Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne  Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (May
22, 1724 - June 12, 1772) was a French explorer. He was born in
Saint Malo and joined the French East India Company at the age
of 11 (which was not uncommon at the time) as a sub-lieutenant
aboard the Duc de Bourgogne.  During the War of the Austrian
Succession, he commanded several ships and was a captain by
1745. In the Seven Years' War, he was engaged in various naval
operations.  After the war, he again sailed on the East India
routes and eventually settled in Port Louis on Mauritius, where
he also was the harbourmaster for some time.  When the French
East India Company collapsed and was dissolved in 1769, du
Fresne was suddenly unemployed. He convinced Pierre Poivre, the
civil administrator, to equip him with two ships and send him on
a two-fold mission: first, he was to bring Ahu-toru, a Tahitian
who had been brought to Paris and exposed there, but brought
back only as far as Mauritius, back to Tahiti, and second, he
was to search for the s