his services to be estimated by researches within his own sphere. He knew the sort of information that would please General Decaen, and evidently considered that espionage would bring him greater favour from his Government, at that time, than science.
Nevertheless, it is right to bring out the fact, in justice to the diligent savants who worked under Baudin, that their researches generally were of real importance. Professor Jussieu, one of the foremost men of science in Europe, was deputed to report upon them, and did so in a comprehensive document.M[1] "Of all the collections which have come to us from distant countries at different times," wrote Jussieu, "those which Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste have brought home are certainly the most considerable." The botanist Leschenalt had found over 600 species of plants which were believed to be new to science; and he eulogised the zoological work of Péron, who had succeeded in bringing to France alive seven kinds of kangaroo, an emu, a lyre-bird and several black swan. Altogether, 18,414 specimens of Australian fauna had been collected, comprised in 3872 species, of which 2592 species were new to the museum. The men of science had "succeeded beyond all our hopes." Their task had been perfectly fulfilled, and their services to science deserved to be liberally rewarded by a just and generous government.
It would have been a source of satisfaction if it could be recorded that work so laborious and so well performed had earned for Peron a reputation unstained by such conduct as has been exhibited in the preceding pages.
- ↑ anuscripts, Archives of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris.
