Remembering
The Banquets And The Plaudits That Marked The Despatch Of The Expedition,
Those Of Its Members Who Expected A Demonstration May Well Have Been
Chilled By The Small Amount Of Notice They Received.
But the public as
well as the official mood was conceivably due rather to intense
concentration upon national affairs, during a period of amazing
transition, than to the prejudice which Freycinet's ruffled pride
suggested.
"It would be difficult to explain," he wrote, "how, during the
voyage, there could have been formed concerning the expedition an opinion
so unfavourable, that even before our return the decision was arrived at
not to give any publicity to our works. The reception that we met with on
arriving in France showed the effects of such an unjust and painful
prejudice."* (* Preface to the 1824 edition of the Voyage de
Decouvertes.)
When Le Naturaliste arrived at Havre in the previous year, the Moniteur*
(* 14th Messidor, Revolutionary Year 10. (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.
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