French Naval captain who carried out the first survey of the Seychelles in 1742. Picault left Pondicherry in 1741 in the ship ELIZABETH bound for Mauritius. He was blown some 300 miles off course and in the December of that year sighted some of the islands in the Seychelles group.
On arrival in Mauritius, he reported the sighting to the Governor, Bertrand François de la Bourdonnais (Count Mahé de la Bourdonnais), who gave instructions Picault to return to the islands and survey them.
Setting sail on 10th august 1742, again in the ELIZABETH but accompanied by Jean Grossin in the ST. CHARLES. Picault arrived at the main island on 21st November 1742 and named it Île d’Abondance (Isle of Abundance) because he was able to gather 300 giant tortoises and 600 coconuts leaving on the 25th November.
The group of islands was named Îles Mahé after La Bourdonnais.
Picault discovered the Peros-Banhos Islands, again in the ELIZABETH in 1744 and he died in Mauritius.
In 1756, René Magon, the new governor of Mauritius sent Nicholas Murphy, an Irishman in the service of France to lay claim to Mahé and some islands to the east in the name of Louis XV and the Compagnie des Indes. He named the archipelago the Seychelles after Moreau de Seychelles, the French Minister of Finance and the main island, Mahé after Count Mahé de la Bourdonnais, the previous governor.
Seychelles 1969 5c sg262, scott?
Source:
The Encyclopedia of Exploration to 1800 by Raymond John Howgego, Hordern House, 2003, ISBN1-875567-36-4.
Richard Hindle.