baron de Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy Lesseps

Born in 1766, Barthélemy de Lesseps was a French diplomat and man of letters who became famous at a young age through one of the great survival journeys of the eighteenth century. He joined the La Pérouse expedition as an interpreter in the Russian Far East, then left the voyage in Kamchatka carrying dispatches and traveled overland across Siberia and Russia back to Europe.

That journey made him well known, and he later published an account of his travels in Kamchatka and across the Russian Empire. The book gave readers a vivid look at regions that were little known in western Europe at the time and secured his reputation as both a traveler and an observer.

He later served in French diplomatic posts, including work connected with Russia, and lived through the upheavals of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. He died in 1834, remembered both for his public service and for the remarkable expedition narrative that kept his name alive.