Philibert Commerson

Philibert Commerson (sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773) was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769.

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Quotes

Born under the most beautiful of skies, fed on the fruits of a land that is fertile and requires no cultivation ... [the Tahitians] know no other Gods but love. Every day is dedicated to it. The entire island is its temple, every woman its altar, every man its priest. And what sort of women? you will ask. The rivals of Georgians in beauty, and the sisters of the utterly naked Graces. There, neither shame nor modesty exercise their tyranny ...
- Reported in Diana Preston, Paradise in Chains: The Bounty Mutiny and the Founding of Australia (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 8