Pierre Poivre

Pierre Poivre (1719 to 1786) was a French missionary turned physiocrat, a horticulturist and economic botanist, and a naturalist who worked in the French colony of Mauritius. Born in Lyon to a wealthy silk merchant, he went to East Asia with the Society of Foreign Missions in 1740, lost part of his right arm to a cannonball when his ship was attacked in 1745, and became interested in agriculture while in Java, where he looked at rice, coffee and sugarcane. On later voyages he collected plants including nutmeg, brought cacao and breadfruit to Mauritius. He published Voyages d'un Philosophe in 1769. From 1766 to 1772 he served as Intendant, the governor, of the Ile de France (Mauritius) and Bourbon (Reunion), where he was involved in introducing the cultivation of numerous spices from Southeast Asia to make the island a valuable colonial asset. With Philibert Commerson he established the botanical garden at Pamplemousses. The English tongue twister about Peter Piper is thought to derive from his name, since poivre is French for pepper.