Carte d’une partie de la Terre de Witt

Elegant map of De Witt’s Land, northwest Australia, by Freycinet, commander of the Casuarina, and Bollanger, the surveyor on the Geographe, after the observations of the naval engineer, Francois Ronsard.

Shows the tracks of the Geographe in 1801 and 1803 and the Casuarina in 1803 and includes three detailed insets showing: a part of De Witt’s Land a sketch of the Bay of Kupang a town plan sketch of Kupang listing points of interest in the town. Nicholas Baudin was instructed to complete a detailed cartographic survey of the Australian coast and was placed in command of two ships, the Geographe and the Naturaliste. Some twenty-four scientists accompanied the voyage, including the naturalists Francois Peron and Charles Alexandre Lesueur and the cartographer-surveyor Louis Freycinet. The ships first arrived in Kupang, Timor in 1801 and then ventured south to complete the survey of Australia’s southern coast where Baudin crossed paths with Matthew Flinders, who was undertaking his own survey of the coast. After making their way to Sydney, the Naturaliste returned to France and Baudin acquired a new ship, the Casuarina, of which Freycinet was made commander. Baudin then returned to Timor, arriving there in 1803. The expedition resulted in the first complete map of the Australian coast and several of the most detailed and fine engravings of Australian wildlife and landscapes.