Throughout the voyage Baudin had greatly embittered himself with his crew. He showed no sympathy nor care for the sick, and was harsh and unfeeling in his conduct to all on board; in fact, he is blamed for the constant presence of scurvy that had decimated his men. He seemed utterly to ignore all precautions for health, and refused to take the many preventatives that were accessible to prevent that dread disease. After the magnificent preparations that had been made, it is astonishing to read of the state of the ship before entering Port Jackson. M. Péron writes:—
"Several of our men had already been committed to the deep already more than the half of our seamen were incapable of service from the shocking ravages of scurvy, and only two of our helmsmen were able to get on deck. The daily increase of this epidemic was alarming to an extreme degree, and, in fact, how should it be otherwise?
"Three-quarters of a bottle of stinking water was our daily allowance; for more than a year we had not tasted wine; we had not even a single drop of brandy, instead was substituted half a bottle of a bad sort of rum, made in the Isle of France, and there only used by the black slaves. The biscuit served out was full of insects; all our salt provisions were putrid and rotten, and both the smell and taste were so offensive that the almost famished seamen sometimes preferred suffering all the extremities of want itself to eating these unwholesome provisions, and, even in the presence of their commander, often threw their allowance into the sea.
"Besides, there were no comforts of any kind for the sick. The officers and naturalists were strictly reduced to the same allowance as the seamen, and suffered with them the same afflictions of body and mind."
With unlimited credit and a princely outfit, this state of things did not speak well for the captain's management.
The sickness of his crew and want of provisions compelled the French commander to make for Port Jackson, and on arrival they heard of the safety of the NATURALISTE, that vessel having parted from them off the coast of Van Dieman's Land and arrived there earlier, but left in search of them a few days before the GÉOGRAPHE made the port.
From Port Jackson the NATURALISTE went home to France, the GÉOGRAPHE, in company with a small vessel purchased in Sydney, and placed in charge of Lieutenant Freycinet, pursuing her geographical labours in other parts of the world.
The many voyages of Captain P. P. King, son of the Governor of that name, are some of the most adventurous voyages ever chronicled in our history. On the 22nd December, in a tiny cutter called the MERMAID, he left Sydney for the first of his survey trips. It was the year 1817, and his mission was:—
"To examine the hitherto unexplored coasts of New South Wales from Arnhem Bay, near the western entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria, westward and southward, as far as the North-West Cape, including the opening, or deep bay, called Van Dieman's Bay, and the cluster of islands called Rosemary Islands, also the inlets behind them, which should be most minutely examined; and, indeed, all gulfs and openings should be the objects of particular attention, as the chief motive for sour survey is to discover whether there be any river on that part of the coast likely to lead to an interior navigation into this great continent.
"It is for several reasons most desirable that you should arrive on this coast and commence your survey as early as possible, and you m-ill therefore, when the vessel shall be ready, lose no time in proceeding to the unexplored coasts, but you are at liberty to commence your survey at whichever side you may judge proper, giving a preference to that which you think you may be able soonest to reach, but in case you think that indifferent, my Lords would wish you to commence by the neighbourhood of the Rosemary Islands.