The Press. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1910. "TERRE NAPOLEON."

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13870, 22 October 1910, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1910. "TERRE NAPOLEON."

The gradual extension of the British Empire has frequently brought us into close contact with tho French—in war, exploration, or diplomacy. Conspicuous instances are, of course, India, Canada, the West Indies, Egypt, and even Nov.Zealand, though Mr McNab. by his seems to have , removed from tho Fnhere of credible history the pleasing and piquant littlo drama of the Britomart. As to Australia, it might l)u concluded, from tho profusion of French names scattered along its southern and ■western coasts, that it had not been brought under the British flag without serious question from the same j quarter. A French man of the islandcontinent published in ISO 3, in the account of the Baudin expedition, showing the territory now occupied by Victoria and Bouth Australia, under the namo of "Torre Napoleon," would certainly lend colour to the idea, and suggest that in the period ol protracted hostility between tho two Powers nothing was more likely. Nomenclature notwithstanding, however, such a suspicion is entirely discredited in a most painstaking work just published. •■'Terro Napoleon, a History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia," by Ernest Scott, traces, tho fortunes of perhaps the best-equipped expedition that, up to that time, had left any country to explore uncharted oceans and unknown countries in the interests of science, it consisted of two ships, Lc -Geographe and Le Naturahste, under the command of Captain Nicolas Baudin, and its scientific staff of twentyono included some of the first savants o? the day. The rage for knowledge of all kinds that characterised the age of tho Eiicyclopodie was - bound to send a maritime people like, the French to the ends of the earth in the search for it. The South Pacific was the despair of the map-makers. Dampior, the Englishman, and Tasman, the Dutchman, had brought reporte of a great land mass with bits of coastal outline hero and there, but for sixty years nothing had been added ; and tho chief result to the map-makers had been to limit the amount of blank space which it had been their wont to make busy " with spouting whales, sportive " dolphins; and galleons with bellying "sails." It Tvos Charles De Brasses, to whom we owe the names "Aus"trafasia" and "Polynesia," who, in that period of intellectual ferment, roused his country to enthusiasm for exploration in the South Pacific. Tho next half century produced a series of expeditions under such leaders as Bougainville, Marion-Dufresne (who was lulled and eaten in New Zoaland), La Perouse, who, with nearly every man under his command, watt lost on a roof in the New Hebrides; and D'Entrecasteaux, all of whom conducted their enterprises before the Napoleonic era, and so could not be thought of as instruments of his enmity against England. Even with regard to Baudin's expedition, €he evidence is conclusive that its mission was entirely scientific. It originated not vvith the First Consul, but with the Institute of France, a learned body whose solo concern was to extend the bounds, not of Empire, but of knowledge. Baudin was but an indifferent cemmander, whose strunge perversities frequently exasperated his officers and the scientific staff. To his dawdling methods on the way out was due the fact that in an important work which w:is among the first items of his commipsion he was forestalled by Flinders, who actually had not left England till 51 days after the French had arrived on the shores oi Australia. That work was tho discovery and exploration of the unknown southern coast of Australia. After a voyage of 220 days, including some weeks' stay at Mauritius, Baudin readied Cane Leeuwin on May 27th, 1801, and, fearing; to risk his ships on an unknown coast in a winter such as mirjht be expected, he struck noith instead, and explored tb« coast of West Australia, a feat which had been accomplished by Dampier a century before. An outbreak of scurvy, and the failure of water and provisions, decided Baudin to mako a run for Kupang, in Dutch Timor. Proceeding thence to Tasmania, a three months' stay saw much good work done. As yet the island had no European settlement ; indeed, it was only four years before that Flinders and Bass had demonstrated that it- really was an island. There,, if anywhere, Baudin was free to take nosst'ssion'if annexation Jiacl been in his programme. From Tasmania tho expedition made for Port Jackson, where it arrived in the last stage of helplessness through privation and scurvy, but where, despite the Anglo-French war which, for all they know, was still raging in Europe, they received every conceivable kindness From Governor King and his staff. ■While wintering they saw much of the chivalrous Flinders, who left to continue his survey in the north and north-

I west of the Continent. Did space per- j rr.ii, wo mijjht follow the fortunes of i j this interesting exonlition. and relate i ! the peculiar draun.stance-s under which i I Governor Kind's Misnieions were j <1 immocHatH;- after the depa-r- | U?ro of his r.-uests for Tasmania, and ; j how the arm d scV.coner Cumberland, j I unci-- ' Lieutenant Robbing J despatched in hot haste to forestall the ; M:ppos--ed design of Bar.din to annex the - ! ! ifiand. Then there is tho death of j i Haudin at ?.lauritius and the- seizure of ;. S Flinders at the same place and his mali- j i cious inr/risonment by the !• rencn j Governor lor six years, to be rr'oased !in ISIO with his health fo shattered j ; that he had barely strength left to give j j the world an account of his voyages j before he died, four years later, on the j very day on which his lx>ok was pub- j I lished. Le N'aturaliste returned to j France in June, 1803, and Lc Geopraphe j ir. March, IRO4. An enormous cojloc- j tion of specimens and observations bore ■ witness to the activity of the savants ! ii. their various dennrtments. Tlio | geographical results wore not of the j I highest order. Port Phillip and Port j Darwin had eluded the vigilance of the look-out men!