Delahaye, Félix (1767 - 1829)
Félix's surname is variously presented as 'de Lahaie', 'Delahaie', 'de Lahaye', 'de La Haye', and 'Lahaie'.
He was a French gardener who served on the Bruni d'Entrecasteaux voyage (1791-93) that was sent by the French National Assembly to search for the missing explorer Jean-Francois La Perouse.
In 1791 France's National Assembly decided to send out a search mission led by Bruni d'Entrecasteaux.
It was recommended that Delahaye, who was at this time principal assistant gardener at the botany school of the Jardin du Roi, be invited to join the expedition's team of "savants" (more than ten scientists, engineers and artists) as the expedition's gardener.
Thouin described Delahaye as
" ... strong, vigorous and well-suited for voyages. Gentle, honest and of an exact probity. Active, hard-working and passionately loving his calling. Knowing by theory and by practice the processes of gardening and knowing very well the plants cultivated in the Jardin du Roi."
Delahaye's annual salary on the expedition, paid by the navy, was 1000 livres (24 livres were equivalent to the gold coin, the Louis d'or), and he was reimbursed 1,236 livres for equipment.
As a lowly gardener he was not permitted accommodation with the savants or to dine with the officers.
Throughout the expedition he worked with diligence and honesty, keeping meticulous horticultural notes in his journal.
The expedition consisted of two frigates, Recherche and Esperance. The first landfall was the Canary Islands, then the Cape of Good Hope followed by Van Diemen's Land (in Recherche Bay, Tasmania, named by d'Entrecasteaux after the flagship of his expedition ), then New Caledonia, Admiralty Islands, the Dutch colony of Ambon (where Delahaye exchanged seeds with the Dutch governor) then to south-western Australia discovering and naming Esperance Bay (d'Entrecasteaux now commemorating his second ship).
With water running low the ships then returned to the safety of Recherche Bay, thus completing a counterclockwise circumnavigation of the continent.
The next destination was Tonga where Delahaye collected breadfruit for transport to the Isle de France (now Mauritius), then to New Caledonia, past Vanikoro Island (unaware that this is where La Perouse had been shipwrecked) then through the Solomons, Trobriand Islands and finally, just before the death of d'Entrecasteaux in July 1793 from scurvy, surveyed the coasts of eastern New Guinea and northern New Britain.
The expedition was now under the new command of d'Auribeau the ships arriving at Sourabaya, Java, in 1793, to be told that France was now at war with European countries including Holland, Britain and Spain, also that Louis XVI had been guillotined and a French republic was now declared.
In 1792 over the 25 days of the first landfall in Recherche Bay, Tasmania, Delahaye established a European vegetable garden. Its purpose was as a source of food and propagation material for the indigenous people, and also as a supply of provisions for future visiting European vessels. This was the first European garden on mainland Tasmania, planted just north of where the ships were anchored and, until recently, was last sighted by Lady Jane Franklin in the 1840s.
On returning to France Delahaye eventually became Head Gardener to Empress Josephine at the Château de Malmaison.
Source: Extracted from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Delahaye
Portrait Photo: none found.
