Part 7 (1/2)

The command of the expedition was entrusted to Captain Nicolas Baudin. He was fifty years of age when he received this commission, on the nomination of the Inst.i.tute. In his youth he had been engaged in the French mercantile marine. In later years he had commanded two expeditions, despatched under the Austrian flag, for botanical purposes.

From the last of these he returned in 1797, when, his country being at war with Austria, he presented the complete collection of animals and plants obtained to the French nation.* (* The Moniteur, 25th Prairial (June 13), 1797.) This timely act won him the friends.h.i.+p of Jussieu, and it was largely through his influence that ”Citoyen” Baudin was chosen to command the expedition to the Terres Australes.* (* The Moniteur, 23rd Floreal (May 13), 1800.) He had had no training in the Navy, though if, as some suppose, the expedition had a secret aggressive mission, we may reasonably conjecture that it would have been placed under the command of a naval officer with some amount of fighting experience.

That Baudin did not become popular with the staff under his command is apparent from the studious omission of his name from the volumes of Peron and Freycinet, and from their resentful references to ”notre chef.” They wrote not a single commendatory word about him throughout the book, and they expressed no syllable of regret when he died in the course of the voyage.

Sometimes we may judge of a man's reputation among his contemporaries by an anecdote, even when we doubt its truth; for men do not usually tell stories that disparage the capacity of those whom they respect. An amusing if venomous story about Baudin was told by the author of a narrative of one of the botanical voyages.* (* See the Naval Chronicle volume 14 page 103. The writer referred to was Bory de Saint-Vincent, who wrote the Voyage dans les quatre princ.i.p.ales iles des mers d'Afrique, Paris 1804.) He related, on the alleged authority of an officer, that, being in want of a magnetic needle to replace one belonging to a compa.s.s which had been injured, he applied to the commodore, who had several in a drawer in his cabin. Baudin found one, but as it was somewhat rusty, the officer feared that the magnetic properties of the steel would be impaired. Baudin expressed his regret, and said: ”Everything has been furnished by the Government in the most n.i.g.g.ardly fas.h.i.+on; if they had followed my advice we should have been provided with silver needles instead of steel ones!”

Whether or not we believe that a naval commander could be so ignorant of magnetism, it is certain that Baudin did not enforce the laws of health on his s.h.i.+ps. Sufficient has been said in the first chapter to show so much. The Consular Government gave unlimited scope for the proper provisioning of the vessels, and yet we find officers and men in a wretched condition, the water insufficient, and the food supplies in utter decay, before the expedition reached Port Jackson. It must be added, however--even out of its proper place, lest an unduly harsh impression of Baudin's character should be conveyed--that he seems to have made an excellent impression upon the English in Sydney. Governor King treated him as a friend; and the letter of farewell that he wrote on his departure was such a delicate specimen of grace and courtesy, that one would feel that only a gentleman could have written it, were there not too many instances to show that elegant manners and language towards strangers are not incompatible with the rough and inconsiderate treatment of subordinates.

CHAPTER 8. EXODUS OF THE EXPEDITION.

The pa.s.sports from the English Government.

Sailing of the expedition.

French interest in it.

The case of Ah Sam.

Baudin's obstinacy.

Short supplies.

The French s.h.i.+ps on the Western Australian coast.

The Ile Lucas and its name.

Refreshment at Timor.

The English frigate Virginia.

Baudin sails south.

Shortage of water.

The French in Tasmania.

Peron among the aboriginals.

The savage and the boat.

Among native women.

A question of colour.

Separation of the s.h.i.+ps by storm.

Baudin sails through Ba.s.s Strait, and meets Flinders.

Scurvy.

Great storms and intense suffering.

Le Geographe at Port Jackson.

England and France were at war when, in June 1800, application was made to the British Admiralty for pa.s.sports for the French discovery s.h.i.+ps.

Earlier in that year the Government of the Republic sent to London Louis Guillaume Otto, a diplomatist of experience and tried discretion, to arrange for the exchange of prisoners of war; and it was Otto, whose tact and probity won him the esteem of King George's advisers, who conducted the preliminary negotiations which led up to the Treaty of Amiens. Earl Spencer was First Lord of the Admiralty--in Pitt's administration (1783 to 1801)--when the application was made.

The Quarterly Review of August 1810 (volume 4 page 42) fell into a singular error in blaming Addington's administration for the issue of the pa.s.sports. Pitt's ministry did not fall till March 1801; and the censure which the reviewer levelled at the ”good-natured minister,” Earl St.

Vincent, who was Addington's First Lord of the Admiralty, for entertaining the French application, was therefore undeserved by him. ”A few months after the retirement of Mr. Pitt from office and the succession of Mr. Addington, that is to say, in June 1800,” are the opening words of the Quarterly article--an extraordinary blunder for a contemporary to make. The Quarterly was, of course, bitterly adverse to Addington's administration, in politics; but though party bias is responsible for strange behaviour, we shall be safe in attributing to lapse of memory this censure of a minister for the act of his predecessor. St. Vincent was in active service, as Admiral in command of the Channel Fleet, when the pa.s.sports were issued.

It cannot be a.s.sumed that Spencer would have complied with such a request from a nation with which his country was at war, had he not been satisfied that the expedition was what it professed to be, one for discovery and scientific research. The pa.s.sports granted guaranteed to Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste protection from hostile attack from British s.h.i.+ps, and bespoke for them a favourable reception in any British port out of Europe where they might have to seek shelter.