Marquis de Rays

[1] He led four European expeditions to establish colonies in a place he called New France which is the island now referred to as New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago of present-day Papua New Guinea.

As a child in 1838 he succeeded his father as marquis and spent his youth in fortune-seeking but ineffective adventures abroad: in the United States, Senegal, Madagascar, and Indo-China.

Through advertisements, word of mouth, and a journal of his own publishing, Nouvelle France, de Rays brought to public attention his plans for converting and then colonising the South Pacific, which he claimed abounded in fertile soil.

Aboard the ships Chandernagore, Gentil, Nouvelle Bretagne, and India, a motley group of 570 ill-prepared colonists, in the main French, German, and Italian, arrived at Port Breton.

[7] On 22 September 1869, he married Emilie Labat, who gave him five children, including two known sons: Eugène Paul Emile and Charles (arrived in Chile in 1898).