An Odyssey through Time Nicolas Baudin’s Long Haul

JEAN FORNASIERO

► Fig 1a. Portrait of TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF BAD PRESS Nicolas Baudin, by Philip Parker King. M. Baudin has no qualities, either IMAGE: COURTESY OF moral or social; he is neither a MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF naturalist nor a seaman! His hair NSW, PXC 767. stands on end at the slightest squall … PIERRE-GUILLAUME GICQUEL, 1800–1802 Although the results of Captain Nicolas Baudin’s campaign were most extensive, it seems that bad luck has dogged this expedition to date and that all the biographical dictionaries and voyage accounts have conspired to say as little about it as possible. JULES VERNE, 1879 Few navigators have had such a bad press as Nicolas Baudin. O.H.K. SPATE, 1987 All witnesses agree, his personality Background Detail, fig. 8, was dictatorial, cold, and vindictive. p. 79. BOURGOIN AND TAILLEMITE, 2002

70 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 A BREAKTHROUGH The visitors who flocked to seeThe Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers, 1800–18041 as it toured Australia between 2016 and 2018 were not necessarily affected by a wave of Francophilia nor succumbing to the fantasy of an Australia that could have been French— appealing though these themes were at a time of renewed exchanges and partnerships with . The exhibition’s attendees were also responding to the images and artefacts on display, which offered them a glimpse into the prehistory of their own world, the world of a largely pristine Australia, its inhabitants and its natural products. It is true that this particular exhibition was but the latest edition in a series of rediscoveries of the scientific bounty harvested in Australia by Nicolas Baudin and his team and depicted with sensitivity by his artists. Two of the most beautifully crafted of earlier exhibitions, Terre Napoléon: Australia through French Eyes in 1999 and The Encounter 1802: Art of the Flinders and Baudin Voyages in 2002,2 had already done much to raise public consciousness of the historical and cultural significance of these artefacts. Where the 2016– 18 exhibition differed from its predecessors was that it assembled by far the largest collection of these treasures, and that it toured for two years through five states and territories, with each region adapting the theme and content of the exhibition to the nature of its own encounter with the Baudin expedition between 1801 on display alongside the source works that ▲ Fig 1b. (top) and 1803.3 The themes covered varied greatly had assisted them in retrieving their ancient Model of Baudin’s according to location, ranging from cartography ship Le Géographe artistic practices (figs 2a–2c). The French to Anglo-French relations, from biodiversity to (1941), by Lionel artwork undeniably had its place in the S. Rogers taxonomy, from expeditioner biographies to Australian imaginary. IMAGE: COURTESY OF intercultural encounters. The range of material SOUTH AUSTRALIAN In a parallel movement that was taking MARITIME MUSEUM made available for display was so large and place while the exhibition toured Australia, ▲ Fig 1c. (bottom) diverse that it enabled curators to provide illustrations and documents from the Baudin Official letterhead many striking demonstrations of the voyage’s for the Baudin expedition were finding their way into public legacy, one such example being the role played Expedition. auctions in Paris, London and Australia, Engraving on by the expedition’s artwork in the revival of and fetching higher prices than ever before. paper—13 x 20 cm. certain Indigenous crafts. The intricate detail IMAGE: COURTESY OF Between 2016 and 2018 items such as the MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE contained in Nicolas-Martin Petit’s portraits missing chapter of the journal of one of the NATURELLE, LE of Indigenous people and Charles-Alexandre HAVRE – N° 13 039-2 expedition’s botanists, correspondence between Lesueur’s illustrations of Australian fauna and the voyage’s key protagonists, a rare animal artefacts helped to provide the link between drawing and several Indigenous portraits from past and present generations of Indigenous Petit and scenes by Lesueur, began to enter artists, recent examples of whose work was

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 71 ▼ Fig 2c. Terre de Diémen–Armes, vases, ornements, by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur. Wash, ink and pencil on paper—26 x 20.5 cm. IMAGE: COURTESY OF MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE, – N° 18 009

Now every odyssey deserves to be told, and this one is as colourful and challenging as any, especially since it took over two centuries for it to achieve a degree of recognition, and to commence its move from the margins of history towards the mainstream. However, ▲ Fig 2a. (top the marketplace, eventually migrating towards rather than retell the entire story, which is left) Canoe on a new owners, both public and private, in France now relatively well known, the focus here is to shore with some spears, by Charles- and in Australia. Although the listings from analyse how its history has long been told and Alexandre Lesueur or auction houses show that the strength of this to determine whether its mode of narration Nicolas-Martin Petit. market has been developing over some years, was part of the reason it remained enshrouded Watercolour on blue- tinted paper—23.5 x the recent release of such a wealth of material in layers of myth, despite the best efforts of 31.5 cm. is certainly not coincidental; the market, historians to disentangle it. IMAGE : COURTESY OF MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE having gauged a heightened interest, responded NATURELLE, LE accordingly and items of scientific, artistic and THE PRE-HISTORY HAVRE – N° 18 005 historical significance were exchanged. While The Baudin expedition to , ▲ Fig 2b. (lower left) King marina shell, one might lament that few found their way which set sail from Le Havre in 1800, was long Phasianotrochus into public collections, the fact remains that considered a failure. Despite the commander’s eximius (Perry, 1811), the Baudin voyage had reinforced its place in past reputation as a distinguished scientific surrounded by a 4 necklace made from Australian history, the significance of which voyager, and the impressive natural history the same shells, by can be partially assessed on the monetary value collections that he and his team amassed Charles-Alexandre attributed to its artefacts, and partially on the in the course of their Australian voyage, the Lesueur. Pencil on paper—9 x 10.5 cm reactions of visitors to the exhibition. After a expedition fell into disfavour even before IMAGE : COURTESY OF long odyssey through history the expedition its return to France in 1804. Many of those MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE, LE was in view of its destination. who had originally supported or financed the HAVRE – N° 18 010

72 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 venture, particularly the naval and political establishments, greeted the survivors of the long and difficult voyage with indifference, some with hostility.5 If, upon its return, the expedition was no longer the source of national pride that it had been on its departure, it was certainly not as a result of its scientific collections, which were, by any standards, impressive; it was partly because the commander’s competence and integrity were called into question by his subordinates, and partly because he did not complete one of the key cartographic tasks included in his instructions: to claim the undisputed “right of discovery” over the entirety of the “unknown coast” of southern Australia, the last substantial 6 mystery on the world map (fig. 3). Geo-political strategy mattered, not least ▲ Fig 3. Detail of Since Nicolas Baudin made an unexpected during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. This Laurie and Whittle’s New Map of the World encounter in April 1802, on this self-same coast, explains why contemporaneous expeditions of showing the outline with British navigator , he discovery were sent to Australia by the French of Australia as it was had the disagreeable surprise to learn that and British in the first place, and why Nicolas known in 1800. IMAGE: COURTESY the coastline which he was expected to be the Baudin and Matthew Flinders inevitably met OF STATE LIBRARY OF first to chart was limited to a relatively small on this remote coastline. And, just as inevitably, NEW SOUTH WALES section of the present-day coast of South both navigators paid a reputational price for Australia and Victoria; thanks to Matthew their failure to claim priority of discovery for Flinders (fig. 4b), who was simultaneously the entire length of the “unknown coast”. engaged on the same charting mission as However, if redemption was to prove slow Baudin in 1802, and to James Grant, who had for both navigators, the damage inflicted on been charting as he traversed Bass Strait in Baudin’s reputation was to prove almost fatal. 1800,7 the British could lay claim to the rest.8 Tales of his poor seamanship, his ignorance,

◄ Fig 4a. (far left) Nicolas Baudin, portrait by Joseph Jauffret (ca. 1800), engraved by Mecou. IMAGE : COURTESY OF STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

◄ Fig 4b. (left) Matthew Flinders, watercolour miniature portrait (ca. 1800). IMAGE: COURTESY OF MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 73 ▲ Fig 5a. (left) corruption and inhumanity were widely Baudin was subjected to more ridicule than Portrait of François circulated by Baudin’s fellow voyagers, for vitriol and, as a consequence, he did not long Péron by Jean Henri Cless, whom a scapegoat was needed to protect remain a figure of public interest. He was engraved by Conrad their own careers from the contamination fortunate too, in that an extensive archival Westermayer. of failure.9 The scapegoat was well chosen: documentation of his voyage was deposited IMAGE: COURTESY OF NATIONAL LIBRARY OF not only had Baudin died in on in French public collections, in which his own AUSTRALIA the return journey, but he was also a naval narrative remained safely preserved until the ▲ Fig 5b. (right) outsider, with no champions to protect time came to review the record. Engraving by him from the orchestrated onslaught. The And that time finally did come, in the Lambert Frères from a drawing by process of laying blame is entrenched in the early years of the last century. Ernest Scott’s Charles-Alexandre official account of the expedition, theVoyage Terre Napoléon: A History of French Exploration Lesueur. de découvertes aux Terres australes (fig. 5b) and Projects in Australia, although highly IMAGE: FRONTISPIECE TO ATLAS, PART 1, compiled by the chief naturalist François critical of some of the aspects of the Baudin VOYAGE DE DÉCOUVERTES AUX Péron (fig. 5a) (and completed by cartographer expedition, was the first major study to refute

TERRES AUSTRALES Louis Freycinet).10 This version of events some of the long-standing charges against its (1807). influenced representations of the voyage and commander.14 However, Scott’s mustering of its commander for two centuries, and echoes primary sources, although impressive, was of the mythmaking that arose around Baudin’s not complete enough for him to resolve all of person and his voyage still resonate today.11 the existing controversies, which meant that When literary representations are added to he could not disregard entirely the record the mix the myths become more tenacious still. provided by the expedition’s official narrative. Baudin was unlucky enough to feature not only He thus came to adopt part of the discourse as an object of ridicule in a widely read novel of rivalry that Péron had initiated against his by Jules Verne, but also as a disgraced figure in commander. For the same reason, Scott also Verne’s otherwise glorious history of French became enmeshed in a second rivalry paradigm exploration.12 However, more fortunate in that that had developed around the expedition in regard than Richard III, whose bad reputation British naval circles. While Scott convincingly was sealed by Shakespeare’s eponymous play,13 refuted early British accusations that the

74 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 French held Flinders captive in Mauritius encounter between the two captains which while copying his charts,15 he was not averse to featured in Ernestine Hill’s novel of 1941. promoting the superiority of Flinders’ qualities Through the memorable description she gave and achievements over Baudin’s. Indeed, he of the meeting between a sharp and impeccably tended to promote Flinders as an exemplar of turned-out Flinders and a dipsy Baudin in a British decency, describing him as “a downright “snuff-stained vest”,19 she breathed new life Englishman of exceptionally high character” into the paradigm already so ably exploited by and “an Englishman of the very best type”.16 Scott—to whom she paid due homage. When Scott alluded to the arrival of Baudin’s ship in Sydney Harbour in June 1802, he RENEWAL AND REGRESSION described the Géographe as disabled, saved only In the late twentieth century the expedition’s by the intervention of Flinders’s fit, healthy and history once more came under scrutiny competent crew: the French, too scurvy-ridden from both French and Australian historians, and too few in number to manœuvre their who made serious attempts to dispel the vessel, were towed to their moorings by predominant rivalry narratives.20 In 1974, the publication of Nicolas Baudin’s journal A boat’s crew of robust blue jackets from in English introduced the commander’s voice the Investigator […]. Soon the British tars into the public arena, and provided a narrative climbed aboard, sails were trimmed, and that challenged much of the substance within the tiller was grasped by a strong hand, the official account of Péron and Freycinet.21 a brisk British officer took charge, and Although hailed as an important breakthrough the ship was brought through the blue by the vast majority of reviewers, and fruitfully waters of Port Jackson … .17 exploited by researchers ever since, the journal This view, propagated by Scott and based was not as well received by those for whom the largely on Péron’s dramatised testimony, was rivalry paradigm was an unshakeable article unsubstantiated by the journals of Baudin’s of faith. The aggressive affirmation by one of officers or by the ship’s log, which described Flinders’s biographers—flying in the face of an unremarkable operation by which the the contrary evidence provided in the journal Géographe was guided to its anchorage.18 itself—that Baudin’s writings showed him to However, it is Scott’s version that has be not only incompetent but illiterate, was but regularly been repeated as fact by historians one example of the tenacity of the prevailing and journalists. He had tapped into a rich paradigm.22 That this was not an isolated nationalistic vein by the marked contrast he phenomenon can be seen in a similarly outraged drew between British maritime knowhow reaction to another key publication of the 1970s, and French incompetence. This vein also Aux origines de l’anthropologie française, by Jean runs through the fictionalised version of the Copans and Jean Jamin.23 Through the retrieval and dissemination ◄ Fig 6. (far left) of archival documents, this work examined Matthew Flinders and the aims and results of the ‘Observers of Man’, Nicolas Baudin by the learned society which was responsible for Chris Grosz. IMAGE: REPRODUCED supplying ground-breaking anthropological WITH PERMISSION instructions to the commander and his FROM CHRIS GROSZ scientific team.24 The ‘observers’ on the expedition were those who contributed to the record of encounters with Indigenous peoples, and their number included both Péron and Baudin. By drawing attention to these records, Copans and Jamin pointed to the value not only of Péron’s pioneering field work, but also of Baudin’s conscientious reporting of

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 75 the details of the lives of the peoples and proceeded to justify both his admiration for individuals he encountered, particularly in Péron and his distaste for Baudin whom he . Curiously, while this publication went on to describe as ‘the sycophant in all its rapidly became a major source document for horror’.30 Whatever the merits or otherwise anthropologists seeking to understand the of Faivre’s preface or Jorion’s response, the early history of their field, a section of its striking feature of the debate between two contents was contested by one anthropologist contributors to this version of the rivalry for whom Baudin’s name could not be allowed paradigm is the belligerent nature of the to sit alongside Péron’s. To prove his point, discourse involved. By transplanting the Paul Jorion mounted a double attack. Firstly rehabilitation of Baudin into Péron’s territory— he took to task an influential British critic the domain of science in general and of of Péron’s anthropology by accusing him of anthropology in particular—Faivre, and hence buying into an outdated paradigm of national Copans and Jamin, had made a tactical error. rivalry.25 The critic in question, Francis Moore, If British anthropology, through Moore, was had reproached Péron with neglecting the task prepared to admit both Péron’s failings as a of studying the Indigenous population of Port pioneer and Baudin’s qualities as an observer, Jackson during the expedition’s five-month stay French anthropology, through Jorion, was not. in 1802, and with choosing instead to prepare As a consequence of the rivalry paradigms that a “spy” report on the state of the nascent were still in force, and their perceived intrusion colony.26 While Moore did not resort to the on the otherwise solid historical grounding nationalistic argument pursued by Scott, that of their work, Copans and Jamin made the Péron had thus engaged in an act of dishonesty decision to remove Faivre’s ‘embarrassing or even treachery by taking advantage of his contribution’.31 In the second edition of their unsuspecting British hosts,27 his comments on work, which appeared in 1994, without the Péron’s failings as an anthropologist, and the preface, they made the conscious decision energetic French response, did demonstrate also to step back from the Péron–Baudin that nationalistic sentiments could still be confrontation. aroused when Péron’s status as “first field- In that sense they were right, for the time work ethnologist” was called into question, for viewing the expedition and its protagonists particularly by an Englishman.28 The national primarily through the lens of conflict and rivalry paradigm, although not exactly the type rivalry should by now have been relegated to originally invoked by Jorion, thus remained part the past. A detailed analysis of the expedition of the discussion around the expedition’s legacy. had been in print for seven years by the time However, Jorion had a second axe to grind: Copan and Jamin’s 1994 edition appeared, and this concerned Baudin and fed directly into the it not only outdated previous versions of the rivalry paradigm that pitted Péron against his narrative, but set the benchmark for all future commander. In this instance it was historian scholarship in the field. In this book,The French Jean-Paul Faivre who was Jorion’s target. Faivre Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801–1803, was the recognized expert on the Baudin Frank Horner completed and revised the expedition, being the author of a study based historical record into which Faivre, Scott on a detailed investigation of its extensive and others had made important inroads, archives.29 As such, he was invited to write while moving beyond the paradigms that a preface for Copans and Jamin’s work. It is had bound his precursors. Having obtained true that the harsh assessment of Peron and access to a greater range of archival material, Freycinet made by Faivre in his preface was Horner was able to counter the myths and neither balanced nor likely to be appreciated misrepresentations by tackling them head on, by the presumed audience for the volume, but through a series of well-constructed arguments Jorion’s riposte was conducted on another based on evidence cross-referenced from level altogether, in that he sought to demolish multiple sources. The essential narrative of Faivre’s reputation as an historian. He then what happened when, where and why was

76 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 now firmly in place. In the same period, new COMBATTING THE LEGEND work was emerging on specific aspects of For those researchers in French-Australian the expedition, such as anthropology, natural history who remained as committed as Ernest history and art history, which directed Scott to the intention that he had articulated attention towards the expedition’s legacy when embarking upon his own work on the of achievement rather than to an historical expedition a century earlier, that ‘the truth narrative of failure.32 about the matter should be known’,37 the In theory then, much of the ‘Australian continued elusiveness of this goal was both legend’ that Horner had dismissed should have a disappointment and an encouragement. fallen into disuse, but in practice it continued Clearly, greater reflection was needed on the to hold currency within an emerging trend reasons behind the persistence of mythical of popular literature on the topic, as legend elements within the historical record if tends to do. For example, the rivalry theme, solutions were to be identified. On the one through the narrative of a hotly contested hand, disentangling fact from myth, rumour race between Flinders and Baudin, retained and hearsay is history’s eternal combat; on its readerly appeal, as several twenty-first the other, for a history with a relatively small century works of popular history could history, the Baudin expedition seemed far from readily demonstrate.33 However, that the same being the most desperate of causes. However, if paradigm maintained its influence within the situation seemed salvageable, the case was the mainstream of historical debate was far from simple. less to be expected in the wake of Horner’s The possible causes of the entanglement of work. As the bicentenary of the expedition’s myth and history in Baudin’s case were many encounter with Matthew Flinders approached, and varied. Firstly, the obscurity of which it brought out a range of new reflections on Jules Verne had complained when conducting this event and its protagonists. However, the research on the Baudin voyage in the 1870s, response of commentators who reported on and in which it had languished for so long, these studies was often to reproduce, if not the meant that published material on the topic colourful clichés of old, at least the familiar was relatively rare, and that fact-checking was discourse of rivalry. In 2001–2002 Nicolas consequently difficult and onerous. Even in the Baudin continued, much as before, to be rated twenty-first century, research is still within the second-best in comparison with his British phase of identifying and synthesizing archival counterpart. In reference to French cartography material. This phase is daunting enough in particular, respected commentators evoked in the case of the Baudin expedition. The the ‘inferiority of the French charts’ and dissemination of the voyage’s documentation ‘French incompetence’ or claimed that Baudin’s across public and private repositories in several reconnaissance was ‘dilatory and careless’.34 countries and several languages will long Even within the historical studies on which represent a major challenge in terms of access, such reviews were written, Baudin was found time and resources. Given the scientific nature to have committed navigational errors that of much of the material within those archives, resulted in the expedition’s slow progress the proliferation of facts across many branches along the African coast.35 Yet this accusation, of technical knowledge also poses significant originally made by Péron, had long been problems of understanding and interpretation. discredited by Horner, Spate and others,36 If researchers are to arrive at some of the and would seem to have passed well beyond understandings required to encompass the the status of an unresolved issue. Why then multiple missions of a voyage of scientific was there an obstacle to circulating a message discovery, and to illuminate the dark corners in which had been amended and sanctioned in which myth and legend can take up residence, the usual ways by the community of scholars? the task for historians today is to rethink how such collective histories can be made and

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 77 ► Fig 7. Original effectively circulated. When engaging with website design for such histories, teamwork presents itself today The Baudin Legacy Project. as the most obvious answer. Scott had spoken IMAGE: HTTPS:// of the ‘several lifetimes’ of work required SYDNEY.EDU.AU/ARTS/ RESEARCH/BAUDIN/ for cross-checking the facts involved in any PROJECT/ research endeavour.38 We chose to overcome this problem by putting together some simultaneous ‘lifetimes’, that is, by establishing teams of researchers bringing different sets of skills to bear to the task. In this way we were seeking less to re-engage in a process of rehabilitation of the voyage or its captain, than to determine how to read their collective legacy today and how to engage with a cultural legacy that is richer than anyone could have imagined when pioneers such as Scott first took up Baudin’s case. John West-Sooby and I commenced this task by collaborating with historian Peter Monteath in a work designed to counter the collaborative project to which we contributed, Flinders–Baudin rivalry paradigm and to The Baudin Legacy, supported by the Australian establish the political, scientific and artistic Research Council, and led by distinguished parallels between the two voyages rather than manuscript scholar and Baudin specialist, their respective places within a hierarchy Margaret Sankey, and by the eminent Belgian of voyaging.39 By adding our contribution scientist and historian of the expedition, Michel to the publishing output which marked the Jangoux (fig. 7). The project’s aim was double: to bicentenary of Flinders’ circumnavigation provide access to the Baudin archive through of Australia, we had also hoped to bring the making available the French transcription and Baudin story to a much wider audience of English translation of key documents, and to maritime historians and enthusiasts than if publish our own analyses of the documentation, we had attempted to retell the saga of the individually and in collaboration.40 The project French expedition in isolation. Given that was, and remains ambitious; work on the the publication of Encountering Terra Australis online repository hosted by the University received recognition from maritime historians of Sydney still continues today. Most of its and led to invitations to speak at major events material is sourced from the French National such as the bicentenary of Flinders’s map Archives and the Natural History Museum of Australia, we were able to conclude that in Paris, with other collaborations being breaking the mould of the rivalry narrative developed. The website provides for exchanges had facilitated the acceptance of a multi- with researchers from different fields, but layered and multi-cultural version of the also with artists seeking inspiration from the Franco-British encounter of 1802. Secondly, this expedition’s artwork and artefacts. The project refreshed narrative opened up new possibilities team maintains a strong relationship with for the dissemination of information, as the French repository holding most of this researchers from a variety of disciplines began artwork, the Lesueur Collection of the Natural to make contact seeking answers to questions History Museum of Le Havre. This institution is that Baudin’s voyage had aroused within their developing its own online repository in parallel, respective fields. a project to which the Baudin Legacy also The realisation that there was such a strong contributes its expertise. demand for increased access to the historical Naturally, the provision of documentation to record was the motivation behind a second a wider readership, while useful for researchers

78 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 seeking to locate a point of detail, is not a groups of researchers from different fields. strategy for correcting, augmenting or revising Relationships were forged by colleagues the historical record itself. Online publication becoming aware of the resources available on of raw images or unmediated documentation, the website and initiating a fruitful dialogue in the form of transcriptions and translations, about the information they were seeking to is an invaluable tool for raising awareness obtain from the records in fields as diverse of the voyage’s source material, but can as linguistics, anthropology, cartography only effect a new evaluation of the record— or natural history. However, to date, the especially a record of such vast dimensions—if most productive areas in terms of initiating these documents are accompanied by expert interdisciplinary collaborations and writings commentary. As we have seen, the existence have been ornithology and art history. In of conflicting testimonies has long posed the first case, current interest was revived problems for scholars, but any new retelling by the fact that the bird specimens collected of the expedition’s story also needs to take by the Baudin expedition were so numerous into account the multiple versions of the that they were not exploited systematically same event which are to be found in the until relatively recently, thus providing an journals of officers and naturalists. In order invaluable untapped resource for taxonomists. to deal with this problem and to provide In one or two cases, I was able to locate, context and balance, the team has published transcribe and translate the source texts that key texts in critical editions, and plans to assisted colleagues in proposing an answer to produce still more, in French and in English.41 questions surrounding the identity of species, Annotated editions both of the empathetic a collaboration which occasionally resulted letter of Baudin to Governor King on the fate of in co-authorship of scientific papers.43 The Indigenous peoples, and of Péron’s belligerent unravelling of the identity of the “mystery bird” memoir to the French Government on the of St Peter Island gives but one example of how urgent need to invade the colony of New South the expedition’s archives retained the memory Wales, seek to bring clarity to a wider public of a bird sighted by Péron and illustrated on the political and contextual circumstances by Lesueur (fig. 8). The revival of this quaint that opposed Baudin and Péron to a far greater memory of a bird described “always looking degree than personal differences ever could.42 smug”, a species now absent from the remote For the moment such publications are of the ◄ Fig 8. Noisy traditional print type, in order also to engage Scrub-bird a scholarly audience, but online publication Atrichornis clamosus of the same type is not to be excluded as the or Rufous bristlebird Dasyornis broudbenti, Baudin Legacy and Le Havre websites evolve. by Charles- One thing is certain: as long as the main Alexandre Lesueur. sources of information on the expedition’s Pencil on cream paper—25 x 20 cm. chronology and itinerary, namely the official IMAGE: COURTESY OF account by François Péron, and the journals MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE, LE of Nicolas Baudin, remain available to readers HAVRE – N° 79 041 in their current unmediated form, without commentary or annotation to account for their differences, the temptation will remain for opinion to be divided between the expedition’s two alternative narratives.

OTHER APPROACHES Another form of publication which the Baudin website enabled was the co-writing of essays and papers in collaboration with

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 79 45 ▲ Figs 9a (left) and location in which it was originally observed, is with a warm critical reception. The catalogue 9b (right). Littoral. not just anecdotal: it also feeds into concerns also offered the opportunity to discuss some of Front cover design (2010) by Vivonne of our own times about changes in habitat and the little known details, derived from archival Thwaites. climate that have diminished the varieties of documents, of Lesueur’s early attachment to IMAGE: REPRODUCED birdlife abundant in 1802. Baudin and his initial training within Baudin’s WITH PERMISSION FROM VIVONNE Proof of the value in extracting historical close-knit group of scientific companions, THWAITES. information for new publics is also provided but also of the musical experiments by the example of the art world. Australian conducted during encounters with Indigenous curators and artists have long been attracted Tasmanians.46 Both sets of details provided a to the delicate and empathetic works of counterpoint to commonly expressed views Lesueur and Petit which capture the artists’ about Péron’s exclusive role as a scientific sense of wonder at observing for the first ► Fig 10. Air of the Natives of Port time the peoples and lifeforms in different Jackson. Notated by regions of Australia. In Littoral, a joint project M. Bernier. Charles- with curator Vivonne Thwaites, I assisted Alexandre Lesueur and Pierre-François with identifying those French archives that Bernier. Ink on would provide her with the images and paper—32 x 21 cm. documentation she would require to design IMAGE : COURTESY OF MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE an exhibition and catalogue around Lesueur’s NATURELLE, LE HAVRE – N° 16 057 lifetime obsession with oceans and marine life (figs 9a & 9b). Her mission was also to relate Lesueur’s vision of Australian shores and their fauna to the preoccupations of contemporary Australian artists with their environment.44 The resulting exhibition, which contrasted Lesueur’s delicate watercolours of fish, molluscs and crustaceans, with several installations, showing water cycles of the sea and rivers, intercultural encounters on the seashore, and degradation of the littoral, alongside lacy, fragile images of marine plants, went on display in Hobart in 2010, and met

80 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 which aesthetics play such a large part through ◄ Fig 11. The Art of the charming idiosyncrasies of the scientific Science. Cover design by Liz Nicholson, illustrations of Lesueur and Petit. designBITE (2016), In the two centuries since the return of from a watercolour Baudin’s expedition to France, and the of a porcupine fish by Charles- publication of its official narrative, much has Alexandre Lesueur now changed, both in regard to the public or Nicolas-Martin perception of the voyage, and its importance as Petit. Watercolour and brown ink a record of Ausralian life, landscapes and on paper—27.5 x lifeforms in the early nineteenth century. Much 20.5 cm. IMAGE: COURTESY OF remains to be done, however, as the voyage MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE records are vast, and increasingly require the NATURELLE, LE HAVRE - N° 76 712 input of researchers across a range of the scientific and humanities disciplines to release new findings and articulate new insights into the voyage’s mission and achievements. Ample space remains for teams and individuals to work this fertile ground in new ways. In the meantime, if, by the jettisoning of old legends, mentor to Lesueur and about Péron’s neglect Nicolas Baudin himself may have finally of the instructions on social anthropology emerged from his centuries-long voyage provided to the expedition by the philosopher through history as an accomplished navigator, Joseph-Marie Degérando.47 and even a philosophical traveller—and The archival research conducted in the certainly no Captain Bligh (but was Captain course of our various projects also led to the Bligh?)—, his voyage itself still has the potential development of a close working relationship to bring home more bounty from the Southern with Gabrielle Baglione and Cédric Crémière, Lands for historians and scientists alike. ¶ respectively the curator of the Lesueur Collection and the Director of the Natural JEAN FORNASIERO faha History Museum of Le Havre. Our mutual is Professor Emerita of French familiarity with the expedition’s archives and Studies at the University of understanding of the necessity to disentangle Adelaide. She is currently the the history of the voyage from its mythical President of the Languages and elements determined us to undertake a Cultures Network for Australian strategy of creating exhibitions on research- Universities (LCNAU). Her research interests lie in the field based topics. The cycle commenced with The of nineteenth-century French Studies, particularly the Art of Science (fig. 11), the Australian touring Napoleonic and Romantic periods. A focus on the history exhibition cycle of 2016–18, with its lavishly of ideas has also led her to the study of the Baudin illustrated scholarly catalogue, and the expedition to Australia (1800–04). Recent publications collaboration will continue with a series of include Reflections of a Philosophical Voyager (2016) and, exhibitions from 2020 to 2022 in the newly with John West-Sooby, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales, 1803–1810 (2014). She was a consultant to renovated Museum of Natural History in the recent touring exhibition devoted to the artwork of Le Havre. Whilst it is increasingly common the Baudin voyage, The Art of Science and co-author of for humanities scholars to disseminate the its catalogue, with Lindl Lawton and John West-Sooby results of their work through exhibitions and (2016). She is a member of the ‘Revolutionary Voyaging’ various forms of public performance, such a team, an ARC funded project set up to investigate the choice, in the case of the Baudin expedition, ways in which the upheavals of the French Revolution left their mark on French voyages of scientific discovery is a particularly effective one: exhibitions are such as Baudin’s. well suited to raising awareness of a history in

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 81 1. The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers, 1800–1804, ed. by 11. Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘Doing it Jean Fornasiero, Lindl Lawton and John West-Sooby by the Book: Breaking the Reputation of Nicolas (Mile End: Wakefield Press, 2016). Baudin’, in Explorations and Encounters in French, ed. 2. Terre Napoléon: Australia through French Eyes, ed. by by Jean Fornasiero and Colette Mrowa-Hopkins Susan Hunt and Paul Carter (Sydney: Historic Trust (Adelaide: Press, 2010), of New South Wales/Hordern House, 1999); The pp. 135–64. Encounter, 1802: Art of the Flinders and Baudin Voyages, 12. Jules Verne, Les Enfants du capitaine Grant (Paris: ed. by Sarah Thomas (Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Hetzel, 1867–68), and Les Grands Navigateurs du Australia, 2002). XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Hetzel, 1879). 3. The Natural History Museum of Le Havre initiated 13. Richard III remains a contested figure: arguments the project and supplied the bulk of the material and counter-arguments continue to be exchanged on display, with further contributions coming from between his detractors and supporters, leaving him the Australian partner museums, as well as from the trapped, as a recent commentator described it, in ‘a Natural History Museum in Paris and the French kind of narrative hell’ (Robert McCrum, ‘Richard III, National Archives. the great villain of English history, is due a 4. For an account of the previous scientific voyage makeover’, The Observer, 15 September 2012.) undertaken by Baudin from 1796 to 1798, a voyage 14. Ernest Scott, Terre Napoleon: A History of French that had given him the status of a national hero, Explorations and Projects in Australia (London: see Michel Jangoux, Journal du voyage aux Antilles Methuen and Co., 1910). de la Belle Angélique (1796–1798) (Paris: PUPS and 15. Ernest Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, R.N. Académie royale de Belgique, 2009). (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1914), ch. 26. 5. For the expedition’s unfavourable reception upon 16. Scott, Preface, Matthew Flinders, pp. v, viii. its return to France, see Frank Horner, The French 17. Scott, Terre Napoleon, p. 187. Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801–1803 (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1987), ch. 15. 18. Horner, The French Reconnaissance, pp. 239–40. 6. Horner rightly states that other reasons contributed 19. Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait: The Story of to the judgement that the expedition had been a Matthew Flinders (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1941), failure (pp. 340–43), but in finally attributing this p. 253. judgement to the “political climate” or Napoléon’s 20. The historiography of the Baudin voyage, from realisation of his now “shrunken horizons” (p. 343), its beginnings until the early 2000s, is set out in he also links Baudin’s disgrace to a loss of face, if detail by Margaret Sankey, Peter Cowley and Jean not territory, to the British. Fornasiero, ‘The Baudin Expedition in Review: Old 7. James Grant, The narrative of a voyage of discovery, Quarrels and New Approaches’, Australian Journal of performed in His Majesty’s vessel the Lady Nelson, of French Studies, 41.2 (May–August 2004), 4–14. sixty tons burthen: with sliding keels, in the years 1800, 21. Nicolas Baudin, The Journal of Post-Captain Nicolas 1801, and 1802, to New South Wales (London: Printed Baudin, Commander-in-Chief of the Corvettes by C. Roworth for T. Egerton, 1803). Géographe and Naturaliste assigned by order of 8. For the details of the dismay the encounter caused the Government to a voyage of discovery, trans. by to the French voyagers, see Jean Fornasiero and Christine Cornell (Adelaide: State Libraries Board of John West-Sooby, ‘Matthew Flinders through French SA, 1974). Eyes: Nicolas Baudin’s Lessons from ’, 22. Sidney J. Baker, ‘A Madman in the South Seas’, Nation Journal of Pacific History, 52.1 (2017), 1–14. Review, May 30–June 5 1975, p. 866. 9. For example, a highly unflattering story was 23. J. Copans and J. Jamin, Aux origines de l’anthropologie circulated by the zoologist who deserted the française: Les Mémoires de la Société des Observateurs expedition at Mauritius in 1801: see Jean-Baptiste de l’Homme en l’an VIII (Paris: Le Sycomore, 1978). Bory de Saint-Vincent, Voyage dans les quatre 24. For a detailed history of this society, see Jean-Luc principales îles des mers d’Afrique, fait par ordre du Chappey, La Société des Observateurs de l’homme Gouvernement, pendant les années neuf et dix de la (1799–1804): Des anthropologues au temps de Bonaparte République (1801 et 1802), avec l’histoire de la traversée (Paris: Société des études robespierristes, 2002). du capitaine Baudin jusqu’au Port-Louis de l’île Maurice, vol. i (Paris: F. Buisson, 1804). 25. Paul Jorion, ‘Aux Origines de l’anthropologie française [note critique]’, L’Homme, 20.2 (1980), 91–98. 10. The official account of the Baudin expedition appeared under the full title of Voyage de découvertes 26. The Observation of Savage Peoples by Joseph-Marie aux Terres Australes exécuté par ordre de Sa Majesté Degérando, ed. and trans. by F.C.T. Moore (London: l’Empereur et Roi, sur les corvettes le Géographe, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969 [reprinted 2004]). le Naturaliste, et la goélette le Casuarina, pendant 27. Scott, Matthew Flinders, ch. 17. les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804 (Paris : 28. Jorion, p. 94. Imprimerie Impériale [later Imprimerie Royale], 29. Jean-Paul Faivre, L’Expansion française dans le 1807–16). The two volumes which relate the events of Pacifique, 1800–1842 (Paris: Nouvelle Éditions the journey are: Historique, vol. i, by François Péron, Latines, 1953). 1807; Historique, vol. ii, by F. Péron, continued by Louis Freycinet, 1816. 30. Jorion, p. 95. 31. Jorion, p. 94.

82 HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA 10 · 2019 32. For example, N.J.B. Plomley, The Baudin Expedition 42. Reflections of a Philosophical Voyager. Letter from and the Tasmanian Aborigines, 1802 (Hobart: Blubber Nicolas Baudin to Philip Gidley King, 24 December 1802, Head Press, 1983); Jacqueline Bonnemains, Elliott ed. and trans. by Jean Fornasiero (Adelaide: Friends Forsyth and Bernard Smith, Baudin in Australian of the State Library of , 2016); Jean Waters: The Artwork of the French Voyage of Discovery Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, French Designs on to the Southern Lands 1800-1804 (Melbourne/New Colonial New South Wales: François Péron’s Memoir on York: Oxford University Press in association with the English Settlements in New Holland, Van Diemen’s the Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1988). Land and the Archipelagos of the Great Pacific Ocean, 33. Robert Tiley, Australian Navigators: Picking Up Shells ed. and trans. by J. Fornasiero and J. West-Sooby and Catching Butterflies in an Age of Revolution (East (Adelaide: The Friends of the State Library of South Roseville: Kangaroo Press, 2002); Klaus Toft, The Australia, 2014). Navigators: The Great Race between Matthew Flinders 43. Andrew Black, Richard Schodde and Jean and Nicolas Baudin for the North-South Passage Fornasiero, ‘East or West: to which subspecies does through Australia (Sydney: Duffy and Snellgrove, the type specimen of the Galah, Eolophus roseicapilla 2002); David Hill, The Great Race: The Thrilling Race (Vieillot, 1817) (Aves: Cacatuidae), belong?’, Zootaxa, between Frenchman Nicolas Baudin and Englishman 4067.4, (2016), 489–93; Andrew Black, Phillipa Matthew Flinders to chart the map of Australia (North Horton, Justin Jansen and Jean Fornasiero, ‘The Sydney: William Heinemann Australia, 2012). “new and singular bird” of St Peter Island”, South 34. Jonathan King, ‘Nine Years in a Leaky Boat,’ Australian Ornithologist, 2017, 1–10. The Weekend Australian Magazine, 29–30 September 44. Jean Fornasiero and Vivonne Thwaites, Littoral 2001, p. 29; James Griffin, ‘Voyage to the Depths,’ (Adelaide: 5 Star Print, 2010), catalogue of the The Weekend Australian, 24–25 November 2001, p. 10; exhibition which opened in Hobart, Carnegie Stuart Macintyre, Introduction to E. Scott, The Life of Gallery, April 2010 featuring the marine works of Matthew Flinders (Sydney: HarperCollins Publishers, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and responses from 2001), p. 5. contemporary Australian artists, Aadje Bruce, Chris 35. Miriam Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders de Rosa, Julie Gough, Beverley Southcott, Toni (Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2002), p. 203. Warburton, Judy Watson. 36. Horner, pp. 93–95; O.H.K. Spate, ‘Ames damnées: 45. See, for example, Mary Eagle, ‘Littoral’, Art Monthly, Baudin and Péron’, Overland, 58 (Winter 1974), p. 54. September 2010; Daniel Thomas, ‘Collected Flotsam and Jetsam of Sea Culture’, The Weekend Australian, 37. Scott, Terre Napoleon, p. vi. 17 August 2010. 38. Scott, Terre Napoleon, p. v. 46. The essay from Littoral was later worked up into a 39. Jean Fornasiero, Peter Monteath and John West- major study of the anthropological project pursued Sooby, Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian by Péron and his companions, and led to a creative Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, interest by musicians in the notations of Indigenous 1800–1803 (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2004 music gleaned by Lesueur and the expedition’s [Revised edition, 2010]). astronomer Bernier. See Jean Fornasiero and John 40. Margaret Sankey describes the aims of the Baudin West-Sooby, ‘Cross-cultural Inquiry through Art and Legacy project in ‘Writing and Rewriting the Baudin Performance: the Baudin Expedition to Australia, Scientific Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, 1800–1804’, in Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers: 1800–1804’, in Explorations and Encounters in French, Conflict, Performance, and Commemoration in Australia ed. by Fornasiero and Mrowa-Hopkins, pp. 103–34 and the Pacific Rim, ed. by Kate Darian-Smith and (p. 104). Penelope Edmonds, Routledge Studies in Cultural 41. See, for example, Michel Jangoux, Le Voyage aux History 34 (New York/Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), Terres australes du commandant Nicolas Baudin: pp. 17–35. Genèse et Préambule (1798–1800) (Paris: PUPS, 2013). 47. For Degérando’s instructions see The Observation of Savage Peoples, ed. and trans. by F.C.T. Moore.

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