t he has
restored in the interior of France, furnish you with the means of giving
to foreign peoples just ideas upon the real state of the Republic and
upon the prosperity which is assured to it." The men of science who had
promoted the voyage were anxious that not even a similitude of
irregularity should be permitted. Thus we find the Comte de Fleurieu, who
drew up the itinerary, writing to the Minister urging him to include in
the instructions a paragraph prohibiting the ships from taking on board,
under any pretext, merchandise which could give to a scientific
expedition the appearance of a commercial venture, "because if an English
cruiser or man-of-war should visit them, and find on board other goods
than articles of exchange for dealing with aboriginal peoples, this might
serve as a pretext for arresting them, and Baudin's passport might be
disregarded on the ground that it had been abused by being employed as a
means of conducting without risk a traffic which the state of war would
make very lucrative."

The question of the origin and objects of the expedition is, however, an
entirely different one from that of the use which Napoleon would have
made of the information collected, had the opportunity been available of
striking a blow at Great Britain through her southern colony. It is also
different from the question (as to which something will be said later) of
the advantage taken by two members of Baudin's staff of the scope allowed
them at Port Jackson, to "spy out the land" with a view of furnishing
information valuable in a military sense to their Government.

The instructions to Baudin were very similar to those which had been
given to Laperouse and Dentrecasteaux in previous years, being drafted by
the same hand, and some paragraphs in an "instruction particuliere," show
that the French were thoroughly up-to-date with their information, and
knew in what parts of the coast fresh work required to be done.* (*
"Projet d'itineraire pour le Commandant Baudin; memoire pour servir
d'instruction particuliere." Manuscripts, Archives Nationales, Marine BB4
999.)

Nicolas Baudin was not a French naval officer. He had been in the
merchant service, and, more recently, had had charge of an expedition
despatched to Africa by the Austrian Government to collect specimens for
the museum at Vienna. War between France and Austria broke out before he
returned; and Baudin, feeling less loyal to his Austrian employers than
to h