Early Career
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was born to Dorothée de Lestang-Parade and Jean Baptiste Bruny, at Aix-en-Provence in 1739. His father was a member of the Parlement of Provence. Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was educated at a Jesuit school and reportedly intended to become a priest in the Society of Jesus, but his father intervened and enlisted him in the French Navy in 1754. In the action that secured the Balearic Islands for Spain (and resulted in the execution of Admiral Byng), Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was a midshipman aboard the 26-gun Minerve, and in April 1757 he was commissioned as an ensign. His further naval career as a junior officer was uneventful, and he appears in this period to have done general service in the French Navy.
For a time Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was Assistant Director of ports and arsenals, after which (1785) he was transferred to command a French Squadron in the East Indies. During this service he opened up a new route to Canton by way of the Sunda Strait and the Moluccas, for use during the south-east monsoon season. He was then appointed Governor of the French colony of Isle de France (now Mauritius).
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