A BAND OF BROTHERS & MORTAL ENEMIES
‘After delivering my message to him, he [La Perouse] returned his thanks to Governor Phillip, and made similar offers to those he had received’. Lieutenant Phillip Gidley King RN, First Fleet Journal, February 1788
Captain Arthur Phillip RN and Comte Jean-Francois La Perouse never knowingly met.Yet in an instant he recognised La Boussole and L’Astrolabe.
On opposing sides in peace and war as seafarers they shared a bond like no other.
‘His [Governor Phillip’s] failure to invite the French commander there [Port Jackson] reflect some fear that he [Phillip] might be known as a spy’. Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip 1738-1814, His Voyaging, Melbourne University Press, 1987
Phillip in an instant had recognised the French ships.
‘Phillip knew Comte Jean-Fancois La Perouse, with two (2) frigates La Boussole and L’Astrolabe, was already on the high seas and making for New Holland. P.G. King op.cit. See: A Riddle – When was an invasion fleet not an invasion fleet? When it’s the First Fleet
In August 1785 he had watched from the shadows as La Perouse led them out of Brest Harbour into the open sea at the beginning of a wide-ranging ’round-the-world expedition’ that was to include the South Pacific and New Holland.
Arthur Phillip knew a great deal about La Perouse. It is impossible to believe he did not admire the gallant Frenchman. At Hudson’s Bay during the American Revolutionary war La Perouse had earned a reputation for compassion.
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‘The Way of War is A Way of Deception. When Able, Feign inability; When deploying troops, Appear not to be’. Sun-Tzu, c.551-496 BC, Penguin, 2009
1787, England – 1787, May 13: The ‘First Fleet’ an expeditionary naval force fully funded by government sailed under guise of a convict transportation fleet.
Its main aim, claim sovereignty over the island continent New Holland, now Australia, before the French.
Commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip RN the large armed convoy of eleven (11) ships had an overwhelmingly male – 1300 men, 222 women.Its 570 male convicts were rationed ‘as troops serving in the West Indies’.
Botany Bay -1788, 20 January: Eight (8) months after leaving England, within 36 hours between 18 and 20 January 1788, the ‘First Fleet’ found safe anchorage in Botany Bay.
But wide open, so difficult to defend , it was deemed unsuitable for permanent settlement.
21 January: ‘His Excellency proceeded in a boat to examine the opening, to which Mr [James] Cook had given the name of Port Jackson [1770] on an idea that a shelter for shipping within it might be found’. Marine Captain Watkin Tench, First Fleet Journal, Sydney’s First Four Years. ed. F.L.Fitzhardinge, Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1961
Taking Captain James Cook’s charts Phillip, in company with officers and men, set off in three (3) open cutters to explore the surrounding country-side.
Port Jackson: Nine (9) miles (17km) to the north of Botany Bay where they came upon Cook’s Pork Jackson. Phillip wrote they rowed in into;the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of line may ride in the most security’. Frank Murcott Bladen, Historical Records of New South Wales, Vols. 1 & 2
Sydney Cove – 22 January: From a myriad of bays and inlets Phillip chose a ‘snug’ deep water cove where; ‘ships can anchor so close to the shore, that at a very small expense, quays may be made at which the largest ships may unload’. Bladen. ibid.
Botany Bay – 23 January: The exploring party returned to Botany Bay; ‘on the evening of the 23d, with such an account of the harbour and advantages attending the place, that it was determined the evacuation of Botany Bay should commence the next morning’. Tench. ibid.
Botany Bay – 24 January: Next morning astonishment L’Astrolabe and La Boussole, stood off the entrance to Botany Bay.
The sight of Sirius’s cannon gun-ports open forced them back out to sea. La Perouse sailed south and found safety and shelter at Point Sutherland.
‘Phillip ordered a party to be sent to Point Sutherland to hoist English colours. He also stipulated that the move to Port Jackson be kept secret, and that no one was to go on board the French ships’. John Moore, First Fleet Marines 1786-1792, Queensland University Press, 1987
‘Confounded’ – Although the day before Captain Phillip had landed at Port Jackson but he had not raised ‘English Colours’. La Perouse could leave Sutherland at any time and enter Port Jackson before the English, raise French Colours and establish a ‘prior claim’.
‘Raising the flag was one of the acts recognised as an assertion of a prior claim against other colonial powers eyeing off the same land’. Larrisa Behrendt, Settlement or Invasion, The Honest History Book, ed. David STephens & Alison Broinowski, Newsouth, Sydney, 2017
Sydney Cove – 25 January: Phillip, to stymie such an eventuality and despite deteriorating weather, quit Botany Bay in HMS Supply and made a dash for Sydney Cove arriving just on dark.
‘Meanwhile the rest of the fleet remained at Botany Bay with Phillip’s order to [Captain] Hunter aboard Sirius to bring all to Port Jackson as soon as the seas permitted’. Moore. ibid.
Sydney Cove – 26 January: At first light Phillip landed with a company of marines. ‘A flagstaff was erected from which the Union Jack was flown.
At sunset and apparently before the main fleet from Botany Bay had anchored, the whole party who had arrived in the Supply, including the Governor, the principal officers, and the marines, assembled where the Union Jack now flew.
A firing party fired a feu de joie…between volleys toasts were drunk to His Majesty King George III, the royal family and success to the new colony’. Moore. ibid. See: Britain By A Short Half-Head.
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1788 – 26 January: Later that day the remaining English vessels negotiated a dangerous exit from Botany Bay. Despite shifting winds that caused three (3) vessels to collide, shearing off jib-booms and causing significant other structural damage, by 8 pm that night all were anchored alongside Supply.
Captain John Hunter of HMS Sirius was last to leave Botany Bay. He stayed to assist La Perouse bring his ships to safe anchorage off Bare Island in the area known now as Frenchmens Bay.
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‘Before Phillip left Botany Bay he ordered messages painted on the rocks of Bare Island near where the Fleet had moored, to guide the ships which Phillip believed were following closely from England. This painted message was later replaced by a wooden notice erected on the island’. Bruce Mitchell, The Australian Story and Its Background, 1965.
Hunter had made La Perouse aware, after eight (8) months voyaging across 15,000 miles (23,000 km) of ‘imperfectly explored oceans’ the supply position was dire.
The following ten (10) days were filled with intense activity. An inventory taken as Golden Grove, Fishburn and Borrowdale the fleet’s stores-ships were unloaded, confirmed Phillip’s worst fears.
Reserves of food-stuffs were grossly inadequate both in quality and quantity. Almost immediately Phillip, was forced to reduce the ration issue. See: Abandoned and Left to Starve at Sydney Cove January 1788 to June 1790
1788 – 1 February: Phillip’s responsibility – survival of 1500 English men, women and children, twenty-two (2) babies were born on the passage – was absolute.
It left no room for generosity. But who can doubt Phillip’s concern for the welfare of La Perouse and his men? He sent his most trusted confrere and friend Lieutenant Gidley King RN with Marine Lieutenant William Dawes, the fleet’s senior scientific officer, around to Botany Bay with a wish-list of support for the French.
‘After delivering my message to him, he [La Perouse] returned his thanks to Governor Phillip, and made similar offers to those he had received’. Lieutenant Phillip Gidley King RN, First Fleet Journal, February 1788
In a touching charade La Perouse reciprocated in like manner. English and French honour satisfied, Dawes and King accepted ‘Mousieiur La Peyrouse’s invitation to pass the day with him’.
They dined aboard La Boussole talked well into the night and were rowed back to Sydney next day.
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Governor Phillip the ‘spy’ needed Gidley King determine La Perouse’s intentions on leaving Botany Bay and set down a departure ultimatum. See: ??????
There was however other facets to this visit. The infant colony was in turmoil seething with possibilities. ‘In case an insurrection should take place’.See: From Here To Eternity – Thomas Barrett
PHILLIP AND LA PEROUSE – THEIR BACK STORY
Long before January 1788 France had dominated Arthur Phillip’s working life. Son of an English mother and a German emigré father, a language teacher.
Phillip was tailor-made for spying. Fluent in French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese he was recruited into Britain’s Secret Service. Allied to his appearance his linguistic skills made him the perfect ‘spook’.
Phillip married a widow eighteen years his senior in 1763. Given available documentation there can be little doubt the marriage was part of his cover as a merchant in the rag-trade. The couple divorced in 1769 and he travelled widely.
1773 – France: Phillip spent 1773 spying in France reporting his observations to the Admiralty. See: Arthur Phillip -The Spy Who Never Came In From The Cold.
1774 – Portugal: The Admiralty seconded Phillip to serve in the Portuguese Navy.
1775 -1778, Brazil: He spent from 1775 to 1778 in Brazil lending his naval expertise to the Portuguese Government at war with Spain. During this period he was busy ‘observing’ for his masters in London, reporting directly to the Admiralty’s Lord Sandwich a skilled linguist.
1775 – April, Lexington: In 1775 England went to war with her American Patriot rebel colonists. Loyal colonists – Loyalists- stood for King and Crown.
The revolution morphed into the War of American Independence (1775-1783)an
d Phillip made many requests to rejoin the Royal Navy.
1776 – America, July: Patriot America declared independence Britain.
1777 – France: The French signed an alliance with the Patriots and massive amounts of money, men, munitions and military know-how flowed in to support General George Washington’s Patriot home-grown militia.
1779 -Spain, June: After Spain allied with France against Britain in June 1779 Arthur Phillip returned to England and the Royal Navy. At the end of hostilities he was commander of HMS Europa. See: Hush Whispers Who Dares Christopher Robin Mark 1
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1783 – September, Paris: The American war ended formally with signing of the Treaty of Versailles (Paris) in September 1783. Under its terms Britain lost, her ‘mighty empire in the west’ – the thirteen so-called ‘middle colonies’ – North and South Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
1783 – Whitehall: In 1783 Evan Nepean, protègè of arch-intriguer William Petty, Marquis of Lansdowne, became permanent under-secretary to Lord Sydney, the then Home Secretary.
1784: Phillip found himself a peace-time naval reservist on half-pay and resumed working for the Secret Service. His salary was paid through the office of Evan Nepean, a former naval officer turned politician and Phillip’s long-time friend. See: Arthur Phillip – The Importance of Being Arthur
1785 – January, France: Phillip spent the whole of 1785; ‘on holiday…surveying, making observations of French ports’. His arrival in Toulon coincided with the appointment of Jean-Francois de Galaup La Perouse to lead an ambitious French maritime expedition.
Instigated by King Louis XVI to find new sea-routes for the advancement of French commerce, it is highly likely the choice of La Perouse was due in no small part to the influence of Charles Pierre de Fleurieu who knew La Perouse well.
Charles de Fleurieu’s obsession with time-keeping at sea was similar to that of England’s John Harrison whose sea-going ‘pocket watch’ – the H-4 – that in 1759 – ‘solved the problem of longitude’.
It should be mentioned that in 1769 (10 years) after the ‘problem was solved’ Lieutenant James Cook RN was denied H-4- for the Endeavour voyage. See: Captain Cook Caught Short
La Perouse and the French expedition projected to take three (3) years, like the voyages of Captain Cook it sought to emulate, had the enthusiastic support of Antoine de Bougainville.
A mathematician of note, a member of Britain’s Royal Society, Bougainville was the first Frenchmen to circumnavigate the globe during which voyage he charted the Great Barrier Reef but had not landed. See: A Tale of Two Cities: Quebec 1759 – Sydney 1788
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Alaska: La Perouse, while hunting fur-seals at Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1786 lost twenty-one (21) crewmen to hypothermia when two (2) landing craft overturned tipping them into icy Arctic waters.
Botany Bay: At Botany Bay the French were very wary of local Aborigines and, on one (1) occasion, fired on them. French apprehension stemmed from a fatal incident played out just six (6) weeks earlier on11 December 1787, at Samoa part of the Navigator Islands.
About sixty (60) crew had gone ashore to fill the ships’ water barrels. Welcomed initially they were later set upon by a band of Samoans armed with clubs and stones. Twelve (12) crewmen were killed among them Vicounte de Langle captain of L’Astrolabe.
Several of the wounded died later. Amongst them Pere Laurent Receveur the expedition’s chaplain. A noted naturalist Father Receveur died at Botany Bay on 17 February 1788 where a monument marks his resting place.
At Daceyville a nearby Sydney suburb, spacious park lands and street names, are permanent reminders of the fleeting French presence on the south eastern coast of mainland Australia.
The French like the English were extremely short of food, similarly their health was compromised. A miracle would be needed to see these distressed sailors – weakened by dysentery and scurvy – home safely.
1788 – 10 March, Botany Bay: La Perouse and his men sailed for France on 10 March 1788. There was no miracle L‘Astrolabe and La Boussole were not seen again. See: Asleep In the Deep – Merchantmen of the First Fleet.
EPILOGUE
The Annual Receveur Mass, hosted by St Andrews, Malabar, is celebrated at the Sydney suburb of La Perouse.
In 2005 the wreak of La Boussole was found in the area of the Solomon Archipelago.
Tags: arthur phillip, colonies, exploration, First Fleet, Invasion, L'Astrolabe, La Boussole, La Perouse, Vicounte de Langle