Baudin's Conduct, And That Of His Officers,
Never Suggested That Search For A Site For Settlement Was Part Of The
Mission of the expedition; and, in the face of the commodore's emphatic
denials, positive evidence, or a strong chain of
Facts to the contrary,
would have to be forthcoming before such a story could be entertained.
Suspicions were natural enough in face of the strained feelings, the
wars, the plots and counter-plots of diplomacy, Napoleon's menaced
invasion of England, and all the other factors that made for racial
animosity at the beginning of the nineteenth century; but viewing the
circumstances in the perspective made by the lapse of a hundred years,
cool judgment must dismiss the jealous alarms of 1802 as being unfounded.
Yet a patriotic Frenchman, as Peron was, could not witness this
remarkable growth of a new offshoot of British power in the South Seas
without regret and misgiving. "Doubtless," he commented on Robbins'
action, "that ceremony will appear silly to people who know little about
English polity; but for the statesman such formalities assume a much more
serious and important character. By these public and repeated
declarations England seems every day to fortify her pretensions, to
establish her rights, in a positive manner, and to devise pretexts to
repulse, even by force of arms, all other peoples who may wish to form
settlements in these distant countries." We shall not honour Peron the
less because he expressed an opinion so natural to a man solicitous for
his country's prestige.
It has been stated by one or two writers that the action of Robbins put
an end to the cordial relations which had previously existed between him
and the French. But that is an error. They had cause to be offended, but
the young man was treated with indulgence. Peron records that both Grimes
and Robbins visited the tents of the French after the flag incident, and
shared their frugal dinner; and Baudin informed King that, the Cumberland
having lost an anchor, his forge was at work for a whole day supplying
the wants of the British schooner - a service akin to heaping coals of
fire on the head of the zealous acting-lieutenant. At the same time,
other members of the French expedition experienced very kind treatment
from British fishermen. Faure, one of the scientific staff, was sent in a
small boat to complete a chart of the island. A violent storm compelled
him to go ashore on the western end, where he and his sailors were for
three days most hospitably entertained by sealers, who, on their
departure, forced upon them some of their finest furs as presents. "How
is it," comments Peron, "that such touching hospitality, of which voyages
offer so many examples, is nearly always exercised by men whose poverty
and roughness of character seem to impose such an obligation least upon
them. It seems that misfortune, rather than philosophy and brilliant
education, develops in mankind that noble and disinterested virtue which
induces us to minister to the woes of others."
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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 118 of 158
Words from 62192 to 62729
of 83218
