Bougainville publishes his travel log from the expedition under the title Le voyage autour du monde, par la frégate La Boudeuse, et la flûte L'Étoile (a.k.a. Voyage autour du monde and A Voyage Around the World).

The book describes the geography, biology and anthropology of Argentina (at this time a Spanish colony), Patagonia, Tahiti and Indonesia (at this time a Dutch colony).

The book is a sensation, especially the description of Tahitian society.

Bougainville describes it as an earthly paradise where men and women lived in blissful innocence, far from the corruption of civilization.

Bougainville's descriptions powerfully express the concept of the noble savage, influencing the utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau before the advent of the French Revolution.

Denis Diderot's book Supplément au voyage de Bougainville retells the story of Bougainville's landing on Tahiti, narrated by an anonymous reader to one of his friends.

Diderot uses his fictional approach, including a description of the Tahitians as noble savages, to criticize Western ways of living and thinking