If We Had Only The Baudin-King Correspondence, We Should
Think Him Not Unworthy To Be The Successor Of La Perouse And
Bougainville.
If we had only the Voyage de Decouvertes, we should think
him barely fit to command a canal barge.
It may not have been the
happiness of many navigators to enjoy the affection of those under them
to such an eminent degree as did Cook and Flinders; but there are
fortunately latitudes of difference between love and hate. Respect is
often felt to be due when deeper sentiments are not stimulated. The cold
chronicle that the honours appropriate to his rank were paid to Baudin at
his funeral seems very harsh; and one feels that Freycinet, at any rate,
whom Baudin had promoted to the command of the Casuarina, and furnished
with a chance of distinguishing himself, might have sunk his grievances
sufficiently to add a word in praise of at least some virtue which we may
hope that the dead captain possessed.
Baudin wrote a letter from King Island to Jussieu which indicated that
the experience had been an unhappy one for him.* (* The letter was
printed in the Moniteur, 22nd Fructidor, Revolutionary Year 11 (September
9, 1803). Baudin's death was recorded in the Moniteur on 13th Germinal,
Revolutionary Year 12 (April 3, 1804).) "I have never made so painful a
voyage," he said. "More than once my health has been impaired, but if I
can terminate the expedition conformably to the intentions of the
Government and to the satisfaction of the French nation, there will
remain little to desire, and my sufferings will soon be forgotten." To a
very large extent Baudin must be held responsible for the misfortunes and
failures attending his command, but it is an act of justice to clear him
from aspersions that have been made upon him for things that occurred
after his death. He had nothing whatever to do with the imprisonment of
Flinders, for which he has been blamed by writers who have not looked
into the literature of the subject sufficiently to be aware that he was
dead at the time; nor was he in any way connected with the issue of the
Terre Napoleon maps, with which his name has also been associated.
General Decaen, Napoleon's newly appointed governor, arrived at the
island eight days after Le Geographe, and at once began to administer
affairs upon new lines of policy. A little later the French admiral,
Linois, with a fleet of frigates, entered port. On the death of Baudin,
Linois directed that the Casuarina should be dismantled, and appointed
Captain Milius to the command of Le Geographe, with instructions to take
her home as soon as her sick crew recovered and she had been
revictualled. Peron, as has already been explained, had some conversation
with Decaen, imparting to him the conclusion he had formulated relative
to the secret intentions of the British for the augmentation of their
possessions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans; but there is no record that
Decaen saw Baudin, who was probably too ill to attend to affairs in the
period between the general's arrival and his own death. It is hardly
likely that Baudin, who, from his intimacy with King, knew more about
British policy than the naturalist did, would have supported Peron's
excited fancies.
Le Geographe sailed from Mauritius on December 15, and reached Europe
without the occurrence of any further incidents calling for comment. She
entered the port of Lorient on March 24, 1804. Captain Milius decided not
to make for Havre, whence the expedition had sailed in 1800, in
consequence of what had happened to Le Naturaliste on her return to
Europe in the previous year. War was declared by the British Government
against France in May, and every captain in King George's navy was alert
and eager to get in a blow upon the enemy. The frigate Minerva, Captain
Charles Buller, sighted Le Naturaliste in the Channel, stopped her, and
insisted, despite her passport, on taking her into Portsmouth. She was
detained there from May 27 till June 6, when the Admiralty, being
informed of what had occurred, ordered her immediate release. She left
Portsmouth and arrived at Havre on the same day, June 6, 1803.
Perhaps nothing can convey more effectually the utter weariness and
depression of officers, staff, and crew, than the language in which
Freycinet chronicled the return. It might be supposed, he wrote, that the
end of the voyage would be heralded with joy. But they were themselves
surprised to find that they were but slightly touched with pleasure at
seeing again the shores of their own country after so long an absence.
"It might be said that the very sight of our ship, recalling too strongly
the sufferings of which we had been the victims, poisoned all our
affections. It was not until we were far away from the coast that our
souls could expand to sentiments of happiness which had been so long
strangers to us."
This, surely, was not the language of men who believed that they had
accomplished things for which the world would hold them in honour. It was
not the language of triumphant discoverers, whose good fortune it had
been to reveal unknown coasts, and to finish that complete map of the
continents which had been so long a-making. Would it, one wonders, have
made Freycinet a little happier had he known that at this very time the
English navigator who had made the discoveries for which Baudin's
expedition was sent out, was held in the clutch of General Decaen in
Mauritius, and that the way was clear to hurry on the publication of
forestalling maps and records whilst Flinders was, as it were, battened
under hatches?
CHAPTER 11. RESULTS.
Establishment of the First Empire.
Reluctance of the French Government to publish a record of the
expedition.
Report of the Institute.
The official history of the voyage authorised.
Peron's scientific work.
His discovery of Pyrosoma atlanticum.
Other scientific memoirs.
His views on the modification of species.
Geographical results.
Freycinet's charts.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 82
Words from 67708 to 68721
of 83218
