A significant and well-illustrated "alternative" account of a portion of the Baudin voyage to the southern lands, documenting the early stages of the voyage aboard the Géographe, but chiefly detailing life and conditions at Mauritius.

A significant and well-illustrated "alternative" account of a portion of the Baudin voyage to the southern lands, documenting the early stages of the voyage aboard the Géographe, but chiefly detailing life and conditions at Mauritius.

Jacques-Gérard Milbert (1766-1840), French naturalist and artist, was invited by Bory de Saint Vincent to join the Baudin expedition as one of the official artists but took advantage of an illness to be left in Port Louis when the ships sailed for New Holland (several of his shipmates commented that the artist had seemed depressed and anxious about the voyage). Unlike most of the many sailors and scientists who jumped ship after the voyage's quarrelsome beginnings he seems to have gone in good faith, charged with investigating the natural history of the island in the absence of the two ships: certainly he happily returned on board the Géographe for the return voyage to France in 1804, overlapping with the arrival of Flinders at the end of 1803 and the beginning of the Englishman's long involuntary residence on the island.

Back in France, Milbert was given the task of overseeing the publication of the plates for Péron and Freycinet's official account of the voyage (Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes, 1807-1816), and also wrote this companion account, a work of significance for its account of Mauritius and particularly the natural history of the region. The title-page described Milbert as director of the engravings for the "partie Historique" of the Baudin voyage account, giving his book some quasi-official status. Milbert's friend Bory de Saint Vincent also produced a book which included a description of his own truncated presence on the Baudin voyage (Voyage dans les quatres principales iles des mers d'Afrique, 1804); his account is more scientific while Milbert's gives the best notice of life on the island at the time of Baudin and Flinders.

The fine series of illustrations includes a magnificent depiction as well as one of the most detailed charts of the harbour and township of Port Louis, a "Vue des Plaines de Wilhems" (the area where Flinders passed much of his imprisonment), and a "Vue de l'habitation de Mr. Céré aux Pamplemousses" (the Céré family was well known to Flinders, and Céré himself was the superintendent of the Gardens which are also depicted).