Terre Napoleon-a History of French Explorations Part 10

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 pa.s.sage 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 circ.u.mstances 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p 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 ash.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sion 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 fas.h.i.+onable 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 ash.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+elds, who ran at a furious pace, brandis.h.i.+ng their weapons and giving utterance to fearful yells.

"However extravagant these a.s.sertions 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 s.h.i.+p 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 ash.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+p's supply having been depleted--to run the risk of an excursion on his own account; whereupon Pet.i.t, 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, Pet.i.t, had been "plein de terreur" when the blacks first made their appearance, put on a bold front and marched forward "avec a.s.surance 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, Pet.i.t, 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 pa.s.sage he had read in Cook's voyages about the reviving effect of a plunge in sea-water; and he and Pet.i.t tried it by wading in up to their necks. They a.s.sisted 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 compa.s.sion, from the commandant. But Baudin's view was censorious. Three times during the evening a gun had been fired from the s.h.i.+p as a signal to the boat to return. The officer in charge of the sh.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 refres.h.i.+ng his men and taking in supplies at the Dutch settlement, to spend some time in the Gulf of Carpentaria and along the southern sh.o.r.es 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 s.h.i.+p'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 Ba.s.s Strait on the south, Flinders was the first sailor to accomplish the circ.u.mnavigation of Australia, as he had also been the first to circ.u.mnavigate 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 circ.u.mnavigation of the whole of New Holland; but he did not sight Australia, and as, of course, he did not go near Ba.s.s Strait, he did not circ.u.mnavigate the continent proper.)

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 superst.i.tious 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 finis.h.i.+ng 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 circ.u.mstances, would have taken the shorter route, regardless of normal conditions, and would have lost his s.h.i.+p.

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--circ.u.mstances compelled the commander to review his position and prospects in a serious light. Once more the supply of water was running short. The s.h.i.+ps 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 ash.o.r.e 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 Inst.i.tute 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.sisted at the funeral, which was also attended by the princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sage 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 ma.n.u.script 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 ca.n.a.l 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 lat.i.tudes 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 distinguis.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.sociated.

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 pa.s.sport, 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 sh.o.r.es of their own country after so long an absence.

"It might be said that the very sight of our s.h.i.+p, 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 Inst.i.tute.

The official history of the voyage authorised.

Peron's scientific work.

His discovery of Pyrosoma atlantic.u.m.

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 Inst.i.tute 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 const.i.tution 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 ill.u.s.trious 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, b.u.t.terflies, and plants, specimens of rocks and quant.i.ties of sh.e.l.ls.

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 hards.h.i.+ps, 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'exact.i.tude 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 a.s.sez 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 a.s.sertions.)

The distinguished men of science who stood at the head of the Inst.i.tute 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 Inst.i.tute, consisting of Cuvier, Laplace, Bougainville, Fleurieu, and Lacepede, furnished a report based upon an examination of the scientific specimens and the ma.n.u.script 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 cla.s.sifying, 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 s.h.i.+ning example of the powerful influence of laws and inst.i.tutions 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 a.s.siduous 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."

The pa.s.sage may be compared with Peron's own observations on the same subject, given in Chapter 9. A more erroneous view of the effects of convict colonisation could hardly have been conveyed; but the paragraph may have been written to catch the eye of Napoleon, who was a strong believer in transportation as a remedial punishment for serious crime, and had spoken in favour of it in the Council of State during the discussions on the Civil Code.* (* See Thibaudeau, Memoires sur le Consulat, English edition, translated by G.K. Fortescue, LL.D., London 1908 page 180. Transportation, said Napoleon, "is in accord with public opinion, and is prescribed by humane considerations. The need for it is so obvious that we should provide for it at once in the Civil Code. We have now in our prisons six thousand persons who are doing nothing, who cost a great deal of money, and who are always escaping. There are thirty to forty highwaymen in the south who are ready to surrender to justice on condition that they are transported. Certainly we ought to settle the question now, while we have it in our minds. Transportation is imprisonment, certainly, but in a cell more than thirty feet square." The highwaymen mentioned by Bonaparte must have been remarkable persons. It was so like highwaymen to wish to be arrested! Perhaps there were also birds in the south who were willing to be caught on condition that salt was put on their tails.)