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Terre Napoleon - A history of French explorations and projects in Australia
by Ernest Scott
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Had the selection of a site for settlement, rather than research, been intended, it seems most likely that Napoleon, with his trained eye for strategic advantages, would have directed particular if not exclusive attention to be paid to the north coast of Australia. If he had taken the map in hand and studied it with a view to obtaining a favourable position, he would probably have put his finger upon the part of the coast where Port Darwin is situated, and would have said, "Search carefully just there: see if a harbour can be discovered which may be used as a base." The coast was entirely unoccupied; the French might have established themselves securely before the British knew what they had done; and had they found and fortified Port Darwin, they would have captured the third point of a triangle—the other two being Mauritius and Pondicherry—which might have made them very powerful in the Indian Ocean. And that is precisely what the East India Company's directors feared that Napoleon intended. One of them, the Hon. C.F. Greville, wrote to Brown, the naturalist of the Investigator, "I hope the French ships of discovery will not station themselves on the north coast of New Holland";* (* January 4, 1802. Historical Records of New South Wales 4 677.) and the Company, recognising their own interest in the matter, voted six hundred pounds as a present to the captain, staff, and crew of the Investigator before she sailed from England. But instead of what was feared, the French ships devoted principal attention to the south, where there was original geographical work to do—a natural course, their object being discovery, but not what might have been expected had their real design been acquisition. Peron censured Baudin because he examined part of the west coast before proceeding to the unknown south; and when at length Le Geographe did sail north, the work done there was very perfunctory. Baudin himself was no fighting man; nor was there with the expedition a military engineer or any officer capable of reporting upon strategic situations, or competent to advise as to the establishment of a fort or a colony. Captain Hamelin and Lieutenant Henri de Freycinet afterwards saw active service with the Navy, but the staff knew more about flowers, beetles, butterflies, and rocks than about fortifications and colonisation.

In recent years research has concentrated powerful rays of light on the intricacies of Napoleonic policy. Archives have been thrown open, ransacked, catalogued and codified. Memoirs by the score, letters by the hundred, have been published. Documents by the thousand have been studied. A battalion of eager students have handled this vast mass of material. The piercing minds of eminent scholars have drilled into it to elucidate problems incidental to Napoleon's era. But nothing has been brought to light which indicates that Australia was within the radius of his designs.

The idea that the publication of the Terre Napoleon maps, with their unfounded pretensions to discoveries, was a move on Napoleon's part towards asserting a claim upon territory in Australia, is surely untenable by any one with any appreciation of the irony of circumstances.

No man in history had a deeper realisation of the dynamics of empire than Napoleon had. A nation, as he well knew, holds its possessions by the power behind its grasp. If he had wanted a slice of Australia, and had been able to take and hold it, of what political use to him would have been a few maps, even with an eagle's picture on one of them? When his unconquerable legions brought Italy under his sway, absorbed the Low Countries, and established his dominion on the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Danube, he based no claims on maps and documents. He took because he could. An empire is not like a piece of suburban property, based on title-deeds drawn by a family solicitor. Its validity is founded on forces—the forces of ships, armies, manhood, treaties, funds, national goodwill, sound government, commercial enterprise, all the forces that make for solidity, resistance, permanence. Freycinet's maps would have been of no more use to Napoleon in getting a footing in Australia than a postage stamp would be in shifting one of the pyramids. He was capable of many mean things, but we gravely undervalue his capacity for seeing to the heart of a problem if we suppose him both mean and silly enough to conspire to cheat Matthew Flinders out of his well and hardly won honours, on the supposition that the maps would help him to assert a claim upon Australia. He could have made good no such claim in the teeth of British opposition without sea power; and that he had not.

The consequences of the suspicion that Napoleon intended to seize a site in Australia, were, however, quite as important as if he had formally announced his intention of doing so. What men believe to be true, not what is true, determines their action; and there was quite enough in the circumstances that occurred to make Governor King and his superiors in England resolve upon decisive action. King having communicated his beliefs to Ministers, Lord Hobart, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, in June 1803, wrote a despatch in which he authorised the colonisation of Van Diemen's Land by the removal of part of the establishment at Norfolk Island to Port Dalrymple—"the advantageous position of which, upon the southern coast of Van Diemen's Land, and near the entrance of Bass Straits, renders it, in a political view, particularly necessary that a settlement should be formed there."* (* See Backhouse Walker, Early Tasmania page 22.) It will be observed that the Secretary of State's geographical knowledge of the countries under his regime was quite remarkable. A man who should describe Glasgow as being on the southern coast of England, near the eastern entrance of the Channel, would be just about as near the truth as Lord Hobart managed to get.* (* Froude's amusing story of Lord Palmerston, when, on forming a Ministry, he thought he would have to take the Secretaryship of State for the Colonies himself, comes to mind. He said to Sir Arthur Helps, "Come upstairs with me, Helps; we will look at the maps, and you shall show me where these places are." Froude's Oceana page 12.)

King moved immediately. He despatched the Lady Nelson and the Albion on August 31 to establish a settlement on the river Derwent, with Lieutenant John Bowen in charge; and in September 1803 the first British colony in Tasmania was planted. It had a variety of adverse experiences before at length the beautiful site of the city of Hobart, at the foot of Mount Wellington, was determined upon; but here, at all events, was a beginning, and the tale from that time forward has been one of steady progress.

As soon as the imagined threat of French invasion lost its impulsion, the colonising energy of the governing authorities subsided. The Tasmanian settlement remained and grew, but Trafalgar removed all fear of foreign interference. Hence it was that nearly forty years elapsed before any real effort was made to settle the lands within Port Phillip. Then the first energies that were devoted towards creating the great state of Victoria were not directed by the Government, which no longer had any political motive for forcing matters, but were made by enterprising stock-owners searching for pastures. It was not till 1835 that John Batman pushed up the river Yarra, found the site of the present city of Melbourne, and said, "This will be the place for a village!" Trafalgar and the security which it gave to British possessions oversea made all the difference between the early occupation of Tasmania for fear the French should take it, and the leisurely and non-official settlement of the Port Phillip district, when it was quite certain that no foreign power could set a foot upon it without British permission.

There was one other occasion when the recurrence of French exploring ships in Australian waters revived the idea that foreign settlement on some portion of the continent was contemplated. just as the appearance of Baudin's expedition at the commencement of the century expedited the colonisation of Tasmania, and prompted a tentative occupation of Port Phillip, so the renewed activity of the French in the South Seas during the years 1820 to 1826, was the immediate cause of the foundation of the Swan River Settlement (1829), the nucleus of the present state of Western Australia. Steps were also taken to form an establishment at Westernport, where, on the arrival of H.M.S. Fly with two brigs conveying troops, evidences were found showing that the French navigators had already paid a call, without, however, making any movement in the direction of "effective occupation." The Swan River Settlement grew, but the Westernport expedition packed up its kit and returned to Sydney when the alarm subsided.

There is perhaps some warrant for believing that the French Government, when it sent out Freycinet in the Uranie and the Physicienne from 1817 to 1820, and the Baron de Bougainville in the Esperance and the Thetis from 1824 to 1826, desired to collect information with a possible view to colonise in some part of Australasia; though the fear that these commanders were themselves commissioned to "plant" a colony was quite absurd, and the express exploratory purpose of their voyages was abundantly justified by results. Lord John Russell, in after years, related that "during my tenure of the Colonial office, a gentleman attached to the French Government called upon me. He asked how much of Australia was claimed as the dominion of Great Britain. I answered, 'The whole,' and with that answer he went away."* (* Russell's Recollections and Suggestions (1875) page 203.) Lord John Russell was at the head of the Colonial Office in the second Melbourne Administration, 1839 to 1841, a long time after the French explorers had gone home and published the histories of their voyages. But it is still quite possible that the researches made by Freycinet and the Baron de Bougainville prompted the inquiry of the Colonial Secretary's visitor. The phrase, "a gentleman attached to the French Government," is rather vague. The question was clearly not asked by the French Ambassador, or it would have been addressed to the Foreign Secretary, who at that time was Lord Palmerston, and whose reply would certainly not have fallen short of Lord John's, either in emphasis or distinctness. It may well be, however, that the Government of King Louis Philippe—whose chief advisers during the period were Thiers (1839 to 1840) and Guizot (from July 1840)—desired to make their inquiry in a semi-official manner to avoid causing offence.

Yet the fact cannot escape notice, that at this particular time the French were busily laying the foundation of that new colonial dominion with which they have persevered, with admirable results, since the collapse of their oversea power during Napoleon's regime. Though their aptitude for colonisation had been "unhappily rendered sterile by the faults of their European policy,"* (* Fallot, L'Avenir Colonial de la France page 4.) the more far-seeing among their statesmen and publicists did not lose sight of the ideal of creating a new field for the diffusion of French civilisation. They commenced in 1827 that colonising enterprise in Algiers which has converted "a sombre and redoubtable barbarian coast" into "a twin sister of the Riviera of Nice, charming as she, upon the other side of the Mediterranean."* (* Hanotaux, L'Energie Francaise (1902) page 284.)

Lord John Russell was not likely to be regardless of this movement, nor unaware of the strongly marked current of opinion in France in favour of expansion.

Twenty years later Lord John Russell had the position of Australia, as a factor in world politics, brought under his notice again, through a document to which he evidently attached importance, and which is still the legitimate subject of historical curiosity. He was then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the second Palmerston Administration (1859 to 1865). A great change had meanwhile taken place affecting the economic value of this large island in the South Seas. Apart from the growth of its commerce and the productive capacity of its great fertile areas, the gold discoveries of the early fifties—the nuggets of Ballarat and the rich auriferous gravels of wide belts of country—had turned the eyes of the world towards the land of whose agricultural and mineral resources so little had been previously known. France, too, had passed through a new series of changes in her very mutable modern history, and a Bonaparte once more occupied the throne, as Napoleon III.

One day the British Foreign Minister received, from a source of which we know nothing—but the Foreign Office in the Palmerstonian epoch was exceedingly well informed—a communication which, having read, he did not deposit among the official documents at Downing Street, but carefully sealed up and placed among his own private papers. His biographer, Sir Spencer Walpole, tells us all that is at present known about this mysterious piece of writing. "There is still among Lord John's papers," he says, "a simple document which purports to be a translation of a series of confidential questions issued by Napoleon III on the possibility of a French expedition, secretly collected in different ports, invading, conquering, and holding Australia. How the paper reached the Foreign Office, what credit was attached to it, what measures were suggested by it, there is no evidence to show. This only is certain. Lord John dealt with it as he occasionally dealt with confidential papers which he did not think it right to destroy, but which he did not wish to be known. He enclosed it in an envelope, sealed it with his own seal, and addressed it to himself. It was so found after his death."* (* Walpole, Life of Lord John Russell 2 177.)

Oddly enough, the period within which Lord John received the piece of information which he carefully kept to himself in the manner described, corresponds with that of the most notorious effort of Napoleon III to assert his power beyond the confines of Europe.

In 1853, the year after the establishment of the second Empire, the Government of Napoleon III had annexed New Caledonia, commencing on this island the policy of transportation in the very year in which Great Britain ceased to send convicts to Australia. Thus for the first time did France secure a footing in the South. This was a safe step to take, as the annexation was performed with the concurrence of Great Britain. But Napoleon's oversea move of nine years later was rash in the extreme.

From 1862 to 1866—after a joint Anglo-French-Spanish movement to compel the Republic of Mexico to discharge her debts to European bondholders, and after a disagreement between the allies which led to the withdrawal of the British and the Spaniards—forty thousand French troops were engaged upon the quixotic task of disciplining Mexican opinion, suppressing civil war, and imposing upon the people an unwelcome and absurd sovereign in the person of Maximilian of Austria. His throne endured as long as the French battalions remained to support it. When they withdrew, Maximilian was deposed, court-marshalled, and shot. The wild folly of the Mexican enterprise, from which France had nothing to gain, illustrated in an expensive form the unbalanced judgment and the soaring megalomaniac propensities of "the man of December." That he should institute such inquiries as are indicated by the document described by Lord John Russell's biographer, even though the preservation of friendly relations with Great Britain was essential to him, was quite in accordance with the "somewhat crafty" character of the man of whom a contemporary French historian has said: "He knew how to keep his own counsel, how to brood over a design, and how to reveal it suddenly when he felt that his moment had come."* (* M. Albert Thomas in Cambridge Modern History 11 287.) It is a little singular, however, that Russell did not allude to the mysterious paper when he wrote his Recollections and Suggestions, five years after the fall of Napoleon III. There was no imperative need for secrecy then, and the passage quoted from his book indicates that the welfare of Australia was under his consideration.

The facts set forth in the preceding pages are sufficient to show that the people of no portion of the British Empire have greater reason to be grateful for the benefits conferred by the naval strength maintained by the mother country, during the past one hundred years, than have those who occupy Australia. Their country has indeed been, in a special degree, the nursling of sea power. By naval predominance, and that alone, the way has been kept clear for the unimpeded development, on British constitutional lines, of a group of flourishing states forming "one continent-isle," whose bounds are "the girdling seas alone."

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ALARD, Eloge Historique de Francois Peron, redacteur du Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes. Paris, 1811.

Almanac de Gotha, 1811, contains a good narrative of the Baudin expedition, founded on Peron's first volume, giving an account of the discoveries claimed to have been made.

Annual Register, 1800 to 1814. Various References.

AUDIAT, Louis, Peron, sa vie, ses voyages (en Oceanie) et ses ouvrages. Moulins, 1855.

AULARD, A., Paris sous le Consulat. 5 volumes. Paris, 1903.

BANKS, THOMAS, System of Universal Geography. 2 volumes. London, 1790.

BAUDIN, NICOLAS, Lettre sur la Nouvelle Hollande, in Annales du Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, volume 2 pages 415 to 422. Paris, 1809.

BECKE, LOUIS, and JEFFERY, WALTER, Naval Pioneers of Australia. London, 1899.

BLADEN, F.M. (Editor), Historical Records of New South Wales. 7 volumes. Sydney, 1893 to 1901. The most important collection of Australian historical material up to the year 1812; prints all the important documents preserved in the Record Office, Colonial Office, and Admiralty. An indispensable work.

BLAIR, DAVID, Cyclopaedia of Australasia. Melbourne, 1811. Useful, but to be used with caution.

BONWICK, J., Port Phillip Settlement. London, 1883.

BORY ST. VINCENT, J.B.G., "Histoire de la traversee du Capitaine Baudin jusqu'au Port Louis de L'Ile Maurice, in Voyage dans les quatre principales iles des mers d'Afrique, 1801 to 1802. 3 volumes. Paris, 1804.

BOUGAINVILLE, LOUIS ANTOINE DE, Voyage autour du monde par la fregate du roi La Boudeux et la flute L'Etoile, en 1766 a 1769. Paris, 1771; Neuchatel, 1773.

BOUGAINVILLE, THE BARON DE, journal de la Navigation du monde de la fregate La Thetis et de la corvette L'Esperance pendant les annees 1824 to 1826. Paris, 1828 to 1837.

BROSSES, CHARLES DE, Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes. 2 volumes. Paris, 1756. The series of organised French expeditions to the South Seas was largely impelled by the publication of this work.

BURNEY, JAMES, Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. 5 volumes. London, 1803 to 1817.

BURNEY, JAMES, Voyages and Discoveries in the South Seas. 2 volumes. London, 1806.

CALLANDER, JOHN, Terra Australis Cognita. 3 volumes Edinburgh, 1766 to 1768.

CHEVALIER, E., Histoire de la marine francaise sous le Consulat et l'Empire. Paris, 1886.

CLEVELAND'S Voyages, volume 1 page 35. London, 1842.

COCKBURN, RODNEY, Nomenclature of South Australia. Adelaide, 1909.

COLLINGRIDGE, GEORGE, Discovery of Australia. Sydney, 1895.

COLLINS, DAVID, Account of the English Colony in New South Wales from its first Settlement in January 1788 to August 1801. London, 1804. Contains a contemporary account of the discoveries of Bass and Flinders in the Tom Thumb, the whale-boat, and the Norfolk; embodying Bass's diary.

COOK, JAMES, Voyage towards the South Pole and round the World, performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the Years 1772 to 1775. 2 volumes. London, 1777.

COOK, JAMES, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and the Discovery, in the Years 1776 to 1780. 3 volumes. London, 1784.

COOK, Journal during his first Voyage round the World made in H.M. Bark the Endeavour, 1768 to 1771, edited by Captain W.J.L. Wharton. London, 1893.

(There have been many reprints of Cook's Voyages, and many translations. The best Biography of Cook is that of Kitson, 1907. Besant's brief Life (1890) is also good.)

DAHLGREN, E.W., Voyages francaises a destination de la mer du Sud avant Bougainville, 1695 to 1749. Paris, 1908. Contains notices of eleven French voyages of circumnavigation and 175 South Sea voyages accomplished by the French before Bougainville.

DALRYMPLE, ALEXANDER, Account of the Discoveries made in the South Pacific Ocean Previous to 1764. London, 1767.

DALRYMPLE, ALEX., Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. 2 volumes. London, 1770.

DAMPIER, WILLIAM, Voyages. 3 volumes. London, 1703 to 1705. An excellent reprint of Dampier's Voyages, edited by John Masefield, was published in 1906.

DELEUZE, F. Peron. 1811.

DUCASSE, Histoire des negotiations diplomatiques relatives aux traites de Morfontaine, de Luneville et d'Amiens. Paris, 1857.

DUMONT D'URVILLE, JULES SABASTIAN CESAR, Voyage pittoresque autour du monde. 2 volumes. Paris, 1839.

DUMONT D'URVILLE, Voyage de la corvette l'Astrolabe pendant les annees 1826-1829, sous le commandement de. Paris, 1830.

DUPONCHAL, Voyages, volume 6 pages 167 to 219. Paris, 1841.

EVANS, Captain, A Treatise on the Navigation of Port Phillip. Melbourne.

FALLOT, L'Avenir colonial de la France. Paris, 1903.

FAVENC, ERNEST, History of Australian Exploration. Sydney, 1888.

FERGUSON, Sailing Directions for Port Phillip. Melbourne, 1854.

FINDLEY, Navigation of the South Pacific Ocean. London, 1863.

FISHER, H.A.L., Bonapartism. Oxford, 1908. Six lectures. On page 92 is a reference to the alleged designs of Napoleon III on Australia, based on Walpole's Life of Lord John Russell.

FLINDERS, MATTHEW, Voyage to Terra Australis in the Years 1801 to 1803, in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the Armed Vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner, with an Account of the Shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and Imprisonment of the Commander during six and a half Years in that Island. 2 volumes, quarto, with large folio atlas. London, 1814. The foundation authority for all circumstances affecting Flinders' discoveries and his experiences at Mauritius.

FLINDERS, M., Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen's Land. London, 1801.

FREVILLE, Hydrographie de la Mer du Sud: Histoire des Nouvelles Decouvertes. Paris, 1774.

FREYCINET, LOUIS DE, Voyage autour du monde. Paris, 1827.

FREYCINET, LOUIS DE. See also under Peron and Freycinet.

GAFFAREL, P., La Politique coloniale en France de 1789 a 1830. Paris, 1908.

GARNIER, Voyages Abreges, volume 2 pages 176 to 180. Paris, 1837.

GIRARD, M., Francois Peron, 1857.

GRANT, JAMES, Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery. London, 1803. Grant's eye-chart shows the main features of the extensive south coast of Australia from Mount Gambia to Wilson's Promontory, and contains frequent mention of Bass and Flinders. He was the first to sail through Bass Strait from the west.

GREGORY, J.W., Geography of Australasia. London, 1907. The best book on the subject. The author was formerly professor of geology at the University of Melbourne, and has an unusually intimate knowledge of the country, the result of wide and observant travel.

HAUSLEUTNER, P.W.G., German translation of Peron and Freycinet's Voyage aux Terres Australes. Tubingen and Stuttgart, 2 volumes, 1808 to 1819.

HOEFER (Editor), Nouvelle Biographie Generale. Paris, 46 volumes, 1852 to 1866. Article on Flinders in Volume 46 by Alfred de Lacaze; also biographies of Peron and Decaen.

HUMBOLDT, ALEXANDER VON, Personal Narrative of Travels. London, 1814. Volume 1 pages 7 to 8, contains an account of the original objects and scope of Baudin's expedition.

HUNTER, JOHN, Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, with the Discoveries which have been made in New South Wales and in the Southern Ocean since the Publication of Phillip's Voyage. London, 1793.

JOSE, A.W., Australasia, 1901. The best brief history of Australia.

KERR, ROBERT, General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels. 18 volumes. London, 1824. Volume 18 contains an appreciation of the work of Flinders.

KIRKPATRICK, F.A. (Editor), Lectures on the Nineteenth Century. 1908. Contains a lecture by Dr. Holland Rose bearing upon the Baudin expedition and the Terre Napoleon maps.

LABORDE, J.B., Histoire Abregee de la Mer du Sud. 3 volumes. Paris, 1791. A rare book, though not so important as the work of De Brosses, upon which it was founded. It was written "pour l'education of M. le Dauphin."

LAURIE, J.S., Story of Australasia. 1896.

LABILLARDIERE, J.J.H. DE, Relation du Voyage a la recherche de la Perouse. 2 volumes. Paris.

LABILLIERE, Early History of Victoria. London, 1878.

LEE, IDA, The Coming of the British to Australia, 1788 to 1824. London, 1906.

LEROY-BEAULIEU, Colonisation chez les peuples modernes. 2 volumes. Paris, 1902.

MAHAN, A.T., Life of Nelson. London, 1899.

MAIDEN, J.H., Sir Joseph Banks, the Father of Australia. Sydney, 1909. Prints many of Banks's letters.

MAJOR, R.H., Early Voyages to Terra Australis, now called Australia. London, 1859. One of the Hakluyt Society's valuable volumes.

MASSON, F., Napoleon Inconnu: Papiers Inedits. Paris, 1895.

MILBERT, M.J., Voyage pittoresque a l'Ile de France au cap de Bonne Esperance et a l'ile de Teneriffe, 1800 a 1803, par M.J. Milbert, peintre embarque sur la corvette Le Geographe, et directeur des gravures de la partie historique du voyage aux Terres Australes. 2 volumes. Paris, 1812.

MILET-MUREAU, L.A., Voyage autour du monde du Comte Jean Francois Galaup de la Perouse. 4 volumes. Paris, 1797.

Moniteur, Le, 1800 to 1814. Napoleon's official organ contains various allusions to Baudin's expedition and to Flinders. See exact references in text.

MONTEMONT, Voyages, Volume 18. pages 3 to 49. Paris, 1834.

NAPOLEON I, Correspondance. 32 volumes. 1858 to 1870. A letter relating to Baudin's expedition in Volume 6, and a reference to Port Jackson in Volume 20.

Naval Chronicle, 1799 to 1818. Various references to Baudin's expedition; there is a biographical sketch of Flinders in Volume 32, with portrait and facsimile of signature; account of Flinders' imprisonment at the Isle of France in Volume 14; letters from Flinders in Volume 26; other facsimiles of signature in Volumes 26 and 28; memorandum by Flinders on deflections of the compass needle in Volume 28; discovery of Bass Strait recorded in Volume 28.

NODIER et DESPLACES (Editors), Biographie Universelle. Paris, 1814, and later years. Contains biographies of Peron and Decaen; the biography of Flinders, by Walckenaer, in Volume 14, is excellent.

PATERSON G., History of New South Wales. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1811. Mention of Flinders; and especially interesting on account of its map, showing Bass Strait, and Tasmania as an island, but indicating the southern coast of Australia by a line which represented a guess.

PERON and FREYCINET, Voyage de decouvertes aux Terre Australes, execute par ordre de sa majeste l'Empereur et Roi, sur les corvettes Le Geographe et Le Naturaliste et la goelette Le Casuarina, pendant les annees 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804; publie par decret imperial sous le ministere de M. de Champagny, et redige par M. F. Peron, naturalisle de l'expedition, correspondant de l'Institut de France, de la Societe de l'Ecole de Medecine de Paris, des Societes philomatriques et medicale de la meme ville. Paris, 1807 to 1817. First volume by Peron, published 1807. Second volume by Peron and Freycinet, published 1816. Third volume by Freycinet, published 1815, all in quarto. Second edition of the historical narrative, edited by Freycinet, published in three volumes, octavo, 1824. First atlas by Freycinet, Lesueur, Petit, and others, published 1807. Atlas re-issued, enlarged, 1812. Revised atlas, with names on Terre Napoleon maps entirely altered, published 1817. Hydrographical atlas by Freycinet, published 1812. An English translation of volume one was published, London, 1809.

PHILLIP'S Voyages. London, 1805, Volume 3 pages 1 to 71, contains a narrative of the passage of Captain Baudin to Port Louis in Mauritius.

PINKERTON, Modern Geography. 2 volumes. London, 1807.

PINKERTON, Voyages, Volume 11 pages 739 to 952. London, 1812.

PRENTOUT, HENRI, L'Ile de France sous Decaen, 1803 to 1810. Paris, 1901. Based upon the voluminous papers of General Decaen, preserved at Caen; a most valuable book.

Quarterly Review, volume 4 (1810) page 42, article on first volume of Peron's Voyage, very strongly condemnatory; volume 17 (1817) page 229, article on the second volume, dealing largely with Freycinet's work. The first article was based partly on Flinders' Manuscript journal, lent to the reviewer by the Admiralty.

ROCHON, Nouveau voyage a la mer du Sud, commence sous les ordres de M. Marion, et ackeve sous M. Duclesmeur. Paris, 1783.

ROGERS, J.D., Historical Geography of Australasia. Oxford, 1907.

ROSE, JOHN HOLLAND, Life of Napoleon 1. 2 volumes. London, 1904. Volume 1 cap 15 gives an account of Flinders' voyage and a reproduction of part of the map of Australia published with Peron's Voyage de Decouvertes.

ROSE, JOHN HOLLAND, Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era. Cambridge, 1895. Reference to Baudin's expedition.

ROSEBERY, EARL OF, Napoleon, the Last Phase. London 1900.

ROSS, C., Correspondence of Cornwallis. 3 Volumes. 1859. Relative to the Treaty of Amiens.

ROSSEL, E.P.E. DE, Voyage de D'Entrecasteaux, envoye a la recherche de La Perouse. Paris, 1808.

RUSDEN, G.W., History of Australia. 3 volumes. London, 1883.

RUSDEN, G.W., Discovery, Survey and Settlement of Port Phillip. Melbourne, 1871.

RUSSELL, EARL, Recollections and Suggestions. London, 1875. See Lord Russell's allusion to French inquiries regarding British claims to Australia.

SHILLINGLAW, J.J., Historical Records of Port Phillip. Melbourne, 1879.

STEPHEN, LESLIE and LEE, SIDNEY (Editors) Dictionary of National Biography. London, 1885 to 1901. Biography of Flinders, by Sir J.K. Laughton, in Volume 19 is important.

TESSIER, article on "Le General Decaen aux Indes," in Revue Historique, volume 15. (1881).

TESSIER, articles on "Les papiers du General Decaen," in La Nouvelle Revue, volumes 11 and 12 (1881).

THIBAUDEAU, A.C., Bonaparte and the Consulate, translated by G.K. Fortescu. London, 1908.

THIERS, Histoire du Consulat et de L'Empire. 20 volumes. Paris, 1845.

TRAILL, H.D., Life of Sir John Franklin. London, 1896.

TUCKEY, J.H., Account of a Voyage to Establish a Colony at Port Phillip in the Years 1802, 1803 and 1804. London, 1805.

TURNBULL, JOHN, Voyage round the World in the Years 1800 to 1804, in which the Author visited Madeira, the Brazils, Cape of Good Hope, Botany Bay, and Norfolk Island (pages 473 to 490). London, 1813.

TURNER, H.G., History of the Colony of Victoria. 2 volumes. London, 1904.

WALCKENAER, C.A., Le Monde maritime, ou tableau geographique et historique de l'archipel d'Orient, de la Polynisie, et de l'Australie. 2 volumes. Paris, 1819.

WALKER, JAMES BACKHOUSE, Early Tasmania. Hobart, 1902. Gives an account of the visit of Baudin's expedition to Tasmanian waters.

WALPOLE, SPENCER, Life of Lord John Russell. 2 volumes. London, 1891. See the reference to the alleged designs upon Australia of Napoleon III.

WARD, A.W., PROTHERO, E.W., and LEATHES, S. (Editors), Cambridge Modern History, volume 9, Cambridge, 1906, cap 23, by Professor Egerton; also chapter in Volume 11, by J.D. Rogers, on the Development of Australia.

WOODS, J.E.T., History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia. 2 volumes London, 1865.

INDEX.

Abercrombie, General, capture of Mauritius.

Aboriginals: Tasmanian. in Western Australia.

Ah Sam.

Amiens, Peace of.

Australasia, name coined by De Brosses.

Australia: causes of her peaceful progress. colonisation of. defence during Napoleonic wars. Flinders' completion of discovery of. geographical theories concerning. name of. first complete map of. effect of Napoleonic wars on history of. effect of suspicion of French designs. Lord John Russell claims "the whole" for the British. supposed plan of Napoleon III. the nursling of sea power.

Banks, Sir Joseph: friendship for Flinders. on Baudin's explorations. influence with Napoleon. endeavours to secure the liberation of Flinders. suggests the voyage of the Investigator. the friend of Australia.

Bass, George: his whale-boat voyage. his drawing of Bass Strait. his boat preserved at Sydney.

Bass Strait: discovered. Flinders' chart of. French charts. Captain Hamelin in.

Batman.

Baudin des Ardennes, Lt. Charles.

Baudin, Captain Nicolas: command of Le Geographe. scurvy on board. wretched condition of his crew. interview with Flinders in Encounter Bay. second interview. the missing of Port Phillip. official dissatisfaction with his work. unjustly blamed. responsibility for the nomenclature, his discoveries. at King Island. equipment of Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste. Humboldt's dislike of. early career. anecdote of. unpopularity of. feted before sailing. sails from Havre. seamanship. reaches Australia. negligent exploration. at Timor. the Virginia Incident. insanitary state of his ships. his obstinacy, storms encountered by his ships. enfeebled condition of his crew. reaches Port Jackson. blamed Peron. abandonment of Boullanger. view of Port Jackson. his frankness. hands over his papers and journals to Governor King. farewell letter. at King Island. his annoyance. denies that French settlement was intended. views on colonisation. sails for Kangaroo Island. singular temper. harsh conduct. second visit to Timor. northern Australian exploration. return to Mauritius. death of.

Bernier.

Bligh: Flinders' training under. his voyage with Cook. the Bounty mutiny.

Bougainville, Louis de: his voyage. a promoter of Baudin's expedition.

Bougainville, the Baron de, his voyage.

Boullanger: abandoned by Baudin. in the gulfs.

Brown, Robert, botanist, on the Investigator.

Canada.

Cape of Good Hope.

Carpentaria: supposed strait from gulf to Southern Australia. Napoleon's knowledge of. Flinders' exploration of.

Casuarina: purchase of the. See Freycinet.

Catastrophe, Cape.

Ceylon.

Convict colonisation: Napoleon's plans at Madagascar. the British at Port Jackson. Peron's view of. Baudin's view. Institute of France on. Napoleon's belief in.

Cook, James: his school of navigators. his influence. discovery of Port Jackson. La Perouse and. Napoleon and his voyages.

Cumberland H.M.S., see Flinders and Robbins.

Cuvier.

Dampier.

Dance, Commodore, his exploit off Polo Aor.

De Brosses: advocacy of French South Sea exploration. coins the word Australasia. history of Austral navigations.

Decaen, General: at Pondicherry. governor of the Isle of France. imprisonment of Flinders. early career and character. reasons for retaining Flinders' papers. Peron's report to, concerning British designs. surrender of Isle of France. British officers refuse to dine with. return to France. later career and death.

Decres.

Degerando.

Dentrecasteaux.

Dolphins as food.

Dumont-Durville.

Durham, Lord, report on Canada.

East India Company, fears as to Napoleon's designs on Australia.

Encounter Bay, meeting of Flinders and Baudin at.

Fame, ship.

Fleurieu.

Flinders, Matthew: in command of the Investigator. his thoroughness. methods as an explorer. training and early achievements. healthiness of his crew. their affection for him. meeting with Baudin in Encounter Bay. demands Baudin's passport. the chart of Bass Strait. second interview. Baudin's curiosity. examination, of Port Phillip. his misfortunes. his excuses for Peron. general indignation at his treatment. the French and his charts. his third log-book. refusal to dine with Decaen. released. interest in La Perouse. circumnavigation of Australia.

Forfait.

France: colonial possessions. effect of her European policy on colonies.

Franklin, Sir John.

Freycinet, Henri de.

Freycinet, Louis de: alleged observation of Port Phillip. his defence of his charts. his revised atlas. alleged use of Flinders' charts. command of the Casuarina. command of the Uranie and Physicienne. appropriation of the Dirk Haticks plate. suppression of Napoleon's name from Peron's text. expresses regret at the procrastination of his commander. explores the gulfs. a precarious situation. return to Europe. his charting work.

Geographe, Le, see Baudin.

Giants at Sharks Bay.

Gibbon.

Grant, commander of the Lady Nelson.

Greville, C.F.

Grimes, surveyor of Port Phillip.

Guiana.

Hamelin, Captain: commander of Le Naturaliste. report to French Government. his return to Europe. protection of the Dirk Haticks plate. separated from Le Geographe. in Westernport. enters Port Jackson. leaves and returns. sails for Europe. captured by British frigate. arrival at Havre.

Hobart, Lord.

Humboldt, projected voyage with Baudin's expedition.

India, the French in.

Institute of France: promotion of Baudin's expedition. committee of. instructions for voyage. report on voyage.

Investigator, see Flinders.

Isle of France, see Mauritius.

Java.

Josephine, Empress.

Jussieu.

Kangaroo Island: Flinders' discovery of. contrary winds at. naming of. French name for. Frenchman's Rock on. Freycinet's charting of. Baudin's second visit.

King Island: Baudin's missing of. French ships at. mistake as to. Acting Lieutenant Robbins at. hospitality of sealers at.

King, P.G.: governor of New South Wales. assists the French ships at Port Jackson. his suspicions. suggests founding a settlement at Port Phillip. peruses Baudin's papers. hears disturbing rumours. sends the Cumberland after Baudin. letter to Baudin. his objects. colonisation of Tasmania.

Lacepede.

Lady Nelson, H.M.S., see Murray and Grant.

La Perouse.

Laplace.

Linois, Admiral: his squadron in the Indian Ocean. sails to meet East India Company's fleet. engagement off Polo Aor. flight of the French. Napoleon's comments. his timidity.

Louisiana, sale of.

Lucas Island.

Madagascar, Napoleon's plan for colonising.

Malta.

Marion-Dufresne.

Maupertuis: his Petites Lettres. his influence. his ghost.

Mauritius: the French in. their precarious situation. Flinders' imprisonment at. blockaded and captured.

Melbourne.

Mexican enterprise of Napoleon III.

Milius, Captain, takes Le Geographe home.

Minerva, H.M.S.

Mollineux, Emmerie, his map.

Morand, the bank-note forger.

Murray, Lieutenant: discoverer of Port Phillip. his qualifications.

Napoleon: plan for colonising Madagascar. comments on Linois. retort to Decres. direction to "take Port Jackson". his name applied to coasts discovered by Baudin. the Flinders case. promotion of Decaen. motives in despatching Baudin's expedition. the proposition of the Institute. interest in geographical science. his character during the Consulate. kindness to Ah Sam. view of the lower races. receives Peron.

Napoleon III, supposed designs on Australia.

Naturaliste, Le, see Baudin.

Nelson.

New Caledonia.

New Hebrides.

Norfolk, H.M.S., explorations in.

Norfolk Island, Peron's report on.

Otto, L.G.

Paterson, Lieutenant-Colonel.

Peron, Francois: naturalist. narrative of the meeting in Encounter Bay. its unreliable character. historian of Baudin's expedition. zeal as a scientist. report on British designs in the Pacific. early career. appointed to Le Geographe. among Tasmanian aboriginals. account of a great storm. blames Baudin. opinion of British navigators. account of the Port Jackson settlement. view of savage man. account of the King Island incident. view of British polity. at Port Lincoln. at Sharks Bay. adventure with "giants". distressing experiences. harsh conduct of Baudin. chronicles Baudin's death. received by Napoleon. death of. scientific work of. on phosphorescence. a pupil of Cuvier.

Port Darwin.

Port Jackson: population and means of defence during Napoleonic wars. Admiral Linois's great chance. Napoleon's direction to "take Port Jackson". Baudin's entry. French camp at Neutral Bay. Peron's account of the settlement. Baudin's account.

Port Lincoln.

Port Phillip: discovery. navigation of. Freycinet's account of. Flinders in. the Rip of. French chart of. Grimes's survey. King suggests settlement at.

Proselite, H.M.S.

Quarterly Review: article of 1810. singular error of. article of.

Quiros.

Robbins, Acting-Lieutenant.

Rose, Dr. J. Holland: Life of Napoleon. view of Napoleon's designs.

Russell, Lord John: claim of "the whole" of Australia for the British. supposed plans of Napoleon III.

St. Vincent, Earl.

St. Vincent's Gulf: discovered. French name for. Freycinet's exploration of.

San Domingo.

Scurvy on the French exploring ships.

Shakespeare, the "new map" of Twelfth Night.

Sharks Bay.

Snow Harrington, sealing brig.

Spencer, Earl.

Spencer's Gulf: discovered. French name for. Freycinet's exploration of.

Swan River settlement.

Sydney, see Port Jackson.

Taillefer, surgeon on Le Geographe.

Talleyrand Bay.

Tasman.

Tasmania: circumnavigated. De Brosses' view of. Institute of France and. Baudin at. supposed French designs on. colonisation of.

Terre Napoleon: nature of the country. nomenclature of. charts of. true limits of the territory. names upon it.

Thibaudeau.

Thistle Island.

Toussaint L'Ouverture.

Trafalgar, battle of.

Vancouver, George.

Van Diemen's Land, see Tasmania.

Virginia, H.M.S.

Voltaire.

Westernport: and the French Port du Debut. Le Naturaliste at. projected settlement at.

West Indies.

THE END

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