126 MEMOIR OF C. P. BEAUTEMPS-BEAUPRE. 



113 tliat tlie expedition of cl'Entrecasteaux must have been conducted with as 

 much ability as zeal, when we see on the chart of the archipelago of Santa 

 Cruz, by i\[. Beautemps-BcauprLJ, two of the lines of survey directed by him 

 upon the island of la Recherche or Vanikoro, meet precisely at the spot where 

 still lie beneath the waves the anchors and cannons of one of the frigates of the 

 illustrious and unfortunate navigator. 



The ships of d'Entrecasteaux continued in sight of the island la Recherche 

 almost the whole of the 19th of May, 1793. Besides the instruments of the 

 , survey, there was no deficiency of telescopes pointed towards the land, through 

 which, if signals after the European manner had been made, the piercing eyes 

 of some of the mariners could not fail to have descried them. But the survi- 

 vors of the wreck were doubtless long departed or dead when the expedition 

 passed, Avhich was not till five years after the disaster. As to finding under 

 the waters of the sea the remains of the shipwreck, that would have been a 

 stroke of good fortune such as seems in general not to have attached to any- 

 thing connected with the expedition of la Perouse. Perhaps, however, d'En- 

 • trecasteaux might have had that melancholy satisfaction, if his officers had 

 paid more attention to the piece of iron, mounted as a hatchet, which was seen 

 in possession of the natives of Santa Cruz, for it had very possibly been pro- 

 cured from the remains of tlie Avrecked frigates. But who will venture to say 

 that in their circumstances he would himself have divined it. • 



However that may be, the hour had now come for the departure of the ex- 

 pedition. Sailing from Santa Cruz it pursued its prescribed course, and thus 

 separated itself more and more from the principal object of its research ; yet, 

 thanks to the indefiitigable zeal of M. Beautemps-Beaupre, it continued to ren- 

 der eminent service to hydrography. It traversed the archipelagos of the Solo- 

 mon and Louisiade groups, the coasts of New Britain and New Guinea ; but a de- 

 plorable incident awaited it on these obscure shores. Admiral d'Entrecasteaux 

 died July 20, 1793, after a short illness which presented some of the symptoms of 

 scurvy. The captain of the frigate I' Esperance had already fallen a victim 

 to fever in the port of Balade. Very soon scurvy and dysentery had decimated 

 the crews which left France in 1791, while the loss among the higher officers 

 divided itself with impartial severity between Paris and Coblentz. Not that 

 there Avas any suspension of the surveys, which continued to produce excellent 

 charts, but a feeling prevailed that it was time to desist. The two frigates 

 were turned towards the island of Java, and entered the port of Sourabaya, 

 where the voyagers learned that the day of their arrival was not only October 

 27, 1793, but, at the same time, the 6th Brumaire of the year II. 



The expedition was here broken up and its different members returned sep- 

 arately to Europe. In his passage, M. Beautemps-Beaupre stopped some time 

 at the Cape of Cood Hope. He had preserved the minutes of his charts, but 

 the fairly executed transcripts, with other scientific documents collected by the 

 expedition, were captured on the return by the English, by whom, however, 

 they were restored at a later period. Yet, to avoid the possibility of their dis- 

 appearance, he employed the time of his stay at the Cape in making a new 

 copy, which his friend M. Renard, chief surgeon of the expedition, undertook 

 to convey privately to the representative of France in the United States of 

 America. He himself embarked on a Swedish vessel, which landed him at Goth- 

 embourg, Avhere M. Fournicr, French consul, procured him the means of 

 re-entering his own country. 



_ Arrived at Paris August 31, 1796, after an absence of five years, he rejoined 

 his excellent friend M. Flcurieu, and resumed, under his direction, the prepara- 

 tion of the Neptune of the Baltic sea, being at once named hydrographic engi- 

 neer of the first class, and under-kcieper of the general depot of the marine. In 

 1798 the editing and publication of the charts of the voyage of d'Entrecasteaux 

 were officially confided to him. This great performance, which did not appear 



