French Visiting Tomari, 1797, Paper

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Plate: 'Costumes des Habitants de la Baie de Langle.' (Costumes of the inhabitants of Langle Bay, Russia). Tomari (Russian: ??????) … Read more Plate: 'Costumes des Habitants de la Baie de Langle.' (Costumes of the inhabitants of Langle Bay, Russia). Tomari (Russian: ??????) is a coastal town and the administrative center of Tomarinsky District in Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the western coast of the Sakhalin Island, 167 kilometers (104 mi) northwest of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the administrative center of the oblast. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 4,541. The bay on which Tomari now stands was visited between July 12 and 14, 1787 by two French frigates, Boussole and Astrolabe, commanded by Lapérouse. The French named it Langle Bay after the captain of the Astrolabe. At that time, it was no more than a small cluster of huts. The French had good relations with the local people who they considered to be in the very distant past of northern Chinese origin, describing them as intelligent, good-looking, and short in stature. The locals were engaged primarily in fishing, hunting, and herding, with hardly any agriculture. They traded regularly with the communities on the Amur River on the mainland and with Japan. Lapérouse gives a very detailed of his relations with these people in his work Voyage de Laperouse Autour du Monde, published in 1797. After the design by Count de Vancy, engraved by Cathelin. This attractive original old antique print / plate originates from: 'Atlas du Voyage de la Pérouse' (no.50). See less