 Many countries were initiating voyages of scientific explorations at that time.Louis XVI and his court had been stimulated by a proposal from the Dutch-born merchant adventurer William Bolts, who had earlier tried unsuccessfully to interest Louis's brother-in-law, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (brother of Queen Marie Antoinette), in a similar voyage.The French court adopted the concept (though not its author, Bolts), leading to the dispatch of the Lapérouse expedition.