Striking original image from the Baudin voyage's 1801 visit to Timor. This is a beautifully-executed original view of the main cemetery in Kupang, with three Malay men in the foreground, standing among a group of some of the more remarkable local tombs. The French fort, with a flag flying, is shown in the distance towards the left, and in fine detail the distant Géographe, is shown in the bay beyond the fort. Completed on the spot during the Baudin voyage by the voyage artist Lesueur, this scene was not published until the second edition of Baudin's voyage in 1824 (plate 51).

Striking original image from the Baudin voyage's 1801 visit to Timor. This is a beautifully-executed original view of the main cemetery in Kupang, with three Malay men in the foreground, standing among a group of some of the more remarkable local tombs. The French fort, with a flag flying, is shown in the distance towards the left, and in fine detail the distant Géographe, is shown in the bay beyond the fort. Completed on the spot during the Baudin voyage by the voyage artist Lesueur, this scene was not published until the second edition of Baudin's voyage in 1824 (plate 51).

Baudin's great voyage of discovery Expédition aux terres australes (1800-1804) left Le Havre on 19 October, 1800 with orders to complete the coastal survey of Australia. The expedition amassed extensive collections of Australian fauna and flora, including the first major marine collections from Australian waters. The whole suite of voyage images, mostly after drawings made on the spot by the expedition's two most important artists Lesueur and Petit, are among the most beautiful ever published, especially in their depiction of indigenous people. The expedition travelled up the West Australian coast from Cape Leeuwin, arriving in Timor in 1801.

This view is taken from the main cemetery overlooking the port of Kupang: the centre of town and the flagstaff at the fort can be seen in the background, while the single ship in the roadstead is assumed to be the Géographe, prior to the arrival of the Naturaliste, later in 1801. The burials shown in the foreground of the cemetery were of more than academic interest because, sadly, there were deaths among Baudin's crew, and the presumption is that they would have been buried either here in this main cemetery or nearby. These tombs however are clearly Timorese rather than the rougher burials of the expedition. On the other hand, while the shape of the expedition's fort is well-defined, in front we can see several protuberances which might be rocks, or plausibly the expeditioners' graves.

The most senior of Baudin's men to die was Anselme Riedlé, after an agonising illness, on 21 October 1801. His loss was greatly felt, and the decision was taken to bury him in some state, his coffin carried by four local soldiers and accompanied by a great cortège of officers, savants and local dignitaries. Apparently at the behest of Péron himself, as a botanist Riedlé was interred alongside the plot of Bligh's old colleague, the gardener David Nelson, who had died in Kupang after the long-boat voyage in the wake of the Bounty mutiny. Their grave was marked with a "rough" stone. The smoke emanating from the ship would be from a cannon pointing towards the fort. Could this even have been a salute accompanying the burial of Riedlé?

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An interest in funerary traditions was not unique to the Baudin voyage, as many early modern voyagers not unreasonably saw the burial of the dead as a way of understanding different societies. In Timor, Lesueur also did a companion scene of the Chinese cemetery in Kupang which overlooked the harbour from further to the east (plate 52) and also some detailed depictions of individual Chinese tombs (plate 53).

If we are right in speculating that the burial of Riedlé was indeed taking place near the fort, the comparison between the local tombs and the simple French interment would have been of poignant interest to Lesueur.