Details the harsh and rude, but concise style of a seaman;
and will well perform his task in supplying my place and publishing the
work as I would have done it myself."
That letter is a rather singular effect of Laperouse's study of Cook,
which might be illustrated by further examples. The influence of the
great English sailor is the more remarkable when we remember that there
had been early French navigators to the South Seas before Laperouse.
There was the elder Bougainville, the discoverer of the
Navigator Islands; there was Marion-Dufresne, who was killed and eaten
by Maoris in 1772; there was Surville - to mention only three.
Laperouse knew of them, and mentioned them. But they had little to
teach him. In short and in truth, he belonged to the school of Cook,
and that is an excellent reason why English and especially Australian
people should have an especial regard for him.
The disastrous end of Laperouse's expedition before he had completed
his task prevented him from adequately realising his possibilities as a
discoverer. As pointed out in the preceding pages, if he had completed
his voyage, he would in all probability have found the southern coasts
of Australia in 1788. But the work that he actually did is not without
importance; and he unquestionably possessed the true spirit of the
explorer. When he entered upon this phase of his career he was a
thoroughly experienced seaman. He was widely read in voyaging
literature, intellectually well endowed, alert-minded, eager,
courageous, and vigorous. The French nation has had no greater sailor
than Laperouse.
De Lesseps, the companion of his voyage as far as Kamchatka, has left a
brief but striking characterisation of him. "He was," says this
witness, "an accomplished gentleman, perfectly urbane and full of wit,
and possessed of those charming manners which pertained to the
eighteenth century. He was always agreeable in his relations with
subordinates and officers alike." The same writer tells us that
when Louis XVI gave him the command of the expedition he had the
reputation of being the ablest seaman in the French navy.
Certainly he was no common man to whose memory stands that tall
monument at Botany Bay. It was erected at the cost of the French
Government by the Baron de Bougainville, in 1825, and serves not only
as a reminder of a fine character and a full, rich and manly life, but
of a series of historical events that are of capital consequence in the
exploration and occupation of Australia.
It will be appropriate to conclude this brief biography with a tribute
to the French navigator from the pen of an English poet.
