Pierre Poivre

Pierre Poivre (23 August 1719 – 6 January 1786) was a French horticulturist born in Lyon; he was a missionary to China and Cochinchina, Intendant of the Islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, and wearer of the cordon of St. Michel. He was an uncle to renowned French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814).

In his early 20s he was a missionary in Far Eastern locations that included Cochinchina, Guangzhou and Macau. In 1745 as a member of the French East India Company, while on a journey to the East Indies, he was struck by a cannonball on the wrist while being engaged in a naval battle with the British. The injury required the amputation of part of his right arm.

In the 1760s, Poivre became administrator of Isle de France (now Mauritius) and Ile Bourbon (Réunion) in the Indian Ocean. On Mauritius, he is renowned for the construction of a botanical garden consisting of trees, shrubs and plants imported from tropical sites worldwide. Here he was later succeeded as director by botanist Jean-Nicolas Céré.

He is also remembered for introducing to Mauritius and Reunion, spice plants such as clove and nutmeg, commodities which at the time were controlled by the Dutch, who had a virtual monopoly on these spices in the East Indies. In order to obtain the spices, Poivre had to arrange clandestine smuggling forays in order to obtain plants and seeds from the Indies (the expeditions to obtain the species were conducted in 1769-1770). Poivre was also responsible for introducing spice plants to the Seychelles.

Today on northern Mauritius, the Botanical Garden of Pamplemousses that Poivre created still flourishes, it is now a 25-hectare garden containing tropical plants and trees from Africa, Asia, the Americas, as well as islands of the Indian Ocean.

...
Wikipedia