Arrival in Mauritius to continue botanical collecting

On 12 March 1769, Jeanne Baret arrived at the island of Mauritius, then known as Île de France, aboard the Étoile as part of Bougainville's ongoing circumnavigation. Rather than continuing directly back to France with the rest of the fleet, Baret and Philibert Commerson disembarked to remain on the island, drawn by its rich and largely uncatalogued flora.

Mauritius, a French colonial outpost in the Indian Ocean, offered Commerson opportunities to expand his botanical collection and pursue further scientific studies, work in which Baret played an essential supporting and collecting role. The pair spent several years on the island and undertook additional collecting expeditions to Madagascar and other nearby regions, amassing further specimens that would eventually enrich European scientific collections.

This extended stay proved pivotal, both scientifically and personally. It allowed Commerson and Baret to continue their botanical partnership away from the confines and scrutiny of shipboard life, though it also meant a prolonged separation from France for Baret, whose formal return voyage would not occur for several more years. Commerson would die on Mauritius in 1773, leaving Baret to navigate the aftermath of his death and her own path back to France, ultimately completing a full circumnavigation rather than the more common practice of the era's naturalists returning directly.