[Francis GARNIER (1839-1873) naval officer and explorer of Tonkin.] Firmin IMBERT (sergeant of fusiliers marins, secretary to Francis Garnier during the Tonkin expedition). 33 L.A.S., 1875-1892, to Léon Garnier; 110pages in-8 or in-4 (plus 4 visiting cards and 7 misc. doc.). Testimony from a former comrade-in-arms of Francis Garnier in Tonkin. The correspondence, addressed to Francis' brother Léon Garnier (1836-1901), was written when Firmin Imbert was in France (Paris, Toulon or Cherbourg), with the exception of a letter written from Saigon in 1877. It concerns the delivery of documents on Tonkin; the publication of a work by Frédéric Romanet du Caillaud on this province (1875); obtaining a position in the fleet crews division in Toulon; evoking the memory of Francis Garnier and receiving a photograph of him (Toulon June 25, 1876: "We will keep with jealous care and with the people who are dearest to us the photograph of the best of leaders and the most respected of men; it will survive me in the bosom of my family, and, on seeing it, my feeble voice will never dry up on the precious, painful memories above all of the memorable Tong-King Expedition"); the sinking of the Arc, a gunboat that had served in Indochina; the arrival in Cochinchina and the visit to Garnier's grave in the Saigon cemetery (May 2, 1877: "Such a sudden return to this strange country that reminds me of so many past things [....] and the still vivid memories of this fabulous campaign in Tong-King, made my first visit to Francis Garnier's tomb all the more precious! It was deeply penetrated by a thousand emotions that I was able, after a long search, to find the stone that covers such cherished ashes"); the return to Cherbourg, deploring the sad state of affairs in the Far East (Cherbourg November 23, 1883, retaining "the great and faithful image of the man to whom I never cease, I can say, to think every day, when I read the sad, pitiful, inaccurate daily balance of our affairs in the Far East, in this theater which, thanks to the eminent qualities of a leader who was too lavish with himself, was such a glorious theater"); obtaining a new promotion thanks to the support of Léon Garnier; the reproduction of a photograph taken in Shanghai and offered in 1873; the sending of a photograph of the statue of F. Garnier; the announcement of a proposal for the military medal (1887), etc.