He Consulted With
Cuvier, Lacepede, And Degerando As To A Programme Of Work, Procured The
Necessary Apparatus, Went To Cerilly
To embrace his sisters and receive
his mother's benediction, and joined Le Geographe just before she
sailed.* (* The facts concerning
Peron's early career are taken from
Deleuze's memoir, 1811, and that of Maurice Girard, 1857.)
The command of the expedition was entrusted to Captain Nicolas Baudin. He
was fifty years of age when he received this commission, on the
nomination of the Institute. In his youth he had been engaged in the
French mercantile marine. In later years he had commanded two
expeditions, despatched under the Austrian flag, for botanical purposes.
From the last of these he returned in 1797, when, his country being at
war with Austria, he presented the complete collection of animals and
plants obtained to the French nation.* (* The Moniteur, 25th Prairial
(June 13), 1797.) This timely act won him the friendship of Jussieu, and
it was largely through his influence that "Citoyen" Baudin was chosen to
command the expedition to the Terres Australes.* (* The Moniteur, 23rd
Floreal (May 13), 1800.) He had had no training in the Navy, though if,
as some suppose, the expedition had a secret aggressive mission, we may
reasonably conjecture that it would have been placed under the command of
a naval officer with some amount of fighting experience.
That Baudin did not become popular with the staff under his command is
apparent from the studious omission of his name from the volumes of Peron
and Freycinet, and from their resentful references to "notre chef." They
wrote not a single commendatory word about him throughout the book, and
they expressed no syllable of regret when he died in the course of the
voyage.
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