Biographical Memoirs of Peter Francis Bernicr. 105 



He examined the nature of refraction, and hoped to be able 

 one day, in the north, to solve all those doubts which are 

 still entertained respecting it. He endeavoured to improve 

 all those instruments used at sea; made observations on 

 magnetism, the northern lights, the flux and reflux of the 

 sea,: and, that he miglit observe with more convenience, he 

 caused a tent to be erected on the shore. He wrote also a 

 vocabulary of the language of Timor, from which it appears 

 that the inhabitants styled Bonaparte the Great Son of the 

 Crocodile. Berthoud's marine time-keepers were of great 

 use to him : in a letter which he wrote to Lalande, at Port 

 Jackson, he said — " These tinje-keepers are wonderfully 

 accurate and regular ; assure that admirable artist of my 

 esteem and respect." 



The expedition sailed from the Isle of France on the 25tli 

 of April 1801. On the 29th of May they got sight of the 

 coast of New Holland, opposite to Cape Lewin in the 

 soutli-west. Thev ran down the coast for four hun- 

 dred leagues, landing at the most important points, and 

 determined the Bays of the Geographer and of Seals; but, 

 in consequence of the scarcity of water and fresh ptovisions, 

 were obliged to return to Timor, v^hcre they arrived on the 

 23d of August, ISOl. On the 14th of November they 

 proceeded again for New Holland. " Here I saw, for the 

 first time," says Bernier, in a letter to Lalande, dated 

 November 17th, 1801, " the interesting inhabitants whom 

 we call savages, and who live as nearly in a state of nature 

 as can possibly be imagined : should I have the pleasure of 

 seeing them again, I shall give you some account of their 

 manners and customs. I was a witness of their melancholy 

 and precarious state of existence; I found them to have no 

 shelter against the heat and the cold." In the year 1802 

 the navigators proceeded to the south-east part of Bassa's 

 strait and Port Jackson. Bernier observed a solar eclipse 

 on the 4th of March, an eclipse of the moon on the 19th, 

 and the transit of Mercury over the sun's disk. On tLepth 

 of November, captain Flinders, wiio commanded a similar 

 expedition sent out by the British government, observed 

 the solar eclipse at land, on the south-west coast, at lat. 

 38'' 48', and long. 33° 49', reckoning from the first meri- 

 dian; the commencement at 1'' 12' 37", the end at 3'^ 36' 

 1 V . On the south coast two large gulphs were explored. 

 On the third cruize, they sailed from Port Jackson ; com- 

 pleted the survey of the south coast ; proceeded west, nnd 

 endeavoured to approach the north coast, which, however,, 

 has been still inaccessible. Captain Baudin then wished to 



visit 



