Not Only Abel Tasman, The Discoverer
(1642), But The French Explorers, Marion-Dufresne (1772) And
Dentrecasteaux (1791), And The English
Navigators, Cook, Furneaux, Cox,
and Bligh, had visited it.* (* See Backhouse Walker, Early Tasmania,
published by the Royal Society of
Tasmania, Hobart 1902.) But as yet the
European had merely landed for fresh water, or had explored the south
coast very slightly as a matter of curiosity, and the aboriginal race was
still in unchallenged possession. Had Baudin been furnished with
instructions to look for a place for French settlement, very little
diligence and perspicacity would have enabled him to fix upon a spot
suitable to the point of perfection before the English at Port Jackson
knew of his whereabouts in these seas at all. 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. Though he lacked the large grasp, the fertile
suggestiveness, of great scientific travellers like Humboldt, Darwin, and
Alfred Russel Wallace, he was curious, well informed, industrious, and
sympathetic; and as he was the first trained anthropologist to enter into
personal relations with the Tasmanian blacks - a race now become extinct
under the shrivelling touch of European civilisation - his writings
concerning them have great value, quite apart from the pleasure with
which they may be read. A couple of pages describing Peron's first
meeting with the aboriginals when out looking for water, and the
amazement of the savages on encountering the whites - an incident given
with delightful humour, and at the same time showing close and careful
observation - will be likely to be welcomed by the reader.
"In pursuing our route we came to a little cove, at the bottom of which
appeared a pretty valley, which seemed to offer the prospect of finding
sweet water. That consideration decided M. H. Freycinet to land there. We
had scarcely put foot upon the shore, when two natives made their
appearance upon the peak of a neighbouring hill. In response to the signs
of friendship that we made to them, one of them leapt, rather than
climbed, from the height of the rock, and was in the midst of us in the
twinkling of an eye. He was a young man of from twenty-two to twenty-four
years of age, of generally strong build, having no other physical fault
than the extreme slenderness of legs and arms that is characteristic of
his race. His face had nothing ferocious or forbidding about its
expression; his eyes were lively and intelligent, and his manner
expressed at once good feeling and surprise. M. Freycinet having embraced
him, I did the same; but from the air of indifference with which he
received this evidence of our interest, it was easy to perceive that this
kind of reception had no signification for him. What appeared to affect
him more, was the whiteness of our skin. Wishing to assure himself,
doubtless, if our bodies were the same colour all over, he lifted up
successively our waistcoats and our shirts; and his astonishment
manifested itself in loud cries of surprise, and above all in an
extremely rapid stamping of the feet.
"But our boat appeared to interest him even more than our persons; and
after he had examined us for some minutes, he sprang into it. There,
without troubling himself at all about the sailors whom he found in it,
he appeared as if absorbed in his examination of the novelty. The
thickness of the planks, the curves, the rudder, the oars, the masts, the
sails - all these he observed with that silent and profound attention
which are the unquestionable signs of a deep interest and a reflective
admiration. just then, one of the boatmen, wishing doubtless to increase
his surprise, handed him a glass bottle filled with the arack which
formed part of the provisions of our search party. The shining of the
glass at first evoked a cry of astonishment from the savage, who took the
bottle and examined it for some moments. But soon, his curiosity
returning to the boat, he threw the bottle into the sea, without
appearing to have any other intention than that of getting rid of an
object to which he was indifferent; and at once resumed his examination.
Neither the cries of the sailor, who was concerned with the loss of the
bottle of arack, nor the promptness of one of his comrades to jump into
the water to recover it, appeared to concern him.
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