He Might Have Planted The
Tricolour Under The Shadow Of Mount Wellington, On The Site Of Hobart,
And Furnished It From His Ships With The Requisites For Endurance Till He
Could Speed To The Isle Of France And Bring Out The Means Of Establishing
A Stable Settlement.
But though the geographical work done in this region
was important and of good quality - Freycinet being on the spot - it does
not appear that any investigations were made beyond those natural to a
scientific expedition, and certainly no steps were taken by Baudin to
assert possessive rights.
Yet there was no part of Australia as to which
the French could have made out stronger claims on moral grounds; for
though the voyage of the first French navigator who landed in Tasmania
was one hundred and thirty years later than Abel Tasman's discovery,
still it was a solid fact that both Marion-Dufresne and Dentrecasteaux
had contributed more than any other Europeans had done to a knowledge of
what Tasmania was, until Flinders and Bass in their dancing little 25 ton
sloop put an end to mystery and misconception, and placed the charming
island fairly for what it was on the map of the world.
Baudin's ships rounded South-East Cape on January 13 (1802), and sailed
up Dentrecasteaux Channel into Port Cygnet. Peron found plenty to
interest him in the fauna of this strange land, and above all in the
aboriginals with whom he was able to come in contact. His chapters on the
three months' stay in southern and eastern Tasmania are full of pleasant
passages, for the naturalist had a pretty talent for descriptive writing,
was pleased with the novel things he saw, and communicated his pleasure
to his pages.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 182 of 299
Words from 50402 to 50691
of 83218
