Riche, Claude-Antoine-Gaspard (1762 - 1797)

Summary

Claude Riche was naturalist on board the French ship Espérance which sailed under the command of J. M. Huon de Kermadec in September 1791. The expedition, Espérance and Recherche under command of A. J. R. de Bruny d'Entrecasteaux, was to travel to Van Diemen's Land and then the southern Pacific Ocean in an attempt to find La Pérouse who had disappeared. Riche's companion naturalist (in Recherche) was Julien Labillardière. In April 1792 the expedition reached Van Diemen's Land. By July they were in the Admiralty Islands and, after sailing through the Indonesian islands, reached Cape Leeuwin in November and returned to Van Diemen's Land. From here they headed for New Caledonia. No trace of La Pérouse having been found, they headed home. After some political difficulty with the Dutch at Surabaya, the ships finally reached France in February 1784. Riche did not return until 1797 and died soon after. He is commemorated by the endemic Australian plant genus Richea (Epacridaceae) and Cape Riche, Western Australia.

Details

From "Curious Minds" (2012), pages 20 and 22:
"As a minimal requirement, a good naturalist must surely possess a curious mind. A really good naturalist, however, requires determination. Claude Riche is an example of just such a naturalist, even though his name is generally (and undeservedly) less well known-to the extent that English-language sources often call him Charles. French sources, however, consistently refer to him as Claude."

"In December 1792, Riche was ashore near Esperance Bay on the southern coast of south-west Western Australia when he lost touch with the rest of the party for two nights. Riche continued to make natural history observations, even when he was in sight of the ships again and began to fear they might leave without him.

"His fear was real enough, because he knew the ships were short of water and might be forced to sail to Van Diemen's Land for water supplies. Riche wanted to know what the local people ate, and being medically trained, he was willing to do what was needed, for instance sifting Aboriginal excrement to locate pips and grains. He wrote:

'The pips belong to a very small berry that I have since found. This berry is very tasty, and comes from a bush, samples of which I have collected from this land. {?Enchylaena tomentosa, Chenopodiaceae, or Leucopogon richei, Ericaceae] The grains are those of Mesembryanthemum edule (Lin.) [Carpobrotus edulis, Aizoaceae)}; it is common on this coast. This plant . . . seems to be Nature's way of enabling human beings to populate the most arid deserts. It grows abundantly on the whole of the south coast of Africa, and its use has given it the name of Bread of the Hottentots; its flowers, developing in succession on the same plant, provide fruit during a great part of the year. I saw this plant each step I took in the country, but the natives had been so skilled in collecting this fruit that I did not manage to find any mature ones.' [See Chapter Endnotes 18 and 19, page 192]

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• MacInnis, Peter, Curious Minds: the Discoveries of Australian Naturalists (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2012), 213 pp. Pages 20-23. Details

Journal Articles

• Le Grand, Homer E., 'C. A. Riche's Plans for the Scientific Study of the South-West Pacific 1791-1794', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (3) (1982), 33-40. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9820530033. Details

See also

• Brosse, Jacques; translated by Hochman, Stanley, Great voyages of exploration: the golden age of discovery in the Pacific (Lane Cove, N.S.W.: Doubleday Australia, 1983), 228 pp. Details
• Carr, S. G. M. and Carr, D. J., 'The French contribution to the discovery of Australia and its flora', Endeavour, 35 (1976), 21-6. Details
• Douglas, Bronwen; Veys, Fanny Wonu; and Lythberg, Billie eds, Collecting in the South Sea: the voyage of Bruni d'Entrecasteaux 1791-1794 (Leiden, Netherlands: Sidestone Press, 2018), 340 pp. Details
• Fagg, Murray, Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, http://www.anbg.gov.au/bot-biog/index.html. Details
• Hogg, G. H., 'D'Entrecasteaux: an account of his life, his expeditions and his officers', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1937 (1937), 53-74. Details
• Labillardiere, Jacques Julien Houtou de, Relation de la voyage à le recherche de la Pérouse, fait par ordre de l'Assemblée Constituante pendant les années 1791, 1792 et pendant la 1e la 2e années de la République Française Paris 2 vols, 2 vols (Paris: H. J. Hansen, 1799-1800). Details
• Labillardiere, Jacques Julien Houtou de, Voyage in search of la Pérouse performed by order of the Constituent Assembly during the years 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1794, 2 vols (London: John Stockdale, 1800). Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of the Earlier French Botanists as Regards Australian Plants.', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, xliv (1910), 123-155. Details