Yet Full Praise Must Be Given To Louis De Freycinet For The Charts Issued
By Him.
He drew them largely from material prepared by others, and much
of that material, as we have seen, was rough and poor.
As a piece of
artistic workmanship, the folio of charts issued by Freycinet in 1812 was
a fine performance, and fairly earned for him the command of the
expedition entrusted to him by the Government of Louis XVIII. Before the
volume was published by the order of Napoleon, it was submitted by the
Minister of Marine to Vice-Admiral Rosily, Director-General du Depot de
la Marine. That officer's report* (* Printed in the Moniteur, January 15,
1813.) gave an account of the work which Freycinet had done not only in
the drawing but in regard to the actual engraving of the charts. "M.
Freycinet," said the Vice-Admiral, "who has done the principal part of
this work, was more capable than any one else known to us of
accomplishing such a result. It is to him that we owe the preparation of
this fine atlas. He has neglected no means of giving to it the last
degree of perfection. He has himself made the drawings of the charts and
plans, and then he has reproduced them upon the copper-plates, and has
engraved the scales of latitude and longitude by a new method perfected
by himself, and which assures the exactitude of his work. The beauty of
the engravings, and the execution of the work in general, leave nothing
to be desired, and testify to the care that he has devoted to make the
collection of charts one of the most useful of works in promoting the
progress of hydrography."
The praise thus officially bestowed upon Freycinet's work will be felt to
be deserved by any one who studies the atlas of 1812; but admiration of
the workmanship will not commit the careful student to an equally cordial
opinion concerning the completeness and accuracy of the charts as
representations of the coasts traversed by the expedition.
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