Le Naturaliste sailed for Europe from King Island on December 8, carrying
with her all the plants and natural history specimens collected up to
date, as well as the charts. The collections were, as King wrote to Sir
Joseph Banks, "immense."* (* Historical Records 4 844.) Le Geographe and
the Casuarina left on December 27, and sailed direct for Kangaroo Island,
to resume in that neighbourhood the charting which Baudin had abandoned
in the previous year. They did not, as the logs show, make any attempt to
examine Port Phillip. Robbins and his seventeen guardians of British
rights on the Cumberland remained for some time longer making a thorough
examination; after which they sailed for Port Phillip, and Grimes made
the first complete survey of that great sheet of water.
It is only necessary to add that King reported to the Admiralty his
approval of Robbins' action, and that to "make the French commander
acquainted with my intention of settling Van Diemen's Land was all I
sought by this voyage." But it is obvious from a letter which he wrote to
Banks, after Baudin's death, and after his soul had been moved to
righteous wrath by the iniquitous treatment of Flinders - whom he so
warmly admired and so loyally aided - that suspicion, once implanted in
King's mind, was not eradicated by explicit disavowals. Had Baudin lived
another year, he said, "I think it very possible that the commodore would
most likely have visited the colony for the purpose of annihilating the
settlement." But surely here, if ever, the lines were applicable:
"In the night imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!"
Baudin, after his remarkable exploits in 1800 to 1804, was the last man
whom Napoleon would have chosen to try to annihilate a British settlement
anywhere. Rather, in such an unlikely event, would his own crew have been
in danger of annihilation from his methods.
CHAPTER 10. RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION.
Le Geographe sails for Kangaroo Island.
Exploration of the two gulfs in the Casuarina by Freycinet.
Baudin's erratic behaviour.
Port Lincoln.
Peron among the giants.
A painful excursion.
Second visit to Timor.
Abandonment of north coast exploration.
Baudin resolves to return home.
Voyage to Mauritius.
Death of Baudin.
Treatment of him by Peron and Freycinet.
Return of Le Geographe.
Depression of the staff and crew.
Le Geographe sighted Kangaroo Island on January 2, and anchored on the
6th in Nepean Bay on the eastern side. The Casuarina joined her consort
on the following day.
Freycinet, who was in command of the smaller vessel, was instructed to
make a complete survey of the two gulfs named by the French after
Bonaparte and Josephine, and by Flinders, their discoverer, after Lord
Spencer and Lord St. Vincent, who were First Lords of the Admiralty when
his own expedition was authorised and when it sailed from England.
The Casuarina was provisioned for twenty-six days for this task, and
Freycinet took with him Boullanger, one of the hydrographers, who
prepared the charts under his supervision. No part of the French work was
better done than was the charting of the two gulfs and Kangaroo Island,
and, as previously indicated, its quality very naturally aroused the
suspicion that the improvement owed something to the charts of Flinders.
It has been shown, however, that this was not the case. Of Boullanger's
training and qualifications nothing can be said, except that it may be
presumed that the Committee of the Institute of France which selected
him, comprising two such experts as Bougainville and Fleurieu, must have
been satisfied of his attainments. Much of his work was certainly done
under severe trials and difficulties, but it is chiefly significant that
the improvement in the charting synchronises with the presence in command
of Freycinet; and allusion may again be made to the beautiful work done
by this officer when he commanded the Uranie and the Physicienne a few
years later, as showing his deep interest and practical skill in
employment of this class.
There can be no doubt that the work would have been better done
throughout had Captain Baudin been a more sympathetic commander. To what
extent the deficiencies of the French charts of the remainder of the
Terre Napoleon coasts are attributable to his failure to appreciate the
requirements of his scientific staff, can be conjectured; but the
peremptory manner in which he allotted so many days and no more for the
survey of the gulfs, and then sailed off leaving the Casuarina to shift
for herself, reveals an extraordinary temper in a commander on such
service, as well as a fatuous disregard of the many hindrances that made
rigid time conditions difficult to observe.
Flinders had occupied forty days in his exploration of the two
gulfs - from February 21 to April 1, 1802. Freycinet occupied only
twenty-one days in traversing precisely the same extent of
coast-line - from January 11 to February 1, 1803. Flinders had settled the
question as to whether there was a passage through the continent to the
Gulf of Carpentaria, and Freycinet and Baudin were by this time aware
that no important discovery of this character was to be expected. But the
navigation was perilous, the risks were unknown, and Freycinet should
have been able to pursue his task unhampered by the fear that if
circumstances compelled him to over-stay his time for a day or two, he
would be abandoned in a small vessel without provisions for more than his
narrowly prescribed period. "But the character of our chief was known."
"Quite sure of being pitilessly abandoned in case of delay," Freycinet
made haste to return to Nepean Bay at the end of the month.
