PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 357 



Australasia as Tasman made it. Thus the geography 

 of this great part of the world would be made clear ; an 

 exploit sufficient by itself to make men immortal. 



The expedition should sail, not from France, but from An 

 Pondicherry, the French fort in India. Three ships ^^ Pondi- 

 should be sent, and they should be well equipped. For cherry, 

 it is an enterprise truly royal, and glory must be preferred 

 to profit. It would be well to explore the West coast 

 of New Britain, hitherto unvisited ; a suggestion that 

 might have brought the French to Rabaul. 



Thus de Brosses sketched the outline of a scheme A French 

 which, he hoped, would make France mistress of the New ^e^outh 

 World of the South. Honour and glory were to be won, 

 not by conquest, but by discovery, by commerce, and by 

 settlement. And it is important to notice the stress that 

 was placed on settlement. Frenchmen were not merely 

 to discover, and to trade ; they were also to colonize, 

 to form permanent communities that were to be the 

 roots of further enterprises, and to give political and 

 military power. It was a proposal to found a French 

 Empire in the South. 



And de Brosses faced the great question that he had A nation 

 raised. Is it, or is it not, desirable that a European nation dg e 

 should possess colonies that would make it a World Empire? colonies. 

 There were some who held that a State is weakened by 

 colonization. The Spanish Empire" it was argued, had 

 been fatal to the Spanish nation. Spain had been neglected, 

 in order that gold mines might be exploited. Is it not 

 better to be -a healthy and prosperous Nation than a 

 diseased and decadent Empire ? 



De Brosses discusses this question in a passage that Mother 

 is very interesting. Colonization, rightly understood and Colonies a 

 rightly managed, should be, he argues, not the destruction should help 

 of the Nation, but its expansion. It should tend, not another 

 to diminish the population, but greatly to increase it. 

 A Frenchman who becomes a colonist does not cease to 

 be a Frenchman. He is a Frenchman living in favourable 

 circumstances, that enable him to render the French 

 State special services. Mother country and colony should 



