(July 3, 1803).) Gave An Account
Of The Very Large Collection Of Specimens That She Brought, And Spoke
Cordially Of The Work; And In The Following Month* (* 27th Thermidor,
Revolutionary Year 11.
(August 15).) Napoleon's organ published a long
sketch of the course of the voyage up to the King Island stage, from
particulars contained in despatches and supplied by Hamelin.
The earlier
arrival of Le Naturaliste had the effect, also, of taking the edge off
public interest. This may be counted as one of the causes of the rather
frigid reception accorded to Le Geographe.
The only fact that lends any colour to Freycinet's supposition of
prejudice, is that the Moniteur article of 27th Thermidor suggested a
certain unsatisfactoriness about the charts sent home by Baudin. His
communications clearly led the Government to believe that he had made
important discoveries on the south coast of Australia, but unfortunately
the rough drawings accompanying his descriptions did not enable official
experts to form an accurate opinion. He mentioned the two large gulfs,
but furnished no chart of them.* (* "Cette decouverte [i.e. of the gulfs]
du Capitaine Baudin est tres interessante en ce qu'elle completera la
reconnaissance de la cote sud de la Nouvelle Hollande qui est due
entierement a la France. On ne peut pas encore juger du degre
d'exactitude avec laquelle elle a ete faite, parce que le citoyen Baudin
n'a envoye qu'une partie de la carte qu'il en a dressee, et que cette
carte meme n'est qu'une premiere esquisse. Il y a jointe une carte qui
marque seulement sa route, avec les sondes le long de toute cette cote,
et il promet d'envoyer l'autre partie de la cote par la premiere occasion
qu'il trouvera." Moniteur, 27th Thermidor, Revolutionary Year 11.) The
reason for that was, of course, that at the time when Le Naturaliste left
for France Baudin had not penetrated the gulfs, and could have had no
representation of them to submit. The article also alluded to another
chart of part of the coast in the neighbourhood of Cape Leeuwin, as not
conveying much information.* (* It was "figuree assez grossierement et
sans details.") These statements are useful as enabling us to understand
why Baudin was so shy about showing his charts to Flinders. If they gave
little satisfaction to the writer of the Moniteur article, we can imagine
what a critic who had been over the ground himself would have thought
about them.
These considerations scarcely afford reason for inferring that the
Government had formed a prejudice against the work of the expedition
before making a complete examination of its records, though it is very
probable that dissatisfaction was expressed about the charts. Hamelin,
also, would be fairly certain to intimate privately what he knew to be
the case, that Flinders had been beforehand with the most important of
the discoveries. Indeed, the Moniteur article expressly mentioned that
when Baudin met Flinders, the latter had "pursued the coast from Cape
Leeuwin to the place of meeting." The information that the English
captain had accomplished so much, despite the fact that he had left
England months after Baudin sailed from France, was not calculated to
give pleasure to Ministers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 132 of 158
Words from 69444 to 69974
of 83218
