Treatment of the expedition by the governing authorities, their
suspicions as to its motives, and the consequences which arose therefrom.
(* Curiously enough, there was another Peron who visited Port Jackson in
a French ship in 1796, and gave an interesting account of it in a book
which he wrote - Memoires du Capitaine Peron, two volumes Paris 1824. But
the two men were not related. The nautical Captain Peron was born at
Brest in 1769.)
Apart from Peron's writings, we have a considerable body of documentary
material, in the form of letters and despatches, which must be
considered. We cannot complain of an insufficiency of evidence. It covers
the transactions with amplitude; it reveals purposes fully; the story is
clear.
What Peron saw of the infant settlement filled him with amazement and
admiration. "How could we fail to be surprised at the state of that
interesting and flourishing colony," cried the naturalist. It was only so
recently as January 26, 1788, that Captain Arthur Phillip had entered the
commodious and beautiful harbour which is not eclipsed by any on the
planet. Yet the French found there plentiful evidences of prosperity and
comfort, and of that adaptable energy which lies at the root of all
British success in colonisation. Master Thorne, in the sixteenth century,
expressed the resolute spirit of that energy in a phrase: "There is no
land uninhabitable, nor sea innavigable"; and in every part of the globe
this British spirit has applied itself to many a land that looked
hopeless at first, and has frequently found it to be one:
"whose rich feet are mines of gold,
Whose forehead knocks against the roof of stars."
We need hardly concern ourselves with Peron's survey of the
administrative system, social factors, education, commerce, agriculture,
fisheries,, finance, and political prospects, valuable as these are for
the student of Australian history. Nor would it further our purpose to
extract at length his views on the reformative efficacy of the convict
system, as to which he was certainly over sanguine. The benevolent
naturalist dealt with the convicts in the next paragraph but one from
that in which he had described the growing wool trade; and it would
almost seem that observations which he had intended to make relative to
sheep and lambs had by chance strayed amongst the enthusiastic sentences
in which he related how transportation humanised criminals. "All these
unfortunates, lately the refuse and shame of their country, have become
by the most inconceivable of metamorphoses, laborious cultivators, happy
and peaceful citizens"; "nowhere does one hear of thieves and murderers";
"the most perfect security prevails throughout the colony"; "redoubtable
brigands, who were so long the terror of the Government of their country,
and were repulsed from the breast of European society, have, under
happier influences, cast aside their anti-social manners"; and so forth.
On this subject Peron is by no means a witness whom the sociologist can
trust; though it should not escape notice that the generous temper in
which he described what he saw of the convict system in operation, and
his view of it as a noble experiment in reformation, indicate his desire
to appraise sympathetically the uses to which the British were putting
their magnificent possessions in the South Seas.
Captain Baudin's impressions of the young colony, contained in his letter
to Jussieu,* (* Moniteur, 22nd Fructidor, Revolutionary Year 11.
(September 9, 1803).) are also interesting, and may with advantage be
quoted, as they appear to have escaped the attention of previous writers.
"I could not regard without admiration," he wrote, "the immense work that
the English have done during the twelve years that they have been
established at Port Jackson. Although it is true that they commenced with
large resources ["grands moyens"; but, indeed, they did not!] and
incurred great expenditure, it is nevertheless difficult to conceive how
they have so speedily attained to the state of splendour and comfort in
which they now find themselves. It is true that Nature has done much for
them in the beauty and security of the harbour upon which their principal
establishment is erected; but the nature of the soil in the vicinity has
compelled them to penetrate the interior of the country to find land
suitable for the various crops which abundantly furnish them with the
means of subsistence, and enable them to supply the wants of the European
vessels which the fisheries and commerce attract to this port."
The French visitors were far more genial in their view of the affairs of
the colony than many British writers have been. It was concerning this
very period that Dr. Lang said that the population consisted, apart from
convicts, "chiefly of those who sold rum and those who drank it."
The reader must not, however, be hurried away from the subject of the
convict population without the pleasure of an introduction to a
delightful rascal, under sentence for forgery, with whom Peron had an
interview. The ironical humour of the passage will lighten a page; and
the plausible character revealed in it might have escaped from a comedy
of Moliere. Morand was his name, and his crime - "son seul crime," wrote
Peron in italics - was in having "wished to associate himself with the
Bank of England without having an account there."
Morand shall be permitted to tell, in his own bland, ingenuous way, how,
like a patriot, he tried to achieve financially what Bonaparte failed to
do by military genius; and doubtless in after years he reflected that if
his own efforts brought him to Sydney Cove, Napoleon's landed him at St.
Helena.
"The war," said Morand, "broke out between Great Britain and France; the
forces of the two nations were grappling; but it appeared to me to be
easier to destroy our rival by finance than by arms.
