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Updated: June 6, 2025
The French Expedition Buonaparte's lavish outfitting Baudin in the Geographe Coast casualties Sterile and barren appearance Privations of the crew Sails for Timor Hamelin in the NATURALISTE Explores North-Western coast Swan River Isle of Rottnest Joins her consort at Coepang Sails for Van Dieman's Land Examination of the South-East coast of Australia Flinders' prior visit ignored French names substituted Discontent among crew Baudin's unpopularity Bad food Port Jackson Captain King's Voyages Adventures in the MERMAID An extensive commission Allan Cunningham, botanist Search at Seal Islands for memorial of Flinders' visit Seed sowing Jeopardy to voyage Giant anthills An aboriginal Stoic Cape Arnhem and west coast exploration Macquarie Strait Audacity of natives Botanical results satisfactory Malay Fleet Raffles Bay Port Essington Attack by natives Cape Van Dieman Malay Teachings Timor and its Rajah Return to Port Second Voyage MERMAID and LADY NELSON East Coast Cleveland Bay Cocoa-nuts and pumice stones Endeavour River Thieving natives Geological formation of adjacent country Remarkable coincidences Across Gulf of Carpentaria Inland excursion Cambridge Gulf Ophthalmia amongst crew MERMAID returns to port.
Conflict of evidence between Baudin, Peron, and Freycinet as to whether the French ships had sighted Port Phillip. Baudin's statement corroborated by documents. Examination of Freycinet's statement. The impossibility of doing what Peron and Freycinet asserted was done.
Baudin's plan, after leaving Kupang, was to continue the exploration of the coasts of Western Australia. Here again the logic of facts was required to convince Baudin, who had previously rejected sound advice that was offered to him, to the effect that contrary winds would thwart his designs.
Reflection, and what his officers had been able to learn from Flinders' boat crew, however, had stimulated Baudin's curiosity. On the 9th, therefore, he asked questions. Flinders, so far from maintaining reserve, readily explained the discoveries he had made, and furnished Baudin with some useful information for his own voyage.
Sir Joseph Banks, closely in touch with movements relative to scientific work, had news of the displeasure of Napoleon's ministers, and wrote to Flinders, then a prisoner: "M. Baudin's voyage has not been published. Finally it was determined to issue a history of the expedition; but to have published any charts without showing Port Phillip would have been to make failure look ridiculous.
In his application he stated the qualifications he thought he possessed, from his knowledge and close study of the ground, and from his acquaintance with the Spanish language. He instanced particularly the occasions on which he had been employed in that neighborhood, and the close study he had been privileged to make on the spot during Admiral Baudin's operations.
The baseless character of the gossip promulgated by Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, and the alleged exhibition of the map indicating the exact spot where the French intended to settle in Frederick Henry Bay, were disposed of by the fact that Baudin's ships went nowhere near that place after leaving Sydney.
The port has not played a large part in the subsequent development of Australia, but Flinders, who discovered it and named it after the chief town of his native county, and the French of Baudin's expedition, who were the second people to enter it, thought very highly of its beauty and value.
A sensible diminution in geographical discovery marks the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. We have already noticed the organization of the Expedition sent in search of La Pérouse by the French Republic, and also Captain Baudin's important cruise along the Australian coasts.
As the two French vessels lay at Sydney for nearly six months, during which time the officers and men mingled freely with the population of the colony, whilst the naturalists and artists occupied themselves busily with the work of their special departments, the occurrences have a two-fold interest for one who wishes to appreciate the significance of Baudin's expedition.
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