Document signed by Antoine Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, dated 8 May 1781

[Toulon : 8 May 1781]. Manuscript in black ink on single sheet of wove paper, 170 x 220 mm; document written by the lieutenant of the ship Castellan, signed lower left in brown ink 'Bruny Entrecasteaux' [French naval officer and explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux]; the document is in support of a sailor, Joseph Augustin Recours, who, whilst working in the forecastle of d'Entrecasteaux's frigate La Mignonne in Toulon harbour on 18 June 1777, was severely injured by a pulley which was dropped by another sailor working on the topmast, striking him in the head; old fold lines and browning, but in good condition, clean and legible.

D'Entrecasteaux commanded the French expedition to Australia and the Pacific in search of La Pérouse (1791-93), during which he died in the Hermit Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago. Whilst the expedition failed to locate La Pérouse, the importance of its scientific and artistic contributions to European knowledge of Australia and the South Seas at the end of the eighteenth century is immeasurable.