author
baron de Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy Lesseps
1766–1834
A French diplomat, writer, and traveler, he is best remembered for the astonishing overland journey that carried news from La Pérouse’s expedition across Kamchatka, Siberia, and Russia back to Europe. His account blends adventure, endurance, and a firsthand view of lands few Western readers had seen at the time.
3 Audiobooks
Historisch dagverhaal der reize van den heer De Lesseps Zedert het verlaten van den Heer Graaf de la Perouse en zyne togtgenooten in de haven van St. Pieter & Paulus op Kamchatka, enz.
by baron de Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy Lesseps
Travels in Kamtschatka, During the Years 1787 and 1788, Volume 1
by baron de Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy Lesseps
Travels in Kamtschatka, during the years 1787 and 1788, Volume 2
by baron de Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy Lesseps
About the author
Born in Sète in 1766, he grew up in a diplomatic family and spent part of his youth in Hamburg and St. Petersburg. That international upbringing gave him strong language skills and helped shape the career he later built as a French diplomat and man of letters.
He joined the Lapérouse expedition as an interpreter and became famous for the hazardous mission that sent him overland from Kamchatka to France with the expedition’s reports. That journey, made across immense distances in severe conditions, turned him into one of the key witnesses to one of the great exploration stories of the late eighteenth century.
He later continued in diplomatic service and also wrote about his travels, leaving behind work valued for both its narrative energy and its historical interest. He died in Lisbon in 1834.