Francis Garnier
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Marie Joseph François Garnier ( vi, Ngạc Nhi; 25 July 1839 – 21 December 1873) was a French officer, inspector of Indigenous Affairs of
Cochinchina Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; vi, Đàng Trong (17th century - 18th century, Việt Nam (1802-1831), Đại Nam (1831-1862), Nam Kỳ (1862-1945); km, កូសាំងស៊ីន, Kosăngsin; french: Cochinchine; ) is a historical exony ...
and explorer. He eventually became mission leader of the Mekong Exploration Commission in 19th century Southeast Asia.


Early career

Francis Garnier was born on 25 July 1839 in
Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...
, as the second son of Louis-Alexandre Garnier and Anne Marie Félicité Garnier. In 1855, at 16, he joined the Ecole Navale, much to the dismay of his family who disapproved a military career, deeming it as being dangerous. In early 1860, 20 years old Garnier, then serving as an aspirant on the ''Duperré'' during the
Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
, jumped into a stormy sea at night to save the life of a cavalry lieutenant who had fallen overboard. For this act of bravery, Garnier was immediately promoted to
ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
and got attached to the staff of Admiral Charner. Under Admiral Charner he fought in the Cochinchina Campaign and notably took part in the storming of the Kỳ Hòa lines. After some time spent in France, Garnier returned to the East, and in 1862, he was appointed inspector of native affairs in
Cochinchina Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; vi, Đàng Trong (17th century - 18th century, Việt Nam (1802-1831), Đại Nam (1831-1862), Nam Kỳ (1862-1945); km, កូសាំងស៊ីន, Kosăngsin; french: Cochinchine; ) is a historical exony ...
, and entrusted with the administration of Cholon, a suburb of
Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...
.


Exploration of the Mekong and Yangtze rivers

It was at his suggestion that the marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat determined to send a mission to explore the valley of the
Mekong River The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annuall ...
, but as Garnier was not considered old enough to be put in command, the chief authority was entrusted to Captain
Ernest Doudard de Lagrée Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People * Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor * Ernest, ...
. In the course of the expedition – to quote the words of Sir
Roderick Murchison Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scotland, Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigat ...
addressed to the youthful traveller when, in 1870, he was presented with the
Patron's Medal The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...
of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
of London – "from Kratié in
Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
to
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
5392 miles were traversed, and of these, 3625 miles, chiefly of country unknown to European geography, were surveyed with care, and the positions fixed by astronomical observations, nearly the whole of the observations being taken by Garnier himself". A year earlier he received an award to be shared with
David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...
at the 1869 Geographical Congress in
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
. Volunteering to lead a detachment to Dali, the capital of Sultan Suleiman, the sovereign of the
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
rebels in
Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...
, Garnier successfully carried out the more-than-adventurous enterprise. When shortly afterwards Lagrée died, Garnier naturally assumed the command of the expedition, and he conducted it in safety to the
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
, and thus to the Chinese coast. On his return to France, he was received with enthusiasm. The preparation of his narrative was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War


Franco-Prussian War

During the siege of Paris, Garnier served as principal staff officer to the admiral in command of the eighth sector. His experiences during the siege were published anonymously in the ''feuilleton'' of ''
Le Temps ''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...
'', and appeared separately as '' Le Siège de Paris, journal d'un officier de marine'' (1871). One day, while he was carrying a wagon full of ammunitions to the Fort of Vanves alongside 40 fellow fighters, the convoy came under a brutal rain of Prussian shells. All of the surviving men ran away forsaking their mission, except for Garnier and a man of the
National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...
who held on and brought the wagon to destination, just the two of them. Returning to Cochinchina, he found the political circumstances of the country unfavourable to further exploration, so accordingly, he went to China, and in 1873 followed the upper course of the Yangtze River to the
waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...
s.


Intervention in Tonkin

In late summer 1873, a dispute between French trader Jean Dupuis and the Vietnamese authorities had created quite a diplomatic crisis in Hanoi. On the demand of the Vietnamese imperial court, Garnier was sent by Admiral Dupré in order to solve the dispute and to expel Dupuis and his mercenaries from the Tonkin. Garnier's expeditionary force consisted in 180 men and two gunboats. Garnier departed from Saigon with half of the expeditionary force on 11 October 1873 and reached Hanoi on 5 November. As Garnier and his men arrived to the city, neither General
Nguyễn Tri Phương Nguyễn Tri Phương ( vi-hantu, 阮知方, 1800 – 1873), born Nguyễn Văn Chương, was a Nguyễn dynasty mandarin and military commander. He commanded armies against French conquest of Vietnam at the Siege of Tourane, the Siege of Sai ...
, nor any of his mandarins came to meet them. Dupuis however warmly welcomed the French. After discussing with Dupuis, Garnier attempted to negotiate with the local authorities, but since the mandarins refused to negotiate, he began considering the idea of some military action. On 12 November, the remainder of the expeditionary force arrived, and Garnier took the decision to capture the city, despite having received no orders to do so. On 20 November at dawn, Garnier and his 180 men stormed the citadel of Hanoi, which was defended by 7,000 soldiers. Completely dumbfounded by the French attack, the defenders performed pretty poorly, and when General Nguyễn Tri Phương was severely injured, their
morale Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...
completely collapsed. As French troops entered through the southern gates, most of the defenders ran away through the northern gate. In less than an hour, the French had captured the citadel. The only French casualty was one of Dupuis' Chinese mercenaries, who had accidentally been killed by French sailors. Vietnamese casualties however were heavy, as they had lost 80 killed, 300 wounded and 2,000 captured. Nguyễn Tri Phương was badly injured and would die of his wounds a month later, on 20 December. Emboldened by this crushing victory, Garnier and his men soon launched themselves in an unsanctioned military campaign, which resulted in the conquest of the entire
Red River Delta The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta ( vi, Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese wor ...
within the following two weeks. One of his subordinate, 24 years old ensign Balny d'Avricourt, conquered the citadels of Phu Ly and Hai Duong with a mere 30 men. On 5 December, 21 years old aspirant Hautefeuille captured the citadel of Ninh Binh with 6 sailors and a Vietnamese interpreter after taking the governor hostage. Eventually on 11 December, Garnier himself conquered the citadel of
Nam Dinh Nam, Nam, or The Nam are shortened terms for: * Vietnam, which is also spelled ''Viet Nam'' * The Vietnam War Nam, The Nam or NAM may also refer to: Arts and media * Nam, a fictional character in anime series ''Dragon Ball'' * ''NAM'' (video ...
, and the expeditionary force received its first casualties as 5 sailors were wounded in the fighting. With the fall of Nam Dinh on 11 December, the French force was in control of the entire Red River Delta.


Death in battle near Hanoi

Completely overwhelmed by the lightning French conquest, the Vietnamese authorities had sought the help of
Liu Yongfu Liu Yongfu () (1837–1917) was a Chinese warlord and commander of the celebrated Black Flag Army. Liu won fame as a Chinese patriot fighting against the French Empire in northern Vietnam ( Tonkin) in the 1870s and early 1880s. During the Sin ...
and his
Black Flag Army The Black Flag Army (; , chữ Nôm: 軍旗𬹙) was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border in 1865 from Guangxi, China into northern Vietnam, then during the N ...
, a group of Chinese outlaws, composed largely of veterans of the
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...
, who had settled in Northern Vietnam. On 21 December 1873 Liu Yongfu and around 600 Black Flags (french: pavillons noirs, ), marching beneath an enormous black banner, approached the west gate of Hanoi. A large Vietnamese army followed in their wake. Garnier began shelling the Black Flags with a field piece mounted above the gate, and when they began to fall back he led a party of 18 French marines and sailors out of the city to pursue them, hoping to inflict some decisive blow. The counter-attack failed. Garnier, leading three men uphill in a bayonet attack on a party of Black Flags, was stabbed and hacked to death by several Black Flag soldiers after stumbling in a watercourse. The youthful ''enseigne de vaisseau'' Adrien Balny d'Avricourt led an equally small column out of the citadel to support Garnier, but was also killed at the head of his men. Three French sailors were also killed in these sorties, and the others fled back to the citadel after their officers fell. Colonel Thomazi, the historian of French Indochina, gave the following detailed description of Garnier's last moments:
At midday on 21 December he was in conference with the ambassadors when an interpreter ran up, announcing that bands of Black Flags were attacking the town by the western gate. He immediately hurried to the spot, but some of his men had got there before him, and their fire had sufficed to force the bandits to retreat behind the bamboo hedges. A 40-millimetre gun arrived at this moment. Garnier rallied a dozen men, three of whom dragged this small cannon, and left the town at a run to pursue the enemy. As the gun could not move quickly enough across the fields, he left it behind with its gunners. He then divided the nine men who remained with him into three groups. The first two groups moved off to the left and the right, to rejoin one another further on, while he marched in the middle, followed only by two men. One and a half kilometres from the town he found himself in front of a dyke, and slipped and fell while trying to cross it. Some Black Flags hidden behind the dyke ran out, while others opened fire. At this moment the two men who were accompanying Garnier were 100 metres behind him. One of them was killed by a bullet and the other wounded. Garnier cried, 'To me, brave boys, and we'll give them a thrashing!' He then fired the six rounds from his revolver in an attempt to rescue himself, but the bandits surrounded him, pierced him with thrusts of sabres and lances, cut off his head, odiously mutilated his corpse, and ran away. The two other groups, rushing up to the sound of the shooting, were only able to recover his bloodied corpse and bring it back to Hanoi.
Despite having killed the leader of the French force, the Black Flags and Vietnamese retreated without having retaken Hanoi. Though the death of Garnier was a severe blow to the expeditionary force, his men nevertheless remained in control of the entire region. However, the conquest had not been allowed by the French authorities, and another lieutenant named
Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (born 7 February 1837 in Brussels, died 11 September 1902, Buyat-Beayeau, France) was a French colonial administrator, diplomat and scholar. In Vietnamese royal records, he was referred as ''Hoắc Đạo Sinh'' (霍道 ...
had been sent to terminate the campaign as soon as the news of Garnier's attack on Hanoi reached Saigon. Philastre arrived a few days after Garnier's death and immediately ordered the evacuation of the conquered cities in early 1874. The heads of Garnier, Balny d'Avricourt and the other three French sailors killed in the 21 December attack were returned to the French on 6 January. On 15 March 1874, the Treaty of Saigon was then signed between France and Vietnam. In exchange for France having given back the conquered cities, Vietnam formally recognized French sovereignty over Cochinchina, opened the Red River to French trade and allowed the establishment of small French garrisons in Hanoi and
Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...
.


Achievement

Garnier's chief fame rests on the fact that he both conceived the idea of exploring the Mekong and carried out the larger portion of the work. During the French colonial period he was also honoured for his feats of arms in Tonkin, which paved the way for the eventual French conquest of Tonkin in the 1880s.


Commemoration

In 1883, nine years after Francis Garnier's death, the French naval officer Henri Rivière was also killed by the
Black Flags The Black Flag Army (; , chữ Nôm: 軍旗𬹙) was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border in 1865 from Guangxi, China into northern Vietnam, then during the Nguy ...
in Tonkin, in remarkably similar circumstances. Garnier and Rivière were honoured during the French colonial period as the two pre-eminent French martyrs of the conquest of Tonkin. In 1884, during the
Sino-French War The Sino-French War (, french: Guerre franco-chinoise, vi, Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. The Chinese arm ...
, two gunboats of the
Tonkin Flotilla The Tonkin Flotilla (french: flottille de Tonkin), a force of despatch vessels and gunboats used for policing the rivers and waterways of the Tonkin Delta, was created in the summer of 1883, during the period of hostilities of the Tonkin campaign (1 ...
were named after the two men. During the
siege of Tuyên Quang The siege of Tuyên Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). A French garrison of 630 men, including two companies of ...
(November 1884–March 1885), Liu Yung-fu's Black Flags, who formed part of the besieging Chinese army, taunted the men of the French garrison by chanting the names of their two most famous victims: 'Garnier! Rivière! Garnier! Rivière!' In 1911, the town Beni Haoua in French Algeria was renamed 'Francis Garnier', and retained this name until the independence in 1962. In 1943,
French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...
issued a
postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...
commemorating Garnier. * A warship was named after him during World War II but was scuttled after a fight with the Japanese, near the Cambodian town of Kratié. * In 1973 a new ship, , was built. It still is in service and was ordered to assist the humanitarian efforts following the
2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...
as part of ''
Opération Séisme Haiti 2010 Opération Séisme Haiti 2010 (''Operation Haiti Earthquake 2010'') is France's military relief operation for the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Le Cawa"26/01/10 - Séisme Haïti : le commandant des FAA inspecte le dispositif militaire français en ...
''. She left
Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
carrying 60
Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
personnel, land vehicles and
excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
s; and various relief shipments.


See also

* Henri Rivière * Francis Garnier (L9031) *
Ernest Doudart de Lagrée Ernest Marc Louis de Gonzague Doudart de Lagrée (; March 31, 1823 – March 12, 1868) was the leader of the French Mekong Expedition of 1866-1868. He was born in Saint-Vincent-de-Mercuze near Grenoble, France, and graduated from the École ...
* Mekong Expedition of 1866–68


References


Bibliography

* Baker, Daniel ed. ''Explorers and Discoverers of the World''. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993 * * Lonlay, D. de, ''Le siège de Tuyen-Quan'' (Paris, 1886) * Milton Osborne, ''River Road to China: The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73'' (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999) *
Milton Osborne Milton Edgeworth Osborne, is an Australian historian, author, and consultant specializing in Southeast Asia. Education Osborne attended North Sydney Boys High School, graduated from the University of Sydney and received his Doctor of Philosophy ...
, "Francis Garnier (1839–1873), Explorer of the Mekong River", ''Explorers of South-east Asia, Six Lives'', ed. Victor T. King, (Kuala Lumpur:
OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1995) * Milton Osborne, ''River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition, 1866–1873'' (London and New York, 1975) * The narrative of the principal expedition appeared in 1873, as ''Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867 et 1868, publié sous la direction de M. Francis Garnier, avec le concours de M. Delaporte et de MM. Joubert et Thorel'' (2 vols.) Only 800 copies were printed, and the original work is now rare. * Transl. Walter E. J. Tips: ** ''Travels in Cambodia and Part of Laos: the Mekong Exploration Commission report (1866–1868), volume 1'' (White Lotus Press, 1996) ** ''A pictorial journey on the old Mekong: Cambodia, Laos and Yunnan: the Mekong Exploration Commission report (1866–1868), volume 3'' (White Lotus Press, 1998) * An account of the Yang-tsze-Kiang from Garnier's pen is given in the ''Bulletin de la Soc. de Geog''. (1874). * His ''Chronique royale du Cambodje'', was reprinted from the ''Journal Asiatique'' in 1872. * Ocean Highways (1874) for a memoir by Colonel
Henry Yule Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Oriental studies, Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and ''Mirabilia'' by the 14th-century Dominican ...
*
Hugh Clifford Sir Hugh Charles Clifford, (5 March 1866 – 18 December 1941) was a British colonial administrator. Early life Clifford was born in Roehampton, London, the sixth of the eight children of Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Clifford and his wife Jos ...
, "Further India", in the ''Story of Exploration'' series (1904). *
John Keay John Stanley Melville Keay FRGS is a British historian, journalist, radio presenter and lecturer specialising in popular histories of India, the Far East and China, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and exploration by Europe ...
, ''Mad About The Mekong'' * Thomazi, A., ''La conquête de l'Indochine'' (Paris, 1934) {{DEFAULTSORT:Garnier, Francis French explorers Explorers of Asia 1835 births 1873 deaths French Navy officers French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War French military personnel killed in action People of French Indochina People from Saint-Étienne 1860s in Cambodia 1860s in Laos 1860s in Siam 1860s in Vietnam 19th-century French military personnel 19th-century explorers