Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 35. (1982)
LY-TIO-FANE, Madeleine: Contacts between Schönbrunn and the Jardin du Roi at Isle de France (Mauritius) in the 18th Century. An Episode in the Career of Nicolas Thomas Baudin
100 Madeleine Ly-Tio-Fane port to Vienna of 215 big, 15 small, crates, and 25 baskets of plants. These reached Vienna on the 22nd August according to Boos’ son, in July according to Jacquin41). However Céré in a letter to Mercy, dated 4th September 1789, indicated that both Cobenzl and Boos had written on the 15th August 1788 to announce the safe arrival of the collection. Imparting the joyful tidings to the Minister of Marine, La Luzerne, on the 10th April 1789, he mentioned that he was enclosing copies of these letters brought by Baudin ‘nous in- struisant de l’état brillant dans lequel est arrivée 1’immense collection d’arbres faite pour Sa Majesté Impériale’42). IV The fate of Scholl stranded at the Cape preoccupied many in the succeeding years. Adequate publicity given to the important collections he had made in South Africa ensured that he was not forgotten; for instance, in a letter written to Banks on the 6th October 1792, Joseph Jacquin indicated that a catalogue was being prepared and enumerated those plants in it that were not represented in the collection at Kew43). Unfortunately, Emperor Joseph II involved in a campaign in 1788 against Turkey, had not been able to do much and he had ordered Cobenzl to write Céré to recommend economy: ‘La guerre prend tous les moments de M. le Comte de Cobenzl et l’empéche de s’oc- cupper de l’histoire naturelle . . . par sa lettre d’aoűt me disant de ne pás faire l’envoi des elephants vu que Sa Majesté avoit déjá beaucoup dépensé pour les objets d’histoire naturelle et étant en guerre vouloit en rester lh ...’. Thus left to his own means, Céré could not enterprise much; Colonel Gordon, Tárni, le protecteur de tous les savants indistinctement de toutes les nations’ had not either, in spite of many efforts, been able to provide Scholl with a passage on the Dutch ships. Céré informed Ambassador Mercy d’Argenteau on the 4th September 1789 that Gordon had recently written to suggest that Baudin should undertake to convey Scholl to Trieste, but the latter had sent his ship to China, from whence it would return only in March 1790. Baudin lacked the capital to purchase another ship and to fit it out for such a journey, and in the absence of positive orders from the Court, neither Céré nor Baudin had felt competent to prevail upon some man of means to make the necessary advances. Céré requested d’Argenteau to transmit the message to Cobenzl44). In November 1789, however, Céré had heartening news to convey to Vienna. Writing simultaneously to Cobenzl and to Gordon, he announced 41) Kronfeld Park und Garten von Schönbrunn 102. 42) Céré to Mercy d’Argenteau, 4th September 1789; Céré to La Luzerne, 10th April 1789: Lettres V fol. 264 and 256. 43) British Library London Add. ms. 8098 360-361. 44) Céré to Mercy d’Argenteau, 4th September 1789: Lettres V fol. 264-265.
