In December, General Decaen Agreed To Capitulate,
And Major-General Abercromby Took Possession Of The Island, Which Has
Ever Since Been A British Dependency.
It is unfortunate that the British
officers did not at this time remember that Decaen had kept Flinders'
third log-book.
He had written to Vice-Admiral Bertie from the Cape of
Good Hope, in July 1810, requesting that "if any occurrences should put
General Decaen within his power," he would demand the volume from him.
But the request was overlooked, "in the tumult of events," when the
capitulation took place.* (* Flinders, letter to the Admiralty, in
Historical Records of New South Wales 7 529.) It is, however, significant
of the honour in which naval men held the intrepid navigator, that after
the capitulation the British officers refused to dine with Decaen, on
account of his treatment of Flinders.* (* Souvenirs d'un vieux colon,
quoted by Prentout, page 660.) It was not the first time that gentlemen
wearing the naval uniform of England had refused to eat at his table.
On January 6, 1811, a French schooner was captured bearing despatches
from France. Amongst them was a despatch informing Decaen that Napoleon
had superseded him in the governorship.* (* Naval Chronicle volume 25
337.) Before he could obey the summons to France, the British had
captured the island and sent him home. It is scarcely likely that the
Emperor's order of recall was due to disapproval of Decaen's conduct in
continuing Flinders' imprisonment after the French Government had ordered
his release, although there is in existence a decree signed by Napoleon,
dated March 11, 1806, "authorising the Minister of Marine to restore his
ship to Captain Flinders of the English schooner Cumberland."* (* The
document is in the Archives Nationales, Paris (AP. 4 pl. 1260, n. 47).
The author is indebted for this fact to Dr. Charles Schmidt, the
archivist at the Archives Nationales, through the courtesy of Mr. F.M.
Bladen, of the Public Library, Sydney. Dr. Schmidt has also supplied the
information that this is "the only document concerning Captain Flinders
in our possession." "Concerning the voyages of Peron and Freycinet, I
have found nothing in the Archives," he adds.) As Flinders was not
released till July 1810, Decaen certainly did disregard the Emperor's
command for three years - from July 1807, when the decree was received by
him, though it is to be remembered that he restored the trunk of papers
in the very next month (August). But Napoleon had signified to Decaen's
aide-de-camp, Barois - who was sent to France in 1804 with special
instructions to mention the Flinders affair to the Emperor - that he
approved of what the general had done;* (* Prentout, page 393. "Napoleon
parut approuver les raisons que Barois invoquait pour justifier la
conduite de Decaen.") and Napoleon was scarcely likely to be gravely
concerned about the calamities of an English sea captain at that
particular time. It is true that between 1804 and the release, Sir Joseph
Banks and other influential men in the world of learning had been active
in urging the liberation of the navigator. The venerable Bougainville was
one of these. It is also true that Napoleon prided himself on his
interest in scientific work. But Decaen had been a good servant, placed
in a difficult situation, where there was much responsibility and little
glory to be won; and even if the Emperor had felt annoyed at the
disregard of orders, the matter did not affect his major lines of policy,
and Decaen was safe in reckoning that the Imperial displeasure would not
be severely displayed. But why he risked giving offence to Napoleon at
all by the disregard of orders, there is, it would seem, nothing in
Decaen's papers to show. M. Prentout, who has studied them carefully, is
driven back on the suggestion that the prolongation of the captivity was
due to "entetement" - stubbornness. But it cost the administration four
hundred and fifty francs per month to maintain Flinders,* (* Prentout,
page 382.) and it seems improbable, when the finances of the island were
difficult to adjust and severe economies were enforced, that Decaen, an
economical man, would have kept up this expense year after year,
disregarding alike the protests of the prisoner, the demands of Lord
Wellesley and Admiral Pellew, and later, the direct orders of the French
Government, unless some influence were at work and some practical
interest furnished a motive. The obstinacy of Decaen is not a sufficient
reason. We know, however, that it suited Freycinet very well to have
Flinders detained till he could get his own charts ready, and that his
atlas was precipitately published in the first instance. The connection
between these occurrences and Decaen's cruel perversity must, in the
absence of clear proof, be bridged by inference, if at all.
Napoleon was, however, a soldier after all - much else as well, but a
soldier first and foremost; and so was Decaen. When the general returned
to France, his Imperial master had urgent need for stern, stubborn,
fighting men of his type. He submitted to a court-martial* (* "Un conseil
d'enquete." Biographie Universelle 10 248.) in reference to the surrender
of Mauritius, but was exonerated. The discretion that he had exercised in
not obeying the decree for the liberation of Flinders was evidently not
made the ground of serious complaint against him, for in 1813 we find him
commanding the army of Catalonia, participating gallantly in the campaign
of the Pyrenees, and distinguishing himself at Barcelona under Marshal
Suchet. For this service he was made a Comte of the Empire. When Napoleon
was banished to Elba the Comte Decaen donned the white cockade, and took
service under Louis XVIII, but on the return of his old master he, like
Ney and some other of the tough warriors of the First Empire, forswore
his fidelity to the Bourbons. He was one of the generals left to guard
the southern frontiers of France while Napoleon played his last stake for
dominion in the terrific war game that ended with the cataclysm of
Waterloo.
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