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Terre Napoleon

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Le Geographe and the Casuarina remained at Kupang till June
3--twenty-eight days--enjoying the hospitality of the Dutch. Peron made
several excursions for collecting purposes, and once shot an alligator
nine feet long, which he skinned. He had the hide and head carried down
to the port by Malays on long bamboo poles, this method of conveyance
being necessitated by the superstitious refusal of the natives to touch
even the skin of the dreaded beast. But the labour was to a large extent
wasted, for putrefaction advanced, while the skin was in transit, to such
an extent that all but the head had to be thrown into the sea.

Baudin's plan, after leaving Kupang, was to continue the exploration of
the coasts of Western Australia. But very light breezes, alternating with
calms, prevented substantial progress, and after spending the greater
part of the month ineffectually in traversing only a few leagues, it was
concluded (June 28) that to continue the work in detail from west to east
at that season of the year would merely lead to a futile waste of time.
Here again the logic of facts was required to convince Baudin, who had
previously rejected sound advice that was offered to him, to the effect
that contrary winds would thwart his designs. The winds blow at certain
seasons with steady consistency in these regions, and an experienced
navigator, knowing what he has to expect, makes his plans accordingly.
When Flinders was driven reluctantly to abandon finishing the exploration
of the north coast through the dangerous condition of the Investigator,
he made his way back to Port Jackson by the western route, because,
although it was considerably longer, he thereby secured favourable winds;
and he reached port in safety. If we may judge from his habitual
perversity, Baudin, under similar circumstances, would have taken the
shorter route, regardless of normal conditions, and would have lost his
ship.

Changing his route after much waste of time, Baudin took his vessels
towards the south-west of New Guinea, with the intention of making
investigations there. But again the sailing was for the most part slow,
especially as the Casuarina made very poor progress; and when within a
few leagues from False Cape--called Cape Walshe on the French
charts--circumstances compelled the commander to review his position and
prospects in a serious light. Once more the supply of water was running
short. The ships carried from Kupang sufficient for ninety-five days.
Apart from the necessities of the crew, some had to be spared for the
plants and animals--kangaroos, emus, etc.--which were being carried to
Europe. Thirty-four days had been dawdled away without achieving any
substantial results. For the ultimate return to Mauritius sufficient
water to last forty days must be conserved. Consequently Baudin argued
that he could not by any possibility afford to remain in these waters
longer than three more weeks; and as in that time not much could be done,
he determined to return home at once. His decision gave pleasure to his
unhappy people; but surely it was that of a man whose heart was not in
his work. No attempt was made to send parties ashore to search for fresh
water. When Flinders ran short, and did not come across a convenient
spring or stream, he dug and found water, as at Port Lincoln; and a very
experienced traveller has observed that "in nearly all parts of Australia
it is usually found a few feet beneath the surface of the ground."* (*
Ward, Rambles of an Australian Naturalist page 109.)

But there were other reasons which conduced to create in Baudin that
depression which is inimical to the protracted pursuit of an allotted
task. Sickness once more laid its hand upon the crews. The commander
himself was in bad health. The demands upon the resources of the doctors
were so numerous that their medicines became exhausted, and they were
unable to attend satisfactorily to the necessities of a constantly
increasing number of ailing men. Bernier, the astronomer, died before the
order to return was given. He was a young man of great promise--"savant
et laborieux," as Peron wrote of him--whose original work before he
reached full manhood had attracted the notice of Lalande. Selected by the
Institute to fill a scientific post with the expedition, he did excellent
work, and his death cut short a career that gave indications of being
brilliant and useful. Cape Bernier, on the east coast of
Tasmania--opposite the southern end of Maria Island--preserves his name.

On July 7 the order was given to turn, and sail for Mauritius. Le
Geographe put into Port Louis on August 7, and the Casuarina, after a
very rough voyage, reached the harbour five days later.

Baudin, whose illness had continued throughout the voyage, died while his
ships lay at Mauritius, on September 16. His death had been expected for
some time before it occurred, and if there was little surprise at the
event, it is pathetic to observe that there was as little regret. Not a
word of sympathy appeared in the studiously frigid terms in which the
decease of the commander was chronicled in the official history of the
voyage. Not a syllable was used expressing appreciation of any qualities
which he may have possessed, either as an officer or a man. After curtly
mentioning his illness, Peron recorded the death and burial in two
sentences sterile of emotion. He showed more regret when he had to throw
away the skin of the alligator which he shot at Timor, than when
mentioning the death of one who had been his chief for three years.
"Finally the last moment arrived; and on September 16, 1803, at about
mid-day, M. Baudin ceased to exist. On the 17th he was buried with the
honours due to the rank he had occupied in the navy; all the officers and
savants of the expedition assisted at the funeral, which was also
attended by the principal authorities of the colony." That is all. Had it
been Peron's manner to record the deaths of the companions of his voyage
with such barren brevity, there would be nothing in the passage to excite
comment. But when a sailor fell overboard we were told what an excellent
and laborious man he was, and how much he was regretted; the death of
Bernier called forth an appropriate sentence of eulogy; when Depuch, the
mineralogist died, we were properly informed that he was as much esteemed
for his modesty and the goodness of his heart as for the extent and
variety of his knowledge. The contrast between these instances and the
summary plainness of the statement when Baudin's end was mentioned,
cannot escape notice; any more than we can mistake the meaning of the
consistent suppression of his name throughout the text of the volumes.

Attention has to be directed to this display of animosity because, in
bare justice to Baudin, we have to remember that the only story of the
expedition which we have is that written by Peron and Freycinet, who were
plainly at enmity with him. If the facts were as related by them, Baudin
was not only an absurdly obstinate and ungenial captain, but we are left
with grave doubts as to his competency as a navigator on service of this
description. Yet even facts, when detailed by those who hate a man, take
a different colouring from the same facts set down by the man himself,
with his reasons for what he did. We have no material for forming an
opinion from Baudin's point of view. If his manuscript journals are
capable of throwing fresh light on the events concerned, their
publication, if they remain in existence, would be welcome. All that at
present we can set against the hard, unsympathetic view of the man as we
see him in the pages written by Peron and revised by Freycinet, is his
conduct and correspondence in relation to Governor King at Port Jackson;
and there he appears as a gentleman of agreeable manners, graceful
expression, and ready tact. We do not form a lower opinion of him in
consequence of the letter which he wrote in reply to the one delivered by
Acting-Lieutenant Robbins. because there he expressed views imbibed as
almost a part of the atmosphere of the Revolution amidst which he had
been reared. If we had only the Baudin-King correspondence, we should
think him not unworthy to be the successor of La Perouse and
Bougainville. If we had only the Voyage de Decouvertes, we should think
him barely fit to command a canal barge. It may not have been the
happiness of many navigators to enjoy the affection of those under them
to such an eminent degree as did Cook and Flinders; but there are
fortunately latitudes of difference between love and hate. Respect is
often felt to be due when deeper sentiments are not stimulated. The cold
chronicle that the honours appropriate to his rank were paid to Baudin at
his funeral seems very harsh; and one feels that Freycinet, at any rate,
whom Baudin had promoted to the command of the Casuarina, and furnished
with a chance of distinguishing himself, might have sunk his grievances
sufficiently to add a word in praise of at least some virtue which we may
hope that the dead captain possessed.

Baudin wrote a letter from King Island to Jussieu which indicated that
the experience had been an unhappy one for him.* (* The letter was
printed in the Moniteur, 22nd Fructidor, Revolutionary Year 11 (September
9, 1803). Baudin's death was recorded in the Moniteur on 13th Germinal,
Revolutionary Year 12 (April 3, 1804).) "I have never made so painful a
voyage," he said. "More than once my health has been impaired, but if I
can terminate the expedition conformably to the intentions of the
Government and to the satisfaction of the French nation, there will
remain little to desire, and my sufferings will soon be forgotten." To a
very large extent Baudin must be held responsible for the misfortunes and
failures attending his command, but it is an act of justice to clear him
from aspersions that have been made upon him for things that occurred
after his death. He had nothing whatever to do with the imprisonment of
Flinders, for which he has been blamed by writers who have not looked
into the literature of the subject sufficiently to be aware that he was
dead at the time; nor was he in any way connected with the issue of the
Terre Napoleon maps, with which his name has also been associated.

General Decaen, Napoleon's newly appointed governor, arrived at the
island eight days after Le Geographe, and at once began to administer
affairs upon new lines of policy. A little later the French admiral,
Linois, with a fleet of frigates, entered port. On the death of Baudin,
Linois directed that the Casuarina should be dismantled, and appointed
Captain Milius to the command of Le Geographe, with instructions to take
her home as soon as her sick crew recovered and she had been
revictualled. Peron, as has already been explained, had some conversation
with Decaen, imparting to him the conclusion he had formulated relative
to the secret intentions of the British for the augmentation of their
possessions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans; but there is no record that
Decaen saw Baudin, who was probably too ill to attend to affairs in the
period between the general's arrival and his own death. It is hardly
likely that Baudin, who, from his intimacy with King, knew more about
British policy than the naturalist did, would have supported Peron's
excited fancies.

Le Geographe sailed from Mauritius on December 15, and reached Europe
without the occurrence of any further incidents calling for comment. She
entered the port of Lorient on March 24, 1804. Captain Milius decided not
to make for Havre, whence the expedition had sailed in 1800, in
consequence of what had happened to Le Naturaliste on her return to
Europe in the previous year. War was declared by the British Government
against France in May, and every captain in King George's navy was alert
and eager to get in a blow upon the enemy. The frigate Minerva, Captain
Charles Buller, sighted Le Naturaliste in the Channel, stopped her, and
insisted, despite her passport, on taking her into Portsmouth. She was
detained there from May 27 till June 6, when the Admiralty, being
informed of what had occurred, ordered her immediate release. She left
Portsmouth and arrived at Havre on the same day, June 6, 1803.

Perhaps nothing can convey more effectually the utter weariness and
depression of officers, staff, and crew, than the language in which
Freycinet chronicled the return. It might be supposed, he wrote, that the
end of the voyage would be heralded with joy. But they were themselves
surprised to find that they were but slightly touched with pleasure at
seeing again the shores of their own country after so long an absence.
"It might be said that the very sight of our ship, recalling too strongly
the sufferings of which we had been the victims, poisoned all our
affections. It was not until we were far away from the coast that our
souls could expand to sentiments of happiness which had been so long
strangers to us."

This, surely, was not the language of men who believed that they had
accomplished things for which the world would hold them in honour. It was
not the language of triumphant discoverers, whose good fortune it had
been to reveal unknown coasts, and to finish that complete map of the
continents which had been so long a-making. Would it, one wonders, have
made Freycinet a little happier had he known that at this very time the
English navigator who had made the discoveries for which Baudin's
expedition was sent out, was held in the clutch of General Decaen in
Mauritius, and that the way was clear to hurry on the publication of
forestalling maps and records whilst Flinders was, as it were, battened
under hatches?


CHAPTER 11. RESULTS.

Establishment of the First Empire.
Reluctance of the French Government to publish a record of the
expedition.
Report of the Institute.
The official history of the voyage authorised.
Peron's scientific work.
His discovery of Pyrosoma atlanticum.
Other scientific memoirs.
His views on the modification of species.
Geographical results.
Freycinet's charts.

Startling changes in the political complexion of France had occurred
during the absence of the expedition. Citizen Bonaparte, who in May 1800
had concurred in the representations of the Institute that discovery in
southern regions would redound to the glory of the nation, had since
given rein to the conception that the glory of France meant, properly
interpreted, his own.* (* It was so from the beginning of his career as
Consul, according to M. Paul Brosses' interpretation of his character.
"Il est deja et sera de plus en plus convaincu que travailler a sa
grandeur, c'est travailler a la grandeur du pays." Consulat et Empire,
1907 page 27.) He meant to found a dynasty, and woe to those whom he
regarded as standing in his way. One of the first pieces of news that
those who landed from Le Geographe at Lorient on the 25th March would
hear, was that just four days before, the Duc d'Enghien, son of the Duc
de Bourbon, had been shot after an official examination so formal as to
be no better than a mockery, for his grave had actually been dug before
the inquiry commenced. When Peron and his companions reached Paris, they
would hear and read of debates among the representatives of the Republic,
mostly favourable to the establishment of a new hereditary Imperial
dignity; and they would be in good time to take an interest in the
plebiscite which, by a majority of nearly fourteen hundred to one,
approved the new constitution and enacted that "Napoleon Bonaparte, now
First Consul of the Republic, is Emperor of the French." They were, in
short, back soon enough to witness the process--it may well have
suggested to the naturalist a comparison with phenomena very familiar to
him--by which the Consular-chrysalis Bonaparte became the Emperor-moth
Napoleon.

It was, of course, a very busy year for those responsible to their
illustrious master for the administration of departments. With a great
naval war on hand, with plots frequently being formed or feared, with the
wheels and levers of diplomacy to watch and manipulate, with immense
changes in the machinery of Government going forward, and with the
obligation of satisfying the exacting demands of a chief who was often in
a rage, and always tremendously energetic, the ministers of France were
not likely to have much enthusiasm to spare for maps and charts, large
collections of dead birds, insects, beasts, fishes, butterflies, and
plants, specimens of rocks and quantities of shells.

It is likely enough that absorption in more insistent affairs rather than
a hostile feeling explains the reluctance of the French Government to
authorise the publication of an official history of the voyage when such
a project was first submitted. Freycinet and his colleagues learnt "with
astonishment" that the authorities were unfavourable. "It was," he wrote,
"as if the miseries that we had endured, and to which a great number of
our companions had fallen victims, could be regarded as forming a
legitimate ground of reproach against us." It is more reasonable to
suppose that pressure of other business prevented Napoleon's ministers
from devoting much consideration to the subject. Men who have endured
hazards and hardships, and who return home after a long absence expecting
to be welcomed with acclaim, are disposed to feel snubbed and sore when
they find people not inclined to pay much attention to them. Remembering
the banquets and the plaudits that marked the despatch of the expedition,
those of its members who expected a demonstration may well have been
chilled by the small amount of notice they received. But the public as
well as the official mood was conceivably due rather to intense
concentration upon national affairs, during a period of amazing
transition, than to the prejudice which Freycinet's ruffled pride
suggested. "It would be difficult to explain," he wrote, "how, during the
voyage, there could have been formed concerning the expedition an opinion
so unfavourable, that even before our return the decision was arrived at
not to give any publicity to our works. The reception that we met with on
arriving in France showed the effects of such an unjust and painful
prejudice."* (* Preface to the 1824 edition of the Voyage de
Decouvertes.)

When Le Naturaliste arrived at Havre in the previous year, the Moniteur*
(* 14th Messidor, Revolutionary Year 10. (July 3, 1803).) gave an account
of the very large collection of specimens that she brought, and spoke
cordially of the work; and in the following month* (* 27th Thermidor,
Revolutionary Year 11. (August 15).) Napoleon's organ published a long
sketch of the course of the voyage up to the King Island stage, from
particulars contained in despatches and supplied by Hamelin. The earlier
arrival of Le Naturaliste had the effect, also, of taking the edge off
public interest. This may be counted as one of the causes of the rather
frigid reception accorded to Le Geographe.

The only fact that lends any colour to Freycinet's supposition of
prejudice, is that the Moniteur article of 27th Thermidor suggested a
certain unsatisfactoriness about the charts sent home by Baudin. His
communications clearly led the Government to believe that he had made
important discoveries on the south coast of Australia, but unfortunately
the rough drawings accompanying his descriptions did not enable official
experts to form an accurate opinion. He mentioned the two large gulfs,
but furnished no chart of them.* (* "Cette decouverte [i.e. of the gulfs]
du Capitaine Baudin est tres interessante en ce qu'elle completera la
reconnaissance de la cote sud de la Nouvelle Hollande qui est due
entierement a la France. On ne peut pas encore juger du degre
d'exactitude avec laquelle elle a ete faite, parce que le citoyen Baudin
n'a envoye qu'une partie de la carte qu'il en a dressee, et que cette
carte meme n'est qu'une premiere esquisse. Il y a jointe une carte qui
marque seulement sa route, avec les sondes le long de toute cette cote,
et il promet d'envoyer l'autre partie de la cote par la premiere occasion
qu'il trouvera." Moniteur, 27th Thermidor, Revolutionary Year 11.) The
reason for that was, of course, that at the time when Le Naturaliste left
for France Baudin had not penetrated the gulfs, and could have had no
representation of them to submit. The article also alluded to another
chart of part of the coast in the neighbourhood of Cape Leeuwin, as not
conveying much information.* (* It was "figuree assez grossierement et
sans details.") These statements are useful as enabling us to understand
why Baudin was so shy about showing his charts to Flinders. If they gave
little satisfaction to the writer of the Moniteur article, we can imagine
what a critic who had been over the ground himself would have thought
about them.

These considerations scarcely afford reason for inferring that the
Government had formed a prejudice against the work of the expedition
before making a complete examination of its records, though it is very
probable that dissatisfaction was expressed about the charts. Hamelin,
also, would be fairly certain to intimate privately what he knew to be
the case, that Flinders had been beforehand with the most important of
the discoveries. Indeed, the Moniteur article expressly mentioned that
when Baudin met Flinders, the latter had "pursued the coast from Cape
Leeuwin to the place of meeting." The information that the English
captain had accomplished so much, despite the fact that he had left
England months after Baudin sailed from France, was not calculated to
give pleasure to Ministers. It was to this feeling that Sir Joseph Banks
referred when, in writing to Flinders, he said that he had heard that the
French Government were not too well pleased with Baudin's work.* (*
Girard, writing in 1857, stated that rumours about Baudin's conduct,
circulated before the arrival of Le Geographe, induced the public to
believe that the expedition had been abortive, without useful results,
and that it was to the interest of the Government to forget all about it.
F. Peron, page 46. But Girard cites no authority for the statement, and
as he was not born in 1804, he is not himself an authoritative witness.
He merely repeated Freycinet's assertions.)

The distinguished men of science who stood at the head of the Institute
of France were best qualified to judge of the value of the work done; and
they at least spoke decisively in its praise. The collections brought
home by Le Naturaliste had included one hundred and eighty cases of
minerals and animals, four cases of dried plants, three large casks of
specimens of timber, two boxes of seeds, and sixty tubs of living
plants.* (* Moniteur, 14th Messidor, Revolutionary Year 11 (July 3,
1803).) On June 9, 1806, a Committee of the Institute, consisting of
Cuvier, Laplace, Bougainville, Fleurieu, and Lacepede, furnished a report
based upon an examination of the scientific specimens and the manuscript
of the first volume of the Voyage de Decouvertes, which, in the meantime,
had been written by Peron. They referred in terms of warm eulogy to the
industry which had collected more than one hundred thousand specimens; to
the new species discovered, estimated by the professors at the Musee at
two thousand five hundred; and to the care and skill displayed by Peron
in describing and classifying, a piece of work appealing with especial
force to the co-ordinating intelligence of Cuvier. They directed
attention to the observations made by the naturalist upon the British
colony at Port Jackson; and their language on this subject may be deemed
generous in view of the fact that England and France were then at war.
"M. Peron," reported the savants, "has applied himself particularly to
studying the details of that vast system of colonisation which is being
developed at once upon a great continent, upon innumerable islands, and
upon the wide ocean. His work in that respect should be of the greatest
interest for the philosopher and the statesman. Never, perhaps, did a
subject more interesting and more curious offer itself to the meditation
of either, than the colony of Botany Bay, so long misunderstood in
Europe."* (* The colony was not at Botany Bay, though the mistake was
common enough even in England. But the champion error on that subject was
that of Dumas, who, in Les Trois Mousquetaires, chapter 52--the period,
as "every schoolboy knows," of Cardinal Richelieu--represents Milady as
reflecting bitterly on her fate, and fearing that D'Artagnan would
transport her "to some loathsome Botany Bay," a century and a quarter
before Captain Cook discovered it! Dumas, however, was a law unto himself
in such matters.) Never, perhaps, was there a more shining example of the
powerful influence of laws and institutions upon the character of
individuals and peoples. To transform the most redoubtable highwaymen,
the most abandoned thieves of England, into honest and peaceable
citizens; to make laborious husbandmen of them; to effect the same
revolution in the characters of the vilest women; to force them, by
infallible methods, to become honest wives and excellent mothers of
families; to take the young and preserve them, by the most assiduous
care, from the contagion of their reprobate parents, and so to prepare a
generation more virtuous than that which it succeeds: such is the
touching spectacle that these new English colonies present."

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