1811 Freycinet Map of South Australia (Adelaide)

First map of South Australia: politically charged French toponymy.

This landmark 1811 map of South Australia, including modern-day Adelaide and Melbourne, by French explorer and cartographer Louis de Freycinet. Based on surveys conducted during Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australia aboard the Géographe and Naturaliste (1801 - 1803), it presents South Australia with politically charged French nomenclature, including, as here, Terre Napoléon. Issued three years before Matthew Flinders' competing map, Freycinet's chart represents a defining achievement in the exploration, mapping and naming of South Australia.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces what is today South Australia, extending from roughly Ceduna in the west to Wilson's Point in the east, thus taking in Spencer Gulf (Golfe Bonaparte), Port Phillip, and modern-day Adelaide and Melbourne. Being based almost exclusively on nautical surveying, the map has little inland detail, save those high points clearly visible from shipboard. Soundings fill Spencer Gulf and otherwise dot the coast.

The Expedition

Nicolas Baudin' Expedition embarked to the South Seas in October 1800 aboard the ships Géographe and Naturaliste, arriving in May 1801. During their Australian surveys, the French team applied names to many locations already explored by Flinders (the French and English would actually meet at Encounter Bay). The expedition charted the circumference of the continent, to which they applied this historic name, 'Nouvelle Hollande.'

Return and Publication

The expedition set sail for France (via Timor) in 1803. Baudin died on the voyage, leaving the publication of the voyage to the expedition's naturalist, François Péron. Péron produced the first volume of Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes in 1807, but died in 1810 before completion of the account. Freycinet took over the labor, issuing the second volume and its atlas. It was this volume that contained the charts of the expedition.

The Competition, Nobbled

The English explorer, Matthew Flinders, completed his circumnavigation of Australia before the French; nonetheless, his map was not the first to illustrate a full circumnavigation of the continent. Flinders began his return to England in 1803, shortly after the French, but en route, he was arrested by the French governor of Mauritius (despite the scientific nature of the voyage, France and England were at war), where he was detained for more than six years. Although Flinders was eventually released and returned to England in 1810, his work was not published until June of 1814 - a day before his death, and three years after Freycinet's publications.

Terre Napoléon and the Power of a Name

The Baudin Expedition's charts defined Australia's southern coastline as distinctly French and Napoleonic. Although Nicolas Baudin assigned names during the voyage, many were subsequently altered or replaced by the naturalist François Péron and cartographer Louis de Freycinet, who prepared the expedition's official publications after Baudin died in 1803. Their nomenclature commemorated French scientists, naval officers, administrators and cultural figures, but it also celebrated Napoleon and his imperial circle. Spencer Gulf became Golfe Bonaparte, Gulf St. Vincent became Golfe Joséphine, and the coast extending from the vicinity of Wilson's Promontory to the Great Australian Bight appeared under the imposing regional name Terre Napoléon.

Terre Napoléon was especially provocative because Matthew Flinders had surveyed much of the same coastline before the French and had openly exchanged information with Baudin when the two commanders met at Encounter Bay in 1802. Freycinet's charts nonetheless replaced many of Flinders' names with French alternatives and initially failed to acknowledge his priority. British reviewers responded angrily, presenting the nomenclature as evidence of French appropriation - and espionage - during the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). Flinders' detention on Mauritius delayed publication of his own charts until 1814, allowing Freycinet's 1811 atlas to establish the first published cartographic account of Australia's complete coastline.

The significance of Terre Napoléon lies less in any successful territorial claim than in its demonstration that naming was itself an instrument of empire. By covering a newly charted coast with the names of Napoleon, Joséphine and the heroes of France, Péron and Freycinet converted scientific surveying into a symbolic act of possession. The name proved politically fragile: in the 1824 edition of the voyage atlas, French authorities restored Flinders' nomenclature, recognizing his priority. Nevertheless, numerous French names survive along the Australian coast, preserving the encounter between scientific exploration, national rivalry and imperial ambition that shaped the continent's early European cartography.

Elegant Engraving

In addition to the chart's fine, clear lettering (courtesy of the elusive letter-engravers Lale and Girladon) and delicate shading, it sports an excellent, evocative cartouche: Hermes, holding his caduceus staff, bears a floral wreath featuring the map's title. Below, a shore-side scene illustrates several kangaroos and seals, along with exotic fauna. Shi's sail in the distance. The cartouche was drawn by Lesueur and engraved by Lambert. The whole evokes the region's geographical richness and biological exoticism.

Publication History and Census

This map is rare on the market. It was published in the atlas accompanying the second volume of Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes. The separate map is cataloged only 8 times in OCLC.

Cartographers

Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (August 8, 1779 - August 18, 1841) was a French Navy officer and circumnavigator. In 1811, he published the first map to show a full outline of Australia's coastline. Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet joined the French Navy as a midshipman in 1793, and took part in several engagements against the British during the French Revolution (1789 - 1799). In 1800, Freycinet and his brother Louis-Henri were attached to an expedition to Australia under Nicolas Baudin (1754 - 1803), on the ships Naturaliste and Géographe. Between 1802 and 1803, Freycinet captained the schooner Casuarina, executing surveys of the Australian coast. He returned to France in 1804. Back in Paris, he prepared the maps and plans of the expedition, as well as the accompanying narrative, Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes (Paris, 1807-1816). Later, in 1817, he was given command of the corvette Uranie, which he led on scientific expeditions to Rio de Janeiro and, later, throughout the Pacific - a successful voyage, despite the loss of his ship on his return. Freycinet was admitted into the French Academy of Sciences in 1825 and was one of the founders of the Paris Geographical Society.   Further Details...

Pierre Antoine-François Tardieu (February 17, 1757 - January 14, 1822), also known as Tardieu de l'Estrapade, for his address at Place de L'Estrapade, was a French geographical engraver and publisher active in Paris during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A member of the large and prolific Tardieu family, which, for over 200 years, produced multiple skilled and active engravers. A disciple of his uncle Pierre-François Tardieu, in his youth Antoine-Francois would sign his works Pierre-François (or P.F. Tardieu; 1711 - 1771) , but later in his career began using his own name or (P.A.F. Tardieu). His two sons, Pierre-Antoine Tardieu and Ambroise Tardieu (1788 - 1841), both became noted geographical engravers in the own right.   Further Details...

Nicolas Thomas Baudin (February 17, 1754 - September 16, 1803) was a French naval officer, cartographer, naturalist, and explorer whose voyages made major contributions to the scientific study and mapping of Australia and the wider Indo-Pacific. Born on the Île de Ré into a merchant family, he went to sea at a young age, served in the merchant marine, joined the French Royal Navy as a cadet in 1774, and fought during the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). However, his non-aristocratic origins limited his advancement in the officer corps. After returning to commercial service, he developed expertise in transporting living plants and animals. He commanded natural-history expeditions to the Indian Ocean and Caribbean, including voyages associated with the Austrian imperial gardens at Schönbrunn and, from 1796 to 1798, the French Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle; these expeditions returned valuable collections of plants, birds, insects, and other specimens. Reinstated in the French Navy as a captain, Baudin secured Napoleon Bonaparte's approval to lead an ambitious scientific expedition to the southern lands aboard the corvettes Géographe and Naturaliste, which departed Le Havre in October 1800 with an unusually large company of naturalists, artists, hydrographers, and gardeners. Between 1801 and 1803, the expedition surveyed extensive portions of the western, northern, southern, and southeastern Australian coasts, visited Timor and Tasmania, documented indigenous peoples, and gathered tens of thousands of zoological and botanical specimens, many previously unknown to European science. In April 1802, Baudin encountered the British navigator Matthew Flinders at South Australia's Encounter Bay; despite their countries' political rivalry, the two commanders exchanged information peacefully. Baudin's leadership was hampered by illness, deaths, desertions, and inadequate supplies, as well as bitter disputes with several officers and scientists, particularly François Péron. Suffering from tuberculosis, Baudin died at Île de France, now Mauritius, on September 16, 1803, before the expedition returned to France. Its published narrative, prepared by Péron and later completed by Louis de Freycinet (1799 - 1841), largely omitted or disparaged its deceased commander, obscuring his achievements for generations. Modern scholarship has restored Baudin's reputation, recognizing that his expedition produced some of the earliest detailed charts of large stretches of Australia, assembled one of the richest natural-history collections of its age, and left an exceptional visual and written record of Australian landscapes, wildlife, and indigenous communities.   Further Details...

Source

Freycinet, Louis de, Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes. / Atlas. Deuxième partie, (Paris: Langois) 1811.    

Condition

Excellent. Including margins, measures 27.75 x 41.25 in)