The Expédition of Entrecasteaux is the mission of help carried out in 1791 by Antoine Bruny d' Entrecasteaux in the Pacific Ocean to find the forwarding of Perugia.

In 1791, Antoine Bruny d' Entrecasteaux is charged by Louis XVI with leaving to research Perugia, which one had been without news for three years. Rear-admiral, of Entrecasteaux installs Brest on September 28th 1791 with the frigates Research and the Hope .

The wire which led the rear-admiral d' Entrecasteaux on the traces of Perugia is the letter of this last dated February 7th. All the recognitions quoted in this letter form it complement of those which entered the plan of countryside of this famous navigator. He was recommended to the rear-admiral d' Entrecasteaux to do them in the order where they were reported; and it is there subjugated as strictly as the circumstances allowed him. All research was without success. No trace of Perugia was discovered among inhabitants of the islands of the Friends, most civilized of all those which one visited; and however they remembered very well the passage of James Cook and distinguished the two nations. They had even preserved the memory of the Spaniards who had approached, in 1781, the island of Yavao, close to Tonga-Taboo.

It explores a vast area of the Indian Ocean and south of the Pacifique, around the Australia and of the Tasmanie while passing by the New Caledonia, the islands Tonga and the New Guinea. It does not find trace of however nowhere Perugia, although in 1793 it passed to some miles only of the island Vanikoro, place of the disaster of forwarding.

July 20th 1793, of Entrecasteaux succumbs to the Scorbut which corroded it, its forwarding showing a harvest of discovered and observations as well geographical as scientific. Its name and that of his/her collaborators are attached still today to many toponyms of the coasts which they recognized, such as for example the Archipel of Entrecasteaux off the coasts of New Guinea.

Partial source