{"id":6032,"date":"2024-03-15T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T00:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=6032"},"modified":"2024-03-14T18:50:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T08:20:36","slug":"guest-post-holidaying-with-gillian-dooley-and-matthew-flinders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2024\/03\/guest-post-holidaying-with-gillian-dooley-and-matthew-flinders\/","title":{"rendered":"GUEST POST: Holidaying with Gillian Dooley and Matthew Flinders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Gillian Dooley’s Matthew Flinders: The man behind the map<\/em><\/a> is an exploration of Flinders the man, rather than the decorated navigator and leader, idolised by generations of admirers. In this lovely guest post, Gillian retraces Matthew Flinders through Mauritius, giving advice to documentary producers, surviving a cyclone, giving talks on Flinders, and dealing with delayed flights.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Read her lively piece below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I arrive in Mauritius on 18 February 2024 and get through immigration with no problems. Outside the airport I meet the driver who has been organised to take me to my hotel in Port Louis, about one hour\u2019s drive away. I arrive to a warm welcome at the Hotel Champ de Mars, where I had stayed when I visited in 2018. A colleague has contacted me to let me know the plans for my stay, and to make sure I have everything I need. I will be in Mauritius for about six-and-a-half days in total, leaving on 24 February.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On 18 February 1804 Matthew Flinders had been in Mauritius for two months. His journal entry for that day (and the next) read: \u2018These two days I saw nobody\u2019. For the next six days he said not much more: hardly saw anyone, no news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These desolate sentences are preceded by a longer journal entry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wednesday 15 to Friday 17 February <\/strong>Neither these three days or the preceding one did I see the interpreter or any one else. I have received no answer or the least notice from the captain-general. I am yet a stranger to the cause of my confinement, and to the length of time it is to continue. It is indeed a most cruel suspence in which I am kept. I know not whether death is not almost preferable to it, when accompanied with such contemptuous treatment as is bestowed upon me. Even in the dusk of the evening when I could see nothing, I am not allowed to stretch my legs with a walk, or to speak to any one except the interpreter, who has lately favoured me with very little of his company. These things with the reflection that I am kept from my country, from my family, from the employment where I expect to reap honour prey sorely on my mind: well it is for me that I have books and charts and employment. It is useless to prove my innocence, for no crime is alleged against me. It is useless to write, for no answer or other notice is returned. It is useless to ask for an audience, for it is denied. What it will end in, God knows, the arm of oppression being once stretched out there is no knowing to what length it will go.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yes, you guessed it: my trip to Mauritius (a place I love to visit \u2013 but I always need an excuse) is to do with Matthew Flinders and the six-and-a-half years he spent here, from 17 December 1803 to 14 June 1810. I am meeting the producers of a forthcoming documentary and feature film about his life, and giving a lecture at the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences on Wednesday. I am also connecting with an expert in the musical history of Mauritius who I hope might help me find some resources for a paper I\u2019m working on about the song that Flinders wrote for his wife in 1805, and about the musical culture of that period more generally. Because, despite the long and anxious time Flinders spent here, detained by the French governor for reasons which nobody has ever quite been able to explain, he was soon allowed more freedom, and one of the ways he spent his time was playing his flute, both alone and with the friends he made among fellow prisoners and the French settlers on Mauritius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday 21 February<\/strong> I wake before dawn, listening to the 5 am call to prayer from the two mosques within earshot and watching with some concern the restless shadows of the trees in the Sunnee cultural centre next to my hotel. I check the weather report again: Cyclone Eleanor is likely to hit tonight. I wonder how that will affect my Royal Society lecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I met the Director of the Conservatoire de Musique and the President of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, with Marcel from the film production team. We talked for hours about Mauritian music and science, and Indian indentured labour, and political and maritime history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday 22 is cyclone day<\/strong> \u2013 it courteously held off until late last night but now it\u2019s been promoted from Grade II to Grade III, which means don\u2019t go out<\/em><\/strong>. It is rather windy and rainy out there, it\u2019s true. Apparently we can expect the worst in the middle of this afternoon. It\u2019s a bit of a shame because it takes a day out of my Mauritius adventure but it\u2019s not a catastrophe. Today\u2019s radio interview and lunch date can be rescheduled. I am reminded that Flinders was grounded by cyclones several times during his stay: this is my first cyclone, and I feel as though I have undergone a necessary rite of passage. On 10 January 1807 he was at the house of his neighbours M. and Mme Chazal, sitting for his portrait (the one that\u2019s now in the Art Gallery of SA) when the \u2018hurricane\u2019 hit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not being able to return home I staid all night. In a conversation on religion, I found sentiments of tolerance pushed further event than mine. I believe, that Voltaire is pretty generally read amongst the married ladies here as well as in France; and that their fidelity to their husbands does not arise from religion, nor I think from fear or shame: little slips are spoken of, and laughed at, but do not prevent either one party or the other from being admitted into all societies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have such an edifying conversation, and nobody is painting my portrait, but I have plenty of time to read (not Voltaire, I hasten to reassure you) and do some writing.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Last night (Wednesday) I gave the lecture on Flinders for the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences at Centre Culturel d’Expression Fran\u00e7aise in Curepipe. The Australian High Commissioner was there, and the Vice-President of Mauritius. The expected audience of 90 was somewhat reduced by cyclone caution but the room was full of Flinders aficionados, several of them descendants of Flinders\u2019 Mauritius friends. At supper afterwards (including delicious peanut butter sandwiches made by the RSAS President\u2019s French wife) I met dozens of friends, new and old. Unfortunately I didn\u2019t have stock of my book<\/a> \u2013 a problem at this end, nothing to do with Wakefield Press) \u2013 because I could have made a lot of sales.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Friday 23 and the weather is calm, cloudy but bright and warm in typical Mauritian style. Looking out on the Champ de Mars \u2013 once the French colonial parade ground, now the racetrack \u2013 I see no signs of cyclone damage, even though this was apparently one of the windiest places on the island yesterday. I am collected after breakfast by the descendant of Flinders\u2019 host family on Mauritius, who takes me to view the monument that Flinders had organised for the lost explorer La Perouse, on the land which he briefly owned and where he lived with his fianc\u00e9e for a year before things went wrong for him. The plaque on the monument reads, \u2018Le Capitaine Flinders dit \u201cIn this spot he once dwelt perhaps little known to the world but happy\u201d.\u2019 The more I know Flinders, the more I think he was an incurable romantic. We then have lunch at the Dodo Club, established in 1928. Interesting relic of colonial days.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Above: Champ de Mars, post Cyclone Eleanor<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sunday morning, 25 February. I should be in India by now, but the vagaries of travel have caught up with me and I am on a minibus hurtling back down the length of the island to the airport to catch the flight postponed from last night. It is less than a day\u2019s delay but frustrating nonetheless, entailing a restless night in a hotel that\u2019s about as far from the airport as it is possible to be. I recall the words of Matthew Flinders in a letter to his wife: \u2018I shall learn patience in this island\u2019. Wise and necessary words for the traveller, then and now.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Above: Monument for La Peruse, organised by Matthew Flinders<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gillian Dooley’s Matthew Flinders: The man behind the map is an exploration of Flinders the man, rather than the decorated navigator and leader, idolised by generations of admirers. In this lovely guest post, Gillian retraces Matthew Flinders through Mauritius, giving … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-fun"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-1zi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6038,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032\/revisions\/6038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}