Ill-starred Captains: Flinders And Baudin

"Amid the Napoleonic Wars, France and Britain dispatched voyages of discovery to complete the mapping of Australia and 'advance the limits of science'. Led by captains Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, they carried safe-conducts protecting them from the opposing navy in an increasingly bitter war. Between 1801 and 1803 Baudin and Flinders filled in most of the gaps on the map of Australia - what was then New Holland. The French scientists made invaluable observations of the life and customs of Tasmanian Aboriginals, while English naturalists Robert Brown laid the foundations of Australian botany. Although enormously successful in geographic and scientific terms, both voyages ended in personal disaster for their commanders."--BOOK JACKET.