He affirmed also that one of the French officers
had pointed out to him on a chart the very place where they intended to
settle. It was in what is now known as Frederick Henry Bay, in the south
of Tasmania.* (* Backhouse Walker, Early Tasmania page 15.)
The governor took prompt action. He at once fitted out the armed schooner
Cumberland - the vessel in which Flinders afterwards sailed to
Mauritius - and placed her under the command of Acting-Lieutenant Robbins.
She carried a company of seventeen persons in all, including the
Surveyor-General, Charles Grimes; for Robbins was also instructed to take
the schooner on to Port Phillip after finding the French, and to have a
complete survey made.
Robbins was directed to ascertain where the French ships were; to hand to
Baudin a letter, and to lay formal claim to the whole of Van Diemen's
Land for the British Crown; to erect the British flag wherever he landed;
and to sow seeds in anticipation of the needs of settlers, whom it was
intended to send in the Porpoise at a later date. It was a bold move, for
had Baudin's intentions been such as he was now suspected of
entertaining, the one hundred and seventy men under his command would
surely have had little difficulty in disposing of the handful whom young
Robbins led.
But no assertion of force was necessary at all, and one can hardly read
the letters and despatches bearing upon the incident without feeling that
the proceedings fairly lent themselves to the ridicule which the
nimble-witted French officers applied to them. Baudin and his people had
not gone to Frederick Henry Bay; they had not planted the tricolour
anywhere in Tasmania; they had not even called at any port in that
island. Instead, they were discovered quietly charting, catching insects,
and collecting plants at Sea Elephants Bay, on the east of King Island,
which, it will be remembered, they had missed on the former part of their
voyage.
But Acting-Lieutenant Robbins was young, and was surcharged with a sense
of the great responsibility cast upon him. A more experienced officer,
having delivered his message, might have waited quietly alongside the
French until they finished their work, and then seen them politely "off
the premises," so to speak; in which event Governor King's purpose would
have been fully served and no offence would have been given. But instead
of that, after lying at anchor beside Le Geographe for six days, on
friendly and even convivial terms with the French, Robbins landed with
his army of seventeen stalwarts, fastened the British flag to a tree over
the tents of the naturalists, had a volley fired by three marines - he was
doing the thing in style - and, calling for three cheers, which were
lustily given, formally asserted possession of King Island.
