Very rare eulogy to La Pérouse published some thirty-five years after the disappearance of his two vessels, and a scant three years before the clues to the loss of the Astrolabe and the Boussole were discovered by the sandalwood trader Peter Dillon.

Very rare eulogy to La Pérouse published some thirty-five years after the disappearance of his two vessels, and a scant three years before the clues to the loss of the Astrolabe and the Boussole were discovered by the sandalwood trader Peter Dillon.

Vinaty (sometimes 'Vinati') prepared the work for the Académie des Jeux-Floraux of Toulouse, where the eulogy won their prize l'Eglantine d'Or. The work is not only testament to the enduring importance of La Pérouse in the French-speaking world, it is also an interesting document of its time, because Vinaty shows a willingness to skip over the years of the Revolution and the rule of Napoleon. He is at pains to re-assert a continuity with the glory of France under Louis XVI, in the process presenting La Pérouse as a truly great French hero, but also as one capable of honouring the memory and achievements of Cook (a lengthy passage, for instance, praises La Pérouse for raising a suitable memorial above the tomb of Cook's successor Captain Clerke in Kamchatka). Throughout, the tone is pure Restoration, underlined by his quoting from the great exile writer Chateaubriand.

The work's rarity is borne out by Ferguson, who first located a copy in the Edward Weber Allen collection in California in time for the addenda to volume II of his bibliography; the copy in the State Library of New South Wales was added with a revised note to the full Addenda volume of 1986. The work is also noticed in McLaren's Lapérouse in the Pacific, who added a copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Otherwise, Vinaty's work is not noted in many standard references (it is a surprising omission from Forbes's Hawaiian National Bibliography); nor is it listed in important collections such as Kroepelien and Hill.