Fort Louis.'] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
369 
I knew it and still intended to make the observations expressed in my journal ; 
upon this incorrect and worst supposition I have., I think, an example of 
similar conduct in your own nation ; unless you can assure me that the cap- 
tains Baudin and Hamelin made no such remarks upon Port Jackson, for it 
was a declared war at the time they lay in that port. But were they forbidden 
to make such remarks and notes upon the state of that English colony ? Upon 
its progress, its strength, the possibility of its being attacked with advantage, 
and the utility it might afford to the French nation ? I tell you, general De 
Caen, No. The governor in chief at Port Jackson knew too well the dignity 
of his own nation, either to lay any prohibition upon these commanders, or 
to demand to see what their journals might contain. 
I shall next appeal to you as being the representative in this place of a 
great nation, which has hitherto shown itself forward to protect and encour- 
age those sciences by which the knowledge of mankind is extended or their 
condition ameliorated. Understand then. Sir, that I was chosen by that 
patron of science sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London, 
and one well known by all the literati throughout the world, to retrace part 
of the track of the immortal captain Cook, — to complete what in New Holland 
and its neighbourhood he had left unfinished, — and to perfect the discovery 
of that extensive country. This employment. Sir, as it was congenial to my 
own inclinations, so I pursued it with avidity ; uppn it, as from a convex 
lens, all the rays of knowledge and science which my opportunities have 
enabled me to collect, were thrown. I was unfortunate in that my ship de- 
cayed before the voyage was completed ; but the captain-general at Port 
Jackson, who is also the senior naval officer there, was so sensible of the 
importance of the voyage and of the zeal with which I had pursued it (for 
the truth of which I appeal to his letters now in your possession), that he gave 
me a colonial ship of war to transport me with my officers, charts, &c. to 
England, that I might obtain another ship in which the voyage might be 
completed. In this second ship I was a passenger ; and in her, shipwreck 
and the loss of charts which had cost me much labour and many risks to 
make perfect, were added to my first misfortune ; but my zeal suffered no 
abatement. I returned to Port Jackson (734 miles) in an open boat, and got 
a merchant ship which was bound to China, hired to carry my officers and 
people to England by that circuitous route; but desirous of losing no time, 
VOL. II. 3 B 
1803. 
December. 
Wednes. 21. 
