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The history of Mosman, and in consequence the history of New Bordeaux, is plenty of chronological gaps and the only well known date is the foundation date. Also, the telling of the happenings is not very accurate due the many versions of them, each one related from the point of view of the author. However, this one is the most accurate version possible, made taking those passages that were most probable to be veritable.
Last years of the 18th century. France is near to shake and burst into a revolution that will change the order all over the world. Some time before the French Revolution, the history of New Bordeaux began in Versailles, in the court of the king Louis XVI.
Two men, Paul Leclercq, count of Gascony, and Antoine de Prendregast, duke of Dijon. Instead their titles, their position in the court of the King of France and their reputation was questionable. In the last years, some events and misfortunes get their families to the ruin by the pass of the time along all the 17th century, so, when the titles arrived to Leclercq and Prendregast, they were mere shadows of what once they have been. Nothing more is known about those two persons before the beginning of their journey. In the court they were not very well received by those nobles whose families had keep their fortunes, and it looks like this was reciprocal. The historical lines start here to be confusing. Some people say that Louis XVI send those two men to a journey to find the Fountain of Youth for the king, and with this the honor will be restored on their families and maybe the fortunes too. The other historical line, and the most probably, say that this journey was a punishment from the king to the count and duke because they laughed of the idea of finding the Fountain of Youth.
However, mission or punishment, Prendregast and Leclercq, weighed anchor on board of the Saint Marie, on the command of 122 men and women.
Not very much is known about the years that they were sailing the oceans. Only we know that Leclercq, who takes the control of the mission, wrote a diary during their journey but it due the notes on the diary of Prendregast, seems to get lost during the first years of Mosman and it has never been found again.
Instead the limited pieces of information, we know that Leclercq and Prendregast pass few years on board of the Saint Marie sailing and searching for the Fountain of Youth, or at least stepping land to get new sailors, food and supplies.
Seven years later and probably tired of a useless search, they were in the (now called) Strait of Georgia, somewhere to the norwest of what today is the city of Vancouver, exploring a bay today known as Parramatta Bay. Is here where the memories of Prendregast appears. Leclercq has a mild illness and he was retired to his cabin. During his illness Prendregast took control of the expedition. It was January of the year 1795.
After taking control of the situation I ordered to the sailors to take the ship inside this narrow and deep bay. The helmsman, Ignacio Azkoaga, a young Basque and the only one that remains from the original expedition, obeyed immediately and we get inside another water tongue. It makes a week that we are exploring this bay and I am steel surprised of the great number of butterflies that there are, and more the estrange natives that eat them. The Scottish sailors that we get the last month call them "mothmen".
We, both of us, Leclercq and me, are bored of this journey. We are going to build a settlement somewhere along the bay.So, that show us that Prendregast and Leclercq had thrown away the idea of find the Fountain of Youth. At the moment, in France, the French Revolution was in her highest moment. The expedition of Leclercq and Prendregast was forgotten time ago and nobody reminds of them.
The place selected by Predregast is what we know today as Darlin Harbour (Darling Harbour at the beginning, but the G of the end was lost and win a extra U with the time). There, the first settlers built a palisade and houses. Some archaeological remains of the palisade were found some years ago. With the pass of the time this settlement grew up and became to what today is Mosman.
Today, Darlin Harbour is a combination of street theater, subway exchange and the ferry terminal for all the Mosmites that live in Ryde or Parramatta and whose have their works on the downtown. In the 19th century all the harbor were cargo docks. Today those have been replaced with pier for leisure boats and the harbor has many attractions as the Darlin Harbour Market, expensive shops, museums or the aquarium.
From his foundation to the end of the 18th century, during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Darlin Harbour was like his first years. It was on 1906 when a fire destroyed the biggest part of the harbor and only a few buildings get save. Maybe the biggest loss was the ship were Leclercq and Prendregast arrived to the region, the Saint Marie. After the fire, the Regional Goverment built a reply of the ship and now it can be visited as a museum of the journey of Leclercq and Prendregast.
This steam boat is the "Pride of Mosman" and is the first ship that in times, offered the commercial line between Mosman and Vancouver, route that it needed four days to complete (to go and get back). Today this route it's done in less than half a day and the Pride of Mosman like the reply of the Saint Marie became a museum too.
The Darlin Harbour Market is one of the few survivors of the fire in 1906 and one of the older witness of the development of the city. The market started being once a month but with the development of the city it became to be once a week, then twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Today, due the tourism, the market is open all the days of the week, within Sundays, day to rest for the merchants. There, Mosmites or visitors can find anything, from food to carpets, wools, kitchen accesories or decorative objects.
The Darlin Harbour Castle was built during the conflict between New Bordeauxians and Bristish, to defend the harbor. The castle never get used as a defensive building because British never attacked from the north, they did it always from the south. However the tower of the castle was used the first years as sit of the government. Before it was converted to prison a it was used for that just to 1910. From that year to 1986 the tower was empty without any use, when, after a year of works, the "Museum of Mosmite lure" was opened. The walls and the gardens can be visited to get some beautiful views of the Parramatta Bay and the harbor.
The little Church of St. Augustine gaze the Darlin Harbour nearly from the foundation of the city. The church is another of the survivors of the fire o 1906, maybe due to its elevated position. The inside of the church, like the outside, is simple and cold without any decoration. The most eye-catching is the red color of the church and this fact is also the most mysterious. Nobody knows why the color of the church is red.
The aquarium was built in circa 1980 and it has more than 200 of different species. A lot of Mosmites and tourist come to spend a morning or a evening watching fishes, sea horses, dolphins, sharks and all the sea fauna that is host here.
This auditory located on the heart of the harbor provides amusement to the Mosmites most of the days of the year. Here, every year is performed the International Folk Festival of Mosman or other many events.
