Memoir of Charles Alexander Lesneur. 203 



From the commencement of the voyage the commander con- 

 ceived a rooted aversion to the scientific corps, and missed no 

 opportunity of evincing it by neglect or incivilities. It may be 

 readily conjectured that a man of uncultivated mind would find 

 himself out of place among persons of good breeding, and might 

 seek to console himself for his inferiority, by an affectation of 

 self-sufficiency. He was wont to say, that the Institute had 

 given him savants who were of no use to him: all he wanted 

 was collectors. His officers, he pretended, would have sufficed 

 for geography and astronomy ; and moreover, that he would 

 rather discover a new mollusk than a new island !* 



Such discourses as these, mingled with occasional sarcasms, 

 must have greatly tended to wound the feelings of gentlemen, 

 accustomed to the courtesies of society, and to that deference 

 which worth and talents are entitled to. The learned botanist, 

 Andre Michaux,f was chiefly induced to retire from the expedi- 

 tion at the Isle of France, by the assurance that his services could 

 not be appreciated by one who determined the value of science 

 on the standard of his contracted intellect. 



Amid so much opposition, so many trials of body and mind, 

 *t is a subject of wonder that the astronomers and geographers of 

 the expedition performed as much as they d\d.% Their labors 



ils etaient censt 



nombre ties homines quelle permit, et pour celui des jours qu'il 

 devoir employer a leur mission. Jl en * tit de meme pour les div 

 que nous t*tablissions a terre. De la. ce^ privations penibles, qui pesaient sin nous a 



la moindre. contrariety que nous eprouvinns dans ftoa operations generates ou partic- 



Jl netait pas jusqu'au systmne de distribution de lean qui ne fut essentiellem* 

 vieieux. Ainsi, pour me borner au eas particular dout il ragit maintenant, la rati 

 journalise etait dune pinto par horn me. Celte quantite. deja si modique pour It 

 mdividus qui restaient a bord du navire. devenait absolument insufrisante aux besoins 

 des niatelots qui, sous mi soleii biulant, devaient ramer quelquetbis des journey 

 ntien < ; il en eta j t ( j e m g me ])tniY les naturalist es. qui, par le genre de leurs recher- 

 <*e8, etaiem obliges de taire des courses lointaine- mr cos pi. h ardentes. Souvent 

 le en du besom, nhw imn^i'pnr mie la voix de la raison, reduisait 1 plus sobrea a 



merit 

 ration 



consonim 



__ ^ w qui devait leur servir pour plu^eurs jours, et a 



^'abandonner aina aux angoiftSW les plus deehirantes. II netait pas, sous des pre- 

 fe* d'economie non moms funestes, jusqu'aux armes, jusquaux boussoles meme, 

 quon ne refusat invent a nos embarcations. . 



bans dome il est p6nibl davoir de tels details a rapports; (Bus ds inter* ^ent 

 trop essentiellemeut le eds on m&nc le saint des navi^aieurs qui doivent counr 



la m6me carriere que nous pour que ee ne fut p&fl une rte ( 

 ai I VT^ ron ' V<WW * DeeouvetU*, etc., tome ii, p. M% note. 



le crime de les leur 



--, ^««* nuvaii iH'som que de ro vw. ** r* — ~- ** w — ~ ~— 



«ers auraient suffi poor la geographic et I'mtronomie; et que dadleurs il aimait 

 nueux decouvrir u» mollusmie nouveau uu'une terre OoweHe.— ifory, Voyage, tome i, 



p. 189. ■ 



t This was the father of the author of the " North American Sylva." He died, 



not long afterwards, at Madag- ear. while engaged in collectii materials for a bo 

 «"**< 1 history of that island, His " Histoire dc> Chines de l'Amenquer and ■ Flora 



Ko [ '^Americana,* are works of bed reputation. 



X It is but 



Moutbazio. 



