LA FRANCE AUSTRALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

LA FRANCE AUSTRALE.

DU FRESNE'S VENTURE.

BY FEB.GUS DUNLOP.

In 1771 Marion du Fresne, a captain in the Royal navy of France, had seen twenty-five years' service, and in that quarter of a century the world was changed, for Canada and India, and many a fair possession more, had passed into tho hands of the accursed English, and the golden lilies of France were drooping and withered. What part Marion had played in the struggle we do not know, but -we may fairly conjecture that a young man of West Indian extraction, with tho rank of " fireship commander," a command entrusted only to tho younger and most intrepid officers in the ffeet, would have seen much of raid and skirmish in colonial seas. He was a handsome man, of pleasant manners and many friends, and to have his brains knocked out by a Maori tomahawk at tho Antipodes was the last fate that the young noblemen of his acquaintance in Paris would havo predicted for him. But- so it chanced. By some strange wanderings, a Tahitian native was discovered by Marion and his friend, the Chevalier d'Esclemeur in a Paris street. His tales of sunny islands in tropic seas inspired their imagination with a golden dream of discovery and adventure. They would find the happy places ol which the darkskinned native babbled, where the banana and tho bread-fruit grew; and in some pleasant region where no English frigate hovered in the offing they would plant the sacred lilies and found in southern seas a new France. Toward so laudable a project, the repatriation of their friend should be the first step, and to this end the authorities were approached for ships and men. But the authorities were unsympathetic. Enough money and ships had been spent in exploration. If Monsieur Marion wished to explore, let him equip his own ships. He should have tho best wishes of the Government. As to the Tahitian, take him by all means; but the young scientist, the Abbe Rochon, and his party, no! their lives were valuable. Let them remain in France. The Long Quest. However, Marion was a man not easily deterred. He purchased two ships, and the following October the Mascarin, under his own command, and the Marquis de Castries, under d'Esclemeur, set sail on their southward course. That their ships were old and rotten was an unfortunate circumstance, dictated, no doubt, by financial considerations, and .shortly aggravated by a collision, which carried away the bowsprit and mizzen mast of the Castries, so that she sailed thereafter jury-rigged. They were also somewhat undermanned and not very well equipped; but good wine flowed in the after cabins, and negro slaves attended to the comforts of the gentlemen, and their hearts were high with hope, for were they not bound for the islands of the blessed ? The death of the Tahitian as they sailed down the African coast cast a gloom over the expedition, and there was tome murmuring of return; but a rough Polynesian vocabulary, compiled under tho instruction of ihe deceased, remained, and would, no doubt, aid in establishing communication with the aboriginees of new lands. After five months at sea, they made the coast of Tasmania. Here they landed, but the barren coast, tho jack ot water, and the hostility of the natives, forbade, delay, and a course was set, by Tasman's chart, for New Zealand, where, by his description, would be found at Three Kings, "an island three leagues across, from the centre of which flowed a great river of fresh water." Another month's weary sail brought in sight, not tho Three Kings, but the snow peak of Mount Egmont, no river, hut a surf-bound shore impossible of approach. Turning northwards, they skirted along the coast, the water barrels daily lowering, and, at last, on May 5, reached the Kings to find again no river, but a barren islet, and some squalid islanders fishing from some rocks. A week later, the expedition turned southward in search of the fertile east coast country described by Captain - Cook the year before. An Auspicious Landing. Off Cape Brett, on a mild autumn morning, canoes surrounded the vessels, and scores of friendly, grinning Maoris clambered abroad. By signs and gestures they welcomed the strangers and offered guidance and hospitality. The next day, under friendly pilotage, the strained and battered ships came to anchor under the shelter of Motuarohia, in the Bay of Islands. Here, indeed, at last in those beautiful surroundings, Marion and his companions saw the land of their hopes, fresh water and fresh cresses, tho shelter and tho sunshine, the warm valleys and low hills, the Southern France they had dreamed: "A people savage, indeed, most intelligent and of good stature, meet for civilisation and subjection." " La France Australe " Marion named it, as, with a thankful heart, he stepped ashore to take possession for the King of France. That Captain Cook had already claimed the land for the accursed English he was unaware. The astonishing aspect of Marion's story is the unbounded confidence he placed in tho Maoris. They appeared to adopt him and receive him as their own, and a whole month was spent l#y the Frenchmen in a fool's paradise, fishing, exploring, cutting masts for the ships, nursing the sick, and in friendly visits to the chief Tacouri (Te Kuri V at his village. The natives elected him a chief. They adorned his head with feathers and honoured him. Even the women and children, says the chronicler, petted him and made much of him. Theso happy relations endured for thirty-two days, and on the thirty-third they ate him. But, at all events, Marion had a very agreeable month's holiday before his decease. A Fruitless Vengeance. On the morning of Juno 12, Monsieur Marion, dressed in a blue and scarlet coat of English cloth, sword on thigh, and his silver-mounted gun under his arm, stepped into the long-boat for a visit to Tacouri. They were to draw the seine arid eat oysters, and return at nightfall. Iri the evening ho did not return, but no anxiety was felt, for the captain had previously slept ashore. Next morning, a boat on some other service, was sent to the same cove, and toward midday, tho horrified d' Esclemeur was informed by a sailor, who had escaped and swam off to the ships, that Marion and both boat's crews had been massacred. Tho masting party in the bush were at once warned, and succeeded in escaping in good order, though pursued to the beach by a thousand or more natives. Nothing remained but to get tho sick on board, procure wood and water, and flee away from that unholy place. As but one long-boat remained, the necessary transport occupied several days, and in the meanwhile, d'Esclemeur took ample vengeance. His punitive parties captured (very gallantly, bo it said) a principal pa, and slew some two or three hundred of the defenders, burnt the villages, and thoroughly scoured the neighbourhood. But, save for some gruesome discoveries of bones and scraps of clothing, no trace was found of Marion, and d' Esclemeur, distraught with grief, and with barely enough men left to work the ships, sailed sorrowfully northward, to make his way through tho tropics to Manila, and so home to France. Why tho natives slew Marion, we do rot know. But never did gallant expedition end more grievously.