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
90 Madeleine Ly-Tio-Fane The opportunity to travel to Isle de France came for Boos in February 1787 when the corvette ‘La Pepita’ of 300 tuns burthen (Captain Nicolas Baudin) put into the Cape for much needed repairs8). The declaration which Captain Baudin made to the authorities at Isle de France on the 28th March yields highly interesting information9). Styling himself ‘Chevalier de 1’Ordre Mili- taire de St. Philippe’, a distinction which had been apparently awarded to him for services rendered to a subject of the Emperor, Nicolas Baudin declared that the ship flying the Spanish flag had left Orléans on the 14th of July 1786 for the Indies. It had however struck a leak on leaving the Missis- sipi and the captain had decided to go to Cap Frangais, St. Domingue, which it reached on the 26th August. There he had considered the ship’s condition not so serious and had left on the 14th October; however, on reaching the high seas, the leak grew worse and he put into the Cape to have the ship repaired; upon the refusal of the Dutch authorities to help him, he sailed for Isle de France which he reached on the 27th March 1787. It has been necessary to delve beyond the captain’s declaration to gather the strands of the transactions involved in the ship’s itinerary, a useful introduction to the complex relations of Baudin with the Imperial authorities. Nicolas Thomas Baudin, the son of Francois, merchant and later chandler to the Cordouan lighthouse, was bom at St. Martin, Isle de Ré, on the 17th February 1754. As a young man he had accompanied 300 recruits to Isle de France in the capacity of Quarter-master, then travelled to Pondicherry in a voluntary capacity in the hope of a commission. The death of his protector, M. de Repentigny, ‘Colonel du Roi’, robbed him of an early appointment and he determined to return to France to plead his cause at the Court. He was apparently entrusted with the correspondence of the Intendant M. de Courci for the Ministére de la Marine. However on his return he was asked to repay the cost of his journey whilst he maintained that he had returned on the King’s service. A subsequent attempt to return to India was foiled and his first endeavour to enter the King’s service ended in disgrace. In 1778, at the start of the campaign in the War of American Independence, he got a commission on the storeship ‘La Minerve’ stationed in the French Caribbean islands, and later on, commanded ‘L’Apollon’ which escorted several convoys. According to J. P. Faivre, an intrigue of officers from the nobility in the circle of the Commander at Brest, le Comte d’Hector, forced him, a dar of the manuscript correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, preserved in the British Museum, the British Museum (N. H.) and other collections in Great Britain (London 1958, Supplements 1962 and 1965). 8) Céré to Castries, 12th December 1787: Lettres V fol. 168. 9) ‘Déclaration d’arrivée de la corvette espagnole “La Pepita’’, 28 Mars 1787’: Mauritius Archives OC 48 n. 179. More information can be gathered from Céré’s letter to Cobenzl of 12th December 1787: ‘C’est encore iui que Sa Majesté Impériale a été chercher pour le service d’un vaisseau d’un de ses sujets délivré des Barbaresques et qu’elle a décoré de la Croix de l’Ordre de St. Philippe’: Lettres V fol. 169.
