306 
going to be expofed. As their number is 
pretty confiderable and their value is not 
fmall, I am perfuaded that government 
will approve this conduct on. my part. 
Amongft thegreat number of birds which 
f fend you, many are but in an indifferent 
condition—thefe I have received from the 
inhabitants of Port Jackfon; no great 
fkill has been difplayed in the preparing of 
them; but thofe which we have prepared 
ourfelves, will make you amends. The 
quadrupeds, the infects, the live plants. 
and herbs, the feeds, the fhells, the ma- 
drepores, &c. are in the beft condition; and 
¥ doubt not, but thefe articles will arrive 
in the fame ftate, through the care of Cap- 
tain Hamelin. [If the live plants fhould ar- 
rive at their deftination, you will be fur- 
nifhed with whatever the country of New 
South Wales produces, of the moft beauti- 
ful and the moft curious, and you will re- 
gret the not having herborifed on the foil 
which has given them birth. The whole 
country, at the time I amwriting to you, 
ig covered with the moft beautiful flowers. 
In refpeét of variety I know of nothing 
which can be compared with it, except the 
terSttory of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Although moft of our live plants have 
been taken between the thirty-third and 
the forty-fecond degrees of fouth latitude, 
I. find it neceflary to obferve that I am 
not without my apprehenfions that they 
will not become congenial to the foil of 
France, fo fpecdily as might be wifhed. 
The temperature of theland of Diemen is 
not fo cold as the latitude wherein it is fi- 
tuated would feem to indicate 3 and that 
of New Holland is ftill lefs fo. At the be- 
ginning of winter, when we were to the 
fouth of Van Diemen’s Land, the thermo- 
meter was only once at five degrees: it was 
then a ftrong fouth-weft wind, with hail. 
In the middle of winter at Port Jackfon, 
we had it during one night very near zero: 
through the day it was generally from fix 
to eight degrees, and in the night between 
four and five, it feidom came fo low as 
three. The winter in France is much 
more rigorous, and cannot bear comparifon 
with that which we have juft pafied 
through. Here the orange and the citron 
are in full growth ; they thrive remarka- 
bly well, and produce fruit as excellent as 
the groves in Portugal. 
The feeds which I am fending you were 
partly given to me by the inhabitants of 
the country ; the others we collected our- 
felves in the interior of the country. L 
have penetrated beyond the moft remote 
z 
Letter from Captain Baudin to Citizen Fuffien, 
_ [Nov. 3, 
places known to the Englith ; but an al- 
moft impenetrable chain of mountains of 
the firft order, known by the name of Blue © 
Mountains, the direétion of which, towards 
the fouth, appears ta extend as far as ta = 
the promontory of Wilfon, and to the 
north terminates at Port Stephens, pre- - 
vented me from advancing farther than fe- 
venty or eighty miles, reckoning from 
Port Jackfon. If we may credit what 
certain of the natives and fome Englith ad- 
venturers aflert, there is in the heart of 
thefe mountains a large river of fait-water 
which croffes them, and at their northern 
extremity an eftablifhment of white men. 
(It is thus that the natives or aboriginal 
inhabitants call the Europeans.) After 
my return, I often difcuffed this topic with 
Mr. King, the prefent governor, whofe 
conduct towards us I cannot too highly 
commend ; but he affured me that he 
placed no fort of reliance on what was 
reported on this fubjeét ; and zhat-it was 
a tale invented by fome deferters; who 
would never have returned, if on the other 
fide of the mountains they had met with 
a colony of Europeans. 
In fetting out from Port Jackfon, I in- 
tend to purfue my route through the 
Streights of Bafs, in order to reconnoitre 
an ifland of confiderable extent, lately dif- 
covered by fome Englifh fifhermen, and. 
which they have named Kiny’s Ifland. 
After having terminated this geographical 
expedition, I fhall proceed to the Ifle of 
Kanguroos, onthe fouth-weft coaft of New 
Holland ; the fouth part of which neither 
M. Flinders nor I have yet been able ta | 
examine, From thence I fhall repair to the 
Iflands. of St. Peter and St. Francis, to 
vifit them a fecond time, and to afcertain 
the direction of the continent, in that part 
with which I am not yet acquainted. Thea 
departing from the point where General 
D’Entrecafteaux ftopped, a point that we 
have already reconnoitred, I fhall proceed 
direétly to Lewin’s Land, in order to 
complete the circuit of the great bay, 
which bears the name of Le Géogra- 
phe. Asit appears to meof great impor 
tance, for the perfeétion of geography, to 
determine the pofition of the Ifles Du Ro- 
marin, difcovered ty Dampier, and which 
I have already fought for in vain, in the 
latitude and longitude affigned to them m 
our marine charts, I fhall make a frefh at- 
tempt to find them out, in order, at length, 
to recover the Land of de Witt, the charts 
of which have not the perfection requifite 
for the fafety of navigation, The reafons 
. “which 
~A 
