ages of two corvettes, 'Le Géographe' and 'Le Naturaliste,' which sailed from France in 1800 under command of Captain Baudin. A previous application had been made to Mr. Pitt for the necessary passports,[1] "pour mettre le Capitaine Baudin à l'abri de toute attaque hostile, et lui procurer une réception favorable dans les établissemens Britanniques où il pourra être obligé de relâcher momentanément," for in those days of war between France and England peaceful navigators of either country required letters of safe-conduct to protect them from hard usage in case of meeting their angry neighbours on the high seas, and to enable them to take refuge in each other's ports without risk of imprisonment.
The avowed object of Captain Baudin's expedition, when applying for the passports, was "to sail round the world for the furtherance of scientific research"; but he ended by merely circumnavigating Australia, and there can be no doubt that the real purpose of the voyage was that of 'espionnage' alone.
The prior discoveries of Flinders were appropriated by Captain Baudin without any scruple, and the two gulfs in South Australia, which had been named by the former Spencer and St. Vincent, were paraded in charts (published in Paris as the fruits of French enterprise) under the names of Golfe Bonaparte and Golfe Joséphine. In fact the French captain seems to have been under the impression that a navigator's first duty lay in the invention of a fresh set of names for other people's discoveries, and, amongst a host of similar performances, the name of North West Cape, otherwise Vlaming Head, in West Australia, was
- ↑ 'Voyage de Découertes aux Terres Australes.' Paris, 1805.
