Essai Sur la Geogrphie de L'ile Timor

Original-Lithographie von L. de Freycinet, Essai sur la geographie de L'ile Timor, 1838; The map originates from the famous circumnavigation by the French navigator Louis-Claude de Freycinet (1779-1842). By 1816 Freycinet had drawn up plans for a world voyage which he hoped to command. With the strong support of Louis XVIII, the plan was approved and the ship Uranie placed at his disposal. His instructions were to enter the Pacific from the West and to concentrate on scientific work of a broad nature, rather than trying to make discoveries. The Uranie, equipped for a scientific journey, using new techniques such as metallic chains for the anchors, sailed from Toulon on 17 September 1817. The ship called at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope (where Freycinet met up with Kotzebue), Mauritius, and Australia. After Australia he set sail to Timor, where he entered Kupang harbour on 9 October 1818. After Timor the expedition sailed north calling at the Moluccas, Philippines and Guam before heading for Hawaii. On 30 August 1819 the Uranie returned to Australia where the Uranie dropped anchor at Port Jackson on 18 November. The growth of Sydney since his earlier visit astonished Freycinet, and the botanists set forth on various expeditions to Botany Bay and the Blue Mountains. Favourable winds drove the ship speedily around Cape Horn in January 1820, but on 14 February, while entering French Bay in the Falklands, the Uranie stuck a submerged rock and had to be beached as quickly as possible to stop her sinking. A big part of the collections of natural history specimens were lost or stained and the Uranie was found beyond repair. Freycinet had to buy another ship that he baptised the Physicienne, and on 13 November 1820 anchored the Physicienne off Le Havre after an absence of nearly three years. Diese Original-Lithographie stammt wohl aus dem Atlas Hydrographie (L'Atlas de Navigation et de Hydrographie. With 22 maps and charts, hrsg. Paris, 1838) Format: 32 x 23, 5 cm, Blattgröße 47, 5 x 31, 5 cm