Thus, for the second time, was a French navigator directed to explore
the southern coasts of Australia; and had Dentrecasteaux followed the
plan laid down for him he would have forestalled the discoveries of
Grant, Bass and Flinders, just as Laperouse would have done had his
work not been cut short by disaster.
It has to be remembered that the instructions impressed upon
Dentrecasteaux that his business primarily was not geographical
discovery, but to get news of his lost compatriots. But even so, is it
not curious that the French should have been concerned with the
exploration of Southern Australia before the English thought about it;
that they should have had two shots at the task, planned with knowledge
and care, officially directed, and in charge of eminently competent
navigators; but that nevertheless their schemes should have gone awry?
They made a third attempt by means of Baudin's expedition, during the
Napoleonic Consulate, and again were unsuccessful, except in a very
small measure. It almost seems as if some power behind human endeavours
had intended these coasts for British finding - and keeping.
The full story of Dentrecasteaux' expedition has not yet been told. Two
thick books were written about it, but a mass of unpublished
papers contain details that were judiciously kept out of those volumes.
When the whole truth is made known, it will be seen that the bitter
strife which plunged France in an agony of blood and tears was not
confined to the land.
The ships did not visit Sydney. Why not? It might have been expected
that an expedition sent to discover traces of Laperouse would have been
careful to make Botany Bay in the first instance, and, after collecting
whatever evidence was available there, would have carefully followed
the route that he had proposed to pursue. But it would seem that an
European settlement was avoided. Why? The unpublished papers may
furnish an answer to that question.
Neither was the south coast of Australia explored. That great chance
was missed. Some excellent charting - which ten years later commanded
the cordial admiration of Flinders - was done by Beautemps-Beaupre, who
was Dentrecasteaux' cartographer, especially round about the S.W.
corner of the continent. Esperance Bay, in Western Australia, is named
after one of the ships of this expedition. But from that corner, his
ships being short of fresh water, Dentrecasteaux sailed on a direct
line to Southern Tasmania, and thence to New Zealand, New Caledonia,
and New Guinea. Touch with the only European centre in these parts was
- apparently with deliberation - not obtained.
Dentrecasteaux died while his ships were in the waters to the
north of New Guinea. He fell violently ill, raving at first, then
subsiding into unconsciousness, a death terrible to read about in the
published narrative, where the full extent of his troubles is not
revealed.
