She occupied only a small portion of an enormous continent, and would certainly not have seriously opposed a project that the French should occupy some other portion of it, if Bonaparte had put forward a claim as a condition of peace.

But he did nothing of the kind.
If we are to form sound views of history, basing conclusions on the evidence, we must set aside suspicions generated at a time of fierce racial antipathy, when it was almost part of an Englishman's creed to hate a Frenchman.

Neither the published history of Baudin's voyage, nor the papers relating to it which are now available for study--except two documents to which special attention will be devoted hereafter, and which did not emanate from persons in authority--afford warrant for believing that there was any other object in view than that professed when application for a passport was made to the Admiralty.

The confidential instructions of the Minister* of Marine (* Manuscripts, Archives Nationales BB4 999, Marine.

I have given an account of this important manuscript, with copious extracts, in the English Historical Review, April, 1913.) to Baudin* leave no doubt that the purpose was quite bona fide.