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Terre Napoleon

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The account given by Peron of the flag-raising incident was quite
accurate, but he presented his readers with a wholly untrue version of
Governor King's letter to Baudin. With the document before us, we must
doubt whether Peron ever saw it. The passage printed by him in quotation
marks bears hardly a resemblance to the courteous terms of the actual
letter, which did not contain any such threat as that "all these
countries form an integral part of the British Empire," and "it will be
my duty to oppose by every means in my power the execution of the design
you are supposed to have in view." It seems probable that Peron heard the
letter read, or its contents summarised, but, in writing, mixed up the
substance of it with blustering language which may have been used by
Acting-Lieutenant Robbins.* (* Backhouse Walker also held this view.
Early Tasmania page 18.) At all events, King used no word of menace,
while conveying plainly that the establishment of a French settlement
would require "explanation."

There is no good reason for disbelieving Baudin's disclaimer. It was
plain and candid; and there was nothing in his actions while he was in
Australian waters which belied his words. The baseless character of the
gossip promulgated by Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, and the alleged
exhibition of the map indicating the exact spot where the French intended
to settle in Frederick Henry Bay, were disposed of by the fact that
Baudin's ships went nowhere near that place after leaving Sydney. If any
French officer did show Paterson a chart, he must have been amusing
himself by playing on the suspicions of the Englishman, who was probably
"fishing" for information. Baudin's conduct, and that of his officers,
never suggested that search for a site for settlement was part of the
mission of the expedition; and, in the face of the commodore's emphatic
denials, positive evidence, or a strong chain of facts to the contrary,
would have to be forthcoming before such a story could be entertained.
Suspicions were natural enough in face of the strained feelings, the
wars, the plots and counter-plots of diplomacy, Napoleon's menaced
invasion of England, and all the other factors that made for racial
animosity at the beginning of the nineteenth century; but viewing the
circumstances in the perspective made by the lapse of a hundred years,
cool judgment must dismiss the jealous alarms of 1802 as being unfounded.

Yet a patriotic Frenchman, as Peron was, could not witness this
remarkable growth of a new offshoot of British power in the South Seas
without regret and misgiving. "Doubtless," he commented on Robbins'
action, "that ceremony will appear silly to people who know little about
English polity; but for the statesman such formalities assume a much more
serious and important character. By these public and repeated
declarations England seems every day to fortify her pretensions, to
establish her rights, in a positive manner, and to devise pretexts to
repulse, even by force of arms, all other peoples who may wish to form
settlements in these distant countries." We shall not honour Peron the
less because he expressed an opinion so natural to a man solicitous for
his country's prestige.

It has been stated by one or two writers that the action of Robbins put
an end to the cordial relations which had previously existed between him
and the French. But that is an error. They had cause to be offended, but
the young man was treated with indulgence. Peron records that both Grimes
and Robbins visited the tents of the French after the flag incident, and
shared their frugal dinner; and Baudin informed King that, the Cumberland
having lost an anchor, his forge was at work for a whole day supplying
the wants of the British schooner--a service akin to heaping coals of
fire on the head of the zealous acting-lieutenant. At the same time,
other members of the French expedition experienced very kind treatment
from British fishermen. Faure, one of the scientific staff, was sent in a
small boat to complete a chart of the island. A violent storm compelled
him to go ashore on the western end, where he and his sailors were for
three days most hospitably entertained by sealers, who, on their
departure, forced upon them some of their finest furs as presents. "How
is it," comments Peron, "that such touching hospitality, of which voyages
offer so many examples, is nearly always exercised by men whose poverty
and roughness of character seem to impose such an obligation least upon
them. It seems that misfortune, rather than philosophy and brilliant
education, develops in mankind that noble and disinterested virtue which
induces us to minister to the woes of others."

Le Naturaliste sailed for Europe from King Island on December 8, carrying
with her all the plants and natural history specimens collected up to
date, as well as the charts. The collections were, as King wrote to Sir
Joseph Banks, "immense."* (* Historical Records 4 844.) Le Geographe and
the Casuarina left on December 27, and sailed direct for Kangaroo Island,
to resume in that neighbourhood the charting which Baudin had abandoned
in the previous year. They did not, as the logs show, make any attempt to
examine Port Phillip. Robbins and his seventeen guardians of British
rights on the Cumberland remained for some time longer making a thorough
examination; after which they sailed for Port Phillip, and Grimes made
the first complete survey of that great sheet of water.

It is only necessary to add that King reported to the Admiralty his
approval of Robbins' action, and that to "make the French commander
acquainted with my intention of settling Van Diemen's Land was all I
sought by this voyage." But it is obvious from a letter which he wrote to
Banks, after Baudin's death, and after his soul had been moved to
righteous wrath by the iniquitous treatment of Flinders--whom he so
warmly admired and so loyally aided--that suspicion, once implanted in
King's mind, was not eradicated by explicit disavowals. Had Baudin lived
another year, he said, "I think it very possible that the commodore would
most likely have visited the colony for the purpose of annihilating the
settlement." But surely here, if ever, the lines were applicable:

"In the night imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!"

Baudin, after his remarkable exploits in 1800 to 1804, was the last man
whom Napoleon would have chosen to try to annihilate a British settlement
anywhere. Rather, in such an unlikely event, would his own crew have been
in danger of annihilation from his methods.


CHAPTER 10. RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION.

Le Geographe sails for Kangaroo Island.
Exploration of the two gulfs in the Casuarina by Freycinet.
Baudin's erratic behaviour.
Port Lincoln.
Peron among the giants.
A painful excursion.
Second visit to Timor.
Abandonment of north coast exploration.
Baudin resolves to return home.
Voyage to Mauritius.
Death of Baudin.
Treatment of him by Peron and Freycinet.
Return of Le Geographe.
Depression of the staff and crew.

Le Geographe sighted Kangaroo Island on January 2, and anchored on the
6th in Nepean Bay on the eastern side. The Casuarina joined her consort
on the following day.

Freycinet, who was in command of the smaller vessel, was instructed to
make a complete survey of the two gulfs named by the French after
Bonaparte and Josephine, and by Flinders, their discoverer, after Lord
Spencer and Lord St. Vincent, who were First Lords of the Admiralty when
his own expedition was authorised and when it sailed from England.

The Casuarina was provisioned for twenty-six days for this task, and
Freycinet took with him Boullanger, one of the hydrographers, who
prepared the charts under his supervision. No part of the French work was
better done than was the charting of the two gulfs and Kangaroo Island,
and, as previously indicated, its quality very naturally aroused the
suspicion that the improvement owed something to the charts of Flinders.
It has been shown, however, that this was not the case. Of Boullanger's
training and qualifications nothing can be said, except that it may be
presumed that the Committee of the Institute of France which selected
him, comprising two such experts as Bougainville and Fleurieu, must have
been satisfied of his attainments. Much of his work was certainly done
under severe trials and difficulties, but it is chiefly significant that
the improvement in the charting synchronises with the presence in command
of Freycinet; and allusion may again be made to the beautiful work done
by this officer when he commanded the Uranie and the Physicienne a few
years later, as showing his deep interest and practical skill in
employment of this class.

There can be no doubt that the work would have been better done
throughout had Captain Baudin been a more sympathetic commander. To what
extent the deficiencies of the French charts of the remainder of the
Terre Napoleon coasts are attributable to his failure to appreciate the
requirements of his scientific staff, can be conjectured; but the
peremptory manner in which he allotted so many days and no more for the
survey of the gulfs, and then sailed off leaving the Casuarina to shift
for herself, reveals an extraordinary temper in a commander on such
service, as well as a fatuous disregard of the many hindrances that made
rigid time conditions difficult to observe.

Flinders had occupied forty days in his exploration of the two
gulfs--from February 21 to April 1, 1802. Freycinet occupied only
twenty-one days in traversing precisely the same extent of
coast-line--from January 11 to February 1, 1803. Flinders had settled the
question as to whether there was a passage through the continent to the
Gulf of Carpentaria, and Freycinet and Baudin were by this time aware
that no important discovery of this character was to be expected. But the
navigation was perilous, the risks were unknown, and Freycinet should
have been able to pursue his task unhampered by the fear that if
circumstances compelled him to over-stay his time for a day or two, he
would be abandoned in a small vessel without provisions for more than his
narrowly prescribed period. "But the character of our chief was known."
"Quite sure of being pitilessly abandoned in case of delay," Freycinet
made haste to return to Nepean Bay at the end of the month. But when he
reached the anchorage he found that Baudin had already sailed away. "The
abandonment of our companions in the midst of these vast gulfs, where so
many perils might be encountered, had been a subject of consternation on
board Le Geographe," Peron records. It really was unaccountable
behaviour; even worse than that of the abandonment of Boullanger and his
boat's crew on the east coast of Tasmania in the previous March. A
commander who treated those among his subordinates who were sustaining
the most dangerous and exacting part of the work with so little
consideration, can hardly have maintained their confidence, or deserved
it.

The Casuarina, making all sail for Nepean Bay westward, sighted the
leading ship in Investigator Strait. But Baudin did not wait even then.
He kept Le Geographe on her course, under a full head of sail, without
permitting the Casuarina to come up and report, or inquiring after the
success of her work. The two ships soon lost sight of each other. Next
day Baudin, evidently realising the enormity of his folly, veered round,
and returned to Nepean Bay. But as the Casuarina had kept on westward
during the night, in a frantic endeavour to catch her leader, the two
vessels crossed far apart and out of vision. They did not meet again for
fourteen days, when both lay at anchor in King George's Sound.

It is not wonderful that Freycinet confessed that he was "astonished" at
Baudin's manoeuvres. They were scarcely those of a rational being, to say
nothing of a commander responsible for the safety of two ships and the
lives of their people. The company on the smaller vessel endured severe
privations. They were reduced to a ration of three ounces of biscuit per
man per day, and to a mere drink of water; and the ship herself sustained
such severe damage from heavy seas that, said Freycinet, had he been
delayed a few hours in reaching King George's Sound, he would have been
compelled to run her ashore to prevent her from foundering. "Judge of the
horror of my position," he wrote, and he certainly did not exaggerate
when he used that term; for the coast along which he ran for safety is
one of the most hopelessly barren in the whole world, offering to a
stranded mariner neither sustenance, shelter, nor means of deliverance.

The only feature of much interest pertaining to the geographical work of
the expedition in the region of the gulfs, is the high opinion formed by
Peron of Port Lincoln--called Port Champagny on the Terre Napoleon
charts. The port has not played a large part in the subsequent
development of Australia, but Flinders, who discovered it and named it
after the chief town of his native county, and the French of Baudin's
expedition, who were the second people to enter it, thought very highly
of its beauty and value. Peron spoke of it as a "magnificent port," in
which all the navies of Europe could float, and concluded two pages of
description with the words: "Worthy rival of Port Jackson, Port Lincoln
is, in all respects, one of the finest in the world; and of all those
which we have discovered [yet they had not discovered a single port of
any kind!], whether to the south, the west, or the north of New Holland,
it appears to be, I repeat, the best adapted to receive a European
colony." After many years of settlement, Port Lincoln boasts of fewer
than a thousand inhabitants; for though the glowing language of
admiration concerning its beauty and convenience written by Flinders and
Peron were fully justified, a back country too arid to support a large
population has prevented it from attaining to great importance among the
harbours of Australia. To the student of the history of exploration,
however, Port Lincoln is interesting even beyond the measure of its
beauty; for there, in 1841, Sir John Franklin, then governor of Tasmania,
erected at his own cost a monument to the honour of Flinders, his old
commander, from whom he imbibed that passion for exploration which was in
due time to place his own name imperishably amongst the glorious company
of great English seamen.

Peron himself experienced the cross-grained temper of the commander
during the visit of the ships to Sharks Bay. This was the scene of
Dampier's descent upon the Western Australian coast in 1699, in the
rickety little Roebuck. It was here that his men dined off sharks' flesh,
and "took care that no waste should be made of it, but thought it, as
things stood, good entertainment."* The bay received from Dampier, on
account of the feast, the name it has ever since borne. (* Dampier's men
were unprejudiced in matters of gastronomy, but their taste in fish was
not to their discredit. Shark's flesh, especially when young, is, there
is reason to believe, excellent eating. During some weeks in a recent
summer, when what we may term "orthodox" fish was scarce, a fashionable
Australian sea-side hotel was regularly supplied with young
shark--"gummy"--by a fisherman, for whose veracity the author can vouch.
Neither proprietor, chef, nor guests knew what it was, and all were well
fed and happy.)

Some of the French sailors who had been ashore returned in a wild state
of alarm on account of giants whom they professed to have seen--men of
extraordinary strength and stature, they reported, with long black
beards, armed with enormous spears and shields, who ran at a furious
pace, brandishing their weapons and giving utterance to fearful yells.
"However extravagant these assertions might appear," said the incredulous
naturalist, "it was necessary to collect precise information on the
subject." The scientific Ulysses regarded the reputed Cyclops with a
calculating scepticism. Had Polyphemus been at hand, Peron would have
politely requested him to permit himself to be weighed and measured, and
would have written an admirable monograph on his solitary optic.

There were, he considered, some reasons for thinking that a race of men
of heroic proportions inhabited this western part of the continent. The
Dutch captain, Vlaming, in 1697, had reported finding gigantic human
footprints upon the banks of the Swan River, near where the city of Perth
now stands; and two of Baudin's officers, whose names were not Munchausen
and Sindbad but Heirisson and Moreau, declared that they also had
observed the same phenomena at the same place. Peron set down these
stories to the exaggerative distortion of lovers of the marvellous, "of
whom we counted some amongst us." But when the sailors came scampering
back to the ship with the tale that they had actually seen the giants and
been pursued by them, the naturalist began to think that there was
probably some ground for the belief. At all events, he determined to go
and see for himself.

He requested Baudin to send a few armed men ashore with him, but was
rudely refused. Not to be thwarted in continuing his researches in so
favourable a place, Peron determined to make use of a couple of days
during which a furnace was to be erected for extracting salt from the sea
by evaporation--the ship's supply having been depleted--to run the risk
of an excursion on his own account; whereupon Petit, one of the artists,
and Guichenot, one of the gardeners, resolved to accompany him.

The adventurous three were soon favoured with a visit from a troop of
aboriginals, who, though by no means giants, were certainly formidable
foes. There were forty of them, all armed with spears. Peron and his
companions, to defend themselves, had only a musket and a pair of
pistols. The savages, terrible fellows, advanced with "clameurs terribles
et menacantes." Retreat for the Frenchmen was impossible. A show of
courage was the best policy; and the three, one of whom, Petit, had been
"plein de terreur" when the blacks first made their appearance, put on a
bold front and marched forward "avec assurance a leur rencontre." This
bold tactical manoeuvre met with its deserved reward. The savages were
visibly disconcerted. One of them made signs of invitation to a parley,
but Peron considered it to be hazardous for one of the three to isolate
himself from his companions. The trio continued to advance, resolved to
sell their lives dearly if die they must. Such unexpected audacity threw
the blacks into a state of uncertainty, and, after deliberating for a few
moments, they turned their backs and went away, though slowly, and
without the appearance of fear or disorder. Peron, Petit, and Guichenot,
"to give the aboriginals a higher idea of our confidence and our
courage," did not halt in their advance, but marched in the track of the
retreating forty, who climbed to the height of a steep cliff and there
continued to yell and gesticulate as though desiring to have conference
with one of the white men. "After having responded for some time with
similar cries and gestures"--Ulysses defying Polyphemus will recur to the
mind--Peron and his companions concluded this signal display of coolness
and daring by quietly walking back and proceeding on their journey
inland. They were not pursued nor further molested.

Cool vision detracted from the gigantic stature of the Sharks Bay blacks
as effectually as a cool demeanour disposed of the danger from them. The
tallest man among them Peron declared to be no more than five feet four
or five inches in height, and most of the forty were small sized,
thin-limbed, and of feeble appearance. It is easy to perceive in this
incident, where a disposition to exaggerate looking through the lens of
fear, magnified a group of slight and slender savages into terrific
giants, how many a legend has come to birth. The original sons of Anak
would probably have been severely shortened of their inches had a Peron
been available to bring illusion promptly to the test of measurement, and
perhaps a scientific Jack the Giant Killer could have done deadly
execution with a foot-rule.* (* It may be noted that Peron's researches
regarding the physical proportions and capacities of savage races aroused
much interest in France. The Moniteur of April 25 and June 23, 1808,
published two long articles on "the physical force of savage people,"
founded upon Peron's writings and his records of comparative dynamometric
data.)

The three adventurers suffered far more severely from the heat of the sun
and the fatigues of working among thick bush and sand than from the
natives of the country. They made a fine collection of specimens, and,
congratulating themselves on their success, endeavoured to make their way
back to the boat. But they soon realised that they were "bushed"--a term
familiar enough to those who are acquainted with the story of Australian
inland exploration. The country was covered with thick scrub, through
which they endeavoured to make their way. The afternoon sun poured down a
pitiless flood of heat, the white, glaring sand burnt their feet, the air
in the Bush was stifling. It was as though they were walking through
furnaces; and there were no spreading trees to relieve the ordeal by a
touch of shade. They at length regained the shore, and trudged along the
soft, hot sand; when Peron, exhausted after a walk of three hours, was
compelled to throw aside the greater part of the collection which he had
made at the expense of so much painful labour. Shortly afterwards
Guichenot fell to the ground exhausted by hunger, thirst, and fatigue,
and begged his companions to leave him there to die while they
endeavoured to save themselves. Peron remembered a passage he had read in
Cook's voyages about the reviving effect of a plunge in sea-water; and he
and Petit tried it by wading in up to their necks. They assisted
Guichenot to do the same, and revived him sufficiently to enable him to
continue the weary march. The sun set; a breeze sprang up; and soon the
three travellers saw with joy the smoke of a fire which had been lighted
as a guide to them. They staggered on, and at last all three fell
fainting in sight of their companions, who hurried forward to relieve
them.

There is nothing incredible in Peron's narrative of the sufferings of
himself and his companions on this excursion. It is not surprising to one
with a knowledge of the local conditions. The exertions they had made
should have earned them commendation, or at least compassion, from the
commandant. But Baudin's view was censorious. Three times during the
evening a gun had been fired from the ship as a signal to the boat to
return. The officer in charge of the shore party considered that it would
be unjustifiable to leave until the three travellers returned, and
trusted that this explanation would be accepted as excusing the delay. A
sea fog now prevented the boat from returning forthwith; but the sailors
had neither food nor water to give to the parched and famished
unfortunates. When at last they did reach the ship, they had been for
forty hours without sup or sip; they were prostrate from sheer weakness;
and Peron himself was reduced to the extremity that his leathern tongue
refused to articulate. The commandant was the only man aboard who had no
pity to spare for their misery. Baudin actually fined the officer in
charge of the boat ten francs for every gun fired, because he had not
obeyed the return signal, and for not "abandoning all three." "Those were
the very words of our chief," wrote Peron; "and yet I had, to save his
life at Timor, given to his physician part of the small stock of
excellent quinine that I had brought for my own use."

This heartless conduct, taken in conjunction with Baudin's abandonment of
Boullanger on the Tasmanian coast, and his strange behaviour to the
Casuarina after the exploration of the gulfs, leaves one in no doubt as
to his singular deficiency in the qualities essential to the commander of
an expedition of discovery. It was his invariable practice, we also read,
to provision boats engaged on any special service for the bare time that
he meant them to be absent; so many ounces of food and so many pints of
water per man per day, and no more, leaving no margin for accidents,
allowing of no excuse for unavoidable delay. A sensible person would not
provide for a picnic on such principles.

The exploration of the west and north-west coasts was continued till the
end of April, when Baudin decided to go once more to Timor. His intention
was, after refreshing his men and taking in supplies at the Dutch
settlement, to spend some time in the Gulf of Carpentaria and along the
southern shores of New Guinea. On May 6, Kupang harbour was entered for
the second time. There it was learnt that Flinders had called at the port
in the Investigator in April, after having concluded his exploration of
the northern gulf. He had been compelled to relinquish his work owing to
the rotten condition of his ship's timbers, and had sailed back to Port
Jackson. As he had reached the Gulf of Carpentaria by sailing up the
eastern side of the continent, and returned through Torres Strait down
the western coast, and through Bass Strait on the south, Flinders was the
first sailor to accomplish the circumnavigation of Australia, as he had
also been the first to circumnavigate Tasmania.* (* Tasman, in 1642,
sailed from Batavia, in Java, thence to Mauritius, Tasmania, New Zealand,
the Friendly Islands, northern New Guinea, and back to Batavia. This was
a wide circumnavigation of the whole of New Holland; but he did not sight
Australia, and as, of course, he did not go near Bass Strait, he did not
circumnavigate the continent proper.)

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