oiseau. The expedition sailed to Mauritius, where the Dauphine joined it. During the voyage, relations between Kerguelen and his officers slowly began to deteriorate; nonetheless, the expedition arrived at the north coast of Grande-Terre on 14 December. Once again, Kerguelen did not set foot on the lands that now bears his name; on 8 January, a few men from Oiseau, commanded by Ensign de Rochegude, succeeded in landing and left copper plaques, once again taking possession of the island for France. Ten days later after having searched in vain for the mainland, the three ships left for Mauritius. When Kerguelen returned to France, he was court-martialed and put in prison for six years for lying about his discovery after many of those in his party disputed Kerguelen's claim that the place they had visited was the Southland that de Gonneville had found 269 years earlier. Meanwhile, St Alouarn on Gros-Ventre was unable to locate the Fortune which had returned to Mauritius after the ships had become separated. Assuming Kerguelen would have continued on in search of the mainland, St Alouarn did the same, continuing north-westwards in the Gros Ventre in search of the expedition leader. The Gros Ventre approached the Western Australian coast a little to the east of Cape Leeuwin on 16 March 1772. By fortune St. Alouarn had struck the coast at the only safe anchorage in the region. Flinders Bay is tucked behind Cape Leeuwin. The Gros Ventre anchored in Flinders Bay about three miles from the shore and a party was sent ashore. They did not land, however geographical observations were recorded. Although seaman Rosily, also on board the Gros Ventre, made an accurate map of Flinders Bay, St Alouarn believed that Cape Leeuwin was an island off the mainland and that other islands were also evident.
The Gros Ventre left the area on 9 April, 1772, sailing as far north as Rosemary Island before leaving the Australian coast for Timor, Batavia and Mauritius. St Alouarn and de Mingot both died soon after their arrival in Mauritius. The rest of the crew were left to make their own way back to France. Because of the deaths of St Alouarn and de Mingot and the dispersion of their crew, the expedition had disbanded before returning to France therefore the results of the expedition were not widely made known or acknowledged. News of St Alouarn's discovery and his claim of the Southland in the name of France became lost in the commotion over Kerguelen's alleged deception and though the Gros Ventre's journal was tabled, the act of possession was never followed up. The only further acknowledgement of St Alouarn's achievement occured 20 years after the event when D'Entrecasteaux named an island near Cape Leeuwin, St Alouarn's first Australian landfall, in honour of St Alouarn.
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In 1772, an expedition led by Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Tremarec (right) left Ile de France (Mauritius) in command of two ships, Fortune and Gros-Ventre, having been commissioned by King Louis XV to discover the Southern Continent Frenchman Jean Binot Paulmier De Gonneville claimed to have visited in 1504 for France. The expedition comprised the Fortune, captained by Kerguelen, and the Gros Ventre, under the command of François-Alesno de St Alouarn. 
Ensign de Boisguehenneuc, of Gros-Ventre, landed on the southwestern coast of Grande-Terre in a bay still named Gros-Ventre Cove on Kerguelen Island (right) and claimed it in the name of Louis XV. Kerguelen himself, aboard Fortune, could not approach due to the perennial bad weather; on 17 February, he made for Mauritius, without notifying Gros-Ventre. A bottle containing an account of the visit had been left on the island. It was discovered by James Cook four years later upon his visit to the islands. 
He then sailed north up the coast to Shark Bay. On 29 March, he anchored off Turtle Bay at the north end of Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay (right). St Alouarn sent a boat with an officer to reconnoitre the land, accompanied by the boat's crew and five soldiers. being too ill himself to leave the vessel. His second in command, Lieut. M. de Mingot, took possession of all the land to the north and east of Shark Bay. A flag was raised to mark the occasion and de Mingot placed under a bush a bottle containing two six-franc coins and an Act of Possession, claiming possession of the west coast of New Holland for the King of France. The ship's log refers to this Bay as the 'Baie de Prise de Possession' (the Bay of Taking of Possession). It is not known whether or not St Alouarn knew the significance of the location, it being near where Dutchmen Dirk Hartog and Willem de Vlamingh had visited and left pewter plates recording their visits 156 and 75 years earlier. What he would not have known was that part of the land he was claiming for France had been claimed for England by James Cook just 19 months earlier when he took possession of the eastern section of the continent before leaving it on his first voyage of discovery in the Pacific.
In January 1988, a French coin was found at Turtle Bay on Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay, by an archealogical expedition. This coin is thought to have been one of the coins left by de Mingot. Three months later, a WA Maritime Museum team located what is believed to be the annexation bottle (right). It contained a silver coin - a French écu with the date 1767 - which was firmly held in the top of the capsule but no annexation document. Wax-eating moths appear to have entered the bottle and possibly destroyed the document, if indeed it was st Alouarn's bottle. The site where the bottle and coins were found is now protected under the Maritime Archaeology Act as one of Western Australia's most important European landing places.