François Cagnet was the personal gardener to botanist André Michaux

André Michaux

André Michaux was a French botanist and explorer.-Biography:Michaux was born in Satory, now part of Versailles, Yvelines. After the death of his wife within a year of their marriage he took up the study of botany and was a student of Bernard de Jussieu...

. Cagnet was invited to join the Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...

 voyage of scientific discovery (1800–1804) in the corvettes Géographe

French corvette Géographe

The Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente class corvette of the French Navy.She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site, as her builder refused to launched her, as he had not been paid...

and Naturaliste

Naturaliste

Naturaliste is the eighth album by the Australian band, The Lucksmiths released in 2003 on Candle Records .-Track listing:# "Camera-Shy" – 3:36# "The Sandringham Line" – 5:26# "Take This Lying Down" – 3:24...

to chart the coast of New Holland

New Holland (Australia)

New Holland is a historic name for the island continent of Australia. The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman as Nova Hollandia, naming it after the Dutch province of Holland, and remained in use for 180 years....

 (Australia), make scientific observations and collect natural history specimens. This was possibly the largest such voyage of its kind in the early nineteenth century, with a team of 22 savants (scientists, artists and engineers). He was a junior gardener in a team of 5 gardeners that served on the voyage, the others being Antoine Sautier

Antoine Sautier

Antoine Sautier was a student gardener who was invited to join the Baudin scientific expedition in the corvettes Géographe and Naturaliste to chart the coast of New Holland , make scientific observations and collect natural history specimens...

, Merlot (listed as 'an African') and Antoine Guichenot

Antoine Guichenot

Antoine Guichenot or Guichenault was "gardener's boy" on the 1801—1803 French scientific voyage to Australia under Nicolas Baudin, and the 1817 voyage under Louis de Freycinet...

, all under the supervision of Head Gardener Anselme Riedlé

Anselme Riedlé

Anselme Riedlé was gardener at the Jardin des Plantes who was invited to join the Nicolas Baudin scientific expedition in the corvettes Géographe and Naturaliste to chart the coast of New Holland , make scientific observations and collect natural history specimens...

. Cagnet left the expedition with Michaux at the second landfall, Ile de France

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 (Mauritius) as a result of dissatisfaction with Baudin's authoritarian manner and other concerns.

See also

• List of gardener-botanist explorers of the Enlightenment
• European and American voyages of scientific exploration
  European and American voyages of scientific exploration
  The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment...