210 Memoir of Charles Alexander Lesueur. 



the voyage; and had superintended the printing of the thirtieth 

 chapter, when he was warned by the last symptoms of his* dis- 

 ease, of his approaching fate. He consequently retired to his na- 

 tive village ; where in the bosom of his family, he ended his 

 days, on the 14th of December, 1810, ill the 36th year of his age. 



The death of Peron, in the midst of his labors, when so much 

 remained to be done, occasioned a suspension of the history of 

 the valuable discoveries which had been made by him and his 

 coadjutor, Lesueur. The regrets of the zoologists of Europe, on 

 this event, might have been spared, had Lesueur been enabled to 

 turn to account the voluminous materials in his possession; for 

 Peron had bequeathed to him the whole of his manuscripts. 

 But- the master spirit, who knew how to employ these materials, 

 was no more ; and Lesueur shrunk from a task which his dis- 

 heartened mind felt conscious it was unable to perform. 



The duty of completing and publishing the second volume of 

 the history of the voyage now devolved upon Captain Louis Frey- 

 cinet, the same who commanded the schooner Casuarina, fitted 

 out as a tender at Port Jackson. The long interval of nine years 

 between the publication of the two volumes should seem to show 

 that more than ordinary embarrassments impeded a work of na- 

 tional importance undertaken by order of the government. The 

 Atlas to the second volume, which appeared in 1816, contains 

 only maps and plans. At least eight and twenty plates, of vari- 

 ous illustrations, although finished, were suppressed ; and amongst 

 them those before mentioned of the Tablier of the Houswaana 

 African.* 



Lesueur, accustomed for so many years to an intimate associa- 

 tion with Peron, became inconsolable at his death. His usual 

 occupations no longer afforded him that pleasure they were wont 

 to do when there was a kindred mind to participate in them. He 

 would fain have sought in foreign countries, that tranquillity 

 which was not to be found at home ; but there were domestic 

 ties to restrain him: his aged father was living and stood in w^ 

 of his assistance. At length an opportunity was afforded him to 

 gratify his desire for travelling, without inconvenience of a pecu- 

 niary nature. Mr. William Maclure, then a resident of Paris. 

 had projected a voyage to the West Indies, and thence to the 

 United States; and made a proposition r<> Mr. Lesueur to accom- 

 pany him as a travelling companion. The offer was gladly ac- 

 cepted ; and in the autumn of 1811, they departed from France, 

 and arrived at Barbadoes on the 29th of December of the same 

 year. They afterwards visited in succession St. Vincent, St. 

 Lucia, Martinico, Dominica, Guadaloupe, Antigua, St. Christo- 



*In the second edition of the " Voyage aux Terras Australia." advertised i ft 

 Bertrand's catalogue for January, 1831, it is said that ther an- twenty -tive m *vr 

 plates ; hence it is probable that those of the Tablier were withheld from publica- 

 tion. My supplementary atlas is composed of twenty -eight plates. 





