Baudin and the Bees (3)

One of those areas of contention was the Caribbean, a place so important to the King that he was prepared to give up his Canadian assets to maintain his hold on this collection of islands. And, strange as it may seem, it was from these islands that a woman came who was to have a huge influence on the future direction of France including the capture, propagation and distribution of flora and fauna from all around the world but especially from Australia.

From our Anglo-centric perspective it is perhaps difficult to comprehend that the French and not the English did more to propagate information about the new flora from the other side of the world. Étienne Pierre Ventenat’s, Jardin de La Malmaison was first published in 1803, and Labillardiere’s, Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen published in 1807 was the first publication to describe and illustrate the flora of Australia. While Banks had spent thousands of pounds of his own money having engravings made from Sydney Parkinson’s sketches and paintings from Cook’s first voyage these were not published until the 1980’s as Banks' Florilegium[1]

The Tasmanian Blue Gum, Eucalyptus globulus was named by Labillardiere and it was also a Frenchman named Charles Louis L’Héritier who identified and named the species Eucalyptus from a specimen of Eucalyptus obliqua held at the Natural History Museum in London.

But I get ahead of myself.

While Bruni D’Entreasteaux’s explicit instructions were to search for the lost La Perouse he would have been aware of the writings of de Brosses, Buffon, Rousseau and Voltaire and the French government who approved Bougainville’s secret settlement plans in 1764[2] would undoubtedly have advised him to be on the lookout for potential areas for settlement.

His unexpected discovery of the area around Recherche Bay and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel are well documented. What is less well known is that the gardener on his expedition, Felix Delahaye, the man who planted the so called “French Garden”, and who, together with Jacques Labillardiere, during their five week visit, collected, ‘…some 5000 specimens comprising thirty genera and about 100 new species.’[3] He was later to propagate and care for many of these same plants in the garden of the woman from Martinique.

The botanist Labillardiere with the assistance of Delahaye amassed a large collection of plant material during this voyage. This was carefully tended during the return trip and kept intact despite the republicans in the crew being placed under arrest for many months in the tropical heat of Surabaya due to the outbreak of war between France and the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the collection was subsequently seized by the English when the ship carrying it was captured off Saint Helena. As spoils of war the collection came into the hands of the naturalist Joseph Banks who was intent on passing it on to the queen for her herbarium.

Labillardiere, distraught at the loss of his precious collection devised a plan to retrieve it. He petitioned the French Assembly to write to the English advising that the collection was the personal property of Labillardiere and not that of the French Government. Labillardiere also appealed to his friend Joseph Banks who, always the scientist as well as the politician, proclaiming that, ‘By this…the national character of Great Britain will certainly gain much credit for holding a conduct towards Science and Scientific men liberal in the highest degree’[4], re-packed and dispatched the samples to France in 1796 where, in the Jardin de Plantes, they were known as the Labillardiere Collection. For some unknown reason the specimens from Baudin’s subsequent expedition were also added to this collection which, on Labillardiere’s death was sold to an Englishman and, subsequently transferred to Florence.

Delahaye was unable to return to France until 1797 after which he became in turn the chief gardener at the châteaux the Grand Trianon and Malmaison and then, in 1814 after the death of his patron, a private nurseryman..

In the time he had been away France had had a revolution and, within two years, was to be ruled by a man who would choose Childéric’s golden bees, an ancient symbol of royalty in France, and a metaphor for a Republic of equals under a single leader, as a heraldic symbol to trump the Bourbon fleur-de-lys. This man was also to commission Baudin to continue the exploration of New Holland on behalf of the French government.

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[1] Banks' florilegium Alecto Historical Editions in association with the British Museum (Natural History), London 1981-1988

[2] T Ryan op cit p177

[3] E Duyker. A French Garden in Tasmania in Pacific Journeys, Cropp et al Eds., Victoria University Press, Wellington 2005 p25

[4] Edward Duyker, Citizen Labillardière: A Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration, Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2003.

Paris 2009

Time is getting shorter and the list of things to do seems to be getting longer but I am sure that it will all come together in time. Have almost finalised packaging up the prints for the Old Bakery Gallery in Lane Cove and hope to get them in the mail tomorrow. Still waiting to hear from the Australian embassy in Paris re possible gigs in France but a hopefull this will be resolved before the end of the week. Good news from the Jardin des Plantes as the lady in the library there has invited us to dinner when we arrive so that we can talk about my research. But still no response from the other museums or glassworks.
Am also working on another possible gig in Hobart for when we get back which will be an extension and development of last year's work. Jan Luckman is going to handle the HIP Mini-print sale in Salamanca Art Centre's Sidespace Gallery in May so have been briefing her today about procedures. The project is in good hands and I am sure it will be a great event for HIP's members.
And then there's all the work around the house that needs to be done (aaaaaagh)

Baudin and the Bees (2)

Alexander Dalrymple, who was the Royal Society’choice to lead the English expedition to mark the transit of Venus was a friend and advocate of the ideas expressed by de Brosses and the work was certainly known to James Cook at the time of his first survey of the pacific, primarily because of Vaugondy’s maps. It was carried by Cook’s erudite travelling companion, the father of Australian settlement, Sir Joseph Banks (ref T Ryan op cit p181) who wrote so disparagingly of the inhabitants of this new found land and of the bounty that would be the result of careful husbandry (ref J C Beaglehole, The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768-1771, Angus and Robertson Ltd, Sydney, 1963. Vol II p123) From his remarks it would appear that Banks, despite his extensive library and erudition was less a man of the enlightenment and more inclined to Voltaire’s ideas expressed in his work Essai sur les mœurs, that the black people whom he called "animals", were a peculiar species of human and were born to be slaves (ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire accessed 08/03/07)
The other Frenchman of interest is Francois Peron a man from a working class background. He enlisted in the revolutionary army in 1792, lost an eye in action on the Rhine and was eventually taken prisoner at Kaiserslautern. Invalided out of the army in 1794 he returned to Paris and began three years of medical studies. He also developed an interest in natural history from time spent in the Paris museum. Hearing of the expedition to Terres Australes to be led by Nicolas Baudin he pestered authorities until, sponsored by Antoine de Jussieu, professor of botany at the Jardin des Plantes, he was appointed to the position of natural historian and anthropologist. In the event Baudin proved to be a better natural anthropologist than Peron who was unable to remain objective in the face of the mood swings amongst the aboriginal people of van Diemen’s Land (ref Fornasiero, Jean. Monteath, Peter. West-Sooby, Jean (eds), Encountering Terra Australis, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia. 2004. p364)
Peron proved to be a major trial for Baudin because of his enthusiastic rushing about at every opportunity with little regard for the instruction of his captain. However, I believe we owe him a debt of gratitude for his mentoring of the artists Nicolas-Martin Petit and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur who provided some of the most memorable ethnographic and natural history images of any expedition to this land plus an immense collection of more than 100.000 specimens including 2.500 of new species.
Peron wrote the first volume of the official report on Baudin’s voyage, Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes, before succumbing to tuberculosis in 1810.
While colonisation may have been a secret sub text to the expeditions of La Pérouse, D’Entrecasteaux and Baudin the English colonists seemed little concerned by the French expeditioners and often provided food, shelter and repair facilities for them and their crews. However, this one man changed all that.
Francois Peron it appears, was intent on disrupting, not only the English settlement in New South Wales, but the English assumption that they alone had a claim to this land mass. It is known that Peron made a careful study of the layout and fortifications of Port Jackson, possibly sounding out both Irish convicts and the Aboriginal people as allies and, that on his return to Ile de France (Mauritius) he, together with the local governor, published a pamphlet advocating what could only be called an invasion (ref Anthony J Brown, Ill-starred Captains: Flinders and Baudin, Crawford House publishing, Adelaide, 2000. p321. See also, Robert Murray, Sydney ’s Brush with Bonaparte Quadrant, Volume XLVIII Number) What is less sure but highly likely is that he was the source of rumours circulating in Port Jackson after the departure of Baudin that the French were intent on establishing a colony in Van Deimen’s Land. This rumour caused Governor King to send a small, ill equipped ship after Baudin with a letter warning him that the English claim included VDL (ref James R walker op cit p17)
Baudin’s response shows once again that he was a man of the enlightenment with attitudes and ideas totally at variance with those of the English.
In his reply to King, Baudin clearly stated that it was not in his brief to set up a colony at that time but, had it been, he would have done so knowing that the French had a greater claim to Van Deimen’s Land than the English by virtue of their extensive exploration and mapping (ref Nicolas Baudin personal letter to Governor King, Historical Records of N.S.W. Vol 5, 1803-05. p286) He also pointed out that he could not conceive, ‘…there was justice or equity on the part of Europeans’ to dispossess a people who were, ‘…just as little civilised as are actually your Scotch Highlanders or our peasants in Brittany…’.He further castigates King and through him the English government for, ‘…transporting on a soil where the crimes and diseases of Europeans were unknown all that could retard the progress of civilisation…’. And shows his understanding of environmental issues by warning King that if his sealers did not reduce their harvesting of the wildlife of King Island that the seal colonies would cease to exist.
While all of this may be a small aside, a footnote in the panorama of history, it is almost certainly true that the decision to establish a colony in Van Deimen’s Land was brought forward, if not precipitated, by the French visit to Botany bay in 1802 and therefore, that plans for the establishment of a penal colony here were likewise set in motion by this event. It was only three months later, on the 28th of March, 1803 that Lieutenant John Bowen was commissioned by King to proceed in “Lady Nelson”, ‘…to fix on a proper spot in the Derwent about Risdon’s Cove’ (Walker 1950 ). In the event Bowen did not arrive at Risdon cove until the 12th of September.
James Walker points out that, if the King of France had not been so preoccupied with maintaining his naval power against the English in other areas of the world it is, ‘…quite possible that to her and not to England, would have fallen the dominion of Australia’ (ref James R walker op cit p5)