Chef William turns his head toward me, and with a movement of his arm, shows me the remains of the French village. "There, that's the first settlement: their houses, the mill, the church, and over there, the path that leads to the main settlement. You know, we still preserve all of that! "
As night descends and the cool air sets in, we sit on a stone wall erected in 1880 by these Frenchmen, victims of the greatest scam of the 19th century. Of the more than a thousand French and other Europeans who arrived here between January 1880 and August 1881, barely a hundred succeeded in escaping and surviving. The rest perished from malaria or cannibalism, so they say (2.) - Hubert Sagnieres, Field notes
5 :00 PM - March 19, 2024, Port Breton
Cover: "Map of New France, free colony of Port Breton - 1879, drawn in Marseille based on specific documents provided by Mr. Marquis de Rays". Baudouin, A The Adventure of Port-Breton: and the Free Colony known as New France: Personal Memories and Documents[ ... ], Doctor of the fourth expedition, M. Dreyfous, Paris, 1883. According to sources, the numbers vary between 1200 and 700 people arriving versus 50 to 200 survivors or escapees.
In the year 1877, a Breton nobleman named Charles du Breil, Marquis de Rays, published this announcement in several French newspapers:
!["Free Colony of Port-Breton, land at 5 francs per hectare, payable one franc per month, rapid and assured fortune without leaving one's country. For all inquiries, contact Mr. Marquis du Brei/ de [Rays], consul of Bolivia, at Choteau de Quimerch-en-Bannalec (Finistere)" Le Petit journal, French Socialist Party, Clermont-Ferrand, Paris, July 26, 1877, p. 4.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f9b7e4_2d3c11030f0844f99e6a65be7c1b168a~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_253,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/f9b7e4_2d3c11030f0844f99e6a65be7c1b168a~mv2.png)
Port-Breton, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the Bismarck Islands in New Guinea, was then
under the jurisdiction of German New Guinea (Australia), to its north. In 1879, 3000 subscribers had signed
up for this offer, totaling a sum of about 500,000 francs, equivalent to nearly 20 million euros today.
The Marquis de Rays, it seems, had chosen the birthplace of his colony by pure chance, even as a game, one evening when he had spun a globe on which he would have thrown a dart.(3)
For this marquis, only the name had to be changed: The PortPraslin of Bougainville, Dumont d'Urville, and Duperrey became Port-Breton, a much more appealing name!(4)
3 Morzelle, Jean. Recits d'aventures, FeniXX reedition numerique, December 18, 2018, p. 1 0.
4 In fact, the Marquis de Rays made a mistake; the French would settle instead in Port des Anglais, discovered by Carteret in 1866, as the valley there was much flatter and larger than that of Port Praslin.
During a conference given in Marseille in 1879, the Marquis offered nothing less than an idyllic description of the place:
'The ocean temperature there is very moderate, despite its proximity to the equator, it only varies from 2 to 3 degrees between 25 and 28 degrees Celsius. The country is very wooded, very fertile, and admirably watered; it rises rapidly from the sea, allowing everyone to choose the height and, consequently, the temperature that best suits their temperament; the abundance of springs and watercourses allows for the economic creation of all industries requiring any motive power; the natural irrigation of the country facilitates exceptional fertility conditions, all colonial productions are possible, the placement of which is more advantageous towards Australia than in Europe. Food and fish abound there. (5)"
In order to support his project, he even published, for about 3 years, the Journal de la Colonie (6), a monthly publication adorned with information and illustrations as enticing as they were imaginary, luring many people to their downfall ...
5 Du Breil de Rays, Charles. The Free Colony of Port-Breton: New France in Oceania." Lecture given by Marquis de Rays at the Salon des
<Euvres in Marseille, and report of this lecture by the Gazette du Midi, Typography and lithography by Marius Olive, Marseille, 1879.
6 Du Brei I de Rays, Charles. La Nouvelle-France. Journal de la colonie fibre de Port-Breton. Marseille, Typography, Blanc et Bernard,
1879-1880.
The southern part of New Ireland has a rich historical connection to France, and we had two objectives for this part of our world tour aboard the Spirit of St Exupery, our PC-12 aircraft. Upon our arrival at the islands of New Guinea, our first goal was to rediscover Bougainville's Cascade described in 1768 (7), and then to trace the remnants of Port Breton and the thousand Frenchmen who disappeared around the year 1882.
We have at our disposal the deeply moving accounts of three survivors:
The text by Jean Morzelle, whose great grandfather Charles Tilmont boarded the Nouvelle-Bretagne, the last ship to depart from Barcelona on December 7, 1880 (8).
The memoirs of Jean Baptiste Mouton (9), who arrived at Port-Breton in August 1881 and was evacuated to Australia in February 1882.
And finally, the book by A. Baudouin (10), physician of the fourth expedition, with his recounts titled The Adventure of Port-Breton.
Also, of course, we have in hand the maps from the expedition of La Coquille by Louis Isidore Duperrey, during its round-the world journey from 1822 to 1825 (11).
Three days ago, we landed in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, then after refueling the Pilatus (a rare resource in PNG), we flew to Rabaul in New England. Thanks to the coordination of Walter Schnaubelt, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation (12), we reached Lamborn, a secluded village in the southern region of New Ireland, the day before. Upon our arrival, the elders eagerly recounted tales of these French settlers who arrived by the hundreds nearly two centuries ago!
7 Voir les notes de terrain sur la Cascade de Bougainville, mars 2024.
8 Morzelle, Jean. Recits d'aventures, FeniXX reedition numerique, 1 8 decembre 2018, 18 p.
9 Mouton, Jean-Baptiste-Octave. The New Guinea Memoirs of Jean-Baptiste-Octave Mouton, Editions Peter Biskup, Canberra, Australian National Univ. Press, 1974.
10 Baudouin, A. The Adventure of Port-Breton: and the Free Colony known as New France: Personal Memories and Documents[ .. .], Doctor of the fourth expedition, M. Dreyfous, Paris, 1883, 346 p.
11 Duperrey, Louis Isidore. « Plan du Port Praslin (lie Tombara) commande par M.L.I. Duperrey, capitaine de la Coquille, ao0t 1823. » Voyage autour du monde: execute par ordre du Roi[ .. .], pendant /es annees 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825 [. .. ] Hydrographie, Arthur Bertrand, Paris, 1827-1829, 164 p.
12 Voir les notes de terrain sur la Cascade de Bougainville, mars 2024.
They confirmed that the community had indeed settled in the bay north of Lamborn (Port des Angla is) and not at Port Praslin to the south.
The next morning, we set off from the Lamborn beach aboard three banana boats, heading north along the coast to reach the first small bay of Port des Anglais, a well-protected bay with calm and crystal-clear waters they call "Lawanai".
Diguel, the chief of Lamborn who accompanies me, points out just above the waterline the remains of two large jetties built by the French to receive boats. We can discern two long protrusions, all covered in coral. These structures are clearly man-made, as they are very straight and regular.
Diguel explains that some French settlers established themselves here, but the vast majority quickly relocated to a bay half a mile north, where there is a river, freshwater springs, and a long flat valley.
(Below) Enlargement of the Port Praslin map drawn by Duperrey (1823)
A: Lawanai B: First colony and ceremonial site
C: Large colony (2nd), valley, and freshwater pools
D: Cemetery
E: Lassabar
Our banana boats cruise up the coast to the north. A welcome reminiscent of ancient times, with a sedan chair, awaits us at the village that now stands where the French used to live. Chief William delivers a welcome speech worthy of the most eloquent politician!
Almost the entire village is present, and there are at least a hundred of us taking the small path they still call the "French Path".
Chef William himself wants to do the honors of showing me around. Seeing me filming, he describes everything first in perfect English with a hint of Australian accent, and then in Pidgin, the official language of Papua New Guinea: "You see, Hubert, this trail, we maintain it! Over there, on the left, the wall of this house was made with the red bricks from France brought by the French!"
A bit further, he shows me the two basins carved into the rock, filling up with spring water, and adds, "The French made two basins, one for washing themselves and the other for washing their clothes. Today, we continue to do as the French did!"
We then arrive at the water point where the settlers had built a mill. We can still see the grain wheel, resting on the riverbed.
We venture further into the valley. After about a kilometer of walking, on both sides of the trail, we can see remnants, flat shapes emerging from the jungle. "Hubert, there, everywhere, they had built houses ... then, one by one, they all died," Chef William confides in me.
We finally arrive at a large coconut grove where another community lives on the very site of the French village. Walter joins me to enter it, another ceremony awaits us there in honor of all these French.
Here too, there are remains of houses, and the low walls are also made of red bricks! This village is now called by the local name of "Siwur".
A splendid banana boat named "Port Breton" rests on the riverbank. We will see several others bearing the same name during our stay.
And thus, we wander through the depths of this valley where countless French souls sought survival as their return to France was an unattainable dream: the majority had liquidated everything before setting sail for this illusory new France ...
We take the boats again to go to the French cemetery, located in another small bay even further north.
Upon our arrival, two poles planted in the ground welcome us. They are topped with a coconut: Tobu! The sign that bodies are buried here!
"Hubert, we still maintain the graves of the French!" adds my host. There are no crosses, but stones placed side by side, and red plants, cordylines, characteristic of burial sites.
The atmosphere here is serene, with towering banyan trees casting giant shadows and providing shelter from the sun. Chef William sits beside me, and we are just a few meters away from countless of what they call graves, these upright stones scattered on the small plateau and hillside.
"They were so many! More than us! And they all died! We buried them like our own dead, according to the rites of our ancestors. Why did your ancestors abandon more than a thousand of their fellow citizens to death?" Chef William asks me.
Here's what happened to the Marquis de Rays:
In 1884 in Paris, he was convicted of fraud, sentenced to four years in prison and fined 3,000 francs; the charges of homicide were dropped. Twelve defendants, including notaries, sailors, etc., were either acquitted, convicted, or fled, while the English, Australian, and Dutch testimonies of the case were entirely incriminating. Then the Marquis appealed ...
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