Freycinet's Map of Australia, 1808

leLOUIS de Freycinet 'Carte Generale de la Terre de Diemen, Comprenant les decouve Louis de Freycinet, 'Carte Generale de la Terre de Diemen, Comprenant les decouvertes et les travaux Geographiques executes dans cette partie a borde des Corvettes le Geographe le Naturaliste et la Goelette le casuarina Redigee Par L Freycinet. . . 1808' copper engraving with hand-coloured highlights sheet size 84 x 56 cm. The title, in an oval cartouche explains that the chart was drafted by Freycinet. It also mentions the names of the ships involved in taking observations for the chart, which include the 29-foot Casaurina, which was bought so that its commander, Freycinet himself, could take careful inshore measurements. The Baudin expedition had two larger ships, the aptly-named Geographe and the Naturaliste. The chart contains little adornment besides the cartouche; it was meant to clearly communicate the extensive survey undertaken by the French despite the presence of another British voyage, that of the British Royal Naval officer Matthew Flinders, which was also surveying Australia in the first years of the nineteenth century.