Peron, Francis, et al. | Account of one of the most important early explorations of Australia

Peron, Francis, Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet, and Nicholas Baudin

Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes Execute par ordre de sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi, sur les Corvettes le Geographe, le Naturaliste, et la Goelette la Casuarina, pendant les annee 1800, 1802, 1803 et 1804. Paris: L'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1807, 1811, 1816

2 text volumes, 4to (304 x 222 mm) plus atlas folio (344 x 255 mm). Text: Volumes with half titles, an engraved frontispiece portrait in volume 2, and typographic tables; uncut, very mild to moderate spotting, a few leaves faintly toned. Atlas: Volume with 2 parts in 1; part 1 with engraved title, 4 pp. "tableau general des planches," 40 engraved plates, including map, five colored coastal profiles, fourteen ethnographic plates (eight colored), eight other views (one of which is colored, and two folding, including Lesueur's view of Sydney), eleven natural history plates (nine colored) and one technical plate; part 2 with engraved title, 3 pp. contents (1 p. blank), and fourteen engraved maps, of which two are folding; light spotting, mostly to the first title, several small paper repairs in the plates, the first folding map with creasing and a tear next to the stub, the tear passing through the neatline, and various closed tears and infills mostly around the edges, the second folding map also with closed splits and tears, but minor, both maps tissue backed. Uniformly bound to style in half calf, with 19th-century marbled boards, spines gilt, morocco lettering pieces; rubbing to boards, a few spots of wear along the extremities, mostly to the Atlas volume's joints.

The rare account of the Baudin-Freycinet expedition, one of the most important early explorations of Australia.

The expedition was sent out by the French government in 1800 with orders to complete the cartographic survey of the Australian coast. Commanded by Nicolas Baudin, the expedition left France in 1800 and sailed via Mauritius to the Australian coast in the region of Cape Leeuwin, arriving in May 1801. Peron sailed as naturalist on the expedition and Freycinet as cartographer. The vessels, Geographe and Naturaliste, sailed north from Cape Leeuwin, surveying the coast and making observations on the natural history and inhabitants, until they crossed to Timor. After three months the two ships set out for Tasmania, continued making detailed surveys, and went on to Sydney. The group then undertook a complete survey of the southern coast and an examination of the northern coast before returning to Mauritius where, near the end of 1803, Baudin died.

It was a celebrated voyage that brought back to France the most important collection of natural history specimens in the history of the French Museum, as well as a wealth of geographical and other information. The narrative of the expedition was begun by Peron, and completed by Freycinet after Peron's death. A tacit agreement between Peron and Freycinet, both of whom disliked Baudin, kept the commander's name mostly absent from the present official account of the expedition. Flinders completed his survey of the Australian coast before Baudin, but his imprisonment by the French in Mauritius for seven years resulted in the French exploration account being published first. Consequently, the Baudin-Freycinet narrative includes the first complete and fully detailed map of the Australian continent. It is justly one of the most famous depictions of Australia ever produced, with virtually the entire southern coast labeled "Terre Napolean," indicating possible French colonial ambitions. The Atlas contains a group of beautiful color plates, mostly of natural history specimens, many of which depict what the French saw during their important visit to Tasmania.

REFERENCES

Ferguson 449, 536; Dunmore, French Explorers in the Pacific II, pp. 9-40; Wantrup 78a,79a; Hill, pp. 229-30 (narrative volumes only); Davidson, Book Collector's Notes, pp. 108-10; Sharp, Discovery of Australia, pp. 232-39; Plomley, The Baudin Expedition and the Tasmanian Aborigines 1802