Letter of Louis de Freycinet probably written to his publisher Claude Arthus-Bertrand, 1826 January 3 [manuscript]

Cartographic surveyor and naturalist. In 1800 Louis de Freycinet joined an expedition under Nicolas Baudin to explore the south and south-west coasts of Australia in the ships Naturaliste and Geographe. He commanded an expedition to circumnavigate the globe and conduct research into the shape of the Earth, meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, sailing from Toulon in September 1817 in l'Uranie with his wife Rose, who secreted herself aboard. He set up an observatory at Shark Bay and charted the coastal regions in 1818, and sailed for Timor and various parts of the Pacific before landing in Port Jackson late in 1819. L'Uranie was wrecked on the Falkland Islands on the return voyage to France.