This is chapter 22 of The Penal Preserve, you may want to go back to Chapter 21 or start at the beginning.
22
No sooner had Franklin returned to the colony, than Jane began to argue strongly for some friendly mission to bring the Vacationers to reason through kindness and understanding.
‘Let me try to make friends with them,’ she said.
‘Why not?’ said Franklin.
And so Franklin made it known that the Line had merely been a preparation for a mission fo peace.1 He told Jane that she could select a group of any Penists she liked to accompany her as she ventured about the island and attempted to make contact with the Vacationers. But Jane rejected this offer, saying, ‘This isn’t about us. I don’t want any of them with me. The only way this is going to work is if I go alone, and all of you stay away.’2
There was a little rocky islet more than a mile southwest of the island on which the Penists (and Vacationers) had established themselves. This islet, little more than a rocky outcropping with some sandbars nudged up against it, caught Ross’s eye as a suitable haven for the Vacationers. Jane agreed mostly because she thought it would be difficult for the Penists to molest them there.
It was decided, therefore, that if Jane was successful in her friendly mission, she should lad the Vacationers to the shoreline closest to this island, where a contingent of the most trustworthy Penists would be waiting. They were to construct a large raft while they waited, and when Jane arrived with the conciliated Vacationers, ferry them across the water to this new home. Jane said that she would stay there with the Vacationers a while to try to teach them the better way of life offered by a rejection of Alien products. Little was she aware of the grave consequences that would ensue.3
Franklin dubbed the island Flinders Island in honor of his cousin.
The principal adversary to Jane’s proposal of conciliation was, of course, Rae. When Franklin claimed success for the action of the Line, Rae was surprised. As I have said, he believed the Vacationers were a clear source of contamination, and, as such, any Vacationer presence was a clear threat to the Penists’ project. He remonstrated with Franklin that a second sweep of the island should be made and even a third, until they were certain the Vacationer threat had been exterminated. Franklin said it was out of the question.
But when Franklin then announced that the colony would embark immediately upon a course of conciliation with the Vacationers, Rae threw all caution to the wind and charged into Franklin’s tree-dwelling.
Jane was expecting him. She was at Franklin’s side, and when Rae trotted out his old arguments of dire contamination, and proximate threats, she met them with ridicule, and the very strong point that thus far force had failed to produce any measurable results. Franklin told Rae that he agreed with his wife’s opinion, and informed him that she was now in charge of the peaceful mission to the Vacationers. Rae left in stony silence, and Franklin thought there would be nothing further to the matter.
The next morning, however, Rae confronted him again, this time with Ross as support.
‘Rae here has a good point about this business of settling the Vacationers on that little island,’ said Ross.
‘Oh?’ said Franklin.
‘This may be a mercenary view of the situation,’ said Ross. ‘But who’s going to support them out there? Obviously, they won’t be able to grow any food-we are barely growing enough for ourselves here. What are you going to do if they start starving to death out there? We’re going to have to take care of them, and we’ve got enough of a burden just taking care of ourselves.’4
Franklin acknowledged that they had a point but persisted in his decision.5 Rae, however, was unable to accept what he saw as such a flippant attitude toward the success of the colony, and accused Franklin of handing over control of the colony to his wife.
It had long been rumored that Jane was the true warden of the colony, ruling through Franklin like a puppet. Franklin himself didn’t mind such rumors, often saying any smart man would rely on a wife as intelligent as Jane.
Franklin, no doubt, forgave Rae his outburst, and certain other more scandalous insults he gave, which I will not record here. But such words stung Jane, and the consequence was a horrible argument between Jane and Rae, in which she expressed her keen sense of the injury done her.6 The two became very heated, and Ross and Franklin intervened to keep them from coming to blows. Jane’s pride was hurt, for Rae had said some very disparaging things about her poetic aspirations. And so, she marched down to the colony vegetable gardens where many of the Penists tended small plots of their own produce. She proceeded to Rae’s plot where he had a number of blueberry bushes that he had transplanted from the interior. She tore each plant out of the grand and crushed it beneath her foot.7 This, in itself, was a very little act, yet it carried great significance.8
Perhaps, a showdown was inevitable. For, while Franklin was the official warden of the colony, Rae’s position in the colony had risen to such an extent that some historians have said that the colony was in his thraldom.9 For Rae had a strong source of influence in the colony. This was his control of the foraging enterprises of the colony, which still regularly produced food stuffs and other luxuries. Franklin had given him charge of these missions early on, and Rae had certainly helped the colony survive through many hard months. Few Penists were not more or less beholden to Rae, as he held power over nearly three-fourths of the food in the colony.10 There are, of course, others who say that this claim of influence is overstated, and that Rae was still, after all, a prisoner and subject to the authority of Franklin’s administration. But I think the influence is undeniable—it was evident as noonday.
When he learned that Jane had destroyed his blueberry plants, Rae refused to provide Franklin and Jane with any of the several luxuries he so often found in the abandoned houses of the Vacationers. It was a clear affront, and Franklin had no choice but to respond. Certainly, even a man as lacking in political acumen as Franklin, recognized that, with such strong ties of gratitude from the majority of the Penists, Rae could become very difficult to manage.11 Therefore, he decided that Rae could no longer remain on the island.12
Franklin had Rae brought to the beach below the colony. With all the Penists assembled, Franklin addressed Rae: ‘You are an extremely bad man! I can not conceive how any man could be so desperate, so depraved. Bad man! Very bad man!’13
Franklin told Rae that he was to leave the island and not come back. As they had no vessels, Franklin ordered Rae into the water and told him to swim.
Chapter 23 tomorrow, same time, same place.
Footnotes
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The war was, in the estimation of the Governor and his friends, a preparation for a mission of peace. John West, The History of Tasmania Volume 2, 1852 ↩
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Blacks I am in quest of and with black people I only wish to associate. George Augustus Robinson, 11 December 1831 ↩
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Little was she aware of the grand consequences that would ensue. George Augustus Robinson 11 July 1829 ↩
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Whether the expense of this sable but truly interesting colony will ultimately devolve on the mother country or on us, it behooves the authorities to take especial care that the work of education and civilisation is duly carried on amongst them. For it is only by means of such efforts that they can be rendered a productive people, so as to meet the exigencies of their own support. This perhaps may be considered a mercenary view of the case, seeing that the simplest ties of humanity would call upon us to discharge our part in the care of these benighted creatures. But independent of the burdens and difficulties of the settler on whom the expense of such a charge would at last fall, being already more than he can well bear, it would be alarming to contemplate the probability of a rapidly increasing colony of savages ignorant and incapable of providing for themselves, and depending solely on us for support. Hobart Town Courier 14 January 1832 ↩
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I persisted in my decision, of which he was as usual the official organ of conveyance. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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The consequence was a correspondence between Lady Franklin and Mr Montagu, in which Lady Franklin expressed her keen and indignant sense of the injury done her, and referred him to me for the explanation she had given me, and which she thought in the first instance, before denouncing her officially to her husband, he should have requested of herself. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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The countermanding of Mr Montagu’s supply of plums and cabbages from the Government-gardens. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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Lady Franklin however can inflict all these injuries by directly interfering in the affairs of government, and yet pass without observation, nay with a certain degree of applause before the world. She proceeds to Government-garden and suspends a supply of vegetables to Captain Montagu’s house before he is deprived of his office. This, in itself, is a very little act, but yet it betrays much, and will be quoted in the London circles with immoderate laughter. Van Diemen’s Land Chronicle 11 February 1842 ↩
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The people of Van Diemen’s Land are well aware that for years the Derwent Bank has held half the colony in its thraldom. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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Mr Montagu had also another source of influence. This was his money-agencies in connexion with the Derwent Bank, a most influential establishment, which at a later period than that of which I am speaking, and when few estates were not more or less encumbered, held nearly three-fourths of the mortgages in the colon. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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I could not but be aware that a party so strongly bound by ties of relationship and of gratitude to my predecessor, and who were powerful instruments in carrying out his measures, might, should a change of policy become necessary, or should any views of my own militate strongly against its prejudices or partialities, become extremely difficult to manage. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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I felt that, without detriment to the public service and dishonour to myself, I could not retain Mr Montagu as Colonial Secretary, and accordingly used the powers vested in me of suspending him from office until Her Majesty’s pleasure should be known. John Franklin, Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land 15 May 1845 ↩
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You are an extremely bad man. I can not conceive how any man could be so desperate, so depraved. How merciful her Majesty was to spare your life! Hanging would have been too good for you! Sympathiser! Bad man! Very bad man! John Franklin, attributed by Linus Miller, Notes of an Exile to Van Diemen’s Land 1846 ↩