Jacques Etienne Victor Arago (1790-1855), author, artist and explorer, travelled with Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet on his 1817 voyage around the world on the Uranie. Dispatched to determine the shape of the earth once and for all, the corvette carried 120 men and 23 officers, as well as De Freycinet's young wife, Rose, accommodated in secret on the poop deck. Uranie visited Australia, East Timor, many Pacific islands and South America before being wrecked in the Falklands in February 1820. Arago got along well with the Indigenous Hawaiians and made more drawings of them than any other European visitor; the voyage resulted in his best-known book, Voyage autour du monde (c. 1820). Arago lost his sight in 1837, but continued to travel and write for the theatre. His long essay Curieux voyage autour du monde (1853) is notable for its complete exclusion of the letter 'a'. He died in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
