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)