[2] He was head of the colony from June 1730 until the arrival of the new governor Henry Dussault, seigneur de Lamirande, on 2 August 1730.
D'Orvilliers was then again head of the colony until 9 July 1738, when Antoine Lemoyne, seigneur de Chateaugué, took office as governor.
[5] In 1748 d'Orvilliers and a M. des Essarts, navy controller, undertook an exploratory land voyage from Cayenne to the Approuague and the Oyapock.
[6] In December 1748 d'Orvilliers and Lemoyne co-authored a Mémoire concernant la colonie de Cayenne addressed to the French government.
[7] In glowing terms the report described the fertility of Cayenne, where planters could easily grow sugar cane, indigo, annatto, cotton and food.
Lumber for carpentry and construction was plentiful, as were medicinal plants and trees, spices, resins, gums, oils and fruits.
[9] In 1759 d'Orvilliers manned the fortifications of Cayenne with slaves to defend against British invaders, an unusual and controversial step.
The king would pay for any slave that was killed or mutilated, so d'Orvilliers asked that the nearby plantations supply their best men.
Lemoyne wrote that, "Exposing our slaves to ... a capitulation would create an object too attractive to hope for any mercy from the enemy."