François Pyrard

François Pyrard (towards 1578, Laval - towards 1623, Paris), navigator and explorer French. It was one of the first French to gain the Indies.

Biography

Origin

Wire and grandson of tradesmen, owner of the Boisgarnier to Argentré, it had moreover family relationships to the dynasty of the Langlois, Architecte S Laval-native. His/her first cousin is the Jesuit Pierre Pyrard. François Pyrard speaks itself about sound native land which is Laval, in Brittany…

The way of the Indies

In 1601, the Company of the merchants of Saint-Malo, Laval and Vitré which dreams of Moluques arms two ships, the Corbin and the Growing for to probe the guay and to look for the way of the Indies . The objective of this mission was to probe the ford, to look for a way of the Indies and to show it to the French.

Merchant originating in Laval, François Pyrard, not less eager to see and learn to acquire good, with Saint-Malo the May 11th 1601 on board the Corbin embarks.

A dangerous forwarding

The two buildings left Saint-Malo the May 18th 1601.

I had not never had good opinion of our voyage since the loading, had said Pyrard, considering the bad order and the little of police force which were in our ships.

an accident to the mast of the Corbin and especially the jurements and blasphemies, the bad order and the little of police force of which it is pilot hurt to forecast success of the mission. Alarmed the 21 by an awkward salvo of Dutch vessels which had damaged the aerofoil of the Corbin , the navigators passed the June 3rd in front of the the Canaries, the 12 with the Cape Verde, the July 14th along the coasts of Guinea. The August 24th, they crossed the Ligne of Ecuador and slackened the 29 in the island of Annobon, where the Portuguese drew on them, killed a man and made five prisoners whom they slackened only for one strong ransom. After a 9 days halt to the island Sainte-Hélène (17 - November 26th), one doubled the Cape of Good Hope the December 27th, and the storm was so violent during 4 days opposite Madagascar that

all those which swage judgment songeoient with their conscience.

a stay of a few months on the coast in small extremely did nothing but worsen the state of the patients, in spite of goodwill islanders. 41 succumbed.

One set out again the May 15th 1602, one dropped anchor the 23 front the islands of the the Comoros. The June 7th 1602 one left this archipelago. After having passed by again the line, the Growing lost on July 1st the lifeboat, then the July 2nd, the Corbin made shipwreck in the middle of the night on the reefs of the islands Maldives by the inexperience of the captain, and the fact that all the crew was drunk.

The Growing , informed danger, moved away from the shelves and set sail for Sumatra (see François Martin).

The Shipwreck

They were horrible scenes, among the shipwrecked men,

because the sailors leave their heart and their conscience on ground

One finally managed to put a galleon at the sea and one went to throw oneself between the hands of the islanders of the island Pulodon. Pyrard and its companions were collected by the islanders who stripped the prisoners and disperse them in the close small islands.

Maldives

Pyrard was carried out with two of his/her companions in the island of Paindoué

They were reduced by it to eat dead slugs or fish. One ends up employing them with fishing and hardest work than one rewarded for some handle or millet honey, coconuts. Pyrard resisted more courageously than his companions, he learned the language from the natives, showed himself well lord of Pandoué , which led it several times to Pudolon. It found there the survivors of the shipwreck in a dreadful misery.

Male

At the end of three months and half, an officer of the king of Malé proposed in Pyrard to take it along to the court to Malé, residence of the king, which it accepted with the great despair of his 2 companions. He presented himself to the king by scrupulously observing the ceremonial of which he had been made inform, answered with relevance all the questions, was allowed the every day with the audience and gave such an opinion to the king of the size of the kingdom of France which he asked how one had let conquer the Indies with the Portuguese. The king treated it extremely well because he easily spoke the language about the country. Some of his/her companions conceived of it jealousy, others were punished of died to have tried to escape; there were some who succeeded in this attempt. The irritated king defended to continue the distribution of vivres to those which remained, not preventing nevertheless the islanders from giving them provisions if they wanted it.

Pyrard was not less better accommodated queens whose curiosity admittedly related to other subjects. It benefitted from the royal favor to call close to him three French and five Flemish S of his companions in misfortune.

Taken in its turn by the fevers of the country, he lives himself for two months between the life and death, looked after as his child by the lord to which the king had entrusted it, then sent in convalescence to the island of Bandou. On its return, a double misfortune reached it, the death of a friend of Vitré, and the anger of the irritated king of the escape from the Flemings. Through flexibility it regained the favor, adulterated with the foreign ships, became somewhat rich with the manner of the country, in goods and trees with coconuts.

Bengal

It made wish, following a dream of good omen, to make the voyage of Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle in Galicia, if it returned out of Christian ground. For five years Pyrard had lived in these islands, when two days after this wish, the February 7th 1607, they were attacked by a fleet of the King de Bengale. Pyrard went to find the foreigners, requesting them to save it. One took it for a Portuguese and one wanted to remove the life to him, one put it very naked, and one stripped it of all that it had. However when it had been recognized that it was French it more humanly was treated and one led it to the chief, who took it under his protection with three of his companions.

Cochin

They embarked on the fleet which set sail for the Bengal. At the end of one month one entered the port of Chartican. The king wanted to retain them, but they preferred to take passage on board a ship of Calicut which transported the four French to Montingue, port close to Cananor; they gained then Cilecut. Two Jesuits, who enjoyed the confidence of the king, advised to them to go to Cochin, promising that they would be received from the Portuguese and easily repatriated; it was in February 1608. It was the opposite which arrived. The Portuguese stopped them on the way. One threw them in a boat with half filled with water. They begged with knees that one did not let them die without confession. The Portuguese sent them garrottés to Cochin. In Cochin, the rabble failed to hack them and a gibet showed them where the corpses of three Dutch balanced. The Governor was however satisfied to make them throw in an underground dungeon where the lamps étaignaient fault of air, and where heat such as the 130 unhappy ones was buried there of all their clothing stripped. Pyrard succeeds in making pass a letter to the superior of the Jésuites of Cochin which got the release on bail to them.

Goa

Pyrard only left captivity to be trailed sick at the hospital of most beautiful Goa , says it, that there is in the world . It was looked after there, then thrown in prison, then built-in the Portuguese militia. It served two years like soldier, and was employed in several forwardings which gave him the facility to know various parts of the Indies, and to collect information on those which it did not see. It had been of return for six months, when it was put in prison with all the foreigners who were in Goa.

The voyage of the return

Lastly, in the middle of the winter 1609, four large Caraque S arrived of Lisbon carrying a royal order which prohibited with any French, English or Dutchman to remain in the Indies. Pyrard and its companions did not require another thing. They still had recourse to the Jesuits, accepted vivres and silver helps from them. Pyrard and three French left the January 30th 1610. Alarms with the sight of a Dutch flotilla, the February 8th, slackening forced in the island of Diego-Rodriguez the March 15th, storm for Cape of Good Hope, revolt on board, stopover with Sainte-Hélène, the June 5th, alluvial deposit with the Brazil where the reception had more human, such were the stages and the incidents of this crossing during which 250 passengers or sailors had died.

Spain, then France

Nothing retains Pyrard, it embarks in October, and the January 20th 1611, it unloaded with the islands of Bayonne, in a bay of the coast of Galicia; it benefitted from the vicinity to achieve a pilgrimage with Saint-Jacob de Compostelle. It spent then only thirty-six hours to make the crossing of a small wearing of Galicia with La Rochelle, and found with a large fair with Niort of the Laval-native merchants with whom, the February 16th it returned to Laval.

whose God is rented!

He regulated with his uncle Julien Hayeneuve, its businesses of interest He wrote a first drafting of its memories which he carried to Paris, and the account of its adventures was worth the protection of powerful characters to him. The president Pierre Jeannin advised to him to publish the relation of his voyages .

A procuration of the December 24th 1611 always says it resident to Laval but estant of present downtown this of Paris, street of the Walnut trees, parish of Saint-Benoist . He undoubtedly died after November 1622, because one knows any more no act where he appears, if it is not perhaps a loan made in 1623 with Pierre the Clerk, its compatriot, falls ill in Paris; service which allotted perhaps besides to François Pyrard, cousin of the traveller and prosecutor to the Parliament of Paris.

Work

It appeared under this title: Speech of the voyage of François in the Eastern Indies, together of the various accidents, adventures and dangers of the author in several kingdoms of the Indies, etc Treated and Description of animals, trees and fruits of the Indies, etc, plus a short warning and advis for those which undertake the voyage from the Indies. , Paris. 1611, in-8.

Pyrard saw, studied, learned, but did not grow rich, and he sees himself like a shipwrecked man. But it can emphasize its odyssey near the notable Parisian ones. Jerome Bignon, family member Bignon, originating in Saint-Denis-in Anjou, prosecuting attorney and geographer, protected from Henri IV, made it come at his place, questioned it, and drew from its answers, as of the talks which it had with him, of the information much fuller than those which were contained in the Discours .

These materials, carefully transcribed, were entrusted to Pierre Bergeron, which put them in order and published them under this title: Voyages of François in the Eastern Indies, Maldives, Moluques and in Brazil, since 1601 until in 1611 , Paris, 1615, 2 vol. in-8.

Finally Pierre Duval made print: Voyage of François Pyrard, of Laval, containing its navigation in the Eastern Indies, etc, divided into three parts. New edition., re-examined, corrected and increased, etc , Paris, 1679, in-4.

One finds extracts of the relation of Pyrard in several collections of voyages, written in French or in the foreign languages. An English edition by Albert Gray was given in three volumes in 1887 - 1890.

Publications

Voyage of François Pyrard of Laval containing his navigation with the the Eastern Indies, Maldives, Moluques, and with the Brazil: and various the accidens which is to him arrivéz on this journey during its ten years stay in these countries. With an exact description of manners, loix, ways of doing, police force and government; traffic and trades which made there; animals, trees, fruits and others singularitez which meet there, divided into three parts. New re-examined edition, corrected and increased the various ones treat and curious relations, with geographical observations on this voyage… Paris: Thiboust, 1619)
Voyage of the captain Phipps in the icy sea of north/Voyage of Pyrard of Laval in the Maldives islands. G.Difour and Ed.d' Ocagne. 1827.
the last edition of this relation of voyage went up with 1679. Republished by Chandeigne in 1999:

Voyage of Pyrard of Laval to the the Eastern Indies (1601 - 1611): containing its navigation with the Maldives, Moluques, Brazil, various accidents, adventures and dangers which arrived to him on this journey… Suivi relation of the voyage of French to Sumatra of François Martin of Vitré (1601 - 1603).

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