1806. Death of William Pitt.
1807. Publication of first volume of Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres
Australes, with first atlas.
1810. (July) Liberation of Flinders.
(October) Mauritius blockaded by the British.
(December) Capitulation of Mauritius; death of Peron.
1810. Napoleon marries Marie Louise.
1811. Second part of French atlas published.
1812. Publication of Freycinet atlas of charts.
1812. The retreat from Moscow.
British Naval War with U.S.A.
1814. Publication of Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis; death of
Flinders (July).
1814. Abdication of Napoleon.
1815. Publication of volume 3 of Voyage de Decouvertes.
1815. Battle of Waterloo.
1816. Publication of volume 2 of Voyage de Decouvertes, with revised map
of Australia.
1821. Death of Napoleon.
1826. Westernport Settlement projected and abandoned.
1829. Foundation of Western Australia.
1832. Death of Decaen.
1832. English Reform Bill.
1835. Batman finds site of Melbourne.
1836. Foundation of South Australia.
1837. City of Melbourne founded.
1837. Accession of Queen Victoria.
1851. Colony of Victoria established.
1851. Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat.
1853. French annexation of New Caledonia.
1854. Crimean War.
1859. Colony of Queensland established.
1860. Lincoln, President of the United States.
TERRE NAPOLEON.
INTRODUCTION.
PART 1.
A continent with a record of unruffled peace.
Causes of this variation from the usual course of history.
English and French colonisation during the Napoleonic wars.
The height of the Napoleonic empire and the entire loss of the French
colonies.
The British colonial situation during the same period.
The colony at Port Jackson in 1800.
Its defencelessness.
The French squadron in the Indian Ocean.
Rear-Admiral Linois.
The audacious exploit of Commodore Dance, and Napoleon's direction to
"take Port Jackson" in 1810.
Australia is the only considerable portion of the world which has enjoyed
the blessed record of unruffled peace. On every other continent, in
nearly every other island large in area, "war's red ruin writ in flame"
has wrought its havoc, leaving evidences in many a twinging cicatrice.
Invasion, rebellion, and civil war constitute enormous elements in the
chronicles of nations; and Shelley wrote that the study of history,
though too important to be neglected, was "hateful and disgusting to my
very soul," because he found in it little more than a "record of crimes
and miseries." A map of the globe, coloured crimson as to those countries
where blood has flowed in armed conflicts between men, would present a
circling splash of red; but the vast island which is balanced on the
Tropic of Capricorn, and spreads her bulk from the tenth parallel of
south latitude to "the roaring forties," would show up white in the
spacious diagram of carnage. No foreign foe has menaced her thrifty
progress since the British planted themselves at Port Jackson in 1788;
nor have any internal broils of serious importance interrupted her
prosperous career.
This striking variation from the common fate of peoples is attributable
to three causes. First, the development of a British civilisation in
Australia has synchronised with the attainment and unimpaired maintenance
of dominant sea-power by the parent nation.
