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. It was to this feeling that Sir Joseph Banks
referred when, in writing to Flinders, he said that he had heard that the
French Government were not too well pleased with Baudin's work.* (*
Girard, writing in 1857, stated that rumours about Baudin's conduct,
circulated before the arrival of Le Geographe, induced the public to
believe that the expedition had been abortive, without useful results,
and that it was to the interest of the Government to forget all about it.
F. Peron, page 46. But Girard cites no authority for the statement, and
as he was not born in 1804, he is not himself an authoritative witness.
He merely repeated Freycinet's assertions.)
The distinguished men of science who stood at the head of the Institute
of France were best qualified to judge of the value of the work done; and
they at least spoke decisively in its praise.
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