 He had already suffered a severe bout of dysentery in April 1885, and his health declined rapidly during the next two months.On 8 June he walked with his head bared under the hot sun of the Pescadores in the funeral procession of "sous-commissaire" Dert, a marine infantry officer who had just died of cholera, and this duty critically weakened him.He died aboard his flagship "Bayard" in Makung harbour on the night of 11June 1885.