Captain, later Admiral, Abraham de Bellebat (Belébat?) de Duquesne-Guitton, also spelled Duquesne-Guiton (1648-d. 1724), was a French naval commander.

In 1687 he sailed from the Cape of Good Hope in L'Oiseau, with a French Ambassador, Claude Céberet du Boullay, on board, to establish a French Embassy in the Kingdom of Siam.

Abraham Duquesne-Guitton

He sighted Eendracht Land on the Western Australian coast and sailed in close to shore near the Swan River on 4 August - this was France's first recorded contact with Australia. He wrote that it looked very attractive, and fully covered with green despite "the fact that we were in the middle of winter in this country".

Abraham Duquesne-Guitton

His nephew Nicolas Gedeon de Voutron also sighted the western coast of Australia that year on another ship at the same latitude.

Abraham Duquesne-Guitton

He was appointed Governor General of the Windward Islands ("Gouverneur général des Isles du Vent") in reward for renouncing Protestantism and becoming a Catholic, and held that office from 1714 to 1717.

Notes

History of the French Navy

French explorers

French Navy admirals

European exploration of Australia

1648 births

1724 deaths

Governors general of the French Antilles