another link in the chain of evidence as to the
completeness of Napoleon's oriental policy, and yields another proof
of the vigour of our great proconsul at Calcutta, by whose foresight
our Indian Empire was preserved and strengthened.[213]

Bonaparte's enterprises were by no means limited to well-known lands.
The unknown continent of the Southern Seas appealed to his
imagination, which pictured its solitudes transformed by French energy
into a second fatherland. Australia, or New Holland, as it was then
called, had long attracted the notice of French explorers, but the
English penal settlements at and near Sydney formed the only European
establishment on the great southern island at the dawn of the
nineteenth century.

Bonaparte early turned his eyes towards that land. On his voyage to
Egypt he took with him the volumes in which Captain Cook described his
famous discoveries; and no sooner was he firmly installed as First
Consul than he planned with the Institute of France a great French
expedition to New Holland. The full text of the plan has never been
published: probably it was suppressed or destroyed; and the sole
public record relating to it is contained in the official account of
the expedition published at the French Imperial Press in 1807.[214]
According to this description, the aim was solely geographical and
scientific. The First Consul and the Institute of France desired that
the ships should proceed to Van Diemen's Land, explore its rivers, and
then complete the survey of the south coast of the continent, so as to
see whether behind the islands of the Nuyts Archipelago there might be
a channel connecting with the Gulf of Carpentaria, and so cutting New
Holland in half. They were then to sail west to "Terre Leeuwin,"
ascend the Swan River, complete the exploration of Shark's Bay and the
north-western coasts, and winter in Timor or Amboyne. Finally, they
were to coast along New Guinea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, and return
to France in 1803.

In September, 1800, the ships, having on board twenty-three scientific
men, set sail from Havre under the command of Commodore Baudin. They
received no molestation from English cruisers, it being a rule of
honour to give Admiralty permits to all members of genuinely
scientific and geographical parties. Nevertheless, even on its
scientific side, this splendidly-equipped expedition produced no
results comparable with those achieved by Lieutenant Bass or by
Captain Flin