Brussels edition, published in the same year as the Paris edition.

Brussels edition, published in the same year as the Paris edition.

Uncommon account of the voyage of the Coquille, a French scientific expedition under the command of Louis-Isidore Duperrey. This detailed and engaging narrative was written by René Primevere Lesson, surgeon and naturalist, and includes much detail lacking in Duperrey's own account. The expedition travelled extensively throughout the Pacific, including Tahiti and the Solomons, and stopped at Port Jackson before sailing to the Bay of Islands. Lesson was a careful and lively observer. He received little formal education and joined the navy as medical assistant; here his natural aptitude was recognised and formal training as a surgeon ensued. Lesson was fascinated by natural history from a young age, and relished the many opportunities offered during the voyage of the Coquille.

Lesson describes his personal interactions with native peoples throughout the Pacific, including King Bungaree at Port Jackson, who was tasked with waiting upon the French officers with his Aboriginal companions. By the early 1820s the Pacific was undergoing rapid social change, and hopeful expectations often did not match the reality encountered. On anchoring in Tahiti the Frenchmen were disappointed, 'finding to their astonishment that this renowned South Seas paradise was turning into a strict, puritanical society ruled by fundamental English missionaries' (Dunmore). Nonetheless Lesson's observations are of lasting value, especially his vocabularies that include Māori and Aboriginal dialects.