François Martin de Vitré

Who is François Martin de Vitré?

François Martin de Vitré was a French sailor and adventurer from the city of Vitré who travelled to East Asia as far as Sumatra from 1601 to 1603. He was the first Frenchman to write an account of travels to the Far East. He was however preceded to the Far-East by several French traders, such as Jean Parmentier in 1529. François Martin de Vitré seems to have been the surgeon of his ship.

In December 1600 a French trading company was formed through the association of Saint-Malo, Laval and Vitré, to trade with the Moluccas and Japan. Two ships, the Croissant and the Corbin, were sent around the Cape of Good Hope in May 1601. The Corbin was wrecked in the Maldives, beginning the adventure of François Pyrard de Laval, who managed to return to France in 1611.

The second ship, the Croissant carrying François Martin de Vitré, reached Ceylon and traded with Aceh in Sumatra, but on the return leg was captured by the Dutch at Cape Finisterre.

François Martin, together with François Pyrard, were among the first French merchants to visit India. They went to Surat and also visited the town of Gujarat.

In his Memoires, François Martin wrote that the world was learning from China at that time.