The first European to find "Rafflesia" was the ill-fated French explorer Louis Auguste Deschamps. He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific, detained by the Dutch for three years on Java, where, in 1797, he collected a specimen, which was probably what is now known as " R. patma". During the return voyage in 1798, his ship was taken by the British, with whom France was at war, and all his papers and notes were confiscated. Joseph Banks is said to have agitated for the return of the stolen documents, but apparently to no avail: they were lost, turned up for sale around 1860, went to the British Museum of Natural History, where they were promptly lost again. They did not see the light of day until 1954, when they were rediscovered at the Museum. To everyone's surprise, his notes and drawings indicate that he had found and studied the plants long before the British. It is thought quite possible the British purposely hid Deschamps' notes, to claim the 'glory' of 'discovery' for themselves.