"Apres Avoir Converse Plus D'une Heure Avec Nous." But His
Testimony In This, As In Several Other Respects, Is Not Reliable.
Baudin
wrote no detailed account of the conversations, nor did Brown; but
Flinders related what occurred with the minute care that was habitual
with him.
Peron's evidence is at best second-hand, and he supplemented it
with such information as could be elicited by "pumping" the sailors in
Flinders' boat.* (* "Nous apprimes toutefois par quelques-uns de ses
matelots qu'il avoit eu beaucoup a souffrir de ces memes vents de la
partie du Sud qui nous avoient ete si favorables." The boatmen were not
questioned by Peron himself, who at this time could not speak English
(Freycinet, Voyage de Decouvertes 2 Preface page 17). Freycinet admits
that Peron was not present at the interviews, but says that Baudin
related what took place with "more or less exactitude." But as Freycinet
was not present himself either at the interviews or on the ship when
Baudin related what occurred, how could he know that the version of the
commander - at whom, after Baudin's death, he never missed an opportunity
of sneering - was merely "more or less" exact?) Even then he blundered,
for some of the things stated by him were not only contrary to fact, but
could not have been ascertained from Baudin, from Flinders, or from the
sailors.
Peron stated, for example, that Flinders said that he had been
accompanied from England by a second vessel, which had become separated
from him by a violent tempest. There had been no second vessel, and
Flinders could have made no such assertion. Again, Peron wrote that
Flinders said that, hindered by contrary winds, he had not been able to
penetrate behind the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, in Nuyts
Archipelago. Flinders made no such absurd statement. He had followed the
coast behind those islands with the utmost particularity. His track, with
soundings, is shown on his large chart of the section.* (* On this
statement the Quarterly reviewer of 1810 bluntly wrote: "Now, we will
venture not only to assert that all this is a direct falsehood (for we
have seen both the journal and charts of Captain Flinders, which are
fortunately arrived safe in this country), but also to pledge ourselves
that no such observations are to be found either in Captain Baudin's
journal or in the logbook of the Geographe." Quarterly Review 4 52. It
was a good guess. No such observation is contained in the printed log of
Le Geographe.) Once more, Peron stated that Flinders said that he had
lost a boat and eight men in the same gale as had endangered the French
ships in Bass Strait. Flinders had lost John Thistle, an officer to whom
he was deeply attached, and a crew of eight men off Cape Catastrophe, but
the incident occurred during a sudden squall. Moreover, Thistle and his
companions were drowned on February 21, whilst the storm in the
Strait - as Baudin told Flinders - occurred exactly a month later.
When Flinders got on board Le Geographe, he was received by an officer,
of whom he inquired for the commander. Baudin was pointed out to him, and
conducted him and Brown into the captain's cabin. Flinders then
"requested Baudin to show me his passport from the Admiralty, and when it
was found, and I had perused it, I offered him mine from the French
marine minister, but he put it back without inspection." The incident
serves to remind us that both commanders believed their nations to be at
war at this time. As a matter of fact, just a fortnight before the
meeting in Encounter Bay, diplomacy had patched up the brittle truce
ironically known as the Peace of Amiens (March 25). But neither Flinders
nor Baudin could have known that there was even a prospect of the
cessation of hostilities. Europe, when they last had touch of its
affairs, was still clanging with battle and warlike preparations, and the
red star of the Corsican had not yet reached its zenith. Baudin's
readiness to produce his own passport when "requested" - in a style prompt
if not peremptory, it would seem - and his indifference about that of the
English commander, should be noted as the first of a series of facts
which establish the purely peaceful character of the French expedition.
Baudin talked freely about the work upon which he had been engaged in
Tasmanian waters. Flinders inquired concerning a large island said to lie
in the western entrance of Bass Strait - that is, King Island - but Baudin
"had not seen it and seemed to doubt much of its existence." As a matter
of fact, Le Geographe had sailed quite close to the island, as indicated
on the track-chart showing her course, and that it should have been
missed indicated that the look-out was not very vigilant. Curiously
enough, too, Baudin marked down on his chart, presumably as the result of
this inquiry of Flinders, an island "believed to exist," but he put it in
the wrong place.
An incident that appealed to Flinders' dry sense of humour occurred in
reference to a chart of Bass Strait which Baudin had with him. This chart
was one which had been drawn from George Bass's sketch by Flinders
himself, and incorporated with his own more scientific chart of the north
coast of Tasmania and the adjacent islands. Bass had traversed, in his
whale-boat, the southern coast of Victoria as far as Westernport, but not
being a surveyor he had furnished only a rough outline of the lay of the
shore. Up to this time Baudin had not inquired the name of the commander
of the Investigator, and it was from not knowing to whom he was talking
that he fell into a blunder which the politeness, native to a French
gentleman, would certainly have made him wish to avoid. He began to
criticise the chart, finding great fault with the north side, but
commending the drawing of the south - that is, of northern Tasmania and
the islands near it.
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