Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia 9781441179623, 9781474210805, 9781441149107

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia

Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Kenneth Morgan

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

LON DON • OX F O R D • N E W YO R K • N E W D E L H I • SY DN EY

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 Paperback edition first published 2017 © Kenneth Morgan, 2016 Kenneth Morgan has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-7962-3 PB: 978-1-3500-4940-6 ePDF: 978-1-4411-4910-7 ePub: 978-1-4411-2269-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.

To my wife and children – Leigh, Ross and Vanessa Morgan

Contents List of Maps Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations

viii ix xii xiii

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

3 17 31 45 59 75 89 103 117 133 143 153 167 179 197

The Young Navigator New South Wales Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia Bound to Australia The Unknown Coast Encounter with the French The East Coast and Torres Strait The Gulf of Carpentaria and the North Coast Return to Port Jackson A Series of Misfortunes Detention at the Ile de France The Scientific Gentlemen Final Years Epilogue

Notes Bibliography Index

201 270 302

List of Maps 1.1 Terra Australis or Australia 1.2 The Circumnavigation of Australia and journeys of the Porpoise and Cumberland, 1801–3 2.1 The Tom Thumb journeys, 1795–6 3.1 Voyage of the colonial sloop Norfolk, 1798–9 3.2 Voyage of the colonial sloop Norfolk, 1799 6.1 The King George Sound area of Western Australia 6.2 Luck Bay and part of the Recherche archipelago, Western Australia 6.3 The St Francis, Smoky Bay and Goat Island area of South Australia 6.4 The Memory Cove and Port Lincoln areas of South Australia 7.1 Port Phillip Bay, Victoria 7.2 The Sydney district, New South Wales 8.1 The Keppel Bay and Port Curtis area of Queensland 8.2 The Thirsty Sound region, Queensland 8.3 Torres Strait, Queensland 9.1 The South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria 9.2 The Sir Edward Pellew Group, Gulf of Carpentaria 9.3 Northern end of Groote Eylandt, Gulf of Carpentaria 9.4 Blue Mud Bay, Northern Territory 9.5 Arnhem Bay, Northern Territory

1 2 24 33 40 76 80 82 84 95 97 106 107 115 119 123 125 127 128

Preface Matthew Flinders died in 1814. He was one of the leading maritime explorers of Australia, and he played an important part in showing that Australia was a single continent and not a series of smaller landmasses. He popularized the name Australia and produced the most accurate atlas then attempted of its coastal geography. Apart from obituary tributes by his friends and contemporaries, nobody attempted to write a full biography of his career until John J. Shillinglaw took up the subject in the 1870s.1 Shillinglaw, a public servant and historian based in Melbourne, was in contact with Flinders’ grandson, William Flinders Petrie, a distinguished Egyptologist. Flinders Petrie transcribed some of his grandfather’s manuscripts in family possession to dispatch to Melbourne for the biography to be composed. The transcripts were duly sent to Shillinglaw. Unfortunately, he procrastinated and never produced his biography even though he had published other books. Flinders Petrie, after waiting patiently, requested that the manuscripts be returned to England. This never occurred. Instead, in 1900, Shillinglaw deposited the material in the Public (now State) Library of Victoria, Melbourne, where it is still held.2 It was at the State Library of Victoria a few years before the First World War that Ernest Scott, an English journalist who had migrated to Melbourne, researched these deposited papers to produce the first standard life of Matthew Flinders.3 Scott wrote an accomplished biography that outlined the main features of Flinders’ life and career. In its emphasis on heroic endeavour in the face of difficulties, it was a product of its time. Along his other books on Australian maritime exploration, the volume on Flinders helped Scott to become Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. Though his book includes relatively little material on Flinders’ hydrographical and geographical expertise, neglects contacts between the explorer and Aborigines and skates over the surface of the scientific purposes and achievements of Flinders’ voyages, it remains a fine Edwardian biography of an explorer that is still in print a century after it was first published. It is particularly detailed on the long period (1803–10) during which Flinders was detained at the Ile de France (Mauritius) on suspicion of being a spy in wartime.4 A large additional cache of Matthew Flinders’ manuscripts was deposited in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, in the early 1920s, and the residue of his personal papers was eventually donated to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Flinders’ career is also amply documented among Admiralty Papers at the National Archives, Kew and among manuscripts scattered in other British archives. Several biographers of Flinders have sampled some of this material since Scott wrote his study of Flinders. In the 1960s, James D. Mack wrote a short, brisk biography of Flinders and the former naval officer K. A. Austin composed a readable account of Flinders’ circumnavigation of Australia in HMS Investigator.5 Apart from popular biographies and books that

x

Preface

focus just on Flinders’ detention at the Ile de France, the two best books written about Flinders in the past thirty years are by Geoffrey C. Ingleton and Miriam Estensen.6 Ingleton had professional hydrographical experience in the Australian navy. His biography of Flinders includes expert assessments of the navigational problems faced by Flinders in Australian waters and how he coped with them. Ingleton made effective use of Flinders’ survey sheets and charts. His book proceeds as a strict chronological narrative. Estensen’s biography brings out Flinders’ human qualities and personal relationships; it is less interested in cartography or science.7 This book is a fresh appraisal of Matthew Flinders’ career, using for the first time the full range of documentary material available on his career. It assesses his significance as a maritime explorer of Australia, which was his main claim to fame. The book’s chapters are structured to treat Flinders’ career in sequence but not always in a strict chronological fashion. That would, in any case, be difficult to achieve if, as is the case here, one follows through the work of his scientific and artistic associates, because they were separated from Flinders in 1803 as he began his journey back from Port Jackson (modern Sydney) to England, and their paths only converged after Flinders returned to London in 1810. Various themes are interwoven into the chapters that highlight the main areas where Flinders contributed to maritime exploration and the progress of knowledge about Australia. The role of Flinders as a naval commander and his concern about his career progress is one thread that runs throughout the book. This is connected to his awareness and use of patronage, notably by Sir Joseph Banks, to achieve his goals. Flinders’ skills as a navigator and hydrographer are given full attention. His knowledge of Australia’s geography and his methodology for improving the accuracy of its charting and mapping are analysed. His encounters with Aborigines and Makasar trepangers are explained. The findings of his scientific associates, notably in relation to Botany, are assessed. Consideration of these themes as the book proceeds is a reminder of the breadth of Flinders’ impact on the maritime history and geography of Australia. When he first sailed in Australian waters in 1795, it was commonly believed that Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) was part of mainland Australia, Bass Strait had not been discovered, a safe route through Torres Strait needed to be identified and maps of Australia were uncertain about the shape of the continent’s coastal geography. Flinders improved knowledge on all of these matters. Jointly with George Bass, he proved the existence of Bass Strait and undertook the first circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land, which proved it was an island. Flinders studied routes taken by previous navigators through Torres Strait, sailed through it on three separate occasions and carefully marked up charts showing a relatively safe route through treacherous waters. Flinders’ main achievement, however, was to conduct a thorough circumnavigation of Australia for the first time, to name the continent Australia and to ensure that the maritime, geographical and scientific knowledge that his expedition gathered was disseminated through writings, nautical astronomical calculations, maps and charts, and samples of flora and fauna. How Flinders and his accompanying team of investigators accomplished these tasks lies at the core of this book. As far as possible, an attempt has been made to utilize the viewpoints of the ship’s company who left personal accounts of voyaging with Flinders. Readers should be

Preface

xi

aware, however, that the availability of such material is limited to a few figures. Robert Brown and Peter Good, the botanist and gardener in the Investigator, both left diaries that are drawn upon extensively in the chapters.8 Seaman Samuel Smith left a somewhat less detailed voyage account that is useful on the Investigator’s voyage.9 John Franklin, a teenage midshipman on the expedition, and later a colonial governor and Arctic explorer, wrote numerous letters to several people associated with the voyage.10 But two significant members of the expedition were much more reticent in putting pen to paper: only ten letters written from Australia by the botanical painter Ferdinand Bauer are known to exist, and the landscape painter William Westall also left few letters.11 Few ships’ logs by Flinders’ associates survive and those that are extant, such as the log kept by Robert Fowler, are very routine and provide little information that cannot be better found elsewhere.12 For Flinders’ voyages, there is nothing like the proliferation of logs by the ship’s company that survives for Cook’s expeditions.13 Recreation of shipboard life and interpersonal relationships on the Investigator expedition is limited by the surviving source material, but in other respects the surviving documentation on Flinders’ career is voluminous. Finally, it should be noted that numerous letters written by Flinders to his wife survive, but she destroyed her letters to him some time after his death.14

Acknowledgements Preparation for this book has benefited from several funding sources and collegial support from various people. A Scouloudi Historical Award, administered by the Institute of Historical Research, and an Australian Bicentennial Fellowship from the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College, London, helped with travel expenses to archives. Brunel University London provided two terms of study leave in 2014–15 that helped me to complete the book. Work for the Hakluyt Society on a scholarly edition of Flinders’ journals from his circumnavigation of Australia proceeded in tandem with writing this book, to the benefit of both projects. The research for the book was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens Library at Kew, the Fisher Library at the University of Sydney, the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne, the State Library of Tasmania, Hobart, the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland, the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, and the archives referred to in the next paragraph. The cooperation of library and archive staff while pursuing this project is much appreciated. I am grateful for permission to cite manuscript material from the National Archives, Kew; the British Library; the Natural History Museum, London; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the Royal Geographical Society, London; the Linnean Society, London; the Royal Society, London; the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge; Trinity College, Cambridge; the Lincolnshire Archives; the UK Hydrographic Office, Ministry of Defence Archives, Taunton; the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, Mauritius; the Dixson Library, Sydney; the Mitchell Library, Sydney; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; and the Bibliothèque municipale de Caen. The following individuals have all aided with advice, encouragement and interesting perspectives on Flinders: Peter Ashley, M. K. Barritt, Carl Bridge, Elaine Charwat, Gloria Clifton, Andrew S. Cook, Cheya Cootes, Gillian Dooley, Jean Fornasiero, C. Ian Jackson, Claire Lipscomb, Campbell Macknight, Tony Morris, Maggie Patton, Nigel Rigby, James M. S. Taylor, John West-Sooby, Adrian Webb, Glyndwr Williams, Charles W. J. Withers and Martin Woods. I am grateful to all. An anonymous reviewer offered apposite comments that helped with revising the draft text. I have benefited from the editorial work on relevant published primary sources carried out over the years by dedicated scholars, as well as from the availability of some manuscript sources in online digital format. My wife assisted me with translations from material in French. Finally, thanks are due to Ian Faulkner and to Allen & Unwin for permission to use maps from Miriam Estensen’s book The Life of Matthew Flinders, published in 2002, and to Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) for permission to adapt and use maps from T. G. Vallance, D. T. Moore and E. W. Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator: The Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801–1805, published in 2001.

List of Abbreviations ADB

Australian Dictionary of Biography

ADM

Admiralty

Add MS

Additional Manuscript

Beaglehole, ed., Journals J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, 4 vols, Hakluyt Society, extra series, 34–7 (Cambridge, 1968–74) Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’

Martyn Beardsley and Nicholas Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’: The Diary and Accounts of Matthew Flinders Surgeon, Apothecary and Man-Midwife, 1775–1802, 2 vols, Lincoln Record Society, 95 and 97 (Woodbridge, 2007 and 2009)

BL

British Library

Bladen, ed., HRNSW

F. M. Bladen, ed., Historical Records of New South Wales, 7 vols (Sydney, 1892–1901)

Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal

Anthony J. Brown and Gillian Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal 1803–1814 (Adelaide, 2008)

Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders

Paul Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders: Personal Letters from an Extraordinary Life (Sydney, 2002)

Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks

Neil Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks: A Selection, 1768–1820 (London, 2000)

Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence

Chambers, Neil, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1768–1820. Volumes 4–8 (London, 2011–14)

Collins, ed. Fletcher, An Account of the English Colony

David Collins, ed. Brian H. Fletcher, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners &c. of the Native Inhabitants of that Country. To which Are Added, Some Particulars of New Zealand; Compiled, by Permission, from the Mss. of Lieutenant-Governor King, 2 vols (1st edn London, 1798, 1802, reprinted Sydney, 1975)

xiv

List of Abbreviations

CUL

Cambridge University Library

Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good

Phyllis Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, Gardener on Matthew Flinders’ Voyage to Terra Australis 1801–3, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series, 9 (London, 1981)

Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders

Miriam Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders (Sydney, 2002)

Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis

Matthew Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis; Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship The Investigator, and Subsequently in the Armed Vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an Account of the Shipwreck of the Porpoise, Arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and Imprisonment of the Commander During Six Years and a Half Years in that Island, 2 vols (London, 1814)

Ingleton, Matthew Flinders

Geoffrey C. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders: Navigator and Chartmaker (Guildford, 1986)

JRAHS

Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society

ML

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Matthew and Harrison, eds, ODNB

H. C. G. Matthew and Harrison, Brian H., eds, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols (Oxford, 2004)

Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders

Peter Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders: The Journal of Seaman Samuel Smith (Adelaide, 2003)

Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated

Kenneth Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated: The Voyage of Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator, 1801–1803, 2 vols, Hakluyt Society, Third series, nos. 28–9 (London, 2015)

NLA

National Library of Australia, Canberra

NMM

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Perry and Simpson, eds, T. M. Perry and D. H. Simpson, eds, Drawings by Drawings by William William Westall: Landscape Artist on Board H.M.S. Investigator during the Circumnavigation of Australia by Westall Captain Matthew Flinders R. N. in 1801–1803 (London, 1962)

List of Abbreviations

xv

RGO

Royal Greenwich Observatory

Rivière and Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders

Marc Serge Rivière and Kumari R. Issur, eds, BaudinFlinders dans l’Océan Indien: Voyages, Découvertes, Rencontre: Travels, Discoveries, Encounter (Paris, 2006)

Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders

Ernest Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders (Sydney, 1914)

SLV

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed

Dan Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed: Flinders and Bass and Their Circumnavigation of the Island in the Colonial Sloop Norfolk 1798–1799 (Hobart, 2009)

TNA

The National Archives, Kew

UKHO

United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Ministry of Defence Archives, Taunton

Vallance, Moore and Groves, ed., Nature’s Investigator

T. G. Vallance, D. T. Moore and E. W. Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator: The Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801–1805 (Canberra, 2001)

Watson, ed., HRA

Frederick Watson, ed., Historical Records of Australia (Sydney, 1914–25)

Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and His Scientific Gentlemen

Juliet Wege, Alex George, Jan Gathe, Kris Lemson and Kath Napier, eds, Matthew Flinders and His Scientific Gentlemen: The Expedition of H.M.S. Investigator to Australia (Welshpool, WA, 2005)

130ºE Timor I N D I A N

Cape Arnhem

Cape York Cape Weymouth

GULF OF

O C E A N

CARPENTARIA

Coastline uncharted until 1815 Cape Flattery

TERRA AUSTRALIS OR AUSTRALIA

The Unknown Coast

Cape Leeuwin

The greater part of the unknown coast was charted by Flinders, Eastern sections by Grant, Murray and Baudin 1800, 1801, 1802.

S O U T H E R N 0

WA L E S

Nuyts Archipelago

U T H S O

N E W

E W

Northwest Cape

H O L L A

N

N

D

P A C I F I C

MILES (Scales only approximate)

Map 1.1 Terra Australis or Australia

Cape Howe

O C E A N

400

KILOMETRES 0 250

Port Jackson

O C E A N VAN DIEMEN’S Van Diemen’s Land was shown to be an LAND island and its North and West coasts charted by Flinders 1798 – 1799

Timor

Cape Arnhem Blue Mad Bay Groote Eylandt

Cape Wilberforce 4 Nov 1803 17 Feb 1803 Malville Dufken Pt Bay GULF OF Cape Cape Keer Weer Wellesley Is.

Sweers I. 21 ‒ 29 Nov 1802

OCEAN

York Peninsula

o dt an t erl trai mb s S Cu orre T

CARPENTARIA

Edward Pellew Group

INDIAN

CORAL SEA

to tor t iga rai est s St Inv orre T

Cumberland at Kupang 10.14 Nov 1803

21 Nov 1803

TORRES STRAIT Endeavour Str. 27 Oct 1802

8 Nov 1803

Investigator at Kupang 31 March – 8 April 1803 d lan s ber Cum auritiu to M

EnWes gli sel sh Is. Co mp an y

Is.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Bentinck I.

21 Oct 1802 18 Oct 1802

Wreck Reef 17 Aug 1803

Cumberland Is Northumberland Is. THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION 27 April 1803 North West Cape

Broad Sound

OF AUSTRALIA

AND CUMBERLAND 1801 - 1803

Hervey Bay

S O U T H

5 May 1803

Archipelago of the Recherche

Great Australian Bight

Cape Leeuwin

6 Dec 1802 r tigato Inves d HMS Englan from

0

400

S O U T H E R N

track of the Investigator track of the Porpoise

KILOMETRES 0

King George Sound 8 Dec 1801 – 5 Jan 1802

250 MILES

O C E A N

Spencer Gulf

Yorke peninsula

Glasshouse Bay (Moreton Bay)

Gulf St Vincent he op ln Encounter Bay str co I. ta Lin stle 20 2 Ca ort Thi eb– 180 o I. . F 8 April 1802 Meeting with C P ro 20 arch nga Capt. N. Baudin M Ka Port Phillip Westen 17 May 1803 Port King I.

Cape Moreton Caps Byron Cumberland departed 21 Sept. 1803

W A L E S

Nuyt’s Archipelago

TROPIC OF CAPRIC ORN

Port Curtis

N E W

AND JOURNEYS OF THE PORPOISE

Porpoise departed 10 Aug. 1803

Port Jackson Sydney

9 May 1802 Arrival - Investigntor from England 22 July 1802 Departure - Investigator for circumnavigation 9 June 1803 Arrival - Investigatior from circumnavigation Cape Howe

1 June 1803 Great Is. (Flinders Is.)

P A C I F I C

VAN DIEMEN’S LAND

track of the Cumberland (Flinders I.)

modern place name

(Scales are only approximate)

Map 1.2 The circumnavigation of Australia and journeys of the Porpoise and Cumberland, 1801–3

O C E A N

1

The Young Navigator

The maritime discovery of Australia lay at the heart of Matthew Flinders’ life and achievements. During a naval career spanning twenty-four years, from starting as a young midshipman aged sixteen until his death at forty, Flinders was devoted to expanding the geographical knowledge and nautical discovery of Australia. He first sailed to that continent in 1795 to explore coastal areas of New South Wales. With his friend George Bass, he circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land (modern Tasmania) for the first time in 1798–9. These preliminary forays into the maritime exploration of Australia whetted Flinders’ appetite for a more comprehensive voyage. That was achieved in the years 1801–3 when Flinders became the first explorer to lead a detailed circumnavigation of Australia. This was undertaken in HMS Investigator. Flinders consolidated his reputation by writing two large volumes, entitled A Voyage to Terra Australis, accompanied by an atlas, which summarized the findings of the expedition, and by compiling charts and surveys of Australia’s coast that demonstrated his skills as a hydrographer and cartographer. These achievements bequeathed a lasting legacy. Matthew Flinders came from respectable, educated English provincial stock. Born on 16 March 1774, he was the eldest child of a family that had lived in the small market town of Donington, Lincolnshire, for several generations.1 Matthew was baptized there at the parish church of St Mary and the Holy Rood. His father, also named Matthew, had a medical practice in Donington. His mother, Susanna, was born into the Ward family, but nothing is known about her background. It has been claimed that the Flinders family were Flemish in origin and that ‘Flinders’ was a modification of ‘Flanders’.2 No documentary evidence, however, has been provided to support this contention.3 The only confirmed background provenance of the Flinders family into which Matthew was born is that his great-grandfather John Flinders, born at Gedling near Nottingham in 1682, was a grazier who became the first family member to move to the Lincolnshire fens in 1702, soon after marrying Mary Obrey of Gosberton, Lincolnshire. John Flinders left his home in Ruddington, near Nottingham, to set up home in Donington.4 Matthew Flinders’ grandfather John, born in 1713, was the first of three successive generations of surgeons that practised in Donington. The grandparents had at least ten children, but only two survived infancy. They both became surgeons. Dr Matthew Flinders, the father of the maritime explorer, attended lectures on midwifery in London

4

Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia in 1770.5 By the following year, he was practising medicine in Donington.6 He kept a detailed diary that is one of the best surviving documents written by an eighteenthcentury English provincial medical practitioner. The diary shows that he was a kind, caring father to his children and a staunch Christian with a providential view of God’s influence in the world. He was keen to educate his children and to help them with advancement to a professional career. The accounts in his diary, with their meticulous noting of all purchases, reveal someone who was careful with money and conscious that he was not wealthy.7 Dr Flinders described himself as a ‘surgeon, apothecary and man-midwife’.8 He was, in effect, a provincial general practitioner who had inherited the medical business established by his father and grandfather. No doubt he maintained a good professional reputation for his skills in a small provincial community. He also acted in lieu of a midwife and delivered normal births. Male midwives were fairly common at the time,9 though, as with Dr Flinders, they also dealt with other medical matters. Dr Flinders handled midwifery cases regularly, occasionally inoculated people against smallpox, treated surgical injuries and ran a shop for his pharmaceutical practice. He bought his father’s house in the market square in Donington. This modest brick structure of two storeys and an attic had a small ground-floor extension for use as a surgery and apothecary shop. This was the house where Matthew Flinders was born.10 Despite the obstetrical knowledge of Dr Flinders, he and his wife suffered the loss of an infant son, John, on 13 November 1776 as well as stillbirths of twin girls in July 1777 and twin boys in May 1778.11 Recording the deaths of the twin girls in his diary, Dr Flinders remarked, [H]ow kind is the Providence of God thus to free us from the expence and care of a numerous family, for had all our young ones lived with us, we should scarce [have] known what to have done with them. The two we have living, if agreeable to divine Wisdom, I would gladly keep, but by no means wish an increase.12

These comments report the deaths of his infant children as though they were a convenience, but they were really a matter-of-fact recognition of the economic pressures of bringing up a young family on a modest medical practitioner’s income.13 Dr and Mrs Flinders had more children in quick succession. Initially, Matthew Flinders was brought up in the company of a sister, Elizabeth (1775–99). Dr Flinders inoculated both infants against smallpox in December 1777.14 The siblings were joined by another sister, Susanna (1779–1827), and two brothers – John (1781– 1834) and Samuel Ward (1782–1834). Matthew’s mother Susanna died in 1783, aged just over thirty, from nervous weakness and malaria. She had given birth to ten children, of whom five were alive at her death.15 The apothecary father grieved at her decease and was concerned about how to bring up his small children as a widower. That problem was solved fairly quickly because he remarried within eight months to Elizabeth Ellis (neé Weekes), a widow of Spilsby, a small Lincolnshire market town. This marriage produced two daughters, Hannah (1788–1842) and Henrietta (b. 1791).16

The Young Navigator Dr Flinders played an important part in the education and schooling of his son, Matthew. He himself was a keen reader of books on literature, travel and the law, which he purchased from a bookseller in Spalding. He arranged for the two-year-old Matthew to have some rudimentary instruction for infants by the wife of Peregrine Moor, a shoemaker and one of his tenants. This may have amounted to little more than child-minding.17 On 24 January 1780, Dr Flinders enrolled Matthew for reading at a school run by Jeremiah Whitehead for an entrance fee of 10s. 6d. Donington Free School, as it was known, had been founded in 1719 for parish children by Thomas Cowley, a local landowner and businessman. Matthew Flinders improved his learning rapidly. He had begun to write by March 1781, when he was seven. At the age of eight, he read Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, which his father bought for him in April 1782. Dr Flinders taught him Latin grammar in the evenings and encouraged his broader education by purchasing a German flute for him to play a musical instrument. Matthew’s Latin improved rapidly, partly because of his father’s instruction and partly because Whitehead hired an assistant who could teach the language well.18 On 24 July 1786, Matthew Flinders was enrolled as a boarder at the Reverend John Shinglar’s Grammar School at Horbling, seven miles from his home, to study Latin and the Greek classics. This was a new establishment. Shinglar was the parish curate, and Matthew in later life remembered him as a friend. Shinglar taught seven boys Greek, literature and mathematics. Dr Flinders found the fees expensive (at 20 guineas per year) but was determined that his son should have a good education.19 The intention was for Matthew to follow his father into the medical profession. At the end of 1787, a few months before his son turned fourteen, Dr Flinders noted in his diary: ‘My son Matthew I have taken home from School. I mean him to assist me in my Business. He has made a Proficiency in learning, exceeding any hope I could reasonably form.’20 Things turned out differently, however, because during adolescence Matthew Flinders took a strong interest in pursuing a naval career against his father’s wishes. Matthew later wrote in his private journal that he was born in the Lincolnshire fens ‘at a distance from the sea, and my family unconnected with sea affairs or any kind of enterprise or ambition’.21 Yet his childhood home in Donington was only nine miles south of Boston, and it may be that he acquired a liking for ships and the sea when visiting that small port. Donington was a manufacturing centre for rope for the Royal Navy, so it may also be that Flinders associated his home town with maritime life.22 These are speculative comments. More certain is that, as Flinders himself explained towards the end of his life, he was ‘induced to go to sea against the wish of friends from reading Robinson Crusoe’.23 The exotic setting of the novel gave the young Flinders ‘an intense longing for adventure’.24 He later admitted that reading the novel had made discovery his ‘constant pursuit’.25 Matthew followed up this imaginative stirring of interest in a maritime career by writing for counsel to his cousin John Flinders, who had served in the navy since 1780 and had not yet become a lieutenant. John advised Matthew that patronage was necessary for career advancement and that he should read and absorb the material on geometry, trigonometry and navigation in Euclid’s writings, John Robertson’s Elements of Navigation and John Hamilton Moore’s The Practical Navigator and New Daily Assistant. The books were purchased. They were significant publications in their time.

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Robertson’s authoritative book, for instance, was republished in a new edition every decade or so after its first publication in 1754. It had been used by the mathematician and astronomer William Wales on Cook’s second Pacific voyage. Matthew studied these books for a year and probably also began to learn the art of map-making. From reading these recommended books, Matthew learned much about arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, geography, astronomy and navigational principles.26 Though he clearly benefited from his modest formal education, Flinders as a teenager already had the self-discipline and reflective powers to progress educationally as an autodidact. Patronage was essential for successful naval careers at all levels in the eighteenth century. The navy was a profession where advancement was not entirely dependent on influence and money. Admirals and captains had followers who attached themselves to their superiors in rank and hoped that their competence would lead to promotion on merit.27 Sponsorship from a ranking commander was necessary for recruitment into the Royal Navy.28 Matthew Flinders soon grasped the importance of patronage for a naval career and was fortunate that family connections assisted his ambition. John Flinders wrote to a friend, Robert Laurie, acting lieutenant in HMS Alert, asking him to accept Matthew as his ‘servant’. It was common for commanders and lieutenants to enter young recruits as ‘servants’ in name only, without them taking articles, in order that they could serve the six years needed before sitting a lieutenant’s examination.29 Laurie duly obliged, and Flinders’ name was entered on the muster roll of the Alert on 23 October 1789; it remained there until his official discharge on 4 August 1790.30 It is not certain whether Flinders set foot on the Alert, for it was common, if illegal, for an officer to enter a servant’s name on the books and to draw the allowance intended for the entrant.31 Matthew also received help with starting a naval career from his cousin Henrietta, the sister of John Franklin. She was a governess for two daughters of Thomas Pasley, a frigate captain who had had a long naval career and was well positioned to assist Flinders to achieve an initial posting.32 Pasley was told about Flinders’ ambitions for a naval career, and it is sometimes claimed that he invited Flinders to stay with his family and, recognizing his alertness and talent, recommended him for naval service.33 Though this visit to the Pasley household may be apocryphal, the frigate captain acted upon Henrietta’s recommendation and promised Flinders a place on his ship, the Scipio.34 While attached to the Alert, Dr Flinders still hoped his son would undertake medical training. On 26 April 1790, he sent Matthew to Lincoln to see Alderman Joseph Dell, a surgeon and apothecary, who offered him an apprenticeship at 10 guineas per annum.35 But this arrangement never came to fruition. Matthew had been offered Pasley’s help to serve on the Scipio and wanted to take up this opportunity to pursue a naval career. There was no hesitation or attempt to change the decision. An anecdote relates that Matthew avoided talking to his father about entering the navy, preferring to signal his intentions by writing the necessary information on a surgeon’s slate and hanging it up on the wall at home for his father to see. He was worried about securing fatherly approval for his career choice.36 On 14 May 1790, Dr Flinders bade his son goodbye on the coach for London and Rochester to serve in the Scipio, noting ‘it has long been his choice – not mine. Henny

The Young Navigator got him this situation. I shall heavily miss him.’ He gave Matthew £20 in cash for going to sea.37 Matthew soon adapted to his naval appointment. He did not stay for long in the Scipio, following Pasley when the captain transferred to the Bellerophon in July 1790. Flinders was attached to that ship for just over eight months and also had a brief spell serving in another vessel, the Dictator.38 When Matthew paid his father an unexpected visit on 6 August, Dr Flinders commented in his diary: ‘He is grown, and much altered by his uniform and dress … He appears satisfied with his situation.’39 In 1790 and 1791, Flinders learned about seamanship and shipboard routines, working mainly at Chatham dockyard and on shore. An opportunity soon arose, however, to undertake a long-distance voyage that would enable him to quench the thirst for exploration he had read about in Robinson Crusoe. Pacific exploration had acquired a high profile in Britain as a result of Cook’s three famous voyages between 1768 and 1780 which touched at many Pacific islands, circumnavigated New Zealand and charted the east coast of Australia.40 Flinders knew about these voyages and the fame they brought to Cook. In May 1791, during a period of leave, Flinders travelled to Donington to see his family and friends with the news that he was about to go on a three-year voyage across the globe under Captain William Bligh in HMS Providence, an expedition authorized by the Admiralty. Pasley knew of Bligh’s impending venture and approved of Flinders’ application to join the voyage.41 Flinders entered the service of the Providence on 8 May 1791 at Deptford Yard, on the River Thames.42 Dr Flinders noted in his diary: ‘He had expressed a desire to go on a Voyage of this sort, and Commodore Pasley got him the situation with Capt. Bligh.’43 The Providence was a large new vessel of 406 tons burden, with 28 guns and 200 men, including 20 marines.44 Its voyage under Bligh was destined for Otaheite (now Tahiti) in the Society Islands. The intention of the voyage was to transplant breadfruit from there across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans to the West Indies, where it was intended to serve as a nutritious foodstuff for plantation slaves. Caribbean planters had lobbied the government to press for the introduction of breadfruit in the British Caribbean. Cooked as a staple food and used as substitute for rice, breadfruit had a potato-like flavour similar to freshly baked bread.45 Flinders’ participation in the voyage under Bligh was a major turning point in his nascent naval career. The biography of Flinders in the Naval Chronicle (1814) stated that embarking on this expedition was crucial for him: ‘from thence may be dated that predilection for nautical discovery, which became the ruling passion of his life’.46 The voyage of the Providence was the fourth undertaken by Bligh in the Pacific Ocean and the second whose main focus was to acquire breadfruit. On both breadfruit voyages, Bligh liaised with Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, a leading patron of maritime exploration and an expert on imperial botany.47 In 1770, Banks had sailed in the Endeavour with Cook and had left a detailed account of his visit to Botany Bay and other parts of Australia’s east coast. He had also written enthusiastically about the sustenance that breadfruit could provide as a foodstuff.48 Banks organized the voyage of the Providence and selected Bligh as her commander. Banks’s interest in the voyage of the Providence and his influence in government and naval circles ensured that two botanists, James Wiles and Christopher Smith, were hired to take charge of the breadfruit plants. Bligh had sailed as a master on James Cook’s third voyage of

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Pacific exploration in the Resolution between 1776 and 1780. During this voyage, he visited Tahiti and learned important navigational and cartographic skills from Cook. He was embroiled in the chaos that followed Cook’s murder in Hawaii in 1779.49 Bligh’s second Pacific voyage, in the Bounty, was his first breadfruit expedition. The voyage was fraught with difficulty and delays in leaving Tahiti, with the breadfruit loaded for a long oceanic passage to the Caribbean. Bligh’s short temper and dictatorial ways played a significant part in the famous mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789 when the master’s mate, Fletcher Christian, led eighteen of the crew to overthrow Bligh and cast him out to the perils of the ocean on a 23-foot launch. Bligh deployed considerable nautical skills to steer the launch safely into Timor after forty-seven days at sea, a remarkable feat of navigation through treacherous waters. This was his third (and shortest) voyage in the Pacific. After securing transport back to England from Batavia, Bligh was acquitted at a court martial in October 1790 of causing the mutiny. Two months later he was promoted by the Admiralty to the rank of post-captain, and on 16 April 1791 he was appointed commander of the Providence.50 Bligh’s fourth Pacific voyage represented his second chance to transport breadfruit successfully across the globe. On this expedition, the Providence was accompanied by HM Brig Assistant, a small tender under the command of Lieutenant Nathaniel Portlock, who had sailed with Bligh in the Resolution. Flinders’ first oceanic voyage was therefore one in which he had a commander (twenty years older than himself) with a reputation for being difficult but also one with the navigational experience and cartographic skills that could be imparted to the young midshipman. He, no doubt, also absorbed the various ways in which Banks provided patronage and support for the voyage, including securing gardening implements and presents for the Tahitians.51 The Providence and the Assistant set sail on the second breadfruit mission from Spithead, a roadstead in the Solent near Portsmouth, on 3 August 1791. They proceeded along the English Channel to the Atlantic and sailed southwards past the Canary Islands and reached the Cape of Good Hope on 6 November. After seven weeks there, undergoing repairs and taking on board fresh provisions and water, the ships departed on 23 December 1791 for the long voyage across the Indian Ocean.52 Bligh set a course for his vessels towards Adventure Bay, situated on Bruny Island off the south-east coast of Van Diemen’s Land, which he had previously visited with Cook in 1777 and afterwards in the Bounty in 1788. The ships arrived there on 9 February 1792 and took advantage of supplies of fresh water and game. This was Flinders’ first landfall anywhere in Australia. Two weeks later, the vessels left Adventure Bay and sailed towards the southern end of New Zealand. From there they headed for the well-sheltered Matavai Bay, Tahiti, which they reached on 9 April 1792. Bligh was often unwell during the voyage, experiencing prolonged headaches from a relapse of malaria he had previously caught in the East Indies. Enough material survives by contemporaries to show that this caused him to suffer mood swings in which his short temper was displayed in various tongue-lashings of his crew.53 Bligh was not challenged by his crew as on the Bounty; he remained fully in command. He issued orders to his men not to mention the death of Cook or the loss of the Bounty; they were also forbidden from telling the Tahitians they had come for

The Young Navigator breadfruit. Bligh wanted to remain silent on these matters because he had falsely claimed on his previous visit to Tahiti that Cook was still alive in England and that he was Cook’s son. He did this to capitalize on Cook’s mana (spiritual authority) among the Tahitians.54 The crew were told to treat the Tahitians in a friendly way and to avoid violence. The exotic beauty of Tahiti impressed Flinders on first glimpsing Matavai Bay; he referred to it as a ‘modern Cyprus [Cythera]’.55 The ships were welcomed enthusiastically with greetings from the Tahitians, but local chiefs were more circumspect in greeting Bligh. They knew from convicts who had recently been shipwrecked on Tahiti from the Matilda, from Captain Edward Edwards of the Pandora – sent from Britain to the South Pacific in search of the Bounty mutineers – and possibly from George Vancouver’s visit to Matavai Bay ten weeks earlier that Bligh had lied to them when he visited Tahiti in the Bounty.56 Nevertheless, the chiefs greeted Bligh and his men warmly and gifts were exchanged. Flinders recorded in a journal a set of Bligh’s orders for interaction with the Tahitians. He also noted the custom of Tahitians observing a taio, which involved selecting a friend from the visitors for the purposes of barter and the regular exchange of gifts.57 Bligh and his men stayed in Tahiti for three months, collecting breadfruit, interacting with local people and attending their ceremonies. Bligh knew from Cook’s voyages that Tahitian women could be complaisant in sexual encounters. He frowned upon promiscuity by sailors. On arriving at Tahiti, Bligh ordered the ship’s surgeon to examine every member of the crew for venereal disease. Five men were found to be infected.58 Bligh instructed the crew not to have sexual intercourse with the local women and warned that any crew member found to have contracted gonorrhoea would receive ‘a very exemplary punishment’.59 Tahitian women, however, mixed freely and amorously with the crew, and Bligh recorded this in his log. The price paid for these encounters was that over a quarter of the crew succumbed to venereal disease.60 Flinders was among them. He wrote in his journal that constancy was not a virtue of Tahitian women: ‘[T]he Otaheiteans refine upon Nature in gratifying their Passion several Ways, some of which I should not credit was I not well assur’d of the truth.’61 He was mulcted 30 shillings for two cures by mercury for the disease. This was equivalent to about a fortnight’s pay for someone of Flinders’ rank.62 Flinders appears to have avoided any symptoms arising from his gonococcal infection of 1792 in later years largely because there is no evidence that he experienced reinfection from further venereal exposure.63 Bligh entrusted his midshipmen with setting up the chronometers to measure longitude. These precision clocks, whose manufacture proceeded apace during the eighteenth century, were used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. Popularized by the Lincolnshire-born clockmaker John Harrison (1693–1776), chronometers offered a solution to calculating longitude by providing timepieces that kept accurate time (provided they were regularly wound up) as the ship on which they travelled moved from place to place.64 From the 1760s onwards, chronometers gained support from the Board of Longitude, Royal Navy and East India Company as they offered an accurate way of establishing geographical coordinates. They could therefore be of vital use not just to determine a navigator’s position at sea but also to plot improved charts and maps on which navigation depended.65

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia While on Tahiti, Bligh set up a portable observatory at Point Venus to carry out daily observations. This was the place on the northernmost end of Tahiti where in 1769 Cook had seen the transit of the planet Venus, an unusual astronomical phenomenon that enabled observers to calculate a vessel’s longitude.66 On 15 June, one of the midshipmen knocked over the stand that held the chronometers, which were damaged. The Admiralty chronometer (Earnshaw 1503) never worked again properly, increasing its losing rate by 55 seconds. Bligh was furious about this clumsy mistake; without the timekeeper functioning properly, accurate calculations for longitude would be difficult to determine, and that could be a serious matter on a long oceanic voyage. It seems that Flinders was at the receiving end of a verbal dressing-down over the incident.67 After three months’ stay in Tahiti, the breadfruit was loaded for the long voyage to the Caribbean. This was undertaken in a westward direction, as any attempt to sail eastwards in the stormy and bitterly cold waters near Cape Horn would have destroyed the plants. The vessels left Tahiti on 19 July 1792, stopped briefly at Aitutaki and sailed past the Tongan and Fijian islands towards the East Indies. Bligh steered the ships safely through the dangerous waters of Torres Strait, sailing through a passage he named ‘Bligh’s Entrance’. He had, of course, traversed this route before in the Bounty and in the Bounty’s launch.68 Bligh compiled a careful running survey of those seas to which Flinders had recourse on future voyages. The Assistant was attacked by Torres Strait Islanders in canoes on 11 September. The islanders shot arrows and wounded three of the crew, but Bligh countered the attack by ordering two quarterdeck guns to fire grapeshot against the attackers. This dispersed the assault.69 The Providence and the Assistant stopped at Kupang, Timor, and later at St Helena for wood and water. They then made their way northwards in the Atlantic Ocean towards the Caribbean. The ships then proceeded via Saint Vincent in the eastern Caribbean to Jamaica, arriving there on 5 February 1793. Some 544 breadfruit plants were landed at Saint Vincent, and most of the remaining plants were taken to Jamaica.70 In both islands the breadfruit was distributed widely. At first the slaves did not care to eat it, preferring plantains and yams, but eventually it became, and still is, a staple food in the West Indies.71 On 17 June 1793, the Providence left Jamaica and joined the Assistant, then on convoy duty in wartime, for the voyage home. The ships returned safely to England, reaching the Downs on 2 August 1793. Before the voyage began, Flinders received advice from his father and his patron, now elevated to Sir Thomas Pasley. Dr Flinders, on hearing of this voyage, had urged his son to keep an exact journal that might be published to advantage on his return to England. The voyage in the Providence also offered the opportunity for eventual advancement in the navy. ‘He has made much Improvement in his knowledge of Navigation and is thanks be to God well and in good Spirits,’ Dr Flinders wrote in his diary, adding ‘if he is successful this voyage may be a great means to promotion.’72 Pasley, who had supported Flinders joining the breadfruit expedition, was pleased to hear his protégé was satisfied with his situation on board the Providence. ‘I have little doubt of your gaining the good opinion of Capt. Bligh if you are equally attentive to your duty as you were in the Bellerophon,’ he wrote to Flinders. All Pasley wanted ‘in return for the good offices I have done you’ is that Matthew should write to him regularly about his travels and observations. ‘Do this my young friend,’ he added, ‘and

The Young Navigator you rest assured that my good offices will not be wanting some future day for your advancement’.73 During his voyage in the Providence, Matthew Flinders wrote a log and journal that followed through the suggestions made by his father, and he worked closely with Bligh.74 He sent letters to Pasley from Tenerife and Cape Town.75 The first part of his log and journal includes informative accounts of the landscape, flora and fauna, and churches of Tenerife, all described in a precise, factual manner. Flinders explained the traditional ceremony observed when ships crossed the line of the Equator, involving dressing up as characters with regalia as King Neptune, Queen Amphitrite and so forth. There is also commentary on Cape Town and the use of Malay slaves there.76 The later parts of Flinders’ log and journal display his increasing curiosity in describing the locations and people encountered on the voyage. Flinders wrote about the general character of the Tahitians when he was in Matavai Bay. His remarks were sometimes critical. On 22 June 1792, for example, he noted that ‘the Otaheitans are certainly as dextrous thieves as the most dextrous in any country’.77 Flinders described encounters with ‘Indians’ off the south coast of New Guinea. He referred to Malayan slaves being the main inhabitants of Kupang and commented on Timor and its inhabitants. Other places sketched and described were St Helena, Ascension Island, the Grenadines and St Lucia. Portrayals of places visited on the voyage are included in the log, including the New Hebrides and the islands off the south coast of New Guinea. There is also a description of the cultivation of breadfruit.78 Flinders’ logs for the Providence show his familiarity with Cook’s Pacific voyaging. He had a copy of John Hawkesworth’s official account of Cook’s first voyage, published in 1773. Flinders’ comments on the ship’s provisions for a long voyage, listing what was issued to the crew on a daily basis, are mainly copied from Cook ‘whose attention in preserving the Health of his Men was unremitted’.79 Flinders’ commentary on the lascivious dances and gestures of the Tahitians shows he had read Cook’s descriptions of these people. Sailing along the south coast of New Guinea, the Providence reached Possession Island in Torres Strait, off the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula.80 This was where, on 22 August 1770, Cook landed from the Endeavour and named the land he had just sailed by, New South Wales, claiming it for Britain. Cook was also on Flinders’ mind as the voyage reached Tahiti, for, as mentioned above, Bligh had strictly instructed his crew not to mention that Cook had been killed ‘by Indians’ on Hawaii.81 Flinders’ log and journal in the Providence indicates that he had acquired a sound knowledge of calculating latitude and longitude, of making astronomical observations by dead reckoning and of variations associated with compasses. He was familiar with the use of chronometers and took lessons from Bligh on chart construction.82 Flinders drew at least seven plans and one chart while on the voyage, but it is unlikely that he compiled any of the official large charts.83 Sketches of the track of the voyage of the Providence and Assistant inserted at the beginning of the log reveal an increasing confidence in drawing maps and charting the course followed.84 Flinders drew one chart – of Torres Strait. It was entitled A Chart of the Passage between New Holland and New Guinea as Seen in His Majesty’s Ship Providence in 1792. This was intended to accompany his log. He signed the chart ‘M. Flinders’.85 Flinders later praised Bligh’s

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia skill in navigating the treacherous Torres Strait and its extensive reefs in nineteen days, fighting off the large canoes of hostile Torres Strait Islanders.86 At the end of the log and journal, Flinders summarized the significance of the second breadfruit voyage: The Discoveries we have made and Dangers we have pass’d tho’ perhaps not of the greatest consequence to us as a trading nation, will yet add to our well established name as Discoverers, increase Geographical Knowledge in general and to the Cause of Navigation, they will be an acquisition. Captain Bligh, as the immediate agent, will no doubt receive the Honour and a recompense equal to the Task he has performed and I as an actor tho’ in an inferior station, shall have the satisfaction of having servd my King in a Cause he has so much at Heart, My Country by assisting to put in Execution its benevolent Intentions and myself by gaining some Knowledge of Navigation, the universal Diffusion of which is one of our best National Characteristics.87

These idealistic and patriotic comments turned somewhat sour when Bligh ordered all the private logs and journals kept on the voyage to be delivered to him after the expedition reached Jamaica on 14 February 1793. He wanted to ensure all documentation for the voyage was gathered together safely for submission to the Admiralty. This had been a common naval procedure for at least two decades. Bligh’s decision nevertheless rankled with Flinders, who did not have a new book to continue his description of the voyage. Flinders felt he was being unjustly denied an opportunity to continue his log.88 It may be that Bligh, in addition to the requirement to submit all logs to the Admiralty after the conclusion of the voyage, wanted to keep Flinders’ journal until his own account of the voyage was published. This was implied by Dr Flinders, and one can imagine a situation in which an established naval commander (Bligh) would not want to be upstaged by a talented younger protégé (Flinders).89 The return voyage to England was delayed by the outbreak of war between Britain and France on 1 February 1793. On 2 April, when that news reached Jamaica, Flinders was demoted to able seaman. This change in status probably arose because the senior naval officers at Port Royal required a scaling down of the officer ranks on Bligh’s ships.90 This reflected the positions available as part of a ship’s complement. The Providence and Assistant sailed in convoy from Jamaica on 15 June 1793. It was not until 6 July, when they had cleared the Gulf of Florida, that Bligh returned the logbook to Flinders, who lamented that his voyage account would not be as accurate as he had hoped.91 This and the other logbooks were handed over to the Admiralty after the ships arrived home. At the end of the voyage, Bligh did not recommend Flinders for promotion. There is no evidence to suggest this resulted from personal bias; it was simply that Flinders had not completed the six years’ service needed to take an examination to become a lieutenant (two of which had to be as a master’s mate or midshipman). Bligh would have known that Flinders had not yet met those requirements.92 Some historians have argued that Flinders harboured resentment against Bligh’s high-handedness on the voyage.93 Certainly, Flinders later wrote that Bligh was prejudiced against him.94 And Dr Flinders mentioned in his diary that Bligh was latterly

The Young Navigator not on the best terms with Matthew, ‘which was an unpleasant circumstance’, though no further particulars were noted.95 Flinders had not previously encountered a naval superior with Bligh’s difficult temperament. But though Bligh had a justified reputation for verbal abuse of seamen and though his behaviour deteriorated when he was feeling unwell, as was the case during this voyage, it is uncertain what exactly caused Flinders’ resentment. There may have been bad feeling over Bligh’s treatment of Flinders for venereal disease, or about the anger expressed over the damaged chronometer. There was tension over Flinders’ access to his logbook after Bligh had insisted it be handed over to him. Contemporary comments suggest that Flinders and others suffered from thirst when Bligh reduced the amount of water allowed per day by a half and flew into a rage if he then found a man drinking more than his allotted share.96 One or several of these points of tension between Bligh and Flinders may have led to lingering bad feeling. Nevertheless, no written evidence survives showing that Bligh had a critical attitude towards Flinders. He did not recommend him for promotion at the end of the voyage, but neither did he do so for other junior midshipmen on the voyage who had not served their time for a lieutenancy. But when Flinders eventually took his lieutenant’s examination in 1797, Bligh referred to his ‘diligence, sobriety and obedience to command’.97 Flinders’ return to England in the Providence occurred a few months after Britain and France entered into a war in February 1793. Flinders immediately contacted Pasley, who was at Plymouth and expecting shortly to join Admiral Lord Richard Howe, the Commander of the Channel fleet, in the naval vessel Bellerophon. Pasley hoped to see Flinders after he had visited his family. Knowing that stories were circulating in London about how Bligh had treated the crew of the Bounty, he added that Captain Bligh ‘will meet a very hard reception – he has damn’d himself ’.98 Pasley had a keen interest in private discussions about Bligh’s behaviour and character. Court martials of the survivors of the mutinous crew of the Bounty had taken place in Portsmouth while the second breadfruit expedition was in progress, and they included Pasley’s nephew Peter Heywood, who was found guilty and sentenced to death but granted mercy and pardoned.99 Before taking up Pasley’s invitation to sail in the Bellerophon, Flinders visited his father and other family members in Lincolnshire. He also had a brief introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, the patron for Bligh’s second breadfruit voyage. James Wiles, a botanist in the Providence, had become friendly with Flinders during that voyage. Flinders was involved in two errands to Banks on Wiles’s behalf. On 15 August 1793, Flinders visited Banks in London with a note from Wiles, requesting that his salary for the voyage, for which Banks had undertaken responsibility, should be entrusted to Flinders, ‘who will deliver it safely into my father’s hands’.100 On 21 October, Flinders called on Banks at Revesby Abbey, his country seat in Lincolnshire, with a request that he be reimbursed for a loan of £30 to Wiles.101 Flinders would have been well received, as someone who had sailed in the Providence. Though he had virtually no contact with Banks for several years thereafter, these initial meetings with Banks proved crucial for Flinders’ later career.102 Flinders enlisted in the Bellerophon on 7 September 1793 as an able seaman. He was upgraded to midshipman within less than a month.103 The voyage gave him an

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia opportunity to win prize money during wartime and to extend his naval career. Flinders kept a detailed journal while serving in the Bellerophon, a third-rate vessel of 1,643 tons and 74 guns. The ship sailed beyond the Scilly Islands in early November and soon encountered a French fleet. On 18 November, after Admiral Howe made signals to chase the enemy, Flinders recorded, ‘we were now the Headmost line of battle ship and gaining fast upon the Enemy, but the major Part of our fleet seems rather to drop from them’.104 It became difficult to see their own vessels and the French ships because of hazy weather and squalls at sea. After continued sailing in pursuit of the French fleet, the Bellerophon returned to Spithead for repairs and repainting.105 On 14 April 1794, Commodore Pasley was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the White, the second most senior position among naval admirals. Flinders became an aide-decamp to him in the Bellerophon. On 2 May, the Channel Fleet sailed out to sea, with the aim of attacking the French naval squadrons stationed at Brest to safeguard the arrival of vessels carrying grain from the United States. These shipments were crucial supplies for France because the previous year’s harvest had failed and severe food shortages had occurred. Admiral Lord Howe had the opportunity to engage with the French in the first major naval battle of the war. The Bellerophon was one of twenty-nine large ships-of-the-line and fifteen frigates that comprised the British fleet. The French fleet consisted of twenty-six ships-of-the-line and some smaller vessels. On 30 May, Flinders recorded in his journal a detailed account of the engagements with the French fleet; he drew six perpendicular views of the British and French fleets in different positions on 28, 29 and 31 May and 1 June.106 Flinders experienced only five days of battle while serving in the Bellerophon, but they involved a momentous naval encounter with the French fleet. Flinders took part in the famous battle of the Glorious First of June. That designation obscures the fact that this was only the final act in a struggle between the British and French fleets that lasted for a week.107 The naval battles occurred 400 miles away from Ushant, the island at the south-western end of the English Channel that marks the limit of metropolitan France.108 On 28 May, the Bellerophon opened fire on the three-decker Révolutionnaire. Flinders wrote, ‘we immediately pointed our guns’ towards this ship, and ‘in a few minutes she returned it with great spirit, our distance from her being something more than a mile’.109 The Bellerophon was battered by French crossfire; its spars, rigging and sails were broken. Yet it continued to fire on the French vessels on the following day, as the British fleet tried to seize the upper hand. Its rigging was entirely shredded in the assault. Flinders saw damaged British and French vessels around him. A thick day of fog ensued when the French were nowhere to be seen. The crew of the Bellerophon spent the day repairing the sails and rigging.110 Two days later, the British ships in the line of battle sighted the French vessels just after 6 am. Two hours later the Bellerophon opened fire near a French three-decker, but was pounded by the enemy ships. Ferocious fighting took place. An eighteen-pounder came through the barricado of the quarterdeck, exploded and struck Pasley, who lost a leg.111 The Bellerophon stopped firing after losing its main fore topmast. Three men had been killed, a fourth died of his wounds soon afterwards and about another thirty were wounded, among whom five lost limbs.112 According to an anecdote, Flinders seized a lighted match and fired deserted guns at a passing French three-decker during

The Young Navigator the battle, only for Pasley to shake him violently by the collar and ask him sternly why he had done this without permission. Flinders’ apparent reply was that ‘he did not know, but he thought it a fine chance to have a good shot at ’em’. The incident was soon forgotten.113 The Bellerophon was the only British ship – apart from Howe’s Queen Charlotte – to break the French line. Both fleets were exhausted by the battle. Twelve French ships surrendered. Around 1,000 British seamen were killed.114 The British navy, however, eventually prevailed over the enemy. Howe had led a famous victory, and Flinders, in his only naval battle, had been involved in the thick of the action on the Glorious First of June. The British vessels sailed back to celebrations at Portsmouth. A royal salute from the fort was accompanied by loud cheering, a twenty-one gun salute, and a procession of ships including members of the royal family, Lord Howe’s barge with his flag, the Board of Admiralty’s barge and a succession of Admirals and captains with their flags and pendants. This was not the end of wartime activities for the Bellerophon, which continued to serve until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.115 On 18 June 1794, Dr Flinders received letters from ‘my dear Matthew’, announcing his safety and arrival home. ‘Had Matthew been at sea his time, that is 6 Years,’ Dr Flinders noted, ‘he thinks he might be promoted to a Lieutenancy, but unfortunately he wants near a Year & half of that time and I suppose it cannot take place before. I hope he will get some prize money from this affair’.116 Flinders did not receive any such prize money, but he soon had the opportunity to further his naval career in wider parts of the world.

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New South Wales

In the summer of 1794, the twenty-year-old Matthew Flinders had, within two years, sailed across the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans on Bligh’s second breadfruit voyage and had seen action in a naval battle against the French, culminating in the victory on the Glorious First of June. He was now a young adult with distinctive features and a strong personality. A ‘slight and active’ man of pale complexion, around 5 feet 7 inches tall, with dark hair and dark-brown eyes, Flinders displayed ‘extreme energy & activity’, and had ‘very keen senses & observation’. He was ‘firm, just, punctual, clearheaded’. His nickname was ‘indefatigable’. He ‘drew maps with extreme accuracy’ and had a ‘great talent for discovery & science’.1 William Henry Smyth’s recollection was that Flinders’ ‘figure was slight but well proportioned with a light and buoyant step. His nose was rather aquiline, but his chin a little projecting, and his lips compressed. He had a noble brow, hair about black, eyes dark, bright, and with a commanding expression amounting at times to sternness.’2 These descriptions underscore Flinders’ purposeful mind and disciplined demeanour. Flinders’ introduction to navigation under Bligh’s tutelage and with Pasley’s patronage had served him well in his early career. But after the excitement of the famous naval victory over the French had died down, he had to find further employment to secure a lieutenancy. Pasley’s serious injury in the battle against the French ships off Brest restricted him from extending further direct patronage towards Flinders.3 A new opportunity for Flinders soon arose, however, through his friendship with Henry Waterhouse, who had been first lieutenant in the Bellerophon. By the end of July 1794 Waterhouse had been appointed commander on the voyage of the Reliance taking out a new governor, John Hunter, to New South Wales.4 Waterhouse and Hunter had sailed together in the Sirius as part of the First Fleet taking convicts to Botany Bay in 1787/8, and had also taken part in the battle on the Glorious First of June. Flinders was alerted to the voyage of the Reliance by Waterhouse, and on 10 August he was appointed senior master’s mate on the vessel.5 He later noted that he was ‘led by his passion for exploring new countries, to embrace the opportunity of going out upon a station, which of all others, presented the most ample field for his favourite pursuit’.6 Shortly after accepting a position in the Reliance, Flinders visited Donington to see his father, relatives and friends. His father noted that his son looked well, and was in good health and spirits. ‘He made this journey,’ Dr Flinders recorded in his diary,

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia in order to take leave of us, previous to his going on another long voyage – Government having fitted out 2 vessels for the New Settlement of New Holland, to carry out a New Governor (Hunter) and Capt. Waterhouse … being appointed Commander. Matthew wished to go with him – the Station will be for 4 or 5 Years, which is a long time, but he thinks he has a better chance of Promotion than staying in the home Service, as he will be the oldest Petty Officer.

Dr Flinders added that his younger son Samuel Ward Flinders had also been recruited for the voyage: ‘My son Samuel having for some time expressed a desire for the Sea, and Matthew wishing to take him & Capt. W[aterhouse] being consulted & willing to take him also, I have advanced £30 to Matthew to fit him out and he is gone with him & is to go this voyage.’ Samuel was only aged twelve, but his father and brother thought a similar opportunity might not occur for some time – and Flinders had lamented to his father that if he himself had gone into the navy sooner, he would now be a lieutenant.7 Flinders was embarking for the last of the world’s habitable continents to be explored by Europeans. Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown southern land – had formed part of the imaginative world of geographers and philosophers since ancient times. Portuguese and Spanish navigators in the sixteenth centuries had sailed across the Pacific from Peru in search of a large continent in the southern hemisphere but they did not reach Australia. The Flemish engraver and cartographer Cornelis de Jode’s map Novae Guineae forma, & situs (1593) depicted a continent beneath New Guinea, with people, monsters and the Great Dividing Range.8 Nobody in Europe knew at the time whether this was based on speculation or whether a southern continent existed, but it stimulated curiosity about a large part of the world unknown to Europeans. The first documented landfall in Australia was by the Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon on the twenty-metre-long Duyfken in 1606; he touched at the Cape York Peninsula. At the time he did not realize his discovery was part of the southern continent rather than New Guinea.9 Janszoon's compatriot Abel Janszoon Tasman made two voyages in Australian waters in 1642 and 1644. On his first voyage, he discovered and named Van Diemen’s Land – modern Tasmania – though he did not know it was an island. The second voyage was devoted to mapping and charting the north-west Australian coast.10 Landfalls by other Dutch and English voyagers became more common in the later seventeenth century. The English buccaneer and adventurer William Dampier warned against settlement in Western Australia owing to arid conditions. This was based on his brief landfall in the Cygnet at King Sound, north-west Australia, in January 1688. He was the first Englishman to set foot on Australian soil. He reached Western Australia on a second voyage in 1699, when he commanded the ship HMS Roebuck. Dampier published two accounts with critical observations on the Western Australian coast that focused on Aboriginal people and natural history.11 Charts and maps, especially those carried out by the Dutch, transmitted knowledge of seventeenth-century discoveries of parts of Australia. Accidental landfalls by the Dutch in Australia between 1616 and 1628 were shown on a map by Hessel Gerritz,

New South Wales cartographer to the Dutch East India Company. The Bonaparte or Tasman map, now held at Sydney’s Mitchell Library, included the track of Tasman’s two voyages. Maps by Joan Blaeu, produced in Amsterdam, and a gigantic globe of 1651 also showed the results of Tasman’s voyages to the coast of Australia. Blaeu’s map of the world (1645–6) was the earliest printed chart in which ‘Nova Hollandia’ represents Australia. Copies of these charts were circulated throughout Europe and made known in China. The inlaid marble floor of the Great Hall of Amsterdam’s new town hall (inaugurated on 29 July 1655) had maps of the two hemispheres, including Australia as mapped by Blaeu. In 1663 the Frenchman Melchisédec Thévenot included a copy of the Blaeu map in his Relation de divers voyages curieux, published in Paris. This was widely circulated and reprinted.12 Flinders had a copy of it in the Investigator.13 These maps and charts helped to promote interest in the geography and location of Australia. During the eighteenth century, Enlightenment thinking emphasized human progress via greater discovery of the globe. Scientific curiosity earmarked maritime exploration for the expansion of geographical, botanical, zoological and ethnographical knowledge. Britain and France were at the forefront of voyages of discovery to the Pacific after 1750 through the work of the Royal Society in London, the Institut de France in Paris, the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks for collectors of new knowledge, and the Admiralty and Board of Longitude’s interest in oceanic exploration.14 The Royal Society produced detailed instructions to seafarers and travellers about how to gather accurate data on coastlines, ports and weather patterns.15 Diverse writers such as John Campbell, Alexander Dalrymple and James Mario Matra speculated about the supposed prospects of trade, exchange and products that Terra Australis could provide in an optimistic, favourable way. This added to contemporary interest in the Great South Land.16 In 1767 Dalrymple expressed the view that a large southern continent must exist as a counterweight to land in the northern hemisphere: ‘Having shewn that there is a seeming necessity for a Southern Continent to maintain a conformity in the two hemispheres, it rests to shew, from the nature of the winds in the South Pacifick Ocean, that there must be a Continent on the South.’17 The Pacific was the least known part of the world when Dalrymple expressed that view, but knowledge of that vast region increased apace in the late eighteenth century. Britain, in particular, established a stronger interest in Australia in the wake of James Cook’s first great voyage of exploration to the Pacific. Cook spent eight days at Botany Bay. He then sailed up the east coast of Australia, landing on Possession Island off the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula in 1770, when he claimed the land he had explored and charted for Britain. New South Wales was his name for this territory. Banks sailed with Cook, and was favourably impressed with the prospects for settlement in and around Botany Bay. Cook never returned to mainland Australia on his two subsequent Pacific voyages of exploration, and the British government did not follow up the claim to New South Wales with a further expedition. Matters changed considerably, however, after the end of the American War of Independence in 1783. With prisons and hulks full of convicted felons and with no obvious or available place to send them into exile, the government of the Younger Pitt eventually decided to establish

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia a convict colony in New South Wales. Banks played a significant part in persuading the government that this was an appropriate place for settling a colony. Whether the British government established the Botany Bay colony primarily to dump convicts as far away from Britain as possible, or whether they had commercial or strategic motives for settling a colony in Australia, is still disputed by historians. Whatever the mixture of reasons, the First Fleet of eleven naval vessels carrying convicts guarded by marines set sail from Portsmouth in May 1787 and arrived in Sydney harbour on 26 January 1788. The fledgling colony they established there was the destination for Flinders’ voyage in the Reliance in 1795.18 Flinders went on board the Reliance at Deptford dockyard on 3 September 1794. Shortly afterwards he was joined by his brother, Samuel Ward. Refitting of the Reliance and its tender the Supply took place at Deptford and at Spithead for the lengthy voyage that lay ahead.19 Flinders wrote to his father from Plymouth Sound on 6 December, explaining that he was waiting for the assemblage of a grand fleet to convey the vessel to a safe latitude.20 While waiting to sail, Flinders wrote an affectionate letter to his step-cousin Mary Franklin in Lincolnshire in which he expressed the loneliness of waiting for the voyage to begin, and in which he lamented the absence of her company and that of their close friend Ann (originally Annette) Chappelle as well as ‘the Comforts of a Spilsby fireside, the agreable Chat and lively Jist of those Friends in whose favour we are so much preposed to think everything they do or say charming’.21 A fleet of over 500 ships under convoy left Plymouth on 16 February 1795. The convoy broke up two days later and the Reliance and the Supply followed a course towards Tenerife, stopping there briefly. While at Tenerife, Flinders wrote a warm letter to his Lincolnshire family friends and acquaintances, promising to write to them as often as possible during his time abroad. One recipient of this letter was Ann Chappelle, later to become Flinders’ wife, though at this stage there was no romantic connection between them.22 The Reliance sailed in a south-westerly direction from Tenerife to Rio de Janeiro. The new governor Hunter was anxious to sail well beyond the reach of enemy vessels in wartime. This meant avoiding the usual stopover at the Cape of Good Hope, which it was feared the French would seize from the Dutch in the wake of their military successes in the Netherlands. Brazil was a colony of Britain’s traditional ally Portugal. Rio was a safe haven where British ships bound for Australia could be provisioned.23 Nicholas Johnson, the second lieutenant, left the Reliance owing to poor health at Rio, where the ships stayed for three weeks. Waterhouse appointed Flinders as acting lieutenant in his place ahead of the master, Henry Moore.24 This was not an unusual practice, for masters were professional seamen (or ‘tars’) whereas an acting lieutenant could be a gentleman awaiting a commissioned rank. Flinders remained senior master’s mate to Moore.25 After leaving Rio, the ships sailed across the southern Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean, reaching Port Jackson after fourteen weeks on 7 September 1795.26 On this long voyage Flinders furthered his knowledge of nautical astronomy. The Reliance carried a timekeeper to calculate longitude by celestial navigation. This was much more reliable than finding longitude by the older method of lunar

New South Wales observations, bedevilled by the moon not always being visible in relation to distant celestial objects. The ship also had a meridional compass invented by Ralph Walker of Jamaica, who had brought it to London in the Providence in 1793. This was used to determine longitude by magnetic variation. As Flinders had sailed on the Providence’s voyage, he was already familiar with its use.27 Flinders used a sextant and timekeeper to determine locations at the Canary and Cape Verde islands, and was given permission at Rio de Janeiro to land on the small island of Ilha das Enxadas to calculate altitudes with the artificial horizon for latitude and lunar distances for longitude.28 On this voyage Flinders had several shipmates who were to play a significant part in his career. Reference has already been made to Henry Waterhouse, the second captain, who had served as first lieutenant of the Bellerophon and who gave Flinders the opportunity to sail on this voyage. Flinders would have gained the acquaintance of the governor-designate of New South Wales, John Hunter, a middle-aged Scotsman who had published a journal of his experiences at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island after sailing with the First Fleet in 1787/8. Hunter was a competent maritime surveyor, and keenly interested in the exploration of New South Wales.29 The most significant person who influenced Flinders on the voyage was the young surgeon George Bass, also from Lincolnshire and three years older than Flinders. Bass used his medical skills to help when Flinders experienced kidney problems in 1795.30 Bass already had five years’ experience as a naval surgeon when he joined the Reliance, but his interests and capabilities extended well beyond medicine. He was a highly intelligent person who had read widely and who shared with Flinders a penchant for geographical discovery.31 Flinders was impressed by Bass’s determination and ability. ‘In Mr George Bass, surgeon of the Reliance,’ he later wrote, I had the happiness to find a man whose ardour for discovery was not to be repressed by any obstacles, nor deterred by danger; and with this friend a determination was formed of completing the examination of the east coast of New South Wales, by all such opportunities as the duty of the ship, and procurable means, could admit.32

Other observers, such as Governor Hunter, were equally impressed by Bass’s resourcefulness and capable application to whatever tasks he committed himself.33 Flinders had arrived in the small, isolated convict outpost of Botany Bay, situated further away from Britain than any other British possession at the time. The colony suffered from disease, crime and lack of provisions. The total white inhabitants numbered about 3,200 people. Hunter assumed his position as the colony’s governor on 11 September 1795, taking part in a formal outdoor ceremony punctuated by fifteengun salutes from the Reliance. Hunter was faced with running a colony that was short of food supplies and labouring implements and one in which he had to deal with the entrenched interests of the New South Wales Corps, the military contingent that had taken over the colony’s administration after the departure of Governor Arthur Phillip for England in December 1792.34 None of these economic and political difficulties, however, affected Flinders in any significant way. In fact, arriving in New South Wales was a period of optimism and advancement for him. Flinders was promoted

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia to a lieutenancy as soon as his time as a midshipman expired on 23 October 1795. To secure this position, he had received support from his friends Thomas Wilson and William Kent, the captain of the Supply.35 When Flinders arrived in New South Wales in September 1795, relatively little was known about the vast territory under British control. The region stretched from Cape York in the north down to south-eastern Van Diemen’s Land (still thought to be part of the mainland) and westward from Port Jackson to present-day Alice Springs. This was twice the combined land area of France, Spain and Great Britain. Governor Hunter was dissatisfied with the lack of exploration of the coast and interior parts of New South Wales. He wished to promote expeditions to survey coastal areas in search of harbours, rivers and safe anchorages for ships and to penetrate into inland regions along rivers and across the mountains. Banks, Hunter and others wanted more information on the natural resources of New South Wales and on the potential for agricultural cultivation. Flinders found a receptive leader in Hunter for carrying out expeditions in New South Wales.36 Flinders’ stay in Port Jackson was divided between essential naval duties connected with the Reliance and opportunities for exploration. With Hunter’s support, Flinders and Bass soon had the chance to survey part of coastal New South Wales as part of their geographical research.37 Current knowledge only covered between ten and twelve miles to the south of Port Jackson and fifteen to twenty miles to the north. Hunter himself had previously explored and surveyed Botany Bay and numerous riverine branches of Port Jackson shortly after he arrived in Sydney harbour with the Sirius on the First Fleet. Between 28 January and 6 February 1788, with some assistance, Hunter had charted Port Jackson. In August and September 1789, he had charted Broken Bay and Botany Bay.38 There had been an initial exploration of the Hawkesbury River by Governor Phillip and some associates. Port Stephens had been visited by several ships. Cook’s River, a tributary of Botany Bay, and George’s River, also in south-western Sydney, had been examined.39 Hunter himself, for instance, undertook an excursion in January 1797 to explore George’s River, and found it navigable for small craft for at least twenty miles.40 But apart from these ventures, as Flinders later wrote, ‘the intermediate portions of the coast, both to the north and south, were little further known than from captain Cook’s general chart; and none of the more distant openings, marked but not explored by that celebrated navigator, had been seen’.41 Flinders and Bass made plans to explore the coast of New South Wales further than was then known. They were united in their commitment to maritime discovery, and soon proved they could be entrusted with organizing and carrying out expeditions. ‘With this friend,’ Flinders wrote, a determination was found of completing the examination of the east coast of New South Wales by all such opportunities as the duty of the ship and procurable means could admit. Projects of this nature, when originating in the minds of young men, are usually termed romantic; and so far from any good being anticipated, even prudence and friendship join in discouraging, if not in opposing them. Thus it was in the present case.42

New South Wales Flinders and Bass heard from hunters who provided game for Botany Bay that a large, navigable river existed inland. The hunters thought the river flowed into the bay. Flinders and Bass wanted to explore the area near George’s River to ascertain whether the supposition was correct. It did not prove difficult to gain Hunter and Waterhouse’s support to undertake a short expedition to do so. Hunter had a particular interest in land exploration in the vicinity as he had served as a surveyor of rivers and harbours in and around Port Jackson while assisting Governor Phillip in 1788.43 As there was no available vessel for a small-scale reconnaissance and the coast was too dangerous to explore in a rowing boat, Flinders and Bass sailed in a small craft with a keel of eight feet and a beam of five feet. This boat, probably only about 9–10 feet long, had been brought out in the Reliance. It was known, appropriately, as Tom Thumb.44 The only other person who accompanied them was William Martin, a fourteen-year-old boy assistant. Flinders and Bass set out on 26 October 1795 from Port Jackson to Botany Bay to explore the inland course of the George’s River. During a short expedition of nine days they followed the river’s winding course for twenty miles beyond the limit of Hunter’s prior survey of it in 1788. When they reached the limit of navigation, they continued on foot for several miles. They made a sketch of the river and presented it to Hunter, along with a favourable report of the land. Hunter followed up their report by visiting the vicinity twice, in November 1795 and June 1796. This led to the establishment in 1797 of Bankstown, now a sizeable western suburb of Sydney.45 Flinders and Bass had to wait for several months before undertaking their next expedition. They were required to sail in the Reliance to tiny Norfolk Island, some 900 miles off the east Australian coast, to take supplies for the island’s garrison and subsidiary convict settlement, which had been established in 1788. After the Reliance returned to Port Jackson, on 5 March 1796, Flinders and Bass planned their next expedition in a small vessel built under the supervision of the shipwright Daniel Paine. The boat, which was probably government-owned, was also named the Tom Thumb. This vessel, not more than twelve feet long, set out from Port Jackson on 25 March 1796. It had provisions for ten days, two muskets with ammunition, a watch and two pocket compasses to explore the shores of New South Wales beyond Port Hacking, located about seven miles south of Botany Bay. It was thought that an entrance to a river might be found a little beyond Point Solander, the southern edge of the bay. Flinders and Bass again had Martin as their assistant.46 The second Tom Thumb voyage was more eventful than the first. Cold stormy weather and a current running strongly to the south carried the boat twenty miles further down the coast than intended.47 On 26 March the boat capsized near the shore. Flinders, Bass and Martin unloaded the provisions on to a beach and dried them. They saw the smokes of Aborigines within three miles, and had heard that natives south of Botany Bay were cannibals. They relaunched the boat quickly, but this proved difficult because breakers and heavy surf lashed their small craft. At dawn they came across natives on the beach, understood a few words, and were directed by them to a freshwater river to the southward. They named this creek Canoe Rivulet. It was an outlet to the estuary of Lake Illawarra, which Flinders called Tom Thumb’s lagoon. Flinders and Bass were alarmed when twenty natives assembled there, and determined to leave the area as soon as possible. The tense situation was defused when Flinders,

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia

THE TOM THUMB JOURNEYS

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Tom Thumb’s Lagoon (Lake Illawarra)

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track of the first Tom Thumb from and to Port Jackson track of the second Tom Thumb

Map 2.1 The Tom Thumb journeys, 1795–6 approaching the Aborigines in a benign way, trimmed the beards of several of them with scissors. This entertained everyone, and was conducive to a friendly atmosphere.48 Bass stowed fresh water in a cask and prepared the boat for departure, but a strong sea breeze and high surf made it difficult to sail away. After the weather calmed down, Flinders and Bass sailed in the Tom Thumb towards Saddle Point, forty-four miles south of Port Jackson. On 28 March they came across some islets which they called Martin Isles after their young companion in the boat. These were located off modern Port Kembla.49 The next day they started to head back towards Port Jackson, but encountering a windy, dangerous breaking sea they put into a safe cove that Flinders

New South Wales named Providential Cove. This provided calm shelter about three or four miles south of Port Hacking. On 30 March another landing was made to search for water. The explorers examined Port Hacking. They decided that shoal water made the inlet unsuitable for shipping. Early next morning they continued their voyage northward. The Tom Thumb arrived back in Sydney Cove on 1 April 1796.50 Flinders’ charts of the area covered in the second Tom Thumb voyage revealed his graphical ability. The charts were sent back to England along with a topographical plan prepared by Charles Grimes, the Deputy Surveyor-General, for Governor Hunter in 1796. These were combined and published in London on 12 March 1799 by the cartographer Aaron Arrowsmith as A Topographical Plan of the Settlement of New South Wales, Including Port Jackson, Botany Bay and Broken Bay. Surveyed by Messrs Grimes and Flinders – Communicated by Lt. Col. Paterson of the New South Wales Corps.51 This engraved map was both the first separately issued publication to show the spread of settlement in Sydney and the first published chart by Flinders. On returning to Sydney Cove, Flinders resumed his normal duties in the Reliance, which was needed for the carriage of stores and livestock and the transport of officers to and from Norfolk Island. Flinders assisted with repairs to the ship.52 Bass, for his part, was free to undertake some land explorations. In June 1796 he undertook an attempted crossing of the Blue Mountains, part of the Great Dividing Range, which formed a permanent barrier, situated within fifty miles of Sydney, to the rolling plains that lay beyond. There had been several unsuccessful attempts to cross these mountains between 1790 and 1794. But despite Bass’s bravery in scaling the crags and gorges of what seemed an impassable mountain range, he and his companions, thirsty and hungry, turned back after fifteen days. It was not until 1813 that a pass over the Blue Mountains was found, after a great struggle, by Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and Lieutenant William Lawson.53 The Reliance and the Supply were mainly intended to procure and deliver livestock for New South Wales as the colony at Port Jackson could no longer rely on Britain for regular provision of salted meat. Increasing the number of cattle and horses would help to make the settlement at New South Wales fully independent: in 1795 the government only had 158 cattle and 144 sheep in the colony.54 Accordingly, the next voyage of the Reliance set out to obtain additional livestock. New Zealand had not yet been settled. Nor were there any substantial British settlements in Asia from which provisions and livestock could be easily gathered. Hunter instead chose the Cape of Good Hope as the destination for the Reliance’s next voyage. In 1795 the Cape had just been taken by the British from the Dutch. Hunter was worried that France might try to recapture it. Such a takeover would be disastrous for Britain as the Cape provided a vital harbour, an anchorage for shelter and a stopover point for securing water, fresh provisions and repairs for British ships on the long voyage from Europe to Asia and Australia. This was because of its strategic geographical position at the convergence of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. In midOctober 1796 the Reliance, accompanied by the Supply, sailed from Norfolk Island in an eastward direction towards the Cape of Good Hope, with Flinders on board.55 The ships passed Tierra del Fuego on 16 December, and were joined six days later by the chartered transport Britannia en route from Port Jackson to England. The vessels reached Table Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope, on 16 January 1797.56

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Flinders remained there for nearly three months. He was offered a fresh commission by Admiral Thomas Pringle, commander of the navy on the Cape station, to serve in the Admiral Troup; but Flinders did not want to change ship and Waterhouse would not part with him.57 Flinders was employed at the Cape acquiring and loading stores and livestock for New South Wales.58 Forty-nine cattle and just over a hundred sheep were taken in the Reliance and forty cattle, five mares and over forty sheep in the Supply. Most of the livestock had been purchased by the commissary for the Botany Bay settlement. The two ships left Table Bay on 11 April 1797. They encountered choppy seas and the Supply had problems in pumping out excess water. Stormy conditions continued for most of the voyage. Lashings of water created filthy conditions. Bread and biscuits were ruined. It was with considerable relief that the vessels reached Sydney Cove. The Supply pressed ahead and reached Port Jackson on 16 May, forty-one days before the Reliance arrived on 26 June.59 Two developments occurred that meant a great deal to Flinders during his excursion to and from the Cape of Good Hope. First, he had now completed more than six years’ service at sea and two years as a midshipman, and was therefore eligible for promotion. At the Cape, Waterhouse recommended him to Admiral Pringle for such an examination. Flinders took a test on basic navigation and practical seamanship. This would have been an oral examination before three captains. He passed and received his certificate for lieutenant on 24 January 1797. After leaving the Cape, his brother Samuel was promoted to midshipman.60 On arriving back at Port Jackson, Governor Hunter appointed Flinders acting lieutenant of the Reliance. The Admiralty gave their approval, and Flinders’ rank as a lieutenant was officially dated 21 January 1798. William Kent, the commander of the Supply, had helped Flinders secure this appointment. It is also possible that the Admiralty’s support for the promotion came with a warm recommendation from Admiral Pasley, Flinders’ first patron.61 The second reason why the Reliance’s voyage to and from the Cape was important to Flinders might seem trivial but, in fact, meant a great deal to him: this was the acquisition of a cat as a pet. On the return voyage to Port Jackson, the ship’s cat gave birth to a litter of kittens. Flinders adopted one of them, calling it Trim after a character in Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. This black cat, with white paws, became Flinders’ companion for most voyages he undertook during the rest of his naval career. Flinders later wrote an affectionate, amusing tribute to Trim, describing the cat’s vanity and ability to seek and gain attention and emphasizing the simple companionship it offered on board ship. Trim was always present when the officers and men ate dinner, and he provided innocent distraction from the daily work routines.62 After the return of the Reliance from the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney Cove, extensive repairs to the ship were needed. Flinders contributed to this work between December 1797 and May 1798. But Governor Hunter had plans for further exploration of the coastline of New South Wales. He was keen to determine whether a strait existed off the south-eastern end of Australia. If proven, this would have important consequences for the sailing patterns of ships. Voyages around the southern coast of Van Diemen’s Land in winter were subject to sub-Antarctic storms, which affected the wear and tear on ships. Vessels sailing through a strait to the north of Van Diemen’s

New South Wales Land, however, could sail closer to the mainland. Proving a strait existed would shorten the sea route to Port Jackson by 1,100 kilometres.63 Maps then in use continued to show Van Diemen’s Land joined to the mainland.64 Captain Cook had believed that Australia and Van Diemen’s Land were divided by a strait. But he did not settle the question when sailing in the Endeavour in 1770 because he had been at sea for one year and eight months, his supplies were depleted, and at the time he could do no more than run up the east coast of Australia to undertake valuable discovery work.65 Tobias Furneaux, the commander of HMS Adventure, which accompanied Cook’s Resolution on a second Pacific voyage of exploration, had rounded Van Diemen’s Land from the south in 1773 and had had an island group named after him by Cook. Furneaux was not convinced that a strait existed. Others on the expedition, including the midshipmen Richard Hergest and Samuel Kemp and the astronomer William Bayly, were more inclined to think that it might be found.66 Hunter himself had sailed in 1789 from the Cape of Good Hope to Port Jackson in the Sirius, and he also suspected a strait might exist.67 It was time to settle the matter. Bass was chosen for the task. Hunter was impressed by Bass’s initiative in his attempted exploration of the Blue Mountains in 1796. Finding Bass ‘a young man of a well-informed mind and an active disposition’, Hunter sent him in a whaleboat, with six volunteers and six weeks’ provisions, ‘for the purpose of examining along the coast to the southward of this port, as far as he could with safety and convenience go’.68 Flinders’ duties in the Reliance ruled him out from joining Bass on this voyage, otherwise he would probably have done so.69 The whaleboat was an open boat, some 28 feet 7 inches long, with little protection from the weather and the sea. The only crew member whose name is known, apart from Bass, was John Thistle, who later sailed under Flinders’ command in the Norfolk and the Investigator.70 Bass’s whaleboat excursion left Port Jackson on 3 December 1797 and sailed southwards. The party landed near Kiama and made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Shoalhaven River. They reached the Crookhaven River and spent several days there. The whaleboat then sailed to Jervis Bay, passed Twofold Bay (named by Bass), and anchored two days later at Wingan Inlet. It was forced to stay there for ten days owing to stormy weather. By the new year of 1798, Bass and his crew sailed around the south-eastern point of Australia beyond any part of the coast seen by Cook thirty years’ earlier. Bass and his party discovered Western Port, in modern Victoria, which they entered by its eastern passage. Strong winds and the need to repair the whaleboat led to a stay of thirteen days there. Bass made a sketch of the harbour, including the island that sheltered its entrance, later named Phillip Island. As the voyage had now taken seven weeks and provisions were running low, Bass reluctantly turned homewards, following a similar course to that taken on the outward voyage. He was actually sailing in Bass Strait, though he did not know it at the time. The whaleboat stopped at the Glennie Islands to pick up some runaway convicts. Bass also took time to examine Twofold Bay. Adverse weather held up the return voyage of the whaleboat, but it arrived back at Port Jackson on 25 February after nearly a three-month voyage.71 Bass’s whaleboat excursion made known the eastern coast of Victoria from Point Hicks, seen and named by Cook, to Western Port. Bass sketched the shape of the coast.72 He discovered Jervis Bay was the main harbour between Port Jackson and Western

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Port.73 In A Voyage to Terra Australis (1814), Flinders paid tribute to the achievements of Bass on his whaleboat voyage, noting that his friend had sailed along 600 miles of coast in a small boat ‘exposed to the buffeting of an open sea’ and had returned in ‘no doubt about the existence of a wide strait separating Van Diemen’s Land from New South Wales’. All that was needed for verification of this fact was for someone to sail positively through the strait. Bass had traced over 300 miles of new coast, and at Western Port had found ‘an extensive and useful harbour, surrounded with a country superior to any other harbour in the southern parts of New South Wales’.74 Colonel David Collins, who wrote a detailed contemporary account of the settlement in New South Wales, noted Bass’s regret ‘that he had not been possessed of a better vessel, which would have enabled him to circumnavigate Van Diemen’s Land’.75 Three weeks before the arrival of the whaleboat in Port Jackson, Flinders had sailed in the colonial schooner Francis to the wreck of the Sydney Cove. This was a merchant vessel in sinking condition that had run on to the beach on one of the Furneaux Islands in February 1797. This was the third such voyage of rescue by the Francis within less than a year. The first occurred after news of the wreck had reached Port Jackson towards the end of June 1797 from three survivors from the wreck brought to safety by fishermen who had sighted them south of Botany Bay. The survivors had walked over 630 kilometres from the modern Victorian coast where the longboat in which they had set out from the wreck was forced ashore. Hunter had dispatched the Francis and the longboat Eliza to the wreck site, now Preservation Island. The Francis had returned to Sydney but the Eliza was lost.76 The second voyage of the Francis set out from Port Jackson on 27 December 1797 to collect the remaining cargo on Preservation Island. The schooner arrived back in Sydney Cove on 21 January 1798, carrying between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of spirits bought by the colonial government. These were assigned to the New South Wales Corps, which monopolized the sale of spirits in the colony.77 Hunter assumed responsibility for rescuing the six crewmen remaining on Preservation Island. Flinders volunteered to join the Francis on a third expedition to the wreck of the Sydney Cove. Hunter, in a letter to the Duke of Portland, described Flinders as ‘a young man well qualifyed’ to accompany Captain Guy Hamilton to the wreck.78 The voyage began on 1 February. Flinders was sent ‘for the purpose of making such observations, serviceable to geography and navigation, as circumstances might permit; and the master of the schooner was ordered to assist in forwarding those views’.79 When the Francis reached the wreck site, Flinders found remnants of the Sydney Cove and its cargo scattered by gales. Only five men were still alive. Needing to repair the Francis’s boat, Flinders and his crew stayed on Preservation Island. They undertook a five-day expedition among surrounding islands during which Flinders sketched and named newly discovered places and took notes on the vegetation, wildlife, and types of rock. Flinders named a hill in the Kent group Mount Chappelle, after his friend and future wife Ann Chappelle. He and his crewmen killed and ate kangaroos and echidna. They saw seals, penguins and Mount-Pitt birds (also known as Providence petrels). They came across a wombat for the first time. Flinders discovered the Kent Group of Islands and began a detailed hydrographical survey of the Furneaux Group. He did not have an azimuth compass or a chronometer, but produced a chart of the area and wrote a careful description of his findings. From observation, he speculated he was situated

New South Wales in a strait ‘dividing New South Wales from Van Diemens Land’. Bass had arrived at the same conclusion on his whaleboat voyage but the conjecture needed verification.80 On returning to Port Jackson, Flinders sought out Bass. The two friends agreed, from their respective recent voyages, that a strait probably existed between the southeastern mainland of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.81 Flinders drafted the first sketch to delineate Victoria’s shoreline from the eastern entrance of Bass Strait to Western Port. He incorporated Bass’s whaleboat material into his sketch plan, at the request of Governor Hunter, but gave due credit to Bass.82 The geographical results of Flinders’ voyage in the Francis were the discovery of the Kent Group of islands and the beginning of detailed hydrographical surveying of the Furneaux Group. The information Flinders brought back to Sydney in March 1798 was later to be of great use to Bass Strait sealers.83

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3

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land

Flinders was next called upon to sail in the Reliance to Norfolk Island, with soldiers, convicts, a surgeon, 1,200 bushels of wheat and 100 casks of salt meat. This voyage was undertaken between 30 May and 27 July 1798. The provisions were taken from a convict vessel that had recently arrived in Sydney Cove.1 After arriving back in Port Jackson, Flinders soon found an opportunity arose to participate in an expedition to determine the possibility of a strait separating Van Diemen’s Land from Australia. Governor Hunter instigated this voyage. He had sent a despatch to England that reported Bass’s whaleboat voyage, noting that there were strong reasons to support a notion he had long harboured that an open strait existed between the latitudes of 39° and 40° south.2 Hunter wrote to Banks in London about the wreck of the Sydney Cove and forwarded to the Admiralty the chart that combined the findings of Bass (in the whaleboat) and Flinders (in the Francis) in the Furneaux Islands and along the coast to Western Port. It was at Hunter’s instruction that Bass and Flinders’ separate findings were incorporated onto one chart.3 ‘From this little sketch it will appear,’ Hunter wrote, ‘that the high land in latitude 39°00′ … is the southern extremity of this country, and that the land called Van Diemen’s is a group of islands … probably leaving a safe and navigable passage between; to ascertain this is of some importance.’4 Hunter repeated this information in a letter to Banks, explaining he had long believed Van Diemen’s Land was an island.5 Hunter fitted out a sloop for the voyage, which he called the Norfolk. It was about twenty-five tons and had been built at Norfolk Island of local pine. This vessel, some 35 feet in length and 11 feet in the beam, was placed under Flinders’ command, with Bass on board and eight experienced volunteers from the Reliance and the Supply. The Norfolk had timbers likely to leak and cramped, uncomfortable accommodation for a long cruise, but it was the only vessel Hunter had available. Flinders was supplied with navigational equipment, including a theodolite, azimuth compass and brass sextant, but he was not given a chronometer.6 Flinders later explained that, should they find a strait, they were to pass through it and return by the south end of Van Diemen’s Land; making such examinations and surveys on the way as circumstances might permit. Twelve weeks were allowed for the performance of this service, and provisions for that time were put on board; the rest of the equipment was completed by the friendly

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia care of captain Waterhouse of the Reliance. I had the happiness to associate my friend Bass in the new expedition.7

The Norfolk was accompanied by the trading vessel Nautilus, which had struggled into Port Jackson after being driven by typhoons across the Pacific on a journey from Canton to North America. The captain and owner, Charles Bishop, and the supercargo, Roger Simpson, had heard from Flinders about the large seal population on the islands to the south-east of the New South Wales coast. They decided to accompany the Norfolk and to hunt for seals in the vicinity of Furneaux Islands to make good the losses they had incurred on their voyage from China. Hunter allowed the Nautilus to be repaired and reprovisioned from the government’s stores so that it could sail with the Norfolk.8 The voyage of the Norfolk lasted from 7 October 1798 to 11 January 1799. Flinders wrote a detailed narrative of the expedition, concentrating on nautical observations relating to anchorages, tides, passages between rocks and islands, bights, bays, coves, the extent of the winds and calculations of longitude and latitude. As in all his writings, the emphasis is on accurate, precise, factual reporting rather than flowery descriptions. Many geographical features he saw and described had never been seen or recorded by a navigator before. His findings would be helpful for future explorations of Bass Strait and Van Diemen’s Land. Flinders prepared charts on the voyage. Bass also wrote a journal of the voyage, with an emphasis on the land and its produce. His account conveys the energetic and enquiring nature of his mind and includes detailed observations of the animals and plants of Van Diemen’s Land.9 A couple of days after sailing from Port Jackson, the Norfolk entered Twofold Bay. Flinders noted the navigational significance of the location: The importance of this bay arises from its local situation, there being no other place of shelter for a vessel larger than a rowing boat, from Jervis Bay, in latitude 35°5S, round to Corner Inlet, or to Furneaux’s Island in 40½°. The best of two anchoring places is that on the north side in Snug Cove, off the centre of the beach, where the south point of the Bay is shut on with the head in 5 fms water. A ship intending to moor, with a southerly wind, should drop her outer anchor a little before the head comes on with the point, and should be careful to keep the lead out astern, as she veers in shore, for she may get into less 3 [fathoms] before she is aware.

Flinders was always on the lookout for rivers and places of shelter for ships. The large south beach at Twofold Bay had an opening that led into a shoal lagoon of salt water. Small lagoons existed behind nearly every beach in the bay. Flinders thought the bay would provide useful shelter for whalers wanting to anchor there when winds were high, as entering and leaving the bay was relatively easy.10 Bass, however, thought the land surrounding Twofold Bay was mainly incapable of cultivation and fit only for pasturage.11 The Norfolk sailed southwards from Cape Howe, immediately beyond Twofold Bay, on 14 October. Three days later it passed the islands later named the Kent’s Group by Flinders, who had discovered them in February 1798 on his voyage in the Francis.12 Lack of a chronometer made it difficult to calculate the longitude of these islands.

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land

33

Sydney Botany Bay Port Hacking

V O YA G E O F T H E COLONIAL SLO OP NORFOLK

Port Jackson 7 Oct 1798 Departure Norfolk 11 Jan 1799 Arrival Norfolk

1798 – 1799

Mt Dromedary

Montague I.

Twofold Bay Cape Howe

Wilson’s Promontory Sir R. Curtis Is. Kent’s Group (Curtis Group) (Kent Group) BASS’S STRAIT Great Island (BASS STRAIT) (Flinders I.) Hunter’s Is. Cape Barren I. Cape Grim Clarke I. Cape Portland West Point

PAC I F I C OCEAN

Port Dalrymple Mt Norfolk Mt Heemskerk Mt Zeehan De

5 Jan 1799 Norfolk’s track back to Port Jackson r we

SOUTHERN OCEAN

13 Dec 1798 South West Cape

R.

Maria I. Cape Pillar

South Cape (South East Cape)

0

150 KILOMETRES

0

100

MILES (Scales are only approximate) track of the Norfolk (Flinders I.) modern name

Map 3.1 Voyage of the colonial sloop Norfolk, 1798–9 Keeping in company with the Nautilus, the Norfolk sailed past the Chappelle Isles and the large peaks of the Furneaux Islands. On reaching Preservation Island on 19 October, Flinders and Bass briefly went ashore. Continuation of the voyage proved difficult. Flinders and his crew had to navigate between many rocks and contend with extensive shoal water. Landing on Cape Barren Island, Bass came across a wombat for the first time. He described it as ‘a squat, thick, short-legged, and rather inactive quadruped with great appearance of stumpy strength, and somewhat bigger than a large turnspit dog’. Bass also observed kangaroos, a porcupine anteater, rats, parakeets,

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia seals and black snakes.13 The Nautilus remained moored at Kent’s Bay, off Cape Barren Island, ready for a five-month seal-hunting season.14 After being detained by a heavy gale of wind for six days, the Norfolk sailed on 29 October through the passage at the western end of Armstrong Channel, named by Flinders after Archibald Armstrong, the master of the Eliza. This vessel had aided the survivors of the Sydney Cove in 1796. The Norfolk was then near Kent’s Bay. Cape Portland, the north-eastern point of Van Diemen’s Land, was sighted on 1 November, when the ship reached the Swan Islands, named by Flinders when he was there in the Francis to record the large number of breeding swans upon them.15 Two days later, the Norfolk anchored at Port Dalrymple, on the northern coast of Van Diemen’s Land, having sailed to a place and through seas unexplored previously by navigators.16 Flinders and Bass went on shore at Port Dalrymple (named by Governor Hunter after the Admiralty hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple) to explore the locality. Flinders measured a base line and took bearings from several stations near the vessel for a survey of the port.17 He walked around Green Island, in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, where he observed black swans’ nests, and then joined Bass, who had shot a kangaroo. Over the next few days, some Aborigines were seen. Flinders doubted whether they used canoes, but there is evidence that Tasmania’s Aborigines used watercraft.18 Bass explored the land around Port Dalrymple while Flinders examined the winding coastline on the extensive eastern arm of the Tamar estuary. These activities continued for several days. Bass thought the land surrounding the Tamar estuary was superior to that of any saltwater inlet in New South Wales with the exception of Western Port. He saw grey kangaroos, wallabies, a multitude of black swans and the huts of people (though he did not see any Aborigines). Noting the rapidity of the tides, he suggested that if the estuary was colonized and a town built there, ‘the produce of the villages and farms scattered along its banks might be brought to the market with the greatest ease, expedition and certainty’.19 Flinders’ instructions limited the expedition to twelve weeks. This left insufficient time to survey everything of interest in Van Diemen’s Land. On 21 November, the Norfolk headed out of Port Dalrymple and made for Kent’s Bay, where a rendezvous was made with the Nautilus – still engaged in sealing – three days later. Flinders conveyed the main findings of their exploration of the Tamar estuary to the commander of that vessel, so that he could report back to Governor Hunter on the expedition’s progress. The Norfolk sailed back to northern Van Diemen’s Land and anchored near the Shag Rock in the mouth of the Tamar Estuary.20 The Nautilus found abundant fur seals in Kent Bay. By 20 December 1798, it had procured nearly 5,000 skins and about 350 gallons of oil. Captain Bishop decided to proceed to Port Jackson with the cargo collected.21 Flinders’ narrative for 3 December contained reflections on the explorations they had conducted there previously. He considered Port Dalrymple to be ‘difficult of access’, with many shoals and rocks that needed vigilant sailing in relation to the tides. Most shoals were covered at half-tide. The best time to enter the port was either just before or with the flood tide. Though fresh water was difficult to find, there were plenty of ducks, swans and kangaroos to shoot for food.22 The voyage resumed on 4

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land December when the Norfolk proceeded from Port Dalrymple in a westerly direction towards Table Cape, Circular Head and the Hunter Islands, a group lying off the northwestern end of Van Diemen’s Land. Flinders named the Hunter Islands after Governor Hunter ‘by whose orders this little voyage of discovery was made’. Flinders noted one of the expedition’s main findings: the land we now considered to be the NW point of Van Diemen’s Land, for the direction of the coast, the set of the tides and the great swell from the SW did now completely satisfy us that a very wide strait did really exist betwixt Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales, and also now that we had certainly passed it.23

Bass noted that the northern shore of the Strait, from Wilson’s Promontory to Western Port, resembles the bluff, bold shore of an open sea with a swell rolling in, and a large surf breaking upon it, whilst the southern shore, or what is the north coast of Van Diemen’s Land, appears like the inner shores of a cluster of islands, whose outer parts break off the great weight of the sea.24

Thus Bass and Flinders had both concluded that Bass Strait existed. A summary of the voyage in the log of the Reliance noted that Bass and Flinders had ‘determined this passage to be an extensive strait, separating New South Wales from Van Diemen’s Land’.25 Flinders and Bass drew a sketch of Bass Strait. This combined details from the voyage of Bass in the whaleboat and of Flinders when he visited Preservation Island. Bass had supplied his notes and observations to Flinders so that the sketch could be done. The track of the Francis is shown on the left-hand side of the sketch.26 In 1800, on Flinders’ recommendation, Governor Hunter named the strait ‘Basses Strait’, but it soon became known as Bass Strait.27 Officially, the strait lies between Cape Otway (38°52′S, 243°31′E) and Wilson’s Promontory (39°08ʹS, 146°23ʹE), around 135 miles eastwards, on the mainland and Cape Grim (40°41ʹS, 144°41ʹE), the north-western end of Van Diemen’s Land.28 From the north-west extreme of Van Diemen’s Land, the Norfolk sailed around the western coast. Flinders noted the main features of the shore as seen from the deck of the ship, but there were no landings. The Norfolk sailed away from the shore because of dangerous winds. Flinders stated that the absence of ports on this west coast and the prevailing bleak winds ‘appear to have prevented the human race from inhabiting it’.29 Thunder, lightning and heavy rain made sailing conditions treacherous as the ship went around the south-west cape of Van Diemen’s Land. The Norfolk then came within sight of the Derwent River, which had been named in April 1793 after the Derwent in Cumberland by Lieutenant John Hayes of the Bombay Marine, with the vessels Duke of Clarence and Duchess. Hayes was in charge of a voyage financed by Calcutta merchants to determine the economic potential of New Guinea, but adverse winds had led him to sail around Australia to reach that destination (a long detour, to say the least).30

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Hayes arrived in southern Van Diemen’s Land two months after a French visit to the vicinity on D’Entrecasteaux’s voyage. Hayes was unaware of this venture.31 No other visit of exploration to Van Diemen’s Land was made between Hayes’ voyage and that of Flinders and Bass. Hayes did not realize, however, that he had reached an island: he drew a chart, published in 1798, that showed the southern part of Van Diemen’s Land as the southern extremity of New Holland. The chart traced the coast from south-west Cape to south-east Cape. It depicted the River Derwent, Bruny Island and Storm Bay. Hayes selected names for these parts of Van Diemen’s Land in honour of East India Company officials and his fellow officers in the Bombay Marine. Flinders probably had little additional information on Hayes other than having his chart.32 Flinders’ and Bass’s attempt to sail into the Derwent River on 14 December proved difficult even though several hours were devoted to the task. Lack of strong tides and adverse winds hindered progress. The ship continued in an anti-clockwise direction to Smooth Island, where there was a landing to take bearings. When the Norfolk eventually reached a shallow part of the Derwent, Bass and Flinders took a boat upstream. Bass stated that ‘if the Derwent River has any claim to respectability, it owes it more to the paucity of inlets into Van Diemen’s Land, than to any intrinsic merits of its own’. However, he found many large tracts of land surrounding the river which were cultivable for maize and wheat and suitable for pasture. Flinders and Bass were only a few miles from what became Hobart, the capital of Van Diemen’s Land and, later, Tasmania.33 Bass and Flinders came across only one small party of natives in Van Diemen’s Land, and that was along the Derwent River. Only one Aborigine was seen closely.34 Flinders followed Hayes’ eye-sketch of the area, made in 1793. This had probably been sent to Governor Hunter by Dalrymple. It was the only plan Flinders had of the area, but it contained flaws. Flinders corrected Hayes’s casual and sometimes inaccurate references to coves as bays, ports, creeks and rivers.35 Bass was active in exploring the area. His favourable report on the soil and production of this part of Van Diemen’s Land led to a settlement being made on the banks of the Derwent four years later. This was initiated by Governor Philip Gidley King, who wanted to establish British sovereignty there to counter French interest in Van Diemen’s Land.36 Flinders sailed around south-eastern Van Diemen’s Land, which had been explored by several navigators – Tasman, Cook, Hayes, Furneaux, Bligh and D’Entrecasteaux.37 Several coves were visited on the east side of Van Diemen’s Land. By New Year’s Day 1799, the Norfolk had reached the mouth of Relph’s Bay.38 Three days later, passing the northern entrance of D’Entrecasteaux’s Channel and steering across Storm Bay, Flinders decided to head back to Port Jackson as it was then the fourth day after the limitation of twelve weeks set for the expedition. Provisions were running short. Flinders did not have time to examine the Storm Bay passage into the Derwent River, nor was there time to ascertain whether a passage existed from the head of Frederick Henry Bay to the eastward.39 Possibilities for further exploration in Van Diemen’s Land were set aside, including Bass’s desire to land on Bruny Island. Flinders regretted not being able to spend more time exploring the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land ‘since captain Furneaux’s examination was made at too great a distance to be exact’ – a correct observation.40

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land Cape Barren Island was reached on 7 January 1799. The Furneaux Islands were in sight on the next day. Flinders confirmed that no islands existed due north of the Furneaux Group. He sailed on to reach Ram Head on the mainland.41 The Norfolk then continued back expeditiously to Port Jackson, arriving there on 13 January and anchoring next to the Reliance.42 Flinders’ narrative of his expedition on the Norfolk concluded with his explanation of the name given to Bass Strait and the maritime significance of determining its existence. He explained that Bass’s strong supposition that a strait existed, arising from his whaleboat voyage to Western Port, was the main impetus behind the voyage of the Norfolk to verify the situation. Flinders gained great satisfaction from having Bass accompany him on the expedition and referred to the naming of Bass Strait after his friend ‘as a just tribute to the extreme dangers & fatigues he had undergone in first entering it in the whaleboat’. The chief importance of the discovery of Bass Strait was that voyages from the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney would save 4° latitude by sailing through the strait rather than around the south of Van Diemen’s Land. North-east winds often blew strongly on the southern route around the island and held up ships’ passages. Such winds could usually be avoided by sailing through Bass Strait, thereby saving a week’s voyage time.43 Sailing westward through Bass Strait, Philip Gidley King pointed out, would be a great help to navigators because ‘no ship need go higher than 39° and every seaman knows the difference there is in the weather in that Latitude & in 45° which ships must necessarily get into to round Van Diemans Land’.44 Much of Australia’s south coast from Western Port (discovered by Bass) westwards to King George Sound (visited by Vancouver in 1792) had yet to be explored. Flinders thought the discovery of Bass Strait would encourage further voyages to identify other bays, bights and places of shelter along that long coast ‘as well as the verification, or futility of the conjecture, that a still larger than Bass’s Strait dismembers New Holland’.45 Proving that Bass Strait existed was the most important geographical discovery in Australian waters since the days of Cook, and news of Flinders’ and Bass’s voyaging there was well received by Governor Hunter in Port Jackson and, eventually, by Sir Joseph Banks in Britain.46 After returning to Port Jackson in the Norfolk, Flinders and Bass soon parted ways. In early 1799, Bass decided to leave New South Wales. He was declared medically unfit for duty – his ailment is unknown – and later given a year on half pay to recuperate. He became closely interested in the commercial affairs and prospects of New South Wales. Bass acted as a representative in a business deal involving William Balmain, the leading surgeon in the colony. Bass thought the navy did not offer the pay and prospects he could acquire through commercial voyages.47 He joined forces with the merchant Charles Bishop, whom he knew from the sealing expedition in the Nautilus. Bishop planned to sell goods in China, and Bass arranged to travel with him. On 17 May 1799, Henry Waterhouse assembled the ship’s company on the deck of the Reliance to bid a formal farewell to Bass. Twelve days later Bass sailed from Port Jackson with Bishop in the Nautilus.48 Flinders wrote to his friend Christopher Smith, then serving as a botanist in Calcutta, with a request to aid Bass, a gentleman for whom he had ‘the greatest respect and esteem’, should a situation arise in which he could help Bass’s mercantile plans.49

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia In 1799 and 1800, as his stay in New South Wales drew to a close, Flinders’ correspondence reveals he was pondering his own personal and professional future. His personal affections were channelled towards his Lincolnshire friend Ann Chappelle. On his twenty-fifth birthday, 16 March 1799, he wrote her an affectionate extended letter from Port Jackson. She was a patient, kindly friend who would listen to his personal ruminations. In the letter, he explained he had been reading Ann Radcliffe’s popular Gothic horror novel The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). He emphasized his attachment to a life at sea while dwelling on the financial realities of his existence. Ambitious to advance his naval career and to take up opportunities for maritime discovery, Flinders was worried by his relatively low wages and indicated that he wanted to improve his earning capacity so that he did not end up living in penury.50 To improve his income was to work towards a life as an independent gentleman. Flinders wrote to Christopher Smith to explore the possibility of entering the world of commercial trade rather than the navy. It seems he had been influenced by Bass’s similar decision. Flinders had not seen Smith since 1794 but valued his counsel. He told Smith that he hoped his relatives ‘will advance me two or three thousand pounds to forward my mercantile plans, which if they do, and moderate success should attend me, a few years will probably see me independent of the world’.51 Flinders missed the company and conversation of Bass, who had been his closest friend during his stay in Port Jackson. In February 1800, he wrote a detailed letter to Bass in a warm, personal tone. He told Bass he was ‘so completely wrapped up in you, that no conversation but yours could give me a degree of pleasure; your footsteps upon the quarterdeck over my head, took me from my book, and brought me upon deck to walk with you’. Flinders’ letter to Bass suggests that he felt intellectually inferior to his surgeon-friend.52 The special friendship that it conveys strongly has been interpreted by one historian as suggesting the possibility of a homosexual relationship between the two men.53 Furthermore, Flinders’ letter also suggests tensions had arisen in his relations with Bass, who, it appears, had left Sydney without saying goodbye to Flinders. From the words used in Flinders’ letter – ‘I now begin to suspect that you are gone to England’ – it sounds as though this oversight or rebuff caused resentment.54 Two letters, one written by Flinders and the other by Bass, suggest there was rivalry between the two explorers over the discovery of Bass Strait. In a letter of January 1800, Flinders referred to ‘some discoveries made by me upon this coast, particularly the separation of Van Diemen’s Land from New Holland, by a strait of about 90 miles in width’.55 This statement testifies to Flinders’ ambition as a navigator, but it deliberately omits the name of Bass and makes no reference to other navigators to whom Flinders was indebted.56 However, perhaps one should not read too much into this quotation because Bass similarly in May 1799, writing to Banks, had claimed the existence of Bass Strait was his sole discovery. He added, ‘In the latter end of the year 1798 Governor Hunter being desirous that the strait I had discovered should be further explored and surveyed found a volunteer for this service in Lieut[enant] M. Flinders of the Reliance.’57 Bass’s claim that he should be credited with finding the strait was based on his suspicion that it existed as a result of his whaleboat voyage. Confirmation of the strait’s existence, however, was settled by the joint efforts of Flinders and Bass in the Norfolk. When one considers the independent comments made by Flinders and Banks

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land about Bass Strait, it is hard to support David Mackay’s comment that Flinders was not ‘above surreptitiously claiming credit for achievements which more properly belonged to his friend and Lincolnshire compatriot George Bass’.58 The relationship between Bass and Flinders was complex, and we will never know the extent of the mutual involvement. While there is no evidence of a sexual liaison between Flinders and Bass, it is clear that Bass’s wife Elizabeth, the sister of Henry Waterhouse, was jealous of the two men’s close companionship. Her letter referred to above has a pencil notation stating that it was ‘to be directed for Mr. Bass, when … where he is to be found – from Mr Flinders’.59 Whether Bass ever saw the letter is unknown, but his wife certainly did. Indeed, Elizabeth Bass wrote on the wrapper of the letter in ink: ‘[T]his George is written by a Man that bears a bad Character no one has seen this letter but I could tell you many things that makes me dislike him rest ashured he is no friend of yours or any ones farther than his own interest is concerned.’60 Exactly what led to this stark condemnation of Flinders, and whether it was justified, is unknown (as is the date when the note was written).61 Elizabeth Bass had no doubt met Flinders through his associations with her brother and her husband, but there is no other evidence to suggest personal or financial problems existed between Flinders and Bass. The two navigators corresponded after this letter was written, though they never met again.62 Flinders continued with his maritime explorations. Several months after Bass’s departure from Port Jackson, he asked Governor Hunter whether he could undertake an exploration of the northern coast of New South Wales. Cook’s voyage in the Endeavour had identified two large indentations in this coast. He had called these Glass-House Bay and Hervey Bay, but only had time to chart their entrances. Hunter readily agreed to Flinders’ suggestion: the Reliance was not then needed for active service and Hunter, along with Banks in London, wanted to find out whether rivers led into the interior of New South Wales.63 Flinders was again assigned the Norfolk for this expedition, and the voyage occurred between 8 July and 21 August 1799. Hunter was particularly interested in the exploration of Hervey Bay which he thought ‘from the largeness of the opening may shew us a large & extensive sea within, or perhaps a navigable river which may lead us some distance into the interior of the Country’.64 Flinders later wrote that he had hopes of finding a considerable river in Glass-House Bay or Hervey Bay and ‘of being able by its means to penetrate further into the interior of the country than had hitherto been effected’.65 Flinders’ account of this voyage to the north coast of New South Wales consciously followed the earlier writings of Cook, the only previous navigator to visit this coast. Flinders wanted to find a major river into the continent’s centre not only to improve geographical knowledge but also to prove his own credentials as a maritime explorer who could amplify and extend Cook’s findings. Flinders identified some differences between his own observations and Cook’s recording of coastal features on his chart. He also suggested that what Cook termed the Solitary Isles might well have been called the Miserable Isles, judging from their dreary appearance. Flinders provided detailed descriptions of headlands and of Shoal Bay; he clarified Cook’s account in his journal of this coastline; and he hoped he would be credited for his detailed comments compiled on this voyage.66

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia

Break Sea Spit

Hervey Bay

Sandy Cape

Glass Houses (Glass House Mountains)

Norfolk heading south for Port Jackson

Cape Moreton Glass House Bay (Moreton Bay)

Moreton I.

Mt.Warning

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Cape Byron

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Shoal Bay

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Port Stephens

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(Scale are only approximate) Broken Bay Port Jackson Botany Bay

8 July 1799 - Departure Norfolk for voyage north 20 August 1799 - Arrival Norfolk from voyage north

Tom Thumb’s Lagoon (Lake Illawarra)

track of the Norfolk (Clarence River)

modern name

Map 3.2 Voyage of the colonial sloop Norfolk, 1799 On 10 July, after just two days’ sailing from Port Jackson, the Norfolk sprung a leak and Flinders headed for an anchorage in Shoal Bay to carry out repairs. He explored the shallow water of the bay but did not identify today’s Clarence River which joins the extensive estuary there. The voyage resumed northwards past Cape Byron, Australia’s most easterly point, and Moreton Bay (near modern Brisbane) before mooring at the entrance to Glass-House Bay.67 Bungaree, an Aborigine from the Port Jackson area, sailed with Flinders on this voyage. He was of great use when indigenous people were encountered, and he was able to detect the natives’ attempt to hide themselves after they had an altercation with Flinders and his crew.68

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land The Norfolk returned to Moreton Bay, but Flinders failed to spot the navigable Brisbane River. This was probably because it is hidden by sand dunes and mangrove islands. He concluded that Moreton Bay was full of shoals and that a ship could not enter it safely.69 Having failed to locate a navigable river in Moreton Bay, he undertook a boat excursion along a creek and then walked to the Glass House Mountains, a group of eleven hills that rise abruptly from the coastal plain. Cook had seen these mountains in 1770 and had named them after glass furnaces he remembered from Yorkshire.70 By 2 August, the ship reached Hervey Bay, which Flinders explored for five days. He sketched the coastline, took nautical observations and looked unsuccessfully for a river leading to the ocean. On 8 August, the Norfolk left for Port Jackson and arrived there twelve days later.71 Flinders had hoped for more striking results from this excursion. ‘I must acknowledge myself to have been disappointed,’ he later wrote, ‘in not being able to penetrate into the interior of New South Wales, by either of the openings examined in this expedition; but, however mortifying the conviction might be, it was then an ascertained fact that no river of importance intersected the East Coast between the 24th and 39th degrees of south latitude.’72 Such a failure to find rivers where he had located openings, in Hervey Bay and Moreton Bay, was caused partly by his searching for estuaries, which were absent, and partly by lack of knowledge about low seasonal rainfall on Australia’s east coast.73 This was not the only navigational disappointment on the voyage: the expedition also found that neither Hervey Bay nor Glass-House Bay74 had suitable harbours to shelter a ship against all winds.75 In June 1799, Governor Hunter had reported Flinders’ and Bass’s circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land to Banks and the Admiralty in London: they had proven his supposition about the existence of a strait, and he hoped this discovery would provide impetus for further exploration of Australia. ‘It may hereafter be found,’ Hunter suggested, that Van Diemen’s Land be divided from that part which retains the name of New Holland by some Narrow Sea, which may yet be Navigable. The Gulph of Carpentaria which is certainly not known nor how far it may extend southward may in some degree Warrant such a conjecture – it is to be hoped that Government will hereafter send fit vessels & proper Persons for such an examination.76

Hunter’s official dispatches from Sydney noted Bass’s role in expeditions in New South Wales and Bass Strait, but the surgeon received no recognition from the Admiralty or the government for his exploratory work when he returned to England in 1800.77 Flinders’ chart of Bass Strait had been sent by Hunter from Port Jackson to London on 15 August 1799.78 Flinders later contacted Banks to seek permission from the Admiralty to publish and engrave the chart.79 The London commercial map seller Aaron Arrowsmith was selected by the Admiralty to undertake the task. He had worked for a year with Dalrymple in the Admiralty’s Hydrographic Office, and he knew Banks well. He had established a strong reputation for producing elaborate, multisheet maps that were scrupulous in their accuracy: only coastlines and landmarks that had been verified were included on his charts, while conjectural features were either omitted

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia or included with a dotted line.80 Arrowsmith had an interest in Australian geography through publishing a nine-sheet Chart of the Pacific Ocean (1798–9), a Chart of Torres Strait (1798) and A Chart of Several Harbours in the South-East Part of Van Dieman’s [sic] Land (1798).81 Arrowsmith published Flinders’ chart of the whole of Van Diemen’s Land and Bass Strait as a single sheet on 16 June 1800.82 This was based on Flinders’ draft chart. It seems to have been compiled hurriedly, with spelling mistakes and errors in the position of some features. At the time Flinders was sailing back to England with a revised copy of the chart. This was duly conveyed to Arrowsmith, who issued a corrected version in February 1801 (but with the same imprint date as the uncorrected version).83 On 20 February 1801, Arrowsmith published two other charts by Flinders: one sketched part of the New South Wales coast, while the other comprised a sheet of plans of Port Dalrymple, Western Port, part of the Furneaux Islands and Twofold Bay.84 That Arrowsmith was able to play such a prominent role in publishing Flinders’ charts arose because London’s commercial map traders dominated the engraving and publication of charts at the time.85 Flinders published some observations on his circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land in a pamphlet of 1801 that he dedicated to Banks, applauding his patron’s zealous promotion of geographical and nautical knowledge.86 The second of two variant issues of this pamphlet was printed for Arrowsmith. The dedication to Banks and a reference in the pamphlet indicate that it was intended to be published with the charts just mentioned.87 Arrowsmith soon incorporated the finding that Van Diemen’s Land was an island on a corrected reissue of his Chart of the World on Mercator’s Projection. When first published on 1 May 1790, this showed Van Diemen’s Land as part of the Australian mainland. The corrected reissue of this chart, published some time before May 1800, represented Van Diemen’s Land as an island.88 A Chart of Bass’s Strait between New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land; Explored by Matthew. Flinders 2nd Lieut. Of His Majesty’s Ship Reliance, by Order of His Excellency Governor Hunter 1798–9, published by A. Arrowsmith on 16 June 1800, depicts the work carried out on three voyages: the whaleboat journey by Bass (December 1797– February 1798); Flinders’ visit in the Francis to Preservation Island (February–March 1798); and the circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land in the Norfolk by Flinders and Bass (October 1798–January 1799). The tracks of the voyages are included. The courses steered, the set of the tide, and the anchorages used are also found on the chart. The shoreline of the mainland was sketched as far west as Western Port, which assumed importance as a safe harbour for ships travelling through Bass Strait. On the western side of Bass Strait the chart stated, ‘Land of considerable extent has been seen in about this situation.’ This was King Island, named in 1801 after Philip Gidley King by the privateer and whaler John Black. For his sketch of Van Diemen’s Land, Flinders drew upon several sources in addition to his own work: Cook’s sketch of Adventure Bay; Furneaux’s sketch of the east coast; John Henry Cox’s plan of Oyster Bay published by Dalrymple in 1791; and south-eastern parts of the island from a plan by Captain John Hayes. The revised version of the chart, published in 1801, included greater detail on King Island.89 Arrowsmith’s A Chart of Bass’s Strait… follows the meticulous procedures that gave prominence to new geographical knowledge. The representation of Van Diemen’s Land

Circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land on the chart accords with the shape of Tasmania as we recognize it today. Arrowsmith left gaps, however, for relatively small parts of the coast that had not been verified from exploration. He included a thick shaded line for coastline that had been confirmed by maritime exploration. He drew a thin unshaded line for the east coast because he was not convinced of its accuracy. This coastline had been seen at a distance by Furneaux in 1773. Contrary winds had forced him to sail away from the coast, and his charting was affected. Furneaux was also unreliable. When he approached the south coast of Van Diemen’s Land, he repeatedly misread Tasman’s chart of that area.90 In the middle of the map of Van Diemen’s Land, Arrowsmith added a detailed comment that drew attention to the sources he used. He accepted the validity of Furneaux’s sketch of Adventure Bay on Bruny Island. He incorporated shaded water around Oyster Bay, following a plan of 1789 by Captain John Henry Cox. But Arrowsmith added a sceptical remark: ‘The Parts touched with Yellow are copied from a Manuscript chart by Mr J. Hayes who visited the S.E. end of Van Diemen’s Land in a Ship called the Duke, from Bengal: their accuracy I cannot answer for.’ Arrowsmith also updated names for places and landmarks on the map where previous names had been superseded.91 On this chart, Arrowsmith carefully followed Flinders’ topography, nomenclature and notations. The chart was drawn up on a scale of three inches to one degree of longitude.92 The Chart of Part of the Coast of New South Wales, from Ram Head to Northumberland Isles, by M. Flinders, 2nd Lieut. of H.M.S. Reliance, 1800 includes a legend crediting explorers whose works informed his chart. Flinders acted as a synthesizer of other people’s efforts, to which he added his own findings. He liaised closely with Arrowsmith about the details represented on the chart. The areas from latitude 37° south to Mount Dromedary and from Point Upright to Jervis Bay were based on Bass’s sketch; the coasts from Montague Isle to Bateman Bay and from Red Point to Port Hacking were the result of Flinders’ exploration; Botany Bay, Port Jackson and Broken Bay were based on surveys by Hunter, with some improvements inland by Charles Grimes, deputy surveyor of New South Wales; Broken Bay to Port Stephens was based on Lieutenant John Shortland’s sketch; the outer part of Port Stephens was taken from Captain Broughton’s survey, and the inner part of Port Stephens from Grimes’ eye sketch; shaded parts to the north of Port Stephens were taken from Flinders’ running survey; and the reefs were sketched from the logbooks of William Douglas Campbell in 1797 and of Captain Swain in 1798. The chart noted that the information on the reefs was ‘possibly somewhat incorrect’. The chart also contained the track of Cook in the Endeavour (1770) from Hunter River to the Northumberland Isles and the tracks of the Deptford (1797) and Eliza (1798) through reefs off the Queensland coast. This chart was then the most extensive and accurate one of coastal Australia yet undertaken.93 Arrowsmith’s sketch of Port Dalrymple included soundings taken at low water, marks for rocks and sand, and the track of the Norfolk. There was much more exploration in the larger eastern arm of the Tamar River than in the smaller middle arm and western arm. The chart of Western Port was based on Bass’s eye sketch. It noted that the tide rose from 10 to 14 feet there. The sketch of the southernmost Furneaux Islands included the track of the Norfolk and the Francis along with material

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia on Kents Bay and soundings provided by Roger Simpson of the Nautilus. Cape Barren Island and Clarke’s Island featured prominently on this sketch.94 Flinders’ next voyage from Sydney, in accordance with his resumption of duties in the Reliance, was undertaken in conjunction with the Francis to Norfolk Island. The vessels sailed from Port Jackson on 2 November 1799 and arrived back there on Christmas Day.95 By then, plans were already afoot to carry out further repairs to the Reliance to prepare her for the long voyage back to London. Flinders wrote to his father to inform him of his expected return home.96 He knew the British government was considering further examination of the Australian coast, and he hoped his achievements in exploring New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land might be rewarded by being given command of one of the ships.97 Flinders had been reflecting on his own situation and was ambitious to achieve more in his maritime career and to reap better financial rewards. ‘I am tired of serving for a pittance,’ he confided to a former shipmate, ‘and as it were living from hand to mouth whilst others with no better claim are making hundreds and thousands.’ He added, ‘I want to be my own master, and not to be subject to the caprices of whomsoever the Lords above may please to set over me.’98 On 3 March 1800, the Reliance set sail for England by way of the eastern Pacific and Cape Horn. The ship ventured through treacherous seas, made water at the rate of nine or ten inches an hour and reached St Helena in the southern Atlantic on 30 May. After three weeks’ stay there, the voyage resumed. The Reliance arrived at Plymouth on 27 August 1800 and moved on to Portsmouth. Flinders had been away from home for five and a half years.99 The armed surveying brig Lady Nelson had already been dispatched from Portsmouth, under the command of Lieutenant James Grant, to be taken over by Flinders in Port Jackson for coastal exploration and surveys. By the time the Lady Nelson arrived in Sydney harbour in December 1800, however, a different ship had just been selected in England to alter these plans, with Flinders as commander.100

4

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia

Flinders’ greatest achievement as a navigator comprised his lengthy voyage in the Investigator to circumnavigate Australia. To carry out this ambitious task, Flinders needed and sought patronage provided by Sir Joseph Banks. In the mid-1790s, Hunter and Banks corresponded about the need for further exploration of New South Wales, both along the coast and inland, so that the small British bridgehead at Port Jackson might expand into territory to benefit the mother country. When in 1798 Banks became closely involved with the voyage of the Porpoise, taking the third governor of New South Wales, the former naval captain Philip Gidley King, to Port Jackson, he was keen to promote exploration in practice. He hoped the African explorer Mungo Park would sail on this voyage, with the aim of opening up the interior of New South Wales, but Park withdrew from the expedition.1 Banks knew Flinders had been based at Port Jackson for over three years, voyaging along the coast of New South Wales, sailing in Bass Strait and exploring the coastal features of Van Diemen’s Land. Banks recommended that Flinders – ‘A Countryman of mine, a Man of activity & information, who is already there’ – should be entrusted with the command of a vessel to continue exploring New South Wales.2 Philip Gidley King also proposed Flinders to Banks as a suitable commander for a surveying voyage in Australian waters.3 Flinders certainly knew of these endorsements from influential men while he was still at Port Jackson attached to the Reliance. ‘We are now given to understand,’ he wrote to a friend on 17 January 1800, ‘that it is the contemplation of Government to send out one or two vessels to carry on the examination of this still immense (“still immense” even when Van Diemen’s Land was found to be separated) Island, the command of which, report has given to me, although the material discoveries already made must be unknown to them.’4 Banks and King had liaised in October 1799 over sending a newly built armed tender, the 60-ton Lady Nelson, to Port Jackson as a vessel for surveying the coast of New South Wales. James Grant, a young Scots naval lieutenant, commanded the vessel. He was instructed to take the Lady Nelson to Port Jackson and hand her over to Flinders. Banks, who wrote the instructions, envisaged a mission using the Lady Nelson to examine and chart Australia’s coastline and to probe for any waterway that might divide the mainland or allow access to the interior.5 When these instructions were issued, the Home Office did not realize that the Reliance and her crew (including Flinders) had already been ordered back to England. The

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Lady Nelson sailed from the River Thames on 13 January 1800, joining the East India fleet from Portsmouth for the long voyage down the Atlantic and across the Indian Ocean. The Australian coast was sighted on 3 December, and Grant made landfall at Cape Banks (near today’s Mount Gambier, South Australia). The Lady Nelson continued eastwards through Bass Strait between Cape Otway and Wilsons Promontory, the southernmost peninsula on Australia’s mainland. Following his long voyage, Grant did not have enough supplies and water for detailed exploration. The Lady Nelson reached Port Jackson on 16 December 1800 to find Flinders had returned to England.6 Philip Gidley King reported back from Port Jackson to London that Grant’s survey of Bass Strait could not be regarded as perfect until Flinders had examined the strait more fully.7 Flinders must have gleaned information of the Lady Nelson’s voyage soon after he returned home. He would have been undoubtedly disappointed to miss the chance of gaining her command at Port Jackson. Rather than responding to this news as a lost opportunity, however, Flinders seized the initiative. Only eleven days after returning to England in the Reliance, he wrote a bold letter on 6 September 1800 to Banks requesting support for a voyage of maritime discovery to Australia. This was an unusual course to follow: it was more common, as with Cook, for the Admiralty to agree to support a voyage of discovery and then to find an appropriate commander. But the decision to approach Banks rather than the Admiralty demonstrated what Ernest Scott thought was Flinders’ most salient characteristic: his initiative.8 Flinders knew Banks was the single most important person in London acting as a patron and conduit for voyages of exploration. Though Banks was now an armchair geographer and a gout-riddled clubman, he had never lost his abiding interest in exploration, botany, or the possibilities for agricultural improvement in Australia.9 At the turn of the nineteenth century, he was virtually the ‘managing director’ of all British proposals concerning Australia.10 Banks’s authority rested not just on his own scientific ability but on being in a prime position to assist others and influence governments.11 Flinders’ letter of 6 September 1800 – probably the most important one he ever wrote – referred to his charts of Van Diemen’s Land and Bass Strait and discussed his work in surveying the coast of New South Wales. It emphasized the importance of a further, more ambitious voyage to promote British imperial interests in Terra Australis. ‘It cannot be doubted,’ Flinders wrote, but that a very great part of that still extensive country remains either totally unknown, or has been partially examined at a time when navigation was much less advanced than at present. The interests of geography and natural history in general, and of the British nation in particular, seem to require, that this only remaining considerable part of the globe should be thoroughly explored.12

Flinders tapped Banks’s interest in botany by noting that the voyage to Australia ‘should examine the natural productions of this wonderful country’.13 When he wrote these words, Flinders knew a detailed exploration of Australia’s coasts was imminent; he was suggesting to Banks ways in which the plans for such a voyage could be improved, based on his own experience sailing in Australian waters.14 Flinders hoped

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia to pursue a circumnavigation of Australia ‘with that zeal which I hope has hitherto characterized my services’.15 Flinders’ letter also referred to a conjecture he had previously referred to, in his Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, that ‘a still larger than Bass’s Strait dismembers New Holland’.16 This was a much-discussed idea at the time, stemming from distrust about the accuracy of maps depicting Australia: it was not based upon prior, verifiable suggestions that a north–south strait could be found that split Australia in two.17 At the very end of the seventeenth century, Dampier had suggested there might be a strait in northern Australia, a notion that was neither verified nor disproved.18 Governor Hunter had offered an explanation about the existence of such a strait: Not yet having discovered ant very extensive River in this Country, it may not be improbable; it may hereafter be found to be divided from that part which retains the name of New Holland by some Narrow Sea, which may yet be Navigable. The Gulph of Carpentaria which is certainly not known nor how far it may extend southward may in some degree Warrant such a conjecture – it is to be hoped that Government will hereafter send fit Vessels & proper Persons for such an examination.19

Governor Philip Gidley King had also suggested there might be such a strait in two letters, noting that it was ‘a very favorite idea in this country’.20 King wrote about the notion elsewhere: ‘the conjecture of N. S. Wales being insulated from New Holland still remains undecided’, he noted in 1801. Lieut. Grant in the Lady Nelson saw no land at the bottom of Portland Bay in passing it. But his survey of Wilsons Promontory and Western Port does away the supposed opening between these points which was presumed might be the south entrance of such a supposition as it lies nearly in the Meridian of the Gulf of Carpentaria.21

Nevertheless, there was no certainty that a continuous shoreline existed from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Nuyts Land (the area of the south coast discovered by the Dutch) without being broken by one or more straits.22 Banks, for example, believed such a strait might be found.23 A leading geographical study, published in 1802, stated that some suppose that this extensive region [New Holland], when more thoroughly investigated, will be found to consist of two, three, or more vast islands, intersected by narrow seas, an idea that probably arises from the discovery that New Zealand consists of two islands, and that other new straits have been found to divide lands in this quarter, formerly supposed to be continuous.24

This statement is a reminder that Europeans lacked confirmation that Australia was a continent by the beginning of the nineteenth century, and they knew relatively little about its shape and circumference.25

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia The shape of the world was a critical question in Enlightenment thinking: only accurate geographical fieldwork could provide a definitive answer.26 Geographers wanted to know whether New Holland was a continent ‘of two or more immense islands’ or whether it was not a new continent ‘but merely … a new division of the globe’.27 Aaron Arrowsmith, with his insistence on only recording verified information, had produced an impressive Chart of the Pacific Ocean in 1798 that reflected these unknown matters. His depiction of Australia in this chart had no continuous coastline west of Arnhem Land in the north of the continent, no coast marked north of Cape Flattery on the Cape York Peninsula until near Cape Weymouth, an east coast but not a west coast marked for Van Diemen’s Land, and a totally unmarked southern coast between Termination Island and Van Diemen’s Land.28 Flinders inserted his remark about a possible strait dividing Terra Australis into two as an additional enticement to Banks’s curiosity, for Banks was interested in finding a route into inland Australia.29 Banks was keenly interested in an expedition which could complete the exploration of New South Wales and New Holland.30 It has been argued that Flinders dangled a carrot to gain Banks’ interest while knowing that contemporary maps depicted a continuous coastline for Australia with no suggestion of a possible strait into the interior.31 However, one should remember several points before accepting this line of interpretation. Flinders’ words indicate that the existence of a strait was only one of two possibilities: ‘[P]robably it will be found,’ he wrote, ‘that an extensive strait separates New South Wales from New Holland by the way of the Gulph of Carpentaria; or perhaps a southern gulph may only peninsulate New South Wales.’32 Flinders was not the only interested party who thought a strait might exist, as the comments cited above by governors Hunter and King show.33 Moreover, most existing maps were not based on verified knowledge in their depiction of parts of Australia’s coastline: that is why Arrowsmith’s charts, which Flinders used, left gaps in the coastline where fieldwork had not confirmed their existence.34 Though such a strait was never found, it is only with hindsight that this can be confirmed: at the time, explorers and geographers thought it might well exist. The search for a strait leading to an inland sea preoccupied explorers of Australia until well into the nineteenth century.35 Flinders’ letter to Banks was timely, and it has been convincingly suggested that, without Banks’s support, Flinders’ proposal for a voyage of discovery stood little chance of being accepted.36 Banks’s close interest in Australian maritime exploration and in the potential benefits of British colonization in New South Wales led to his direct involvement with every significant government maritime expedition in the half-century after 1770.37 He had visited the east coast of Australia with Cook in the Endeavour in 1770 and left a detailed journal of his experiences on that voyage. He accumulated many plants and exotic flora from that expedition, hired artists to paint watercolours of the specimens and paid for the publication of copperplate engravings of the plants in a florilegium.38 He became the leading administrator of British botany at the end of the eighteenth century, using his connections to further science and overseeing the collections in his extensive herbarium and library.39 Banks maintained his strong interest in New South Wales. He recommended Botany Bay in 1779 and 1784 as a site for penal settlement and corresponded with governors of New South Wales about the economic prospects of that colony, which he

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia regarded as a potential source of valuable commodities for Britain. After 1789, Banks was involved with several voyages to Botany Bay that were intended to bring back plants for the Royal Gardens at Kew. Banks had expanded these gardens under his informal direction to become a world-encompassing centre for imperial botany and scientific improvement.40 In 1800, Banks secured for Lieutenant Grant the command of the Lady Nelson as a surveying brig for coastal exploration of New South Wales.41 Maritime exploration, scientific progress and the search for an economically self-sufficient Australia lay at the heart of Banks’s involvement with the southern hemisphere. The growth of scientific knowledge was a paramount concern.42 Banks wanted botanical specimens for his own herbarium and for Kew Gardens, but he also hoped a voyage of exploration to Australia would involve scientific examination of its natural resources, plants, animals and people.43 Banks had supported a major French scientific expedition to Australia under Nicolas Baudin in 1800 by arranging for it to have passports from the British government to sail in Australian waters. This was in keeping with his previous aid for French voyages of exploration by La Pérouse and D’Entrecasteaux in the 1780s and 1790s.44 Flinders’ request that Banks should support him as commander of a British voyage of exploration to Australia, to extend and complete the work of Cook in mapping and charting its shores, and in securing scientific specimens for dissemination in Britain, came at an opportune moment. Having supported a French expedition to Terra Australis, Banks became anxious that the French would make ‘new gains in natural history beyond his reach, of new species found for other herbaria than his own’.45 Banks’s greatest contribution to Australian maritime exploration came with his support for Flinders on the Investigator expedition and in his subsequent efforts on behalf of Flinders personally and to disseminate the voyage’s scientific findings.46 Banks had invited Flinders to attend evening conversations at his London home after the young navigator returned from New South Wales to England in 1800.47 He had heard from Governor Hunter that Flinders had carried out commendable work as a maritime surveyor in New South Wales.48 Banks must have been sufficiently impressed by Flinders’ ambition to carry out further maritime exploration of Australia, for he gave Flinders the opportunity to undertake an important voyage that would earn him fame.49 In a letter of 16 November 1800, Banks agreed to discuss Flinders’ plans for a voyage that would be the first detailed circumnavigation of Australia.50 Action followed quickly, mainly because Banks could influence government departments needed to support the voyage. Five days after Banks had written to Flinders, the Admiralty selected a ship for the voyage – the Xenophon – and instructed the Navy Board to begin her refit at Sheerness. Banks drew up a shortlist of possible new names for the ship. One of his suggestions, HMS Investigator, was selected by the Admiralty.51 The Navy Board ordered provisions for six months in the foreign service.52 That this happened so quickly suggests that some prior arrangements had been made to select the vessel. Flinders later wrote that his plan to carry out a full exploration of Australia’s coast was approved by Banks, ‘that distinguished patron of science and useful enterprise’.53 The Investigator was a converted collier. Deploying such a bulk cargo ship for a voyage of discovery had famous precedents in the vessels used by Cook for his voyages of Pacific exploration. Copper sheathing took place, as was then becoming

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia common in the navy, to protect the wooden hull from being destroyed by the teredo navalis, which were saltwater clams or shipworms that were a destructive pest of submerged timber.54 As it was anticipated the load taken by the Investigator would weigh her down in the water, an additional two planks were sheathed to cope with the weight of the extra stores. Flinders requested that this should be done after taking advice from Isaac Coffin, the resident naval commissioner at Sheerness.55 Coffin oversaw the fitting out of the Investigator, dealing with her masts, spars, stores and guns.56 Stores for the voyages were loaded on board the ship at Sheerness in early February 1801.57 Whether the ship’s timbers were properly caulked and checked for a long voyage is unknown, as there is little correspondence between the Sheerness dockyard and the Navy Board about the ship.58 Repairs were undertaken swiftly, but it is possible that not all of the iron bolts and fittings were replaced with copper ones and that the vessel may have been coppered over rotten timbers.59 After repairs were made, the Investigator was described in Admiralty records as ‘fitting out for a voyage to remote parts’.60 The Investigator carried a launch, two cutters, a gig and a whaleboat for exploration of inlets, rivers and creeks along the shoreline of Terra Australis.61 She was a three-masted, square sterned ship with only one deck. Her dimensions were 334 tons, 100 feet long, 29 feet on the beam, a draught of around 14 feet and 19 feet depth in the hold.62 Flinders informed his father about the voyage plans outlined above. He referred to sending his brother Samuel Ward Flinders to Portsmouth with letters of introduction for a voyage in the Allemene to the West Indies. Flinders had given his brother advice about acting independently as an adult. ‘With respect to promotion or going out again,’ he noted to his father, ‘they will remain obscured some time longer.’63 Dr Flinders, now old and infirm, was concerned about the situation of his sons. He had experienced troubles from Samuel who ‘seemed to have no great liking for the marine life’. He wondered whether Matthew would be appointed to survey New Holland and hoped he could find naval employment nearer home. In a bad-tempered letter, Dr Flinders stated that he had worked industriously to support his children’s education, but did not have sufficient money to keep his six sons and daughters as gentlemen and ladies: they would need to establish themselves on an independent footing.64 Flinders was taken aback to receive such stern comments, but amicable relations were soon reestablished.65 Flinders’ own position soon became clearer. In December 1800, Banks contacted Earl Spencer, first Lord of the Admiralty, about the intended expedition. Banks and Spencer were neighbours in London; they shared an interest in scientific exploration and sat together on the boards of the Royal Institution and the British Museum.66 In a detailed memorandum to Spencer, and with close knowledge of Flinders’ survey work in New South Wales in the 1790s, Banks recommended Flinders as the leader of an expedition on the Investigator to explore Australia. He set down the objectives of the voyage, indicating that it should aim to reach the west coast of Australia before the Baudin expedition. This, Banks considered, was possible because the French voyage had scheduled a sojourn at the Ile de France (now Mauritius) and Bourbon, probably lasting two months, before crossing the Indian Ocean. Banks estimated the time necessary for the Investigator to sail to Australia and suggested the route it should

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia take across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He emphasized the need ‘to anticipate the French’. Banks wanted Flinders to have discretionary orders to examine any opening on the south coast likely to lead to an inland sea or strait. He also referred to the need to examine the Gulf of Carpentaria between 130° and 140° longitude ‘where the coast of new Holland is not laid down as Continuous’.67 Banks provided a detailed itinerary for the expedition: the Investigator should put into harbours at King George Sound (in modern Western Australia) for refreshment and refitting if required and then proceed to Sydney Cove, enlist the help of the Lady Nelson and survey Australia’s south coast in a westerly direction from Bass Strait to King George Sound. The vessel should later explore the Gulf of Carpentaria and parts to the westward of it. The Investigator should then investigate and survey Torres Strait and the coast of New South Wales; inspect the north and north-west coasts of New Holland; and carefully examine the east coast of Australia, from Cape Flattery, on the east coast of the Cape York Peninsula, to the Bay of Inlets, already seen by Cook in the Endeavour. Banks emphasized the importance of locating any creek or opening on the south coast that might be ‘a Strait leading through the land’. This reflected a common concern among maritime explorers of Australia to find a major river connecting with the coast. Any opening along the shore likely to lead to an inland sea or strait was to be examined. Banks wanted those parts of the Australian coast surveyed that were most likely ‘to be fallen in with by Indiamen in their outward Bound Tracks’, an indication that Australia might serve as a trading base for East India Company voyages. He emphasized the important work to be carried out by the naturalists and the painters ‘in order to Favor science as much as may be in this undertaking’.68 Banks hoped that ‘new articles of importance to the trade & manufactures of the united kingdom may be discovered’ in Terra Australis.69 This was a voyage in which botany and charting were to be major objectives and in which Flinders and his crew should keep a lookout for commercial possibilities for the future.70 Banks had the voyage regularly in his thoughts around the time he wrote his memorandum to Earl Spencer. His papers include another, shorter memorandum from December 1800 in which he stated that a ship had been found for the voyage, with Spencer’s agreement. This stimulated Banks to jot down the number of seamen and marines needed.71 He identified a naturalist and natural history painter for the voyage and recommended Peter Good, who had previously collected plants for Kew, as gardener. Good had gained experience transporting plants across the oceans from the East India Company’s botanic garden in Calcutta (now Kolkata).72 Banks offered the post of naturalist to Robert Brown, then on army service in Ireland. Banks, who was attracted by Brown’s enthusiasm for natural history, had to intervene to secure Brown’s release from the Fifeshire regiment. Brown had shown little inclination to continue his military career and had already spent much leisure time cultivating botanical interests. He accepted Banks’s offer immediately.73 This was after Mungo Park had turned down an invitation for this position. Brown was connected with the Linnean Society in London and became one of Banks’s leading protégés.74 Brown worked regularly in Banks’s herbarium before the voyage began, studying the Australian plants brought back to London by earlier collectors. These included items from Cook’s Endeavour voyage and from Archibald Menzies’ collections at King

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia George Sound on George Vancouver’s voyage of 1791.75 With Banks’s permission Brown and Jonas Dryander, the Swedish botanist and librarian for Banks, extracted for the Investigator expedition over 1,000 duplicates of plants previously brought back from Australia. They were mounted on sheets of tough brown cartridge paper. To prepare for the expedition, Brown read as many published accounts of Australian plants as he could find.76 Banks himself ensured that fruit bushes, grains and other seeds were carried on the voyage.77 Banks contacted the Astronomer Royal Dr Nevil Maskelyne, who sought a suitable astronomer and identified the scientific instruments needed for the voyage. Maskelyne quickly arranged to acquire chronometers by leading makers such as Jesse Ramsden, Thomas Earnshaw and John Arnold.78 The nineteen-year-old William Westall was chosen as the landscape and figure painter after the first choice, William Daniell, declined. Westall was the youngest member of the scientific team on board ship. His annual salary was a generous 300 guineas. His name was forwarded to Banks through the auspices of Benjamin West, the President of the Royal Academy.79 Banks contacted Sir Gilbert Blane, the Royal Navy’s most notable physician, about a surgeon. Blane recommended Hugh Bell, a surgeon with an interest in science and natural history.80 The Admiralty selected John Crosley as the astronomer for the voyage, following the advice of Maskelyne.81 Crosley had sailed on a surveying voyage in the Providence to the North Pacific, under the command of William Broughton, in 1795–7. He was employed by the Board of Longitude. This was the only choice among the scientists not made by Banks.82 The Board of Longitude set down detailed instructions for Crosley’s work and supplied him with the necessary astronomical and nautical instruments.83 On 1 March 1801, the Lords of the Admiralty asked Flinders to take Crosley on board the Investigator together with his instruments and his servant.84 Banks involved himself in detailed preparations for getting the Investigator ready. Numerous individuals wrote to him, requesting to be included on the voyage.85 Banks accepted some and rejected others. He emphasized the importance of finding an expert in mineral investigation who should ‘under the direction of the naturalist, take specimens of all rocks, and particularly of the contents of all mineral veins he meets with, and brings them home’.86 Banks engaged John Allen for the voyage to investigate rocks and other minerals. He was a practical miner from the Derbyshire lead district rather than a geologist in the modern sense.87 Banks forwarded to Flinders a suggested list of the Investigator’s establishment and itemized projected salaries for the specialist personnel.88 These were approved by the Navy Board.89 Banks’s first choice of artist for the expedition was William Alexander, a draughtsman on Sir George Staunton’s embassy to China (1792), but he declined the position owing to his wife’s poor health. Banks then appointed in his place a gifted Austrian, Ferdinand Lukas Bauer. His elder brother Franz was a botanical artist at the Royal Gardens, Kew, and had worked for Banks since 1788.90 He had come to Banks’s attention through his illustrative work for the Sherardian Professor of Botany at Oxford.91 Ferdinand Bauer, at forty years old, was the oldest member of the scientific gentlemen on the ship.92 Banks was well connected with the chief officials at the Admiralty, whom he persuaded to provide full backing to patronage of the natural sciences on voyages of exploration.93 Flinders recommended Robert Merrick Fowler, a fellow Lincolnshire man, as first

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia lieutenant, and this was accepted. He then suggested his brother, Samuel Ward, as second lieutenant, which was also approved.94 Flinders named eight men currently belonging to HMS Hydra that he wanted appointed for his expedition.95 Flinders informed Banks about ‘the wants we may have, and the alterations that may be necessary, hoping for your assistance in forwarding their accomplishment’. He suggested an additional cabin should be included to keep the ship’s stores and the naturalist and mineralogist’s specimens. He wanted warrant officers included in the ship’s establishment and several additional personnel; sufficient guns to arm the vessel; two whaleboats; and an order for procuring additional crew volunteers.96 Flinders informed Banks about a greenhouse being fitted to the Investigator’s quarterdeck to carry useful plants and also supplied a list of the books, stationery, charts, instruments and items needed for presents and barter.97 Within a month of this request, the Navy Board supplied astronomical and nautical instruments for the voyage.98 The plant cabin was probably designed by Banks. It was carried in a dismantled state. The intention was that it would be put together and installed on the quarterdeck when the Investigator reached Port Jackson. The plant cabin was large and heavy, and, when assembled, it was placed over the tiller ropes. Several other previous expeditions had carried similar greenhouses.99 The Investigator’s voyage was delayed by the need to secure a French passport via the Foreign Office against possible hostile interference from the French during wartime. By mid-March, Flinders had received news about procuring the passport.100 However, the Foreign Secretary did not apply for this document until May 1801, and it only arrived in London on 23 June. The passport was made out specifically for the Investigator and for no other vessel.101 Anxious to inform Banks about the reasons for the delay in starting the voyage, Flinders explained his lengthy dealings with the Victualling Board for water casks and provisions and his contacts with the Navy Board over the appointment of a master and warrant officers. Flinders wanted to consult Banks in person about the instruments, stationery and articles of barter for the voyage, but was unable to leave the ship at Sheerness because he needed to ensure all the officers came on board.102 Banks’s close concern with the Investigator’s voyage is revealed in a letter indicating he had read Flinders’ Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, on Bass’s Straits and Its Islands, and on Parts of the Coasts of New South Wales, Intended to Accompany the Charts of the Late Discoveries in Those Countries, by Matthew Flinders, Second Lieutenant of His Majesty’s Ship Reliance. This had been published in February 1801 by John Nichols, whose address was around the corner from Banks’s London residence at 32 Soho Square. As discussed in Chapter 3, the book was accompanied by three charts by Arrowsmith – one of Bass Strait; one of part of the coast of New South Wales from Ram Head to the Northumberland Isles; and a sheet of four plans of Port Dalrymple, Western Port, the southernmost of Furneaux’s Islands and Twofold Bay.103 Flinders ensured Banks received a copy, with the dedication, in good time for his patron to note Flinders’ prior accomplishments in surveying and charting parts of Terra Australis. Flinders dedicated the volume to Banks: ‘Your zealous exertions to promote geographical and nautical knowledge, your encouragement of men employed in the cultivation of the sciences that tend to this improvement, and the countenance

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia you have been pleased to show me in particular, embolden me to lay the following observations before you.’104 Flinders received his commission as commander of the voyage through Banks’s connection with Lord Spencer.105 Banks was delighted at his protégé’s commitment to the expedition. ‘I give you sincere joy at the attainment of your wish in your appointment of Commander,’ he wrote to Flinders. He added, ‘I have long known that it was Certain, but I am glad it is now placed beyond the Reach of accident, or the change of administration’ – a reference to Addington’s administration succeeding that of the Younger Pitt on 14 March 1801. Banks added that Flinders should not overlook the provision of appropriate scientific instruments, noting that Vancouver, on his round-the-world expedition of 1791–5, set a poor precedent by sailing without an astronomer.106 The East India Company held a charter that gave it a monopoly on all trade in the vast area between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan. The Company was keen to take advantage of any commercially significant discoveries made by Flinders.107 Banks contacted the East India Company about payments to support Flinders on the voyage.108 The Company agreed the monies requested because they wanted information about whether the west and north-west coasts of Australia offered safety for their outward-bound ships sailing in the Indian Ocean. Some £1,200 in table money was offered by the Company for the voyage to provide for food for Flinders, his officers and the scientists above the normal supplies.109 Banks explained to Flinders that ‘the reason for the allowance is to Encourage the men of science to discover such things as will be useful to the Commerce of India & you to find new passages’.110 Banks thanked the Company for their support for the expedition. He would be disappointed if the voyage did not discover articles of importance and commerce that would induce East India Company ships to fit out for Australia.111 Flinders and Banks corresponded frequently between March and July 1801, when the Investigator was ready to sail. Flinders wanted to find a good master, with sufficient remuneration for a complex voyage. He also hoped Banks could influence the Comptroller of the Navy Board to supply a five-oared whaleboat.112 Banks had sufficient connections with Nepean at the Admiralty Board that his wishes were granted almost without question. When Banks wrote to the Admiralty with suggestions about the dissemination of the journals and the animal specimens from the voyage, Nepean replied: ‘Any proposal you make will be approved. The whole is left entirely to your decision.’113 Banks was accustomed to playing a leading role in British voyages of discovery to the southern hemisphere, and the government no doubt welcomed his help while embroiled in a war with Napoleonic France. Banks was an indispensable go-between for organizing maritime expeditions at a time when government found its administrative resources stretched.114 Flinders wrote expeditiously to Banks about the need to forward the books, stationery, charts and articles of barter and presents for the voyage, and the necessity to appoint a draughtsman and naturalist.115 He further requested a pocket chronometer by Arnold or Earnshaw as he had not received any such instrument from the Board of Longitude. Banks ensured that the pocket chronometer was provided, along with charts from the Admiralty.116 Banks advised the Admiralty on the equipment and

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia presents for the natives that would be needed in Australia.117 He presented to Flinders books detailing previous voyages to the South Seas and a copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. These were to form a library in Flinders’ cabin for the officers’ use. Under the direction of Alexander Dalrymple, the first hydrographer of the Admiralty, every available chart relating to Terra Australis was copied for use on the voyage.118 Flinders visited Dalrymple in London. The Admiralty hydrographer provided him with ‘every certain information relating to New Holland’.119 The Admiralty provided Flinders with copies of D’Entrecasteaux’s maps, seized from the French when that expedition was disbanded in 1795. The maps, prepared by the notable hydrographer Charles Beautemps-Beaupré, included important details on the Recherche archipelago, situated off Australia’s south coast.120 Banks ensured his own imperatives for the voyage were met. He gathered together at his home in Soho Square the scientists and painters selected for the expedition and made them sign an agreement about the public ownership of the material they were to investigate in Australia and the terms under which the collections were to be used and distributed. Seven numbered points were listed as part of these instructions. Particular attention was given to the way in which each man should relate to the others in terms of his professional skill. Banks anticipated the eventual publication of the voyage’s findings as engravings, charts, plans and figures to accompany a voyage narrative written by Flinders, in keeping with the precedent set by publication of Cook’s voyages.121 Banks advised Flinders that the astronomer should make his observations available for the use of the ship, but that the naturalist and the painters should concentrate on their original observations and drawings so that they could send home appropriate samples along with Flinders’ dispatches.122 Banks’s interest in botany led him to offer detailed advice to the naturalist. He advised Brown to concentrate on those branches of natural history with which he was most familiar. Specimens were to be gathered with careful notation of the place where they were found and remarks on their situation and the neighbouring country that could later be examined by specialists. Botany was to take pride of place in the investigation of natural history. Geology and mineralogy, Banks suggested, ‘must be considered by you as subsidiary pursuits & you will be required to do in them no more than is compatible with a full attention to Botany Entemology Ornothology &c’. Banks furnished Brown with all the major published descriptions of Australian plants.123 Brown was to be assisted by the miner, who was advised by Banks to examine rocks and steep crags and to show the naturalist any solid bodies or stones with a metallic appearance. In addition, Brown could call upon the services at Port Jackson of a young man, George Caley, whom Banks had sent there to collect plants for him.124 Flinders’ voyage orders from the Admiralty closely followed suggestions Banks had made to Spencer, though they are explained in greater detail.125 Flinders himself was not consulted over the geographical and hydrographical instructions for the voyage.126 He suggested to Banks that his examination of the north-east coast of New Holland would be better carried out by sailing outside the reefs, to ascertain their extent from the coast, rather than following Cook’s track in the Endeavour, but that where no coast was seen by him, it would be more appropriate to investigate it through the reefs. Prevailing winds in winter blew from the eastward. The circumnavigation of Australia would be

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia more expeditiously performed from east to west rather than vice versa, especially as the wind would be more westerly from the south-west cape. This would enable him to complete any survey work along the unexamined part of the south coast.127 Flinders added some additional thoughts about his route around Australia in a letter to Nepean at the Admiralty. He argued it would be best to proceed up the east coast of New South Wales in winter, sail along the Gulf of Carpentaria from the east and continue westwards around the north and west coasts of New Holland to King George Sound and along the south coast of Australia eastwards towards Bass Strait. By taking this route instead of the contrary one round New Holland, I should almost ensure fair winds during the whole circuit, and save much time. It would therefore be expedient for the service that this route sho[ul]d be taken, if on consulting with the governor of NS Wales it should be agreed to be best suited to the seasons and to the service.128

No reply to this letter has been found, but Nepean would have realized Flinders’ practical knowledge of the most appropriate way to circumnavigate Australia. Nothing was allowed to come between Flinders and his voyage to Terra Australis; as he informed Banks, ‘My greatest ambition is to make such a minute investigation of this extensive and very interesting country that no person shall have occasion to come after me to make further discoveries.’129 This was an over-ambitious statement, but it underscored Flinders’ commitment to the task at hand. The only matter on which Banks and Flinders disagreed was about whether the young commander should take his wife on the voyage. During the six months after he returned from New South Wales, Flinders had become closer to his friend Ann Chappelle, visiting her in Lincolnshire.130 Ann wrote poetry and drew flowers. She was intelligent, dark-haired and small, with loss of sight in one eye (as a result of childhood smallpox). She had known Flinders for several years on his visits to Lincolnshire.131 After his return from New South Wales to England in 1800, Flinders had revealed his career ambitions in a private letter to Ann. ‘My dearest friend,’ he wrote, this time seems to be a very critical period of my life. I have been long absent, – have done services abroad that were not expected, but which seem to be thought a good deal of. I have more and greater friends than before, and this seems to be the moment that their exertions may be most serviceable to me. I may now perhaps make a bold dash forward, or may remain a poor lieutenant all my life.132

Flinders and Ann Chappelle had an affectionate relationship, but their separate circumstances – she, based in Lincolnshire, and he about to embark on a long voyage to the southern hemisphere – seemed to preclude a permanent liaison. Flinders explained that, if he were to marry her, he might have to leave her in her stepfather’s house while he was abroad for up to five years, and that would be a miserable situation.133 But Flinders became more emotionally drawn to Miss Chappelle. ‘The love of thy head and heart – a philosophic love, which I had flattered myself that mine was, became reinforced by another,’ he wrote her, adding that ‘between them, I had near been

A Voyage to Circumnavigate Australia carried away beyond the bounds of reason and prudence. I do not mean to flatter thee Annette, but thy person does much exceed my expectation of it.’134 In early April 1801, Flinders made out a will, naming his father as executor. In a letter he explained that he had no intention of marrying Ann Chappelle or any other woman, ‘but leave England wedded only to my ship and to the service upon which I am going’. But he requested that his father should, if necessary, follow the details of his will, which bequeathed half of his property and money to Ann Chappelle provided she remained unmarried at the time of his decease along with ‘a handsome mourning ring, value three guineas, within side which is to be inserted the following sentence “A proof of lasting regard, from Matthew Flinders”’. The will also made bequests of mourning rings to his father, his siblings, Sir Joseph Banks, George Bass and others.135 Flinders quickly and unexpectedly reversed his previous decision and asked Ann Chappelle to marry him. The offer of marriage came after she had indicated her desire to live with Flinders.136 Flinders informed his father on 14 April 1801 that he had sufficient money to marry and that he intended to take out his wife with him on his expedition. He knew this would surprise his father.137 Flinders rapidly travelled up to Lincolnshire and married Ann on 17 April at St Nicholas Church, Partney. Ann was three-and-a-half years older than Flinders. Born in Hull on 21 November 1770, her father had died at sea when she was aged four. She was the stepdaughter of William Tyler, rector of Braytoft, Lincolnshire. He officiated at the marriage.138 Later the same day, Ann wrote to a close friend explaining how the arrangements for the marriage had occurred suddenly.139 Flinders had a happy marriage day, distributing gifts to the bridesmaids and pretending to tell their fortunes from the lines in their hands.140 His father and stepmother were not present at the ceremony. Dr Flinders recorded in his diary that Matthew and Ann called upon him unexpectedly on the day after the wedding. ‘We had known of the acquaintance,’ he wrote, ‘but had no Idea of Marriage taking place until the completion of his ensuing voyage. I wish he may not repent of his hasty step.’141 A few weeks after the marriage Flinders installed his wife on board the Investigator while the ship remained at Little Nore. The Reverend Tyler and Ann’s halfsister Isabella visited them at Sheerness to bid them a fond farewell.142 Ann sent her regards to her new parents-in-law and hoped to render herself worthy of their affection and approbation.143 Flinders had acted impetuously. The marriage had important implications for his voyage. Banks found out about the marriage possibly through naval gossip but certainly from reading a notice of it in a Lincoln paper.144 He strongly opposed the marriage because he considered that good discipline could not be maintained on board ship by a commander who brought along his wife on a voyage.145 He explained to Flinders that it would be impossible for him to take his wife on the voyage: this contravened naval regulations and discipline, and the Lords of the Admiralty would replace Flinders as commander of the Investigator if this happened.146 Flinders probably anticipated such a reaction. Before his marriage, he had counselled Ann to keep their marriage a secret as he did ‘not exactly know how my great friends might like it’.147 Nevertheless, Banks’s disapproval must have been devastating for both Matthew and Ann, who had already said their farewells to close family members. Flinders now had to say goodbye to his

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia wife. He hoped his friend Thomas Franklin could make her laugh if she succumbed to low spirits.148 Flinders’ ambition was not dented by his personal feelings. It had been his intention to install his wife at Port Jackson while he undertook the circumnavigation, so that he could concentrate on the purpose of the voyage. He was committed to the Investigator’s expedition ‘in a way that shall preclude the necessity of anyone following after me to explore’.149 He did not want to risk the bad opinion of the Admiralty Lords, and so he decided that his wife must remain in England as soon as his sailing orders arrived.150 Flinders was worried his father was displeased that he had not formally asked him to marry Ann Chappelle. He explained to Dr Flinders that he would not have married her without the notion of taking her on the voyage but that this had been denied him. Reassuring his father about the practicalities of earning a living, Flinders noted that he was going on the voyage with the hope of ‘making such an addition to my half pay as to be independent of the Admiralty for employment on my return’.151 Flinders recognized the importance of Banks’s patronage in attempting to achieve this goal, referring to the President of the Royal Society as ‘my greatest and best friend’.152 Banks expected his protégé would in his future conduct do credit to himself ‘as an able navigator, and to me as having recommended you’.153 All the preparations for the voyage suggest that Banks and Flinders were united in their perception of the expedition’s significance and that a fruitful engagement between patron and protégé would ensue. Much would depend, however, not on personal relationships fostered by Flinders, with his crew, the scientific gentlemen and Banks, but on the seaworthiness of the Investigator. Flinders sounded a cautionary note on this matter before the voyage began when he shifted the vessel from Spithead to Portsmouth. Observing the ship’s difficulty in traversing this short passage, he noted that the Investigator ‘does not appear to be a strong ship, and I fear the taking her into her present deep state may tend to make her weaker’.154 This proved a prescient insight, for the seaworthiness of the vessel played a crucial part in her voyage around Australia.

5

Bound to Australia

More than six months passed before the Investigator was ready to begin her voyage. On 25 January 1801, Flinders mustered the ship’s company and read his commission from the Admiralty as lieutenant, which he had received six days earlier.1 While the vessel was at Sheerness, routine naval duties took place – receiving the boatswain’s and carpenter’s stores, clearing the holds to receive coals, taking provisions from lighters, dealing with the anchors, fitting gun tackles and breechings, and so forth.2 Naval discipline was not neglected. On several occasions, Flinders ordered crew members to be flogged for various misdemeanours including contempt towards their superiors, absence beyond their leave, neglect of duty and desertion.3 In April, Flinders was granted ten days’ leave of absence to go to London to hasten the supply of the mathematical instruments, forward the ordering of stationary and books, buy some articles for presents and barter and write some letters to the Governor of New South Wales relating to the Lady Nelson.4 That vessel, the Admiralty instructed, was to be employed as a colonial vessel at Port Jackson under the command of Flinders when he arrived there.5 After dealing with administrative matters in London, Flinders, as discussed in the previous chapter, made a swift journey to Lincolnshire to marry.6 On 22 May Flinders was authorized by the Admiralty to proceed from the Nore to Spithead expeditiously.7 Five days later the Investigator sailed from the Thames Estuary to an anchorage at the Downs. A couple of days later a bad error occurred. The person taking the lead line in making soundings left the chains without anyone replacing him. As a result, the ship hit a sand bank in daylight. Flinders, who was beneath deck with his wife, at once went up to the quarterdeck and ordered boats to be lowered to sound around the ship. He realized he should have been on deck to watch the pilotage. He sailed back to the Downs and reported the ship’s grounding to the Admiralty, noting that he was not in possession of a chart that marked the sandbank.8 Flinders set sail again on 30 May and the Investigator reached Spithead on 2 June. In those few days, a carpenter absconded from the ship and several other men deserted.9 Flinders was worried that these incidents would be held against him and reinforce the criticism of his wife being on board. Banks was critical of Flinders’ action, stating that he had ‘never known a ship in good order in which the Captains wife was on board’.10 Banks heard of the ship’s grounding and the desertions, and had to defend

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Flinders against ‘many severe remarks’.11 But Flinders was fortunate. No action was taken against him. Possibly this was because the Admiralty confirmed that it possessed no chart or survey of the shoal near the South Foreland that could have been provided to Flinders.12 The Investigator was towed into Portsmouth harbour and her bottom carefully investigated. There was no damage. The next day the ship returned to her Spithead anchorage.13 On 15 June, Flinders was pleased to receive John Thistle on board as master.14 Flinders had a high regard for Thistle, who had sailed in the Reliance, with Bass on the whaleboat voyage into Bass Strait, and with Flinders on both expeditions in the Norfolk. A less happy occurrence was that Ann Flinders, feeling unwell and in a convalescent state, was taken home to Lincolnshire by her stepfather: it had become apparent that her presence on the voyage would not be tolerated owing to the distractions this would create while Flinders performed his naval duties.15 The parting of the young couple was a sorrowful matter after barely three months’ marriage, but it could not be avoided if Flinders was to continue as commander of the Investigator. Flinders wrote many letters to Ann while the Investigator waited to sail but placed his career ambitions before deciding to remain with her in England.16 Flinders was concerned about the effect that his absence would have on his wife. ‘Make her almost forget me, if you can,’ he wrote to a family friend, ‘till I am coming home’.17 The delay in the start of the voyage arose partly from the pressures involved in preparing ships for sea when many naval vessels demanded attention during the war with France, and partly from the illness of Nepean, who had to authorize, on behalf of the Admiralty, the paperwork connected with the expedition. Flinders himself thought the Admiralty had not supported the voyage with the same energy as when Earl Spencer headed its Board: Spencer had been succeeded by the Earl of St Vincent on 19 February. More important than these reasons for delay, however, was the need to wait for the French passport to arrive.18 On 17 July Flinders finally received his instructions for the voyage from the Admiralty along with other papers, including the passport from the French Republic signed by the minister of the marine and of the colonies. The passport was intended to prevent the Investigator being seized by any French ships and to permit Flinders to enter any French-controlled ports to refit as necessary. Flinders did not read French and had to rely on the general import of the passport from one of his ship’s company. The document was made out specifically for the Investigator. Flinders could not have guessed at the time what problems this would later incur. Other papers included a letter from the Duke of Portland to the governor of New South Wales, relating to the Lady Nelson.19 Flinders visited both Arrowsmith and the Hydrographic Office before he set out to circumnavigate Australia.20 Alexander Dalrymple, the Admiralty hydrographer, had supplied Flinders with several significant maps and other documents for the Investigator expedition. These included Dalrymple’s unpublished ‘memoir’ on winds and tides in the Indian Ocean; the charts of Charles Beautemps-Beaupré from D’Entrecasteaux’s voyage (1791–3) in search of La Pérouse’s expedition; and a copy of the main extant Dutch map of the Gulf of Carpentaria, possibly copied from the Thévenot version of 1663.21 Dalrymple influenced Flinders in other ways. For instance, his advocacy of

Bound to Australia chronometers and lunar observations to calculate longitude at sea, rather than using dead reckoning, was strongly supported by Flinders.22 On the voyage Flinders took with him Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean, published on 1 October 1798. This was then the most up-to-date, reliable map of the outline shape of Australia. It is an excellent example of Arrowsmith’s concern for precision and accuracy. He claimed that it was ‘drawn from a great number of printed and manuscript journals’. Comprising nine sheets covering different parts of Australia and a single reduced sheet of the whole continent, it included findings by British navigators but excluded discoveries made by Dutch explorers that were unconfirmed by a second sighting. The chart included Dampier’s soundings on the north-west coast and drew upon Dutch charts of the same stretch of coast. Cook’s charting of New South Wales in 1770 was included on the map as was most, but not all, of Furneaux’s surveying of the south and east coasts of Van Diemen’s Land in 1773: Arrowsmith did not mark parts of the east coast where Furneaux had not supplied full details. Nuyts’ Land, along the south coast of Australia from Cape Leeuwin to the islands of St Francis and St Peter, and the west coast of Van Diemen’s Land, both of which the Dutch had sighted only once, were omitted. The remainder of Australia’s south coast was left blank. Arrowsmith also left out a continuous coastline for the north coast west between Arnhem Bay and Van Diemen’s Land and for the coast on the eastern side of the Cape York Peninsula from Cape Flattery almost as far as Cape Weymouth. Bass Strait was left blank: it was not specified whether it was land or sea.23 Flinders shared Arrowsmith’s scepticism about the validity of existing cartographic representations of Australia’s coastline and concurred that geographical knowledge required verifiable facts achieved through exploration. In particular, Flinders questioned the accuracy of Dutch charting of the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria because no records from Tasman’s voyage in this region appeared to have survived. Moreover, it was well known that the Dutch had often introduced deliberate inaccuracies in their charts, concealing secret discoveries for the same reason that the Spanish had tried not to disclose the existence of Torres Strait for 150 years.24 Flinders had on board the Investigator a translation of Tasman’s instructions for his second Pacific voyage made by Dalrymple. This was important because no European navigator had explored the Gulf of Carpentaria since Tasman.25 On his voyage that touched at north-west Australia in 1699, William Dampier had used Tasman’s map; but he was critical of its accuracy, believing Tasman’s drawing of a continuous coastline for northwest Australia was a collection of islands and that somewhere behind Rosemary Island (now in the Dampier archipelago) was an extensive channel that connected with the southern and eastern coasts. Dampier suspected that Tasman had not sailed as closely to the Australian coast as his marked track indicated.26 Flinders’ main source for the Gulf of Carpentaria on the Investigator expedition was Thévenot’s map, copied from Joan Blaeu’s world map of 1648 on the floor of the great hall of Amsterdam city hall.27 The Thévenot map had been recopied to form the basis of the best-known British map of Terra Australis. This was Emanuel Bowen’s Hollandia Nova-Terra Australis (1744), later published in Thomas Bankes’ New System of Geography (1785). Bowen scrupulously noted that only discovered territory was shown, which accounts for the blank spaces on his map. Thévonot divided the

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Australian continent, as far as it was then known, at longitude 135°E. When the first British government drew up the boundaries of New South Wales in 1788, it marked its western limit at that longitude, following Thévenot’s map.28 That map depicted a continuous coast for the Gulf of Carpentaria; the shape of the east coast, unknown when the map was originally drawn, was omitted.29 It was possible that the Gulf of Carpentaria coast matched its depiction on the Thévonot map, but it was equally possible that the Gulf was not a gulf but possibly an opening of a passage leading to the south.30 Significantly, as noted above, Arrowmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean (1798) had not marked the entire north coastline of Australia as being continuous. Greg Wood has argued that this is a blot on Arrowsmith’s reputation for producing maps with great care, because no other map of the decades either side of 1800 had indicated anything other than a continuous coastline for the Gulf of Carpentaria.31 However, another explanation seems more likely. Arrowsmith did not have evidence that Dutch explorers had made anything other than a cursory examination of the Gulf and the records of Tasman’s second voyage were lost. He therefore would not depict a continuous coast for that region on his Chart of the Pacific Ocean.32 Flinders followed Arrowsmith’s approach to this problem. Flinders’ scepticism about the accuracy of the Dutch charting of the Gulf of Carpentaria can be seen in two of his remarks. In one, he commented that so little was known of the Gulf before the Investigator expedition ‘that although conjecture had assigned its early examination to Tasman, yet geographers knew not what credit ought to be attached to the form it had assumed in the charts’.33 In the other, he stated that Tasman’s map was unsupported by other sources and was considered ‘little better than fairyland’.34 Flinders hoped a proper survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria would locate the existence of a north–south strait dividing Australia into two land masses.35 The Admiralty’s orders for the voyage closely followed the recommendations made by Banks.36 Flinders was instructed to make ‘a complete examination and survey’ of the coast of New Holland. The Investigator was to sail along the south coast of Australia, putting in at King George Sound if necessary for refreshments and water, and to continue along 130° east of longitude to Bass Strait and from thence to Sydney Cove. After refitting the ship, taking on board fresh provisions, consulting the governor of New South Wales about the best means of surveying the coast and taking the Lady Nelson as tender under his command, Flinders was to begin the survey by sailing in a clockwise direction from Port Jackson, back through Bass Strait. He was then given the option of surveying the south coast either by proceeding westward to King George Sound or to sail to that location and return eastward along the south coast to undertake the survey. Any rivers or inlets or signs of soil fertility and indigenous inhabitants were to be noted. It was important to take accurate astronomical observations, to note the timing and extent of tides, and to calculate the geographical coordinates of bays, harbours, islands and other landmarks.37 This was only the first stage of a comprehensive survey of Australia’s coastline. The Admiralty instructions instructed Flinders to explore Australia’s north-west coast, where it was hoped harbours would be found, and then to examine the Gulf of Carpentaria and the land to its west, between 130 and 139 degrees longitude; to survey Torres Strait; and to examine the rest of the north, west and north-west coasts of

Bound to Australia Australia. The instructions made it clear that these coasts should be investigated, along with the bank between Timor and the Trial Rocks, whose location was unknown but thought to be a few days’ sail from Timor. The ship Trial had been wrecked on these rocks in 1622. This was the first English ship to reach the Australian shore, but it ran aground on the Trial Rocks off the Western Australian coast while sailing north-east to reach Java. The master of the vessel falsified his journal to show that the wreck site was on the route he was supposed to have followed, many miles west of its actual location.38 Flinders was instructed to find out whether East India Company ships could call at Timor on outward-bound voyages to China, Indonesia and the Far East at a time when British trade with these widely scattered areas was conducted under the monopoly of the Company. After completing these surveys, the Investigator was to turn to a careful investigation of the east coast from Cape Flattery to the Bay of Inlets, already surveyed by Cook in the Endeavour in 1770. Van Diemen’s Land was omitted from the Admiralty instructions because Flinders had already circumnavigated that island a couple of years previously. Implicit in the instructions, though not stated directly, was the need to sail as near the shore as possible. Flinders was reminded that the circumnavigation was as much connected with accruing knowledge about the natural world as with improving geography and hydrography; and that he should allow time for the scientific gentlemen and the painter to carry out their work. That is why the Investigator carried a plant cabin to collect plants, trees and shrubs found during the survey for transfer to the Royal Gardens at Kew.39 These were ambitious and strict instructions, and it may be that the Admiralty had not fully considered the mileage to be covered or the time available for the voyage: to perform his instructions to the letter would have taken Flinders longer than a threeyear voyage. An awkward part of the orders, from the practical point of view, was the instruction for Flinders to sail eastward along the southern coast of Australia to Sydney before starting his survey but then to begin that by voyaging westward along that same coast – a distance of over 1,600 nautical miles. On receiving his sailing orders, Flinders immediately wrote to Banks, to note that ‘the Admiralty have not thought it good to permit me to circumnavigate New Holland in the way that appears to me best suited to expedition and safety’. Nevertheless, he reported to Banks that he was happy with the adjustment of the crew to the ship and that the voyage ‘may see the examination of New Holland performed in the way that will be most gratifying to you’.40 A couple of weeks before writing this letter, Flinders had suggested to Banks that delays in starting the Investigator’s voyage meant he would not arrive on the south coast of Australia in the summer. Stormy seas would be likely to obstruct a survey of that coast according to the Admiralty’s instructions, that is, in a westward direction after first sailing to Sydney Cove. Flinders wanted to examine the south coast more minutely in my first run along it; and if anything material should present itself, as a strait, gulph, or very large river, shall employ as much time in its examination as the remaining part of the summer may then consist of; for I consider it very material to the success of the voyage, and to its early completion, that we should be upon the northern coasts in winter and the southern ones in summer.41

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Governor Philip Gidley King had also written to Banks about prioritizing a survey of the south coast. It is not known whether Banks discussed Flinders’ proposed alteration with the Admiralty; but he did not write back to Flinders to dissuade him from altering the sailing orders.42 Just before leaving Spithead for the voyage, Flinders issued detailed orders to personnel with particular responsibilities. He insisted that, owing to the length of the voyage, the boatswain, gunner and carpenter should not issue stores of any kind without his express permission. The officers on the quarterdeck were given a series of commands, including proper attention to look-outs at night, careful treatment of the ropes and sails, mustering the watch during the first quarter hour of its duties, the day look-out to be at the fore top-mast head, due attention by the helmsman to the ship’s steerage, correct keeping of the logboard,43 and washing, cleaning and airing the lower deck. The mates and midshipmen of the ship were instructed to show alertness to fellow crew members, to attend to the officer’s orders, to stay on deck until relieved, to avoid distracting the attention of the helmsman by talking and to send their journals to the commander on the first day of each month for inspection. Those who applied themselves were to have the opportunity to work in the cabin where the astronomer and commander would initiate them into making marine surveys and constructing charts. This would help them on the voyage and prepare the foundation for their future promotion.44 These were methodical and careful instructions. The Investigator sailed from Spithead on 18 July 1801 and followed a course along the English Channel out into the Atlantic. A careful watch for enemy vessels was maintained, as Britain and France were at war. Soon there was cause for concern over another matter: while approaching Porto Santo, the easternmost island of the Madeiran archipelago, on 30 July, Flinders noted that they had ‘the mortification to find that the ship makes two inches of water per hour’.45 Flinders dropped a boat down the side of the vessel to examine the seams and butts near the water’s edge, but could find no cause of the leak.46 On 5 August Flinders took his brother Samuel, Robert Brown and Ferdinand Bauer in a cutter to examine one of the uninhabited Dezertas islands, but the party found nothing of interest to the naturalists and returned the same evening to the Investigator.47 The first proper port of call on the voyage was the roadstead at Funchal, Madeira. The Investigator arrived there to find British naval vessels in the bay with men from the 85th regiment of the army. These recently arrived forces had been dispatched to Madeira in the event of a French invasion of the island. This was a possibility because Portugal was under great pressure to join France. The administration of Madeira remained in Portuguese hands despite the British army presence.48 Flinders landed and waited upon both the British consul and the governor of Madeira. The brief stopover was an opportunity to take on board some fresh beef, water and wine. The scientific gentlemen had three days on shore for botanical investigations. Madeira was familiar to British naturalists. Sir Hans Sloane had called there in 1687 en route to Jamaica. Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander had collected there, as part of the Endeavour voyage in 1768. Banks’s collector Francis Masson – the first such collector sent out from Kew – had visited the island in 1776 and 1783. Robert Brown had studied Masson’s writings on Madeiran botany before leaving London for

Bound to Australia the present voyage. Unfortunately, the botanical excursion was fairly unproductive. Brown was disappointed to find scarcely any new plants and very few additions to the flora of the island to extend the material found by Banks and his collector.49 Brown described eighteen plants on his Madeiran slips, but only seven have been traced.50 Peter Good only recorded briefly the expedition to collect plants: the natural history of Madeira, he noted, was well known and they did not find significant new plant specimens.51 While at Madeira, Flinders wrote a letter to his father. He reassured him that shipboard relations were agreeable and that his brother Samuel was conducting himself well.52 After the departure from Madeira, the Investigator sailed past the Cape Verde islands, which Flinders had previously seen in the Reliance in 1795 on his first voyage bound for Australia. The ship continued its voyage southward uneventfully despite occasional thunder and lightning. Flinders paid attention to the astronomical observations made and to the differences in the magnetic compass needle, a vital piece of information in determining latitude.53 The ship continued to leak, gaining two inches of water per hour, but Flinders was not unduly concerned as this was still near the water’s edge.54 Flinders was prepared for dealing with the expected south-westerly winds near the Equator. He knew the longitudes where Cook and La Pérouse had crossed the line of the Equator: on this matter he consulted Arrowsmith’s Chart of the World on Mercator’s Projection… (1790) and the geographical notes of the Comte de Fleurieu, a noted French geographer and hydrographer, who had guided La Pérouse.55 Consulting these sources as he approached the Equator, Flinders wanted to locate Sable Island (also known as St Paul Island). However, he called off the search for this island after several days when he failed to find it; he did not know at the time that it lay 850 miles west of the point where he crossed the Equator.56 Flinders was concerned that the delayed start of the Investigator’s voyage would limit the time available to survey the south coast of Australia during summer. As a result, he was determined not to tarry at the Cape other than to refresh the ship’s company and refit the vessel. He consulted with Hugh Bell, the surgeon, about measures that could be taken to preserve the crew’s health and avoid delays. Scurvy was a potential medical problem, characterized by foul breath, bleeding gums, bruising and bloated flesh. Admirals and naval commanders played a key role in the conquest of scurvy. Flinders knew Cook’s measures to combat scurvy had led to very few deaths from scurvy on oceanic voyages.57 Flinders issued provisions such as oatmeal, dried vegetables, rice and pease. A hot breakfast and hot soup were served every day. Having absorbed Cook’s measures on anti-scorbutic procedures, which he had previously deployed while serving in the Providence, Flinders issued lime juice and sugar to prevent scurvy, believing these were more appropriate anti-scorbutics in the tropics than sauerkraut.58 Another dietary supplement regularly issued by Flinders was sweet-wort, which was prepared by pouring boiling water over barley flour. Flinders also insisted on strict attention to hygiene. He followed Cook’s practices by insisting on regular cleaning and airing below decks, keeping clothes and bedding dry and ensuring the crew exercised.59 Flinders and his ship’s company took advantage of occasional opportunities to augment their diet with catches of fresh food. On 6 September, the crew struck two

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia porpoises which were dissected. Their blubber was collected and on Flinders’ orders it was distributed among everyone on board and eaten as beef steaks. Many of the crew said it was like eating fresh beef. However, Good thought the blubber ‘could not be compared even to Bullock liver, however it was fresh and contributed as a change from Beef and Pork’ and was therefore ‘not to be dispised’.60 The crew clearly enjoyed having a meal where there was a change from heavily salted meat. To offer the ship’s company some amusement, Flinders allowed them to carry out the well-known initiation ritual associated with crossing the Equator. This was a merry ceremony in which costumes were worn. King Neptune and his attendants came on deck and all those who had crossed the line before shaved the heads of the officers and seamen who had not. Seamen were allowed as much grog as they could drink.61 Seaman Samuel Smith reported that ‘the greatest part of the Officers & Men was shaved, not having cross’d the line before’.62 It is not clear whether Flinders participated in the ritual. The ceremony was rowdy and disorderly. Good noted that, amidst the turbulence, some sailors were insolent to the officers.63 At a muster on the following day, Flinders admonished the sailors and blamed himself for allowing the consumption of so much alcohol.64 Strong winds accentuated the weakness of the ship, so Flinders rearranged the carronades and the vessel’s upper works to lighten the load on the upper part of the vessel and to lessen the shaking of timbers that allowed water to seep through.65 This settled the Investigator for the rest of the voyage down to the Cape, but it was potentially worrying because it was unpredictable for how long the ship could continue without further problems. Flinders remained focused on the route followed, closely comparing the ship’s sailing direction with that of previous voyages, notably by Cook, for which he had information to hand. Though it was not included in his Admiralty instructions, Flinders attempted ‘to identify some former discoveries in the southern Atlantic, since their assigned situations were so near to our track that a trifling deviation in the course was sufficient to answer the purpose’.66 At the end of September, he and his officers looked out for Saxemberg Island, mentioned in Fleurieu’s geographical notes mentioned above. This island was reportedly discovered in 1670 by John Lindestz Lindeman, a Dutchman. Its coordinates were said to be 30°45ʹS and 19°40ʹW. Lindeman had made a sketch of the island, showing it to be low-lying with a mountain in the middle. Flinders searched for the island, could not find it and decided to press ahead for the Cape. He was right not to linger, both for the sake of his voyage and because, in fact, the island is non-existent: Lindeman had probably mistaken stationary clouds on the horizon that are common in this part of the Atlantic for a distant island.67 During these early stages of the voyage, Flinders oversaw all of the ship’s arrangements and took control at the masthead to record precisely the Investigator’s progress in a daily rough log. There he inserted readings for latitude and longitude, the variation of the compass, barometer measurements and the distance of the ship from known points of land. Astronomical calculations were carried out several times a day. These were also recorded in the log. In the evening, working by candlelight, Flinders read widely, and in a scholarly manner, among his library of books, and familiarized himself thoroughly with charts loaned by Dalrymple and the Admiralty. He acquired, as an autodidact, an impressive knowledge of geography, navigation, astronomy and hydrography. He has

Bound to Australia been aptly characterized as a ‘scholar-navigator’.68 The botanist Brown spent much time reading specialist literature in his own field of interest. Both Flinders and Brown had access to general books dealing with geography and travel such as Charles Theodore Middleton’s A New and Complete System of Geography (London, 1778–9) and Richard Brookes’s The General Gazetteer, sixth edition (London, 1786). The books on board also covered subjects such as chemistry and philosophy. Flinders, Brown and the remainder of the company all worked a seven-day week, as was common in the Royal Navy at that time. But whereas many of the crew relaxed in their leisure hours, Flinders and Brown worked with purpose on their special interests through daily study.69 In the early hours of 17 October 1801, the Investigator sighted the high land of the Cape Peninsula. This was a key point in world maritime sea routes as the meeting place of the Atlantic and Indian oceans.70 On the next day, the master of HMS Lancaster, an East India Company ship that served as the flagship at the Cape, came on board to conduct Flinders and his ship to her anchorage in Simons Bay, an embayment within False Bay, where six men-of-war were stationed.71 Flinders had decided in advance not to put into Table Bay, on the Atlantic shores near Cape Town, owing to the heavy gales that occurred there late in the year and the danger of shipwreck. Simons Bay, by contrast, offered a safe anchorage at all seasons; this was partly because it was situated on the east side of the Cape Peninsula, away from the stormy Atlantic Ocean.72 The voyage from Spithead to the Cape had taken 144 days. The Cape of Good Hope was the main scheduled port of call on the Investigator’s voyage out to Australia. Virtually every vessel sent out from a European port to the Indian Ocean in the age of sail followed the procedure of calling at the Cape. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) had been installed there since 1652, but Britain had seized the Cape in 1795. This partly arose for strategic reasons (mainly to stymy French plans to occupy it) during the French revolutionary wars. Furthermore, it also occurred for political and commercial reasons. France had overrun the Netherlands in 1795 and had established the Batavian Republic there as an ally. Therefore, Britain needed control of the Cape to keep sea lanes open for its East India Company, merchant and naval vessels sailing from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and vice versa. The Dutch were also a threat to British commerce and settlements in India and the Pacific. Though the Cape was restored to Dutch control on 1 October 1801, just over two weeks before Flinders arrived, in accordance with the Treaty of Amiens, a strong British military and naval presence remained there under the command of Sir Roger Curtis.73 Flinders had previously been at the Cape for seven weeks in 1791, when sailing with Bligh in the Providence, and later in January 1797, when he passed an examination for the rank of lieutenant.74 Essential repairs were carried out on the Investigator at the Cape. Curtis authorized complete assistance to be given for a thorough caulking. Staves and casks were sent on shore for repair at the cooperage. The masts were painted and the holds stowed. New stores for the voyage across the Indian Ocean were loaded on board, including pease, sugar, spirits, rice, salted beef and pork, as well as a week’s allowance of fruit and vegetables from the naval hospital in Cape Town.75 Flinders closely monitored the amount of time spent carrying out these tasks and gathering provisions. Aware of the late season of the year approaching and the need to reach Australia’s south coast during

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia the summer season, he did not intend to remain at the Cape beyond the time necessary to refit the ship. He was helped in doing so by the good health of his crew: not one man had been placed on the sick list since the Investigator left Spithead.76 While at the Cape, Flinders wrote letters to the three people closest to his personal life and ambitions. It is perhaps not an accident that the sequence in which he wrote the letters reflected his own priorities: the first letter was written to Banks, the second to Dr Flinders and the third to his wife. Flinders informed Banks that he had ‘thus far advanced prosperously in the voyage’, but did not expect the Investigator to arrive at Port Jackson before April 1802.77 Flinders’ letter to his father explained that he expected to leave the Cape of Good Hope at the end of October 1801 and to reach south-west New Holland in the first week of December. His brother Samuel, he noted, had proven a worthwhile assistant on the voyage. George Bass had sailed three weeks previously from the Cape to Port Jackson on the merchant vessel Venus. Flinders regretted missing his friend and also had letters and parcels with him to convey to Bass. The letter concluded with Flinders expressing anxiety about his wife, not having heard from her during the voyage so far.78 Flinders wrote an affectionate letter to his wife, explaining that he missed her company and hoping she would write to him regularly during his absence. However, he re-emphasized his commitment to the Investigator expedition, noting ‘how miserable should I be as an idle man, I [would] certainly not live a twelve-month’.79 The scientific purposes of the expedition were furthered at the Cape by botanical excursions carried out by Brown and his associates and by attention to nautical astronomy. The stopover at the Cape was the last opportunity to check the scientific instruments for longitude before starting the Australian survey. On 18 October, Flinders and his brother Samuel accompanied the astronomer Crosley on shore to find a convenient place to set up a tent observatory and marquee. Work continued at the observatory on shore, guarded by marines, until 1 November. The aim was to take more accurate readings of latitude and longitude so that the site could be used as a reference point by future navigators.80 Crosley explained the adjustments of the clocks and universal theodolite to Flinders and his brother.81 Crosley also checked the accuracy of the timekeepers.82 The tent observatory was set up near the Dutch East India Company’s garden in Cape Town. It became a site that passers-by visited out of curiosity, with particular interest shown in Ramsden’s universal theodolite, which was intended to observe transits.83 Earnshaw’s two timekeepers (nos. 520 and 543) had been performing very well, but Arnold’s two timekeepers proved very indifferent.84 Flinders spent much time at the Cape absorbing from Crosley details of using the scientific instruments for purposes of nautical astronomy, but he also found time to instruct John Franklin, a teenager on his expedition, in different aspects of navigation to prepare him for promotion. Franklin, a relative of Flinders by marriage, was regarded as the ‘most promising young gentleman on the quarterdeck’.85 Crosley was an experienced astronomer. He had spent three years (1789–92) at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, as an assistant to Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal.86 During the Investigator’s voyage from England to the Cape, Crosley had made regular astronomical observations.87 Unfortunately, he had been feeling unwell with rheumatic pain and gout in his foot since the ship had left Madeira and, owing to

Bound to Australia his indisposition, had spent most of his time confined to his cabin. He discussed his illness with Flinders, and it was decided he would leave the voyage at the Cape. Crosley returned to England, taking with him two defective chronometers by Arnold.88 No suitable substitute could be found at the Cape. Another astronomer sent out by the Board of Longitude would not reach Port Jackson for twelve months or the Investigator for eighteen, by which time most of the survey of Australia’s coasts (it was hoped) would be completed. Flinders therefore decided that he and his brother should acquire the knowledge to carry out the astronomical tasks.89 Thus Flinders began to acquaint himself in every leisure moment with knowledge of astronomy and with the available scientific instruments. Samuel Ward Flinders had the main responsibility for dealing with astronomical calculations for the rest of the voyage. His brother oversaw his work.90 The Board of Longitude, after hearing of Crosley’s illness, made preparations to send out a Cambridge mathematician, James Inman, as a replacement. Inman sailed in the Glatton but did not arrive at Port Jackson until April 1803, when the Investigator had largely finished its survey of Australia.91 Crosley’s departure was a major loss for the voyage because the expertise necessary for making astronomical calculations, and judgement about where measurements might best be taken, could not be performed so well by someone who lacked professional training. Nevertheless Flinders aimed to ensure that, with his younger brother’s help, these problems were overcome. The Board of Longitude had supplied numerous scientific instruments for use on the voyage and a full set of instructions for astronomical calculations. These were handed over to Flinders by Crosley. The instruments included a highly accurate astronomical longcase clock built by Thomas Earnshaw in 1791. It had been used by Vancouver on his Pacific voyage of 1791–5 and was now to be deployed in the Investigator to check the timekeeping of the chronometers. In addition, there were two box chronometers by John Arnold (nos. 82 and 176), a further two chronometers by Earnshaw (nos. 520 and 543), a version of Hadley’s sextant, Ramsden’s universal theodolite, a sextant made by John Dollond, several barometers and thermometers, Nairne and Blunt’s dipping needle, an azimuth compass, various mathematical tables, Murdoch Mackenzie’s Treatise on Marine Surveying (1774) and Charles Hutton’s Mathematical Tables, which had been published for the Board of Longitude.92 The instruments were made by leading craftsmen based in London in the late eighteenth century.93 Crosley took home with him Earnshaw’s watch no. 465 and Troughton’s reflecting circle no. 74, both of which Flinders considered a loss to the voyage.94 The astronomical tasks taken on by Matthew and Samuel Flinders were divided, according to the Board of Longitude’s instructions, into observations to be made on board and those to be made on shore. Every day on board, the instructions explained, there should be observations of the meridian altitudes of the sun for finding latitude and longitude. Hadley’s sextant was used for this purpose. This enabled mariners to calculate the altitude of a heavenly body from the scale on the arc of the instrument’s frame. Other instructions were to wind up the chronometers every day, as soon as possible after noon, and to compare them and note their respective times, in order to compute the longitude by comparing the watches and the apparent time of day with morning and afternoon altitudes of the sun. Also on board there were instructions

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia to observe the variation of the compass, the inclination of the dipping needle and the height of the thermometers; to keep a ship journal; and to calculate the latitude and longitude of the positions of head lands, islands and harbours. Observation of the variation of the compass was necessary to estimate magnetic declination between magnetic north and true north. The dip needle was a compass pivoted to move in a plane containing the magnetic field vector of the earth.95 Expectations for observations on shore were equally demanding. The tent observatory and astronomical clock were to be set up wherever possible on land. Those recording astronomical observations were to use Hadley’s sextant and the universal theodolite, an optical surveying instrument for taking equal altitudes of the sun and fixed stars to determine the accuracy of the astronomical clock. The chronometers were to be wound up every day. Observation of the meridian altitudes of the sun and the heights of the portable thermometers and barometers were to be checked daily. Flinders and his brother had to record the eclipses of Jupiter’s first satellite and occultation of fixed stars by the moon. These measurements allowed them to compute the timing of the astronomical clock and to calculate longitude. There was also the instruction to observe the height of the tides, especially the difference between day and night tides. Books recording all these observations were to be kept, and the principal observations dispatched to the Astronomer Royal.96 Flinders and his associates had to master the complexities of calculating longitude by taking lunar observations. The arithmetic needed to calculate such observations needed expert handling: one had to allow for atmospheric refraction and for lunar parallax. Thus, the sun and the stars always appeared to be higher than they really were whereas the moon always appeared to be lower. Five steps were required to calculate longitude by lunar observations. First, several observations, preferably by more than one observer, were needed to calculate the lunar distance between the moon and the sun or a star, the altitude of the moon above the horizon, and the altitude of the sun or star. A sextant was used to measure lunar distances. Second, a calculation was made of the measured angles and times of the observations. Third, the local apparent time was found from the measured altitude of the sun or star. Fourth, the lunar distance between the centres of the sun and moon was calculated from readings taken by the sextant that provided the distance between their limbs (or outer edges). This adjustment in arithmetic counteracted the effects of refraction and parallax. Fifth, one had to find Greenwich apparent time by consulting lunar distance tables. These stages enabled the navigator to calculate longitude, which is the difference between local apparent time and Greenwich apparent time expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds of arc.97 Lunar observations were combined with the use of chronometers to calculate longitude. This was a complex matter to undertake because it required consistent observations, extensive calculations and a catalogue of the Moon’s motion in order to find a precise coordinate for the position of a ship on an east–west axis on the earth’s surface. British navigators used the Royal Observatory, Greenwich as the 0° base point or prime meridian. It was important for seafarers to calculate longitude accurately so that they knew their exact position on the oceans in relation to maritime charts. This would be essential knowledge for coping with storms, rocks, reefs and other hazards encountered during voyages.98 The reason that Flinders had been

Bound to Australia supplied with chronometers by two instrument makers, Arnold and Earnshaw, for the Investigator expedition was to check the accuracy and reliability of their chronometers on a prolonged voyage.99 Apart from familiarity with astronomical calculations, the sojourn at the Cape was significant for its botanical work. The investigations undertaken were partly determined by the location of the Investigator’s anchorage in the sheltered cove of Simon’s Bay. From there the botanists had easy access to the southern part of the Cape Peninsula. This had scientific advantages because that area had been poorly explored botanically by the early nineteenth century. By contrast, the botany of the Table Bay area had been explored and scrutinized since the Dutch arrived at the Cape in 1652; it was the subject of a detailed scientific literature, notably by Linnaean pupils in the late eighteenth century. The timing of the Investigator’s visit was favourable for botanizing because Flinders and his crew arrived there in late spring, the peak flowering time for geophytes and shrubs. Flinders therefore decided that the naturalists ‘would better employ themselves in a field almost unexplored, rather than in a bay already well known, and where the surrounding country has been so often traversed’.100 On 17 October the scientists spent the whole day botanizing near Simon’s Town. Brown, Allen, Good and the surgeon of the Lancaster went on the walk. After several excursions they ascended Table Mountain, the prominent landmark overlooking Cape Town. Westall was part of the expedition. He left seven pencil sketches depicting his routes on the Cape Peninsula. Bauer also accompanied the expedition. Only one African plant drawn by Bauer was published.101 The main botanist, Brown, made a detailed exploration of the Cape’s flora and fauna. He gathered lichens, mosses, ferns and flowering plants, including orchids. He collected and made habitat observations on twenty-four of the forty-one species of Proteaceae. This family of plants, originally named by Jussieu, had showy inflorescences. Flinders was to come across many examples of Proteaceae in Australia.102 This was the plant group about which Brown was to write his most notable scientific paper.103 Peter Good reported that ‘the plants for variety and beauty were beyond description some I had never seen before particlarly Orchis Drosera and Hemimeris’.104 Brown discovered two new species of Serruria, which are endemic to South Africa: S. foeniculacea (from near Constantia) and S. flagellaris (from near Simonstown).105 Ferns, mosses and lichens were also collected.106 To keep the plants fresh on his excursions, Brown and his fellow scientists used tight-fitting tin boxes. They treated and dried the plants after returning to the ship.107 Flinders tried to leave the Cape of Good Hope on 3 November 1801. A southeasterly gale delayed the departure, but two days later the Investigator set sail. Flinders had made the 5,000 mile crossing across the Indian Ocean three times previously. He chose the 37th parallel for the voyage to catch a prevailing westerly and to avoid gales in the higher latitudes. He had previously experienced heavy gales from the north and south when sailing in 42 degrees south latitude.108 In that latitude, sailing ships gained impetus from the ‘roaring forties’ or strong south-westerly winds, which benefited from the large expanse of open ocean with few landmasses to serve as windbreaks; but these needed to be navigated with great care. The Investigator set sail from the Cape for King George Sound, south-western Australia, but Port Jackson was its ‘proper rendezvous’.109

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia The voyage across the Indian Ocean was uneventful. Few islands lay anywhere near the course followed. The Investigator sailed ‘alone on a wide, wide sea’, but, unlike Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, there is no indication that the isolation depressed the spirits of the crew.110 Flinders mustered the ship’s company twice a week, ensuring all the decks had been cleaned. Sauerkraut and vinegar were served on banyan days, when no meat was consumed. On 15 November, there were worrying signs of wear and tear on the vessel, as Flinders reported that it had leaked eighteen inches of water in ten hours.111 Over the next ten days the problem was apparently resolved, for Flinders reported that ‘it was a great satisfaction that frequent pumping of the ship was not now required’.112 The Investigator proceeded at a rate of 140 miles per day from the Cape of Good Hope. During his spare time, Flinders reflected on his own ambitions. ‘Should this voyage prove successful,’ he wrote to his cousin Willingham Franklin, ‘I shall not be unknown in the world; my acquaintance in Soho Square [i.e. Sir Joseph Banks] will introduce me to many of the first philosophers and literati in the kingdom.’ However, ambition was coupled with humility. He expressed diffidence about solely writing up an account of the voyage after he returned home and hoped to enlist Franklin’s help.113 On 6 December, the Australian continent was sighted. The ship had reached western Australia after a trouble-free thirty-two days from the Cape of Good Hope. The Investigator sailed past Cape Leeuwin, the south-westernmost point of Australia. Flinders named this cape, being aware that Dutch explorers had previously named the area Leeuwin’s Land after the Dutch ship which charted some of the nearby coastline in 1622. Flinders had a copy of D’Entrecasteaux’s chart of this landfall, dating from 1792 when he was on an expedition searching for La Pérouse.114 Flinders sailed past what he termed Cape Chatham – which was actually an island. This had been discovered by Vancouver on his voyage in HMS Discovery in 1791. Flinders had a copy of his voyage account with him. He used this with his charts to confirm numerous references to Vancouver’s discoveries in the vicinity.115 Flinders had read Vancouver’s report of a deep-water harbour being available at this location. Having reached Australia, it appeared to be the best place for making preparations to explore the south coast.116 Late at night on 8 December, the Investigator anchored in King George Sound, a large, fine natural anchorage comprising forty-two square miles, with two main harbours – Princess Royal harbour and Oyster harbour. Known originally as King George III Sound, it is the location of the present-day town of Albany.117 On their way into Princess Royal Harbour, Flinders stopped at Seal Island in order to search for a sealed bottle and parchment left by Vancouver to commemorate his visit there on 11 October 1791, but nothing was found.118 Flinders and his company remained at this location for nearly a month, between 8 December 1801 and 5 January 1802. Flinders selected this anchorage to prepare for the examination of Australia’s south coast for several reasons: it offered secure shelter; the masts could be stripped; the rigging and sails put in order; and communication could be made with the shore without interference from the elements. King George Sound today is recognized as one of the six major sheltered natural deep-water harbours in the world and the best between Shark Bay and Melbourne.119 Flinders clearly found Vancouver’s chart of King George Sound was highly accurate: years later his own

Bound to Australia engraved chart of this location differed only in a minor way from what Vancouver had produced.120 Though the Admiralty instructions had indicated that the Investigator should sail along the south coast of Australia to Port Jackson, and then proceed to survey the coast in a clockwise direction, Flinders had already determined before leaving England, as he mentioned to Banks, that the late arrival of the ship on Australia’s south-west coast would necessitate a survey of the south coast being carried out immediately after the Investigator had finished its stay at King George Sound. Flinders, in any case, wanted to start immediately on surveying Australia’s coasts: it was his nature to be proactive and focused on the task at hand. There were, of course, the additional considerations that much of the south coast had previously been unexplored and the Baudin expedition might anticipate Flinders in his work of discovery and surveying. Bearing in mind these considerations, Flinders left King George Sound to begin his survey at once.

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The Unknown Coast

Before leaving England, Flinders had decided he would devote the first part of his survey of Australia to the south coast. This was of course contrary to his Admiralty orders. As he reached landfall in Australia, he may have sensed, though he did not explicitly say so, that the leaky condition of his ship would not withstand a voyage along the south coast to Port Jackson and then a return voyage (against prevailing winds) with the Lady Nelson in tow to commence the survey. Moreover, he was keen to start his charting and surveying immediately.1 ‘The difference of sailing along the coast at a distance, or in keeping near it and making a running survey was likely to be so little,’ Flinders later wrote, ‘that I judged it advisable to do all that circumstances would allow whilst the opportunity offered.’2 There was also the consideration that Baudin’s voyage of exploration might be ahead of him somewhere in Australian waters. Only a few navigators had seen any part of south-western Australia before Flinders. In 1626–7 captain Francois Thijssen, on a Dutch East India Company voyage, mapped about 1,500 kilometres of the south coast. The Frenchman Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn, engaged in an expedition to New Holland, anchored near Cape Leeuwin in 1772 and claimed possession of Western Australia for France.3 In 1791, Vancouver, on his Pacific expedition in the Discovery and her small armed tender Chatham, explored King George Sound. In 1792, D’Entrecasteaux, commander of the French ships Recherche and Espérance, investigated the Recherche archipelago on a rescue mission to search for the vanished La Pérouse expedition.4 But the subsequent long stretch of coast, from the beginning of the Great Australian Bight, to almost the border of modern Victoria, had never been explored. It was referred to as the unknown coast. In 1800, it was one of the largest stretches of coast in the habitable earth still to be discovered.5 Flinders methodically followed a systematic procedure for charting and recording the navigational and geographical features of the Australian coast. He explained his methods carefully: To make certain that no river or opening of any kind should escape me, I kept, in my examination, as close as possible to the coast, generally within sight of the breakers – was almost continually in the masts head with a glass – and when night rendered it necessary to haul off, every precaution was taken to come in

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia with the same point of land on the following morning. That my chart of the coast might possess all the exactitude that I was capable of giving it, I made it a point before retiring to rest, to finish laying down, upon a rough chart, the coast we had passed, and to write the necessary observations upon it in my journal; reserving for the time when we should be in port, a revision and new construction of the whole, agreeably to our astronomical observations, and the bearings corrected by a more accurate variation of the compass. The officers of the watch had orders to pay the strictest attention to the log, to cause the deep sea lead to be cast, and the soundings to be marked every hour upon the log board, with the heights of the thermometer and barometer three times a day.6

Before setting out to explore the unknown coast, Flinders allowed time for refitting the ship. This enabled the scientific gentlemen to botanize in the vicinity of King George Sound and for Flinders to undertake some astronomical calculations on shore. Flinders waited four days in King George Sound for the westerly wind to come around to the east to enable him to take the Investigator over the bar to anchor in Princess Royal Harbour on 12 December 1801.7 He thought of moving the Investigator to nearby Oyster Harbour but decided against this because the water was not so deep there.8 During almost a month spent in Princess Royal Harbour, the Investigator had its holds and hawse cleared, casks repaired, rigging refitted and masts stripped. New planks were gathered on the shore. The carpenters fitted them on board ship and made garden boxes for the naturalist. Coopers brought water from the shore in rafts and stowed it in casks in the ship’s hold.9 While all this took place, Flinders explored the harbours connected to King George Sound, carrying out astronomical calculations and allowing

Map 6.1 The King George Sound area of Western Australia

The Unknown Coast the scientific gentlemen time to botanize. The stay in Princess Royal Harbour was also notable for an encounter with Aborigines. When examining King George Sound, Princess Royal Harbour and Oyster Harbour, Flinders kept close to the land so that breaking water on shore would be visible from the ship’s deck.10 He had Vancouver’s account of his voyage and atlas to aid him in his survey and found it to be as good as could be expected given its hasty construction.11 He also had copies of charts prepared by the notable hydrographer Charles Beautemps-Beaupré on D’Entrecasteaux’s voyage. He found these were excellently prepared, even though he drew up more detailed charts of his own.12 To observe the heights of the tide, Flinders followed contemporary practice by noting the time of high water and the maximum and minimum tidal range. Flinders found high water once a day between 6 pm and midnight in King George Sound. The tides ranged from 2 feet 8 inches to 3 feet 2 inches in this diurnal cycle.13 On 9 December, Flinders anchored the Investigator at Seal Island, which the master was sent to investigate, and afterwards, with the master and the draughtsman, he set off to examine Princess Royal Harbour, on the west side of King George Sound, as a convenient place to gather wood and water and refit the ship.14 Flinders took a boat to examine Oyster Harbour, an inner cove to the north of King George Sound that Vancouver had named on account of the many oysters found there.15 Flinders’ soundings indicated that thirteen feet was the deepest water on the bar into Oyster Harbour. That was not deep enough for the Investigator to anchor.16 Flinders and a party of twelve others, including officers and scientific gentlemen, had a two-day excursion to visit two lagoons. One had fresh water while the other was brackish, indicating that it was connected to the ocean. This outing was undertaken in very hot weather, and the party was relieved to reach their tents by the evening.17 Flinders took several sets of astronomical observations while the Investigator lay at anchor in Princess Royal Harbour. He calculated a set of angles from the top of Green Island in Oyster Harbour and went on shore to set up tents and an observatory (to contain the astronomical instruments) at the foot of Mount Clarence, which became in 1832 the site of the town of Albany. The top of the observatory was blown off by a squall of wind and the instruments suffered some damage.18 On 31 December, Flinders sent the master to sound and take angles in Oyster Harbour, and he himself ascended the highest part of the sea coast to take angles.19 Flinders’ main preoccupation with the astronomical instruments was a survey of King George Sound, using Vancouver’s survey as a basis for a more thorough investigation.20 On 22 December, Flinders and Thistle measured a long base line of 2.44 geographic miles on the long middle beach between Princess Royal and Oyster harbours to serve as the foundation for a survey of King George Sound. This involved using a surveyor’s chain to lay down a base line running in a recorded compass direction, and then determining, as best as possible, the latitude and longitude at one end of the base line from astronomical observations, and, similarly, the azimuth of the base line. The position of natural features was intersected by plane tabling at known distances along it where the feature was visible. Presumably flags or other markers were used as intermediate known points along the base line.21 Flinders used the chronometers to determine longitude but he also made thirty-one separate observations of the lunar distance to obtain a longitude for comparison.22

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia The scientific gentlemen botanized in and around King George Sound and subsequently in the next stage of the voyage, which focused on Lucky Bay and the Recherche archipelago. These visits, occurring in summer, came long after the peak spring flowering period for Western Australia’s southern flora. Near the entrance to Oyster Harbour, Brown and Good ‘made a rich harvest of plants & Seeds’.23 Brown and his colleagues collected more than 500 species of plants from the Albany area and another 100 from Lucky Bay and the Recherche archipelago. These collections are crucial for the elucidation of the status of Western Australian plants. Brown named twenty-six genera that are endemic to Western Australia. At the species level, some 1,450 names of vascular plants published later by Brown are applied to Western Australia.24 Once brought on board the Investigator, Brown, assisted by the gardener Good, had to change the paper used in the plant presses to absorb moisture from the herbarium specimens; the earlier sheets were then dried for re-use.25 The first encounter with Aborigines on the voyage occurred at King George Sound. In 1791, Vancouver had mentioned smokes, huts and drying fish in the vicinity, but he never sighted any people.26 Flinders’ party were luckier in finding natives. On 14 December, some fires were seen at the head of Princess Royal Harbour. Brown and some others walked towards the fires and saw a group of Aborigines. Smith noted in his diary that ‘on our first interview with them, they seem’d surprised, which gave us reason to think they had never before seen Europeans’.27 Smith noted that the Aborigines had spears but ‘took care to hide them in their way to us’.28 Good recorded that ‘they greatly admired the white Skins of our people’.29 The natives – sometimes referred to by Flinders as ‘Indians’ – avoided communication: this apparent shyness had been noted previously by Flinders in Australia. But the Aborigines were clearly fascinated by the Europeans they had encountered for, on the following day, they approached the tents, undertook some parleying and exchanged some of their implements for manufactured ironware.30 A few days later an old native, who had previously visited the tents, followed the party on shore but eventually departed.31 On 30 December, after the natives had cautiously visited the tents several more times, a small party of marines landed on shore from the Investigator and staged a military display. Their red coats with white belts and their exercises, with fife and drum, were watched by the Aborigines with delight, and the vollies of firing did not scare them. Curiosity and astonishment were conjured up in the ‘vociferation and wild gestures’ of the Aborigines.32 They made several attempts to take the fife, but this was resisted obstinately. Further firing by the marines caused the natives ‘to Dance & hollow unmercifully’.33 The noise ceased after the marines returned to the ship. Aborigines were of course used to regular communal displays of music, dance, and vivid gestures through their corroborees. This military exercise by the marines appears to have been staged to assess the Aborigines’ responses. It occurred partly because the marines and the Aborigines lacked a common language. The Aborigines appear to have interpreted the military drill as an appropriate contact ritual. In 1908, the anthropologist Daisy Bates met an elderly man near Albany called Nebinyan. He told her that the Nyungar Aborigines of King George Sound believed Flinders and his party were ghosts of their own dead ancestors who had returned from Kooranup, the home of the dead across the sea. They

The Unknown Coast thought the full dress parade of the marines was a Kooranup ceremony. The ritual was considered sacred, to be handed down the generations.34 William Westall took the opportunity to draw an Aborigine. The native obliged by baring his body to the waist so that the painter could finish his sketch.35 Westall showed the drawing to the Aborigine, who appeared pleased. Another native allowed Brown and an associate to examine him physically, accompanying this with naming different parts of his body.36 Surgeon Bell made an anthropological chart of the largest native they saw. This was the only occasion when anything of this sort occurred during the expedition.37 Flinders, who had previously encountered Aborigines on the Tom Thumb voyage south of Sydney in March 1796 and the Norfolk voyage north of Sydney to Hervey Bay in July 1799, noted that the Aboriginal belts and cloaks of kangaroo skin, worn over the shoulder, were similar to those he had seen before. They were ‘more in the custom of a wood native than of an inhabitant of the sea shore, and I agree with Captain Vancouver that they appear to live more by hunting than fishing’.38 Flinders, Brown and Good all recorded separately the words used by the natives, though the orthography, as Brown mentioned, was not to be taken as the gospel truth.39 The natives spoke the Nyungar language. Flinders drew attention to the difference from words for the same objects used by the natives at Port Jackson and Van Diemen’s Land. This was an accurate reflection of the considerable variation in Aboriginal language and dialects in different parts of Australia.40 ‘We found their pronunciation difficult to be imitated; more so, indeed, than our language was to them,’ Flinders later wrote, adding ‘several English words they pronounced perfectly’.41 Apart from language, the manners, actions and customs of the Aborigines Flinders encountered at King George Sound were similar to those he had met in New South Wales.42 This first encounter between Flinders and his company and Aborigines on the voyage had been peaceful and full of mutual curiosity. On 3 January 1802, a change in wind direction enabled Flinders to take the Investigator out of Princess Royal Harbour into King George Sound. The vessel anchored between Bald Head and Breaksea Island to procure wood and water in almost the same place as Vancouver had chosen to anchor in September 1791. Samuel Ward Flinders observed that there was only one tide every twenty-four hours, which occurred between 6 am and 12 pm. It rose between 2 feet 8 inches and 3 feet 2 inches. Flinders noted that granite and quartz were the most noticeable geological characteristics of the land next to King George Sound; though there were plains, he did not see any land capable of being cultivated with cereals. It was unlikely that he would recommend the vicinity for a British settlement.43 On 5 January, the Investigator sailed out of King George Sound ‘to prosecute the further examination of the coast’.44 On the next day, Flinders was in Doubtful Island Bay, a series of shallow embayments extending from Hood Point north to the vicinity of Mid Mount Barren. Three days later, he caught sight of the Recherche archipelago, comprising around 130 granite islands and rocky islets. Situated in crystal clear water, they cover a distance of 143 miles from west to east and stretch up to thirty-one miles offshore. Many of these islands had never been explored or named. D’Entrecasteaux had named the archipelago after one of his ships and had landed on at least one island. But he encountered stormy weather and needed to continue sailing towards Van Diemen’s Land, so he did not conduct a thorough survey of the archipelago.45

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Map 6.2 Lucky Bay and part of the Recherche archipelago, Western Australia

Brown noted in his diary that islands in the Recherche archipelago – then referred to as D’Entrecasteaux’s islands – were ‘more considerable than laid down in the French chart’.46 Charting was difficult in this vicinity owing to a ‘labyrinth of islands and rocks’.47 It was very difficult to take accurate bearings of the islands before the ship’s position changed. Moreover, sailing between the rocks and breakers in the Recherche archipelago was dangerous as gales were numerous there.48 Flinders did not intend to spend much time exploring these islands, however, because he found BeautempsBeaupré’s chart to be very accurate and because he did not want to lose time in reaching the unknown coast of South Australia before the summer was too far advanced.49 Flinders noted that the tides were insignificant in the Recherche archipelago.50 In the event, because the botanists wanted to do some collecting and adverse winds occurred, Flinders remained in and near the Recherche archipelago for several days. He anchored at Lucky Bay on the mainland, which was sheltered by islands from the south and easterly winds. The bay was so named because Flinders had been fortunate to find it after failing to come across an island in the archipelago that offered shelter.51 He also thought the shore location would be suitable for astronomical observations. The botanists found rich vegetation in the area surrounding Lucky Bay. They undertook successful collecting, especially locating several different specimens of Banksia. But the soil of the area was mainly arid, with no prospect of it being cultivated with grain or planted with grass for pasture for animals. On shore at Lucky Bay, Flinders ascended a hill (named

The Unknown Coast Mississippi Hill in 1841) and took observations for equal altitudes of the sun in order to test the rates of the timekeepers. Despite the summer haze, Flinders counted fifty-six islands and rocks above water in the Recherche archipelago, though many near where the Investigator had passed were invisible or hidden by the projecting cape of the mainland.52 As the wind was insufficient to continue the voyage, Flinders sailed a few miles to anchor between Middle Island and Goose Island. A couple of days were spent exploring Middle Island, the largest island they had yet seen in the Recherche archipelago. There was also a trip to Goose Island, situated in the bay on the north side of Middle Island. Various animals were seen – western grey kangaroos, geese, penguins and ducks. On 15 January, Flinders took bearings from a summit on Middle Island. He decided to stay there for a couple of days to improve his chart of the Recherche archipelago and to give the botanists an opportunity of examining the islands. Some sixty-five geese were procured in Goose Island Bay, off the northern shore of Middle Island. These provided enough food to prepare geese and giblet pies for the ship’s company for three days. Flinders and his company found nothing on these islands to indicate that they had been visited previously either by Europeans or by natives from the mainland. From this observation, Flinders inferred that these Aborigines did not use canoes or rafts.53 The Investigator set sail from Middle Island on 17 January to enter the Great Australian Bight (later given its name by Flinders).54 Flinders was now voyaging in waters that marked the limit of exploration by previous navigators. In 1791, Vancouver had reached Termination Island, the southernmost of the Recherche archipelago, before abandoning his survey to proceed to Van Diemen’s Land in search of replenishment and then to the north-west Pacific. Vancouver had correctly identified the Eastern Group (33°47ʹS, 124°05ʹE) as the termination of the Recherche archipelago.55 Flinders considered the chart he had compiled was more detailed and accurate than the previous charts of this ‘extensive mass of dangers’ undertaken on D’Entrecasteaux’s voyage.56 But he still respected the hydrographical efforts of his predecessor in these waters. One of Flinders’ survey sheets of the archipelago included parts copied from Beautemps-Beaupré’s chart in red; another one used double lines to represent the parts borrowed from the French hydrographer.57 Over the next ten days, the Investigator passed ‘a very uninteresting coast without the least appearance of inlet, harbour or shelter’.58 The coastal topography and geology changed from predominantly crystalline rocks to the Eucla Basin, comprising a low, sandy coast behind which lay a prominent scarp about eighty metres high in places. This then changed into high coastal cliffs near meridian 129°, which marks the boundary between the present states of Western Australia and South Australia. The high cliffs effectively blocked sight of the wastes of the Nullabor Plain, lying inland from this part of the coast.59 By 28 January, the Investigator, then situated about longitude 133° east, reached the limits of the Australian mainland explored by D’Entrecasteaux in 1792. This was at the head of the Great Australian Bight, a very large open bay.60 The next day, Flinders anchored in Fowler’s Bay, intending to continue his surveying and to allow the botanists time to examine the area.61 A few plants were found but the land was barren. Good stated that it was ‘the most miserable part of the Coast we had landed on’.62 As the flora and fauna were scanty and no fresh water could be found, Flinders sailed from Fowler’s Bay after just a day there.63

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Map 6.3 The St Francis, Smoky Bay and Goat Island area of South Australia

Flinders headed for the islands of St Peter and St Francis, the last landmarks seen by Nuyts, the highest ranking official on the VOC ship ‘t Gulden Zeepaard (Golden Seahorse), under the command of François Thijssen, in 1627.64 This vessel was sailing towards the VOC’s headquarters in Batavia when it encountered strong south-westerly winds which blew it a long way off course. By accident, the ship reached the south Australian coast and sailed east as far as today’s Ceduna before turning back to Batavia. Flinders noted that Nuyts’ discovery ended with these islands and that ‘the coast abreast of the islands and further eastward is totally unknown’.65 On 2 February, Flinders anchored at St Francis Island on what he later called Petrel Bay.66 The Investigator stayed for a week in the Nuyts archipelago. Flinders took angles from all he could see from two stations on St Francis Island. He detected twelve islands in the archipelago. The week spent there involved investigating various islands. Navigation was difficult because the islands of the Nuyts archipelago appeared to be lower than those of the Recherche archipelago, though reefs were not so abundant.67 Flinders continued his naming of different landscape features; these included Streaky Bay, so named after the discoloured water that appeared to shallow rapidly towards the shore, and Point Westall, named after the painter in the Investigator.68 Flinders hoped to locate a river through examining openings in the shore, but he found that

The Unknown Coast Cape Bauer led into a bay rather than a river.69 In Denial Bay, he hoped to find a river entering the sea. He tested the salinity of the water to determine whether it was fresh, but found more salinity than he had come across in King George Sound.70 Like all maritime explorers, Flinders was always looking towards ‘the farthest extreme’ of the horizon.71 Hazy summer weather made it difficult to take latitudes: so many horizons were seen that it was impossible to determine which was correct. Flinders suspected that the uncommon haziness of the weather made his astronomical calculations erroneous. He therefore decided to use the quicksilver horizon and take observations on shore. But the Sun was too high at noon for the sextant to measure its double altitude. Instead, he had to use the sea horizon, getting as near to the water as the surf on the shore would allow to bring the horizon nearer to himself. Through this means, he avoided most of the error arising from the large increase in horizontal refraction at the astronomical horizon.72 The haziness of the horizon was troublesome to Flinders while he corrected the mass of errors in his chart of the Nuyts archipelago arising from incorrect astronomical readings.73 In his journals, Flinders identified features on the unknown coast with alphabetical letters and numbers; only later, when compiling A Voyage to Terra Australis, did he provide names for these landmarks. Altogether, he noted 135 coastal features in South Australia.74 Misty weather rendered the mainland shoreline indistinct in this locality and shallow water prevented Flinders from sailing near to the coast. These two factors hampered the completion of his running survey in this area.75 There was no point in delaying the voyage in this vicinity. On 9 February, the Investigator left her anchorage in Petrel Bay and continued her voyage eastwards. Over the next twelve days, the ship followed the eastern arc of the Great Australian Bight, with Flinders and his company continuing their survey. They were now sailing along a previously unexplored coast. No startling discoveries were made, but they gave meticulous attention to recording landscape features for the charts.76 Samuel Smith noted that ‘we got under Weigh & investigated the Coast with the greatest niceness, going into Harbours, & Bays, Laying them down in all respects with Accuracy; & attended with foul Winds which made Investigating more dangerous’.77 On 11 February, the ship anchored off the northern side of the larger of the two Waldegrave Islands, where many seals, geese and Mount Pitt birds were seen but no new plants. Two days later, the voyage continued briefly to another anchorage on the northern shore of Flinders Island – which Flinders named after his brother, Samuel – in the Investigator Group. Flinders landed here to take astronomical calculations. The scientific gentlemen went ashore to botanize. They found relatively few plants, but came across fur seals, hair seals and some Tammar wallabies.78 Flinders took altitudes for the longitude on Flinders Island. He and his colleagues failed to find fresh water; they only came across dried-up swamps. Nevertheless, Flinders concluded that they had anchored in the best bay for shelter on the island, the other ones having many breakers and shoal water around them.79 The Investigator left Flinders Island on 14 February and headed for the eastern coast of the Eyre Peninsula and thence towards Spencer Gulf. Natives were seen near Mount Greenly, leading Flinders to conclude that the stretch of coast being passed was more inhabited than that they had recently seen.80 These were the first Aborigines seen since the ship had left King George Sound. Brown noted that the coast along the

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia southern Eyre Peninsula ‘contin[ued] in appear[anc]e equally sterile’.81 On 17 February, Flinders removed the two carronades from the quarterdeck nearest the binnacle, as he considered their iron affected the compass.82 The Investigator then entered Spencer Gulf and anchored off the north-western shore of what Flinders later called Thistle Island. Brown came across various animals on the island, including Tammar wallabies, the common bushtail possum, some snakes, and what was probably the white-bellied sea eagle.83 Flinders determined the longitude of Thistle Island using chronometers corrected for their errors, confirmed by thirty sets of lunar distance observations.84 No water was found on Thistle Island and so Flinders sent the master, John Thistle, with a boat and crew to find an anchorage near the mainland from which water could be obtained. The boat was last seen at dusk on its return voyage for fifteen minutes with a strong current setting against it. There appeared to be no danger, but it then disappeared. When it failed to return, Robert Fowler and a few crew members took a cutter to search for the lost boat party. They searched in every direction and had difficulty in extricating themselves from ‘a great reef of breakers’; but they found nothing and returned to the Investigator.85 On the morning of 22 February, Fowler and his associates resumed their search for their lost company. They sailed through the difficult breakers and had difficulty in coping with the violent current. They landed in what became known as Memory Cove and found the wreck of the boat, bottom up, several pieces of timber, a small cask in which Thistle used to carry his liquor, an oar on the shore, and the boat’s compass

Map 6.4 The Memory Cove and Port Lincoln areas of South Australia

The Unknown Coast floating in the water. None of the missing crew was found. These were the first fatalities on the Investigator’s voyage. Good recorded in his journal that those lost were ‘Mr Thistle Master – a man of much experience whose intrinsic merit had raised him from a common Sailor to the Station he then held & which he filled with Credit to himself and satisfaction to all around him – of Mr Taylor, Midshipman a very promising young man & the Crew of six choice sailors’.86 Thistle’s death was keenly felt by Flinders. They had sailed together in the Reliance from England to New South Wales in 1795 and had worked together regularly while under Governor Hunter’s supervision in Port Jackson. Thistle had also joined Flinders on the Norfolk’s circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land and on the survey of Moreton Bay and Hervey Bay in 1799. He had been closely involved with Flinders’ daily business on the Investigator, as master of the ship and as someone who often deputized for Flinders at the binnacle to make astronomical calculations.87 The Investigator remained for two days at Memory Cove. A boat journey northwards along the coast led to Flinders finding a small keg that had belonged to Thistle and some fragments of the boat. On 24 February, he sent onshore an inscription on a plate of copper recording the loss of Thistle and his boat party, ending with the warning ‘Nautici cavete!’ (‘sailors beware!’). This was nailed to a stout post at Memory Cove.88 Flinders named the point of land where Thistle’s boat had foundered Cape Catastrophe. In his fair journal, he paid tribute to Thistle’s ‘zeal in the cause of discovery’.89 A few months later, Flinders wrote to his wife about Thistle’s death: ‘it will grieve thee, as it has me, to understand that poor Thistle was lost upon the south coast. Thou knowest how I valued him: he is however gone.’90 When he was much older, John Franklin observed that the loss of Thistle and the other seamen ‘made the deepest impression at the time and I have ever since retained in my mind the whole of the circumstances’. He recalled that they caught a shark ‘of immense girth’ at Cape Catastrophe. He noted ‘the painful emotion of everyone’s heart on this monster being opened – We all expected to see some portion of the bodies of our doomed companions in the stomach but were relieved by finding the unusual protuberance to have been occasioned by a whole seal & half the other of another unmasticated.’91 Over the preceding few days, when not preoccupied with the loss of Thistle and his boat party, Flinders and his crew had frequently discussed what they might find as they sailed along the unknown coast – ‘large rivers, deep inlets, inland seas, and passages to the Gulph of Carpentaria are the phrases most current in our conversations’.92 Thirty years later, Robert Fowler, recalling his voyage in the Investigator, stated that the Spencer Gulf ‘was far more interesting than any other part of our voyage, and we always considered it the most desirable to colonize in’.93 That never happened in the subsequent development of Australia because Port Lincoln had a backcountry too arid to support a large population.94 After several days spent searching for the lost crew, Flinders resumed his survey in the Investigator on 25 February when, after passing several islands and bights, he anchored near what he later named Port Lincoln in honour of his native county.95 Flinders went ashore to take bearings from Stamford Hill, overlooking the bay, and the naturalists landed to examine the surrounding area. The astronomical instruments,

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia timekeepers and two tents were sent on shore under the charge of Samuel Flinders. Over the next few days, Flinders concentrated on survey work at the observatory and by boat. Thirty sets of lunar distances were taken to calculate the longitude at Port Lincoln. There was a pressing need for fresh water. The discovery of a lake or mere held out hopes that drinking water could be found. That water turned out to be brackish, but fresh water was later discovered in marshy ground near the top of the harbour.96 After loading the fresh water, the observatory and tents were stowed on board ship following observation of a 97 per cent partial eclipse of the Sun.97 A few natives were seen – the first glimpsed in Spencer Gulf – but they soon walked away. Flinders was unsurprised because he had always found Aborigines generally avoided those most anxious to communicate with them.98 During eight days at Port Lincoln, Brown gathered eighty-eight plant collections and thirty-seven seed collections, a larger haul than at any other location in South Australia.99 On 6 March, the Investigator left Port Lincoln and took a course to the north-east, anchoring in the evening at Kirkby Island in Spencer Gulf. Flinders landed on the island with the botanical gentlemen on the following morning to take readings for latitude and longitude and to establish the number of nearby islands. He noted twelve other isles that he named the Sir Joseph Banks Group of Islands after his patron.100 Flinders named numerous islands in the area after his Lincolnshire associations – Partney Island, Revesby Island and Spilsby Island.101 Why he did so at this stage of the voyage is unknown. But possibly the fact that this was the first part of the Australian coast that had not been seen by other navigators led him to use Lincolnshire names as a way of indicating possession over the topography encountered.102 As the ship proceeded to the head of Spencer Gulf, shoal water was evident on both sides of the Investigator. This led to the supposition that they were ‘sailing up the channel of a considerable river’.103 This proved not to be the case. Flinders was disappointed that he had failed to find a major waterway penetrating the continent in Spencer Gulf.104 Navigation in the gulf was difficult. On 9 March, Flinders anchored in an exposed situation near what is now Red Cliff Point. He was wary of taking the ship further up the gulf.105 Shoal water continued to lie around the Investigator, and the possibility of grounding her necessitated this pause in proceedings.106 ‘The shores near the head of the gulph are low’, he later wrote, and ‘mostly covered with mangroves, and, in part, overflowed at high water.’107 Two days were devoted to ascending Mount Brown, named after the botanist and now situated in the Flinders Ranges. This proved fruitful in the search for botanical specimens: sixty plants and thirty-three seeds were collected in two days.108 Good noted that when they reached the summit of Mount Brown they had ‘a most extensive view probably the most extensive ever had in New Holland, being elevated full 3,000 feet above the level of the Sea and it may be said 100 miles in the heart of the Country’.109 While this excursion was undertaken, Flinders sailed in the cutter to row up a river about fifteen miles from the ship. The river narrowed and eventually shoaled, and so he turned back: he did not think a boat could have travelled up the creek – near the present town of Port Augusta – for more than another mile or two.110 Flinders continued his survey of Spencer Gulf until 20 March. On the following day, the Investigator anchored off Kangaroo Island, which is Australia’s third-largest island

The Unknown Coast (after Tasmania and Melville Island) and a place of refuge from south-westerly gales.111 Flinders thought the island had not been explored previously. La Pérouse had been ordered to investigate it, but there seemed little probability that he ever passed Torres Strait. Certainty over this was impossible at the time through lack of information about the French explorer’s disappearance.112 Flinders came across better soil on Kangaroo Island than any he had yet seen on the south coast or upon the islands.113 Westall agreed with this verdict. He later recalled that the land at Port Lincoln was better than that at King George Sound, and that the land at Kangaroo Island was superior to that at Port Lincoln.114 A couple of days’ stay on the island enabled Brown and the botanists to collect further plant specimens and to observe the wildlife, which included kangaroos, wallabies, brown pigeons, parrots and seals. Flinders and his party shot thirty-one kangaroos, brought them on board ship, skinned and cleaned them, and offered the meat as a feast to crew that had existed on salt provisions for four months.115 Good thought Kangaroo Island was probably not much less than one hundred miles in length. He also noted the rich soil but added that ‘there seems to be a general want of water here as in every place we had visited on the Coast of New Holland’.116 On 24 March, the Investigator left Kangaroo Island and sailed towards the mainland coast near Cape Spencer. A few days later the ship entered Gulf St Vincent, anchoring on the evening of 29 March about seven miles from the north-west head of the gulf.117 Flinders hoped the mouth of a major river would be found in an estuary. The convergence of Spencer’s and St Vincent’s gulfs alerted him to the possibility that a river could be found in this vicinity.118 Brown accompanied Flinders in the cutter to the head of Gulf St Vincent to ascertain whether any river existed. Flinders had noticed the absence of a tide on the previous evening, however, and this meant there was little chance of finding a river nearby that would offer access to the interior of the continent.119 He did not find a river at his landing place: the inlet appeared to end about six or seven miles from the head of the Gulf. Flinders went ashore and described a swampy valley with a mountain range to the east. He took angles and observed the latitude in the artificial horizon.120 On 31 March, the Investigator returned down the western side of Gulf St Vincent and anchored at midnight about half a mile from Kangaroo Island. Flinders’ reasons for returning to the island were to find a known place of shelter for the night, to shoot some kangaroos to feed the ship’s company and to check the rates of the timekeepers. Finding the timekeepers had been wound down, Flinders decided to stay for a few days on Kangaroo Island to get fresh rates for them. Together with Brown, he undertook an excursion to the top of Prospect Hill to take bearings and to observe wildlife and plants. They saw ducks, falcons, gulls and pelicans. Observation of the latter caused Flinders to write a melancholy reflection of the life and death of pelicans: ‘Alas, for the pelicans! Their golden age is past; but it has much exceeded in duration that of man.’ Brown came across a few plants he had not seen elsewhere on the island but found none wholly new to him.121 The approach of winter induced Flinders to forego further examination of the island and to finish the examination of the south coast before the weather and a lack of necessary supplies obliged him to make haste to Port Jackson.122 Good considered

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Kangaroo Island was ‘the most desirable place we have met with on the Coast of New Holland’. He gave some details: The Trees & vegetables which are indigenous to this Island are more varied than any we had before met with – It produceth 4 or 5 species of Eucalyptus as many species of Mimosa all with entire leaves – 4 or 5 species of Melaleuca with some other plants of the Natural order of Myrtus 2 species of Correa one Alyxia several Syngenesus plants. Atriplices 4 or 5 species of Fern Dodonea, Casuarina, Anthericum, several species of Grass, Lichens, with some others. Its Animals also various the most considerable are the Kangaroo of which it has two species differing chiefly in size very large Gouanas some lizards & with many insects.

Good also commented on the birds he saw on Kangaroo Island – eagles, pelicans, pigeons, quails and various parrots.123 Little did Good know that Kangaroo Island would become a leading site for eco-tourism in Australia two centuries later. Flinders had undertaken a painstaking examination of Spencer’s and St Vincent’s Gulfs, allowing the naturalists time to undertake their investigations, carefully checking the geographical coordinates and the timekeepers and ensuring that the ship’s company was provided with fresh water and fresh meat. Years later, when detained at the Ile de France, Flinders often conversed with the Investigator’s master John Aken about the possibilities for establishing a colony on the unknown south coast, not at Port Lincoln but either at Fowler’s Bay or at Kangaroo Island, where there was fertile land for settlement.124 However, no evidence had been found to support the theory that a great strait split the continent in two, leading from this southern coast up to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

7

Encounter with the French

In a remarkable coincidence, in the early evening of 8 April 1802, Flinders unexpectedly saw a ship ahead while sailing off the south Australian coast. He later called its location Encounter Bay.1 At first, Flinders thought the ship might be an English sealer or whaler, which had been active in southerly voyages from Port Jackson for several years.2 But, in fact, the vessel was the French naval corvette Le Géographe. The French, for their part, thought the approaching vessel might be their separated consort Le Naturaliste. But, as the two vessels drew nearer, Flinders saw the other ship displaying a French ensign with an English jack and the French realized that they were mistaken, for it was not their consort. On closer encounter, Flinders recognized the unknown vessel as the Géographe, also engaged on a voyage of exploration to Australia, backed by Napoléon Bonaparte. Flinders knew about this expedition through Banks, who had obtained passports for its commander Nicolas Baudin to conduct a scientific voyage of discovery in Australian waters.3 Baudin, however, knew nothing about Flinders’ expedition. Flinders was sailing easterly while Baudin was proceeding in a westerly direction, having surveyed parts of Van Diemen’s Land and a relatively small section of the Victorian and South Australian coasts.4 At daylight, Flinders went on board the Géographe, where he and Baudin met for the first time. The meeting was a private one. Neither Flinders nor Baudin knew that a truce in the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France had occurred in October 1801, for they had both set sail from Europe on their voyages months beforehand. Neither did they know the truce had been confirmed by the Peace of Amiens of 27 March 1802. They approached one another circumspectly and showed their passports as a diplomatic precaution for a safe passage in the event of an encounter with the enemy in wartime.5 Flinders requested to see, and was shown, the passport carried by Baudin. He then handed his passport to the French commander, who gave it back without looking at it. During the meeting, Flinders therefore knew he was speaking to Baudin whereas the French commander was unaware of Flinders’ identity. Baudin wrote in his journal, however, that the name of the English commander was made clear on this occasion, and Flinders ‘expressed great satisfaction at this agreeable meeting, but was extremely reserved on all other matters’. On the next day, Flinders went aboard the French vessel for a second meeting. Baudin showed greater awareness of his English counterpart and was inquisitive about the Investigator’s voyage.6 We do not know whether there is any

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia significance in the fact that Flinders visited the Géographe twice but Baudin was not invited (and did not come) aboard the Investigator.7 Conversations between Flinders and Baudin were conducted mainly in English. Flinders had no French but Baudin spoke enough English to be understood.8 Baudin claimed he was alone in his conversations with Flinders, but documentary evidence shows that Brown was also present.9 The conversations were amicable even though France and Britain were still, as far as the commanders knew, at war. The ships parted after two days, Flinders continuing in an easterly direction and Baudin following a westerly course. The meetings at Encounter Bay on 8 and 9 April were more surprising for Baudin than for Flinders, who was well informed about the French expedition, which had been a topic of conversation in the Investigator.10 He knew there was a possibility, albeit remote, that he would encounter the Géographe at some stage during his voyage. Baudin, on the other hand, had no knowledge of Flinders' movements, because the minister in Paris had not signed the passport for the Investigator until 23 May 1801 and the French voyage had sailed from Le Havre on 19 October 1800. When Baudin and his crew sighted a ship on 8 April, they thought it was the Naturaliste because ‘we were far from thinking that there would be any other Europeans in this region and at this time of the year’.11 But they soon saw that the masts and size of the ship indicated that it was not their consort. And on seeing an English passport presented, Baudin would have realized that the Investigator was engaged on a voyage of discovery. When Flinders and Baudin talked together, they openly discussed their respective voyages. There were no signs of resentment by either commander of the other. Nor is there evidence of either man withholding information or indulging in sleight of hand in describing the progress of their voyages. The cordial nature and open exchange of information at these meetings suggests that neither party had strategic imperatives: these were mainly geographical and scientific voyages. Baudin’s expedition originally had twenty-two scientists, draughtsmen, gardeners and artists, while the Investigator carried a larger scientific complement than any other British voyage of exploration since 1768.12 But whereas Flinders had taken care to ensure that his crew was orderly and healthy, Baudin’s expedition had been riven with poor health among the crew, diminishing provisions, and desertion. A seaman on Flinders’ voyage, Samuel Smith, noted the poor manning of the Géographe at this meeting in Encounter Bay.13 Conversations between the two explorers revealed that Baudin’s expedition had lost many men at Timor through sickness.14 During their meetings, Flinders learned that the French had visited western Australia, where they examined the coast between Cape Leeuwin and Edels Land; that they had explored the southern and eastern parts of Van Diemen’s Land and had examined a stretch of the south Australian mainland from Cape Banks to Encounter Bay; that they had not found any inlets or rivers along that coast where they could anchor; and that the Géographe had been separated in a heavy gale from Le Naturaliste in Bass Strait. Flinders enquired whether Baudin had come across a large island (King Island) in the western entrance to Bass Strait, but the Frenchman stated he had not seen it and ‘seemed much to doubt its existence’.15 At the second meeting, Flinders

Encounter with the French presented Baudin with three charts lately published by Arrowsmith of London on Bass Strait and Van Diemen’s Land and with a copy of his Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, on Bass’s Strait and its Islands, and on Part of the Coasts of New South Wales: Intended to Accompany the Charts of the Late Discoveries in Those Countries (1801). Baudin spoke about Bass Strait at both meetings.16 Baudin, for his part, learned that the English vessel had been sent on a mission similar to his own; that Flinders had left England eight months after Baudin had left France; that Flinders and his party had explored the south-west coast of Australia from Cape Leeuwin in an eastward direction; that they had then surveyed the coast along to Encounter Bay, including Kangaroo Island; and that Flinders had compiled the chart of Bass Strait in Baudin’s possession. Baudin, in fact, had an imperfect copy of the chart of Bass Strait made by Flinders and George Bass in their expedition of 1798/9. This had been copied in Paris from an English print. On that voyage there had been no opportunities to take accurate coordinates. Baudin showed this chart to Flinders on their first meeting. According to Flinders, the French commander did not realize he was speaking to the compiler of the chart until their second meeting. Baudin’s account is different: in his journal and in a letter to the French Minister of the Marine, he stated that he knew Flinders’ name at the start of their first meeting. Baudin showed Flinders finished and coloured charts he had made of Van Diemen’s Land and paintings of the Aborigines there.17 According to Flinders, Baudin ‘appeared to be somewhat mortified’ to learn about the English exploration of the south Australian coast, and the English presence at Encounter Bay did not give him ‘any great pleasure’.18 Nevertheless, the meetings between Flinders and Baudin in Encounter Bay ‘seem to have resulted in a frank and mutually beneficial exchange of information’.19 François Péron, the zoologist on Baudin’s expedition, left an account of the meeting between Baudin and Flinders at Encounter Bay. He was impressed by Flinders’ lively, active manner, and by the cordial way in which Flinders treated the members of the French expedition. Péron also expressed disappointment that Flinders’ account of his expedition had left the French voyagers with little possibility of discoveries on south Australia’s coast. By allowing Baudin to see several of his charts and maps, Flinders, in Péron’s view, was shrewdly putting the French explorers in a position where they would be unable to contest his findings.20 Baudin and Flinders’ exchanges convinced both of them that, contrary to much speculation, there was probably no great strait separating New Holland in the west from New South Wales in the East. Australia was therefore likely to be one very large continental land mass.21 Both commanders had received instructions which directed them to find out whether New Holland was divided by a strait extending perhaps from the unexplored south-west coast of Bass Strait to the Gulf of Carpentaria.22 Finding out, through their encounter, that the strait appeared not to exist was a matter of great disappointment to both navigators, but for Flinders there was the satisfying knowledge, based on meeting at Encounter Bay, that he had not been forestalled by Baudin in his survey of most of Australia’s south coast.23 Flinders’ encounter with Baudin strengthened his resolve to pursue his task of circumnavigating Australia’s coast with renewed purpose and urgency. To suggest

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia that he was involved in a race with Baudin to explore Australia’s shores, however, is incorrect: the two commanders largely pursued their own instructions for their voyages.24 Nevertheless, Flinders’ encounter with Baudin prompted him to examine Australia’s coast eastwards from Encounter Bay and Bass Strait that the French had not explored. He had a strong ambition to be the first navigator to survey and chart as much of the Australian coast as possible, and he did not wish to linger in areas to which the French could lay better claim. Flinders was concerned about delays and conscious of the approach of winter storms that made the passage through Bass Strait treacherous. This is the main reason why vessels sailing towards Port Jackson from the west of Van Diemen’s Land had almost universal recourse to a passage around the southern and eastern side of that island. Flinders wanted the Investigator repaired and needed fresh provisions at Sydney Cove, then the only English outpost in the southern hemisphere. Flinders also concentrated on significant omissions made in the French survey of Bass Strait and the Victorian coast. The French did not appear to have surveyed Bass Strait very accurately. Nor had they investigated northern Van Diemen’s Land (which Flinders had explored with Bass). Baudin’s expedition had only explored 5° of the unknown coast from Bass Strait westward and ‘in this part he had found no ports, harbours, or inlets, or anything to interest, nor had he seen a large island, now called King’s Island, which lies in the middle of the western entrance to Bass’s Strait’.25 Baudin, for his part, was determined to explore the south coast of Australia which Flinders had recently surveyed. He intended to sail westward to connect with D’Entrecasteaux’s surveys near the head of the Great Australian Bight. His voyage, however, was running into serious problems of provisioning. Between 10 and 15 April 1802, Baudin followed the north-east coast of Kangaroo Island and made a running survey of Gulf St Vincent. From 16 to 24 April, the Géographe was in Spencer Gulf, but there was no attempt to alight on the mainland because of bad weather and scurvy among the crew. Baudin still had plenty of work to do in surveying coastal Australia but only had enough fresh water to last another two months. He therefore cut down on the supplies to his men. Sickness among his crew forced him to request that his midshipmen should help with the watch, but they refused to help because this seemed to them a slight upon their status. Between 26 and 30 April, Baudin made a running survey of the west coast of Eyre Peninsula. He then explored Nuyts archipelago, St Francis Island and St Peter Island, which Flinders had already reconnoitred three months earlier.26 By 8 May, Baudin had only thirty fit crew for the handling of the ship. That fact coupled with the pressing need for firewood, the shortness of the days and what he termed ‘other private considerations’ made him abandon the coast, appropriately at Cape Adieu, and head first for D’Entrecasteaux Channel, where the anchorage was good and he could improve on existing charts of the eastern coast of Van Diemen’s Land before sailing to Port Jackson.27 His decision was somewhat reckless given that he had a large number of sick men on board who needed to reach port for fresh provisions.28 But it should be remembered that that decision involved some bravery because the French Ministry of Marine had instructed him to avoid Port Jackson.29 Soon after leaving Baudin on 9 April, the Investigator sailed eastward into choppy waters. Flinders wanted to survey the 5° of the unknown coast between Encounter

Encounter with the French Bay and the entrance to Bass Strait – the shoreline already explored by Le Géographe. But identifying important landmarks on the mainland was not always easy because of inclement weather. Flinders later noted that one of the most interesting unknown features of the southern Australian coast was that no river had been found there. His Admiralty instructions directed him to discover any opening likely to lead to ‘an inland sea or strait’.30 Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean (1798) showed only four rivers found in Australia, all of them by the Dutch. English explorers, from Cook to Flinders and Bass, had found several rivers in New South Wales. Yet Flinders missed, just as Baudin had done, the mouth of the Murray River, which was only seven miles from where the two navigators had met. This was an excusable oversight, however, because the mouth of that river was little more than a narrow break among sand dunes rather than an estuary, which is probably what Flinders was looking for. The river proper is hidden behind another set of dunes and the large estuary lagoon of Lake Alexandrina.31 Flinders continued to navigate along an unremarkable shoreline. He saw no harbours, found no evidence of running water and confirmed Baudin’s observation that this land was barren, for not ‘even the worst parts of Nuyts’ Land exceed it in sterility’.32 Climatic conditions altered for the worse. Squalls of rain and hazy weather, with occasional outbreaks of lightning, made navigation difficult and prudence obliged the ship to keep a distance from the mainland. Extra sails were put up to help the ship cope with strong winds.33 A gale blew from the south-west which, as Flinders later stated, ‘obliged us to push on for Bass’s Straits, without attending minutely to the formation of the coast’.34 Flinders knew Baudin had explored there before him. That consideration, the approaching winter season, the great expenditure upon provisions and the violent weather prompted Flinders to proceed for Port Jackson expeditiously.35 The Investigator had sailed for forty weeks from England; the need for fresh food, water and repairs was becoming pressing. Flinders had hoped to resume exploring the mainland at Cape Bridgewater, but the wind was not favourable to do so.36 Flinders may well have been irritated in making this decision because he knew Baudin had surveyed that part of the coast. Moreover, this French survey of a relatively small stretch of the South Australian coast had only occurred a few days before the meeting between the two captains in Encounter Bay. What Flinders may not have known was that Baudin had no training in hydrographical surveying and, consequently, that much of his charting was poor. Some names Baudin gave to features of the South Australian coast were for non-existent features.37 The French expedition had a trained hydrographer, who was Charles Boullanger, but he was then on board the Naturaliste, which was separated from the Géographe. Flinders, for his part, was an excellent hydrographer, as he had shown on the maps he had drawn on his voyages with Bass. But even though Flinders’ mapping and surveying was superior to that of the Baudin expedition, he was always scrupulous in acknowledging prior discoveries by other explorers. When he eventually completed a chart of Terra Australis in 1814, Flinders labelled this region ‘Coast Discovered by Capt. Nicolas Baudin, 1802’.38 On 20 April, the Investigator passed several bays and some islands and rocks, but the weather was too unfavourable to trace the coast accurately.39 On the next day, Flinders decided to head towards Bass Strait

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia and leave the remaining part of the south coast to a better opportunity. Not only the extreme danger at this time of year but the expenditure of our provisions forbid us keeping off the coast to wait for fairer weather to finish it; and besides I had nothing important to expect since Monsieur Baudin had been here before and given a bad account of it.

Nevertheless, Flinders quit this part of the mainland ‘most unwillingly, without a thorough examination’.40 Inclement weather forced Flinders to sail further from the mainland than he would have liked, but in so doing he came across King Island at the opening of Bass Strait. This was his first main discovery after the meeting with Le Géographe. Flinders knew it was likely that an island would be found in this location. Before leaving New South Wales in 1799, he had received an account of this island lying to the north-west of Hunter’s Isles, the southern part of it having been found in 1798 by Captain William Reid in a sealing vessel.41 Fresh breezes and squally weather led Flinders and his crew to double reef the top sails and to make a number of tacks against the wind to reach the island.42 Because he thought King Island (which he called Reeds Island) had not been explored, Flinders led a scientific party on shore. ‘I was desirous of ascertaining the position of this island before going to Port Jackson,’ Flinders later wrote, ‘more especially as it had escaped the observation of captain Baudin.’43 At the time Flinders did not know that the northern part of King Island had been seen and named by John Black (in honour of Governor Philip Gidley King) in the brig Harbinger in January 1801.44 Flinders and his small party explored parts of the island cursorily in a day. It was too densely wooded for them to penetrate more than half a mile from the shore.45 They came across a dead kangaroo and two dead wombats, an elephant seal and the sail boom of a top mast from a wrecked vessel. Botanical investigation was the most important feature of this brief excursion, for Brown gathered ‘a greater variety of plants upon this island than upon any one we have yet seen’. This kept the naturalists longer on the island than had been anticipated when they left the ship.46 Nine species of ferns were collected on King Island, eight of them new.47 Judging the weather to be fine, on the next day Flinders steered towards the mainland to trace as much as possible of the remaining part of the south coast before setting off for Port Jackson. The following day, Flinders headed north from King Island towards Cape Otway, on the mainland, and bore east just above 39° latitude. He sighted land and a large circular bay which he thought was Western Port, discovered by Bass in January 1798. The naturalist agreed with him about the location. But they both soon realized that the bay they had entered was nearly a degree further to the west than Western Port. Flinders noted that ‘the narrowness of the entrance prevented me from thinking it the west entrance into Wstern Pt.’48 The actual position of the Investigator was now Port Phillip. Flinders was surprised to come across this large port and bay on the mainland opposite King Island because Baudin made no mention of it even though ‘he had had fine winds and weather to run along it’.49 Flinders congratulated himself on having made ‘a new and useful discovery’.50 The entrance to the bay – from the mid-1830s the gateway to Melbourne – proved difficult to navigate. Though it was two miles wide, the deep channel was only

Encounter with the French

Map 7.1 Port Phillip Bay, Victoria

about one mile and the tides flowed into a single channel. On his chart of the entrance to Port Phillip, Flinders marked the ‘strong tide ripplings’ and noted extensive shoals on the southern side of the bay above the Mornington Peninsula.51 Whenever an ebb tide coincided with a south-west gale, it was dangerous for a ship to pass through this entrance, which had a general tidal range of three-to-five feet. Then, about three miles from the entrance, shoal water was abundant. The Investigator ran aground for the third time since leaving England.52 Flinders examined Port Phillip Bay, which he thought had not previously been explored.53 Flinders and his party, including Brown, Bauer and Westall, rambled over the heathlands of the Mornington Peninsula; they landed where Portsea now stands

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia and visited Swan Bay. Flinders considered the soil on shore was the best quality he had yet found in Australia, equal to some of the land at Port Jackson which he had visited in the Reliance in 1795. Coasting around the port in the Investigator proved too slow because of unfavourable winds and the strong possibility of going aground, so Flinders abandoned the idea of examining Port Phillip Bay in the ship. Instead, he took a small party on a cutter. They spent four days investigating the extent of the bay, which they reckoned could be no less than fifty or sixty miles round. They climbed a mountain named Arthur’s Seat, about 1,000 feet high, on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay. Flinders examined the northern part of the Bellarine Peninsula. His party went ashore on the west side of the bay to climb a granite mountain which Flinders called Station Peak. Flinders wrote the name of the Investigator on a scroll of paper that he placed in a pile of stones on the mountain.54 This was, however, only a relatively cursory examination of Port Phillip. Without the books and implements to aid their excursion – these remained on the Investigator – Flinders knew he could only carry out a limited examination.55 He did not survey the eastern side of the bay; and he missed the Yarra River on the site of what became Melbourne.56 Brown collected specimens of flora and fauna that were the first recorded from Victorian soil. This visit to the Mornington Peninsula, however, came late in the summer when few plants were in bloom, and Brown therefore did not have as productive a collecting trip in this vicinity as he later did in January 1804.57 While exploring Port Phillip, Flinders and his companions came across some local Aborigines, whom Flinders briefly compared to those encountered at King George Sound and Port Jackson. Good characterized these people as ‘brave … harmless & inoffensive’; they readily parted with their arms and utensils.58 Westall curiously made no drawings of the Victorian Aborigines. The party saw emus, kangaroos and various birds and found several new plants.59 Flinders showed little curiosity about the Aborigines in this vicinity – certainly much less than that displayed by Baudin in his encounters with indigenous people in Van Diemen’s Land and, later, around Port Jackson.60 But his lack of interest partly stemmed from seeing signs of Aboriginal camps but only sighting a small group of natives for a short spell. Additionally, Flinders could not understand the Aboriginal language that differed considerably from that spoken by natives at Port Jackson.61 Flinders sailed past Western Port on 4 May, but had no time to enter it and, in fact, never returned there.62 From leaving the Victorian coast, Flinders took less than a week to continue through Bass Strait to reach Port Jackson. He was in a hurry because of winter gales. The Investigator sailed past Cape Wollamai, at the entrance to Western Port, steered around Curtis Island, the highest island in the Hogan’s group and the Kent Group of islands, continued past the Furneaux Islands, where Flinders corrected observations in longitude, and swiftly headed north along the far south-eastern end of Australia’s mainland.63 On arrival at Port Jackson on 9 May, he claimed that the officers and crew were in better health than on the day they left Spithead. They were in good spirits. The fresh colour and healthy complexion of many among the ship’s company was noted by those who welcomed the vessel.64 The Lady Nelson, the Porpoise and some whalers were in the harbour, but no ship from England had arrived at Port Jackson recently. Good was impressed by his first sight of Sydney harbour: ‘after passing one

Encounter with the French

Map 7.2 The Sydney district, New South Wales fine Bay we open three or 4 more all as Smooth as a mill Pond’. On 10 May, Flinders and his crew received the news that peace between Britain and France had been concluded in October 1801.65 At Sydney Cove, Flinders came across the Naturaliste, which had been there since 25 April. The captain of the vessel, Emanuel Hamelin, and his crew were cordially received by Governor King, a noted Francophile. The French officers and their British hosts intermingled in a friendly way. Flinders told Hamelin about Baudin’s intention to come to Port Jackson. The Géographe and the Naturaliste had been separated in a storm off the coast of Van Diemen’s Land on 8 March 1802. Unable to find one another, they had sailed in different directions: Baudin steered the Géographe westwards towards the south Australian coast while Hamelin in the Naturaliste headed north towards Port Jackson. Hamelin left Port Jackson on 18 May 1802, bound for Ile de France (Mauritius), without waiting for Baudin to arrive. Why he did so is not entirely clear, but it seems that he felt uncomfortable at staying in a colony in the hands of France’s traditional enemy.66 Flinders was informed that the Lady Nelson had pre-empted his discovery of parts of King Island and Port Phillip. This ship had been sent out from England by the Admiralty in 1800 to survey parts of the unexplored Australian coast.67 In 1800–1

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia the Lady Nelson, under James Grant’s command, discovered Cape Bridgewater and Cape Schanck on the south Australian coast. Grant also surveyed Western Port and the bight that leads to Port Phillip before heading back to Port Jackson after his provisions ran low and bad weather occurred. His was the first known voyage to sail from west to east through Bass Strait. Grant wrote extensively about the voyage, and later (in 1803) published a chart of his discoveries.68 However, Governor King was dissatisfied with Grant’s efforts, and Grant played no further part in the maritime discovery of Australia: he resigned his command and returned to England in November 1801. Flinders had thought Baudin deserved the credit for the discovery of Cape Bridgewater and Cape Schanck, but now acknowledged that Grant had a prior claim to their location.69 In late 1801 and early 1802, Governor King sent the Lady Nelson under John Murray to Bass Strait, expecting the ship to fall in with the Investigator. The intention was to explore parts of the mainland coast unseen by Grant. Murray explored the east, north and south-east sides of King Island, in Bass Strait; produced a good sketch map of the island; identified sea passages through the Kent’s Group of islands; and discovered a spacious harbour on the mainland coast which Governor King named Port Phillip.70 Flinders acknowledged this prior discovery of Port Phillip, though he noted that Murray had only made a cursory examination of the bay.71 King sent Murray’s journals to the Admiralty together with a chart containing his discoveries and the tracks of other vessels that had passed through Bass Strait.72 Despite disappointment at finding that some features of the south Australian and Victorian coasts and islands in Bass Strait had been discovered just a few months before his own voyage, Flinders painted a positive portrait of his achievements so far on the voyage. He had enough time at Port Jackson to communicate his thoughts at length to his main correspondents in England. In a letter to an official at the Navy Office, which he repeated in another letter to a different recipient, he noted that he was fortunate to see and chart much of the southern Australian coastline before the French.73 To his patron Banks, he recounted the achievements of the Investigator’s voyage along the unknown coast of South Australia, noting that, because of the unexpected encounter with the Géographe, he had thankfully made ‘a very strict and minute examination of it’. The French had confined their activities to the north, east and south sides of Van Diemen’s Land, to the west side of New Holland from Cape Leeuwin to Dampier’s Rosemary Islands, enabling the Investigator to claim priority in examining most of the unknown south coast.74 To the royal astronomer at Greenwich, Flinders wrote an important letter explaining that he had fulfilled the duty of astronomer on the voyage. He included the data and lunar observations he had undertaken on Australia’s south coast. He explained that Arnold’s No. 82 timekeeper stopped a few weeks after reaching the Cape of Good Hope, and that Arnold’s No. 176 worked well before stopping on 1 March 1802. Both of these timepieces would be returned to London.75 To his wife, whom he had not seen for nearly a year, Flinders wrote a warmly personal letter intermingled with a degree of pomposity, noting that his ‘situation makes me of some consequence in the eye of the world’.76 Flinders was never a man to let ambition and a sense of his importance assume second place, even when writing to his wife.

Encounter with the French Governor King hoped the charts being prepared by Flinders could be sent back to the Admiralty in London to help ships to sail through Bass Strait, rather than around the south of Van Diemen’s Land, en route to Sydney. A route through the strait would speed up voyages, though vessels would have to face the vagaries of westerlies and winter gales. Flinders’ ‘advantageous account’ of the land he had seen at Port Phillip, emphasizing the excellent soil and the security and expansiveness of its harbour, led King to recommend a settlement should be made there.77 The information communicated by Flinders to King was also instrumental in the establishment of a small settlement at Risdon Cove, Van Diemen’s Land, in September 1803, which marked the beginning of European settlement there.78 The Investigator spent most of May and all of June 1802 in Sydney Cove. Flinders was under the orders of Governor King, who assisted him considerably. The main purposes of the stay were to refresh the ship’s company; to repair the leaky vessel; to complete the provisions for a year’s expedition; to examine the stores on board; to complete the charts of the south coast of Australia and send copies to the Admiralty; to ascertain the errors of the timekeepers; to recruit extra crew and to get another boat to replace one lost; to set up a greenhouse for the exotic plants gathered; and to consult with King about the best way to conduct the circumnavigatory voyage.79 Flinders had time, while staying at Port Jackson, to write at length on the precise differences of longitude measured by the timekeepers he had brought with him from the Cape of Good Hope and the lunar observations he had made meticulously on Australia’s south coast.80 He determined the longitude of Sydney Cove by averaging the results of forty-four sets of lunar distance observations, from which he obtained a longitude of 151°11ʹ49ʺE. At Port Jackson, Flinders expected to see James Inman, the replacement for Crosley as astronomer who had been sent out to New South Wales by the Board of Longitude. Inman was supposed to bring with him Kendall’s K3 chronometer, which had been used on Cook’s third Pacific voyage and on Vancouver’s global expedition. But Inman had not arrived at Port Jackson by the time the Investigator was scheduled to leave there.81 The crew of the Investigator immediately began preparing the vessel for the next stage of her voyage. Attention was paid to stores and provisions, the barricading of the quarter deck, recruiting extra crew, repair of the sails, refitting the rails on the bulwark, overhauling the main rigging, blackening the yards and mastheads, washing and cleaning the vessel, caulking the plank around the timber heads, painting the ship, fitting the hammock cloths on the rails, and setting up a greenhouse for the plants collected. Two Aborigines, Bungaree and Nanbaree, joined the crew.82 Flinders negotiated a contract in New South Wales for the supply of large amounts of bread, flour and wheat. Fortunately, the stores he had ordered from the Admiralty on the day he had left Spithead (18 July 1801) arrived at Port Jackson during his stay there. Flinders received an agreement from King to engage some convicts to make up deficiencies in the ship’s company. These men were granted a conditional pardon and given provisional freedom while in the neighbourhood of New South Wales.83 Good and Brown went on various botanical excursions in the vicinity of Sydney while the Investigator was at Port Jackson. A trip along the Hawkesbury River through luxurious vegetation led to collecting Cabbage Palms and a species of passion flower.84

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Brown visited Sir Joseph Banks’s collector George Caley on several occasions at Parramatta where he kept his specimens and maintained a botanical garden. This was an opportunity to discuss the flora and fauna found in Sydney and its hinterland. As this was the first visit made by Brown to the vicinity, he doubtless learned much from Caley; but it seems that the two men, both of whom had a reputation for being at best grumpy and at worst cantankerous, had differences of opinion.85 Flinders found the colony of New South Wales suffered from food rations. Salt provisions could not be procured apart from paying exorbitant prices, so he ordered additional victuals from London.86 Flinders oversaw these arrangements, but he now had, for the first time in the voyage, regular extended time for solitary study. He did not waste the time at his disposal. As ever, he immediately focused on the larger purpose of his expedition by drawing his charts of the Australian coast. He was so preoccupied with the arrangement and construction of his charts while at Port Jackson that he did not venture beyond two miles from the harbour during his entire stay there. Nor did he make any interesting remarks about the state of the penal colony in New South Wales: his intellectual curiosity was completely focused on the aims and ambitions of his voyage. Flinders had two copies of his charts made, one set intended for London and the other for the governor’s keeping in the event of the Investigator’s loss. But he did not have the fair charts finished, so he had to rest content with sending an account of his Australian discoveries to the Admiralty and informing the royal astronomer and the Board of Longitude about problems with the timekeepers and the adjustments needed to correct their readings of longitude.87 While these objectives were carried out, Flinders had reminders of Baudin’s voyage. Baudin’s passport from the British government gave him permission to put into any port in a British territory in case of bad weather or for the purpose of obtaining help, provided he had not deliberately deviated from his course or intended to carry out hostilities towards Britain or her allies. Baudin and the Géographe entered Port Jackson on 21 June with a crew suffering from severe debilitation and scurvy, stemming from lack of vitamin C during 110 continuous days at sea. Only twelve men were capable of working the ship. Much of the blame for this sorry state of affairs rest on Baudin’s shoulders, for he had neglected instructions about hygiene and had ignored precautions taken against scurvy by his maritime predecessors, notably La Pérouse.88 Members of his ship’s company were critical of the delays associated with Baudin’s expedition. One critic was Henri Freycinet, acting lieutenant in the Géographe, who had this to say to Flinders on arriving at Port Jackson: ‘Captain, if we had not been kept so long picking up shells and catching butterflies at Van Diemen’s Land, you would not have discovered the South Coast before us.’89 Fortunately for Baudin and his crew, help was at hand at Port Jackson. Governor King dispatched a party of British seamen to bring the vessel into harbour. The British colonists gave the French seamen food and a cordial welcome. King, who spoke fluent French, spent much time in Baudin’s company.90 He had conversed in French to La Pérouse at Botany Bay in 1788; he was, in fact, the last-known person to speak extensively with him before he disappeared at sea. On this occasion, King allowed the astronomer on the French voyage to make observations on shore. He gave permission for the Géographe to have her copper bottom cleaned and repaired. He welcomed

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Baudin frequently at Government House; ordered the slaughtering of oxen so that the French crew could be fed well; and reduced the daily rations of New South Wales to offer this help. Only by imposing a curfew on French movements at night in and around Port Jackson did King underscore the fact that Britain and France had recently been at war.91 Baudin, for his part, made efforts to ensure that his ship’s company did not behave inappropriately while they remained at Port Jackson.92 He sent letters back to France with his impressions of the British settlement in New South Wales.93 Despite cordial relations between King and Baudin, the British governor had suspicions about French motives for sailing in Australian waters. He thought they might be planning a settlement somewhere in the Bass Strait region, though he conceded that he had no definite knowledge of their political intentions.94 Banks had assured Flinders that the French expedition was unlikely to present any serious rivalry; he was not convinced that Baudin’s itinerary or navigational knowledge offered a challenge to the Investigator.95 Brown confirmed Banks’s supposition that the French expedition was not a serious rival to that of Flinders: ‘Van Diemen’s Land they seem to have minutely examined especially towards its southern extremity: they do not seem to have very accurately surveyed Basse’s Strait. Capt. Baudin in the Géographe we met after having passd thro’ it he had neither been in Port Dalrymple or Western Port nor had he discover’d Port Phillip or even King’s Island, & when we met him he had not once anchor’d on the South coast.’96 Flinders met Baudin on the two days following the arrival of Le Géographe at Port Jackson. Flinders entertained French officers aboard the Investigator and displayed a newly-prepared chart that showed the relative extent of his own and Baudin’s discoveries on the south-west coast. Such cooperation between commanders of voyages of exploration by European powers was common in wartime.97 Baudin, as Nicole Starbuck notes, did not perceive himself to be in a ‘race’ with Flinders, but both navigators realized that a certain amount of mutual help would aid the progress of both expeditions.98 Yet there was no interchange of charts – Flinders’ were in draft form and Baudin explained that his would be prepared later in Paris.99 Flinders scrupulously set out the respective claims to the discovery of the south Australian coast. He and Baudin agreed to call the south-west cape of New Holland Cape Leeuwin, thinking that the Dutch, who had discovered it, would not object. Flinders claimed his own area of discovery to stretch from the south coast of Nuyts Land to Encounter Bay. Baudin had vested in himself and the French nation about 150 miles of coast from Encounter Bay (35°43ʹ) to Cape Northumberland (38°3ʹ). Grant had priority of discovery from Cape Northumberland to Western Port. Bass first observed the coast from Western Port to Point Hicks. Murray discovered the Port Phillip area.100 In setting out these claims and working hard on his charts, Flinders followed his overarching ambition to make the surveying of the Australian coast as complete as possible. On 3 July, Le Naturaliste unexpectedly returned to Port Jackson after turning back through encountering severe storms off the south coast of Van Diemen’s Land. Her crew was reunited with the men on Le Géographe.101 Baudin and Flinders spent Bastille Day together with their ships’ parties. There were many other occasions when members of the Baudin expedition and Flinders and his ship’s company socialized with

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one another in Port Jackson. ‘During his time in Sydney,’ one member of the French expedition commented, ‘Captain Flinders often had us to dinner on board his ship. He seemed to be a most distinguished officer and to be very well educated. He had already made several voyages along this coast and we were grateful to him for some very useful information for the next stage of our trip.’102 Flinders was determined to be the first explorer to survey the north coast of Australia, including the Gulf of Carpentaria, and so he made plans to leave Port Jackson expeditiously. Flinders and Governor King decided that, owing to the winter season, it would be foolhardy to sail towards the south and to follow, in reverse direction, the track he had taken to Port Jackson, eventually going around the west coast of New Holland to northern Australia. Flinders agreed with King that he should proceed northward and explore Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria before the north-west monsoon began, probably in November. The objects of the Investigator’s expedition could then be completed by a return voyage to Port Jackson via Torres Strait and along the east coast of Australia, or by continuing around the west and south coasts, through Bass Strait, and back to Port Jackson.103 Before he left Sydney, Flinders was confident that he could locate ‘the shipwreck of the unfortunate Monsieur de la Pérouse, whom he reckoned to have been lost north-north-east of Port Jackson’.104 On 7 June, Flinders despatched his letters, but not his charts, to the Admiralty, to indicate his existing achievements on the voyage. He had not yet finished the charts; they needed further work before submission. This was to cause disappointment for his patron Banks, who later expressed sentiments to this effect to Governor King.105 But King and Flinders had been concerned about the safe transmission of the charts. By 21 July, the reprovisioning of the Investigator was completed and the vessel left Port Jackson to make her way northward according to the plan discussed between Flinders and King.106 After Flinders’ departure, Baudin’s expedition remained at Port Jackson until 17 November 1802. Friendly relations between the French explorer and Governor King continued. Indeed, King went well beyond the call of duty in helping Baudin to acquire the locally built Casuarina to accompany the Géographe on the rest of her voyage. He also assisted the geologist on the French expedition in his excursions to the Hawkesbury River area to collect specimens and study the natural landscape. Baudin expressed open gratitude for King’s help and hospitality and categorically denied, when confronted with a rumour, that his expedition intended to pursue political ends such as the establishment of a French colony in Australia. However, two members of Baudin’s expedition did use the sojourn at Port Jackson to spy and collect information to enable France to stage a military attack upon Port Jackson. These were Lieutenant Louis de Freycinet and Francois Péron, the latter of whom later wrote extensively about the French possibility of an attack on the British colony in New South Wales.107 Péron had great antagonism for Baudin, whom he regarded as obstinate and as responsible for most of the disasters on the French expedition. Péron’s published account of the French expedition was not only critical of Baudin but also ungenerous in giving Flinders credit for the accomplishments of his voyage in the Investigator.108

8

The East Coast and Torres Strait

Setting sail northwards from Sydney Cove on 21 July 1802, the Investigator was accompanied by the Lady Nelson as a tender. This was in conjunction with Admiralty orders conveyed to Governor Philip Gidley King, who authorized Flinders to take the Lady Nelson under his command on 15 July 1802. Flinders was given the freedom to deploy that sixty-ton brig as he saw fit for as long as its service was helpful to his survey. In the event of parting from the Investigator, the Lady Nelson was instructed to anchor near Sandy Cape in Hervey Bay and remain there for a day; if she missed the Investigator, she was to sail to Thirsty Sound and anchor there until the ships made a rendezvous. Once the utility of the Lady Nelson had ended, the vessel was to return to Port Jackson. Flinders also had the use of a newly constructed rowing boat, 28 feet 7 inches long, with eight oars, constructed by Thomas Moore, master boat builder at Port Jackson.1 Governor King invited George Caley, a young botanist sent by Sir Joseph Banks to New South Wales, to join Brown and Good on the Investigator, but he declined, possibly because he realized Brown had received a better scientific training than him.2 The voyage of the Investigator along the east coast of Australia lasted from late July to the end of October 1802. This was an extensive coastline of 2,000 miles, from Port Jackson to Cape York, the northernmost point of mainland Australia. More than half of that distance lay in the tropics. For many hundreds of miles, sailing near the coast was difficult owing to rocky islets and the coral cays of the Great Barrier Reef. It would be necessary for the Investigator and the Lady Nelson to proceed in tandem to overcome the navigational challenges of this route northwards. The Lady Nelson, it was supposed, would be sufficiently small to penetrate any river openings sighted.3 Australia’s east coast, unlike much of the south coast, was not virgin territory for navigators. Flinders himself had previously sailed from Port Jackson as far north as Moreton Bay in the Norfolk in 1799. Thirty years earlier, Cook had described and charted a good deal of the east coast in the Endeavour.4 Flinders was fully informed about Cook’s track and his achievements: this was the one part of the Investigator’s voyage where Flinders literally sailed in the wake of Cook. Flinders was determined to make his own significant contribution, however, to the investigation and charting of the east coast. His instructions from the Admiralty laid emphasis on exploring the south and north coasts of Terra Australis. However, Flinders knew Cook’s exploration of the east coast had been undertaken without the help of a chronometer, and he

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wanted to improve on the accuracy of his illustrious predecessor in charting that part of Australia. Flinders was bold enough to think he could re-survey the east coast and still have time to undertake a detailed investigation of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Between late July and late October 1802, as he sailed up the coast of northern New South Wales and what is now Queensland, Flinders had frequent recourse to Cook’s journal and charts of his voyage in 1770.5 After a few days’ sail north of Port Jackson, Flinders found the Lady Nelson had parted from the Investigator and was nowhere to be seen. This was the beginning of a familiar pattern, for the brig frequently lagged behind the Investigator. This soon proved a hindrance to the survey. On 27 July, the Investigator was in the neighbourhood of Double Island Point and Wide Bay, and Flinders wanted to explore what appeared to be a passage leading towards the shore because Cook had only seen this part of the coast indistinctly. The absence of the Lady Nelson made this impossible. It was in this location near the Great Sandy Peninsula that Flinders thought the southern limit of the Great Barrier Reef began under the water’s surface.6 It was reported to Flinders that about fifty Aborigines were assembled in this vicinity, which Cook had named Indian Head on account of also seeing natives there in 1770. Indian Head was the easternmost point of Fraser Island, but both Cook and Flinders thought it was a peninsula.7 Flinders tried to find a passage between Sandy Cape and Breaksea Spit, but could not locate an opening. His conclusion was that no passage lay there into Hervey Bay.8 On 30 July, the Lady Nelson saw the Investigator bearing north-west at a distance of ten or eleven miles. When the vessels anchored near one another, Flinders questioned Murray about his sailing over the past week and concluded that he was inexperienced at keeping his ship close to the shore and negotiating adverse currents.9 Nevertheless, Murray was useful in preparing charts of his track in the Lady Nelson northwards from Port Jackson to the Cumberland Isles.10 Flinders remained at Sandy Cape for another day so that the botanists could go onshore in search of specimens. Numerous plant species were found. Brown kept a detailed plant list, including mosses, lichens and ferns. There were abundant types of pandanus as well as banksia, casuarina and eucalyptus trees.11 Flinders, accompanied by Bongaree and four others, encountered Aborigines on their excursion at Sandy Cape. Bongaree, stripped naked as the natives were, tried to communicate with them; but he could not understand a word of their language. This was unsurprising as Aborigines have many different languages and dialects. Good provided an interesting account of this encounter: the Aborigines did not permit their women & children to come near the Europeans but some were seen at a distance & it was reported the women had long hair tyed behind. The men were of a middle stature (rather under) well made mild & sociable having no weapons … Bungery (a native of Broken Bay which we had with us) amused them by throughing his Spear, which seemed to surprise them and it appears they are unacquainted with the Wumora they did not differ much in their persons or appearance from the Natives of Port Jackson but have a different Language for Bungery could not understand them.12

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Despite the misunderstanding of gestures and language, however, this proved a friendly encounter between Flinders’ party and the Aborigines. About thirty natives followed Flinders and his group back to the ship. On the shore Flinders gave them presents of red caps, tomahawks, with which they were pleased, while the Aborigines handed over some buckets and nets.13 Flinders had surveyed the area around Hervey Bay in the Norfolk in 1799. He decided to resume surveying where he had left off on that voyage.14 Sailing past Bustard Bay, the Investigator proceeded northwards, but Flinders missed the entrance to the Burnett River where the town of Bundaberg now stands.15 The Investigator anchored at the northern entrance to Port Curtis on 5 August. The scientific gentlemen landed from the ship and soon came across a group of Aborigines. Several attempts were made to approach them, but the natives remained at a distance, watching them. A little later the Aborigines attacked the party with a war whoop and a discharge of stones. The natives had no spears.16 The party retreated but Brown ordered a musket to be fired. On hearing this, the Aborigines retreated. ‘Thus ended,’ reported Brown, ‘our first skirmish with these poor unarm’d savages, in which they seemd to have much the advantage of us in point of bravery & also in conduct’.17 After dealing with this encounter, Brown and his colleagues were able to botanize. They identified forty-eight plants in this location.18 While the botanical party was on shore, Flinders took a boat to explore the passage between Curtis Island and the mainland (near today’s Gladstone). He took bearings on Quoin Island. On 6 August he set out in the whale boat to explore Port Curtis. Finding the channel too narrow, he turned back from what is now known as The Narrows, situated between Curtis Island and the mainland.19 Flinders resumed his voyage in the Investigator on 9 August, when he sailed to Keppel Bay. He anchored there to explore two openings marked by Cook that might turn out to be the mouths of rivers. Flinders sailed in the whale boat to the mouth of the Fitzroy River and landed to take bearings on Mackenzie Island.20 Encountering dense mangrove swamps, covered inlets and several muddy islands, he was convinced there was no navigable river; but in fact one of the openings he saw was the Fitzroy River. Today this leads up, over thirty-five miles, to the city of Rockhampton.21 Ascending West Arm Hill on Mackenzie Island, Flinders observed four different places where water opened through the shores of the bay into the mainland; but they did not appear to be large openings.22 He remained at Keppel Bay for a few more days and recorded a further meeting with Aborigines, which merited descriptions by Good and Brown. The natives were initially hostile but they calmed down after parleying took place. Flinders’ party presented them with looking glasses, hatchets and other presents, but they were offered nothing in return. The Aborigines jumped suddenly on seeing a reflection of themselves in the looking glasses, having never experienced this before. ‘They were the strongest made Natives we had Seen in New Holland,’ Good noted, ‘painted with a great variety of figures & colours wore necklaces of reed & shells & had a great variety of features some were thought upwards of 6 feet high’.23 Westall made some sketches of Aborigines at this location.24 Flinders’ verdict on Keppel Bay was that it was ‘not of much value, either as a place for a future colony, or for ships to procure refreshment’.25 On 18 August the Investigator and the Lady Nelson left Keppel Bay and sailed north past Cape Manifold and the

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Map 8.1 The Keppel Bay and Port Curtis area of Queensland

Hervey Isles, both of which Westall sketched.26 Three days later, Flinders anchored at Entrance Island, near Port Bowen (now Port Clinton), which had escaped Cook’s view when sailing past there in the Endeavour.27 The scientific gentlemen landed on the north side of the port, but only found a few plants.28 Flinders went ashore on Entrance Island to take angles. He considered Port Bowen to lack a secure anchorage; it was only suitable for ships needing to put in there in an emergency. The land surrounding

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the port, in his opinion, was stony, sandy, and unfit for cultivation.29 On 25 August the voyage resumed against a north-westerly breeze, but an unfavourable tide caused Flinders to anchor near the northernmost of the Hervey Isles. The next day the Investigator proceeded into Shoalwater Bay, which Cook had discovered and named in May 1770.30 Flinders landed on the mainland with a party of gentlemen and climbed Mount Westall, named after his landscape painter, who, appropriately, drew three panoramic sketches from the summit.31 Flinders continued his survey in Shoalwater Bay until 4 September, allowing the botanists time to carry out their investigations. He then sailed to Thirsty Sound, a long channel between the islands and the mainland, and anchored the Investigator at Pier Head, near its entrance. This was where Cook in 1770 had used an azimuth compass to take bearings, and found the needle differed from its true position by more than 30 degrees.32 Flinders took an extensive set of angles here to ascertain the difference by experiment. He was anxious to follow Cook in observing the variations of the needle because his longitude in the Investigator ‘was getting more eastward from captain Cook

Map 8.2 The Thirsty Sound region, Queensland

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as we advanced along the coast’.33 Navigation in Shoalwater Bay was difficult, with spring tides of about eighteen feet.34 Taking a launch to the west side of the bay, Brown and a few others came across sixteen peaceable Aborigines, who had bark canoes which held spears neatly pointed at the ends with pieces of quartz. Their appearance, according to Flinders, was ‘much inferior to the inhabitants of Keppel and Hervey’s Bays’.35 Once again, Bungaree could not understand their language.36 The ship soon moved into Broad Sound, named but not examined by Cook, and Flinders, along with the scientific gentlemen, made a quick examination of West Hill Island, situated close to the mainland shore.37 Flinders wrote to Governor King to explain that he had explored the coast of New South Wales and its offshore islands from Hervey Bay to Broad Sound ‘with minuteness, and I hope accuracy; and consequently have made some discoveries which the hasty manner in which the great captain Cook passed did not permit him to make’.38 Flinders noted that his first objective on landing at every port or bay along this coast was to examine the refuse thrown up by the ocean to see whether remnants of the voyage made by La Pérouse, which had been wrecked somewhere near New Caledonia, had been brought by the trade winds and ships to these shores. La Pérouse had been last seen by Europeans at Port Jackson, leaving Botany Bay, in March 1788.39 No pieces of ship timber or any other remains, however, were found that could have any connection to the lost French explorer. That is not surprising as the remains of La Pérouse’s ship were not found until 1826, and in a very different location, namely Vanikoro Island.40 Flinders spent time examining the Northumberland Isles, and concluded that ships might procure pines from them for ship masts. He was unimpressed with the potential of Thirsty Sound as a harbour: it was subject to north-east and east winds coming in from the ocean and had insufficient shelter for ships.41 Sailing into Broad Sound, a large bay about 50 kilometres long and 20 kilometres at its widest point, he found the same irregularity in the depth of water across the sound as Cook had noticed.42 On 9 September Flinders and some of the scientific gentlemen landed on West Hill Island and climbed a hill from which bearings were taken. Brown observed very few plants that he had not seen before. Hardly any trees or shrubs had flowers or fruit. Moving the Investigator across Broad Sound to the Flat Isles, another landing, on Flock Pigeon Island, led to many more trees and shrubs being inspected by Brown and his colleagues.43 On 13 September the Lady Nelson ran aground suddenly near Upper Head, on the mainland, and it was clear she could advance no further and would be stranded at low water: her main keel was broken and her small bower cable parted. After repairs took place, Flinders and Brown sailed in her to the head of Broad Sound to complete the examination of these waters. A camp was set up at Upper Head so that Samuel Flinders could check the scientific instruments before the voyage up to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In the meantime Robert Fowler oversaw the airing of the stores.44 The Lady Nelson grounded a second time on 17 September. While she was again being repaired, Flinders sailed in the Investigator from Broad Sound to examine the western entrance to Thirsty Sound. He was held up on both the outward and return journeys by difficult navigation through shoals.45 The timekeepers had been let down. It would need a week to obtain accurate rates for the voyage towards Torres Strait to proceed safely. During that time Flinders occupied himself with additions to the

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minuteness and accuracy of the charts of the area, finding that Cook’s chart for the inner end of Thirsty Sound needed correction.46 Cook had not had the advantage of a newly developed marine chronometer on his voyage, and so his chart bearings were not always accurate.47 Flinders spent much time correcting the longitude measurements and compass variations produced by Cook to provide accuracy for future navigators. This was a necessary task because incorrect readings could lead to ‘rocks or shoals, as near even as half a mile, which might prove fatal’ to ships. Flinders’ revised tables of longitude showed corrections of between 20½ and 58½ minutes.48 These distances, measured at the equator, were between 28 and 68 nautical miles.49 In an unpublished ‘Memoir’ compiled some years after the Investigator’s expedition ended, Flinders explained in technical detail the methods he followed in calculating the longitude while sailing up the east coast of Australia.50 Flinders reflected at some length on his impressions of Broad Sound. The tidal range was the greatest on the eastern coast of Australia, ranging between 20 and 30 feet.51 High rises of the tide in this location were influenced by the convergence of two tidal systems, which amplified the tide levels.52 Although the tide rose significantly and rapidly at Upper Head, the expedition up this channel in the Lady Nelson and the whaleboat showed that no sailing vessel could follow that route before encountering low water and sands. The shores of Broad Sound were mainly low, covered with mangroves, and susceptible to overflowing from the ocean during spring tides. Shoal water was extensive. Yet Flinders thought the area was the best neighbourhood he had come across for a settlement on Australia’s east coast north of Port Jackson. The high rise of the tide made Broad Sound suitable for the construction of ships and docks; the abundant pines would make good masts; extensive eucalyptus was available for ship timbers; and the hot climate would be appropriate for the cultivation of cotton, sugar, coffee or tobacco. He speculated that there might be an opening somewhere along the coast just examined that would possibly lead into the Gulf of Carpentaria or the equivalent of a Mediterranean sea.53 That he could offer such an observation is testimony to the information that still needed to be gathered about Australia’s geography, notably whether it was intersected by passages or rivers from one part of the continent to another. Brown and the botanical assistants undertook a further shore excursion at Upper Head on 25 and 26 September at the conclusion of which they had collected 237 plants at Broad Sound.54 Flinders later remarked that the mainland had always been more productive for the botanists than any of the islands.55 Leaving Broad Sound on 27 September, the Investigator proceeded northwards to the Percy Isles, stopping briefly at Middle Island for botanical investigation, and first sighted the Great Barrier Reef (a name created by Flinders) at midday on 5 October.56 Over the next ten days the Investigator tried to make its way through ‘a continual labyrinth of Coral reefs Shoals and Breakers’ with the water sometimes ‘looking like a whirlpool and such an eddy as to wheel the Ship about during which time we lost an Anchor and the Lady Nelson lost one and Broke another’.57 In his published account, Flinders referred to the reefs forming ‘a barrier to the coast’.58 On one of his survey sheets, he noted ‘there is little doubt but that these reefs

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are connected together, forming an extensive barrier to this part of the coast of New South Wales, though it is probable there may be several small passages through them’.59 The reefs formed a labyrinthine maze for hundreds of square miles off the Queensland coast. They were created from coral skeletons cemented into solid rock, the interstices between them filled with coralline algae that grew by calcification.60 Finding one’s way through the reefs posed major challenges for navigators. Flinders knew about several voyages, however, that had sailed through the reefs in the previous thirty years. Principally, there was the example of Cook in the Endeavour in 1770, which had left a legacy of charts showing the explorer’s track through the reefs. That voyage was also testimony to the dangers of navigation though the Great Barrier Reef. Cook had struck the reef off the coast north of Cape Tribulation and with difficulty guided the ship to a beach on the shores of the Endeavour River, where two months were needed to carry out repairs.61 Flinders was dependent on Cook’s survey for most of his own voyaging through the Great Barrier Reef, but a blank space on the charts existed for 220 miles between Cape Flattery to Cape Weymouth which Cook, sailing away from the coast, had not seen. Besides Cook, the Deptford under Captain William Campbell had come across reefs in 1797 about ninety-five miles north-east of Broad Sound; and in 1798 the Eliza under Captain Swain had encountered reefs offshore from Shoalwater Bay.62 Flinders hoped to find a way through the barrier, but he did not know several thousand reefs stretched for more than 1,250 miles from Hervey Bay up to New Guinea.63 Navigation through the reefs to find a passage to the open sea would be difficult and time-consuming. Flinders had acquired knowledge from his voyage with Bligh in the Providence about the difficulties of sailing through waters with coral reefs; but he realized that a daunting task lay ahead of him.64 Flinders headed for the westernmost part of the reefs seen by Campbell and Swain, intending to retrace their route across the Bay of Inlets before quitting the coast to head for Torres Strait.65 Knowing Cook had already charted the Whitsunday Islands, and taking into account the lateness of the season and the desire to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria before the north-west monsoon began, Flinders searched for a shortcut towards the top of the Cape York Peninsula by sailing away from the coast and heading seaward.66 Surrounded by a plethora of coral, it was difficult to find an opening into the clear sea beyond. Demanding sailing conditions might lead to the Investigator and the Lady Nelson being parted. Flinders wrote down instructions for Murray to follow in that eventuality. The directions were to steer north-eastward off the coast to the distance of 4° longitude and at latitude 9°52ʹ to steer due west for Maer Island, as marked in Bligh’s chart. The Lady Nelson was instructed to anchor near the Murray Isles and to stay there for two months, ensuring a lookout for the Investigator occurred each day. If, after the two months had elapsed, there had been no rendezvous between the two vessels, Murray was instructed to sail through Endeavour Strait, the most extensive channel of Torres Strait, and to continue around the north, west and south coasts of Australia to Port Jackson, where all the information known about the discoveries made by the Investigator should be reported to Governor King.67 These instructions to send a small vessel such as the Lady Nelson on a voyage covering three-quarters of the Australian

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coast seem very daunting, but they illustrate Flinders’ determination to communicate the results of the expedition to the wider world. Flinders kept a very careful watch to chart his passage through the reefs. In the summer haze, it was difficult to distinguish exactly what lay ahead; but he learned to disbelieve all appearances of reefs apart from where something could be seen above water or where the water had a tinge of green in it. Shadows from the clouds gave the impression of being ‘reefs’ as did the eddying tidal steam. Difficult passages through the reefs ‘formed not a solid barrier but a great loosely scattered jigsaw pattern, greencovered at high water, brown and black-studded with “negro heads” at low’.68 At times Flinders was encircled by reefs, and changed direction frequently; his hope of finding a clear route through to open sea seemed hopeless.69 Flinders was fascinated by the formation of corals and their iridescent colours, but he was also concerned about his track through the reef: each species had a different shade of colour between green, purple, brown and white, equalling in beauty and excelling in grandeur the most favourite parterre of the most curious florist; but in contemplating this rich scene, we could not forget that we were probably admiring what might, even very soon, be the destruction of our poor ship, of ourselves, and all our hopes.70

The frequent chance of danger in navigating through the Great Barrier Reef led Flinders to issue additional orders to his crew beyond the obvious instruction to keep a good lookout at the mast head during the day and a strict watch at night. Five instructions were given. First, the gunner and the carpenter were to have charge of the lookout at night when the ship was in the neighbourhood of land, reefs or any other danger. They were to liaise with the officer of the watch in carrying out these responsibilities. Second, the officer of the watch was to report to the commander at the masthead in daylight at the end of his stint when any land or danger was in sight. Third, when the ship was anchored overnight but got under way in the morning before 8 o’clock, when there seemed no danger, the officer and petty officers who had kept the middle watch were excused from attending but all other officers had to attend. Fourth, the officer of the watch was charged with carrying out the third order. Fifth, the gunner was to take the second lieutenant’s watch between 8 o’clock in the morning and 8 o’clock in the evening because the second lieutenant was helping the commander to perform the duty of an astronomer.71 Difficulties encountered by the Investigator and the Lady Nelson convinced Flinders that he could not take a risky route out of the reefs. Of the three anchors supplied to the Lady Nelson, one was lost and a second one broken; the tender had also lost ‘her former capacity of beating to windward’.72 As Flinders put it: ‘The loss of anchors we had this day sustained deterred me from any more attempting the small passages through the Barrier reef; in these, the tide runs with extraordinary violence, and the bottom is coral rock; and whether with, or without, wind, no situation can be more dangerous.’73 On 16 October Flinders anchored at Calder Island, inside the Great Barrier Reef, to take bearings and to allow the botanists scope for collecting.74 After sailing northwards

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for another couple of days, Flinders was convinced of a good prospect of sailing away from the Great Barrier Reef so he ‘sent the Lady Nelson, tender, back to Port Jackson, expecting no further impediment from the reefs’.75 Flinders had additional reasons for this parting of the ways between the Investigator and the Lady Nelson. As there were no more spare anchors for the consort should she run aground or hit a reef and stores might run low, it would be unsafe for her to continue sailing with the Investigator. In addition, the Lady Nelson had lagged behind her sister ship for most of the voyage from Port Jackson and might be the cause of further, unwanted delays.76 Flinders apparently did not consult Murray over this decision: the news was conveyed to Murray by Fowler when he visited the Lady Nelson.77 Murray noted in his logbook that he was instructed to return to Port Jackson ‘as fast as circumstances would allow’.78 An exchange of a few crew between the Investigator and the Lady Nelson took place, and a launch was transferred from the latter to the former.79 Robert Brown took the opportunity at this juncture to write a letter to Sir Joseph Banks informing him of the botanical progress of the voyage from Port Jackson up Australia’s east coast to the Barrier Reef. Brown noted that he had collected 450 species of plants, including grasses but excluding cryptogamic plants. The dry season, however, meant that many plants lacked both flowers and fruit. Very few of the plants were new. Brown was aware that many had been discovered by Banks in 1770 in the Endeavour. The zoological acquisitions, in Brown’s opinion, were not particularly important, and though the mineralogy of the east coast was more varied than that of the south, little had been observed that was ‘either very curious or important’.80 Flinders wrote a detailed letter to Governor King, explaining the reasons for sending back the Lady Nelson to Port Jackson. After examining the east coast from Hervey Bay to Broad Sound minutely, the loss of the Lady Nelson’s anchors and main keel, and the possibility of further damage to that brig, had caused him to dispatch that vessel back to Sydney Cove. Loss of the keel, for example, meant that it was imprudent to send the Lady Nelson into any situation where her safety depended upon beating to windward, for ‘the keels are the life and soul of the vessel’. The Investigator had no remaining anchors to replace those lost on the brig; if it were to offer one of its own anchors, it would be unable to save the bowers or heave the ship off from any shoal or reef where it might be stuck. If the brig were lost, it would be of no further service to the Investigator whereas repairs to the Lady Nelson at Port Jackson would render her useful in the future. Finally, it would be quicker for the Investigator to proceed to the Gulf of Carpentaria without having to check the whereabouts of the Lady Nelson.81 Flinders expressed satisfaction with Murray’s conduct as commander of the Lady Nelson, ‘for considering that he is a stranger to marine surveying, every service has been rendered to us by him that would have been expected’.82 On 18 October the Investigator and the Lady Nelson showed their colours to one another in farewell salutes. The Lady Nelson struggled to sail back to Sydney Cove, arriving there on 22 November after losing one of her two defective anchors and having to stop for a carpenter to spend a week shaping an ironbark tree into a wooden anchor. Murray returned to England in May 1803 on HMS Glatton, taking with him Flinders’ manuscript surveys of the south coast for deposit at the Admiralty.83

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Cook had sailed in the Endeavour mainly between reefs and the mainland: the possibility of running aground made him wary of further sailing through the extensive coral barrier.84 Flinders, however, was determined to find a passage through the Great Barrier Reef. This proved difficult in practice. Having bade the Lady Nelson farewell, Flinders navigated the Investigator between Round Reef and Tideway Reef and aimed for a gap between Ross Reef and Block Reef. But he was forced to turn back when the water shoaled suddenly. A change of course was needed almost every hour. Flinders then headed for a gap near Block Reef, but that also proved impassable. He sailed past Hook Reef, Bait Reef, Seagull Reef and proceeded to the north-west between Faith Reef and Hope Reef. On his survey sheet of the east coast, Flinders summarized the difficulties involved in navigation through the Great Barrier Reefs: ‘Extensive Barrier Reefs, mostly dry at low water: on the outside high breakers, but withinside smooth water and secure navigation.’85 Flinders had now sailed about 500 miles inside the reefs.86 In a straight line, this amounted to nearly 350 miles ‘and in all this space, there seems no large opening’.87 On 20 October the attempt to penetrate beyond the reefs continued as the Investigator sailed between Darley Reef and Stanley Reef before spotting a gap just east of Bowden Reef. This was around noon. Flinders changed course to east–north–east. Around 4 pm he reported there were no reefs in sight. In his journal Good recorded that ‘past noon a considerable swell & heavy sea … indicated we were clear of the Reefs’.88 An opening had been found through the Great Barrier Reef via a course now known as Flinders Passage. This lay in latitude 18°45ʹ south and longitude 148°10ʹ east.89 It was the southernmost of the passages used by ships sailing through the reefs, but it involved treacherous navigation. Though still often used nowadays because it is one of the few safe passages through the reefs, it has been referred to as ‘a tortuous and commercially useless path’.90 Flinders had not travelled the full length of the Great Barrier Reef, but he had followed it with more persistence than any previous navigator. He was uncertain whether the reefs he had travelled through were connected ‘with the labyrinth of captain Cook’, but he suspected they reached as far north as Torres Strait.91 Four days’ sailing north from Flinders Passage brought the Investigator towards Torres Strait and a landfall at the Murray Islands. Many boobies, petrels and tropic birds were seen en route.92 Flinders steered the ship well away from reefs, and presumably did not examine the coast between Cape Grafton and Cape Flattery because Cook had already done so thoroughly.93 The condition of the ship was giving concern, for it was leaking four inches of water per hour.94 The Investigator anchored at Maer, the largest of the three Murray Islands. From the ship, Brown saw huts and many people on the beach, with canoes. They were not Aborigines but Melanesians. Some of these people sailed in their canoes to the ship and exchanged coconuts, bananas, water in bamboo cane, bracelets, ornaments and bows and arrows for iron products such as hatchets. Later Flinders noted that these natives ‘were more numerous, active, and daring at Murrays Isles, and on the New Guinea side of the Strait, than upon the isles near Cape York, and they value iron instruments excessively’. The Melanesians were used to trading goods and would not part with their articles unless they received equivalent goods or gifts.95

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The Murray Islanders carried spears, but were not hostile. Nevertheless, Flinders was wary of them because he knew that at least five men on the merchant ship Hormazier had been killed in 1793 by Papuan warriors when sailing along the south coast of New Guinea towards Timor.96 Flinders therefore ordered his marines to remain under arms, watching the motions of each canoe. The Melanesians were not afraid, though they were surprised to come across Flinders and his company. At least one Melanesian, according to Brown, showed familiarity with the use of small shot and musket bullets. The visitors in the canoes were naked except for some shell ornaments and plaited hair; the men were ‘active, tolerably muscular, are about the middle height, and have countenances expressive of a quick apprehension’.97 Westall sketched some profiles of these islands.98 Flinders delayed departure from the Murray Islands until the sun was high enough for altitudes to be taken.99 The resumption of the voyage met with frequent breakers and a considerable flood tide, but after a day’s sail the Investigator anchored at what Flinders named Half-way Island (now called Zuizin Island). Brown collected some plants there.100 Continuing to sail towards Torres Strait, Flinders knew from the work of previous navigators that reefs would be encountered and so he followed a course close to the Cape York Peninsula.101 He had details of the tracks followed through Torres Strait by Bligh in the Bounty’s launch and the Providence and by William Wright Bampton in the Hormazier, which had been accompanied by the Chesterfield under Matthew Bowles Alt. Flinders decided to follow a passage through the reefs towards the Strait known as the Pandora’s passage, which had been found by Captain Edward Edwards in the Pandora in 1791 when sailing to capture the mutineers from the Bounty. Flinders chose this entrance in preference to the more northerly track steered by Bligh in the Providence (a voyage in which he himself had sailed) in 1792.102 Flinders realized the importance of finding a safe passage through Torres Strait. ‘The Navigation from the Pacific, or Great Ocean, to all parts of India, and to the Cape of Good Hope would be greatly facilitated,’ he later wrote, ‘if a passage through the Strait, moderately free from danger, could be discovered; since five or six weeks of the usual route, by the north of New Guinea or the more eastern islands, would thereby be saved’.103 Previous navigators had recorded the formidable dangers of sailing through Torres Strait. Flinders proceeded with caution. Torres Strait, about 150 kilometres wide, links two mainly separate tidal systems, one operating within the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arafura Sea to the west and the other within the Gulf of Papua and the Coral Sea to the east. Differences between the ocean tides within these seas cause complex tidal dynamics. Dramatic and swiftly changing tidal streams can occur. Shallow waters, shoals and coral reefs modify the hydrodynamics further. East-west movement in Torres Strait is restricted to draughts of 12.2 metres, while north–south movement is confined to much shallower draughts. Reefs extended across the eastern end of the strait, closing the south-eastern approaches to small draft craft except for a handful of small breaks. 104 Flinders took his ship through Torres Strait in six days, but he believed it could have been accomplished in three.105 To his knowledge, the previous most expeditious passage through the strait was by Bligh in the Providence in 1792, which took nineteen days. This was, of course, a voyage in which Flinders had been a midshipman. Bligh had sailed on the New Guinea side of the strait and had met with many dangers, as

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Map 8.3 Torres Strait, Queensland

did the Hormazier under Bampton in 1793. Flinders had plenty of information about previous efforts by navigators to find a safe passage through the strait. He had with him his own chart, drafted in 1792, showing the track of the Providence under Bligh through Torres Strait.106 He had a copy of Bligh’s survey of the strait, also undertaken in the Providence, and Dalrymple’s charts of the passage of the Hormazier through Torres Strait.107 Flinders avoided Bligh’s track and kept away from the south side of the strait, knowing from Cook’s chart and the loss of the Pandora that that would prove a dangerous and tortuous route. Instead, he opted for a central route through the strait, and established that this was the safest way of taking ships from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Carpentaria.108 Flinders found Bligh’s chart drawn in the Bounty’s launch was more accurate than Cook’s.109 This led him to question the accuracy of Cook’s longitudes. Cook’s measurement of the difference in longitude between the flat-topped island off Cape

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York to Booby Island was 73ʹ whereas Flinders’ and Bligh’s figures were 44ʹ and 39ʹ respectively.110 Flinders was so respectful of Cook’s reputation as a navigator that he found it difficult to reconcile the discrepancy in these readings: ‘I confess my judgement to have been altogether confounded by such unexpected differences,’ he wrote in an unpublished ‘Memoir’, adding that ‘considering myself to be a mere tyro in nautical science, in comparison of captain Cook, was inclined to believe, that our log, compasses, time-keepers, sextants and myself were all in the wrong, rather than that such errors should have been made by him’.111 Flinders was correct in supposing that it was uncommon for Cook to have made such errors in calculating longitude. It has been explained, however, that the wrong figures might have resulted from the ill health of Charles Green, the astronomer in the Endeavour.112 The passage through Torres Strait progressed more smoothly than the tracks taken by any previous navigator through these waters. Flinders found his route offered plentiful opportunities for a ship to anchor. ‘If the remainder of our route is made as fortunately as this large portion has already been,’ he wrote in his journal, ‘the formidable navigation will be disarmed of much of its terrors: the dangers we underwent in searching for a passage through the reefs on the east coast are infinitely superior to anything we have seen in this strait’.113 The Admiralty had instructed Flinders to make a detailed survey of Torres Strait, but he was unable to do so. The poor state of his ship, the navigational difficulties encountered and delays in sailing through the Great Barrier Reef had led to a later arrival in Torres Strait than he wanted owing to the impending north-west monsoon season. He intended to return in the following year to find a more direct passage into Torres Strait to the south of Murray’s Islands, and to have the assistance of the Lady Nelson in making a survey of the strait.114 But even though Flinders had not investigated the strait with the thoroughness he would have liked, his route through these dangerous waters was a significant navigational advance. It proved important for future navigators, who could save weeks on their voyage by following a similar track. Governor King acknowledged that this route was ‘a matter of great universal benefit’.115

9

The Gulf of Carpentaria and the North Coast

Early seventeenth-century Dutch navigators had explored part of the Gulf of Carpentaria, named after the explorer Pieter de Carpentier, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. In 1606, Willem Janszoon sailed in the small Dutch ship Duyfken (Little Dove in English) from Bantam, Java, and surveyed the Cape York Peninsula on the east side of the Gulf as far as Cape Kerweer (Cape Turnaround in English), south of Albatross Bay. He thought he was charting a southerly part of New Guinea. Finding the land swampy and the inhabitants inhospitable, Janszoon left the Gulf and turned north before heading back to Bantam. The Duyfken’s logbooks were lost in the seventeenth century.1 Several subsequent Dutch expeditions followed and charted part of the Gulf coast. They included Jan Carstensz’ command of two ships, the Pera and the Arnhem, which in 1623 extended the discovery of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula for about 3°21ʹS latitude beyond Cape Keerweer.2 The Gulf of Carpentaria was a remote area for Europeans: Flinders was the first navigator to enter it in forty-six years.3 On his chart of the Gulf (drawn in 1802–3) he wrote, ‘The east side of the gulph, or Coast of Carpentaria, was discovered as far south as 17° by the Dutch between 1606 and 1623; the south and west sides are supposed to have been discovered by Tasman, in 1644; since when, the gulph was not known to have been visited up to 1802.’4 Flinders intended to examine it minutely, as no explorer had identified its main coastal features. Several maps of Australia printed between 1798 and 1802 showed a continuous Gulf coast. These included maps published by Laurie & Whittle in 1800 and Cadell & Davies in 1802.5 Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean, however, which Flinders had on the Investigator, did not draw in the Arnhem Land coastline but suggested its shape with a line of soundings.6 The factual basis on which Australia’s shoreline was marked on these maps was open to question. There was speculation that the Dutch charts, on which these maps were based, were inaccurate and that a great strait leading into the interior might be found somewhere in the Gulf of Carpentaria, even though no trace of such a thing appeared on the Dutch charts.7 As Flinders later noted, ‘the real form of this gulph remained in as great doubt with geographers’ as that of Torres Strait.8 Flinders’ running survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria occurred between 3 November 1802 and 6 March 1803. To begin with, he sailed along a relatively flat, monotonous coastline, with plenty of shoal and shallow water, and could not sail as close to the coast as he would have liked.9 On entering the Gulf, Flinders calculated the position

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of the Investigator by altitudes and sets of lunars. He was surprised to find Cook’s longitude here was 77 miles to the west, but Cook, as previously mentioned, did not have a timekeeper on the Endeavour’s voyage. ‘Had captain Cook possessed a good time-keeper,’ Flinders noted respectfully, ‘one set, or series, of lunar observations could have been connected with others; and any error … would have been with certainty detected.’10 To examine the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Flinders had a copy of an old Dutch chart, but he did not have the detailed narratives of Dutch voyagers who explored this coast in the first half of the seventeenth century. No narrative had ever been published of Tasman’s voyage of 1644, making the reliability and authorship of the old Dutch chart questionable.11 Dalrymple had supplied the Dutch chart to Flinders. It was a copy of the French cartographer Thévenot’s 1663 map, which incorporated the discoveries of Tasman and other Dutch explorers.12 This map was reissued in constantly augmented editions over the next thirty years.13 It included a number of rivers that the Dutch had discovered in the Gulf, mainly on the voyage of the Duyfken. This Dutch vessel, looking for something of trade value, reached the Gulf near the end of the wet season (probably in March), which was the prime time of the year for locating rivers. Flinders, ironically, in his desire to avoid sailing around the Gulf in the monsoon season, arrived on Australia’s north coast at the end of the dry season when the rivers had their minimum flow.14 The Thévonot map was the only detailed map of the Gulf of Carpentaria that Flinders had in the Investigator. It proved problematic, however, in identifying landmarks because it had inaccuracies and relatively few names and details.15 In early November, Flinders’ attempt to identify three rivers proved inconclusive. First, he did not see an opening that corresponded to the Van Spult River of the Dutch chart; if it existed, it would be very small and only accessible to boats. Second, he saw an entrance about two miles wide that he supposed was the Batavia River of the Dutch charts; but he was unable to explore it because large shoal near its entrance made it impossible to navigate. Third, he saw a small opening he thought was the Coen River of earlier Dutch visitors. He entered it on the whaleboat, but again found an entrance blocked by shoals and only a narrow winding channel beyond.16 This was the only river that Flinders identified on the north coast.17 With a small landing party inside the entrance channel to the Coen River, Flinders and Brown saw Aborigines armed with spears and paddling canoes.18 Flinders later noted, ‘In Torres’ Strait bows and arrows are the offensive weapons; but here we saw spears only.’19 The visit to the shore was made at the request of the botanical gentlemen. Brown listed various plants collected here.20 This was the only landing by the Investigator on the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria.21 Flinders sent Bongaree, unarmed and naked, on shore to confer with the suspicious Aborigines, but they retreated and disappeared.22 On 9 November, Flinders proceeded into Albatross Bay, but the water was too shallow for the Investigator to sail near the shore. This probably accounts for his missing the mouth of the Holroyd River and its tributary, the Kendall River.23 It was impossible to get the Investigator nearer than two miles from the coast along this section of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The seventeenth-century Dutch vessels, by contrast,

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Map 9.1 The South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria were smaller in tonnage and lighter in draft, and they had been able to sail closer to the shore.24 Shallow water persisted. Flinders concluded, perhaps prematurely, that this would lead to the termination of the Gulf as represented in the old Dutch chart ‘and disappointed the hopes found of a strait or passage leading out at some other part of Terra Australis’.25 Flinders described the flat monotony of the shore as ‘a tediously uniform coast’ that had few hills, points and islands that could be distinguished as fixed points for his survey.26 In the 400 miles sailed since losing sight of the Prince of Wales Isles, he had not seen any land as high as a ship’s masthead, something he thought would not be equalled by any coast anywhere in the world.27 Continuing in a clockwise direction down the eastern side of the Gulf, Flinders sighted a slight projection near where the Dutch had marked Staaten River, but he was unable to locate it.28 ‘If the latitude of Staten River is 17° south’, he noted, ‘this opening must be it, but it is a profanation of the term to call such places as these rivers’.29 On 16 November, Sweers Island was discovered near the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. This was named by Flinders after Cornelius Sweers, a member of the Dutch Council in Batavia in 1644 and a signatory to Tasman’s orders. Though the ship anchored there for the night, Flinders initially thought he was lying off part of the mainland because no island was marked in the Dutch chart near that location.30 He later noted that this coast ‘seems to have been first described by Tasman in 1644, but was probably seen by Carpenter in 1628’.31 Nevertheless, it was becoming increasingly clear to Flinders that the Dutch exploration of the Gulf, as represented in the Thévonot chart, was a somewhat hit-and-miss affair. Flinders landed on Sweers Island and used Arnold’s timekeeper 1736 to calculate new rates and make adjustments for errors. He then ascended what he termed Inspection Hill to take bearings with the theodolite. While he undertook these tasks, the crew was employed picking oakum for the caulkers and making an awning for

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the whale boat.32 This was the first anchorage since leaving Broad Sound that was suitable for repairing the ship’s wales.33 Carpenters caulked the ship ‘which had leaked very much lately & found several planks quite rotten’.34 One native was seen in the distance on the mainland, but no people were encountered on Sweers Island. Scattered fish bones, periwinkle shells, small oysters and large holes indicated, however, that Aborigines lived in the vicinity. Brown collected seven samples of impregnated iron stone (quaternary calcarenite) and more than 100 plant species, which was unexpected, given the sterility and small size of Sweers Island.35 The Investigator remained anchored between Sweers Island and the nearby (and much larger) Bentinck Island for three days. Flinders later called this well-sheltered passage Investigator’s Road. He thought it would be the best place for a ship to anchor in the Gulf of Carpentaria if an expedition was ever planned into the interior of Terra Australis.36 The pause in the voyage led to several necessary tasks being undertaken by different groups. Fowler took a party on the seine between Sweers and Bentinck islands to catch fish, which provided several meals for the ship’s company. He came across seven human skulls and many bones on Bentinck Island, but he did not know whether these were the remnants of Aborigines or enemies who had fallen into their hands. Flinders, accompanied by Westall, rowed in the whaleboat to Bentinck Island where he discovered a raft and a paddle, presumably belonging to natives. He searched for supplies of fresh water (without success) to include full water casks in the ship’s hold before the impending start of the north-west monsoon.37 After resuming the voyage on 20 November to Allen Island (named after the miner on the voyage), Flinders left the botanical gentlemen to search for plants and visited nearby Horseshoe Island. Several natives were seen in the water near the island, dragging rafts after them and upon the rocks. Flinders and his companions landed on the beach and made friendly signs to the natives. An exchange of gifts followed. The Aborigines accepted some red worsted caps, a hatchet and an adze and, in return, offered two spears and a throwing stick.38 They had a small canoe made of several small spars lashed together that they used to get from one island to another.39 ‘In appearance,’ Brown noted, ‘they very exactly resembled those of Port Jackson & the East coast. They were however rather uncommonly tall one being about 6 feet 2 inches the other about 5 f[ee]t 11 in[ches]. They had Catamarans rude spears womara & fish gigs.’40 Flinders has a similar description in his fair journal, where he referred to the natives as ‘New Hollanders.’41 In A Voyage to Terra Australis, he included virtually the same descriptive words except that the people were now called ‘Australians’.42 Flinders found the Aborigines in this vicinity were timid, whereas he had been led by Dutch accounts to expect to find them ferocious.43 Returning to the Investigator, Flinders concluded that strong winds precluded sailing further westward, so he returned eastward to the shelter of an anchorage between Bentinck and Sweers islands.44 This allowed the botanical gentlemen further time to explore the natural productions of Bentinck and Sweers islands.45 The carpenters caulking the ship discovered that one of the timbers was rotten. Further examination showed this was a more general problem.46 The carpenters reported to Flinders that rotten parts had been found in the masts and planks of the ship until the problem appeared alarming. The damage to the Investigator was well understood

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by the crew; as Samuel Smith noted, ‘we Dispair’d of ever Arriving safe into any port, especially if we met with Boisterous Weather’.47 To identify the extent of the rotten timbers, Flinders ordered the master and chief carpenter – John Aken and Russell Mart – to examine the physical state of the Investigator and to inform him in detail about whether the leaks would impede the voyage’s progress. He wanted to know four things in particular: whether the ship was fit to encounter bad weather; whether getting on shore from the ship was likely to cause problems; whether, in the case of an accident, the vessel would bear heaving down or lying on shore without damage; and for how long the ship could continue her voyage in fine weather and in the event of no misfortune.48 Aken and Mart immediately carried out their examination of the ship. Within two days, they sent a written report that caused great concern to Flinders. Plenty of evidence was cited about rotting timbers, and it was suspected that the inside parts of the ship replicated this problem. The master and the carpenter offered considered answers to Flinders’ four questions. First, the Investigator was making ten inches of water per hour in a common fresh breeze and would hardly escape foundering if a strong gale were encountered. Aken and Mart concluded the vessel was ‘totally unfit to encounter too much bad weather’. Second, they were in no doubt that, if the ship came upon the shore in unfavourable circumstances, she would immediately break into pieces. Thus it was much more dangerous for the ship to get aground in her present state than if she were sound. Third, the vessel could not bear heaving down in any circumstances and laying her on shore would lead to extensive repairs. Fourth, Aken had experience of several ships of the same kind and condition that had rotted very quickly after the first damage to timbers occurred. Aken and Mart concluded, ‘[I]t is our joint opinion that in twelve months there will be scarcely a sound timber in her; but that if she remains in fine weather and happens [to have] no accident, she may run six months longer without much risk.’49 Flinders was mortified to receive the report, as it placed his ambitious voyage in jeopardy. He expressed surprise that rotting timbers had not been properly identified when the ship was in dock at Sheerness or during the stopover at the Cape of Good Hope or on arrival at Port Jackson. But he reflected that, before the voyage began, the shipwrights at Sheerness would have checked the ship for the short voyages she had previously carried out and that the timbers, when inspected at the Cape, were not as bad as at present and had only received routine repairs. At Port Jackson a barricade had been removed, but this was not part of the ship’s original construction. Flinders’ reaction to the report on the precarious fabric of the Investigator indicated a crucial change in the objectives of the voyage: From this dreadful state of the ship, I find the complete examination of the extensive country, which is one of the nearest objects to my heart, to be greatly impeded if not wholly frustrated. I have hitherto considered, that my business is to make so accurate an examination of the shores of New Holland and New South Wales, that there shall be no necessity for any further navigator to come after me; and with this object always in view … I have kept ever close in with the land that nothing might escape our notice.

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He had always adopted the plan that ‘nothing of importance should have been left for future discovery upon any of the shores of this great, and in many points, interesting country … but with a ship which cannot encounter bad weather … I do not know how to prosecute so great an undertaking’.50 Flinders hoped to complete the expedition by sailing back to Port Jackson with the same degree of care and scrutiny displayed so far on the voyage. However, he realized that he would have to reassess the safety of proceeding as planned, on account of the state of his ship’s timbers, the impending monsoon season and the crew’s health. Geoffrey Ingleton has criticized Flinders’ ambitions for the voyage, arguing that Aken and Mart’s report on the Investigator’s condition had rudely shattered the ‘overoptimistic and irrational expectations’ for complete fulfilment of the voyage.51 Overoptimism characterized the intentions of voyage: the initial Admiralty instructions and the selection of the Investigator had created unrealistic expectations. But a charge of ‘irrational’ is hard to justify. This voyage was the main goal of Flinders’ life and career; he had enough self-awareness to realize the perils of continuing the voyage when, as here in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the odds were stacked against him. But he made a rational decision to proceed with the voyage and to reassess the options available to him, should the condition of the ship deteriorate. There was no possibility of turning back eastwards and heading back through Torres Strait owing to the prevalence of storms there at that time of year and summer cyclones on the east coast. Thus he continued with his survey of the Gulf, hoping he could sail north in the shelter of its western shore while the monsoon weather continued and until the arrival of the south-east trade winds in April 1803.52 During the week spent anchored between Bentinck and Sweers islands, while the Investigator was examined, Brown had the opportunity to look for more plants in both localities. Each visit added to the store of plant specimens. Before leaving the anchorage, Brown made out a florula listing 190 species of plants, many of which were new.53 On completing the watering and wooding of the ship, Flinders weighed anchor off Sweers Island on 29 November.54 He soon encountered shoals and a contrary wind, leaving little option except to anchor again. At the beginning of December, conditions improved and the running survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria resumed as Flinders began to investigate the large peninsula, shown on the old Dutch chart, which Tasman called Cape Van Diemen.55 Flinders was sceptical about the Dutch maps locating this cape on the mainland. He was right to be suspicious because, as he discovered, it was actually situated on Mornington Island.56 The island, thirty-five miles long, was the second largest in the Gulf and one of a group that Flinders named Wellesley’s Islands after Richard Wellesley, the Governor-General of India.57 A landing was made on Bountiful Island on 3 December. Flinders took bearings on a hill that was later called Mount Flinders by John Lort Stokes, sailing in the Beagle in 1841. Many of the crew landed to catch the abundant edible turtle found on this island. Almost fifty turtle were caught and brought on board the Investigator to provide meat and soup for the crew. This proved a welcome change from the salted pork and ship’s biscuit that had been the crew’s main food over the past year. Brown and Good landed on Bountiful Island and observed around sixty-five plant species. A couple of days later

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Map 9.2 The Sir Edward Pellew Group, Gulf of Carpentaria

they sailed in the whale boat with Flinders to nearby Pisonia Island, where nearly thirty plant species were identified but only one that was new to Brown. Several species of birds were seen on this island, including a heron, a dove, a cuckoo and possibly a falcon.58 Proceeding out to sea, the Investigator spent several days sailing westwards, anchoring each night. Good noted that ‘the water is so shoal that it can never be surveyed by Vessels of burden’.59 At sunset on 10 December Flinders noticed a hillock to the westnorth-west of the ship and thought it must be the River Van Alphen marked on the old Dutch chart. It was, in fact, what is now the Calvert River.60 Shortly afterwards Flinders saw another small opening referred to as Tasmans River in the old chart; but he could not see any passage into it for a ship. This was probably today’s Robinson River.61 Flinders had now surveyed enough of the Gulf of Carpentaria to arrive at conclusions about previous exploration of that area. ‘I have now no doubt but that the whole of the Gulph of Carpentaria has really undergone an examination of some former period,’ he wrote, and I believe that the old Dutch charts contain a faithful delineation of what was seen; but it seems to me evident, that the head and western part of the gulph, as far as we have advanced, have been examined but superficially, for in every point of minuteness the old chart is miserably deficient, though the general formation bears a striking resemblance.62

Brown confirmed their examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria provided more differences from the published charts than on the east coast.63 The Investigator continued on a westerly course and survived three small incidents of grounding. On 13 December, the ship reached what Flinders later called the Sir Edward

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Pellew group of islands and spent the next two weeks exploring them.64 The north-east monsoon had started. Conditions for continuing the survey were treacherous, with heavy squalls, thunder and lightning. High heat (about 85° Fahrenheit) and excessive humidity were taking their toll on the crew’s daily work. Flinders continued his task exactly as he had done before: the conditions did not deter him from a thorough investigation of the Pellew group.65 Flinders first spotted what he termed a sandy cape, and thought it must be Tasman’s Cape Vanderlin. But it soon became apparent this was one of a group of islands. The cape was renamed Vanderlin Island, the largest of the Pellew group. Flinders corrected Tasman’s erroneous depiction of this group of islands as peninsulas.66 The Investigator anchored on the north-east side of the island because Flinders thought it a promising location for the naturalists to explore. He was also drawn to the island because he had seen from the ship about thirty-five Aborigines on the shore – the largest number yet seen at any place in the Gulf of Carpentaria.67 The Investigator moved several times to new anchorages among the Pellew group. Landings were made on Vanderlin Island, Urquhart Islet, North Island and Wheatley Islet. Brown, Good and their scientific colleagues searched for new plant species but their haul was relatively modest. While these excursions took place, Flinders took the whale boat to explore the waters between these islands. He came across a large island that he named Centre Island. He sent a party out to fish and another to find fresh water. There was also a wooding party that brought wood in the launch to the Investigator.68 Near North Island Flinders noticed two broken bark canoes and a piece of black rope made of a vegetable substance resembling horse hair. He concluded this was gomuti, which was commonly used for making ropes, cords and cables in the Moluccas. These remains appeared to have been left by visitors to this vicinity from elsewhere rather than being used by Aborigines.69 Good commented that the pieces of bamboo and cordage found ‘indicated superior intelligence to any New Hollanders we had yet met with’.70 On Wheatley Islet Flinders and his companions found a small shade made of palm trees, with part of a bamboo cane lying nearby.71 On North Island Brown reported seeing thirty-eight fire places with pieces of bamboo, coconut shells, small fragments of blue striped calico, a few baskets and small pieces of wood cut by an edged tool.72 Flinders suspected the visitors were from China, but he had no idea why they were drawn to the Gulf.73 Flinders’ investigation of the Pellew Group led him to conclude that the islands sheltered various roadsteads but did not form one harbour accessible to a ship. Many islands were barren, and they seemed barely inhabited.74 Good pointed to the numerous deep coves on these islands that formed excellent harbours for small vessels, but added that the prevalence of shoal water was a disadvantage.75 The minute investigation of the Gulf of Carpentaria was beginning to show that the coast and islands offered little or nothing of interest for the future. Careful exploration showed that some capes in the Dutch charts were islands. Occasional signs were seen of human habitation. Plant species could be gathered. But nothing major in terms of human settlement or in relation to the botanical objectives of the voyages was gathered from these shores. Having summarized his findings among the Pellew Group, Flinders continued the voyage. He found the Cape Maria of his Dutch chart was another island, which he named Maria Island. Brown and Good landed there, but found little of note.76 On 5

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January 1803 the Investigator anchored near Bickerton Island in the passage between Groote Eylandt, identified as such on the Dutch chart, and the mainland. Flinders intended to sail around this island and to give the botanists an opportunity to continue their investigations on the mainland.77 He corrected the Dutch chart that showed no islands along the southern side of Groote Eylandt: he himself saw thirteen islets there.78 Flinders recorded that Groote Eylandt was mainly sandy near the shore and quite wooded in the interior, but the soil lacked fertility. Most of the small islets that lay off it were rocky. There were few secure anchorages.79 After sailing around Groote Eylandt between 5 and 14 January, Flinders and his scientific gentlemen landed on a small island to take bearings. Deep chasms in the cliffs made it difficult to reach the top; the location was thus called Chasm Island.80 An important find on this island comprised some Aboriginal art in caverns, consisting of drawings of porpoises, turtle, kangaroos and a human hand. Westall took a boat out to Chasm Island and identified the representation of a kangaroo with a file of thirty-two people following after it, apparently done in charcoal. Flinders thought this painting had a symbolic meaning because the leader of the chase after the kangaroo was nearly twice as tall as the others.81 Westall copied the paintings and made a watercolour copy of the scene with the kangaroo hunt.82 This is the first known European discovery of Aboriginal rock and cave paintings.83 Owing to the ‘alarming state of the ship’ already identified, Flinders did not think it feasible to stay longer in this vicinity.84 Modest botanical collections were made on

Map 9.3 Northern end of Groote Eylandt, Gulf of Carpentaria

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Groote Eylandt, Winchelsea Island, Bustard Island, Burney Island, Morgans Island and Blue Mud Bay, in quick succession between 15 and 20 January.85 The landing on Morgans Island was noteworthy for an unfriendly encounter with Aborigines, involving worse friction between the natives and the crew than had been experienced before on the voyage. A group of six natives, arriving by canoe, surprised Westall and the wooding party, led by John Whitewood, the master’s mate. The Aborigines drew near to the wooders, but then retreated. Whitewood spoke to these people, but he was misunderstood. Advancing towards them with a musket in one hand, he held out his other hand to take a native’s spear he thought was being offered to him. The native, however, was standing in defence and, thinking an attempt was being made to attack him, he ran a spear into Whitewood’s breast. Whitewood retreated and the other Aborigines threw spears and wounded him further. The natives ran off. On hearing a shot fired, John Aken was sent in the whale boat and Denis Lacy, midshipman, was dispatched in the yawl to Morgans Island to find out what had happened. One native was shot dead but the others escaped. The injured Whitewood was taken back to the Investigator along with Benjamin Morgan, a marine suffering from sun stroke. Whitewood survived but Morgan died. On hearing of the day’s events, Flinders disapproved of the master’s decision to chase the natives.86 On the following day a boat was sent to locate the dead body of the Aborigine, which was found washed up on the beach. Westall sketched the corpse.87 Flinders thought the Aboriginal attack on the wooding party was premeditated and wondered whether the decision of the natives to confront strangers stemmed from their having had dealings with ‘the Asiatic visitors, of whom we had found so many traces’.88 Squally weather delayed the resumption of the voyage from Blue Mud Bay. With the help of light winds, this became possible on 1 February and the Investigator took a north-east direction to anchor in Caledon Bay. This was marked on the Dutch chart as near the eastern extremity of Arnhem Land. Flinders called the place Arnhem South Bay.89 Fowler, Bell and Bungaree sailed in the whale boat to Middle Point, a projection that divided Caledon Bay. They came across Aborigines with whom they had a friendly exchange of iron and rifles for the natives’ spears and baskets.90 Flinders took a set of angles from Point Alexander, which included bearings of more than thirteen rocks and small islets in the mouth of Caledon Bay.91 A week’s stay in this area led to further encounters with Aborigines and botanizing. Owing to the cordial encounter with the natives, compared with the problems experienced in Blue Mud Bay, Brown wrote down a lengthy list of the names of the Aborigines and their native words for plants and parts of the body.92 Once again, Flinders’ fair journal referred to the natives as ‘Australians.’93 They belonged to the Djapu clan of the Dhuwa moiety.94 Good found these Aborigines had some knowledge of botany: they distinguished ‘the different Trees & vegetables by distinct names’.95 Relations between the ship’s company and the natives deteriorated after Flinders detained an Aborigine called Woga in retaliation for an axe being stolen. There was a tense encounter between both groups at the head of Grays Bay on 8 February. A couple of Aborigines watched some of Flinders’ company and gave a shout, which was answered at a distance. Then about twelve natives appeared with spears and throwing sticks. They advanced towards the Europeans but retreated when they saw a musket

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Map 9.4 Blue Mud Bay, Northern Territory

pointed at them. Two of the ship’s company fired shots and the Aborigines dispersed. Flinders, who always wanted to maintain peaceful relations with indigenous people, defused the situation by ordering the release of Woga.96 Flinders was fascinated by the Aborigines he encountered at Caledon Bay. He reported that neither the males nor the females wore any clothing; that all the men had been circumcised; and that the upper left tooth of the men had been knocked out as a rite of puberty. Flinders thought the behaviour of these Aborigines differed much from those he had come across at Port Jackson; the chief difference lay in the propensity of those in the Gulf of Carpentaria to steal iron axes or hatchets. Their knowledge of firearms indicated that the bay had had previous visitors. These, he presumed from the bamboos lying about, were Chinese sojourners. Communication with the Aborigines at Caledon Bay convinced Flinders that their words were different from those encountered among the natives at Port Jackson or King George Sound.97

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Map 9.5 Arnhem Bay, Northern Territory

The Investigator departed from Caledon Bay on 10 February and on the following day passed Cape Arnhem, the point at which the ship sailed out of the Gulf of Carpentaria.98 Flinders thought some parts of this coast had been discovered in 1623 by the Dutch ships Pera and Arnhem, but there was no evidence of any subsequent European exploration of these shores.99 Flinders expected to meet the French expedition led by Baudin in the Gulf. He had conferred several times with Baudin about this when they were both at Port Jackson in 1802, but there was no rendezvous. The French navigator had sailed from Port Jackson on 18 November 1802 in a clockwise direction towards King George Sound, and was currently heading north up the west coast of Australia. Flinders obviously had no knowledge of his location. The French commander did not reach Timor until 6 May 1803, almost a month after the Investigator had left that island to sail back to Port Jackson.100 After several days spent in and around Melville Bay, in the Arafura Sea, the Investigator had one of its most notable encounters when, on 17 February, it came across Malay trepangers in the English Company Islands, situated to the north of the peninsula between Melville Bay and Arnhem Bay. ‘About 3 PM,’ Brown wrote in his diary, ‘not a little astonish[e]d to see 6 small vessels at anchor under a small

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neighbouring island’.101 Flinders and his crew hoisted their pendant and ensign and each of the small vessels hung out a small white flag. Flinders sent his brother in an armed boat to find out who they were, and ordered his crew to be ready to fire muskets if necessary. ‘Every motion in the whale boat, and in the vessel alongside which she was lying,’ Flinders wrote, ‘was closely watched with our glasses, but all seemed to pass quietly; and on the return of lieutenant Flinders, we learned that they were prows from Macassar’.102 John Mulvaney referred to this meeting as ‘a symbolic moment in Australian protohistory, when Asian and European first met in territorial waters’.103 The vessels were Malay praus from Makassar, on the island of Sulawesi (in the Celebes), formerly the territory of the Rajahs of Bone. Praus were used in the Makasar trepang fleet. Flinders probably saw a small type of prau called a pajala. He went on board the prau of Pobassoo, the principal chief and the first known Asian in Australia’s history. His ship had two brass guns on board acquired from the Dutch.104 Brown referred to Pobassoo as ‘the old commodore’, and stated that he had been speared by the Aborigines on a previous visit to Arnhem Bay. The Malay crew had muskets but not bows or poisoned arrows.105 Westall made sketches of the praus and their crews and drew Pobassoo’s portrait.106 When Flinders first saw the praus, he found it difficult to imagine what they might be but had no doubt they contained the same people of whom he had seen so many marks in the Gulf of Carpentaria. All along he had supposed they would be Chinese, but it crossed his mind that they might be pirates. Flinders communicated with them through Abraham Williams, a Malay cook in the Investigator. He found the six praus were part of a larger fleet of sixty containing one thousand men that had sailed two months earlier from Makassar, which was under direct Dutch rule. The other praus were lying in different places to the westward, in parties of five or six together. The object of their expedition was to procure trepang (sometimes called sea cucumbers or bêche-de-mer). Good described these as ‘a kind of Marine production of a gelatinous substance & somewhat of the Shape of a Cucumber which when dried is a great delicacy with the Chinese & brings a great price’. The Makasar trepangers, he added, were friendly and honest in their transactions.107 The crew procured trepang by diving into water of three to eight fathoms’ depth where these marine animals were abundant. They could also be gathered by spearing or dredging. Local Aborigines helped with their collection and preparation in return for receiving trade items such as tobacco, alcohol and cloth. Each prau could carry 100,000 trepang, which were preserved by splitting the animal on one side, boiling it, pressing it with stones and drying it in the sun. They had to be processed within an hour of being caught, and were gutted and dyed with a bark from a mangrove species for preservation. The trepang were carried to Timor Laut, a group of islands in the Malay archipelago, and sold for export to China.108 Makasar traders only pursued the trade in years when a strong monsoon occurred. They took advantage of favourable monsoon winds blowing them towards Marege’ (the Makasar name for this part of northern Australia) in December and back to Sulawesi in about April. This trade involved about thirty varieties of trepang at Makassar. It was largely organized without any direct British or European involvement.109 The

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trade continued throughout the nineteenth century; the last prau from Arnhem Land returned to Makassar in 1907.110 Pobassoo told Flinders he had been among the first of the Malays to trade for trepang on the coast of New Holland twenty years beforehand. It is not clear whether this referred to a trade conducted at Arnhem Land or on the north-west Australian coast, but it probably referred to the former location.111 Pobassoo had undertaken seven of these voyages, but had never seen another ship on this coast before.112 He had been wounded in the knee by a native spear on a previous visit, and noted that skirmishes sometimes occurred between Makasars and Aborigines. Flinders asked Pobassoo a series of questions but found the latter’s knowledge of Terra Australis was limited apart from the same coasts visited previously with the trepang fleet. Pobassoo did not know about the British settlement at Port Jackson. He told Flinders that he and the other Malay sailors had no charts, using a small compass in a box to direct their course at sea, unassisted by any astronomical observations. They carried about a month’s water to sea along with provisions. They did not know of any rivers or openings leading far into north Australia.113 Flinders told Pobassoo about Baudin’s expedition, and explained that the Géographe and the Naturaliste might soon reach this coast. In the event of that happening, Flinders addressed a short note which he gave Pobassoo to hand to them. Flinders named Malay Road (a roadstead) and Pobassoo Island to commemorate the encounter with the trepangers.114 He recorded his meeting with the Makasars in detail because he thought the East India Company might want to enter into the trade in trepang with the Chinese market.115 The praus sailed early on the morning of 19 February, heading south-eastwards towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. Strong gales kept the Investigator in the same location for several days. During this time, Flinders took bearings and wrote them up while the scientific gentlemen examined a couple of nearby islands in the whaleboat. The abundance of trepang in the area and numerous places of shelter led Flinders to conclude that the north side of Cape Arnhem was the most advantageous place for a settlement on the north coast of Australia.116 Between 21 and 26 February landings were made on Pobassoo Island, Astell Island, Inglis Island and Bosanquet Island, all situated close together off the north shore of Cape Arnhem. Flinders provided this name in honour of the Dutch ship Arnhem, which in 1623 was the first European vessel to sail along this coast and sight Arnhem Land. Cape Arnhem marked the western exit of the Gulf of Carpentaria, though Flinders considered his exploration of the Gulf ended some forty miles north-westward at Point Wilberforce.117 The Investigator left the anchorage at Malay Road on 27 February and, after a brief grounding on a sand bank, continued to Arnhem Bay.118 Flinders took a boat journey around the bay, gathered bearings with the theodolite on shore, and returned to the ship after he had convinced himself that no river or rivers entered the south-western part of the bay.119 Flinders noted that Arnhem Bay offered safe anchorage, but would need to be seen in the dry season before any decision on a settlement there could be made.120 On 5 March, near the Wessel Islands, Flinders terminated his coastal survey of Australia owing to concerns about the seaworthiness of the Investigator that he had fully outlined earlier. With an exhausted crew and attacks of scurvy, there seemed little option other than to sail for Timor in his rotting ship.121

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Flinders’ ‘additional remarks’ in his fair journal for 6 March expressed a realism about the expedition’s condition which had not been noted in his journal previously. He weighed up the pros and cons of his options carefully. Westward winds had prevailed for the previous four days, and the monsoon season might soon begin. Bearing in mind the survey of the Investigator undertaken in November 1802, Flinders thought if he returned to Port Jackson now, he would arrive within the time that Aken and Mart had estimated the ship’s timbers could last without foundering. He could sail along the south coast and through Bass Strait, where the worst weather was expected, before the winter winds had gained strength. Yet Flinders was reluctant to abandon his survey work. The approach of fair winds would enable him to investigate numerous harbours and places of shelter already found. The increasing rise of the tides, the fertility of the soil, and the proximity of the northern coast to English East India Company possessions all made it an interesting part of Terra Australis for further exploration. Flinders had been imbued with the spirit of exploration since reading Robinson Crusoe as a boy. To abandon his survey now when there was a possibility, perhaps even a probability, that he would never return to complete it, troubled his mind, for the accomplishment of the survey was his major ambition.122 Having laid down these considerations, Flinders nevertheless realized the difficulties he faced. His own health, and that of many crew members, was deteriorating with the lack of fresh provisions and the heat and humidity of the climate on Australia’s north coast. He had developed scorbutic ulcers, which left him lame. He could no longer take boat trips to examine bays or offshore islands; nor could he stand at the mast head of the ship. Since both activities were essential to achieve tolerable accuracy in his survey, there seemed little point in prolonging the stay on the north coast.123 Others on board the Investigator had expressed fears about the state of the ship and its crew. Surgeon Bell pointed out, for instance, that the ships company have been exposed to almost incessant fatigue in an oppressively hot climate … a body, though in health, may at the same time be losing strength; and consequently be likely to fall under any violent and long-continued exertions. If you should dread such an event, it would be well, if possible, to provide against it by refreshing the ship’s company.124

Flinders asked Bell to report on the medical condition of the crew. Bell found twentytwo men had symptoms of scurvy and that diarrhoea was common. He recommended a course of lime juice as an anti-scorbutic measure for the scurvy.125 This seems to have been effective, for no member of the ship’s company was lost to that ailment.126 It could be argued that Flinders had carried on the survey too long in the Gulf of Carpentaria and along the north coast without refreshing the crew. There had been indications for some time that the length of the voyage and the wet weather and humid conditions had caused problems for the sailors. Yet Flinders felt a duty to complete the survey and his personal ambition compelled him to carry out the methodical work each day for as long as possible. He wanted to have sufficiently detailed charts to send back to the Admiralty to record his many findings on this voyage of exploration. He also no doubt remembered his own intention to examine Australia’s coast so minutely that no

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future navigator would need to redo the work. There now loomed large the possibility that he might not be able to continue the survey along a large stretch of coast, from the Gulf of Carpentaria to King George Sound. Nevertheless, for the reasons outlined above, his prime duty was to get the Investigator and her crew safely back to Port Jackson. That would enable the charts and descriptions of Australia’s coastal landform and its flora, fauna and minerals to be stored safely. It would also enable Flinders, or so he hoped, to work on plans to repair his ship and resume the survey of Australia.

10

Return to Port Jackson

The Investigator left the mainland coast and the offshore islands near Arnhem Bay on the morning of 6 March 1803. She sailed generally northwards past the Cunningham Islands and continued at sea until reaching New Year Island six days later.1 This had been seen in 1792 by John McCluer of the East India Company Bombay marine service, who had been sent from London in August 1790 as the captain of the Panther to the Sir Edward Pellew Islands. This was a voyage partly intended to produce a survey of the western end of New Guinea.2 Flinders, who had a copy of McCluer’s chart, sent Robert Fowler to inspect the island. It was found to be a bed of coral rock, thickly covered with shrubs and brush wood in its higher parts but overrun with mangroves around its shores.3 Flinders did not stay long at New Year Island, but continued with the voyage. On 19 March, the ship passed Cape Van Diemen, the northernmost point of Melville Island. The Investigator was sailing in very deep water (by comparison with recent months) and was on the west coast of Australia. Ever since leaving Arnhem Bay, the winds had been light, variable and ‘commonly foul’. If such conditions continued, the ship’s passage would be further delayed and the winter season would begin before the Investigator sailed through Bass Strait. Given that consideration, the state of the crew and the ship, and the surgeon’s concerns over the health of the crew, Flinders decided to stop at Timor.4 He hoped fresh provisions would nourish the crew and give them extra strength to pump water out of the ship.5 There were further reasons why a stay at Kupang, the biggest port in Timor, might be advantageous. This would be an opportunity for Flinders to send a letter to the Admiralty, explaining the achievements of the voyage, rather than waiting until the Investigator reached Port Jackson. It might be possible to buy or hire another ship at Kupang to continue the examination of Terra Australis, which would save time and possibly money. There might also be opportunities for the botanists to examine the flora and fauna of Timor ‘by which the gradual change of plants from India to New Holland might be traced’.6 Flinders later amplified his reasons for the stopover in Timor: I revolved in my mind the possibility of afterwards returning to the examination of the north and north-west coasts of Terra Australis, during the winter six months, and taking the following summer to pass the higher latitudes and return to Port

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia Jackson. There was little chance of obtaining salt provisions at Kupang, but there might be a ship or ships there, capable of furnishing a supply, and by which an officer might be conveyed to England; for it was a necessary part of my project to despatch lieutenant Fowler to the Admiralty, with an account of our proceedings, and a request that he might return as speedily as possible, with a vessel fit to accomplish all the objects of the voyage; and I calculated that six months employed upon the North and North-West Coasts, and the subsequent passage to Port Jackson, would not leave much more than the requisite time for refreshing the ship’s company before his arrival might be expected.7

Realizing that an opportunity would be available to post letters from Timor, Brown wrote at length to Sir Joseph Banks and his fellow botanical enthusiast, the collector Charles Francis Greville. In both letters, he explained the plight of the Investigator and the progress of the voyage. He summarized his views on the scientific findings made. Brown was somewhat disappointed with the botanical acquisitions in a country that was so new for European exploration. The number of plant species observed over and above those they already knew about hardly amounted to 400, and of those many were found in Endeavour River and a few were well-known Indian plants. The number of absolutely new species amounted to 200. Hardly 800 plant species, excluding grasses, had been observed overall. The additions to zoology, ornithology and mineralogy were few.8 Brown’s disappointment at the number of plant species gathered was perhaps too pessimistic: to have gathered 200 new species was, in fact, an impressive achievement.9 By 28 March, the Investigator sighted Timor, which Flinders had called at once before in the Providence in 1792. Coming through the Semau Strait to Kupang from the southwards, Flinders saw two ships. They turned out to be a Dutch brig and an American vessel. The captains of both ships came on board the Investigator to exchange information. Flinders then sent his brother ashore to inform the Dutch governor of Kupang of their arrival and needs. Flinders met the governor, who spoke no English. Fortunately, the captain of the Dutch vessel in the harbour, who did speak English, acted as translator.10 The conversation proceeded cautiously because the Dutch had only regained control of Kupang from British invading forces two years previously. Nevertheless, cordial relations were established. Fresh fruit, beef and vegetables were brought on board the Investigator, which was thoroughly cleaned while lying in harbour. Rice, arrack and water were gathered over the next few days as well as gulah, to be used as molasses for spruce beer in lieu of oatmeal.11 As Flinders and his company lacked money, meat supplies and other provisions were acquired through barter, with iron implements given in exchange. Permission was sought, and given, for the scientific gentlemen to carry out botanizing on the island, but the governor requested that they stay near Kupang for their own safety.12 The botanical findings on Timor were useful. Brown observed 300 species of plants near Kupang, including some he had not seen in Australia. Good collected seeds.13 Geological samples were gathered: Brown’s rock catalogue lists four specimens.14 Flinders was curious about the environment, inhabitants and trade of Timor. He noted signs of destruction among Kupang’s buildings from a recent Malay insurrection and

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the occupation of Timor by British forces in the French revolutionary wars. Flinders saw Malay and mulatto troops on Timor but only two people of European descent. Trade at Kupang was almost entirely carried on by the Chinese, who sailed ships between there and Batavia. Rice, arrack and sugar were imported and cotton clothes, beeswax and sandalwood exported. Flinders saw the tombs of David Nelson, the botanist on Bligh’s voyage on the Bounty, and of Anselm Riedlé, the gardener on Baudin’s Géographe. Nelson had died in July 1789, suffering from blindness and stomach pains, while Riedlé died from dysentery in October 1801. Flinders gathered further information about the Makasar trepang trade he had come across at Cape Arnhem. He wrote letters to the Admiralty, explaining the progress of the expedition.15 A brief sojourn at Timor afforded extra time to correspond with officials, friends and family. Flinders wrote to the governor at Kupang to acknowledge the provisions supplied to the Investigator.16 He penned another letter to his cousin Henrietta, noting in passing that he and his younger brother ‘as far as we can see into futurity, have fair prospects of some little share of eminence’.17 He wrote to his botanist friend Christopher Smith, outlining his hope to secure another ship from Britain to continue his survey along the Australian coast and emphasizing his ambition to complete that work.18 He also wrote a loving letter to his wife, Ann, retracing his memories of their conversation, their delights and their joys.19 The Investigator sailed from Timor on 8 April. Flinders decided to search for a bank extending from the Trial Rocks towards Timor. This was part of the Admiralty instructions for the voyage.20 Flinders thought the Investigator was still seaworthy enough for a few days’ delay on the voyage to Port Jackson. The Trial Rocks were named after the English ship Trial, which was wrecked there in 1622. The position of the ship when wrecked had been described and shown on charts by the vessel’s captain; but Flinders did not know that the captain of the Trial had deliberately given the wrong location for the wreck.21 Dampier had sought to find the Trial Rocks on a voyage in 1700, but without success. Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean included soundings made by two East Indiamen near the rocks (in 1770 and 1789). Flinders had access to different authorities who cited differing coordinates for the location of the Trial Rocks. He also knew Dalrymple’s description of the rocks, published in 1782, which was based on details supplied by a sloop sent from Batavia.22 Despite these aids, Flinders spent several days fruitlessly searching for the rocks. He had ten men suffering from diarrhoea and many others feeling ill. He attributed their bad health to the rainy weather experienced since leaving Timor and the transition from warm, humid conditions to a more temperate region.23 He suspected that water obtained at Kupang had been contaminated.24 The location of the Trial Rocks continued to puzzle later navigators during the nineteenth century: at least four groups of non-existent islands were charted in the area. The naval officer and hydrographer Philip Parker King looked for the Trial Rocks in 1818, 1819 and 1820, but failed to pinpoint them. It was not until 1928 that they were properly located at 20°17ʹS, 115°23ʹE, north-west of the Monte Bello Islands.25 After searching for them for several days, Flinders decided to call a halt to the search: ‘To have prosecuted our examination for the Trial Rocks, with the wind as it seems now settled, would delay our arrival at Port Jackson longer than is prudent, both on

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account of the state of the ship and the approach of the winter season, as well as the sickly condition of the ship’s company.’26 The voyage continued southwards, well away from the shore, with the express intention of reaching Port Jackson safely and expeditiously. Owing to pressing problems with the state of the ship and the crew’s health, Flinders was unable to conduct a running survey of the north-west and west coasts of Australia. In that sense, his circumnavigation failed to examine long swathes of Australia’s shores from Timor to Cape Leeuwin. That detailed work was left for the hydrographer Philip Parker King to complete between 1818 and 1822.27 Flinders and his company were fortunate that the winds encountered on this leg of the voyage were mainly southerlies, keeping the damaged starboard bow of the ship out of the water.28 On 2 May, the Investigator passed the Tropic of Capricorn.29 Two weeks later, Cape Leeuwin was sighted. On 15 May, Bald Head and other landmarks near King George Sound were glimpsed through the haze. Flinders intended to sail to the Recherche archipelago, to complete the survey he had conducted there in January 1802 and to obtain geese at Goose Island Bay for the sick, seals for lamp-oil, and salt from the lake on Middle Island.30 He had not previously identified many islands in the group, and now wanted to skirt along its southern islands in order to produce a more detailed and accurate chart.31 The only landing on the return voyage to Sydney was made at the Recherche archipelago, where Flinders anchored, on 17 May, at Goose Island Bay, Middle Island.32 The arrival of the Investigator at Goose Island Bay was accompanied by the death of the boatswain, Charles Douglas, from fever and dysentery. This was the first death of a sailor from illness on the voyage. Other crew members were then on the sick list suffering from the same complaints.33 The gardener Peter Good was among those who were ill; he now stopped writing his journal.34 Douglas was buried on Middle Island; the quarter master, William Hillier, died there; and the surgeon had fourteen on his sick list.35 Flinders was still suffering from scorbutic sores on his feet and legs and could hardly walk on shore. He sent Aken to examine the salt lake. The salt had been diluted by recent rains and fresh water could not be obtained. The boat’s crew killed a few seals, but only twelve geese were shot. Wooders were active on Middle Island cutting wood, which was brought back to the Investigator. The body of the boatswain was buried on the island, with a short inscription placed over his body. Flinders ordered the clearing of the main hold to create more room for the sick crew. He concluded, on this second visit to Middle Island, that Goose Island Bay was more suitable for gathering salt and geese in the summer season than during the winter. Flinders had not seen the south and west sides of Kangaroo Island on his previous visit there in 1802. Owing to the poor health of his crew and his own incapacity, Flinders abandoned his plan to explore the south side of Kangaroo Island and the coast between Cape Northumberland and Cape Bridgewater in order to make swift progress towards Bass Strait. The last task necessary in Goose Bay was to take astronomical observations for the timekeepers, which had contracted a considerable error to the eastward.36 A dangerous passage sailing away from Goose Island Bay, where the Investigator passed near rocks, was beset with difficulties caused by the loss of the bower and

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stream anchors.37 Flinders continued in an east-south-east direction, well away from the coast of the Great Australian Bight. On 26 May, he reported passing Port Lincoln and recorded the death of James Greenhalgh, Sergeant of Marines, from dysentery. Fifteen men were then on the sick list, but Flinders noted that the worst sufferers were getting better.38 The continuation of sickness caused tension between Flinders and surgeon Bell. Around this stage of the voyage, Bell had indicated his displeasure at the delays in returning to Port Jackson: he criticized his commander in writing for spending too long trying to complete his survey on the north coast and neglecting his prime responsibility for the health of his crew. Flinders responded to the criticisms with three letters replying to Bell’s accusations. He was angry with Bell’s suggestion that he was delaying the voyage back to Port Jackson and ignoring the surgeon’s recommendations. He stated that Bell’s remarks were inappropriate in calling into question the commander’s duties on the voyage. Flinders robustly explained that he would have stayed a few days’ longer at Goose Island Bay and would have stopped for a further two days to explore the south side of Kangaroo Island. He had also hoped to investigate the Hunter and Furneaux Islands, but the state of the sick people on board ship precluded these possibilities. Flinders criticized Bell by drawing attention to the surgeon’s unhelpful actions during the voyage.39 Bell had touched a raw nerve by criticizing Flinders’ actions as commander. In one sense, he was bringing to the surface Flinders’ own anxieties about reaching Port Jackson while trying to carry out as much of the survey of Australia’s coast and offshore islands as possible. ‘It grieves me to be obliged to pass Kangaroo Island and the part of the coast west from Cape Otway without completing their examination,’ Flinders wrote in his fair journal, since without it my chart of the south east must ever remain imperfect. It is not so much my own ill health that prevents me from doing this, as the sickly state of many of my ships company; no less than 18 being now in the sick list, of whom three or four are considered to be dangerous: add to which our complement is seven men short.40

Each day the ship was cleaned and aired with stoves to try to prevent further loss of life.41 But the deteriorating health of the crew remained serious: the quarter master, John Draper, died of dysentery on 2 June.42 Sailing through Bass Strait, Flinders abandoned plans to correct the longitudes along the north coast of Van Diemen’s Land and to connect them with the observations made of King Island and the north side of the strait when sailing in the Norfolk. It was a ‘great mortification’ to him to forego the chance to add to the details of his chart dealing with Bass Strait, but this was offset by the need to ensure that the sick crew could arrive in port speedily.43 The ship passed Twofold Bay on 5 June and sighted Botany Bay four days later. Another member of the crew, Thomas Smith, a former convict, died. On 9 June, the Investigator reached Sydney Cove and found several vessels riding there, including the Lady Nelson.44 This brought the Investigator full circle to where she had set out for the journey around the Australian continent. Flinders and his crew had

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completed the first-ever detailed circumnavigation of Australia, proving that it was one continent. Many geographical features had been named; much detailed surveying and charting had been undertaken; and it was proven, once and for all, that Terra Australis was not a landmass divided by a strait. These great maritime achievements, however, were overshadowed on arrival at Port Jackson by the poor health of the crew and the fact that many aspects of the Admiralty’s instructions for the voyage had not been realized. At Port Jackson, Flinders immediately placed twelve sick crew members from the Investigator in the hands of the main surgeon of New South Wales at the colonial hospital in Sydney. Four were too exhausted to be removed and died within a few days. They included the gardener, Peter Good, who died of dysentery. He was interred on shore on the day following his death. A party of marines fired three volleys over his grave.45 Brown took charge of Good’s papers and, on Flinders’ instructions, supervised the sale of his books and clothing to the ship’s company.46 A notable addition to the Investigator’s complement was the astronomer John Inman. He had been sent out by the Board of Longitude to Port Jackson to replace John Crosley, the original astronomer on the voyage who had left the expedition at the Cape of Good Hope. Inman had arrived at Sydney in July 1802 and had waited nearly a year for the Investigator to arrive there. Inman now began checking the survey data gathered on the voyage by setting up an observatory at Garden Island in Sydney harbour.47 The arrival at Port Jackson gave Flinders an opportunity to write to his wife. After picking up six letters from Ann, written between December 1801 and September 1802, Flinders wrote to her with a succinct summary of his recent experiences: It was the unanimous opinion of the surveying officers that, had we met with a severe gale of wind in the passage from Timor, she must have crushed like an egg and gone down. I was partly aware of her bad state, and returned sooner to Port Jackson on that account before the worst weather came. For me, whom this obstruction in the voyage and the melancholy state of my poor people have much distressed, I have been lame about four months, and much debilitated in health and I fear in constitution; but am now recovering, and shall soon be altogether well.48

It was in Port Jackson that Flinders learned of his father’s death. His joy at arriving safely and receiving news from family and friends was tempered by this sad news, prompting him to write to his stepmother in an affectionate, sincere tone: The death of so kind a father, who was so excellent a man, is a heavy blow, and strikes deep into my heart. The duty I owed him, and which I had now a prospect of paying with the warmest affection and gratitude, had made me look forward to the time of our return with increased ardour. I had laid such a plan of comfort for him as would have tended to make his latter days the most delightful of his life; for I think an increased income, retirement from business, and constant attention from an affectionate son whom he loved, would have done this. Indeed, my mother, I thought the time fast approaching for me to fulfil what I once said in

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a letter, that my actions should some day show how I valued my father. One of my fondest hopes is now destroyed. O, my dearest, kindest father, how much I loved and reverenced you, you cannot now know.49

Flinders expected to find George Bass at Port Jackson, but was disappointed to find him absent.50 But he did contact Charles Bishop, the business associate of Bass, who had kept two letters for Flinders. Bishop was downhearted because his business venture with Bass had failed, and Bass had left Port Jackson with a contract to import pork from the Pacific Islands. This proved a successful voyage. But in early February 1803, Bass set out on another Pacific venture from Sydney Cove and, unknown to Flinders or Governor King, disappeared without trace.51 Flinders read two letters Bass had left for him there, and then wrote to Bass informing him of the Investigator’s voyage, the discovery of a safe passage through Torres Strait, the minute examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and his hopes for advancement in his naval career irrespective of whether the current grand expedition was resumed. He alluded to the competition of the French voyage under Baudin’s command to Terra Australis. Comparisons between that expedition and his own, Flinders averred, would work to his advantage as his efforts in hydrography and geography, which Bass would see confirmed when Flinders’ charts were printed, were superior to the ‘very vague and inconclusive’ work in these fields on the French expedition. The letter ended with the words ‘God bless you, my dear Bass; remember me, and believe me to be your very sincere and affectionate friend.’52 This was Flinders’ last letter to Bass: Flinders and Bass never met again.53 Flinders wrote another letter to his stepmother in which he summarized his views on the crew. This is the only time that he wrote down such thoughts during the entire expedition. He reported that Bauer was ‘still polite and gentle’ and that Westall ‘wants prudence, or rather experience, but is good-natured’. Both of these associates had remained on good terms with Flinders. His servant John Elder ‘continues to be faithful and attentive’. His cat Trim ‘like his master, is becoming grey; he is at present fat and frisky, and takes meat from our forks with his former dexterity’. Flinders’ sole criticism was reserved for surgeon Bell, with whom he had clashed on the voyage back to Port Jackson: ‘Mr. Bell is misanthropic and pleases nobody’ was the damning comment.54 Arriving in port after such a long voyage was an opportunity for writing letters about the progress of the survey and the state of the Investigator. Flinders had the immediate and cordial support of Governor Philip Gidley King, who was convinced that the French had plans to establish a colony in Van Diemen’s Land. King was pleased to help Flinders in all the ways available to his authority.55 An exchange of formal letters followed. Flinders wrote one letter to King to accompany a report entitled ‘Some Directions for Sailing through Torres’ Straits’.56 In another letter, he attached a copy of the report on the condition of the Investigator, with a request that the governor approve of a detailed investigation of the vessel.57 King agreed to this at once. Within two days, William Scott, of HMS Porpoise, Edward Hanmore Palmer, commander of the Bridgewater, and Thomas Moore, the colony’s master boat builder, thoroughly examined the Investigator. Their signed report to the governor came to an unequivocal conclusion: the ship was so defective ‘that she is not worth repairing in any country, and that it is impossible in this country to put her in a state fit for going to sea’.58

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Governor King agreed completely with this verdict. ‘The state of the Investigator is the worst I have ever witnessed’, he wrote to Banks. ‘Nor could I have any idea of it before she was op[e]ned – that she would have survived a Gale without drifting asunder is very doubtful to me as [to] everyone who sees her.’59 Flinders acknowledged receipt of the report on the Investigator’s condition and applied to the governor ‘for a fit Vessel to examine the remaining part [of New Holland]’. There were only two vessels from which to select: the naval vessel Porpoise and another ship, the Rolla, which would have to be purchased for £11,500. The Porpoise was a vessel of 308 tons burden but would need a tender to accommodate all the equipment from the Investigator. The Rolla was a sailing vessel of 440 tons that had brought out convicts from Cork to Port Jackson.60 The Porpoise was about to sail to Van Diemen’s Land. The Rolla would take far less time to fit out for a voyage. Flinders emphasized that his ship’s company would benefit from a few weeks’ stay in Port Jackson before setting out on another voyage.61 Governor King was not prepared to pay the sum required for the Rolla. He was amenable to the use of the Porpoise, however, and suggested that she sail in company with the Lady Nelson. This was not what Flinders hoped to hear, given his previous problems with that tender.62 The Porpoise left for Van Diemen’s Land on 19 June.63 Flinders was vexed that his circumnavigation was only half completed.64 He drafted a letter to Banks, outlining his plans for completing the survey of Australia’s coasts. He set down a timetable in which the Porpoise would arrive at the Cape of Good Hope in July 1805, having parted from the Lady Nelson at Timor. That tender would then return to Port Jackson. Arrangements were set down for keeping the botanical collections gathered on the Investigator at Port Jackson until they could be sent to London.65 Governor King gave Flinders full support in his predicament. ‘I think as circumstances have turned out,’ he informed Banks, that the sooner Flinders returns to England the better, if it is intended he should complete the business he has so advantageously begun … the passage he has ascertained in Torres Straits, appears to me a matter of great universal benefit; and I hope the Utility of the other points he has Ascertained & accurately explored, together with the desideratum of finishing his work as he has begun it; will be so far considered as to induce Government to give him an opportunity of compleating the object of his Voyage.66

The Porpoise returned from her visit to Van Diemen’s Land on 3 July. On the following day, the Lady Nelson arrived at Port Jackson from the same expedition, though she had only sailed as far as Twofold Bay, where she lost her main keel and was forced to come back to Sydney Cove.67 Flinders had spent some days resting at a settlement near the Hawkesbury River in late June, where the fresh air, vegetable diet and medical care improved the condition of his scorbutic sores.68 He returned to Sydney in early July and at once asked King to authorize a survey of the Porpoise. This was carried out expeditiously by Aken, Mart and Moore. They stated that it would take a year to make the necessary repairs to the ship for a voyage at sea intended to last for two-and-a-half years.69

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The survey report on the Porpoise indicated that providing a vessel for Flinders to complete a detailed examination of Australia’s coast involved difficult decisions. Governor King thought a year was too long to elapse before a vessel was ready. He therefore set down five options for Flinders to consider. They were as follows: to wait for the Porpoise to be repaired; to purchase and adapt the Rolla; to employ the Lady Nelson and the Francis in tandem; to await the return of HMS Buffalo from India (expected in January 1804) and use her; or to return to England and request another ship to complete the survey. King left the decision among these options to Flinders, but noted that it was his intention to send the Porpoise back to England and that Flinders could take a passage with her if he considered a return to London would be the best option.70 Flinders composed a written response to these suggestions. Each of King’s options, he suggested, would lead to loss of time. He himself did not want to appear again in London before he had completed the survey of Australia’s coasts. But he concluded that the governor’s offer of a passage back to England in the Porpoise was the best solution: he did not want to waste another six months waiting for the Buffalo to arrive in Sydney Cove, and the Lady Nelson and the Francis were too small and inadequate for his purposes.71 He therefore asked King to fit out the Porpoise for sea expeditiously, with a route planned through Torres Strait. This would offer ‘a second opportunity of seeing whether this Strait can safely become a common passage for Ships from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean’.72 King acted immediately to support Flinders’ request by writing to William Scott, commander of the Porpoise, with instructions to prepare the ship for departure from Port Jackson on 1 August for a voyage to England. Scott was to take Flinders as a passenger and as many of the officers and crew of the Investigator as the ship could carry.73 On receiving King’s letter, Scott offered to step down as commander of the Porpoise and to allow Flinders and his officers to travel on board ship.74 After Flinders’ various options had been discussed and a plan agreed for his return to England, the position of the scientific gentlemen needed clarification. Should they return with Flinders, or should they remain in New South Wales to continue their botanical work? Brown wrote to Flinders, explaining that Bauer, Allen and himself would be best employed by remaining in Australia and awaiting Flinders’ return. This would give them further opportunities to examine flora, fauna and minerals and to sketch and paint plants and wildlife. They would have more favourable seasons for undertaking the botanical collections than during the voyage in the Investigator. Allen would have the opportunity to examine minerals in the mountainous interior parts of New South Wales. These were sensible suggestions, given that conditions on the Porpoise, on a long oceanic crossing back to England, would be less than ideal for continuing work on the scientific collections on board ship; and, of course, if the scientific gentlemen were to sail with Flinders, they would lose a great deal of time in Australia. Brown’s request concluded by stating that, if they received no instructions from the Admiralty within eighteen months, they would take a voyage back to England.75 Flinders readily agreed to Brown’s request that he and his immediate scientific colleagues should remain in New South Wales to continue their work. ‘Your present application is very laudable and judicious,’ Flinders wrote to Brown, ‘and is further proof of your zeal in prosecuting the service you have undertaken to

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perform.’ Flinders decided to leave eighteen months’ provisions for them while he was away.76 Governor King issued an order to discharge William Scott and the complement of the Porpoise and wrote another order for Flinders to arrange discharge of the officers and men of the Investigator. The order named Flinders, Westall and (contrary to the plan explained above) Allen, who would travel back to England as passengers in the Porpoise; it also identified nine seamen who had chosen to stay in New South Wales. It was decided that the astronomer Inman would remain in the colony.77 Brown and Bauer would stay in New South Wales to continue their professional pursuits, while surgeon Bell would return to England in the Bridgewater, in accordance with Flinders’ wishes.78 The Bridgewater was one of two merchant vessels – the other being the Cato – that would accompany the Porpoise on its voyage through Torres Strait.79 ‘The company of these ships gave me pleasure,’ Flinders wrote, ‘for if we should be able to make a safe and expeditious passage through the strait [i.e. Torres Strait] with them … it would be a manifest proof of the advantage of the route discovered in the Investigator, and tend to bring it into general use.’80 Flinders put the Investigator out of commission by discharging most of that ship’s crew into the Porpoise. He then had mooring chains laid in Sydney Cove to secure the Investigator as a hulk for use as a store ship.81 Governor King offered Flinders the command of the Porpoise, but this was declined: Flinders wanted sufficient leisure time on the voyage home to begin writing up his account of his discoveries and to prepare his charts.82 Alternative arrangements were soon made. Robert Fowler was given a warrant to serve as commander of the Porpoise, with Flinders travelling as a passenger.83 On 22 July, the Investigator was decommissioned and, at sunset, Flinders hauled down its pendant. This marked the end of the Investigator’s voyage.84 The refitting and loading of the Porpoise took two weeks. Stores and provisions and the plant greenhouse were transferred to that vessel from the Investigator. It was probably Flinders’ decision to take many plant specimens back to England on the Porpoise, for he would need the continuance of Banks’s patronage, and natural history collections would help to achieve that support.85 Flinders’ charts and journals and Westall’s drawings were placed in a specially built cabin on the upper deck. Flinders also left some of his charts under the care of Governor King.86

11

A Series of Misfortunes

On 10 August 1803, Flinders sailed from Port Jackson as a passenger in the Porpoise accompanied by the Cato, commanded by John Park, and the Bridgewater, under Edward Hanmore Palmer. Governor Philip Gidley King and his party followed the ships to Sydney Heads, where Flinders took leave of his ‘respected friend’ and received his despatches for England.1 The governor left to the sound of cheers from the men on the three vessels. The ships advanced safely and uneventfully northwards, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn on 17 August when they were about 320 miles east of Keppel Bay. A sandbank was sighted towards nightfall on that day, but it caused little alarm because it seemed to be distant from the dangers of the Great Barrier Reef. A decision was made to progress with the ships through the night ‘under easy working sail’.2 The Porpoise was sailing at eight knots, with the carpenter, Russell Mart, at the forecastle and the master, John Aken, on the quarterdeck. Flinders and some of the officers were beneath deck in the gun room.3 Disaster occurred unexpectedly. Breakers were suddenly sighted ahead to the north-east of Sandy Cape and the Porpoise struck a reef. The foremast fell over the side of the ship. Spray flew all over the vessel. Unable to get a gun fired or a light shown in the ensuing confusion, the crew shouted to warn the two other ships in the party. John Franklin, a midshipman in the Porpoise, later described the calamity: ‘we struck on a coral reef (until then unknown) with very great force; from the beating of the surf and violence of the winds, the ship was soon reduced to a complete wreck; the masts were gone; boats stove (i.e. broken); no appearance of safety, or land; everything around us gloomy, and dreadful’.4 During the suddenness of the shipwreck, the Cato steered to avoid the Bridgewater but failed to tack properly because of missing stays; it then struck the reef. The Bridgewater, however, cleared the barrier. ‘After the first flurry of confusion had a little subsided,’ Flinders explained, the small gig and the cutter were got out to leeward, but the latter was stove and filled with water. In this state the eyes of everyone were fixed on the Bridgewater, to whom only we could look with any prospect of being saved, and as we saw her in safety we did not doubt but that she would keep in sight and send her boats to us in the morning.5

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Flinders consulted Lieutenant Fowler, and told him he would take his charts, logs and bearing book in a small boat to the Bridgewater. He would then attempt to rescue the crew of the Porpoise as soon as possible.6 Rowing a boat with oars at night-time with heavy surf proved difficult, but the fall of the tide at daylight enabled Flinders to look for the Bridgewater. That ship’s light had disappeared in the early hours of the morning, and the vessel was nowhere to be seen. Flinders and his men rowed to the wrecked ships. Masts had fallen off the Porpoise and she lay in shallow water on a coral reef. All her hatches, containing stores and provisions, remained closed. The decks and bulkheads of the Cato were broken and everything inside her had been washed away. It was later found that the ships had been damaged on part of a chain of sand cays and coral reefs subsequently known collectively as Wreck Reef. Those on board the Cato were left clinging to the gunwale, unable to move from the ship because of heavy surf. When the surf eventually subsided, Flinders and nine men managed to board a small boat. Three young lads went missing; they were probably drowned.7 Provisions, stores and water were taken to a nearby dry sandbank, no more than a quarter of a mile round, ‘with great hardship & Dificulty’.8 People from the Cato and the Porpoise were given clothes and blankets. Fires were started from broken wood gathered from the damaged ships to keep them warm at night. A flag was installed on the sandbank and flown upside down, indicating distress. Ninety-four men from the Porpoise and the Cato were stranded on the sandbank.9 Flinders acted decisively. ‘The Porpoise now being lost,’ he wrote at the time, ‘I thought proper to do away the business of my being a passenger, and this morning took command of the whole party.’10 He regarded himself as the only person qualified to take charge of the whole party assembled there.11 The commanders of the Porpoise and the Cato immediately agreed to Flinders’ request. As a result, men on both ships were brought together as one company, subject to one set of orders, and informed they would share provisions.12 Tents were erected on a sandbank and provisions stored safely. The bowsprit and some spars from the wreck of the Cato were rescued. Some of the company were ill. After two clear days, no sight was made of the Bridgewater, on which the ships’ company were relying for a rescue. Hopes began to fade that Captain Palmer of that vessel would find the wrecked crew and rescue them. But Palmer was nowhere to be seen. Palmer’s ‘supposed want of common humanity raised resentment and contempt in many,’ Flinders remarked, but I was inclined to attribute it to his fear of and unacquaintance with reefs, which induced him to ensure his own safety in preference to the risk and probable uncertainty of relieving us; for fear might persuade his reason that every soul of us had perished during the first night, and any attempts on his part would consequently be fruitless.13

By 22 August, all hope of seeing the Bridgewater had vanished. What had happened to that vessel? Months later Captain Palmer sent a report to the Admiralty explaining his interpretation of events. He had sailed northwards after sighting the wrecks of the Cato and Porpoise, and decided he could not reach them in sufficient time to find

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survivors. According to an officer on his ship, Palmer assembled his officers and asked them if it was prudent at night-time, with heavy surf, to assist the Porpoise, and they agreed it would be better to wait for daylight to help. The weather was too violent and tempestuous on the next day to send anyone to the wrecked vessels. The Cato and the Porpoise were seen, but Palmer concluded, without searching to confirm his supposition, that everyone on board the ships had perished.14 Palmer then sailed in the Bridgewater up the east coast of Australia and around the north side of New Guinea to Batavia and thence to Tellicherry in south-west India. There he issued a statement on what had happened to a Calcutta newspaper.15 Surgeon Bell, who also sailed on the Bridgewater, wrote to Banks from Bombay to the effect that all of the Investigator’s company, except for himself and those in Port Jackson, had died at Wreck Reef. Yet, the third officer of the Bridgewater noted, on seeing the wrecks of the Cato and the Porpoise on the morning after the disaster, that he was convinced that the crews of both vessels were on the reefs. Palmer eventually sailed for England from India, but was never heard of again.16 At Wreck Reef, Flinders gathered the officers of his company together to determine the best way out of their predicament. They readily agreed with his plan that he should sail in a cutter with Park and a small party of men to Port Jackson to get a vessel to rescue those left on the reef and bring them back to Sydney Cove or take them to India whence they could take a passage back to England. It was decided that seven or eight carpenters among the stranded company should build a vessel to take everyone back to Port Jackson in two months’ time if Flinders’ passage back to secure a ship there foundered. Provisions had been saved for the company’s sustenance at Wreck Reef during Flinders’ absence. There was enough food and water for three months.17 John Franklin wrote a letter to his father summarizing the wreck of the Porpoise and explaining that he and his fellow crew members were disappointed that this would delay their homecoming to see friends and relations after an absence of two-and-a-half years.18 On the morning of 26 August, Flinders, Park and fourteen men bade farewell to their shipmates on Wreck Reef with three cheers and began their voyage in the cutter to Port Jackson. Flinders and Park took it in turns to take watches at the helm and relied on guesswork for distances. The voyage ended safely at Port Jackson on 9 September.19 Flinders immediately wrote an official letter to Governor King applying for a ship to take the stranded ship’s company from Wreck Reef. With the approval of the governor, he placed his shipmates from the cutter on the hulk of the Investigator.20 Flinders’ letter briefly referred to the disaster at Wreck Reef, which he calculated was 196 miles north of Sandy Cape and 729 miles from Port Jackson. He could provide its exact coordinates. He praised the exertions of Fowler and other ship members in dealing with the disaster and hoped the precautions taken on the voyage would exonerate Fowler from censure at losing an armed government vessel. Flinders published an account of the wreck in the Sydney Gazette, and New South Wales Advertiser for 18 September 1803.21 Flinders gave Brown the unwelcome news that the garden and the botanical specimens embarked in the Porpoise were totally lost, though the boxes of seeds landed from the wreck and the letters were safe.22 Governor King acted swiftly to order the Rolla to convey the stranded crew to China, accompanied by the colonial schooner Francis, which was to convey stores

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and carronades saved from the Porpoise. King ordered another colonial schooner, the Cumberland, to return immediately from the Hawkesbury River to Sydney Cove to take Flinders to Wreck Reef to prepare the stranded seamen for their passage in the Rolla. The Cumberland did not arrive in Port Jackson within five days, and so Flinders took a cutter named the Hope to meet the Cumberland near Broken Bay to convey the news about her impending voyage. It had been decided that, after picking up everyone at the reef, Flinders and the twenty-nine ton Cumberland should proceed through Torres Strait to England while the Rolla sailed with most of the shipwrecked seamen to Canton.23 King wrote a letter to Flinders assuring him of prompt help and commended him for his journey of over 700 miles in an open boat to secure assistance for the safe recovery of his shipmates on Wreck Reef. He hoped the commander of the Bridgewater would ‘for the honour of humanity’ eventually explain why he had thought the abandoned men of the Porpoise and the Cato had perished on the reef. King ordered provisions for six months on the Cumberland for ten officers and a crew. He also gave Flinders a set of letters to deliver to the Admiralty in London.24 Flinders prepared for his departure, offering farewells to Brown, Bauer and other members of the Investigator’s crew who remained in New South Wales. This was Flinders’ final departure from Port Jackson. He did not know the Peace of Amiens had ended and that Britain and France had been at war since May 1803.25 The Cumberland, Rolla and Francis sailed from Sydney Cove on 20 September. Despite squally weather, the three ships managed to stay near one another to make their way northwards to Wreck Reef.26 Flinders wrote a letter to Governor King while at sea, informing him of their progress. Flinders reported on the inadequacies of the Cumberland. He was losing time from the ship’s deficiencies; it lacked top gallant sails and double reefed top sails and was ‘exceedingly crank’ (i.e. easily keeled over by the wind). The Cumberland was also very leaky: water flowed onto the cabin floor and the crew were uncomfortable and only dry when at anchor. Flinders found it nearly impossible to work on his charts, letters and journals and told King that he was writing the letter with his knees up to his chin for a table to write on. ‘Writing here,’ he explained, ‘is like writing on horseback in a rainy day: and much worse than in the Norfolk Sloop.’ Flinders worried about the loss of time for writing and chart-drawing on the voyage to England. His intention was to transfer at the Cape of Good Hope to a faster vessel if one were available for a speedier conveyance home.27 North-easterly winds blew for two days before the three ships reached the latitude of Wreck Reef. Flinders spent a couple of days trying to locate the reef, but was misled by the readings given by the timekeeper he had on board. Eventually he sighted Wreck Reef on the afternoon of 7 October after a six weeks’ voyage from Port Jackson. The stranded seamen fired a salute of thirteen guns on seeing Flinders, who was cheered when he stepped onto the sandbank.28 ‘Never were three cheers more heartily given,’ Flinders wrote to King, ‘than those I received on landing at the bank; and the expressions of their joy did not stop there, but they fired a salute of guns also, having got the carronades on shore.’ In Flinders’ absence, the stranded crew had built a boat of about twenty tons named the Resource. Flinders ordered this schooner back to Sydney Cove under the command of Denis Lacy, the master’s mate in the Investigator. The boat

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was to be accompanied by the Francis. The provisions and stores were loaded onto the Rolla by 10 October. Lacy carried Flinders’ letter to Governor King.29 The Porpoise lay intact on the reef and all the ship’s company were in good health and spirits.30 They had spent time exploring neighbouring reefs and sand cays, fishing and hunting for turtle and birds’ eggs.31 Flinders selected his crew for the Cumberland. They comprised John Aken (acting master), Edward Charrington (acting boatswain), John Elder (acting master at arms), George Alder (carpenter’s mate of the Porpoise) and the following seamen who had sailed in the Investigator: John Wood, Henry Lewis, Francis Smith, William Smith, James Carter and Jacob Tippet. Flinders gave them a day to decide whether they wanted to make the long voyage back to England; only one man declined.32 On 11 October, Flinders went on board the Rolla to take leave of his former officers and crew.33 The Rolla set out from Wreck Reef to Canton, where it was intended that the officers and seamen would find employment on East India Company ships or catch a passage home to England. Some people successfully followed this course of action: Robert Fowler, for instance, reached Canton and embarked as a passenger on the East Indiaman Earl Camden for England.34 He sailed in a convoy of East Indiamen that drove off an attack by a superior French squadron at the battle of Pulo Aor, at the approach to the Malacca Straits, in February 1814. For this act of valour, he was subsequently presented with a Lloyds Patriotic Fund ceremonial sword and 300 guineas from the East India Company.35 John Franklin similarly chose to sail in the Rolla; he decided not to sail with Flinders because of the smallness and poor accommodation in the Cumberland.36 The Rolla had a safe voyage to Canton, and in 1804, the remainder of the ship’s company from the Investigator returned to England in a company of thirty-one merchant vessels. Flinders’ brother Samuel Ward was among the passengers.37 Flinders and his company in the Cumberland set out from Wreck Reef for Torres Strait on 12 October.38 They passed through the strait uneventfully. Flinders observed the navigation through this ‘dangerous strait’ attentively, in accordance with his precept that he should do ‘everything for the advancement of geography and navigation’ that the nature of his orders permitted.39 On 10 November, the ship reached Kupang, and Flinders sent Aken ashore to meet the governor of Timor. He learned that Le Géographe had been at Kupang in May 1803 and HMS Buffalo had called there in June. The Bridgewater had not stopped there. The Dutch Governor John Giesler had died a month before Flinders’ arrival at Timor, and the settlement was now under the control of Mynheer Veiertzen, who Flinders had met there earlier in the year. Flinders was readily supplied with wood, water and provisions for his voyage across the Indian Ocean. The Dutch settlement at Kupang was then in a state of disarray owing to fighting between Dutch and British forces on Timor and depredations on the government house and principal buildings by Malays. On 15 November, Flinders set sail from Kupang, hoping to avoid the north-west monsoon.40 Difficult weather was avoided, for the most part, and the ship made good progress across the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. But it had been decided before the Cumberland left Port Jackson that, on account of the vessel’s small size and the length of the voyage to the Cape, there should be a stopover at the Ile de France. This would give Flinders the opportunity to decide whether the vessel was seaworthy

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enough to continue sailing to England or, if not, whether the Cumberland should be sold at the Cape or freighted back to Port Jackson. Governor King had indicated to Flinders, however, that he did not favour the ship putting in at the Ile France. This was partly because of the possibility of hurricanes in that vicinity but more because he did not want to encourage relations between a French colony and Port Jackson in the event of war being resumed.41 Given that a stopover at the Ile de France would only involve sailing 200 miles away from the course for the Cape, Flinders decided to set aside King’s concerns and to stop there for several reasons. First, the upper part of the Cumberland was very leaky; the pump for the water was wearing out; and the ship needed to be caulked. Second, wood, water and provisions were needed. Third, and principally, lay the possibility of finding a homeward-bound ship there in which he could conveniently and expeditiously secure a passage to England. The Cumberland could only sail at seven knots per hour. And the discomfort of sailing in her made it very difficult for Flinders to work on his charts and accounts of Terra Australis. There were also several subordinate reasons for stopping at the Ile de France. Governor King’s letters could be despatched more quickly to London, and more could be learned about the whereabouts and progress of the Géographe and Naturaliste.42 Flinders considered the possibility that war between Britain and France had resumed. It had done so, as indicated above, but he had no knowledge of this. He reasoned, however, that his passport from the French Ministry of the Marine, made out for the Investigator’s expedition, would cover any problems that might arise from going to the Ile de France. He was aware that he did not have a passport to enter the Dutch settlement at the Cape, should there be a war; and that, in the event of hostilities, the Dutch might be enemies of Britain.43 On 6 December, Flinders altered the course of the Cumberland slightly, to the satisfaction of his officers and crew, and headed for the Ile de France. He followed details and a chart given in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, his only source of navigational information on the Ile de France.44 Nine days later, the ship steered to an anchorage at Baye du Cap on the south-west coast of the island. Flinders saw a man on shore with a plume in his hat and some soldiers with muskets. He sent Aken on shore with the French passport and some letters. Aken’s brief conversation with the officer, Major D’Unienville, indicated that war had resumed between Britain and France. The arrival of a French officer who spoke English confirmed this unwelcome news. Flinders showed his passport and commission for the Investigator, whereupon the district commandant, Etienne Bolger, stated that the passport was not for the Cumberland and demanded an explanation. Flinders would not relinquish the passport as it was his sole means of protection in wartime. He was therefore ordered to travel to Port Louis overland and take the passport to meet the new governor of the island, General Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen. These arrangements were cancelled and, instead, Flinders was instructed to sail in the Cumberland to Port Louis.45 Flinders did not know that Baudin had died of tuberculosis at the Ile de France almost exactly three months before his arrival there, or that Baudin had written sympathetically about him in his last letter, addressed to Governor King.46 Though Flinders did not know this at the time, the Géographe had left the Ile de France one day before his arrival in the Cumberland.47

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Flinders was apprehensive about his situation, for he had received a gruff, ungracious reception at Baye du Cap. As he proceeded towards Port Louis, he reflected that previous French administrations had honoured the protection offered to English voyages of exploration, especially in relation to Cook’s voyage in the Resolution during the American War of Independence and Vancouver’s voyage in the Chatham in the French revolutionary war. Neither Cook nor Vancouver had carried passports. Flinders also thought that the commanders of the Géographe and the Naturaliste, when at the Ile de France, would have reported the cordial reception they had received in Port Jackson in 1802. Flinders decided to contact the governor of the island immediately to show his passport and to ask for repairs to the Cumberland.48 On arriving at government house, Flinders was kept waiting but was eventually shown into a room where he saw two French officers sitting at a table, one of whom was Decaen. An interpreter was present: Flinders spoke little French, and Decaen could speak no English. With virtually no pleasantries, the French governor demanded to see the passport. After looking at it, he asked Flinders why he had called at the Ile de France in a small schooner with a passport for another vessel, the Investigator. Flinders briefly explained the circumstances and purpose of the present voyage. Decaen was annoyed and impatient with this explanation; he could not believe that the governor of New South Wales had authorized a voyage of discovery on so small a vessel as the Cumberland. Waving his arms and raising his voice, Decaen exclaimed imperiously, ‘Vous m’en imposez, monsieur!’ He looked at Flinders’ passport and commission, and handed back the documents. Flinders was escorted by military officers to his ship and ordered to hand over his passport, papers, letters and charts. Flinders then realized he would be detained at the Ile de France while his papers were examined further.49 Decaen was a soldier who had risen through the ranks and had distinguished himself in fighting during the French revolutionary wars. He had a strict cast of mind and was a strong patriot. Appointed by Napoléon, he had only arrived in the Ile de France to become governor some four months before Flinders reached the island. Decaen was known to have a quick temper and to quarrel with many of his associates, both below and above him in rank. Stubborn and strong-willed, he intended to preserve the Ile de France as a French stronghold in the Indian Ocean while war continued. Flinders thus encountered a formidable opponent, who expected to command respect and deference. Decaen kept his cards close to his chest and remained silent to requests made by Flinders, giving no hints for his motives in detaining the English explorer other than that he suspected he might be a spy.50 Decaen already had information about Flinders (of which the English navigator was unaware) that cast a suspicious light on the arrival of the Cumberland at the Ile de France. When François Péron, the zoologist on Baudin’s expedition, arrived at the island in the Géographe some months before Flinders, he presented Decaen with a detailed report of the British colony at Sydney Cove.51 This included a brief comment to the effect that the English navigator Flinders was currently sailing in the South Pacific looking for a strong military position from which British forces might pressurize rich Spanish possessions in South America. This suggestion would have inclined Decaen to think that Flinders’ arrival at the Ile de France was not as innocent as it seemed and that the claim to a safe passage on his French passport should be treated suspiciously,

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the more so because the document was made out specifically for another ship.52 The main thrust of Péron’s remarks was to suggest that Flinders was engaged on a political mission.53 Matters were not likely to be resolved quickly in the wake of the meeting between Flinders and Decaen. Flinders was given lodging on shore, where he stayed for a night. He was indignant at his abrupt treatment by Decaen. On the next day, he was visited by an aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Louis Auguste Fulcher de Monistrol. Flinders was asked by a German secretary who spoke some English to answer a series of questions about the nature and purpose of his voyage. The interrogation continued for six hours. The questions were read from a paper dictated by Decaen, and Flinders’ replies were written down in French translated from his English replies.54 Flinders was asked to justify why the Cumberland had entered port at the Ile de France rather than sailing to the Cape of Good Hope. He decided the best strategy, in these difficult circumstances, was to allow Decaen to see his third logbook giving details of the instructions from Governor King and the details of the Cumberland’s progress from Port Jackson to Port Louis.55 Flinders was surprised, considering this tense situation, to receive suddenly an invitation to dine with Decaen. It would have been advisable to take up this offer, in the hope that more cordial relations could be established with the French governor of the island. But Flinders’ pride and anger had been roused by his treatment at Port Louis. He was suspicious of Decaen’s offer and felt insulted. He therefore declined the invitation. Later, in A Voyage to Terra Australis, he explained his reasons for doing so: This invitation was so contrary to all that had hitherto passed, and being unaccompanied with any explanation, that I at first thought it could not be serious, and answered that I had already dined; but on being pressed at least to go to the table, my reply was ‘under my present situation and treatment it was impossible; when they should be changed, when I should be set at Liberty, if His Excellency thought proper to invite me, I should be flattered by it, and accept his invitation with pleasure.’56

Flinders had acted unwisely in refusing Decaen’s invitation to dinner: a diplomatic approach would have been a better course to follow. ‘By offending Decaen’, Jean Fornasiero has written, Flinders ‘had met with a steeliness even greater than his own’.57 On 17 December, when he arrived at Port Louis, Flinders learned that the Géographe had sailed for France on the previous day.58 Three days later an interpreter and a military officer took Flinders to government house for a meeting with Decaen. Flinders wanted a swift resolution to his confinement so that he could return to England. Decaen sent a message to say that he was unavailable on that day. Flinders was informed later that day of the captain general’s suspicions about his intentions. Decaen had examined the papers taken from the Cumberland and could find nothing in writing to explain why the details contained in the French passport for the Investigator, which did not authorize stopping at the Ile de France, had not been changed. Decaen considered Flinders had violated his understanding of neutrality and that he should be detained under suspicion and the ship’s company of the Cumberland kept under military control

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in a prison ship in Port Louis harbour. Flinders’ remaining papers were placed in a trunk and taken away by the French officers.59 Flinders was stunned by this treatment and realized that he was being held as a spy. He wrote a formal letter of protest to Decaen. It was wrong to accuse him of breaching neutrality, he argued, because his supposition (with no knowledge to the contrary) was that Britain and France were still at peace. Decaen wrote that Flinders’ stay at the Ile de France would acquaint him with the main features of that island and that this might be a security risk, but Flinders pointed out that Baudin, and previously La Pérouse, had been warmly welcomed at Port Jackson with no suspicions cast upon their presence. Flinders recounted in his letter the difficult circumstances that caused him to leave the Investigator in Sydney Cove and to set out in the Cumberland with the express aim of reviving his expedition to survey the coasts of New Holland. He asked Decaen to reconsider his decision to detain him as a prisoner and requested access to his servant John Elder to attend him in his confinement and to have access to his printed books. Elder was sent to him on the following day.60 Years later, in his published account of his voyage of discovery, Flinders admitted that his initial dealings with Governor Decaen could be criticized in so far as he was emotionally upset and zealously presenting his own claims with a certain amount of vanity, but he hoped his actions would be excused given the sudden and disastrous events that befell him on arriving at the Ile de France. Decaen’s reply to Flinders indicated that he had taken offence at the ‘unreserved tone’ of the letter and that Flinders had overstepped the boundaries of civility and decorum.61 Decaen’s own papers include observations to the effect that, in his opinion, Flinders had behaved with arrogance and obstinacy to a courteous invitation.62 Flinders was attended in his confinement by a surgeon, who treated his scorbutic ulcers, and was visited by aides to Decaen, who treated him civilly. Flinders again requested access to his papers and charts. This was complied with partially. He was permitted to go to government house and take his private letters and papers, his journal of bearings and astronomical observations, two log books and charts needed for compiling his own chart of the Gulf of Carpentaria. But he was not allowed access to two boxes of official despatches from New South Wales. Nor was he able to see his third logbook, which included information on the vessels with which he had been involved over the previous six months and which also had his remarks on Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Flinders wrote to Decaen on 5 January 1804 to request the return of the third logbook, but he received no answer. Other seized books, however, were returned to him. Aken had kept a journal on the Cumberland, and Flinders found this a useful substitute for his own confiscated logbook.63 By February 1804, with no end in sight to his imprisonment, Flinders began to write an explanatory memoir to accompany his chart.64 For his part, Decaen punished Flinders for his rudeness by keeping him detained at the Ile de France while his case was reported back to Paris for the French government to decide what should happen to him.65 Decaen’s report to the French government explained his suspicions about Flinders’ motives for stopping at the Ile de France. First, he criticized the British government for violating treaties, for their treatment of the French before surrendering the Cape of Good Hope and for their treatment of French ships at Pondicherry, India. Decaen had

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been present on French vessels that attempted to enter Pondicherry in June 1803, but British troops had been ordered not to allow the French ships to anchor there. Flinders, of course, had nothing to do with any of these actions. Second, Decaen referred to the seizure of the Naturaliste on her homeward voyage from Port Jackson by the British frigate Minerva, which took her into Portsmouth. Third, Flinders’ confiscated third logbook indicated an intention to examine the Ile France and Madagascar, which, to Decaen’s mind, suggested that there was a British plan to seize these French colonies. Yet, the logbook included no statements that indicated that Britain had such political intentions that would threaten French security in the Indian Ocean. Decaen had been influenced in his thinking by reading Péron’s report to him, dated 11 December 1802, that the British intended to seize the entire trade of the Indian Ocean, the China Seas and the Pacific, and that they posed a great threat to French security in those parts of the world.66 In February 1804, weary from his detention, Flinders wrote to Decaen with proposals about how he might be dealt with. He politely requested to depart with his vessel and his papers and pledged on his honour not to convey any information on the Ile de France to anyone for a limited time. If this could not be agreed, he requested alternatively to stand trial in France. If that were not complied with, he asked that his officers and crew be allowed to depart in the Cumberland while he remained in detention at the Ile de France. This would serve to inform the British Admiralty of his whereabouts and relieve the families and friends of his seamen. His final request, if all the above suggestions were rejected, was for Decaen to move him away from the town of Port Louis to a part of the island where he could benefit from social intercourse and enjoy exercise and fresh air to restore his health and relieve the scorbutic sores on his legs.67

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Detention at the Ile de France

Flinders served a long detention at the Ile de France. For six-and-a-half years, Decaen kept him on the island, and for much of the time he was effectively a prisoner. Inevitably this caused Flinders anguish and distress. He naturally wanted to be reunited with his wife and family in England, and still had hopes of gaining another ship from the Admiralty to complete his examination of Australia’s coasts. In a voyage account published in 1813, John Turnbull referred to Flinders’ detention in the Ile de France exhibiting ‘harsh and unmanly treatment’ by Decaen for no other reason than that he had deviated from the voyage for which he had a passport by calling at a Mauritian harbour.1 This unjustness was constantly uppermost in Flinders’ mind during his detention. But although he occasionally lapsed into despondency at his unfortunate fate, his loneliness was relieved by friends he made at the Ile de France and their efforts to sustain his mental and physical well-being. Nor was the long Mauritian sojourn wasted in terms of Flinders’ attention to the Investigator’s expedition. He worked methodically and systematically at his charts; he transcribed his voyage account into a fair copy; he wrote a ‘Memoir’ explaining his navigational achievements in Australian waters; and he despatched books and papers under safe keeping to London. Denied the public recognition he thought his circumnavigation would have brought him in England, Flinders worked hard to overcome his loneliness and detainment at the Ile de France by focusing attention on his charts and journals.2 Flinders lived in various places during his years at the Ile de France. To begin with, he lodged at the Café Marengo in Port Louis, where he had the companionship of John Aken, the master of the Cumberland, and John Elder, his servant. The island administration provided sixty dollars per month for Flinders’ subsistence, twenty dollars for Elder, and forty dollars for Aken.3 The remaining crew of the Cumberland were transferred to a prison at Flacq, on the eastern side of the island. Flinders was physically unwell at the beginning of his stay in Port Louis. He had scurvy break out on his legs and feet. He was attended by a surgeon but was unable to walk or ride for four months. No one was allowed to speak to him without Decaen’s permission.4 Flinders was kept under strict guard. The surgeon and interpreter who attended him could only pass military surveillance with a written order.5 The physician who visited Flinders stated that he had been suffering from renal colic for three years and his urine frequently contained stones and a lot of mucus.6

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While staying at the Café Marengo, Flinders made friends with Jacques Bergeret, a French naval officer who now commanded a privateer. Bergeret sympathized with Flinders’ plight and treated him with respect and kindness. On 31 May 1804, Flinders was removed to the Maison Despaux, on the north side of Port Louis, which he termed a garden prison. It was a spacious house owned by a surgeon, with a walled garden and several acres of land surrounding it. A guardhouse was part of the property. Bergeret liaised with Decaen to arrange for this transfer.7 Flinders’ regular routine there was to read Latin before breakfast; to spend time transcribing a fair copy of the Investigator’s log after breakfast; to play his flute and then continue his writing until an early dinner; to play billiards until tea time; to walk in the garden until dusk; to play some more flute music until supper; and to take a half-hour’s walk before going to sleep.8 Eight other English officers were living at Maison Despaux with their servants. This gave Flinders welcome company. Flinders also had French visitors, with whom he became friendly. But pleasant dealings with these people did not allow him to forget that his detention lay in the hands of one man – Governor Decaen. Finders had ‘but one enemy’, he explained in a letter to his wife, but he unfortunately was ‘all-powerful here, nor will he, on any persuasion, permit me to pass the walls of the garden’.9 When he wrote those words, Flinders still believed that he was not technically a prisoner of war but someone ‘detained by government’.10 His status changed in early September 1804, when a French officer demanded that he give up his sword. This was the second occasion when Flinders had been asked to relinquish his sword while in captivity. On the first occasion, he had refused to do so because the request had come from a French sergeant and Flinders, as an officer, regarded this to be insulting. But on the second occasion, wishing to avoid trouble, he handed over his sword to a junior officer acting on Decaen’s orders. Flinders considered this confirmed him as a prisoner of war.11 ‘What I am suffering,’ Flinders wrote to Philip Gidley King, ‘in promotion, peace of mind, fortune, fame, and everything that man holds dear, it is not my intention to detail.’12 On the first anniversary of his detention, Flinders wrote to Decaen to request his release. But he deliberately omitted the words he most wanted to convey to the French governor: I have suffered a years imprisonment – am debilitated in health – kept back from my promotion, and the credit arising from my exertions and risks in prosecuting discovery – remain in ignorance of the state of my fortune and family both of which have suffered some late material alterations – and, oh above all, am kept from the arms of a beloved wife.13

He anxiously awaited the arrival of letters from England from ships calling at the Ile de France, and particularly anticipated news from his wife. He wrote to Ann frequently to express his misery arising from his confinement but to reassure her of his constancy. ‘I have nothing certain to tell thee’, he wrote to Ann in September 1808, ‘except that my affection for thee, for my friends, and my Country remain, and ever will, unalterably the same’.14

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Flinders also sent a series of letters to Sir Joseph Banks. These served partly to update his patron on his confinement at the Ile de France but also to offer discursive thoughts on his plight. ‘Fourteen months of imprisonment without any given point of expiration [sic],’ he wrote to Banks, ‘is a greater trial of both body and mind than I had thought it to be.’15 In another letter, Flinders advised Banks that ‘if the East India Company have any intention of making a settlement on new Holland, the harbours of Cape Arnhem, the wild nutmegs, and perhaps the trepan which seems to bring the Malays a good many thousand dollars annually from the Chinese, might be additional incitements’.16 Flinders was anxious to prove that some definite advances in geographical knowledge had arisen from his expedition. Thus he despatched to England his general chart of Australia with the following explanation to Banks: ‘I call the whole island Australia or Terra Australis. New Holland is properly that part of it from 136° of longitude, westward; and eastward is the British government of New South Wales, according to the governor’s patent.’17 In one revealing letter to Banks, he explained his ambitions as a navigator. ‘If I do not prove myself worthy of your patronage, Sir Joseph,’ he wrote, let me be thrown out of the society of all good men. I have too much ambition to rest in the unnoticed middle order of mankind, and since neither birth nor fortune have favoured me, my actions shall speak to the world. In the regular service of the navy there are too many competitors for fame; I have therefore chosen a branch which, though less rewarded by rank and fortune, is yet little less in celebrity; in this the candidates are fewer, and in this, if adverse fortune does not oppose me, I will succeed; and although I cannot rival the immortalized name of Cook, yet if persevering industry joined to that ability I may possess, can accomplish it, then it will but conduct me to the place of probation. The hitherto obscure name of Flinders may thus become a light by which even the illustrious character of Sir Joseph may one day receive an additional ray of glory.18

The shadow of Cook alluded to in this letter was one that was constantly present in Flinders’ perception of his own achievements. Thus, in another place, he wrote that not Cook himself excels, if he even equals, Vancouver, in the exactness and multiplicity of his observations; but his field was circumscribed, as must be that of all those who would now pursue the same career: the great harvest is reaped, and the gleanings only are reserved for us. The best execution of the task that remains, is to give well the details of what the too extended labours of Cook did not permit him to examine minutely.19

In mid-July 1805, Flinders wrote to Banks – ‘my best and most powerful friend’ – to indicate his desire to acquire command of a ship to explore the north-west coast of New Holland ‘to ascertain the existence of an entrance into an inland sea near the Rosemary Isles of Dampier’.20 In 1806, Flinders further suggested to Banks that he might be considered for a future expedition to Australia if a speedy peace occurred. He hoped the Admiralty would want the remaining coast of Australia examined immediately.

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Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia With five or six asses to carry provisions … expeditions might be made into the interior of Australia from the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria in 18°, and from the head of the great gulph on the south coast [Spencer Gulf], in 32° until the courses should nearly meet: five hundred miles each way would most probably be sufficient, since the country does not appear to be mountainous, a view of my general chart will exemplify this. In case of being again sent to Australia, I should much wish that this was part of my instructions.21

In a letter to his brother, Flinders later reiterated his desire to complete the survey of Australia.22 There was no possibility of Flinders’ release from captivity when that letter was written. In April 1805, however, Decaen approved of Flinders’ application to move away from Port Louis. This seems to have arisen because the French governor regarded Flinders as someone to be detained rather than imprisoned and, as such, he was entitled to live with greater freedom than he had experienced so far at the Ile de France. Decaen conveyed his decision in a letter forwarded to Flinders by Monistrol.23 Several possible locations were suggested for Flinders to take up residence. Eventually, Flinders chose to live on the Le Refuge plantation of Madame Louise D’Arifat at Vacoas. This was situated on a hilltop, about 1,800 feet above sea level, on Plaines Wilhelms in the centre of the island. He remained there from 25 August 1805 until 29 March 1810.24 Flinders described Madame D’Arifat as ‘an elderly widow lady, of an excellent understanding and disposition, and respectable character’. He soon made friends with her eldest daughter, Delphine, and her eldest son, Paul David Labauve.25 The move to stay with the D’Arifat family meant that Flinders’ position changed from imprisonment to detention.26 Flinders promised to obey Decaen’s insistence that he should not stray beyond two leagues from this residence. Flinders was accompanied to the D’Arifat residence by Aken and Elder; they lived in one pavilion near to the main house on the plantation and he lived in the other. These new living quarters provided Flinders with welcome access to fresh air and walks for exercise. He soon settled into a regular pattern of daily activity that involved walking in the morning for two hours and then devoting time to reading, writing, learning French or playing his flute until dinner. On 10 October 1805, he received an invitation to live with Madame D’Arifat and her family in their house on the plantation, but he declined the offer. But he did dine with his hostess’s family on most days.27 Decaen was the major stumbling block militating against Flinders’ release from detention, and in due course he became the only human barrier to granting freedom. Decaen continued to think that Flinders had political motives for coming to the Ile de France, and he remembered the snub to his dinner invitation. Flinders learned that Governor King’s despatches, which were among the documents seized by Decaen, included a demand for troops to be sent out to Port Jackson for protection against Spanish America in the event of a war, and that this was considered a breach of his passport.28 At the beginning of 1804, Decaen ordered papers from the American ship Hunter to be taken on shore as he suspected they included letters from Flinders.29 Owing to the continuing war between Britain and France, strict measures of security were maintained at the Ile de France. After an English squadron appeared off the island

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on 27 August 1804, Decaen ordered every Englishman on the island to be confined and watched closely. Surveillance diminished after the English squadron departed in early November, but Decaen’s refusal to free Flinders proved implacable.30 An interpreter explained to Flinders in early February 1804 that Decaen did not wish to arrange a meeting with the English navigator; he thought it needless and only likely to leave him furious.31 Several months later a despatch from Denis Decrès, the Minister for Marine, supported Flinders’ detention.32 By April 1807, Decaen decided that he could not change Flinders’ situation until orders authorizing him to do so came from France.33 Flinders repeatedly reflected on the injustice of his detainment in his private journal and in letters to relatives and friends. He referred to his ‘unmerited situation’ and his ‘dreary and wearisome time’ at the Ile de France.34 ‘The evil stars that conducted me to this island,’ he wrote to a friend, ‘seem to condemn me to an interminable exile in it.’35 Flinders included similar sentiments in the middle of loving letters to his wife, expressing his constant affection for her as he lay ‘under the power of a suspicious tyrant who knows not to appreciate the nature of my employment or my efforts in forwarding a service so universally beneficial to maritime nations and the extension of natural knowledge’.36 The despairing sentiments continued. ‘Truly I fear I shall never see the end of my imprisonment’, he wrote in 1807, for ‘the tyranny and animosity of this diabolical man seem to [know] no bounds’.37 At times, Flinders shut himself away in his room and refused to fraternize with anyone even though the D’Arifat family treated him kindly.38 By the middle of 1805, Flinders hoped to receive despatches from France informing him he was no longer to be kept as a prisoner.39 But no such missives arrived and, as long as the war continued, Flinders saw no prospect of his release: the French government was too preoccupied with their Continental war to set aside time to deal with his case.40 In more despondent moments, Flinders thought his Mauritian confinement would drive him to madness.41 On each anniversary of his detention, 16 December, he noted in his private journal that another year had passed since his unfortunate detention.42 At one point, Flinders begged to be sent to France for his case to be heard there. His petition to this effect remained unanswered.43 He hoped his wife could come out to the Ile de France to join him. But he soon realized that this would be foolhardy and, besides, his wife’s health was delicate, so he abandoned the suggestion.44 Flinders also contemplated plans to try and escape from the island; but on reflection he decided this would be unwise.45 Flinders wrote to influential people to help him in his plight. Letters were despatched to Banks, the Admiralty, Fleurieu, Decrès, the naval officer Sir Edward Pellew and others.46 Flinders sent to the French Minister of the Marine a detailed explanation of the circumstances in which he arrived at the Ile de France and of his containment there. He appealed to the French government to act on his behalf in the face of Decaen’s continued inaction. This long memorial is a detailed study in self-justification.47 It was written nearly a year after he had previously written to the same French minister to explain that he sailed into a Mauritian harbour thinking that Britain and France were at peace and that he only intended to stay there for four or five days.48 Flinders wrote many other letters to officials in France about his situation. It is unclear how many of these were received in Paris, but most of them appear to have been unanswered.49

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The Société d’Emulation, a literary group in the Ile de France formed from former members of Baudin’s expedition, wrote to the Institut de France, a leading scientific body in Paris, to help secure Flinders’ freedom ‘in the name of humanity and the sciences’.50 Friends and sympathizers in different parts of the world added their condemnation of Flinders’ detention in their correspondence. One notable supporter of Flinders was Philip Gidley King. He reminded Decaen that the Baudin expedition had been cordially received at Port Jackson, given fresh water and provisions and medical attention for the sick crew, and that Flinders should have been given a similar welcome at the Ile de France. He could not understand Decaen’s justification for keeping Flinders as a prisoner: the only possible reason for doing so, according to King, would have been if Flinders had not observed strict neutrality in wartime.51 In 1805, Lord Wellesley, the Governor General of India, requested that Decaen should release Flinders immediately. Nothing happened.52 Sir Edward Pellew, commander-in-chief of the British naval forces in the East Indies, also wrote to Decaen on Flinders’ behalf, emphasizing that ‘his case has long appeared to me one of peculiar hardship’.53 Pellew tried to arrange an exchange for Flinders with a French officer of equal rank, but that suggestion was not taken up.54 Back in London, the commissioners for the Transport Service were urged to submit an abstract of Flinders’ case to the French government.55 In England, the Admiralty made little effort to secure Flinders’ release. Flinders referred to their ‘lukewarm … exertions’.56 This, he thought, might have arisen from their view that something was amiss in his conduct, though he had no evidence to support this supposition. Flinders’ plight in England was mainly publicized by Banks. Flinders was well aware that his patron was making more effort than anyone else in England to obtain his release: ‘it is to Sir Joseph alone that I am indebted for taking any steps in my favour’.57 Banks maintained a kind correspondence with Ann Flinders, sympathizing with her loneliness as her husband’s return was severely delayed by confinement on the Ile de France, reassuring her of his efforts to secure Flinders’ freedom, and keeping her up-to-date with any new information.58 Ann herself also wrote to the Admiralty to urge efforts to be made to secure her husband’s release from detention.59 Banks was as anxious to see Flinders as any of his friends could be. He appears to have been critical of Flinders’ clumsy handling of his initial meetings with Decaen.60 But he had increased his regard for Flinders because of the assiduity and accomplishments displayed on the Investigator expedition.61 Banks sought the support of the Institut National in relation to Flinders’ confinement at Ile de France, arguing that the French should reciprocate his efforts in support of the Baudin expedition by freeing Flinders in the interests of disinterested scientific discovery. But these pleas fell on deaf ears.62 Banks wrote to various French acquaintances with news of Flinders’ plight in the hope that they could persuade officials in France to secure his release. One such person was Captain Pierre Bernard Milius, the commander of Le Géographe on her return voyage from the Ile de France after Baudin’s death. Milius had later been captured by the British in 1804 from service on a French frigate and Banks had helped him to gain parole. Emphasizing that Flinders had been detained at the Ile de France ‘under a groundless pretence of having come in as a spy’ and that he was ‘still detained there as a Malefactor’, Banks arranged for Milius to return to France on condition that he

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informed members of the Institut de France of the injustice meted out to Flinders and that the Institut would seek permission from Napoléon for Flinders’ release. Milius had met Flinders and knew the details of his expedition in the Investigator from his participation in Baudin’s voyage.63 Neither Banks nor Flinders knew, when this request was made, that a French order for Flinders’ release had been agreed by Napoléon on 11 March 1806. This seems to have come about through pleading on Flinders’ behalf by the French navigator De Bougainville.64 Flinders only received the packet containing the welcome news on 27 July 1807.65 Initial delight soon turned to despair as it became clear that Decaen had no intention of releasing his prisoner. On 1 September 1807, Flinders informed Banks that he remained ‘wholly in the dark as to the time and manner of my return to England’.66 Flinders was convinced that Decaen’s true motives in keeping him in detention were ‘personal animosity to me, and a desire to prevent me from making known the injustice with which I have been treated’.67 The French governor seemed to retain ‘some sinister views’ respecting the English navigator.68 Flinders thought Decaen’s policy was to frustrate him until Flinders used violent language that would then serve as a pretext to continue his detention.69 The extent to which the French governor’s decision was based on spite is difficult to determine; but certainly he acted out of patriotism while the war between Britain and France continued.70 Decaen’s intention to keep Flinders imprisoned was influenced strongly by his own sense of insecurity at the Ile de France. With a strong possibility of a British invasion of the island, Flinders could be used as a bargaining tool: Decaen’s safe return to France could be secured in return for releasing the English navigator.71 In these circumstances, it is unsurprising that Flinders sometimes felt depressed; his spirits sagged with the uncertainty about how long he would remain a prisoner.72 He had periods when he was physically unwell. He reported having pains in his legs – no doubt arising from scurvy – and swelling in his neck glands, headaches, and dimness of sight. Scorbutic ulcers limited his mobility when he first arrived at the Ile de France. His gravelly complaint in his urinary tract, which had troubled him since his voyage in the Providence in the early 1790s, became painful.73 Though preoccupied with trying to secure his release from confinement and occasionally feeling despondent about his situation, Flinders nevertheless found a new circle of French friends among the cultivated people he encountered. His closest French friend was the merchant Thomi Pitot de la Beaujardière, an influential member of the Société des Sciences et Arts de l’Ile de France, which was mainly devoted to science and natural history.74 Pitot visited Flinders at the Maison Despaux in August 1804; he lent books and music to Flinders; and behaved cordially towards the English navigator.75 ‘He speaks some English,’ Flinders recorded in his journal after dining with Pitot, ‘and is very conversant with English books, and celebrated men’.76 Pitot and his brother Edouard soon visited Flinders frequently.77 This continued when Flinders moved to the D’Arifat plantation. Through his friendship with the Pitots, Flinders learned about the fate of the Baudin expedition as well as receiving up-to-date information about the activities of French privateers and the English blockade of the Ile de France in 1810.78 The Pitots also visited the other English prisoners, whom they treated with similar kindliness.79

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The sincere, friendly relationship between Flinders and the Pitots is evident in their surviving correspondence and in Flinders’ remarks in his private journal. This was a friendship marked by common scientific and intellectual interests in which reciprocity was soon established and maintained. Thomi Pitot was primarily responsible for Flinders’ move from the Maison Despaux to Le Refuge. He helped Flinders financially and listened patiently to Flinders’ critical remarks about his detention and the attitude of Governor Decaen. He brought magazines and newspapers and offered educated conversation. Pitot was instrumental in persuading the Société d’Emulation to remonstrate with the Institut National in Paris to press for Flinders’ release from captivity. He also oversaw a public campaign to support Flinders’ case.80 Flinders admitted that Pitot’s friendship had helped him stave off melancholy feelings about his confinement and praised him warmly as a true friend to humanity.81 Many of Pitot’s French correspondents were members of the Institut National, and this may have helped to support Flinders’ case when it was discussed by that body.82 Flinders also became acquainted with other Francophone Mauritians during his long stay on the D’Arifat plantation. On many occasions, he dined with these people and experienced their warm hospitality. He learned French while living there, and after a couple of years conversed fluently in that language and wrote letters in French.83 He read works by Voltaire, La Fontaine and Molière.84 He enjoyed talking in French with Madame D’Arifat’s two young daughters and her eldest son. He taught the principles of navigation to his hostess’s younger sons.85 Altogether Flinders was cordially welcomed in the D’Arifat household and made to feel part of a family atmosphere even though he chose to retain his privacy by living in his own pavilion. But he saw the D’Arifat family each day. Living at Le Refuge, Flinders also had daily contacts with slaves on the plantation who lived near his pavilion. He observed the holiday celebrations of the slaves and free coloured people on each New Year’s Day and distributed money as a gift among them on these occasions.86 Flinders’ interaction with Mauritians extended further. He had the leisure to cultivate social relations with many friendly visitors who realized that he was neither a spy nor a threat to their way of life. Flinders’ circle of French-speaking Mauritian creoles included relations of the D’Arifat family; Charles Baudin, who had been a midshipman on the Géographe; Monsieur Défait, who had served in the French army in India; and the neighbouring planters Toussaint Antoine de Chazal, Pierre Paulin Chevreau and Jacques Plumet. Flinders painted with Chazal, an accomplished artist who did one of the few colour portraits of Flinders. He also enjoyed the company of Chazal’s wife, who was a keen harpsichordist. He conversed about science with Charles Desbassayns, a wealthy sugar plantation owner who married one of Madame D’Arifat’s daughters. Flinders sometimes discussed politics and the war between Britain and France with these acquaintances. There were undoubtedly differences of opinion, including one interchange between the English navigator and Chazal that led to heated disagreement. But differences of political opinion – much to be expected – were eventually accommodated without serious animosity.87 Flinders met members of the Société d’Emulation. Through his contact with the society, Flinders wrote a document describing his own calamity at Wreck Reef and reflections on the plight of the lost French explorer La Pérouse. Flinders visited the

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estate which La Pérouse had bought on the Ile de France and urged the current owner to put up a monument there in memory of the French navigator. The owner erected a cairn in what had been La Pérouse’s garden. The stones were later removed, but a large conical rock was placed there in 1897 as a memorial to the French explorer.88 Flinders was entertained from time to time by naval men, including members of the Géographe who had remained at the Ile de France. The arrival of the French vessel Venus in March 1809 enabled Flinders to renew an acquaintance with her commander, Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, the captain of the Naturaliste on Baudin’s expedition to the south seas, whom he had met at Port Jackson. In addition to socializing with Mauritians and visiting Frenchmen, Flinders had regular opportunities to talk to American naval and merchant officers whose ships called at the Ile de France. He was on friendly terms with Johann Boand, a visiting Swiss mercantile agent, and a Danish merchant called Beckmann, an acquaintance of Pellew.89 Flinders’ long Mauritian stay gave him ample time for reading and reflection. He had always been an assiduous reader and, on his circumnavigation of Terra Australis, he regularly spent evenings reading, writing and studying. These endeavours focused on the books necessary for him to construct his voyage account and the works of geographers and previous explorers of Australia. But he also read more generally in the volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica given to him by Banks. At the Ile de France, after his trunk of books was returned by Decaen, he resumed reading these works. He was impressed by the power and eternal themes covered in Milton’s Paradise Lost. He enjoyed Rousseau’s Emile (1755), Voltaire’s writings on French history, and novels such as Le Sage’s Gil Blas (1715–35), Madame de Staël Corinne (1807) and Chateaubriand’s Atala (1801). He mentioned the titles of these and other books in his private journal but rarely offered any detailed comments on his reading.90 Flinders began to study Malay on the basis that it would be useful to have a basic knowledge of that language should he sail on another voyage to the north coast of Australia and its archipelagos to the north.91 Flinders’ varied written skills also deepened during his detention. His private journal, with almost daily entries, includes some 234,000 words. Its main literary quality, as Gillian Dooley has emphasized, is the ability to analyse his plight in a rationally detached way.92 For his own edification, Flinders wrote an extended description of his cat, Trim, who had been with him on his voyages since the mid-1790s and who was still his pet while at the Ile de France. For over a century and a half, this biographical description, written in 1809, remained in manuscript among Flinders’ papers, but it has now been published in book form. It shows that Flinders could write in a light and charming way, when he chose to do so.93 Flinders was also an assiduous correspondent, writing letters to his wife, Sir Joseph Banks and a wide circle of family, friends and professional acquaintances.94 He wrote to the surveyor Charles Grimes, with who he had collaborated in surveying the Port Jackson area under Governor Hunter, but noted sadly that it was uncertain whether he would ever see New South Wales again.95 Flinders’ writing in captivity included a considerable amount of work on his charts and voyage account.96 In addition, he composed a memoir dealing with the hydrographical, astronomical and geographical findings of the Investigator expedition. Decaen had returned most of Flinders’ confiscated materials with the exception of the

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third logbook and two boxes containing the despatches of Governor King and Colonel Paterson.97 Flinders began work drawing charts from his survey sheets. By September 1804, he had completed his general chart of Terra Australis and that of the Gulf of Carpentaria.98 By mid-October, he had finished drawing his charts; the last one to be completed was one of Bass Strait.99 By then, he had begun to write a description of the construction of the charts and a short account of the impacts of winds, tides and currents on magnetism aboard ships. Flinders, with clerical assistance, transcribed for the Admiralty a fair copy of his logbook and journal to replace the daily logbook and journal spoiled during the shipwreck of the Porpoise.100 This fair copy included extensive material under the heading ‘additional remarks’ appended to the daily log details. This would be essential information ‘to furnish to the gentleman who may be chosen to write the narrative of the voyage’.101 Clearly, Flinders supposed the Admiralty might not wait for his return home before assigning the task of writing up the published voyage account to someone else. Flinders spent much time at the Ile de France preparing charts or survey sheets to depict his main geographical findings from his running surveys around Australia’s coast. Drawing on books and charts of prior authorities, and on his rough journal, evidence gathered on latitude and longitude, and astronomical calculations, he summarized his findings on charts that included comprehensive details on his discoveries. This was a great work of synthesis, combining what he knew from intensive study with his own practical investigations. The need for research among existing books and charts and first-hand navigational experience were both essential to produce meaningful and accurate results. But Flinders nevertheless prioritized the matters: ‘Study is necessary, as it gives theory,’ he noted to his brother, ‘but active exertion is still more necessary to a good sea officer.’102 In the ‘Memoir’ he prepared while kept in detention, Flinders explained his methods for constructing these charts. He had prepared rough survey sheets when stretches of the coast were seen during the voyage. He then redrew the details when time permitted, incorporating information from his logbooks and journals and his observation and bearing book, which recorded soundings and calculations for latitude and longitude. The charts were usually plotted on a scale of four inches to one degree of longitude but, for harbours and places of significance, he used a scale of twelve inches per degree of longitude. For two localities, King George Sound and Torres Strait, he drew on a much larger scale in order to include detailed soundings. He explained in the ‘Memoir’ his markings on the charts for fixed points in his survey, for rocks and shoals, for currents and tides, and a set of symbols used for navigational details along the ship’s track. The overall aim was to ensure that the sheets were as accurate as possible for future navigators; and, as always, Flinders was scrupulous in distinguishing what was verified from what was known conjecturally. The ‘Memoir’ also included interesting reflections on the nature of ocean winds, tides and currents.103 Flinders’ survey sheets included several innovations on previous practice by most hydrographers. He showed the fixed points of his survey on land and the places from which bearings were taken. He distinguished between night and day tracks, something Dalrymple had suggested to him, and indicated which parts of the coast he had examined and those parts copied from other sources. He similarly distinguished his

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own soundings from those recorded by other hydrographers and differentiated his own place names from those conferred by other explorers. He used arrows to indicate the strength of the tides, currents and winds.104 Flinders drew the tracks of other voyages that had sailed in Australian waters, where such information was available to him, and offered succinct commentaries in boxes to explain the context of voyaging on some survey sheets. Thus, for example, Flinders’ large-scale plot of Torres Strait included the tracks followed by the Endeavour (1770), the Pandora (1791), the Investigator (1802) and the Cumberland (1803). This showed that Cook had sailed much closer to the northern end of the Cape York Peninsula than the other vessels.105 Flinders’ chart of Bass Strait showed the track and discoveries made in the Norfolk (1798) and by John Murray in the Lady Nelson (1801) and also noted which explorers had examined King Island in the years from 1798 to 1802.106 Flinders made arrangements to distribute these documents to his patrons and supporters whenever an opportunity permitted. In August 1804, he sent material to Philip Gidley King and to the Admiralty and (as mentioned above) his General Chart to Banks. In May 1805, he handed over papers to Aken, who had been released from his parole at the Ile de France. Aken left the island on 19 May, taking with him sixteen original charts, including the general chart of Terra Australis, a fair copy of Flinders’ logbook and journal up to March 1803, and the first five chapters of the ‘Memoir’ in manuscript form, dated 14 May 1805.107 In July 1806, Flinders sent to England a narrative of his treatment at the Ile de France. A year later, he despatched further papers to England under the care of his servant Elder, who was released from his Mauritian detention in that month and sailed on a ship bound to Baltimore.108 The papers entrusted to Elder included the second volume of Flinders’ journal and logbook in the Investigator up to 10 June 1803, a narrative about the outfit of that ship up to the beginning of the Australian coastal survey, letters to Dalrymple, Banks, the Admiralty and his family, and some newly constructed charts.109 Elder had had a couple of opportunities prior to this when he could have left the Ile de France; but he was very attached to Flinders and decided to stay. On this occasion, he was allowed to depart after suffering from hallucinations and loss of sleep and appetite.110 Flinders had the satisfaction of knowing that his paper on the uses of the marine barometer was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1806.111 Flinders’ ambition was to complete his extensive survey of coastal Australia. His current situation made it imperative for him to publicize his findings from the Investigator expedition as quickly as possible. This would please his patron, Banks, and also inform the Admiralty about his substantive and substantial achievements from that voyage. Another factor in Flinders’ relaying of his charts and papers to England lay in wanting to stem French rivalry. Flinders knew the fruits of the Baudin expedition might well be disseminated while he was detained, taking the shine away from his own achievements. And, as already mentioned, Flinders wanted to complete his survey of Australia’s coasts in a further voyage supported by the Admiralty. Aborting the minute examination of Australia’s coast and offshore islands had not quenched his thirst for finishing the survey. He realized that Banks’s continuing patronage was vital for this plan to materialize. If any accident should happen to him, Flinders privately noted, ‘there is great doubt whether my voyage will ever be completed; or much notice taken

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of what I have already done’.112 He hoped the charts, journals and papers periodically transmitted to the Admiralty, along with his letters addressed to Decaen for his release, would demonstrate his determination ‘of returning to the execution of my voyage’.113 Eventually Flinders wanted to undertake another voyage to Australia under Banks’s auspices, but intended to remain in England for at least ten or twelve months after gaining his freedom before doing so.114 Flinders’ mind pondered the continuing mysteries of Australia’s geography while he remained in confinement. Further exploration of the north and west coasts and of the interior of the continent was still needed before a full, accurate knowledge of Australian geography was achieved. He hoped the Admiralty would want to pursue further discoveries in Australia as soon as peace occurred. For such an expedition, it would make better sense to touch for refreshments, repairs and naval stores at the Ile de France, Pulo Penang or Timor than at Port Jackson.115 The possibilities of what might yet be discovered about Australia’s geography occupied his thoughts. ‘Think there must certainly be some river or large opening upon the north-west coast of Australia’, he mused in his private journal, hoping that the Admiralty would not give any passports to French ships to embark on voyages of discovery while he was kept a prisoner. He added: Cannot conceive how it is that there should be no copy of Tasman’s chart of that coast remaining, spoken of by Dampier. If there is an opening near the Rosemary Isles, a settlement there would be advantageous for the East India Company, on account of the high tides, and the proximity of the position to the Spice Islands, as a place for their ships to touch at and take in spices for China, as a naval station for the eastern cruizers, and to counteract the armaments of the French at this island: determine to propose it to the company on my return … If there should be no great opening on the N.W. coast, it would be desirable to explore by land from the head of the great inlet on the south coast [i.e. Spencer Gulf], and from Port Phillip.116

Flinders periodically received news about Baudin’s expedition. A visit to Le Refuge in May 1806 by Thomi Pitot and Charles Baudin brought information about the French expedition after its departure from Port Jackson in November 1802 and of the death of Nicolas Baudin.117 Flinders was mortified to read, in a copy of the Moniteur for July 1808, that Australia’s south coast was to be called Terre Napoléon; that Kangaroo Island was to be termed the Isle Decrès; that Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent were to be called Golphe Bonaparte and Golphe Josephine. Flinders was always scrupulous about first discoverers of territory having the right to name the places they had come across, and he wanted to find out who had authorized these ‘encroachments’ on his discoveries.118 The parts of Australia’s south coast discovered by Baudin, James Grant and himself were ‘distinctly and impartially’ marked on the charts he had sent back to the Admiralty. Baudin had ‘raised no objection’ to the division between the three explorers’ finds when shown the charts in Port Jackson in 1802. ‘Thus whilst general Decaen keeps me a prisoner here,’ Flinders concluded, ‘they search at Paris to deprive me of the little honour with the scientific world, which my labours might have procured me.’119

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Flinders further read about these claims in the English translation of Péron’s narrative of the Baudin expedition. Péron was the chief scientist and chronicler of the expedition. He rose to this position partly owing to his ability as a proactive naturalist but also because other scientists had either left the voyage or died (as, of course, had Baudin). After Péron returned to France in 1804, he promoted himself to the French government, along with the cartographer Louis Freycinet, as the most suitable survivors from the expedition to publish its findings in a voyage account and atlas.120 When Flinders read about the French designation of Australia’s south coast as Terre Napoléon in Péron’s published voyage account, he did not attack Péron but considered that such claims had been forced upon him by the Napoléonic regime.121 Flinders had time to pursue various scientific projects while confined at the Ile de  France. His exchanges with French naval officers and the Société d’Emulation helped to refine his scientific ideas. His French friends provided him with information and books to enable him to construct a map of the island of Madagascar, an island he had never visited. Hyacinthe Murat, a French naval officer, introduced Flinders to Fleurieu’s published account of the expedition of Etienne Marchand around the world in 1790–2. This voyage account, with its long introduction placing Marchand’s voyage in the context of contemporary maritime knowledge, and explaining its relationship to previous major long-distance voyages, was to influence Flinders’ A Voyage to Terra Australis that he compiled in the last four years of his life. Flinders discussed with his Mauritian friends the problem of the deviation of the compass needle in relation to local magnetic fields. Stimulated by these discussions, Flinders wrote several papers at the Ile de France on the changes to the magnetic needle on board ship when altering the direction of the ship’s head. On excursions with friends, Flinders also became interested in the mineralogy and geology of the Ile de France.122 Flinders’ release from the Ile de France came in 1810. Lord Minto, Governor General of India, sent Hugh Hope, a commissary of prisoners, to negotiate this outcome. Hope was fully aware of Flinders’ circumstances. After arriving at the Ile de France on a ship from Bengal, he had the opportunity to talk privately with Flinders about securing his freedom.123 Hope patiently dealt with Decaen for a couple of months and managed to persuade him that Flinders should be freed. It is not known why he succeeded after many others had failed. But apart from his diplomatic skills, it may be that the French governor felt threatened by British military initiatives against the Ile de France: in January 1806, the British took possession of the Cape of Good Hope for the second time. Three years later, rumours of an impending British attack upon Decaen’s citadel were spreading. Decaen’s requests to France for reinforcements and money came to no avail as French coffers were strained to support Napoleon’s European wars. Public buildings and quays at the Ile de France badly needed repair and sailcloth and timber for ships were in short supply.124 Flinders knew about these difficulties, later writing that ‘if attacked with judgment it appeared to me that a moderate force would carry it’.125 Faced with the prospect of defending a militarily weak island, Decaen probably thought he would be well rid of Flinders if he needed to negotiate with Britain.126 From June 1809, the British squadron in the Indian Ocean began to blockade Ile de France.127 As the blockade became more persistent over the next six months, Decaen realized

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that he might have to surrender to the British. This was the opportune moment to free Flinders.128 On 28 March 1810, Flinders received an official letter from Colonel Monistrol stating that Decaen had granted him liberty to return to England on condition that he did not act in a hostile way towards France and her allies during the present war. Flinders had already indicated that he would not accept a second invitation to dine with Decaen, should that ever arise. Indeed, he did not wish to see Decaen before leaving as he proudly did not want ‘to accept of any civility from a man whose conduct has been such as has his to me’.129 Flinders gave Hugh Hope credit for securing his release from the Ile de France.130 He paid a fond farewell to his French friends, especially the Pitots and the D’Arifats; his sword was returned to him; and he sailed from the harbour of Port Napoléon on 13 June on the Harriet and transferred to the Otter, which sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. He was delayed for six weeks at the Cape but embarked in August in the Olympia for England, where he arrived on 23 October 1810.131 The British attack on the Ile de France occurred on 3 December. Encountering an island in disarray and a disunited navy, along with slaves taking the opportunity to pillage their owners’ properties, a successful takeover took place and the Ile de France became the British colony of Mauritius.132

13

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After the Investigator was decommissioned at Port Jackson in July 1803, Brown, Bauer, Westall and Allen remained there with some servants. Governor King offered the scientific gentlemen a house to live in. Chapter 10 has discussed the reasons for continuing their scientific investigations in Australia rather than attempting to return to England with Flinders.1 Staying longer in New South Wales proved beneficial for Brown and his associates. Thus, although curtailment of the Investigator’s voyage was disastrous in terms of Flinders’ ambition to complete his survey of Terra Australis, it allowed Brown and his colleagues more time to explore some interior parts of the Australian continent. No doubt Brown was determined to make amends for the loss of many of his best plant specimens when the Porpoise was lost on Wreck Reef in August 1803.2 Brown decided this was the time to write a long letter to Sir Joseph Banks about the expedition. He expressed disappointment that they had found no navigable rivers and had seen no mountains of great height. They had not strayed more than a few miles inland on any part of the Australian coast. ‘The interior of New Holland,’ he wrote, ‘is as completely unknown as ever.’ The litany of disappointment continued: there had been few zoological finds; mineralogy had been a barren field; and even botany had fallen short of expectations. Along the south coast, from Cape Leeuwin to Bass Strait, the only places where examination was not too late in the season for plants were King George Sound and Lucky Bay. Their exploration of the east coast, from Sandy Cape to Broad Sound, suffered from being undertaken too early in the season. Altogether, Brown had observed around 2,000 species of plants in Australia, of which 700 or 800 were nondescript. He had so far described 1,600 plants gathered but all the descriptions needed to be checked and rewritten. Brown intended to retain many plants to complete this work.3 Some plants collected in very dry weather had already died, while others would probably not survive the long voyage back to England in the reassembled plant cabin on the Porpoise. Brown lacked sufficiently good plant boxes for his collections. He suggested that Flinders had not been as concerned about this aspect of the Investigator’s voyage as he could have been. This is somewhat unfair as Flinders had always tried to allow sufficient time for the scientific gentlemen to do their work. When reading Brown’s letters, one has to remember that he was temperamentally gloomy and tended to make matters seem worse than they were. To conclude his letter, however, Brown

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offered more positive suggestions about the work yet to be accomplished. He intended to examine the neighbourhood of Port Jackson for plants; to spend time in the Blue Mountains; to explore the flora and fauna of Hunter River; and to visit Van Diemen’s Land. He hoped these expeditions would yield new plant species. The remaining time in New South Wales would be devoted to finishing and recopying descriptions.4 Brown hoped the visit to Van Diemen’s Land, which had not been explored on the Investigator’s voyage, would yield ‘many cryptogamic novelties’ among the ferns and mosses.5 Bauer was not a frequent letter writer, but he also decided that this was an appropriate time to inform Banks of his contribution to the expedition so far and his intention to remain in New South Wales working alongside Brown. Bauer reported to Banks that he had made more than 1,000 sketches of plants and 200 of animals. None were yet finished, however, so he did not send any with Flinders in the Porpoise.6 Bauer also wrote to his eldest brother Joseph Anton Bauer, based in Vienna, reporting his safe position in Port Jackson and his intention to stay there for up to eighteen months while Flinders sought to acquire a new ship to continue the expedition.7 A few months later, Westall also took the opportunity to write to Banks. He grumbled that the voyage in the Investigator had not met his expectations: he complained of the barren coast of Terra Australis not having sufficient variety to employ his ‘pencil with any advantage to myself or my employers’.8 Brown and Bauer respectively botanized and sketched in the Port Jackson area in June and July 1803, while Flinders was sorting out which ship would take him back to England.9 This work continued during August and September, when the localities visited extended to cover Parramatta, George’s River, the Hawkesbury River and parts of the Blue Mountains. Sometimes Brown and Bauer accompanied one another, but frequently they independently visited different locations.10 This activity was interrupted by the alarming news, in mid-September, that the Porpoise had struck Wreck Reef and that the garden and plant specimens on board the ship were totally lost. Brown referred to these losses as ‘irreparable’. He had duplicates of many specimens but those lost were the best he had. Many were from the south coast and were the most valuable ones collected during the voyage. Brown consulted with Flinders and King about the loss and was at least reassured that boxes containing the seeds sent in the Porpoise were enclosed in strong cases. Thus most of the seeds should have been preserved.11 Brown and Bauer continued their work in and around Port Jackson during October and November 1803.12 But a new departure soon occurred because Governor King sent Brown and another naturalist to Risdon Cove, Van Diemen’s Land, where a small settlement (about four miles north of Hobart) had just been made by a party accompanying Lieutenant John Bowen.13 Brown left for Van Diemen’s Land on 28 November in the Lady Nelson. Stormy seas in Bass Strait forced the ship to seek shelter at East Cove, Deal Island, in the Kent Group. Inclement weather kept Brown there for three weeks. During this time, he collected various marine algae, plants and rock specimens.14 Brown sailed from Deal Island to Port Dalrymple, in northern Van Diemen’s Land, on 1 January 1804. When the Investigator’s expedition began, it was not intended that Brown should visit this locality; but the changed circumstances now offered the opportunity to botanize there.15

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Brown’s storm-bound stay in the Kent Group gave him time to write a letter to Banks that he sent via the Calcutta, encountered at sea and bound to Port Jackson. Brown explained this vessel would take most of his plants and seeds back to England, including items rescued from Wreck Reef. His samples from birds, quadrupeds and minerals were insufficiently arranged or packed to send them to England at present.16 The Calcutta took aboard twelve puncheons of dried specimens and four boxes of seeds in Port Jackson; these arrived safely in England, as Banks reported to Brown in a letter.17 After arriving at Port Dalrymple, Brown saw kangaroos, wallabies and black swans. He had materials written by Bass and Flinders, from their voyage in the Norfolk, to help him find his bearings.18 Brown came across some Aborigines who resembled the indigenous people of New South Wales ‘in their persons & colour’.19 He began a vocabulary of Tasmanian Aboriginal language for the Risdon area.20 After nearly three weeks exploring Port Dalrymple and the River Tamar, Brown sailed in the Lady Nelson to the Port Phillip settlement on mainland Australia. This was the second time he had visited that location. He met Colonel David Collins, who had established the settlement there but was informed that this was shortly to move to the River Derwent in southern Van Diemen’s Land. Brown sailed to this destination in early February 1804, staying at Risdon Cove on the Derwent for almost six months.21 The main areas for collection were Risdon Cove, Sullivans Cove and Mount Wellington. Storm Bay and Bruny Island were visited. Some excursions were by boat up the Derwent; others involved trekking across rugged countryside.22 One excursion comprised an overland journey of sixteen days to the Huon River.23 Brown arrived in southern Van Diemen’s Land when the summer season was already well advanced and the hills were dry and brown. Most new species he found came from Table Mountain in the vicinity of Hobart, now known as Mount Wellington, which he ascended ten times.24 Altogether Brown gathered 733 plants in Van Diemen’s Land, including 230 specimens from the Port Dalrymple area and 248 from the River Derwent and Mount Wellington. The plant groups included lichens, ferns, conifers, casuarinaceae, leguminosae, fagaceae, myrtaceae, asteraceae and grasses.25 This was a considerable haul, but Brown characteristically reported his findings to Banks in a critical way, pointing out the hindrances to his botanical excursions in Van Diemen’s Land. He was worried (without having any factual support) that repeated French visits to the island had pre-empted many of his plant discoveries.26 He was impatient to return to Port Jackson because the summer season was so far advanced that he could not hope to add much to his botanical acquisitions.27 Brown finally left Van Diemen’s Land in the Ocean, with his plant collections, on 9 August and arrived back at Port Jackson two weeks later.28 On 21 February 1805, Brown wrote to Banks and sent him a set of his collection from Van Diemen’s Land in the Lady Barlow. Brown wanted his botanical findings to be published as soon as possible ‘to prevent anticipation especially on the part of the French Botanists who have lately visited the same Country [i.e. Australia]’.29 Just before Brown’s return from southern Van Diemen’s Land to Port Jackson, Bauer went to Norfolk Island, where, during a stay of eight months, he made the first important survey of the flora of that island. Unfortunately, not many plants he collected in Norfolk Island are extant. Bauer

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also undertook excursions to Newcastle, the Blue Mountains and the south coast of New South Wales.30 He had sketches from which engravings could be made but nothing was yet finished to send back to London.31 Preparations were made at Port Jackson for Brown and Bauer’s return to England. Though the Investigator had proved virtually unseaworthy for Flinders and members of his crew, extensive repairs were carried out to make her fit for another voyage. Her upper deck was removed, which halved her overall tonnage. Two masts were erected instead of the original three: the Investigator would now sail as a brig. Brown agreed, with some reluctance, to return home on the ship with his herbarium, which was the least perishable part of his plant collection: he was concerned that the unfitness of the after-hold on the ship would damage the specimens through humidity or exposure to water. Living plants were left with Banks’s collector George Caley at Parramatta. Brown and Bauer returned to England on the Investigator in October 1805. They sailed around Cape Horn in difficult winter weather to Liverpool without any stops en route.32 Brown noted that ‘this extensive Voyage was performed in four months & sixteen days in the crazy low cut down Investigator, perhaps the most deplorable Ship in all the World’.33 The arrival of the scientific gentlemen (and Westall, who had arrived home earlier than them) gave Banks the opportunity to liaise with the Admiralty over plans for dissemination of their work. The plant samples, seeds, sketches, watercolours and mineral samples were extensive. Westall’s sketches had been returned to England on 1 August 1804 by Robert Fowler, formerly 1st Lieutenant of the Investigator, and transferred to the Admiralty. Westall had kept around 160 sketches, drawings and watercolours. Thirty-eight cases of natural history specimens and drawings from the voyage were landed at Liverpool on 13 October 1805.34 Brown appealed to Banks’s librarian and curator Jonas Dryander (a former pupil of Linnaeus) to have the collection transferred to London. This was arranged by wagon. Banks paid the cost of carriage35 Dryander informed Banks of the circumstances of Brown and Bauer’s arrival.36 On 5 November 1805, Brown and Bauer reported to the Admiralty in London to signal the official end to their participation in the Investigator expedition. This turned out to be a disappointing visit: they were not received by officials there owing to celebrations to mark the British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar a couple of weeks earlier.37 Altogether Brown collected 3,600 specimens of plants, one case of insects, three boxes of minerals and about 150 dried skins of birds in Australia. His rough estimate of his plant collection suggested that he had gathered 700 species from the south coast of Australia; 500 from the east coast; another 500 from the north-east coast; 1,000 from Port Jackson and its neighbourhood; 700 from Van Diemen’s Land; and 200 from Timor.38 Brown wanted to arrange and describe the plants himself, but preferred to transfer the arrangement of the birds, insects and minerals to experts with more knowledge than him in those branches of natural history.39 Banks noted that the seeds had already been sent to the Royal Gardens, Kew, where they constituted ‘a large portion of the newest ornaments of that extensive & possibly unparalleld collection’.40 Animal specimens from Terra Australis included twenty-three mammals, including five different kangaroo species, an echidna and three bats. Brown also brought back to England 217 samples of birds (150 species), thirty-nine fish, thirty-three reptiles and amphibians, a platypus, and twenty-nine invertebrates other than insects.41 Before

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the end of 1802, Bauer had already made 360 drawings of new plants.42 Altogether he eventually undertook 2,073 sketches of plants, fungi and animals in Australia and needed time to complete them.43 Banks advised the Admiralty that it would take Brown and Bauer three years to arrange the plants in systematic order and to finish the most interesting of the sketches. Brown’s collections were currently held in the herbarium at Banks’s London home. Bauer retained his sketches. Banks requested that the Admiralty should return them to his home for security. This would enable Brown to compare them with plants he was examining and classifying. Banks asked the Admiralty to continue to pay Brown and Bauer’s salaries so they could complete their work from the voyage. Banks, who would oversee this enterprise, suggested that Brown should select one specimen from each plant species and publish at his own expense a succinct account of them; that Bauer should be directed to make finished drawings; and that Brown and Bauer together should publish engravings and descriptions of the most interesting objects of natural history collected. Brown had been very successful in collecting ‘the vegetable produce of the Earth & preparing dried specimens of every species of Plant in such a manner as to ensure a perfect & critical examination of their natural structure & constituent parts when they can at leisure be compard with Books & Specimens already deposited in Collections at home’. Banks requested that the Admiralty should arrange for the deposit of minerals, quadrupeds, birds and insects among the collections of the British Museum.44 Brown distributed many zoological and mineralogical specimens to friends who would work on them rather than depositing them at the Admiralty’s offices, where they might be neglected. Botanical samples were forwarded to Banks’s house in Soho Square.45 Brown had kept his notebooks, in which he had jotted down the plants collected on his Australian field excursions, and the rewritten descriptions on slips of paper. These now form part of Brown’s substantial slip catalogue in the Botany Department of the Natural History Museum, London.46 In January 1806, Brown was appointed as the first librarian of the Linnean Society of London. He had sufficient time in this position to consider the botanical issues raised by the Investigator expedition. He continued to be paid by the Admiralty until the end of 1810.47 From 1805 onwards, Brown received two days’ pay per week from the Navy Board and two days’ pay from the Linnean Society as its clerk, librarian and housekeeper.48 Brown’s position at the Linnean Society brought him into contact with its founder, James Edward Smith, who had compiled A Specimen of the botany of New Holland, the first book published on Australia’s flora. It appeared in four parts between 1793 and 1795. Brown acknowledged the utility of Smith’s researches into Australian botany, notably on the species of eucalyptus, as essential background material for research into his own specimens. Brown outlined the problems of the Investigator expedition to Smith. ‘We have sufferd very considerably,’ he explained, ‘from the crazy state of one vessel & the wreck of another.’ Brown’s best specimens from Australia’s south coast and ‘a garden nearly filled with new & interesting species perishd in the Porpoise & a second garden I have been obligd to leave behind at Port Jackson’. They were only able to complete about a half of the intended survey of coastal Australia. The unexplored north and west coasts would probably have yielded the most interesting

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new species. Brown hoped a third of the specimens gathered would produce new genera.49 In the period 1806–10, Brown was based at Gerrard Street, Soho, a stone’s throw from Banks’s London residence. He regularly consulted with Banks and Dryander over classification of his Australian natural history findings. Dryander had great expertise with which to aid Brown: he had published a comprehensive account of Banks’s library that included a detailed bibliography of eighteenth-century travel writings as well as his books on botany, zoology and mineralogy. Banks was always generous in sharing his collections with other naturalists, and Brown benefited immeasurably from this patronage.50 Brown took four months after arriving back in England in November 1805 to examine the general arrangement of his plant specimens. With Dryander’s help, he selected specimens for public collection. He had already gone through the first eight classes of the Linnean system by June 1807. By that time, he had re-examined the species, completed his descriptions and had tried to ascertain the affinities of 546 new species and 688 species altogether. He found the number of species applicable to useful purposes was very small. ‘The Interesting Novelties to the Botanist are however numerous,’ he pointed out to Banks, ‘& are chiefly contained in the natural orders of Protacae, Rubiacea, Companulcae & Orchidea, each of which has afforded several new genera.’51 Brown wanted to compile as complete a collection of Australian plants as he possibly could.52 By June 1809, he reported to Banks that he had now described 1,600 plants and had begun to prepare a Prodromus, a preliminary publication with full details of the genera that was intended as a forerunner of a more comprehensive work. He hoped the French botanists would not anticipate this by publishing their findings in New Holland.53 Fortunately for Brown, the scientific findings of the Baudin expedition were not published for many years, partly because Péron was still working on his scientific collections when he died in 1810. Péron’s specimens and notebooks were deposited in the Natural History Museum, Paris, and later transferred to the Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre, where they are still being analysed today.54 At the beginning of 1810, Brown had arranged about 2,800 out of 3,400 plants; selected specimens for the public collection; and described 2,200, of which 1,700 comprised new species and comprehended new genera.55 His Prodromus was then almost fully prepared.56 In 1809, Bauer submitted to Banks a catalogue of 145 completed Australian drawings.57 The total number of Bauer’s sketches in Australia was 1,542 plants and 263 animals along with eighty sketches of plants and forty of animals on Norfolk Island; sixty plants on Timor; and seventy-nine plants at the Cape of Good Hope.58 Banks explained that these sketches were ‘prepared in such a manner by reference to a table of colours as to enable him to finish them at his leisure with perfect accuracy’.59 By April 1811, Banks was able to inform the Admiralty of Brown and Bauer’s progress. Brown had completed his arrangement and classification of Australia’s flora and fauna; he had finished one volume and was working on a second. Bauer had finished 150 of the 2,000 drawings that Banks thought were most interesting for the advancement of botany and zoology. Among the Australian creatures sketched by

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Bauer were koala bears, the duckbill platypus, the wombat, the butterfly cod fish, the southern bell frog and the black-footed rock wallaby.60 Banks referred to their being completed ‘in a state of masterly excellence’. Bauer issued his work first in fasciscles (small separate sections) because of the relatively slow progress of his finished work. He intended to bring the fasciscles together in a completed edition.61 Brown’s laborious work and Bauer’s elaborate drawings – each one taking more than a week to finish – had slowed up progress, but Banks hoped the Admiralty would pay the salaries of Brown and Bauer until the end of 1811. Banks noted that the public already had access to ‘the advantages of the discoveries in Natural History made under the liberal equipment of the Investigator’.62 Brown recorded not only the plants he had collected in Australia but also those collected by Banks and Solander on the Endeavour’s voyage forty years earlier.63 To assist him in this task, Dryander compiled a catalogue of known plants from New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land.64 Brown was particularly interested in the Protea family of plants, which are common in the region of the Great Barrier Reef littoral and, indeed, throughout Australia: forty-four genera out of a world total of seventy-five are found in Australia. The Protea family included Waratah, Hakea, Grevillea, Banksia, Dryandra, Lomatia, Stenocarpus, Telopea and the Macademia genera.65 Brown used the microscope to examine pollen grains as an important determining factor in assigning the taxonomy of these genera. In 1809, he read an important scientific paper to the Linnean Society ‘On the natural orders of the plants called Proteaceae’. Brown had a special interest in orchids: while in the Port Jackson area, he discovered nearly a quarter of the Australian species known today. Brown’s pollen studies were new branches of botany while his microscopy laid foundations for the modern approach to plant anatomy.66 Overall, Brown was the first botanist to identify and describe over a third of the 12,000 plant species known in Australia today.67 He also provided the first significant treatment of Australian grasses. His work is still a major point of reference for scholars working on Australian grass diversity.68 Brown was influenced by the newly published work by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, which questioned the categories of classification adopted by Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu. Lamarck maintained that a single part, however essential, was insufficient evidence for the classification of a plant, arguing that all parts should be considered.69 Brown had found no system he could adopt that had already decided on the classification or arrangement of Australian flora. He pursued a new approach by gathering a variety of plants in various stages of development as well as in their fully mature state. This enabled him to classify them in accordance with the anatomy and physiology of their parts. He liaised closely with Bauer in order to achieve his classifications by close perusal of the botanical artist’s detailed watercolours of floral and seed structure.70 In 1810, Brown, now Banks’s librarian after Dryander’s death, produced a volume on his Australian field investigations entitled Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van – Dieman, exhibens characters planterum quas innis 1802–1805 … collegit descripsit R. Brown.71 This was only a quarter of the text that Brown planned to write. He was not yet ready to publish his entire Australian findings; the work involved in labelling, classifying and describing his collections was extremely time-consuming.

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David Mabberley has suggested two alternative explanations for Brown deciding to publish only a portion of his Prodromus at this juncture. One is that the Admiralty was becoming impatient with the slow dissemination of the scientific results of the Investigator expedition and Brown’s salary, paid by the Admiralty, was scheduled to terminate soon. Brown may therefore have felt pressure to publish some of his botanical findings. Another possibility is that Banks advised publication at this point to encourage the Admiralty to extend Brown’s employment.72 Unfortunately, the Prodromus had extremely poor sales. Only twenty-six copies were bought. The fact that it had neither an index nor any illustrations cannot have helped it to attract public interest. Moreover, it was written in Latin whereas popular works on botany in England were then being published in English.73 Brown had miscalculated about the best means of publishing his findings. In dismay, he withdrew the Prodromus from sale. He reported feeling indifferent about whether he would continue to publish his botanical findings. In fact, he decided not to publish the remainder of the work.74 Lack of sales was unconnected to the volume’s botanical importance. Brown had produced a work of great influence on subsequent botanical scholarship. His Prodromus described 464 genera and about 1,000 species.75 ‘In point of novelty of plant forms and structures which it describes, accuracy of details, precision of language, wealth of observations and far-reaching view of classification,’ commented Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Darwin’s closest friend and an eminent Victorian pioneer of geographical botany, ‘it maintains to this day the unique position which was assigned to it on its appearance.’76 Brown published ‘General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the botany of Terra Australis’ as an appendix to Flinders’ A Voyage to Terra Australis in 1814. He worked on a second volume of his own major work but failed to complete it. He was still working on botanical specimens from the Investigator expedition when Banks died in 1820. His descriptions and classification of Australian flora and fauna turned into a lifetime’s work. Brown resigned his Linnean Society post in May 1822 after he acquired the lease of Banks’s old house in Soho Square. He became the first keeper at the new Banksian department at the British Museum. In 1830, Brown published a short supplement to the Prodromus entitled Supplementum Primum Prodromi Florae Novae Hollandiae. But most of Brown’s findings about the botany of Terra Australis remained on his descriptive slips deposited at the Natural History Museum, London, where the first set of Brown’s Australian collection is now housed.77 His important contributions to Australian botany were recognized in the early 1980s when the National Herbarium of New South Wales was opened in the Robert Brown building in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Research teams there work on many issues related to plant classification and ecology which Brown pioneered.78 In 1806, Brown wondered in a letter whether Bauer’s drawings would ever be published.79 The sheer amount of work needed to complete the drawings gave the impression that the work would take years to complete. Bauer’s pencil field sketches were usually life-size representations of plants. They were encoded with an elaborate system of numbers for later colouring. Bauer’s colour code was linked to many sets of numbers on his sketches, but the secret of his code has never been found and the

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pigments he used for his colour drawings are unknown.80 Bauer had access to Brown’s and Banks’s herbaria in London. He also checked his sketches with living plants grown at Kew. His finished plant drawings are notable for their botanical accuracy of the smallest and most intricate parts of plant structure. They depicted not just the general form of the plant but the flowers, leaves, seeds, stamens, pollen grains and root structures. His drawings have a three-dimensional quality. They are considered very fine examples of artistic achievement as well as scientific accuracy.81 Bauer’s watercolours are highly refined and precise depictions of plants. He was one of the first artists to paint the complete reproductive system of each plant.82 Dissemination of Bauer’s paintings was held up when Banks refused to fund a flora including the coloured plates. Ten of Bauer’s engraved plates were included in the atlas accompanying Flinders’ published volumes entitled A Voyage to Terra Australis. Bauer also published, at his own expense, some of his best botanical illustrations and engravings in Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae: sive icons generum quae in Prodromo Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen descripsit Robertus Brown/ Ferdinandi Bauer (1813–16).83 They were hand-coloured to an excellent standard and Bauer himself prepared the engraved plates. But, as with Brown’s Prodromus, they sold only a few copies. Bauer completed his botanical drawings for publication between 1806 and 1819 in accordance with Admiralty instructions. His finished watercolour paintings were housed in the Admiralty Library until 1843 and then transferred to the British Museum. They are now in the Natural History Museum, London. Bauer himself returned to live in Vienna in 1814.84 Most of his sketches of Australian flora and fauna were acquired by the Austrian Imperial Museum and are now kept in Vienna’s Natural History Museum.85 Brown’s botanical findings were significant when viewed within a regional Australian context. He gathered plants from all of today’s six Australian states.86 His 727 collections of plants in the Investigator from Western Australia included more than 500 species from the Albany area and another 100 from Lucky Bay and the islands of the Recherche archipelago. This was a considerable haul of plants from forty-two days’ work in Western Australia (9 December 1801–17 January 1802 and 17–21 May 1803). Brown named twenty-six genera endemic to Western Australia. At the species level, 1,450 names of vascular plants published by Brown are Western Australian. Brown’s plant collections remain important for the elucidation of the status of Western Australian plants.87 Brown spent less time in Victoria (about a fortnight) than elsewhere in Australia. He only explored the extreme southern portion of Port Phillip Bay. He was the first botanist to examine that area.88 This visit to the Mornington Peninsula came late in the summer season when few plants were in bloom, but Brown still identified ninetysix species, in seventy-four genera, of plants he collected in Victoria.89 He made 108 collections in Port Phillip Bay; twenty-seven of these were destined to become type specimens. Some 61 per cent of the taxa recognized by Brown on Victorian soil are still represented by his own name and circumscription.90 Brown’s plant collections from South Australia were the first made by a trained botanist in that area. The Investigator expedition accounted for around 300 plant collections from twelve collecting localities along the South Australian coast between

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28 January and 18 April 1802. Brown and Good were responsible for most of the herbarium specimens from South Australia, but Bauer also contributed to this work. Animals were also seen. Brown lists for Fowler’s Bay, visited on 29 January 1802, ants, shells, sponges, a pied oystercatcher, a duck, two waders (or shorebirds) and possibly a honey-eater.91 Westall suffered the misfortune that much of his topographic and descriptive artwork was either lost or severely water-damaged in the wreck of the Porpoise in 1803.92 But though he lost his plant specimens there along with this artwork, he managed to save his drawings.93 Because he had written a frank letter to Banks expressing his disappointment at the barren landscapes of Australia, he received a frosty reception from the President of the Royal Society.94 It was only in 1809 that Banks obtained a commission for Westall to prepare oil paintings to illustrate Flinders’ published voyage account. Banks made the point to the Admiralty that the French had published the artistic results from their voyages of discovery, but that Britain had been dilatory in carrying this out. Henry Phipps, Lord Mulgrave, the First Lord of the Admiralty, responded to this criticism by asking Banks to oversee arrangements for getting Westall’s drawings painted. Banks agreed and Westall met Mulgrave in June 1809 to finalize the commission.95 But problems arose. Westall completed two paintings from the voyage but then, after submitting a third painting, received a letter from Mulgrave advising him that the Admiralty commission was only intended to cover two works of art.96 Between 1809 and 1812, Westall completed nine paintings engraved in copperplate for A Voyage to Terra Australis. Eight were based on oil paintings Westall had undertaken for the Admiralty art collection; the remaining illustration, entitled View of Port Jackson from the South Head, was based on Westall’s watercolour of that title. Three oil paintings were exhibited in the Academy of 1812. They attracted attention because of their novel depiction of a continent which few Europeans had visited.97 The engraved illustrations featured in A Voyage to Terra Australis were issued separately by the publisher and pioneer lithographer Rudolph Ackermann in February 1814, about five months before Flinders’ voyage account was published, in deluxe and cheaper editions. Westall’s Australian art also appeared in his pencil field drawings on paper and some oil paintings on canvas.98 Westall composed sketches of the Australian coastal landscape as well as drawing examples of Australian flora and fauna. These illustrate the geological structure of the land and its vegetative cover seen from the distance while on ship, but they include a certain amount of artistic licence.99 In many ways, Westall was presenting a picturesque Arcadia, an idealized landscape.100 Thus, Westall’s view of King George Sound in A Voyage to Terra Australis included drawings of trees seen by the artist at Port Jackson and in Spencer Gulf. Similarly, Westall’s view of Wreck-Reef Bank, taken at low water, also reproduced in A Voyage to Terra Australis, depicted uncovered reefs whereas Flinders himself noted that in reality the tide always covered them. Westall ranged beyond his official brief to undertake drawings of Aborigines, including two sketches of a native in Spencer’s Gulf and a body of an Aborigine shot on Morgan Island. He was the first European artist to copy images of the Indigenous cave paintings seen at Chasm Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He sketched native huts and drew a portrait

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of Pobassoo, the leader of the Makasar trepangers encountered by Flinders and his company in Arnhem Land.101 As Bernard Smith has shown, Westall’s sketches from the Investigator expedition reflected the concerns of the scientific gentlemen aboard ship and the main focal points of Flinders as commander of the voyage. Brown and Bauer’s influence can be detected in Westall’s detailed rendering of vegetation in his Australian landscapes, while Flinders’ interest in geology and coastal surveying appears to have influenced Westall’s sketching of the terrain. Though Westall never revisited Australia and painted scenes from many other locations, he never entirely forgot his sketches from the Investigator expedition. When he died in 1850, he was working on a painting of Wreck Reef a few days after the Wreck of the Porpoise and the Cato.102

14

Final Years

On 7 June 1810, Flinders received a parole from the French government, releasing him from captivity at the Ile de France after six-and-a-half years. The terms were that he should not act in any future service considered directly or indirectly hostile to France and her allies during the Napoleonic wars.1 Back in England, his sister-in-law read of his release by chance in a newspaper. She was delighted at the news, as was Flinders’ wife, Ann, and his stepmother; initially, they wondered if it could be true after such a long detention.2 Banks wrote promptly to Ann Flinders to confirm that her husband had indeed obtained his freedom.3 John Franklin also wrote to Ann with the gratifying news, noting Flinders’ ‘goodness and constant attention’ to him on the Investigator expedition.4 Flinders arrived back in England on 24 October and expressed his joy at being reunited with his wife after an absence of nearly ten years. They met in London in the company of Franklin, but he left at once. A few days later Franklin wrote to Flinders that he ‘felt so sensibly the affecting scene of your meeting Mrs Flinders that I would not have remained any longer in the room under any consideration; nor could I be persuaded to call a second time that day’.5 Flinders’ early days back in England were spent with his wife and with visits to the Admiralty. But after such a long absence and the death, while he was away, of his father, two uncles, an aunt and his wife’s father-in-law, many family financial and property affairs required his immediate attention. These responsibilities came with his position as eldest son of the family.6 Flinders set out on a six-week trip to Lincolnshire and Yorkshire to see friends and relatives. He visited his wife’s relations in Partney and his cousin Henrietta in Hull.7 He was visited by John Allen, the miner in the Investigator.8 Among other matters Flinders received a legacy of £195 from a late uncle and spent time sorting out the sale of his late father’s house in Donington. This could only be done on Flinders’ return to England because he was joint executor of his father’s will. Flinders wanted to sell the property to provide invested proceeds for his stepmother, but transactions proved difficult because of problems over the property’s title. Flinders bought gifts for members of his family he had not seen since 1801; these included a tea urn as a present for his sister, Susanna, and sweetmeats for her children.9 News of Flinders’ return to England was widely acclaimed by his friends and by various public figures. His friend William Owen, who had learnt surveying from Flinders while detained with him in Mauritius, sent a letter from Madras referring to their ‘happy separation from that diabolical hell hole’ in the Ile de France.10 Another

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friend, the botanist James Wiles, noted that Flinders’ ‘detention by Decaen was contrary to the law of nations, of humanity, of hospitality, and the progress of science’.11 John Franklin assumed Flinders would receive a promotion but noted that this would require ‘strenuous exertion’ as the Admiralty was tenacious in adhering to its customs and precedents.12 The anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce sympathized with Flinders as ‘a Man who has suffered cruel & most unmerited hardships in his Country’s cause’.13 Wilberforce initially suggested that Flinders’ case for promotion should be brought before the House of Commons. He saw this as an opportunity to show MPs that Admiralty procedures needed change. But Flinders, having given Wilberforce the details of his case, decided mutually with him that the floor of the House of Commons was not the right place to present his case.14 A more obvious place to seek support was the Admiralty. Flinders had received a flattering reception at the Admiralty after arriving back in England, and the rank of post-captain had been awarded to him as soon as his release was known in England.15 John Barrow, the second secretary of the Admiralty, was particularly helpful and sympathetic to Flinders, whom he considered had undertaken a great navigational achievement in circumnavigating Australia.16 But the Admiralty only agreed to backdate the commission to 7 May 1810, when the current First Lord of the Admiralty, Charles Philip Yorke, took office.17 Barrow explained to Banks the complexity of the Admiralty’s procedures on promotion.18 Yorke could do nothing to change the Admiralty’s rules, but he acknowledged that had Flinders arrived back safely in England in 1804 with his charts and discoveries he would then have merited the promotion he received in 1810.19 Flinders wanted proper professional recognition for his services to the Admiralty, especially given the long detention at the Ile de France. It was a bitter blow to him to find that his promotion to post-captain could not be backdated further. ‘Upon the subject of my memorial for antedating my post rank,’ Flinders noted in his diary, ‘Mr Yorke seems to have much cooled, and gives me very little hopes.’20 Flinders made considerable efforts to have the matter reassessed.21 Two members of the Investigator expedition feared he might not succeed in this quest.22 They were correct: Flinders’ promotion was not antedated. It has been suggested that this was the way in which the Admiralty kept an outsider to the establishment at arm’s length.23 There were also political considerations that militated against backdating the promotion. The First Lord of the Admiralty thought an order-in-council might be granted to authorize antedating the promotion; but this was not possible in 1810 because George III was mentally incapacitated. An attempt to revive the matter after the establishment of a Regency in 1811 foundered because Admiralty officials decided there was no precedent for antedating a promotion.24 From the new year of 1811, Flinders and his wife lived in London, where they needed to be based for Flinders to assemble materials to write his voyage account for publication. They lived in a series of rented lodgings: these were successively 7 Nassau Street, Soho; 7 Mary Street; 45 Upper John Street, Fitzroy Square; 7 Upper Fitzroy Street; and 14 London Street, Fitzroy Square.25 These various accommodations in central London were near Sir Joseph Banks’ house and the Admiralty headquarters, both of which Flinders visited frequently. Flinders found living in London expensive. He had been awarded £500 by the Admiralty in lieu of compensation pay for his period

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of detention at the Ile de France.26 The Admiralty rejected his claim for compensation for the four servants from the Investigator to whom he felt entitled.27 Towards the end of 1811, the Navy Board was ordered to pay Flinders an additional £200 to prepare his voyage account for publication.28 But Flinders was still short of sufficient funds to support his wife and himself. He calculated he could have almost halved his expenditure if he had lived in Lincolnshire, but this was impossible while he was engaged in writing his voyage account.29 When requesting additional pay from the Admiralty, Flinders argued that he was in a similar situation to a marine surveyor who was not paid until his charts were completed.30 Flinders found living in London ‘very inconvenient’ to his pocket and admitted in early 1813 that his expenses in London exceeded his half-pay and private income by between £150 and £200 per year.31 He complained privately that greater exertion by Banks with the Admiralty could have raised additional money to pay for his London expenses. After finishing his book, if no offer of completing his voyage of discovery arose, he intended to retire to the countryside near Stamford, Lincolnshire, ‘and render my happiness independent of the will of others; for although I have neither acquired [n]or inherited a fortune, I have learned to be content upon a little’.32 Flinders hoped that profits from the sale of his book would eventually help him financially. But for the time being he needed to stay in London and cope with living expenses there until his book was published.33 In June 1813, Flinders was relieved to receive two Treasury bills for £350 each to ease his financial predicament.34 Flinders was not primarily motivated by money, but he constantly needed to search for additional funds to support his fulltime writing up the results of the Investigator expedition.35 The Admiralty supported Flinders financially while he wrote up his account of the Investigator expedition. But they were not particularly generous in their treatment of him. He lived on half-pay while producing the charts and writing the narrative for his book. It was expected he would be remunerated through profits from the sale of the voyage narrative.36 Flinders asked whether he could receive full pay, as he could undertake no other work while writing his voyage account, but the Admiralty would not agree to such a request owing to lack of a precedent.37 Flinders continued to complain about ‘the miserable pittance’ of his half-pay.38 Flinders settled down to a fairly quiet life in London. He and his wife played chess, took walks, attended church and visited friends. Flinders regularly visited Banks in Soho Square and met several people who had played a significant part in his naval career, such as William Bligh, Governor (now Admiral) Hunter, William Kent and Henry Waterhouse.39 Among those who had sailed in the Investigator, he saw Brown, Bauer and his old servant Elder.40 Flinders visited the Royal Gardens at Kew, where the gardener, William Aiton, showed him a number of exotic plants including those produced from seeds brought home in the Investigator.41 Flinders corresponded with friends and family in England. However, he did not travel to Lincolnshire again after his initial visit there on returning from the Ile de France. Before he settled down in earnest to writing his voyage account, he found time to write down reflections on the problems of blockading the Ile de France with a naval force and the comparative advantages of the Ile de France and the Cape of Good Hope as naval stations.42 In 1812, Flinders was called upon to attend a House of Commons

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committee dealing with the prospect of colonizing Van Diemen’s Land. His view, based on first-hand knowledge, was that the southern part of that island would be preferable to the northern end in terms of areas for settlement, the climate, available harbours and interaction with Aboriginal groups.43 William Bligh, his former captain, introduced Flinders to the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), who had served in the navy in his youth. The Duke perused the charts produced from the Investigator’s expedition with interest.44 Flinders had not seen Bligh for many years. One wonders how cordial they were. Flinders had not forgotten past clashes with Bligh, but he was careful about expressing his feelings openly, given Bligh’s fame. Flinders had once written a letter to Banks referring to Bligh speaking against his appointment as commander of the Investigator, but had deleted the comment before sending the letter.45 In another letter to Banks, written when Bligh had been made Governor of New South Wales, Flinders had referred to Bligh’s actions against him, adding but then deleting the remark ‘I have much to complain of, in his conduct towards me.’46 No doubt Flinders’ hesitation was influenced by his awareness of Banks’ close support for Bligh in past endeavours.47 Whatever Flinders’ response when he met Bligh in London in 1811, he never set aside his reservations about how his old commander had treated him: when Bligh requested that A Voyage to Terra Australis should be dedicated to him, Flinders refused.48 Yet Flinders retained respect for Bligh’s navigational abilities, asking him to write an account of his passage through Torres Strait, a matter they had discussed at length, for publication in A Voyage to Terra Australis. But this did not eventuate.49 Flinders had somewhat fraught relations with his younger brother Samuel Ward Flinders after returning to England. He had to deal with Samuel’s court martial over an incident on the Bloodhound that had prevented him from gaining promotion.50 Samuel, who had returned to England in 1804, had been appointed to the command of this vessel in June 1806. He had been brought to trial by his commander-in-chief at Sheerness, Rear-Admiral John Wells, on the grounds of falsifying logbook entries and acting disobediently.51 Flinders wrote to the Admiralty to uphold his brother’s reputation, explaining he had been an invaluable member of the crew in the Investigator in taking astronomical observations; that he had played a part in thwarting a French naval attack on his homeward voyage to England; and that he deserved a promotion.52 However, the court found Samuel’s defence, which he presented himself, to be offensive and he was sentenced to dismissal from his ship and degraded three years in his rank. Flinders thought this would debar Samuel from future promotion in the navy. He helped his brother by protesting to the commander of Samuel’s squadron about the severity of the sentence. Samuel’s name was restored to the Navy List in 1811.53 Matthew and Ann Flinders had a daughter, Anne, who was born on 1 April 1812. In his private journal Flinders wrote, ‘[T]his afternoon Mrs Flinders was happily delivered of a daughter; to her great joy and mine.’54 He announced the birth to his stepmother as follows: ‘[T]he child is a little black-eyed girl, without blemish, neither fat nor lean, and has a decent appearance enough; so that I hope you will have no occasion to be ashamed of it as a granddaughter.’55 The baby was christened on 7 May at the church of St Giles in the Fields, London.56 This happy outcome was the only child born to Matthew and Ann Flinders. The baby’s arrival came with considerable relief.

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Ann was nearly forty-two years old. This was her only child. In her only extant letter to her husband, she penned a sad statement meant to be read if she died in childbirth. She requested that Flinders should protect the child but find comfort with another woman. Fortunately, Ann Flinders recovered from the birth quickly and baby Anne brought joy to her parents.57 Flinders was pleased to hear about the present whereabouts of his fellow crew members from the Investigator. They had experienced mixed fortunes in the seven years after that expedition had ended prematurely at Port Jackson. John Olive was purser of the Heir Apparent, a prison ship based at Portsmouth. Robert Purdie was surgeon of the Pompee. John Inman was a professor at the naval college, Portsmouth. Russel Mart was the carpenter in the Bellerophon. Sherrard Lound was a midshipman in the Warrior. John Elder was master-at-arms in HMS George, a line-of-battle ship. Walter Freeman and James Barnet were serving in the Bedford. Denis Lacy and Kennet Sinclair had died.58 Robert Fowler had been made a commander in 1806. Thomas Evans was now a lieutenant. John Franklin was promoted in 1808 from midshipman to lieutenant. John Aken had left the Royal Navy to command a merchant ship. Flinders lobbied the Admiralty to request that his brother and Lound deserved a promotion and pointed out that no officers in the Investigator had been upgraded in rank.59 Flinders’ brother never received his promotion.60 Flinders lobbied the Admiralty for the release of five French prisoners from the Ile de France, currently held at Portsmouth. They had been captured on French vessels carrying troops to Morlaix and were relatives of friends he had made during his detention by Decaen.61 Remembering the civilities extended to him while he himself was a prisoner at the Ile de France, Flinders corresponded regularly with these captives.62 As a result of his lobbying, the Admiralty authorized the release of the French prisoners so that they could return home.63 Apart from dealing with these prisoners, Flinders maintained his correspondence with friends he had made at the Ile de France, including the merchant Thomi Pitot and Madame D’Arifat. Flinders was saddened that he was unlikely ever to see these companions again.64 For Flinders’ discoveries in Australia to gain publicity, the assistance of Sir Joseph Banks was vital. The capstone to Banks’s patronage of the Investigator’s expedition lay in the careful way in which he facilitated Flinders’ publication of his book and atlas relating to the voyage and his assistance to Westall over his sketches and paintings. Flinders was elated to return to England on 24 October 1810. He hoped to see Banks as soon as possible.65 Banks sent warm greetings to Flinders on his return to England: he hoped ‘to have the pleasure of shaking you by the hand & congratulating you on your Present Situation & Condoling the Evils you have endured & the years of your youth you have defended from French Tyranny & oppression’.66 Banks had long awaited Flinders’ return home so that his protégé could publish the discoveries made on the Investigator expedition in relation to hydrography, geography and natural history. This, claimed Banks, would ‘add to the splendor of our National Character, by asserting our Superiority in Science as well as Seamanship, over our Rivals & whatever nation they may belong’.67 It had been necessary to await Flinders’ arrival home in order for the written account of the Investigator’s voyage to proceed. Within a fortnight of arriving back in England, Banks and Flinders met to discuss

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the narrative of the Investigator’s expedition.68 A few days’ later Flinders informed John Franklin that the preparation of the narrative and charts would begin as soon as possible.69 Banks enthusiastically supported Flinders’ writing of his voyage account. ‘There are not many men, able as Flinders is to Explore unknown Coasts,’ he wrote to a correspondent, and ‘urgent … to be employd in that Hazardous Line, & Capable of Stating the Particulars of his discoveries in a manner Creditable to his Employers & honourable to his Country.’70 In January 1811, the Admiralty gave their support for this work and hoped it could be achieved expeditiously. The Admiralty commissioners wanted details of the voyage made publicly available; they considered Flinders’ expedition to have a comparable public interest to Cook’s voyages forty years earlier. In keeping with the publication of Pacific voyages undertaken by Byron, Wallis, Carteret and Cook, it was expected that Flinders’ volumes would be detailed tomes addressed to a professional readership.71 Banks suggested to the Admiralty that he should superintend the work of the engravers and draughtsmen employed to help with the task, as he had done years before in the publication of the third volume of Cook’s voyages.72 The Admiralty readily agreed and requested Banks take charge of the sketches, charts, journals and other manuscripts which Flinders had sent home.73 The expectation was that the drawings and engravings would be prepared at public expense and the paper and printing paid out of the proceeds of the work.74 Banks, in fact, arranged for the Admiralty to pay the expense of the charts and engravings for Flinders’ book.75 The Admiralty supplied Flinders with his journals and charts to undertake the project with reference to essential materials from the Investigator’s voyage.76 It was recognized that there would be rivalry with the French over the new discoveries in Australia. Louis de Freycinet, who had sailed with Baudin, assumed responsibility for publishing the cartography of the official account of that expedition after the death of Péron in 1810. He published the first full map of Australia in 1811. This incorporated the discoveries made by Baudin’s expedition but took no account of Flinders’ discoveries on the south coast.77 Flinders wanted to publish his own atlas partly to show that he had discovered far more of the unknown south coast of Australia than Baudin and that English nomenclature should be applied to the coastal features identified. However, he scrupulously included French place names from Cape Jervis to Cape Bridgewater on the south coast to acknowledge Baudin’s prior discovery of that coast.78 Banks took the lead in commissioning and paying engravers and appointing a printer and publisher for Flinders’ voyage account. These were, respectively, William Bulmer and George Nicol, who had worked with Banks for nearly twenty years in the publication of voyage accounts.79 Flinders regularly visited Banks in Soho Square to discuss progress on the volumes. He informed Banks of his discussions with the cartographers Aaron and John Arrowsmith over the scale of the charts of the Australian coast. Flinders had a cordial relationship with these private map-makers since they published his charts of Bass Strait and Van Diemen’s Land in 1800–1, and he had of course relied on Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean extensively during his circumnavigation.80 The arrangement made with the Arrowsmiths over publication of the Investigator’s voyage account was for eleven large charts and four smaller ones to

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be designed. Flinders determined the scales of the charts and the number of copper plates needed.81 John Arrowsmith drew up the fair sheets at four inches to a degree of longitude, from which reductions were made and engraved for plates in the Atlas accompanying A Voyage to Terra Australis.82 Flinders did not consult with Thomas Hurd, the Admiralty Hydrographer, over these arrangements. This was probably because his charts were not being published by the Admiralty. However, Flinders did liaise with Hurd over the supply of plates of his charts to the Royal Navy.83 Flinders went to breakfast, by invitation from Banks, to meet the bookseller George Nicol, who was to be the printer of his book. He also attended Sunday evening meetings at Banks’s home and some meetings of the Royal Society.84 At Banks’s London house, Flinders met John Pond, the Astronomer Royal, to talk over the recalculation of his astronomical observations. Revised compass readings needed to be worked out to allow for deviation errors in bearings taken on the voyage.85 While the Investigator expedition was in progress, the Royal Observatory had undertaken astronomical observations showing that some of the predicted figures in the Nautical Almanac, which Flinders was using, were in error to a significant degree. This was why the recalculated astronomical readings were needed.86 After this was done, the charts needed to be reconstructed afresh before Flinders could begin writing his voyage account.87 Samuel Ward Flinders wanted to be involved with the recalculations, and, since he was now on half-pay, he sought payment for this work. In 1806, he had sent a memorial to the Board of Longitude requesting additional pay for having taken over the duties relating to nautical astronomy for most of the Investigator’s voyage.88 The funds were not granted. Six years later he petitioned the Board of Longitude for remuneration.89 This led to a modest payment for his services. Samuel’s request was not unreasonable giving the sheer amount of unexpected additional work he had shouldered during the circumnavigation, though his brother Matthew, who had shared this work with Samuel, did not similarly ask for retrospective payment. Matthew Flinders wanted the astronomical data redone partly to preserve his own reputation. It was agreed that recalculations should be undertaken by John Crosley and Samuel Ward Flinders – a combination of a trained astronomer who had quit the Investigator voyage early and the person who had recorded many calculations on the voyage in his place.90 Flinders handed over his astronomical journals to his brother and Crosley for correction of the distances for the effects of parallax and refraction.91 The Board of Longitude confirmed Crosley as the person responsible for the task but neglected to mention Flinders’ brother. Samuel was angry at this oversight and wrote several irate letters to the Board. After reading one letter, Banks was infuriated. Flinders advised his brother to redraft the letter, with blander wording. Instead, Samuel impetuously withdrew his and Flinders’ navigational record books from the astronomical recalculations and later refused to hand over these materials.92 Flinders accused his brother of uncharitable behaviour.93 Samuel eventually returned the volumes and proceeded with the work. He completed his task in January 1813 and received £250 from the Board of Longitude for his services.94 Most of the astronomical data were recalculated by Crosley; however, he took two years to finish the work. This delayed Flinders in the task of reconstructing his charts, as correct astronomical data were needed for their plotting.95 Reconstruction of

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these data was a necessary undertaking. ‘If this is done,’ Flinders wrote to the Admiralty hydrographer, ‘the geography of the south coast, and of the great part of the east and north coasts of that extensive country will, I trust, rest on a basis not easy to be shaken.’ Flinders wanted the revised astronomical data released before the publication of data from Baudin’s expedition.96 Flinders met the naturalist Brown on several occasions at 32 Soho Square. On one of these occasions, it was decided that Brown should write the account of the botany of Terra Australis, which would absolve Flinders from carrying out this task in his book.97 It was not all plain sailing for Flinders. To write about the geography and navigation of Torres Strait with authority, he needed access to his third logbook that Decaen had confiscated. Though he wrote to the Bureau of the Marine in Paris for its return, this was to no avail.98 Even after British forces captured the Ile de France on 3 December 1810, the logbook was not returned. Decaen took it with him to France and only submitted it to the Bureau of the Marine three years later after being pressurized to do so by the Minister of Marine and Colonies. Flinders never saw this logbook again. It was not handed back to the Admiralty in London until 1825.99 Flinders thought the French general had retained the volume because he expected it to provide evidence to attack him in his published voyage account.100 Flinders borrowed books from Banks’s extensive library to help with writing the introduction to his book, as well as visiting Arrowsmiths’ office and the British Museum to gain additional information.101 He made use of D’Entrecasteaux’s chart of part of the south coast of Australia; checked John Murray’s log kept in Bass Strait; borrowed Francis Barrallier’s sketches of Western Port and Hunter’s River from the Hydrographic Office; discussed with Charles Grimes his examination of the upper part of Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen’s Land; incorporated Peter Heywood’s soundings on his chart of Timor; and obtained from Banks copies of the first volume of Cook’s second Pacific voyage, Tasman’s journal of his first voyage, an account of Hamilton’s Pandora voyage and Péron’s account of the Baudin expedition. He borrowed his own journals of the Providence voyage from the Admiralty. He enquired at Banks’s house about the charts announced in the atlas that accompanied Péron’s account of the Baudin expedition but found they had not yet been published.102 Admiral John Hunter, now white-haired and elderly, brought Flinders a copy of Bass’s whaleboat journal.103 To prepare final versions of his charts, Flinders examined papers prepared by Philip Gidley King and William Paterson, lent to him by their widows, and consulted Hunter and the plant collector Caley about inland parts of New South Wales.104 The enquiries are typical of Flinders’ methodical approach to establishing the context for his own achievements on the Investigator expedition. They are consistent with his concern for historical accuracy and appropriate credits for individual acts of discovery. Flinders’ reading of Péron’s account of the Baudin expedition grated sorely with him, for he was upset that the Frenchman had tried to claim that parts of the Australian coast were first discovered by Baudin and his entourage rather than by Flinders and his associates. Flinders argued indignantly that Péron’s account ‘took possession of all my discoveries on the south coast of Australia, as having been made by them; pretending that I had been driven off and had not seen those parts, although it was I who gave them information of the principal points when we met on the south

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coast’. Flinders was suspicious about the lack of publication of the charts from the French expedition, especially as that voyage had ended some years before he returned to England. He suspected the reason for this lay in the French wanting to see Flinders’ charts first to filch details from them.105 There is no evidence, however, that either Péron or Freycinet ever saw any chart or journal compiled by Flinders in connection with the Investigator expedition.106 In A Voyage to Terra Australis, Flinders absolved Péron of crediting discoveries on the unknown coast to the French. Péron, wrote Flinders, was influenced by ‘over-ruling authority’.107 Péron died before the second volume of the account of Baudin’s expedition was published. The natural history and charts of that voyage were not published before Flinders began to write A Voyage to Terra Australis.108 Flinders named the geographical features he had surveyed along Australia’s shoreline. His manuscript journals had often designated features by symbols, letters and numbers. Capital letters were normally used for features on the mainland, such as capes, points and harbours, and lower-case letters for islands and islets. Clusters of islands were often noted by a lower-case letter followed by a number. Therefore, for many features Flinders used the Greek alphabet and Greek numbers after he had exhausted the English alphabet. Letters, numbers and symbols were used more frequently for parts of Australia’s coast that had not been previously explored, such as the ‘unknown’ south coast and the Gulf of Carpentaria, than for sections of the coast where nomenclature had already been supplied by previous explorers.109 In his voyage account and his charts, Flinders supplied names largely based on his British connections. During his various explorations in Australia, Flinders named 347 places. Most of these were given names for inclusion in A Voyage to Terra Australis. Flinders’ names were distributed among those named after geographical and geological features and after plants or animals; senior officers of the Admiralty, East India Company and major British public figures; those connected with navigation and voyages of discovery; his family, friends and acquaintances; and names connected with ethnography and human geography. Flinders’ nomenclature on Australia’s south coast replaced the French names given by Péron and Freycinet. When applying names to the various features of Australian coastal geography that he discovered, Flinders named nowhere after himself.110 The only significant disagreement between Banks and Flinders over publication of the Investigator’s expedition lay in Banks’s initial disapproval of the name Terra Australis to describe the whole of the Australian continent.111 Flinders explained, however, that ‘Terra Australis comprehends New Holland and New South Wales, and in extent is equal to all Europe.’112 He was chagrined to learn that his suggestion for using Terra Australis to encompass New Holland and New South Wales had not been approved. He believed that British discoveries in Australia should not be comprehended under the name New Holland, long used by the Dutch for the parts of Australia they had discovered. Flinders thought the matter had been settled at a conversation held at Banks’s home, though Brown and the Arrowsmiths did not approve of the name Terra Australis and had used the designation New Holland in their publications. Flinders acknowledged that Cook referred to New South Wales as part of New Holland but reasoned that if Cook had Tasman’s instructions of 1644, where the names Terra

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Australis or Great South Land were always used, he would have considered New South Wales part of Terra Australis. Moreover, Flinders had already used the name Terra Australis on his charts and in his voyage narrative, and it would now be difficult to make alterations.113 Thus, for instance, when he submitted his chart, completed in 1804, to Banks, it was labelled ‘Australia or Terra Australis’. When he provided that label, Flinders knew of several previous writers who had used the term.114 Having aired these explanations, Flinders persuaded Banks that ‘Terra Australis’ was an appropriate way of representing New Holland and New South Wales by a collective name.115 Terra Australis was already a name familiar to the public. Interestingly, however, Flinders, in a footnote to his book, explained that ‘had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth’.116 In fact, Flinders had used ‘Australia’ as the heading for one of his entries in the fair journal of the Investigator expedition. He had also used ‘Australia’ in his ‘Memoir’ and in some of his letters.117 However, Banks preferred a more conservative approach and, along with the writer James Burney, then a leading authority on voyages to the Pacific, he indicated that ‘Australia’ would not be allowed for the title of Flinders’ voyage account.118 The name ‘Australia’ came into general use, however, within a few years of the publication of Flinders’ book. In a despatch of 1817, Governor Lachlan Macquarie of New South Wales expressed the hope that the name would be officially sanctioned.119 Flinders was still curious about unknown geographical features of Australia. When in 1812 he heard that Lieutenant John Oxley of the Royal Navy was being sent out as surveyor-general of the lands in New South Wales, he wrote a detailed letter to the Admiralty hydrographer about what coastal features needed further exploration. First, he noted that Port Jervis Bay, about seventy-five miles south of Port Jackson, had not yet been surveyed apart from two or three eye-sketches made of it. It would be desirable to carry out such a survey to determine which streams or rivers fell into the bay ‘and also the corresponding line of the sea coast, in which there are thought to be strata of coal’. Second, in 1798 while circumnavigating Van Diemen’s Land, Flinders had discovered an inlet near Port St Vincent, which lay to the north of the south-west cape of the island. He believed a larger river than the Derwent discharged there. ‘A discovery of this kind would be of importance to the colony established on the Derwent,’ he explained, ‘and should there be a good port found, as seems probable, it might be the saving of ships caught in a south-west gale upon that coast.’ Third, Flinders recommended that Oxley should survey the south-east coast of Van Diemen’s Land ‘from abreast of Maria’s Island, all round that great bay’ in order to identify further islands in that vicinity. Such exploration would very nearly complete the coastal geography of Van Diemen’s Land. Fourth, Flinders thought a small colonial vessel could investigate the west side of Furneaux’s Island in Bass Strait, ‘unexamined by any person capable of rendering a proper account, from Cape Barren Island to near the Sisters’.120 Flinders’ meetings at Banks’s home involved consultation over the scientific and artistic findings of the expedition. By June 1809, Banks was pressing the Admiralty to assist Westall in completing his Australian pictures. Banks agreed to take responsibility to have the paintings done from drawings Westall made on the voyage.121 Flinders

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accompanied Westall to Banks’s house in early 1811 to examine the painter’s sketches and paintings and Bauer’s extensive drawings of birds, fish, insects and quadrupeds. The aim was to select illustrations from these materials to embellish the published account of the Investigator’s expedition.122 Between 1809 and 1812, Westall made nine paintings that were engraved for A Voyage to Terra Australis.123 He exhibited some of them in 1810–12, but only a few were completed for exhibition or publication. Most were kept by Westall until his death, when the precursor of the Royal Commonwealth Society bought them from Westall’s son.124 Though concentrating on writing his voyage narrative and preparing his charts on an almost daily basis, Flinders spent a couple of months in the summer of 1812 on experiments, carried out at Sheerness and Portsmouth, on the magnetism on board ship.125 While sailing in the Reliance among the Furneaux Group in Bass Strait, Flinders had noticed that the magnetic compass bearings were in error, often by several degrees, and that an alteration in the direction of the vessel’s head led to a change in the compass readings.126 He had later found in the Investigator that the compass needle at the binnacle stood differently when the ship’s head changed. His paper conveyed to Banks entitled ‘Concerning the Differences in the Magnetic Needle, on Board the Investigator’, written on 4 March 1804, was read in his absence to a meeting of the Royal Society on 28 March 1805. It was the first attempt to explain the deviations in a magnetic compass and to investigate their solution. Flinders’ survey of the east coast of Australia enabled him to equate compass deviations with variations in latitude: differences in the direction of the ship’s head varied less in low than in high latitudes.127 Flinders wrote a brief paper towards the end of his detention at the Ile de France indicating his wish to follow up his earlier work on ship magnetism as soon as an opportunity arose.128 In April 1812, Flinders wrote to the Secretary of the Admiralty outlining his case for examining the magnetic experiments he wanted to make on ships lying in port. The Admiralty agreed to his request to conduct experiments to this effect. Flinders oversaw the necessary work at Sheerness.129 After laborious investigation, taking compass bearings by hand with a ship’s head pointing in different directions, he explained the cause of the difference. The experiments showed the variations he expected but not to the same extent as in the Investigator. Flinders extended his investigations to other ships based in Portsmouth. He finished a report for the Admiralty on variations in compass bearings caused by the magnetic power in ships, with instructions about how errors might be avoided. He hoped his paper would make a difference to marine surveying.130 Flinders passed his report to Banks who sought the advice of James Rennell, the acclaimed geographer and hydrographer. Rennell found Flinders’ claims inconclusive but Banks decided to offer backing for his protégé.131 The Admiralty asked Flinders to condense his 45-page report into a shorter account. This was undertaken and the result, entitled Magnetism of Ships, was printed and circulated throughout the navy. Banks helped with the printing of the report.132 Flinders found the ‘change in the variation’ of the ship’s head was closely connected with the dip of the magnetic needle.133 One naval admiral, Sir Richard Bickerton, immediately followed Flinders’ suggestions by carrying out experiments on variations in the compass on several ships based at Spithead.134

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Flinders worked assiduously on finishing his book and charts. This involved ‘intense reading and close application’ for three years.135 He admitted to friends that he found their composition a laborious task.136 This is unsurprising when one considers that the charts had to be compiled meticulously from a variety of sources and that the book comprised two very large volumes of probably more than 300,000 words. Flinders drafted a long historical introduction that covered the history of maritime discovery to Australia before his own expedition. This still serves as a detailed, accurate account of the geographical discovery of Australia by European navigators. The main part of the book, however, comprised a chronological narrative of the Investigator expedition, the wreck of the Porpoise and the voyage of the Cumberland. The book included appendices on coastal longitudes, the compass errors caused by magnetism and Brown’s discussion of Australian botany. Flinders felt under pressure to complete his book and atlas, admitting that he was ‘pressed, on every side, to the same effect’. When nothing intervened, he was writing from ten o’clock in the morning until ten at night.137 In the last few months of his life during 1814, when he was ill, Flinders corrected proofs of his manuscript. By late February, he complained about pain from either stones or gravel in the bladder which had troubled him for months.138 During March, he reported in his private journal passing gravelly sand regularly in his urine. He began taking calcined magnesia, but the symptoms worsened. Persistent pain on a daily basis led his wife to start nursing him.139 ‘A rather painful and protracted fit of the stone has prevented me the honour of waiting upon you,’ he wrote to Banks in mid-April, and I fear will do so for some time; happily the account of the voyage was so nearly finished before it came on that little else was required than to correct the letter press and proofs of the charts, and this I have hitherto been able to get through; so that the voyage may still be ready for publication on the first of June.140

Flinders wrote to Brown about his gravel complaint, which had confined him at home. He had passed some small crystals, about three grams per day on average. Both he and his surgeon tried to find out more about the calculi found in the human bladder and the effect of calcined magnesia.141 Flinders thought his gravel complaint had begun during his imprisonment in the Ile de France and had been exacerbated by three years of sedentary work on his voyage account. Towards the end of April, he could scarcely walk up and down the stairs in his lodgings and was unable to leave the house. Unless he recovered from ‘this villainous disorder’, he noted, he would be fit for nothing.142 He expected to undergo a severe operation as soon as his book was finished.143 Robert Fowler visited Flinders at this time and found him ‘looking miserable – I don’t think long for this world’.144 Flinders now had long grey hair; his cheerful, pleasant manner had disappeared.145 On 9 May 1814, Flinders was ‘occupied examining the General Chart, and making out a list of positions for T. Arrowsmith to complete the tracks’.146 On 29 June, Arrowsmith brought him a set of proofs of all the charts for the atlas, and Flinders gave him a note to Banks expressing his approval of the engravings.147 Flinders examined the proofs with great care. He returned a proof sheet of one chart to the engraver

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to have ninety-two corrections and improvements made to the plate.148 A few weeks later Flinders finished the great task of completing A Voyage to Terra Australis with its accompanying plates and atlas, but he only lived just long enough to know that it had been published.149 The engravings were done by John Pye, S. W. Smith, John Scott, John Byrne and William Woolmoth; they used intaglio printing whereby lines were cut on a surface so that they could later be filled with ink.150 The book was dedicated to the four successive First Lords of the Admiralty who had held that position from the beginning of the Investigator’s voyage until the completion of the book: Spencer, St Vincent, Yorke and Melville. Flinders was more-or-less obliged to dedicate the volumes in this manner, given the Admiralty’s patronage for his voyage. Banks approved of the dedication.151 The plates included in the atlas comprised a ‘General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia’ (Plate I), six charts of the coast of South Australia (Plates II–VII), five charts of the east coast (Plates VIII–XII) and two charts of the north coast (Plates XIII–XIV). No sheets relating to the north-west and west coasts were included because Flinders was unable to survey those parts of Australia during the Investigator’s voyage.152 The plates are testimony to Flinders’ and Arrowsmith’s scholarly and practical skills. Information was incorporated on the track of the Investigator and of other ships that had sailed around Australia’s coasts. Flinders drew dotted tracks where the ship sailed at nighttime or in very heavy weather with poor visibility. The prior work of other explorers was acknowledged. Thus, for example, Plate VIII (East Coast, Sheet 1) reproduced plans of the entrances of Botany Bay, Port Jackson and Broken Bay from original charts by Governor John Hunter dating from 1788/9 and a sketch of Port Hunter based on Barrallier’s survey of 1801.153 Plate X (East Coast, Sheet III) included the tracks of ships Flinders himself sailed in (the Norfolk, the Investigator, the Porpoise and the Cumberland) as well as ships associated with his voyaging (the Rolla, the Francis, the Cato and the Bridgewater) and the track of Cook’s Endeavour. Flinders included more of Cook’s soundings on his plates of the east coast than Cook had himself used by taking them from the Endeavour’s log.154 A line drawn under a name on these charts indicated that it had been designated by another person; names without such a line represented Flinders’ own nomenclature. Flinders also corrected geographical information in his atlas. He included a revised version of his plan of Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen’s Land, published by Arrowsmith in 1800 (Plate VI). He corrected Tasman’s erroneous depiction of the Wellesley Islands and Sir Edward Pellew Group as peninsulas. The discoverers of various parts of Australia’s shores were scrupulously noted. Thus Plate 1 (the General Chart) incorporated part of the north Queensland coast from Cook’s chart and included the line of the west coast from Dalrymple’s issue of seventeenth-century Dutch charts. Plate V (South Coast, Sheet IV) acknowledged Baudin’s discovery of the coast between Encounter Bay and west Cape Banks and James Grant’s discovery of the coast between Cape Banks and Cape Otway. Plate VI (South Coast, Sheet V) included part of the coastline of King Island, in Bass Strait, and the northern part of Port Phillip from John Murray’s voyage in the Lady Nelson; the rest of the mapping of King Island was based on information gathered by Charles Grimes and his companion Lieutenant Charles Robbins. Western Port and the coast eastwards towards Wilson’s Promontory were based on surveys by Bass and

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Barrallier. Plate VII (South Coast, Sheet VI) acknowledged the discoveries made by Furneaux, Cook, D’Entrecasteaux and Cox in Van Diemen’s Land and credited Baudin as the discoverer of Great Oyster Bay on the east coast of that island. Where names had been assigned to places on Dutch charts, they were retained. Flinders’ General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia included French place names from Cape Jervis to Cape Bridgewater on the south coast. Important details for navigators appeared on the plates, including notes on soundings, currents, winds, weather and the nature of the sea floor.155 These findings and corrections were inserted meticulously, lending validity to the claim that Flinders was ‘one with whom precision was something like a passion’.156 To prepare the atlas accompanying A Voyage to Terra Australis, Flinders drew upon all the sources he had consulted as well as survey sheets he had prepared during the voyage of the Investigator and at the Ile de France. The charts took account of the reconstruction of the astronomical data completed by Crosley. This enabled maps to be drawn according to correct geographical coordinates. Flinders also included information gathered on Australian coastal geography over the decade or so since the Investigator voyage ended. As he had not been able to survey Australia’s west coast, Flinders relied for information on De Vlamingh’s survey of Western Australia (undertaken in January and February 1697).157 With his passion for accuracy and deployment of new knowledge, Flinders had used a methodology that synthesized all that could then be known, from practical fieldwork and scholarly research, about the shape of the Australian continent and the details of its coastal geography. He had managed to combine geographical and navigational data effectively to advance knowledge of a part of the world where certain knowledge was limited when he began his naval career. It was appropriate that Flinders should liaise with Arrowsmiths, a private cartographic firm that prided itself on excluding all doubtful information and on presenting the most up-to-date geographical knowledge as soon as it was available.158 Flinders’ charts and voyage account provided Australia with ‘the first definitive outline of its shape’.159 As R. A. Skelton has written, ‘Flinders demonstrated the continental character of Australia. In tenacity of purpose and in strictness of method Flinders was not surpassed by his illustrious predecessors.’160 Aaron Arrowsmith capitalized on Flinders’ atlas, to which he had contributed, in a revision of his Chart of the Pacific Ocean, updated in December 1814. This was five months after the voyage account and atlas for A Voyage to Terra Australis were published. Arrowsmith did not pre-empt Flinders’ findings; he allowed the navigator to publish his cartographic representation of Australia first. Arrowsmith’s 1814 version of his chart, published several months after Flinders’ death, includes Flinders’ charting and naming of Australia’s southern coast. The Gulf of Carpentaria is substantially redrawn. The Trial Rocks were moved closer to Rosemary Island off the West Australian coast. And the longitude of Cape York was moved about one degree east.161 These changes reflected Flinders’ failure to locate the Trial Rocks during the Investigator expedition and his recalculation of Cook’s longitudes for the Cape York Peninsula.162 Later versions of Arrowsmith’s chart were published, leading up to the final edition of 1832.163 The Admiralty took charge of the copper plates used to produce the atlas.164 The Hydrographic Office printed the whole Atlas in the early 1820s, with corrections made to the General Chart and to eleven of the thirteen sheets of the detailed chart

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down to 1822. These sheets retained the plate numbers they bore in Flinders’ atlas; they included the imprint of the Admiralty hydrographer, Thomas Hurd; and they left the original 1814 publication date unchanged.165 Flinders’ survey work was later extended by Philip Parker King’s and John Lort Stokes’s surveys of north-west and west Australia.166 Flinders paid a fulsome tribute to his main patron, Sir Joseph Banks, in the introduction to A Voyage to Terra Australis: I am proud to take this opportunity of publicly expressing my obligations to the Right Hon. President of the Royal Society; and of thus adding my voice to the many who, in the pursuit of science, have found in him a friend and patron. Such he proved in the commencement of my voyage, and in the whole course of its duration; in the distresses which tyranny heaped upon those of accident; and after they were overcome. His extensive and valuable library has been laid open; and has furnished much that no time or expense, within my reach, could otherwise have procured.167

Flinders, though now in grave health, maintained his lifelong interest in exploration and discovery. After completing his book and atlas, he sent his compliments to the publisher of the Naval Chronicle to ask him ‘to insert his name in the list of subscribers to his new edition of Robinson Crusoe’.168 Flinders’ last entry in his private journal was dated 10 July.169 By then he was too weak to write. He had lost his appetite, was sleepless and weakened by great pain. According to an anonymous sketch, he was visited by his brother Samuel; he shook him by the hand and said ‘Goodbye, Samuel,’ as he always ‘did when in health, the only difference being the tenderly affectionate look which accompanied the action’.170 The first copy of his book arrived from the publishers on 18 July. It is sometimes stated that the volumes arrived on the day Flinders died, but it seems that he saw the finished product shortly beforehand. He died on 19 July 1814, aged forty.171 Ann Flinders wrote that, after her husband died, his bladder was found to be in a dreadful state. The inner membrane was torn to shreds by a large number of small crystals. In his last months, Flinders had aged rapidly; he was worn to a skeleton and looked about seventy years old when he died. It seems that he suffered from chronic nephritis, which included kidney and bladder inflammation and cystitis, leading to symptoms of fever, dehydration, exhaustion and renal failure.172 The gravelly problem Flinders experienced while urinating could have been caused by ammonium magnesium phosphate crystals in his bladder. The fact that he had been infected by scurvy more than once would have lowered his resistance to infections and increased the discomfort of his complaint.173 A biographical tribute to Flinders soon after his death attributed his death to a kidney disease that affected his bladder.174 The most authoritative medical assessment of the symptoms of Flinders’ final illness has been made by Dr Stephen Milazzo of Adelaide, an expert in rheumatology. Noting that Flinders’ private journal offers an accurate assessment of the symptoms causing him pain in his lower urinary tract, he argues that ‘gravel’ was most probably chronic inflammation of the prostate gland and obstruction of the bladder outlet. The

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mercurial treatment administered twice to Flinders on the voyage of the Providence in 1792 may have introduced additional infective material via the urethra. Dr Milazzo considers, however, that the original gonoccocal infection would not have been active in a ‘potentially transmissible form in later years unless re-infections from repeated venereal exposure had occurred – and of this there is no evidence’. He dismisses the suggestions that a malignant bladder tumour, lack of vitamin A or urinary stone formation were underlying problems. Eventually, Flinders’ illness damaged his kidneys through the obstructed drainage, leading to loss of appetite, increasing weakness, diarrhoea and progressive weight loss. Flinders recorded all of these symptoms in his private journal during his final illness.175 In his will, drafted in July 1812, Flinders bequeathed £1,200 to his wife, £500 to his sister Susanna, and £500 to his brother Samuel Ward along with property in the Ile de France and Bourbon. In the second part of his will, he changed the initial bequest to his wife to a lifetime annuity of £55. Apart from a series of small bequests, Flinders left £100 for four monument slabs to be set up in Donington parish church to commemorate his great-grandfather, grandfather, father and himself with inscriptions.176 Such was Flinders’ dedication to voyages of discovery that he had apparently been heard to say to friends that ‘if the plan of a Discovery-Voyage were read over his grave, he should rise up, awakened from death’.177 John Franklin was saddened to learn, through reading a newspaper, of Flinders’ death – ‘an Event which at any time must have been most deeply felt by me (from every motive of Friendship and Esteem) has been doubly severe from its having unfortunately happened previous to the publication of his voyage’.178 Flinders was buried in the graveyard of St James’s Church, Hampstead Road, a burial ground for St James’s, Piccadilly. It is not known where his body was laid, but it is rumoured to be under Euston train station. His widow struggled to support herself. She moved frequently from one place to another with her daughter, living with her sister in London until 1815 and then at Chobham, Surrey. There were later moves to Southampton and Clifton, Bristol.179 Flinders had been so preoccupied with finishing his voyage narrative and atlas and had not anticipated his death at a relatively young age. Consequently, he did not make sufficient provision in his will for his wife and daughter.180 A shortfall in the costs of printing A Voyage to Terra Australis led to the publishers claiming additional money from Ann Flinders.181 After Flinders’ death, the Admiralty paid his widow the £200 half-pay they still owed but nothing else.182 An application was made to the Admiralty to grant a special pension to Flinders’ widow. Banks supported this claim, but in old age he was no longer as influential as he had once been and nothing further was done to help Ann Flinders financially: she lived on a modest pension for a post-captain’s widow (£90 per year) and an annuity of £55. An application to the East India Company for assistance failed. She died on 10 February 1852.183 Ernest Scott, recounting these details, commented that ‘the stinginess of a rich nation is a depressing subject to reflect upon in a case of this kind’. The colonies of New South Wales and Victoria eventually learned of the financial hardship experienced by Ann Flinders in her widowhood. In 1853, they voted a pension of £100 a year each to Ann with a reversion to her daughter. News of this pension did not reach England until after Ann’s death, but her daughter, who after marriage became Anne Flinders Petrie, was pleased to acknowledge the generosity from Australia.184

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A Voyage to Terra Australis was a very thorough narrative account of Flinders’ achievements on the Investigator expedition, but it was too detailed and technical in its approach, and published too long after interest in the voyage’s findings were at their height, to make the impact that Flinders intended. John Franklin recognized its importance as well as its limitations: [T]he work appears to be most interesting to Men of Science and Navigators while the casual reader will soon weary of the dry detail of his observations. He has related Facts and Circumstances with the utmost accuracy … his observations are reduced with the greatest nicety and precision; they, together with his charts which certainly are very superior, will gain for him what he most desired, the character of a good navigator a man of perseverance and science and procure that respect for his memory which I think he deserves.185

This verdict was echoed in a review of the book in the Monthly Review, which complained that the many navigational details of use ‘to the mariner and geographer’ should have been ‘separated from the descriptions of Australia and the narrative of events’.186 But, in fairness to Flinders, A Voyage of Terra Australis was always intended to be a meticulous account of the Investigator’s voyage that could be consulted by later navigators and used in conjunction with the atlas; it was never meant to be a popular narrative.

Epilogue

Flinders’ career was one that achieved a great deal in maritime exploration. He had undertaken important surveying work in Australia in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land in the 1790s before becoming the first naval commander to complete a detailed circumnavigation of Australia. Flinders had an abiding intellectual curiosity about geographical research through books and through action, and his concentration on geography and navigation in Australian waters gave him ample scope for new findings. However, Flinders also had to forge a successful naval career from relatively modest beginnings. The expectation of career advancement and recognition for his achievements as a maritime explorer was a strong motivating factor in his personality. Promotion and acclaim for his endeavours, however, only came slowly. When he arrived back in England in the autumn of 1810 after a long detention at the Ile de France, he hoped the Admiralty would award him a promotion from the time he had been first detailed there. But he was disappointed to be informed that, according to the rules of office, he could only be awarded a promotion to post-captain backdated to 7 May 1810 when a new Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty assumed office. Flinders modelled his naval career on James Cook, following his skills as a navigator and as a commander who exercised good judgement and care over the health and wellbeing of his ship’s company. Flinders placed Cook on a pedestal and considered his leadership in the Investigator could never exceed his hero’s achievements. However, he hoped he would be regarded as a worthy successor. Ernest Scott referred to Flinders as ‘the nautical grandson of Cook’.1 Flinders saw himself as following in Cook’s wake: nobody could replicate his achievements because ‘the great harvest is reaped, and the gleanings only are reserved for us’.2 When Flinders drew attention to his own discoveries during his circumnavigation of Australia, he carefully explained that his survey of the east coast followed Cook’s track and findings to complete ‘what that great navigator had not had time to examine’ beyond Cape Palmerston.3 Despite these modest disclaimers, however, Flinders in his own right had important nautical and geographical achievements. The voyage in the Investigator made important discoveries about Australian geography. Flinders was the first navigator to survey and chart the unknown south coast from the Isles of St Francis and St Peter to the Fleurieu Peninsula. He established that this coast was not a gently sloping line but intersected by two major inlets, Gulf Spencer and Gulf St Vincent. The geographer Robert Kerr summarized Flinders’ achievements succinctly with regard to these aspects of

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Australian geography. ‘Before his voyage it was doubtful whether New Holland was not divided into two great islands, by a strait passing between Bass Straits and the Gulf of Carpentaria’, he wrote. Captain Flinders has put an end to all doubts on this point. He examined the coast in the closest and most accurate manner; he found, indeed, two great openings; these he sailed up to their termination; and consequently, as there were no other openings, and these were mere inlets, New Holland can no longer be supposed to be divided into two great islands. It must be regarded as forming one very large one; or rather, from its immense size, a species of continent.4

Flinders amplified and corrected Cook’s survey of the east coast, focusing on coastal features that Cook was unable to examine in detail either because he sailed past them at night-time or because he was obliged to steer a track away from the coast.5 Thus on the east coast Flinders discovered coastal features and islands which Cook had not had time to identify. Flinders was the first navigator to steer a safe passage through the Great Barrier Reef, which he named. After much difficulty sailing through the coral labyrinth, he undertook the first thorough survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Though hampered in exploring the area by much shallow and shoal water, his examination and charting of the Gulf far exceeded the achievements of seventeenth-century Dutch navigators. The Dutch had been generally accurate about the shape of the coast of the Gulf but had made detailed errors about the location of rivers and other geographical features. The failure to locate a north–south strait in the Gulf may have disappointed Flinders, but it was a major conclusion in geographical knowledge, eliminating any possibility that a waterway divided New Holland from New South Wales and confirming that the continent was a single landmass. Despite his meticulous surveying in the Gulf of Carpentaria and northern Australia, the area proved unsuitable for any extensive settlement. In the years 1824–9 and 1838–49, the British government tried an experiment to establish a port in northern Australia on Melville Island and settlements on the Cobourg Peninsula, but these were unsuccessful owing to unproductive soil and a lack of readily available fresh food.6 Darwin, now the main city (albeit a small one) in the Northern Territory, was not founded until 1869 as a small outpost in an area largely unpopulated by people of European descent. Flinders discovered and recorded a great many offshore islands around the Australian coast, extending existing knowledge of the Recherche archipelago, exploring Kangaroo Island for the first time, and locating many islands on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria and in Arnhem Land. He found a navigable route through Torres Strait, enabling ships to pass safely from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean between New Guinea and the north-eastern end of Australia.7 He had hoped to return to Australia to complete his survey of the north and north-west coasts, but that task was left to later navigators and hydrographers. To have achieved as much as he did on a long voyage beset with difficulties arising from the condition of his ship, the exigencies of war, the difficulties of navigating near some parts of Australia’s coasts, the disaster at Wreck Reef and the extended detention at the Ile de France was a remarkable feat.

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A Voyage to Terra Australis incorporated Flinders’ discoveries in his expedition surveying Australia’s coast and offshore islands. Its thoroughness and remarkable accuracy placed him, according to the botanist Robert Brown, ‘next to Cook among modern navigators’.8 Flinders’ atlas was meticulously prepared in association with Arrowsmiths, who shared his passion for accuracy based on precise fieldwork. The atlas was widely used by maritime voyagers for well over a century and was not superseded until the era of aerial surveys. Flinders himself did not always smooth the path towards his achievements owing to his ambition and some occasional reckless decisions. Yet his achievements in the maritime surveying of Australia were of lasting value. His work gave Australia its recognizable shape on maps and he astutely championed the name Australia for the continent to which he devoted his short lifetime’s endeavours. The Investigator expedition also produced significant scientific and artistic results. Flinders always allowed sufficient time for his scientific gentlemen to undertake their investigations. The unfortunate circumstances that led to the decommissioning of the Investigator in 1803 had a fortunate outcome for Robert Brown and Ferdinand Bauer in allowing them additional time to gather and paint botanical specimens in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. Brown gathered many specimens of plants, insects and birds that he was able to bring back to England for identification and classification. Numerous plants that he brought home ended up at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The written data that Brown produced were deposited in the Natural History Museum, London. Brown’s pioneering work on new genera and new species has continued to this day, as botanists in London and Australia continue to benefit from his field research. Bauer’s painstakingly prepared and exquisite colour drawings of Australian plants have been acclaimed for their three-dimensional quality and botanical accuracy of the smallest parts of plant structure. Westall’s engraved paintings for A Voyage to Terra Australis and his drawing examples of Australian flora and fauna have left a fine artistic legacy from the Investigator expedition. Flinders has been commemorated in Australia in manifold ways. Many streets in Australia’s towns and cities are named after him; a modern university in Adelaide bears his name; and at various points along Australia’s coasts one can come across plaques and monuments in his memory. Four islands around Australia’s coast, a river flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria, a mountain in Queensland, a peninsula in the Northern Territory, as well as the central railway station in Melbourne, many streets, places, two highways, educational institutions, national parks, an Australian ten shillings banknote from the 1960s and a former Commonwealth electoral division were also named after Flinders.9 South Australia is the Australian state with probably the most memorials to Flinders. There is a Flinders Monument on Stamford Hill, near Port Lincoln, built in 1844 on the initiative of Sir John Franklin, then Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, but much earlier a teenage midshipman in the Investigator. Franklin arranged for the monument to be erected at Port Lincoln because it was ‘the centre of his honoured commander’s most important discoveries on the south coast of Australia’.10 In Franklin’s estimation, Flinders was someone who ‘must live in the grateful remembrance of every friend of Hydrographical Science and especially of those who navigate the shores of Australia and V D Land’.11 The centenary in 1902 of the voyage of the Investigator along

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the South Australian coast led to the erection of several memorials in Flinders’ honour. They included an obelisk unveiled at Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island, to commemorate Flinders landing on and naming Kangaroo Island; a tablet erected on the Bluff at Victor Harbor to mark the meeting of Flinders and Baudin at Encounter Bay; and the dedication of a Flinders column at Mount Lofty.12 Statues of Flinders were erected in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide as tributes to his contribution to navigation in Australian waters. Sydney and Melbourne competed with one another to erect monuments to Flinders. Both were completed in 1925. The ceremony to unveil the statue in Sydney, placed outside the Mitchell Library, occurred just two weeks before a similar ceremony to unveil a statue of Flinders, outside Melbourne Cathedral.13 At a public meeting held in Melbourne in 1925 to discuss an inscription for the new statue of Flinders, it was decided ‘in these days of widespread education’ that spectators would know of the work of the navigator, so there was no attempt to record any details on the pedestal. The brief inscription simply states: ‘Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N. (1774–1814), Navigator.’14 Meetings were arranged in Adelaide in 1921 to erect a statue to Flinders, but this lost impetus until after the unveiling of the monument in Melbourne. A statue of Flinders was eventually installed on North Terrace, Adelaide, in 1934. The British sculptor, Frederick Brook Hitch, stated that his statue represented Flinders ‘in calm attitude, contemplating in a general sense the accomplishment of his work of exploration. The telescope and the sextant symbolised his calling of the sea, and the broken mast and strained cables at the back of the base of the statue his misfortunes by shipwreck.’15 A British monument to honour Flinders was erected on 16 March 2006, his birthday, in his home town of Donington. A life-size bronze statue of Matthew Flinders was installed and unveiled on 19 July 2014, the bicentenary of his death, on the concourse of London’s Euston Station. Sculpted by Mark Richards, a leading English portrait sculptor, the statue shows Flinders with his cat, Trim, and a stylized map of Australia. This serves as the main statue in Britain to commemorate Flinders’ achievements as a maritime explorer of Australia.16 It is a sign of the times that Bungaree, the main Aboriginal man on the Investigator expedition, is singled out on the plinth of the statue but that neither the scientific gentlemen nor any of the crew who sailed with Flinders are mentioned.

Notes Preface 1 2

3 4 5

6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Ann-Mari Jordens, ‘Shillinglaw, John Joseph (1831–1905)’ in Bede Nairn, ed., ADB. Volume 6 (Melbourne, 1976), p. 121. SLV, Australian Manuscripts Collection, J. J. Shillinglaw Papers, boxes 81, 83, 241/2; SLV, Matthew Flinders, Public Letters and Papers (1807–14), MS 6730, box 341. See T. M. Perry and J. R. Thompson, ‘A List of Flinders Papers in the La Trobe Library’, La Trobe Library Journal, 13 (1974), pp. 15–19. Shillinglaw’s letters to Flinders Petrie, 1875–80, are in NMM, Flinders Papers, FLI/101. Another batch of Flinders material from the Shillinglaw Papers was presented to SLV in 1945. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders. The biography is assessed in Stuart Macintyre, A History for a Nation: Ernest Scott and the Making of Australian History (Melbourne, 1994), pp. 46–7. Mack, Matthew Flinders, 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), pp. 5–6; Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Commander Matthew Flinders, R. N. (Adelaide, 1964). Ingleton, Matthew Flinders; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders. Ingleton’s research papers, including extensive material on Flinders, are deposited at ML. Interpretations of Flinders’ career are assessed in Peter Monteath, ‘The Making of Matthew Flinders’, Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 30 (2002), pp. 42–51. Vallance, Moore and Groves, ed., Nature’s Investigator; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good. Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders. These are available in manuscript at the Scott Polar Archives, University of Cambridge and at the Royal Geographical Society, London. Marlene J. Norst, Ferdinand Bauer: The Australian Natural History Drawings (London, 1989), p. 98. TNA, ADM 55/77, Logs kept by Robert Fowler in the Investigator, Porpoise and Rolla. For the extent of such material for Cook’s voyages, see J. C. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook (London, 1974), pp. 715–24. Elizabeth Gertsakis, ‘The Lost Letters of Ann Chappelle Flinders’ in Anne Chittleborough, Gillian Dooley, Brenda Glover and Rick Hosking, eds, Alas, for the Pelicans!: Flinders, Baudin & Beyond (Kent Town, SA, 2003), p. 96.

Chapter 1 1

For genealogical tables of the Flinders family, see Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 5–6; and Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I, pp. xii–xiii.

202 2

3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Notes Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 2–4; SLV, ‘A Brief memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders, R. N.’, p. 1, J. J. Shillinglaw Papers, boxes 81, 81/3(d). The unpublished memoir was written c.1845 by Admiral William Henry Smyth, who knew Flinders during his final years: see NMM, Flinders Papers, 60/017, FLI/105. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I, p. xvii. J. G. L. Burnby, ‘The Flinders Family of Donington: Medical Practice and Family Life in an Eighteenth Century Fenland Town’, Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, 23 (1988), pp. 51–2; Ruby Hunt, ‘Donington: Birthplace of a Famous Explorer’, Lincolnshire Life, 6 no. 8 (1966), pp. 28–31; entry for 3 December 1810 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 335–6. To save confusion with his navigator son of the same name, I will refer to him throughout the book as Dr Flinders. Burnby, ‘The Flinders Family’, p. 52. The house was demolished in 1908. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I and II. Ibid., I, p. xix. See Adrian Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660–1770 (Cambridge, MA, 1995). Burnby, ‘The Flinders Family’, pp. 52–3; J. G. L. Burnby, ‘Some Flinders Family History: Connections with Pharmacy’, Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 68 no. 802 (1987), pp. 61–6; Irvine Loudon, Medical Care and the General Practitioner 1750– 1850 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 102–9. Burnby, ‘The Flinders Family’, p. 51. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I, p. 49. For an alternative view that Dr Flinders showed few signs of affection for his young children, see Loudon, Medical Care and the General Practitioner, p. 106. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I, p. 59. Loudon, Medical Care and the General Practitioner, p. 313; M. W. S. Hitchcock, ‘An Account of the Lives of George and Susanna Pearson’ in R. W. Russell, ed., Matthew Flinders – The Ifs of History (Bedford Park, SA, 1979), p. 38. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I, pp. 136, 143; Burnby, ‘The Flinders Family’, p. 51. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, I, pp. 34, 43. Ibid., I, pp. 91, 108, 124; Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 21–2, 50. Ibid., II, pp. 30, 35; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 9; Burnby, ‘The Flinders Family’, p. 58. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 47–8. Entry for 21 October 1805 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 101. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 2. J. S. Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, Naval Chronicle, 32 (1814), p. 178. SLV, ‘A Brief Memoir’, p. 2. Entry for 6 March 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 312. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 11–13; J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Life of Captain James Cook (Stanford, CA, 1974), p. 13 n.1. Scott wrongly refers to John Franklin as Matthew’s uncle. That Matthew and John were cousins is established in Ann Chappelle Flinders’ memoir reproduced in Catherine Retter and Shirley Sinclair, Letters to Ann: The Love Story of Matthew Flinders and Ann Chappelle (Sydney, 2001), p. 137.

Notes

203

27 See two books by N. A. M. Rodger: The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy (London, 1986), p. 124, and The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815 (London, 2004), pp. 388–9. 28 James D. Mack, Matthew Flinders, 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), pp. 5–6. 29 Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 2; Michael Lewis, A Social History of the Navy 1793– 1815 (London, 1960), pp. 88–90. 30 TNA, ADM 36/10793, Muster book of HMS Alert. 31 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 6. Peter Ashley has noted that a marginal comment in the muster book suggests that Flinders did not join this vessel. 32 P. K. Crimmin, ‘Pasley, Sir Thomas, first baronet (1734–1808)’ in Matthew and Harrison, eds, ODNB, 42, pp. 971–3. 33 E.g. in Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 13–14. 34 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 7. 35 Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 79–80. 36 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 11. 37 Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 84. 38 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 14. Flinders served from 17 May until 27 July 1790 in the Scipio, from 28 July 1790 until 13 April 1791 in the Bellerophon and from 14 April to 7 May 1791 in the Dictator: see NMM, Flinders’ Journal entry and certificate of seamanship, Flinders Papers, FLI/05. 39 Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 81, 86 (quotation). 40 Their main features are summarized in Glyndwr Williams, ‘The Pacific: Exploration and Exploitation’ in P. J. Marshall, ed., The Oxford History of the British Empire. Volume 2. The Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1998), pp. 552–75. 41 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 10. 42 TNA, ADM 35/1361, Pay book for H.M.S. Providence; Peter Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy (Clanfield, Hants., 2005), p. 7. 43 Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 94. Pasley was an acquaintance of Bligh. Pasley was responsible in 1780 for bringing back the crew of the Resolution, and the documentation of the voyage, which had been Cook’s third Pacific expedition, from the Cape of Good Hope. Anne Salmond, Bligh: William Bligh in the South Seas (Berkeley, CA, 2011), p. 510. 44 Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 18. 45 This is a well-documented voyage. The secondary literature includes Ida Lee, Captain Bligh’s Second Voyage to the South Sea (London, 1920); Dulcie Powell, The Voyage of the Plant Nursery, H.M.S. Providence, 1791–1793, Bulletin of the Institute of Jamaica Science Series, 15, Part 2 (Kingston, 1973); Richard B. Sheridan, ‘Captain Bligh, the Breadfruit and the Botanic Gardens of Jamaica’, Journal of Caribbean History, 23 no. 1 (1989), pp. 28–50; Madge Darby, ‘Bligh’s Disciple: Matthew Flinders’s Journals of H.M.S. Providence (1791–3)’, The Mariner’s Mirror, 86 no. 4 (2000), pp. 401–11; Gavin Kennedy, Captain Bligh: The Man and His Mutinies (London, 1989), pp. 189–210; and Douglas Oliver, Return to Tahiti: Bligh’s Second Breadfruit Voyage (Honolulu, 1988). Printed primary material, arising from men who sailed on the voyage, can be found in George Mackaness, ed., ‘Extracts from a Log-Book of H.M.S. Providence kept by Lieut. Francis Goldolphin Bond, RN, on Bligh’s Second Bread-Fruit Voyage 1791–3’, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 46 part 1 (1960), pp. 24–66; William Bligh, The Log of H.M.S. Providence 1791–1793, facsimile edn (Guildford, 1976); and Roy Schreiber, ed., Captain Bligh’s Second Chance: An Eyewitness Account of His Return to the South Seas (London, 2007). Manuscript logs and journals concerning the voyage are listed

204

46 47

48 49 50 51 52

53

54 55

56 57 58 59 60 61 62

63

64 65 66 67 68 69

Notes in Salmond, Bligh, p. 507. Transcriptions of the logbooks associated with the voyage of the Providence are available at ‘Fateful Voyage’ (http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/ providence.html). Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, p. 180. Glyndwr Williams, ‘“The Common Center of We Discoverers”: Sir Joseph Banks, Exploration and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century’ in R. E. R. Banks, B. Elliott, J. G. Hawkes, D. King-Hale and G. L. Lucas, eds, Sir Joseph Banks: A Global Perspective (Kew, 1994), pp. 177–91. J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks, 1768–1771, 2 vols (Sydney, 1962), esp. I, p. 341. Salmond, Bligh, pp. 40–2. Bligh’s career has spawned a massive academic and popular literature. For a recent summary of his Pacific voyaging, see Salmond, Bligh. David Mackay, In the Wake of Cook: Exploration, Science and Empire, 1780–1801 (London, 1985), pp. 137–8. This paragraph and the next three are based on descriptions of the voyage in Salmond, Bligh, pp. 331–96, 419–31, and, more briefly, in Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 10–27. Salmond, Bligh, p. 337. Long after the voyage, in 1817, ‘the unbridled licence’ of Bligh’s ‘power of speech’ was recalled by George Tobin, who sailed on the second breadfruit voyage (ibid., p. 472). Ibid., pp. 132, 139. Quoted ibid., p. 349. Cythera, of course, is not Cyprus but a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. The French navigator Bougainville had renamed Tahiti New Cythera after this Greek island where Aphrodite (or Venus) had first emerged from the sea. Salmond, Bligh, p. 351. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, Log in the Providence, entry for 8 June 1792, f. 47; Oliver, Return to Tahiti, pp. 34–5. Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy, p. 13. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, entry for 18 April 1792, Log in the Providence, f. 37. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 8. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, entry for 21 April 1792, Log in the Providence, f. 38. TNA, ADM 35/1361, Pay book for the Providence; Robert Tiley, Australian Navigators: Picking up Shells and Catching Butterflies in an Age of Revolution (Sydney, 2002), p. 65. It seems that Flinders contracted the disease in Tahiti, but no source provides complete verification. Stephen Milazzo, ‘Flinders’ Last Illness: The Final Five Months of the Journal, February to July 1814: A Medical Interpretation’ in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 506–7. Charles W. J. Withers, ‘The Longitude Question’, Journal of Historical Geography, 47 (2015), p. 2. Richard Dunn and Rebekah Higgitt, Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude (Glasgow, 2014), p. 157. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook, p. 100. Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy, p. 11. Kenneth Morgan, ‘From Cook to Flinders: The Navigation of Torres Strait’, International Journal of Maritime History, 27 no. 1 (2015), pp. 41–60. Salmond, Bligh, pp. 423–4. Bligh’s chart surveying the straits between New Holland and New Guinea is found at ML, SAFE/F79/5. A digitized version can be seen at

Notes

70 71 72 73 74

75 76 77 78 79 80 81

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

205

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/ItemViewer.aspx?itemid=823494&suppress=N&im gindex=10. The chart has coasts and shoals from Cook’s discoveries marked in red, a plain red line for Cook’s track in the Endeavour (1770), a dotted red line for Bligh’s track in the Providence and Assistant (1792) and a dotted black line for Bligh’s track in the Bounty’s launch (1789). The chart is a revised version of the original survey drawn in Bligh’s logbook for the Providence. Mackay, In the Wake of Cook, p. 139. Ibid., pp. 139–40; B. W. Higman, Jamaican Food: History, Biology, Culture (Kingston, 2008), pp. 148–50. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 94. NMM, Sir Thomas Pasley to Flinders, 3 June 1791, Flinders Papers, FLI/01. Flinders’ manuscript writings for this voyage are deposited at NMM, Portion of Flinders’ Journal in HMS Providence, ibid., FLI/08a, without the log, and at TNA, ADM 55/97 and 98, Flinders, Log in the Providence. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 22–3. NMM, Portion of Flinders’ journal in HMS Providence, FLI/08a. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, Log in the Providence, f. 49. Ibid., ff. 52–3, 75–6, 94–5, 100, 112–13; ADM 55/98, Flinders, Log in the Providence, ff. 21–3, 26, 38. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, entry for 26 March 1792, Log in the Providence, f. 24. Ibid., Flinders, entries for 21 April and 17 September 1792, ff. 38, 100. Ibid., f. 36. Flinders wrote out in his journal Bligh’s sixteen strict, confidential instructions to the officers and crew on the voyage (ibid., entry for 15 April 1792, ff. 36–7). Ibid.; NMM, Papers relating to Flinders’ career: Memoir of official services, Flinders Papers, FLI/05. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 15–16. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, Log in the Providence, ff. 2–6. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 20. The chart is at NMM, Flinders Papers, FLI/15/1. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. xxi–xxiii, xxv–xxvi, xxix. TNA, ADM 55/97, Flinders, entry for 20 November 1792, Log in the Providence, f. 137. TNA, ADM 55/98, Flinders, entry for 5 February 1793, ibid., f. 48. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, 12 September 1793, p. 128. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 12. TNA, ADM 55/98, Flinders, entry for 6 July 1793, Log in the Providence, f. 47. Darby, ‘Bligh’s Disciple’, p. 410. E.g. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 24. Flinders to Sir Joseph Banks, 28 July 1806, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 195–6. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 127–8. The last cause of tension is referred to in SLV, ‘A Brief Memoir’, p. 2. Flinders never wrote anything about this, but it is known that Bligh’s crew were sometimes desperately thirsty on the voyage: see Salmond, Bligh, p. 424. Bad relations between Bligh and the crew over water supplies, and Flinders’ resentment about Bligh taking his logbook, belie David Mackay’s remark that ‘relations with the crew were smooth’ throughout the voyage (In the Wake of Cook, p. 139).

206 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106

107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116

Notes NMM, Matthew Flinders’ certificate for lieutenancy, January 1797, Flinders Papers, 60/017, FLI/05. NMM, Sir Thomas Pasley to Flinders, 7 August 1793, Flinders Papers, FLI/01; Salmond, Bligh, p. 433. Darby, ‘Bligh’s Disciple’, p. 410. James Wiles to Joseph Banks, 16 March 1793, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, IV, p. 96. Flinders to Banks, 21 October 1793, ibid., IV, p. 158. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 30–2. Ibid., p. 29. NMM, Matthew Flinders, Journal in the Bellerophon (7 September 1793–15 July 1794), FLI/08b, f. 9r. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 33. Ibid., pp. 33–4; NMM, Flinders, Journal in the Bellerophon, esp. ff. 32v–33r, 35r. Black-and-white reproductions of these plans are published in Sam Willis, The Glorious First of June: Fleet Battle in the Reign of Terror (London, 2011), pp. 147, 155, 161, 165, 178, 190. Willis, The Glorious First of June, pp. xl–xli. Mack, Matthew Flinders, 1774–1814, p. 11. NMM, Flinders, Journal in the Bellerophon, entry for 28 May 1794, f. 32r. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 35. NMM, Flinders, Journal in the Bellerophon, entry for 1 June 1794, f. 34r. Ibid., entry for 27 June 1794, f. 39v. Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, p. 181. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 136. NMM, Flinders, Journal in the Bellerophon; Willis, The Glorious First of June, p. 356. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 135.

Chapter 2 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The quotations are taken from a completed pro forma in Francis Galton’s Record of Family Faculties. Consisting of Tabular Forms and Directions for Entering Data, with an Explanatory Preface (London, 1884), reproduced in R. W. Russell, ‘Flinders ReVisited’ in R. W. Russell, ed., Matthew Flinders: The Ifs of History (Bedford Park, SA, 1979), p. 7. SLV, [William Henry Smyth], ‘A Brief Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders, RN’, f. 14, box 81, J. J. Shillinglaw Papers. See above, p. 14. Keith Macrae Bowden, George Bass 1771–1803: His Discoveries, Romantic Life and Tragic Disappearance (Melbourne, 1952), p. 27. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 38–9. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. xcvi. All material in this paragraph is from Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 141–2. Susannah Helman, ‘Rethinking the Southern Continent’ in Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra, 2013), p. 92. See the colour reproduction at http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.map-rm389-s1-e

Notes 9

10 11

12

13

14

15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

207

Nick Burningham, ‘Duyfken: Charting a Sea of Misconceptions’ (http://www .maritimeheritage.org.au/documents/duyfken_misconceptions.pdf ); Nick Burningham, ‘Willem Janszoon and the Dutch Exploration of Australia’ (http:// vochistory.org.au/nickb.html). The early record of European discovery of Australia’s coast is summarized in Andrew Sharp, The Discovery of Australia (Oxford, 1963). Andrew Sharp, The Voyages of Abel Janszoon Tasman (Oxford, 1968). Leslie R. Marchant, An Island Unto Itself: William Dampier and New Holland (Carlisle, WA, 1988), pp. 110–12; Michael Pearson, Great Southern Land: The Maritime Exploration of Terra Australis (Canberra, 2005), pp. 45–8. Günter Schilder, Australia Unveiled: The Share of the Dutch Navigators in the Discovery of Australia (Amsterdam, 1976), pp. 196, 198, 374–7; Margaret Cameron Ash, ‘French Mischief: A Foxy Map of New Holland’, The Globe, 68 (2011), pp. 1–14. The findings of various European explorers to Australia are explained in Campbell Macknight, ‘A Useless Discovery? Australia and its People in the Eyes of Others from Tasman to Cook’, The Globe, 61 (2008), pp. 1–10. Dorothy F. Prescott, ‘The Discovery and Mapping of Australia’s Coasts: The Contribution of the Dutch, French and British Explorer-Hydrographers’ (http:// xnatmap.org/adnm/conf_06_11/c06/aPaper%2001.pdf ); Günter Schilder, ‘A Continent Takes Shape: The Dutch Mapping of Australia’ and C. C. Macknight, ‘Asian Knowledge of the Australian Coast’ in Michael Richards and Maura O’Connor, eds, Changing Coastlines: Putting Australia on the World Map 1493–1993 (Canberra, 1993), pp. 14, 17. For illustrations of the maps mentioned, see Schilder, Australia Unveiled. For a summary of these developments, see Kenneth Morgan, Australia: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012), pp. 8–9. Detailed treatments include G. Arnold Wood, The Discovery of Australia, rev. edn (1922; Melbourne, 1969); William Eisler, The Furthest Shore: Images of Australia from the Middle Ages to Captain Cook (Cambridge, 1995); Miriam Estensen, Discovery: The Quest for the Great South Land (Sydney, 1998); and Alan Powell, Northern Voyagers: Australia’s Monsoon Coast in Maritime History (Melbourne, 2010), pp. 11–36. Jan Kociumbas, The Oxford History of Australia. Volume 2. Possessions 1770–1860 (Oxford, 1992), p. 72. David Mackay, ‘The Burden of Terra Australis: Experiences of Real and Imagined Lands’ in Robin Fisher and Hugh Johnston, eds, From Maps to Metaphors: The Pacific World of George Vancouver (Vancouver, 1993), pp. 269, 272. Alexander Dalrymple, An Account of Discoveries Made in the South Pacifick Ocean (London, 1767), p. 96. Morgan, Australia, pp. 10, 13–14. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 41. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 146. NMM, Flinders to Mary Franklin, 23 January 1795, loose pages from Flinders’ private letterbook, Flinders Papers, FLI/04. Flinders to Ann Chappelle and Mary Franklin, 10 March 1795, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 37–8. Miriam Estensen, The Life of George Bass, Surgeon and Sailor of the Enlightenment (Crows Nest, NSW, 2005), p. 39; Rudy Bauss, ‘The Critical Importance of Rio de Janeiro to British Interests, with Particular Attention to Australia in Her Formative

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24

25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32 33 34 35 36

37 38

39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

47 48 49

Notes Years, 1787–1805’, JRAHS, 65 pt. 3 (1979), pp. 158–9. Bauss refers to 38 reported stopovers at Rio by British ships bound for Australia between 1788 and 1805. TNA, ADM 51/1121, Captain’s Log of HMS Reliance, 15 May 1795; Henry Waterhouse to Arthur Phillip, 24 October 1795, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, IV, pp. 321–3. NMM, Christopher Smith to Flinders, 30 June 1799, Flinders Papers, FLI/01; Estensen, The Life of George Bass, p. 39. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 41, 43, 47. W. E. May, ‘The “Reliance” Log Books of Matthew Flinders’, JRAHS, XXXIX (1953), pp. 268–9. Estensen, Matthew Flinders, p. 42. Ibid., pp. 42–5; T. M. Perry, ‘Charts and Views’ in Bernard Smith and Alwyne Wheeler, eds, The Art of the First Fleet and other Early Australian Drawings (New Haven, CT, 1988), pp. 72–8. Bowden, George Bass, p. 46. For details of Bass on the Reliance, see Miriam Estensen, ed., The Letters of George and Elizabeth Bass (Crows Nest, NSW, 2009), pp. 9–15. For evidence of Bass’s wide reading, see Michael Roe, ‘New Light on George Bass, Entrepreneur and Intellectual’, JRAHS, 72 (1987), pp. 267–72. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. xcvii. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 60. Estensen, The Life of George Bass, pp. 42–3. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 169. David Mackay, ‘In the Shadow of Cook: The Ambition of Matthew Flinders’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost, eds, European Voyaging towards Australia (Canberra, 1990), p. 104. Robert Brown, ‘The Late Captain Flinders’, The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle (January 1854), p. 29. John Hunter, An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (London, 1795), p. 42; T. M. Perry, ‘Australia and Cartography of the Late Eighteenth Century Expeditions’ in William Eisler and Bernard Smith, eds, Terra Australis: The Furthest Shore (Sydney, 1988), pp. 131–2; Perry, ‘Charts and Views’, pp. 72–8. Keith Bowden, ed., Matthew Flinders’ Narrative of Tom Thumb’s Cruise to Canoe Rivulet (Brighton, VIC, 1985), p. 1. Collins, ed. Fletcher, An Account of the English Colony, II, pp. 14–15, 24. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. xcvi-xcvii. Quoted in Scott, Matthew Flinders, p. 61. J. J. Auchmuty, ‘Hunter, John (1737–1821)’ in Douglas Pike, ed., ADB, I, pp. 566–72. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 52–3. Garry Wotherspoon, ‘The Road South-West’, Dictionary of Sydney (2011) (available at http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org); Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 7. Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 7; Bowden, ed., Matthew Flinders’ Narrative, p. 2; R. J. B. Knight and Alan Frost, eds, The Journal of Daniel Paine 1794–1797, Together with Documents Illustrating the Beginning of Government Boat-building and Timber-gathering in New South Wales, 1795–1805 (Greenwich, 1983), p. 39. Lindsay King, ‘Bass and Flinders and the Voyages of the Two “Tom Thumbs” (1795– 1796)’, Surveying Australia, 10 no. 2 (June 1988), p. 83. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 57. The name Martin Isles is no longer used, but the visit in the Tom Thumb is commemorated on a modern hydrographic chart where the five islands in the

Notes

50

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63 64 65 66

67 68 69 70 71

209

group are named Martin, Flinders, Bass, Tom Thumb and Big islands. Australian Hydrographic Service, chart AUS 361. This and the above paragraph is based on Bowden, ed., Matthew Flinders’ Narrative, pp. 4–6, 9–10, 12–13, 18–19, and Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 8. See also Frank Cridland, The Story of Port Hacking, Cronulla and Sutherland Shire (Sydney, 1924), pp. 3–6, and W. G. McDonald, The First-Footers: Bass and Flinders in Illawarra 1796–1797 (Wollongong, 1975). For the Tom Thumb voyages, see also Josephine Bastian, ‘A passion for exploring new countries’: Matthew Flinders & George Bass (Melbourne, 2016), pp. 12–23. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 60–1. For an online digital version of the map, see http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.map-rm711. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 67; R. W. Giblin, The Early History of Tasmania: The Geographical Era 1642–1804 (London, 1928), p. 160. Rae Else-Mitchell, ‘Bass’s Land Explorations’, JRAHS, XXXVII, part IV (1951), pp. 244–50; Estensen, The Life of George Bass, pp. 16–17; Bowden, George Bass, pp. 42–3. Brian H. Fletcher, Landed Enterprise and Penal Society: A History of Farming and Grazing in New South Wales before 1821 (Sydney, 1976), p. 28. Bowden, George Bass, pp. 25, 46; Estensen, Matthew Flinders, pp. 62–3. NMM, Flinders, Journal on board the Reliance (26 November 1796–25 November 1797), Flinders Papers, ADM/L/R/79B. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 182. NMM, Flinders, Journal on board the Reliance (26 November 1796–25 November 1797), ADM/L/R/79B. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 62–5; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 68. Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 182; Brian Lavery, ‘Nelson’s Navy’ in Pieter van der Merwe, ed., Nelson: An Illustrated History (London, 1995), p. 35. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 63; Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Flinders’, p. 182. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 65–6; Matthew Flinders, A Biographical Tribute to the Memory of Trim (Sydney, 1973). Estensen, The Life of George Bass, pp. 115–16. R. V. Tooley, The Mapping of Australia (London, 1979), p. xiii. Ernest Scott, ‘English and French Navigators on the Victorian Coast’, Victorian Historical Magazine, II no. 4 (1912), p. 151. Estensen, The Life of George Bass, p. 78; Dan Sprod, ‘Tobias Furneaux, RN, and His Pacific Voyaging’, Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Papers and Proceedings, 51 no. 3 (2004), p. 148; Beaglehole, ed., Journals of Captain James Cook, II, p. 736. See Hunter, Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, pp. 125–6. Hunter to the Duke of Portland, 1 March 1798, in Watson, ed., HRA, series 1, II, pp. 132–3. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 68–9. Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 10. This summary of the whaleboat voyage is based on ibid., pp. 11–13. There are many descriptions of this voyage: see Charles Bateson, Dire Strait: A History of Bass Strait (Sydney, 1973), pp. 12–14; Estensen, The Life of George Bass, pp. 79–91; Harry and Valda Cole, Mr Bass’s Western Port. The Whaleboat Voyage (Hastings, VIC, 1997); Valda Cole, ‘George Bass and the Whaleboat Voyage’, Victorian Historical Journal,

210

72 73 74 75 76

77 78 79

80

81 82

83

Notes 69 no. 2 (1998), pp. 77–97; and Kenneth Morris, George Bass in Western Port (Melbourne, 1997). Bass’s journal of the voyage is published in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, III, pp. 312–33. See also Gregory C. Eccleston, ‘The Early Charting of Victoria’s Coastline: With Comments on Victoria’s Maritime Boundaries’, (2012), 15–21 (available at http://www.anzmaps.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Early-Charting-of -Victorias-Coastline-27-4-12-pp1-33.pdf.) and Bastian, ‘A passion for exploring new countries,’ pp. 24–43. Scott, ‘English and French Navigators on the Victorian Coast’, p. 158. T. M. Perry, Australia’s First Frontier: The Spread of Settlement in New South Wales, 1788–1829 (Melbourne, 1963), p. 111. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. cxiii, cxix (quotation). Collins, ed. Fletcher, Account of the English Colony, II, p. 68. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 66. The wreck was relocated in 1977, partly covered by sand in 3 to 6 metres of water. Excavations have recovered some artefacts and timbers. Artefacts from the site are on display at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. The wreck of the Sydney Cove has spawned an extensive literature, including Graeme Henderson, Maritime Archaeology in Australia (Perth, 1986), pp. 127–42, and Michael Nash, Cargo for the Colony: The 1797 Wreck of the Merchant Ship ‘Sydney Cove’ (Canberra, 2001). NMM, Flinders, Journal on board the Reliance (25 November 1797–24 November 1798). See also Henderson, Maritime Archaeology in Australia, pp. 41–4. Hunter to Portland, 1 March 1798, in Frederick Watson, ed., HRA, II, p. 134. Geoffrey Rawson, ed., Matthew Flinders’ Narrative of His Voyage in the Schooner Francis: 1798, Preceded and Followed by Notes on Flinders, Bass, the Wreck of the Sydney Cove &c (London, 1946), p. 70. ‘Narrative of an expedition to Furneauxs Islands on the coast of New South Wales, in the Port-Jackson colonial schooner Francis. By Matthew. Flinders 2 lieutenant of H.M.S. Reliance March 1798’, La Trobe Library Journal, 13 (1974), pp. 12–13; M. Aurousseau, ‘Flinders’ Voyage in the Francis, 1798’, The Geographical Journal, CXI (1948), pp. 111–13. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 70–1. UKHO, chart y65 shelf X, Matthew Flinders, ‘Sketch of the Parts between Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales. Seen in the Francis schooner 1798. By M. Flinders 2 Lieut. of H.M. Ship Reliance. The Part of New South Wales was coasted by Mr. Bass, Surgeon of the Reliance in a whale boat & where not seen in the Francis is taken from him.’ Bass reported the sketch in a letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, 20 August 1797, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, III, p. 289. The sketch is reproduced in Cole and Cole, Mr. Bass’s Western Port, pp. 63, 65. Aurosseau, ‘Flinders’ Voyage in the Francis’, p. 112.

Chapter 3 1 2 3

Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 71; NMM, Flinders, Journal on board the Reliance (25 November 1797–24 November 1798), ADM/L/R/79B. Hunter to the Duke of Portland, 1 March 1798, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, pp. 363–5. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 71–2. Some complexities arising from these charts are discussed in Ruth Gooch, ‘Puzzling over the Early Flinders Charts’, Victorian Historical Journal, 78 no. 1 (2007), pp. 5–22.

Notes 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21

22

23

211

Hunter to Evan Nepean, 3 September 1798, in Watson, ed., HRA, II, p. 221. Hunter to Banks, 25 July 1798, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, IV, p. 492. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 72–3; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 96. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cxxxviii. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 73–4. Flinders’ original journal for this voyage is no longer extant. A clerical copy of the journal is available in manuscript at ML. The journal (Matthew Flinders’ ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’) has been published in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, III, pp. 769–818, and, along with Bass’s journal (George Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk in 1798 and 1799’), in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 23–106. Flinders later published a revised account of the Norfolk’s circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land in A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. cxxxviii–cxciii. He also wrote about the voyage in a pamphlet entitled Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land on Bass’s Strait and Its Islands, and on Part of the Coasts of New South Wales; Intended to Accompany the Charts of the late Discoveries in Those Countries (London, 1801). Copies of the three charts that Flinders intended to accompany the pamphlet are included as inserts in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 24–5. Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’, ibid., p. 75. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cxliv. Bass, ‘Journal from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 80 (quotation), 83. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 75. Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 83, 104. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’, ibid., pp. 25–33. For a detailed discussion of Flinders’ and Bass’s circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land, see R. W. Giblin, The Early History of Tasmania. The Geographical Era 1642– 1804 (London, 1928), pp. 175–92. Annotated excerpts from the accounts by Flinders and Bass of their voyage in the Norfolk to Van Diemen’s Land are presented in C. C. Macknight, ed., Low Head to Launceston: The Earliest Reports of Port Dalrymple and the Tamar (Launceston, 1998), pp. 1–53. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 33. This is discussed in detail in ibid., p. 67, n. 21. Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’, ibid., pp. 87–8 (quotation on p. 88). Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’, ibid., pp. 35–9. Michael Roe, ed., The Journal and Letters of Captain Charles Bishop on the North-West Coast of America, in the Pacific and in New South Wales 1794–1799, Hakluyt Society Publications, series II, CXXXI (Cambridge, 1967), p. 294. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 40–3; Flinders, Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen’s Land, pp. 16–17. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 40–8 (quotations on p. 48). For an example

212

24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

32

33

34 35 36 37 38 39 40

41 42

Notes of curiosity about the existence of such a strait, see NMM, Christopher Smith to Flinders, 30 June 1799, Flinders Papers, FLI/01. Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’, in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 93. NMM, Flinders, Journal in the Reliance (25 November 1798–24 November 1799), entry for 12 January 1799. UKHO, Matthew Flinders, ‘Sketch of the Parts between Van Diemens Land and New South Wales seen in the Francis Schooner 1798. By M. Flinders 2 Lieut. of H.M. Ship Reliance. The Part of New South Wales was coasted by Mr Bass, Surgeon of the Reliance in a whale Boat & when not seen in the Francis is taken from him’, chart y65, shelf X. For a reproduction and commentary on the sketch, see Cole and Cole, Mr Bass’s Westernport, pp. 62–4. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cxciii. Charles Bateson, Dire Strait: A History of Bass Strait (Sydney, 1973), p. 14. Flinders, Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen’s Land, p. 2. Margriet Roe, ‘Hayes, Sir John (1768–1831)’ in Pike, ed., ADB, I, p. 527. Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 105. D’Entrecasteaux’s voyage was intended to search for his compatriot La Pérouse, who had disappeared after leaving Botany Bay in 1788. Ida Lee, Commodore Sir John Hayes: His Voyage and Life (1767–1831) with Some Account of Admiral D’Entrecasteaux’s Voyage of 1792–3 (London, 1912), p. 24, and ‘Captain John Hayes – An Early Tasmanian Explorer’, The Tasmanian Mail, 11 December 1909, pp. 45–7; A Chart of Van Diemen’s Land, the South Extremity of New Holland with the New Discovered River by the Ships Duke and Duchess from Captn John Hayes (London, 1798) (see the online version at http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-t709). The inaccuracies on Hayes’s map are discussed in H. G. Taylor, The Discovery of Tasmania (Hobart, 1973), pp. 49–50. Bass, ‘Journal … from Notes Made on Board the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, p. 97; Miriam Estensen, The Life of George Bass, Surgeon and Sailor of the Enlightenment (Crows Nest, NSW, 2005), p. 112. N. J. B. Plomley, The Baudin Expedition and the Tasmanian Aborigines 1802 (Hobart, 1983), p. 163. Flinders, Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen’s Land, p. 5; Giblin, The Early History of Tasmania, pp. 183–4. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 48–59; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. clxxxix. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 79. It is now called ‘Ralph’s Bay’. NMM, Flinders, Journal on board the Reliance (25 November 1798–24 November 1799), entry for 12 January 1799. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cxci. In sailing up the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land, Furneaux had not attempted to find a navigational passage between Maria and Schouten islands and the mainland (Dan Sprod, ‘Tobias Furneaux, RN, and His Pacific Voyaging’, Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings, 51 no. 3 (2004), p. 146). NMM, Flinders, Journal on Board the Reliance (25 November 1798–24 November 1799), entry for 12 January 1799. Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 59–62.

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43 For a contemporary comment on the navigational advantages of sailing through Bass Strait, see Collins, ed. Fletcher, An Account of the English Colony, II, p. 138. 44 ML, Philip Gidley King, ‘Present State of His Majesty’s Settlement in New South Wales, 1801’, Philip Gidley King letterbook (1800–1), f. 93. 45 Flinders, ‘Narrative of the Expedition of the Colonial Sloop Norfolk’ in Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 62–3. This was a supposition also made by governors John Hunter and Philip Gidley King: see Hunter to Banks, 1 June 1799, and King to Banks, 28 September 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 85–8, 202–5. 46 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 102. Banks publicized recent British discoveries in Bass Strait to his overseas correspondents: see, for example, Banks to Franz Xaver, Freiherr von Zach, 10 February 1802, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 36–8. For details of a re-enactment of the whaleboat voyage and Bass and Flinders’ expedition in the Norfolk, see Bern Cuthbertson, In the Wake of Bass and Flinders 200 Years On (Sandy Bay, TAS, 2001). 47 Estensen, The Life of George Bass, pp. 93, 95. 48 Ibid., pp. 121–2; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 89–90. 49 NMM, Flinders to Christopher Smith, May 1799, Flinders Papers, FLI/08a. 50 Flinders to Ann Chappelle, 16 March 1799, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 39–40. 51 Flinders to Christopher Smith, 14 February 1800, ibid., pp. 41–2. 52 Flinders to Bass, 15–21 February 1800, ibid., pp. 43–50 (quotation on p. 48). 53 Garry Wotherspoon, ‘Exploring Love’, Meanjin, 66 no. 1 (2007), pp. 17–22. 54 Flinders to Bass, 15–21 February 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 43. 55 NMM, Flinders to Pultney Malcolm, 17 January 1800, Flinders Papers, FLI/08a. 56 Gooch, ‘Puzzling over the Early Flinders Charts’, p. 14. 57 Bass to Banks, 27 May 1799, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 81–2. 58 David Mackay, ‘In the Shadow of Cook: The Ambition of Matthew Flinders’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost, eds, European Voyaging towards Australia (Canberra, 1990), p. 101. 59 Note on Flinders to Bass, 15–21 February 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 49. 60 Ibid. 61 Some possible explanations of Elizabeth Bass’s criticism of Flinders are outlined in ibid., p. 17. 62 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 91–2. 63 Ibid., pp. 95–6. 64 Hunter to Banks, 1 June 1799, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 85–8. 65 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. cxciii. A descriptive account of Flinders’ voyage to northern New South Wales in August 1799 is provided in Collins, ed. Fletcher, An Account of the English Colony, II, pp. 161–88. See also Josephine Bastian, ‘A passion for exploring new countries’: Matthew Flinders & George Bass (Melbourne, 2016), pp. 53–60. 66 Robert James Smith, ‘Matthew Flinders and the North Coast of New South Wales, 1799’, JRAHS, 85 no. 2 (1999), pp. 163–8. See also Stuart Lee, Matthew Flinders and the Discovery of Shoal Bay (Yamba) (Yamba, NSW, 1999). Flinders’ journal for this voyage is available at ML, Matthew Flinders, Journal in the Norfolk sloop, 1799, MS C211/2. A digitized version of the manuscript and a transcript are available at http:// acms.sl.news.gov.au/transcript/2012/D14130/a002.html#a002009. Part of the journal is annotated in J. F. Steele, The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770–1830 (St Lucia, QLD, 1972), pp. 11–38.

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Notes

67 Flinders’ brief stay in Moreton Bay is discussed in John St Pierre, ‘Flinders’ First Two Days in Moreton Bay’ in Flinders in Moreton Bay: A Bicentenary Review (Brisbane, 2001), pp. 35–8. 68 For details of Flinders’ encounter with Aborigines at Shoal Bay and Moreton Bay, see Collins, ed. Fletcher, An Account of the English Colony, II, pp. 166–8, 171–5, 179–82. 69 P. F. Swan, ‘Why Flinders Failed to Discover the Brisbane River’, in Flinders in Moreton Bay, p. 57; ML, Flinders, Journal in the Norfolk sloop, entry for 31 July 1799. 70 Errol C. Kentish, ‘Matthew Flinders and the Glass House Mountains’ in Flinders in Moreton Bay, pp. 45–54. 71 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 97–106. 72 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. ccii. 73 T. M. Perry, ‘Seasons for Exploration. The Second Daniel Brock Memorial Lecture, 1975’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society Australasia, South Australian Branch, 76 (1975), pp. 54–5. 74 It is now called ‘Moreton Bay’. 75 NMM, Flinders, Journal kept on board the Reliance (25 November 1798–24 November 1799), entry for 21 August 1799. 76 Hunter to Banks, 1 June 1799, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 85–8. 77 Keith Macrae Bowden, George Bass 1771–1803: His Discoveries, Romantic Life and Tragic Disappearance (Melbourne, 1952), p. 97. 78 Watson, ed., HRA, II, p. 381. News that Van Diemen’s Land was an island appears to have preceded this: Laurie and Whittle’s A General Map of the World, or Terraqueous Globe, published on 12 May 1799, depicts Van Diemen’s Land as an island. 79 Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Matthew Flinders, 19 November 1800, Flinders Correspondence, 3/2. 80 Coolie Verner, ‘The Arrowsmith Firm and the Cartography of Canada’, The Canadian Cartographer, 8 no.1 (1971), pp. 1–7; Andrew Cook, ‘Alexander Dalrymple and the Hydrographic Office’ in Alan Frost and Jane Samson, eds, Pacific Empires: Essays in Honour of Glyndwr Williams (Melbourne, 1999), p. 58. 81 T. M. Perry, ‘The Early Evolution of the British Hydrographical Office’s Set of Charts of Australian Waters’, The Globe, 37 (1992), p. 46. 82 Greg Wood, ‘Successive States: Aaron Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean, 1798–1832’, The Globe, 70 (2012), p. 7. 83 Three versions of the chart are known, with minor differences. The first version used the word ‘surveyed’. This was later replaced by ‘explored’. The third version incorporated changes up to 1809. See Dorothy F. Prescott, ‘The Discovery and Mapping of Australia’s Coasts: The Contribution of the Dutch, French and British Explorer-Hydrographers’ (2001) (available at http://xnatmap.org/adnm/conf_06_11 /c06/aPaper%2001.pdf ); and T. M. Perry and Dorothy F. Prescott, A Guide to Maps of Australia in Books Published 1780–1830: An Annotated Cartobibliography (Canberra, 1996), pp. 113–14, 227. For a complete list of Flinders’ published charts, see T. M. Perry, ‘Matthew Flinders and the Charting of the Australian Coast’, The Globe, 23 (1985), pp. 8–10. 84 M. Aurosseau, ‘The First Published Representation of Tasmania as an Island’, The Geographical Journal, CXVIII (1952), pp. 483–5; Perry, ‘Matthew Flinders and the Charting of the Australian Coast’, p. 1.

Notes

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85 Cook, ‘Alexander Dalrymple and the Hydrographic Office’, p. 60. 86 This was entitled Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, on Bass’s Strait and its Islands, and on Parts of the Coast of New South Wales: Intended to Accompany the Charts of the Late Discoveries in Those Countries (London, 1801). 87 Perry and Prescott, A Guide to Maps of Australia in Books Published 1780–1830, p. 112. There is uncertainty about whether the pamphlet and the charts were published together: see Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, pp. 168–9. 88 Aurosseau, ‘The First Published Representation of Tasmania as an island’, pp. 483–5. 89 Information taken from the chart reproduced as an insert to Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed. For discussion of the chart in relation to Flinders’ manuscript sketches, see Cole and Cole, Mr Bass’s Western Port, pp. 62–76. Cook examined Adventure Bay in January 1777 on his third Pacific voyage. Furneaux, who sailed with Cook on his second Pacific voyage, had visited and named Adventure Bay in March 1773. Cox visited Van Diemen’s Land in 1791 and produced a chart of Oyster Bay. Hayes, on an exploratory voyage for the East India Company, investigated D’Entrecasteaux Channel and the Derwent River between April and June 1793. 90 Sprod, ‘Tobias Furneaux, RN, and His Pacific Voyaging’, pp. 145–6. 91 Arrowsmith, A Chart of Bass’s Strait. Rival map sellers competed with Arrowsmith for rapid dissemination of new geographical information. Thus in 1798 the London firm Laurie & Whittle published A Chart of Van Diemen’s Land, the South Extremity of New Holland with the New Discovered River by the Ships Duke and Duchess from Capt. John Hayes (http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-t709). Furneaux’s Sketch of Van Diemen’s Land (1773) became in 1777 the first English printed map to show part of the coast of Van Diemen’s Land. A Plan of Oyster Bay and part of Maria’s Islands by Capt. J. H. Cox (1789) was published on 27 February 1791. Andrew Cook, ‘Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808), Hydrographer to the East India Company and to the Admiralty as Publisher: A Catalogue of Books and Charts’, 3 vols (University of St Andrews PhD, 1993), III, pp. 1409, 1437. 92 Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 52. 93 Information taken from the chart reproduced as an insert to Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed. Flinders based this sketch partly on his chart, dated January 1800, in TNA, ADM 352/489, Admiralty, Hydrographic Department: Original Surveys: Australia, east coast: Queensland; Port Stephens to Northumberland Islands. Grimes produced several plans during his period as Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales. In 1797, the naval officer Shortland made an eye-sketch of the Hunter River. Broughton surveyed Port Stephens in August 1795. Campbell and Swain, two merchant captains, had charted parts of the Great Barrier Reef in 1797 and 1798. H. E. Maude, ‘Campbell, William Douglas (1770–1827)’ in Douglas Pike, ed., ADB, I, pp. 208–9. 94 Information taken from the chart reproduced as an insert to Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed. Simpson was a supercargo to Charles Bishop, owner of the Nautilus, which visited these islands in late 1798. 95 NMM, Flinders, Journal kept on the Reliance (25 November 1798–24 November 1799, 25 November 1799–8 November 1800). 96 Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 210. 97 NMM, Flinders to Pultney Malcolm, 17 January 1800, Flinders Papers, FLI/08a. 98 NMM, Flinders to Christopher Smith, 14 February 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 41–2.

216

Notes

99 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 110–11. 100 Ibid., pp. 118–19.

Chapter 4 1

2 3 4 5

6

7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

David Mackay, ‘In the Shadow of Cook: The Ambition of Matthew Flinders’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost, eds, European Voyaging Towards Australia (Canberra, 1990), pp. 105–6. Detailed correspondence on the voyage of the Porpoise is found in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V. The connections between Flinders and Banks are analysed in Kenneth Morgan, ‘Sir Joseph Banks as Patron of the Investigator Expedition: Natural History, Geographical Knowledge and Australian Exploration’, International Journal of Maritime History, 26 (2014), pp. 235–64. Banks to John King, 15 May 1798, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, IV, p. 502. Philip Gidley King to Banks, 20 March 1799, ibid., V, p. 60. NMM, Flinders to Pulteney Malcolm, 17 January 1800, Flinders Papers, FLI/08a. For the suggestion that Flinders would make a good commander for the Lady Nelson, see ‘Notes Regarding the Lady Nelson’ [1800] in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 142–6. This ship is discussed in W. S. Campbell, ‘An Historical Vessel – The Lady Nelson’, Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Historical Society, III, part x (1916), pp. 483–506. Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 38; John Currey, ed., John Murray, H.M. Survey Vessel Lady Nelson and the Discovery of Port Phillip (Sorrento, VIC, 2001), pp. 7–13; Trevor J. Lipscombe, On Austral Shores: A Modern Traveller’s Guide to the European Exploration of the Coasts of Victoria and New South Wales (Sydney, 2005), p. 35. ML, Philip Gidley King, ‘Present State of His Majesty’s Settlement in New South Wales, 1801’, Philip Gidley King letterbook (1800–01), f. 92. Grant’s surveying remarks about Bass Strait on this voyage are printed in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 477–88. Ernest Scott, ‘The Flinders Centenary’, The Lone Hand, new series, II no. 8 (1 July 1914), p. 101. Dane Kennedy, The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia (Cambridge, MA, 2013), p. 43. Charles H. Bertie, ‘Matthew Flinders, Australia’s Navigator’, Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Historical Society, 3 part VII (1915–17), p. 303. Charles W. J. Withers, Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason (Chicago, 2007), p. 125. Flinders to Banks, 6 September 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 51. Ibid.; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cciv. T. M. Perry, ‘Matthew Flinders – The Man’ in R. W. Russell, ed., Matthew Flinders – The Ifs of History (Bedford Park, SA, 1979), pp. 53–7. Flinders to Banks, 6 September 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 52. Ibid., p. 51. For his previous comment on this point, see above, p. 37. G. S. Ritchie, The Admiralty Chart: British Naval Hydrography in the Nineteenth Century, new edn (Bishop Auckland, 1995), p. 81. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. lxv–lxvi.

Notes

217

19 Hunter to Banks, 1 June 1799, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 85–8. 20 King to Banks, 28 September 1800 (quotation), and to Nepean, 31 December 1800, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 207, 701. 21 ML, Philip Gidley King, ‘Present State of His Majesty’s Settlement in New South Wales, 1801’, Philip Gidley King letterbook (1800–01), f. 93. 22 Glyndwr Williams, ‘New Holland to New South Wales: The English Approaches’ in Glyndwr Williams and Alan Frost, eds, Terra Australis to Australia (Melbourne, 1988), p. 140. 23 See below, p. 51. 24 John Pinkerton, Modern Geography: A Description of the Empires, Kingdoms, States, and Colonies; with the Oceans, Seas, and Isles; in all Parts of the World; Including the Most Recent Discoveries and Political Alterations…, 2 vols (London, 1802), II, p. 467. The same passage is included in the 1807 edition, after Flinders had completed his voyage (II, p. 588). 25 Kennedy, The Last Blank Spaces, p. 16. 26 Withers, Placing the Enlightenment, p. 17. 27 Pinkerton, Modern Geography, II, p. 467. 28 Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the Pacific Ocean (London, 1798). 29 Rupert Gerritsen, ‘Getting the Strait Facts Straight’, The Globe, 72 (2013), pp. 11–21. 30 Perry, ‘Matthew Flinders – The Man’, p. 58. 31 Gerritsen, ‘Getting the Strait Facts Straight’, p. 12. 32 Flinders to Banks, 6 September 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 51. 33 Ibid. For a critique of Gerritsen's argument, see Kenneth Morgan, ‘A Historical Myth? Matthew Flinders and the Quest for a Strait,’ Australian Historical Studies, 48 (2017), pp. 52–67. 34 Flinders to Banks, 6 September 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 51. 35 Jan Kociumbas, The Oxford History of Australia: Possessions 1770–1860 (Melbourne, 1992), p. 266. 36 Nigel Rigby, ‘“The Whole of the Surveying Department Rested on Me”: Matthew Flinders, Hydrography and the Navy’ in Marc Serge Rivière and Kumari R. Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders dans l’Océan: Voyages, Découvertes, Rencontre: Voyages, Discoveries, Encounter (Paris, 2006), p. 263. 37 Banks’s contributions to maritime exploration are discussed in David Mackay, ‘A Presiding Genius of Exploration: Banks, Cook, and Empire, 1767–1805’ in Robin Fisher and Hugh Johnston, eds, Captain James Cook and his Times (Vancouver, 1979), pp. 23, 24, 29; David Mackay, ‘Agents of Empire: The Banksian Collectors and Evaluation of New Lands’ in David Philip Miller and Peter Hans Reill, eds, Visions of Empire: Voyages, Botany, and Representations of Nature (Cambridge, 1996), p. 49; and Glyndwr Williams, ‘“The Common Center of We Discoverers”: Sir Joseph Banks, Exploration and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century’ in R. E. R. Banks, B. Elliott, J. G. Hawkes, D. King-Hale and G. L. Lucas, eds, Sir Joseph Banks: A Global Perspective (Kew, 1994), pp. 177–91. 38 J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks, 1768–1771, 2 vols (Sydney, 1962); Judith A. Diment, Christopher J. Humphries, Linda Newington and Elaine Shaughnessy, Catalogue of the Natural History Drawings Commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks on the Endeavour Voyage 1768–1771 Held in the British Museum. Part 1: Botany, Australia, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical series volume 11 (London, 1984). 39 D. J. McGillivray, ‘Joseph Banks: “A Tolerable Botanist”’, JRAHS, 57 part 1 (1971), p. 15.

218

Notes

40 Richard Drayton, Nature’s Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the ‘Improvement’ of the World (New Haven, 2000), pp. 125–7. 41 Margaret Steven, First Impressions: The British Discovery of Australia (London, 1988), pp. 36, 70–1. 42 See two studies by John Gascoigne: ‘The Scientist as Patron and Patriotic Symbol: The Changing Reputation of Sir Joseph Banks’ in Michael Shortland and Richard Yeo, eds, Telling Lives in Science: Essays on Scientific Biography (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 243–66, and ‘Motives for European Exploration of the Pacific in the Age of Enlightenment’, Pacific Science, 54 no. 3 (2000), p. 235. 43 Drayton, Nature’s Government, p. 80; T. M. Perry, ‘Introduction’ to Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, p. 7. 44 Nicole Starbuck, ‘Sir Joseph Banks and the Baudin Expedition: Exploring the Politics of the Republic of Letters’, French History and Civilisation: Papers from the George Rudé Seminar, 3 (2009), pp. 56–68. 45 H. B. Carter, Sir Joseph Banks (London, 1988), p. 366. 46 For some brief comments on Banks’s role in preparing the voyage, see Mackay, ‘A Presiding Genius’, pp. 32–3. 47 Entry for 18 March 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 351. 48 Hunter to Banks, 20 February 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 159. 49 Mackay, ‘In the Shadow of Cook’, pp. 107–8. 50 Banks to Flinders, 16 November 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 217. 51 TNA, ADM 2/293, Admiralty to the Navy Board, 21 November 1800; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 118. Manning Clark incorrectly states that Flinders chose the new name: see C. M. H. Clark, A History of Australia. Volume I. From the Earliest Times to the Age of Macquarie (Melbourne, 1962), p. 175. 52 TNA, ADM 2/294/51, Admiralty to the Navy Board, 10 December 1800. 53 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cciv. 54 Peter Ashley, ‘HMS Investigator – A “Copper-Bottomed” Ship?’ in Rivière and Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders dans l’Océan Indien, pp. 271–88. Details of the rigging and dimensions of the Investigator are provided in Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 428–33. 55 N. T. Geeson and R. T. Sexton, ‘H.M. Sloop Investigator’, The Mariner’s Mirror, 56 no. 3 (1970), p. 288. 56 TNA, ADM 106/3556/71, 75, 82, 116, 117, Sheerness Yard letters, 1800–01. 57 TNA, ADM 2/141, order dated 5 February 1801, f. 99. 58 Nigel Rigby, ‘“Not at All a Particular Ship”: Adapting Vessels for British Voyages of Exploration, 1768–1801’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and His Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 19–21; Peter Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy (Clanfield, Hants., 2005), pp. 21–6; Geoffrey C. Ingleton, ‘Flinders as Cartographer’ in R. W. Russell, ed., Matthew Flinders – The Ifs of History (Bedford Park, SA, 1979), p. 67. Only two plans of the Investigator are known. These cover the gun and quarter decks: see NMM, Ship Plans 6223, box 66, I. There are no known pictures of the Investigator, but a model of the ship is displayed at the South Australian Maritime Museum, Port Adelaide. A detailed diagram showing a longitudinal section of the Investigator is included in Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 430. 59 Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, pp. 23–4. 60 TNA, ADM 8/81, Admiralty List Book.

Notes

219

61 Geeson and Sexton, ‘H.M. Sloop Investigator’, pp. 291–2. 62 Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, p. 21. 63 Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 19 November 1800, Flinders Correspondence, 3/2. 64 Lincolnshire Archives, Dr Flinders to Flinders, 23 November 1800, ibid., 3/3. 65 NMM, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 29 November 1800, Flinders Papers, 60/017, FLI/25. 66 John Gascoigne, Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 125–6. 67 Banks to George John Spencer, [December 1800], in Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks, pp. 219–20. 68 Ibid. For further details issued by Banks, see ML, ‘Draft of Instructions for the Investigator’, March 1801, Banks Papers, series 63.39. The Isles of Direction, off Cape Flattery, are now called South Direction, North Direction and Lizard islands. 69 Natural History Museum, London, Banks to Marquis Cornwallis, 23 February 1801, Robert Brown Correspondence, 3, f. 114. 70 Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, 2nd edn (New Haven, 1985), p. 197. 71 Banks, ‘Original Establishment Proposd’, 12 December 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 221–2. 72 ML, William Townsend Aiton to Lord Wemyss, 1 January 1801, Banks Papers, series 63.06; D. J. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus: Robert Brown of the British Museum (London, 1985), p. 67; Mark Webb, ‘Peter Good: Gardener on a Voyage of Discovery’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and His Scientific Gentlemen (Welshpool, WA, 2005), pp. 97–103. 73 James D. Mack, Matthew Flinders, 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), pp. 55–6; Banks to Brown, 12 December 1800, and Brown to Banks, 17 December 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 223, 225. 74 Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus, p. 62; Steven, First Impressions, pp. 73–4. 75 David T. Moore, ‘Robert Brown on H.M.S. Investigator 1801–1805: An Overview of the Natural History Collecting Localities’ and Eric W. Groves, ‘Procrastination or Unpredictable Circumstances? The Handling of Robert Brown’s Australian Plant Collections in London’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 50, 130. 76 Phyllis I. Edwards, ‘Robert Brown (1773–1858) and the Natural History of Matthew Flinders’ Voyage in H.M.S. Investigator, 1801–1805’, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 7 (1976), p. 388. 77 Withers, Placing the Enlightenment, p. 125. 78 Maskelyne to Banks, 23 and 24 December 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 229–31. 79 Elizabeth Findlay, Arcadian Quest: William Westall’s Australian Sketches (Canberra, 1998), pp. xii–xiii. 80 Blane to Banks, 17 January and 14 February 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 252–3, 276–7; and ML, Bell to Blane, 12 January 1801, Banks Papers, series 63.17, 63.32. 81 CUL, RGO 35/55, Nevil Maskelyne to Banks, 23 January 1801, Board of Longitude Papers. 82 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 145–7; Andrew David, ed., William Robert Broughton’s Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific 1795–1798, Hakluyt Society’s Publications, Series III, 22 (London, 2010), p. xxx. 83 Board of Longitude to John Crosley, 7 March 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 287–91.

220 84 85

86 87

88 89 90

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

100

101

102 103

Notes TNA, ADM2/141, entry for 1 March 1801, f. 491. E.g. ML, Samuel Williams to Banks, c. 2 February 1801, Thomas Richardson to Banks, 4 February 1801, Richard Rowe to Banks, 7 February 1801, Banks Papers, series 63.25–7; William Milnes to Banks, 4 February 1801, Robert Fowler, Sr to Banks, 13 February 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 265, 276. Banks to [William Milnes], 20 January 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 290–1. ML, Banks to Nepean, 2 April 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 311. See also S. R. Band, ‘John Allen, Miner: On board H.M.S. Investigator 1801–1804’, Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, 10 (1987), pp. 67–78. ML, ‘Investigator’s Establishment’, c. January 1801, Banks Papers, series 63.11. TNA, ADM 2/295, memorandum, 15 April, 1801, ff. 169–72. Banks to [Evan Nepean], 9 February 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 299; BL, Add MS 32439, ff. 30–1, Navy Board to Robert Brown, William Daniel, Ferdinand Bauer, Peter Good and John Allen, 15 April 1801; D. J. Mabberley and D. T. Moore, ‘Catalogue of the Holdings in the Natural History Museum (London) of the Botanical Drawings of Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826) and Cognate Materials Relating to the Investigator Voyage of 1801–1805’, Bulletin of the Natural History Museum (Botany), 29 (1999), pp. 82–3. Banks to George John Spencer, 14 December 1800, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 223–4. L. A. Gilbert, ‘Bauer, Ferdinand Lukas’ in Douglas Pike, ed., ADB, 1 (Melbourne, 1966), p. 73. Gascoigne, Science in the Service of Empire, pp. 125–6; Drayton, Nature’s Government, p. 126. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 142–3; Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 10 July 1801, Flinders Correspondence 3/8. TNA, ADM1/1800, Flinders to Evan Nepean, 9 March 1801. Flinders to Banks, 24 and 26 January 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 291–4. Flinders to Banks, 29 January 1801, ibid., IV, p. 295; Flinders to Banks, 8 February 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 268–71. TNA, ADM 2/294, entry for 7 March 1801, f. 477. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 139; Nigel Rigby, ‘The Politics and Pragmatics of Seaborne Plant Transportation, 1769–1805’ in Margarette Lincoln, ed., Science and Exploration in the Pacific: European Voyages to the Southern Oceans in the Eighteenth Century (Woodbridge, 1998), p. 96. Plan and elevation drawings of the main deck and quarterdeck of the Investigator are available in NMM, Register no. 6224, Box 661, HMS Investigator deck plans, Sheerness Yard, 1801. TNA, ADM 1/1800, Flinders to Evan Nepean, 15 March 1801; BL, Add MS 31169, Sir John Jervis to Sir Andrew Hammond, 20 March 1801, Sir John Jervis letterbook (1801–6), St Vincent Papers. Flinders to Banks, 21 May 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 371; Nepean to Banks, 8 June 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 360. Reasons for the delay in securing this document are discussed in Mack, Matthew Flinders, pp. 75–6. The original passport is deposited at NMM, Official Letters received by Matthew Flinders, Flinders Papers, FLI/03/21. Flinders to Banks, 4 February 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 296–7. Flinders to Banks, 11 February 1801, ibid., IV, pp. 300–1; Ingleton, Matthew Flinders,

Notes

104 105 106

107 108 109

110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120

121

122 123 124

125

221

p. 100. Copies of the charts can be seen in portfolio 162, maps 51 and 52, at the Royal Geographical Society, London. They are reproduced as loose inserts to Sprod, ed., Van Diemen’s Land Revealed. Quoted in Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 123. Flinders to Banks, 18 February 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 303. Banks to Flinders, 19 February 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 279. Vancouver set out on his voyage of 1791 without an astronomer, but after sailing from England he changed his mind and applied to the Board of Longitude for one. The astronomer then selected died before he could join the expedition. W. Kaye Lamb, ed., The Voyage of George Vancouver, 1791–1795, 4 vols, Hakluyt Society Publications, second series, 165 (London, 1984), I, pp. 32, 51. John Gascoigne, Encountering the Pacific in the Age of Enlightenment (Cambridge, 2014), p. 349. David Scott to Banks, 30 April 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 329–30. Mack, Matthew Flinders, pp. 70–1; BL, India Office Records, Flinders to W. Ramsay, 12 May 1801, f. 208, Court of Directors: Miscellaneous Letters Received, E/1/104; and W. Ramsay to Flinders, 14 May 1801, f. 535, Committee of Correspondence: Miscellanies no. 41, E/1/237. Banks to Flinders, 1 May 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 336. ML, Banks to the East India Company, 24 April 1801, ibid., V, p. 321. Flinders to Banks, 9 March 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 310. Banks to Nepean and reply, 28 April 1801, ibid., IV, p. 348. Mackay, In the Wake of Cook, p. 20; Mackay, ‘A Presiding Genius of Exploration’, p. 33. Flinders to Banks, 17 March 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 336. Flinders to Banks, 10 May 1801, ibid., IV, p. 366. ML, Copy of a letter received by the Navy Board from the Admiralty, 15 April 1801, Banks Papers, series 63.45. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 5–6. ML, Matthew Finders, Rough Journal, 2 vols, I, f. 21. Margaret Sankey, ‘The Cartography of the Baudin Expedition: Louis Freycinet’s Map of New Holland’ in Rupert Gerritsen, Robert King and Andrew Eliason, eds, The Freycinet Map of 1811: Proceedings of the Symposium Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Publication of the First Map of Australia (Canberra, 2012), p. 8. Banks to Robert Brown, Ferdinand Bauer, William Westall, Peter Good and John Allen, 29 April 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks, pp. 230–3. For drafts of this document, see ML, ‘Draught of an undertaking &c’, Banks Papers, series 63.08 and 63.09. Banks to Flinders, June 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 388. Edwards, ‘Robert Brown (1773–1858)’, p. 388. Banks to Brown, 15 June 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 363–4. In the event, Caley, who had limited botanical training, declined to join Brown in the Investigator, a decision supported by Banks. J. E. B. Currey, ed., George Caley, Reflections on the Colony of New South Wales (Melbourne, 1966), p. 73. The Admiralty to Flinders, May 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 331–4.

222 126 127 128 129 130 131 132

133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154

Notes Ingleton, ‘Flinders as Cartographer’, p. 67. Flinders to Banks, 29 April 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 352–3. TNA, ADM 1/1800, Flinders to Evan Nepean, 2 July 1801. Flinders to Banks, 29 April 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 353. Flinders to Ann Chappell, 16 January 1801, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 56. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 133–4, 151–2. Flinders to Ann Chappelle, 25 September 1800, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 53. Banks would have been a prominent figure among the ‘more and greater friends’ referred to in the extract. NMM, Flinders to Ann Chappelle, 18 December 1800, Flinders Papers, FLI/25. NMM, Flinders to Ann Chappelle, 16 January 1801, ibid. Flinders to Dr Flinders, 3 April 1801, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 61–3. Flinders to Ann Chappelle, 6 April 1801, ibid., pp. 65–6. Flinders to Dr Flinders, 14 April 1801, ibid., pp. 66–7. J. S. Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, Naval Chronicle, 32 (1814), p. 183; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 133. ML, Ann Flinders to Elizabeth Franklin, 17 April 1801. NMM, Isabella Tyler, ‘Biographical Outline of Captain and Mrs Flinders’, 1852, Flinders Papers, FLI/107. Entry for 1 May 1801 in Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, p. 228. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 157. Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 9 May 1801, Flinders Correspondence, 3/7. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 158. Banks to Philip Gidley King, 22 June 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 365. Banks to Flinders, 21 May 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 372. Flinders to Ann Chappelle, 6 April 1801, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 66. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Flinders to Thomas Franklin, 7 July 1801, Matthew Flinders Collection, MS 248/348/2. Flinders to Banks, 24 May 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, pp. 349–50. Flinders to Banks, 3 June 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 380–1. Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 10 July 1801, Flinders Correspondence, 3/8. Flinders to Banks, 6 June 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 387. Banks to Flinders, June 1801, ibid., IV, pp. 388–9. TNA, ADM 1/1800, Flinders to Evan Nepean, 9 June 1801.

Chapter 5 1 2 3 4

Entry for 25 January 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 99. Entries for 25 January and 30 June 1801, ibid., I, pp. 99, 124. Entries for 4 February, 6 and 18 April, 3, 9, 10, 19 May 1801, ibid., I, pp. 100, 109–10, 112–14. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 5 April 1801.

Notes 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21

22

23

223

TNA, ADM 1/4187, Admiralty Office order, April 1801. See above, p. 57. TNA, ADM 2/141, order dated 22 May 1801, f. 399. TNA, ADM 1/1800, Flinders to Evan Nepean, 29 May 1801. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 160–3. Banks to Philip Gidley King, 22 June 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 365. Banks to Flinders, 5 June 1801, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 383–4. TNA, ADM 1/3522, Alexander Dalrymple to Evan Nepean, 8 June 1801, f. 94. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 164. Entry for 15 June 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 122. Royal Geographical Society, London, Flinders to Thomas Franklin 7 July 1801, Sir John Franklin Collection, SJF/1. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 162, 164–5. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Flinders to Thomas Franklin, 7 July 1801, Matthew Flinders Collection, 248/348/2. K. A. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Commander Matthew Flinders, R.N. (Adelaide, 1964), p. 56; Royal Geographical Society, London, Flinders to Thomas Franklin, 7 July 1801, Sir John Franklin Collection, SJF/1. Entry for 17 July 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 126–38; TNA, ADM 7/708, Flinders’ Journal, f. 54. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 152. The unpublished ‘Memoir’ referred to here is a short document seemingly reproduced verbatim in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 132–3. This ‘Memoir’ has not been located anywhere else: it does not appear to have been published. Dalrymple had kept his copying of D’Entrecasteaux’s charts secret apart from those he lent Flinders: see Archibald Day, The Admiralty Hydrographic Service, 1795–1919 (London, 1967), pp. 18–19. The charts copied from Beautemps-Beaupré are deposited at NMM, Flinders Papers FLI/15/15-24. Other printed charts provided by Dalrymple to Flinders are deposited at NMM, Flinders Papers, FLI/16/1-17. Andrew Cook, ‘Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808): Hydrographer to the East India Company and to the Admiralty as Publisher: A Catalogue of Books and Charts’, 3 vols (University of St Andrews PhD, 1993), 1, pp. 109–10. A recent assessment of Dalrymple’s work for the Admiralty is found in Adrian Webb, ‘More than Just Charts: Hydrographic Expertise within the Admiralty, 1795–1829’, Journal for Maritime Research, 16 no. 1 (2014), pp. 45–7. Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the Pacific Ocean (London, 1798). The original version is in the ML (catalogue reference X980.01/2). There are online images of the nine sheets of this chart at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/albumView .aspx?itemID=915976&acmsid=0 For a reproduction of the representation of New Holland on this chart, see Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings of William Westall, p. 2. Successive editions of this chart, with additions, were published between 1798 and 1832; they make incremental changes to reflect new discoveries. One needs to exercise care in looking at the various versions because Arrowsmith’s date on the charts was not always updated to reflect the year in which additions were made. The extant versions of the chart and their locations are discussed in Wood, ‘Successive States: Aaron Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean, 1798–1832’, The Globe, 70 (2012), pp. 1–17. See also T. M. Perry, ‘Introduction’ to Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings of William Westall, pp. 4–5; T. M. Perry, ‘British Charting of Australian

224

24 25 26

27

28

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Notes Waters’ in Michael Richards and Maura O’Connor, eds, Changing Coastlines: Putting Australia on the World Map 1493–1993 (Canberra, 1993), p. 20. Robert Tiley, Australian Navigators: Picking Up Shells and Catching Butterflies in an Age of Revolution (East Roseville, NSW, 2002), p. 147. The instructions are preserved in proof sheets found in Dalrymple’s ‘Collections concerning Papua’ in Sir Joseph Banks’s library (BL shelf mark 435.k.13). G. Arnold Wood, The Discovery of Australia (orig. pub. 1922; Melbourne, 1969), p. 339; Glyndwr Williams, ‘New Holland to New South Wales: The English Approaches’ in Glyndwr Williams and Alan Frost, eds, Terra Australis to Australia (Melbourne, 1988), p. 129. For Bowen’s reliance on Blaeu, see Kees Zandvliet, ‘Golden Opportunities in Geopolitics: Cartography and the Dutch East India Company during the Lifetime of Abel Tasman’ in William Eisler and Bernard Smith, eds, Terra Australis: The Furthest Shore, (Sydney, 1988), p. 80. Martin Woods, ‘“Terre Australe,” east of New Holland’ in Mapping Our World (Canberra, 2013), p. 143; Günter Schilder, Australia Unveiled: The Share of the Dutch Navigators in the Discovery of Australia (Amsterdam, 1976), p. 203. T. M. Knight, ‘From Terra Incognita to New Holland’, Cartography, 6 no. 2 (1987), p. 89. Wood, The Discovery of Australia, p. 339. Wood, ‘Successive States’, p. 11. Perry, ‘Introduction’ to Perry and Simpson, eds, The Drawings of William Westall, pp. 4–5. Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 406–7. Ibid., II, p. 407. Rupert Gerritsen, ‘Getting the Strait Facts Straight’, The Globe, 72 (2013), pp. 11–21. See above, p. 51. Entry for 17 July 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 126–31. P. U. Henn, ‘The Tryal Rocks’, Journal and Proceedings of the Western Australia Historical Society, 2 (1935), pp. 38–43; Ida Lee, ‘The First Sighting of Australia by the English’, JRAHS, 20 (1934), pp. 273–80; Michael Pearson, Great Southern Land: The Maritime Exploration of Terra Australis (Canberra, 2005), pp. 44–5. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 273. Flinders to Banks, 17 July 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 369. Flinders to Banks, 5 July 1801, ibid., V, p. 368. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 130. This was a board with columns for recording the ship’s course, the direction of the wind and so forth. Details were copied into the ship’s logbook at the end of each day. Entry for 18 July 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 141–4. Entry for 30 July 1801, ibid., I, p. 152. Entry for 1 August 1801, ibid., I, p. 154. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, 2 August 1801; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 157. Desmond Gregory, The Beneficent Usurpers: A History of the British in Madeira (Rutherford, NJ, 1988), p. 47. Entry for 6 August 1801 in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 59. D. T. Moore, ‘Some Aspects of the Work of Robert Brown and the Investigator Naturalists in Madeira during August 1801’, Archives of Natural History, 28 no. 3 (2001), pp. 384, 387–8.

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51 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 38. 52 Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 4 August 1801, Flinders Correspondence, 3/9. 53 Entry for 22 August 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 169. 54 Entry for 26 August 1801, ibid., I, p. 171. 55 Entry for 30 August 1801, ibid., I, pp. 174–5. 56 Entries for 30 August, 10–11 September 1801, ibid., I, pp. 174, 181. 57 Brian Vale, ‘The Conquest of Scurvy in the Royal Navy 1793–1800: A Challenge to Current Orthodoxy’, The Mariner’s Mirror, 94 no. 2 (2008), pp. 160–75; Glyn Williams, ‘Scurvy on the Pacific Voyages in the age of Cook’, Journal for Maritime Research, 15 no. 1 (2013), pp. 37–46. 58 Entry for 2 September 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 176; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 140–1; and above, p. 11; Cook’s antiscorbutic measures are discussed in Brett J. Stubbs, ‘Captain Cook’s Beer: The Antiscorbutic Use of Malt and Beer in late 18th Century Sea Voyages’, Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 12 no. 2 (2003), pp. 129–37. 59 Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘An Appetite for Discovery: The Culinary Adventures of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders in Terra Australis, 1800–1804’ in A. Lynn Martin and Barbara Santich, eds, Gastronomical Encounters (Brampton, SA, 2004), pp. 22–3. 60 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, pp. 39–40. 61 Entry for 8 September 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 179; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 40; Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin to his father, 22 October 1801, Sir John Franklin Collection, MS 248/304. 62 Entry for 19 September 1801 in Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 27. 63 Entry for 7 September 1801 in Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 40. 64 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 172–3. 65 Ibid., p. 172. 66 TNA, ADM 1/1801, Flinders to Evan Nepean, October 1801. 67 Henry Stommel, Lost Islands: The Story of Islands that Have Vanished from Nautical Charts (Vancouver, 1984), pp. 22–5. 68 James D. Mack, Matthew Flinders 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), p. 202. 69 D. J. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus: Robert Brown of the British Museum (London, 1985), pp. 74, 88. 70 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 42. 71 Entry for 17 October 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 202–5; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 36–8. 72 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 173. 73 M. Arkin, ‘John Company at the Cape – A History of the Agency Under Pringle (1794–1815) Based on a Study of the Cape of Good Hope Factory Records’, Archives Yearbook for South African History, 2 (1961), pp. 177–344. 74 See above, pp. 8, 25–6. 75 Entries for 17, 19, 21, 23, 24 October and 2 November 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 202–7; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 42. 76 Entry for 31 October 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 207. 77 Flinders to Banks, 21 October 1801, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 77. 78 Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Dr Flinders, 22 October 1801, Flinders Correspondence, 3/10.

226 79 80 81 82 83 84 85

86

87 88 89 90 91 92

93 94 95 96

97

98 99 100 101

102 103

Notes Flinders to Ann Flinders, 3 November 1801, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 78. Entries for 17–18 October 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 202–5. BL, Add MS 32439, John Crosley to Dr Maskelyne, 5 November 1801, Robert Brown Papers. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 41. Entry for 4 November 1801, in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 208–14. BL, Add MS 32349, John Crosley to Dr Maskelyne, 5 November 1801, Robert Brown Papers. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin to his father, 22 October 1801, MS 248/304, and Robert Brown to John Franklin, 25 August 1814, MS 248/296/2 (quotation), Sir John Franklin Collection; Andrew Lambert, Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation (London, 2009), pp. 22–3. Mary Croarken, ‘Astronomical Labourers: Maskelyne’s Assistants at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1765–1811’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 57 no. 3 (2003), p. 291. CUL, RGO 4/186, Observations made by John Crosley, Papers of Nevil Maskelyne, Board of Longitude Papers. Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 44; Derek Howse, Nevil Maskelyne: The Seaman’s Astronomer (Cambridge, 1989), p. 187. Flinders to Banks, 29 October 1801, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 12–13. Entry for 4 November 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 208. Howse, Nevil Maskelyne, p. 187. For a complete list of the scientific instruments supplied by the Board of Longitude, see Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 211–12. Arnold’s No. 82 and No. 176 chronometers had been taken on Vancouver’s expedition in the 1790s (Alun C. Davies, ‘Vancouver’s Chronometers’ in Robin Fisher and Hugh Johnston, eds, From Maps to Metaphors: The Pacific World of George Vancouver (Vancouver, 1993), pp. 73, 75–6). See Gloria Clifton, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550–1851 (London, 1995). Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 41. The instructions are given in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 208–11. Chapters 3 and 4 of Flinders’ ‘Memoir’ in ibid., II, pp. 414–55, provide a detailed explanation of his methods for calculating latitude and longitude. See also Kenneth Morgan, ‘Finding Longitude: The Investigator Expedition, 1801–1803,’ International Journal of Maritime History, 29 (2017). This draws upon Derek Howse, ‘The Lunar-Distance Method of Measuring Longitude’ in William J. H. Andrewes, ed., The Quest for Longitude (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 150–1, 157–8. Charles W. J. Withers, ‘The Longitude Question’, Journal of Historical Geography, 47 (2015), pp. 1–2. Geoffrey Badger, Explorers of Australia (East Roseville, NSW, 2001), p. 82. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 39. John Rourke, ‘Getting There: HMS Investigator at the Cape of Good Hope, Oct. & Nov. 1801’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and His Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 25–30; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 77–9. Rourke, ‘Getting There’, p. 30. R. Brown, ‘On the Proteaceae of Jussieu’, Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 10 (1810), pp. 15–226.

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104 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 42. 105 J. P. Rourke, ‘Robert Brown at the Cape of Good Hope’, Journal of South African Botany, 40 (1974), p. 49. This article has a map of the route followed by Brown at the Cape (see p. 56). 106 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 44. 107 Rourke, ‘Getting There’, p. 27. 108 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 41–3, 45; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 175. 109 Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin to his father, 22 October 1801, MS 248/304, Sir John Franklin Collection. 110 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems (Toronto, 1992), p. 12. 111 Entries for 15 and 16 November 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 222–3. 112 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 46. 113 SLV, Flinders to Willingham Franklin, 27 November 1801, Flinders Papers. 114 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 147; entry for 7 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 234–5. 115 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 147; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 89. 116 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 53–72; George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World…, 3 vols (London, 1798), I, pp. 33–40. 117 Flinders provides a detailed account of the passage to the first anchorage in King George Sound in A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 50–3. 118 Entry for 9 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 240–2. 119 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 53; Valerie Milne, ‘The Albany Perspective’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and His Scientific Gentlemen, p. 177. 120 R. A. Skelton, ‘The Charting of Australia by Flinders’ in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, p. 38.

Chapter 6 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10

K. A. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Commander Matthew Flinders, RN (Adelaide, 1964), p. 79. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 48–9. This never led to any serious French attempt to colonize Western Australia. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 147. La Pérouse had sailed from Port Jackson on 10 March 1788, bound for New Caledonia and eventually Australia’s western and southern coasts, but neither he nor his men were seen again. Ernest Scott, Terre Napoléon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia, 2nd edn (London, 1911), p. 27. Quoted in Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 81. G. S. Ritchie, ‘Matthew Flinders, Hydrographer’, Journal of Navigation, 27 no. 3 (1974), p. 290. Entry for 11 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 244. Entries for 14, 15, 18, 26–28 December 1801, ibid., I, pp. 246–7, 250. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 73.

228

Notes

11 Entry for 9 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 240–2. 12 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 148; Michael Pearson, ‘“Nothing left undone”: The Hydrographic Surveys of Beautemps-Beaupré’ in John Mulvaney and Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, eds, Rediscovering Recherche Bay (Canberra, 2007), pp. 17–34; Olivier Chapuis, A la mer comme au ciel: Beautemps-Beaupré & la naissance de l’hydrographie modern (1700–1850) (Paris, 1999). 13 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, atlas, south coast sheet 1; TNA, ADM 352/537. 14 Entry for 9 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 240–2. 15 Entry for 10 December 1801, ibid., I, pp. 242–3; W. Kaye Lamb, ed., The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791–1795, 4 vols, Hakluyt Society, second series, 165 (London, 1984), I, p. 338. 16 Entry for 11 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 244. 17 Entry for 23 December 1801, ibid., I, pp. 248–9. The lagoons, which are very close to one another, are marked on Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, atlas, south coast, sheet 1. 18 Entries for 10, 12, 18 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 242–5, 247; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 94. 19 Entry for 31 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 251. 20 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 180. 21 Entry for 22 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 248. Flinders’ calculations for his survey of King George Sound are given in full in UKHO, Bearing Book, entry for 21 December 1801, fols 9–10. His survey sheet for King George Sound is deposited at TNA, ADM 352/537. 22 Geoffrey Badger, Explorers of Australia (Roseville, NSW, 2001), p. 84. 23 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 47. 24 Greg Keighery and Neil Gibson, ‘The Flinders Expedition in Western Australia: Robert Brown, the plants and their influence on W.A. botany’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 105–7. The Australian plant genera named by Brown are listed in ibid., pp. 108–9. 25 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 103. 26 Valerie Milne, ‘The Albany Perspective’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, p. 177. 27 Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 35. 28 Ibid., p. 35. 29 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 48. 30 Entries for 14–15 December 1801 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 246–7. Flinders included further commentary on these Aborigines in A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 58–9, 66–7. Brown’s observations on this encounter with the Aborigines are included in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 96–8. For detailed discussion of Flinders’ encounters with Aborigines, see Bronwen Douglas, Science, Voyages and Encounters in Oceania, 1511–1850 (Basingstoke, 2014), pp. 106–60, and Michael Davis, ‘Encountering Aboriginal Knowledge: Explorer Narratives on North-East Queensland, 1770 to 1820’, Aboriginal History, 37 (2013), pp. 29–50. 31 Entry for 23 December 1801 in Morgan, Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 248–9. 32 Entry for 30 December 1801, ibid., I, pp. 250–1. 33 Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 35.For another report of this encounter, see Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 52. 34 Paul Carter, Living in a New Country; History, Travelling and Language (London, 1992), pp. 161–2; Isobel White, ‘Birth and Death of a Ceremony’, Aboriginal History, 4 no. 1 (1980), pp. 33–42.

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35 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 105. Only one sketch of a King George Sound native is reproduced in Perry and Simpson, Drawings by William Westall, no. 12. 36 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 105; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 52. 37 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 83. 38 Entry for 5 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 252–8; Lamb, ed., The Voyage of George Vancouver, I, pp. 354–5. 39 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 52; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 67; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 105. 40 Entry for 5 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 252–8. 41 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 66–7. 42 Entry for 5 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 252–8. 43 Ibid. 44 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 62. 45 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 85; Edward Duyker and Maryse Duyker, eds, Bruny d’Entrecasteaux, Voyage to Australia & the Pacific, 1791–1793 (Melbourne, 2001), pp. 129–32. 46 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 110. 47 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 79. 48 Entry for 9 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 262–5. 49 Entries for 6 and 9 January 1802, ibid., I, pp. 259–60, 262–5. 50 TNA, ADM 352/537. 51 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 185. 52 Entries for 10–11 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 265–7; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 112. 53 Entries for 15–16 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 272–4; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 116–17. 54 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 109–18. 55 Entry for 18 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 276. 56 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 91. 57 Pearson, ‘Nothing left undone’, p. 22; TNA, ADM 352/538 and ADM 352/535. 58 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 118. 59 Ibid. 60 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 85. 61 Entry for 29 January 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 285–7. 62 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 57. 63 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 104–6. 64 Günter Schilder, ‘From Secret to Common Knowledge – the Dutch Discoveries’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost, eds, Studies from Terra Australis to Australia (Canberra, 1989), p. 78. 65 Entry for 3 February 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 291–3. 66 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 89; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 123. 67 ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 5 February 1802. 68 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 126; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 111. 69 Entry for 6 February 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 296–7. 70 Entry for 7 February 1802, ibid., I, pp. 297–9.

230 71

Notes

Flinders used this phrase (or ‘furthest extreme’) frequently in his journals: e.g. entries for 8 March, 24 July, 6 and 13 November, 13 and 29 December 1802, 2 February 1803, ibid., I, p. 327, II, pp. 13, 154, 164, 202, 224, 263. 72 Entry for 7 February 1802, ibid., I, pp. 297–9. 73 Entry for 9 February 1802, ibid., I, p. 300. 74 Anthony Brown and Christine Cornell, ‘Legacy of the Encounter: British and French Place Names on the South Australian Coast’, South Australian Geographical Journal, 99 (2000), pp. 10–15. 75 Robert Tiley, Australian Navigators: Picking up Shells and Catching Butterflies in an Age of Revolution (East Roseville, NSW, 2002), p. 147. 76 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 91. 77 Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 36. 78 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 130–3. 79 Entry for 13 February 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 305–6. 80 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, atlas, south coast, sheet 3. 81 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 136. 82 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 93. 83 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 138–40. 84 Badger, Explorers of Australia, p. 86. 85 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 61. 86 Ibid., pp. 60–2. 87 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 140–1; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 133–6; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, pp. 60–2. 88 The damaged copper plaque is now on display at the South Australian Maritime Museum, Port Adelaide. 89 Entry for 24 February 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 317–19. 90 NMM, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 31 May 1802, Flinders Papers, FLI/25. 91 Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin, ‘Some Observations on Capt. Flinders’ Voyage’, 13 December 1840, Sir John Franklin Collection, MS248/293. 92 Entry for 21 February 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 313–15. 93 Robert Fowler to John Vardon, 2 May 1832, in South Australia. Outline of the Plan of a Proposed Colony to be Founded on the South Coast of Australia; with an Account of the Soil, Climate, Rivers &c. (London, 1834), pp. 44–5. 94 Scott, Terre Napoléon, p. 226. 95 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 142. 96 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 145–6; Badger, Explorers of Australia, p. 87. 97 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 145–50; http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov /SENL/SENL200403.pdf. Further details of this solar eclipse are presented in CUL, RGO 14/68, Board of Longitude Papers, f. 81r. 98 Entry for 4 March 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 323–5. 99 R. M. Barker, ‘The botanical legacy of 1802: South Australian Plants Collected by Robert Brown and Peter Good on Matthew Flinders’ Investigator and by the French Scientists on Baudin’s Géographe and Naturaliste’, Journal of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, 21 (2007), p. 10. 100 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 151–4. 101 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 99.

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102 Paul Carter, The Road to Botany Bay: An Exploration of Landscape and History (New York, 1988), pp. 180, 184–5. 103 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 152. 104 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 194. 105 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 152. 106 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 65. 107 TNA, ADM 352/527. 108 R. Grandison, ‘Retracing the Route Taken by Robert Brown and Company in a Portion of the Flinders Ranges’ in P. S. Short, ed., History of Systematic Botany in Australasia. Proceedings of a symposium held at the University of Melbourne, 25–27 May 1988 (Melbourne, 1990), pp. 105–7; R. Grandison, ‘The Overland Route and Collecting Localities of the Robert Brown Party to Mt Brown 10th and 11th March 1802’, South Australian Geographical Journal, 99 (2000), pp. 23–35; Barker, ‘The Botanical Legacy of 1802’, p. 10; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 157–60. 109 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 66. 110 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 156. 111 Ibid., pp. 163–5. 112 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 171. 113 Entry for 24 March 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 346. 114 South Australia. Outline of the Plan of a Proposed Colony, p. 64. 115 Entries for 22 and 23 March 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 343–5. 116 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 69. 117 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 168–9. 118 T. M. Perry, ‘Seasons for Exploration: The Second Daniel Brock Memorial Lecture, 1975’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, 76 (1975), p. 55. 119 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 169–71; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 8. 120 Entry for 30 March 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 350–2; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 177–80. 121 Entries for 2 and 5 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 353–9; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 173; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 174–5. 122 Entry for 7 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 359–60. 123 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 72. 124 South Australia. Outline of the Plan of a Proposed Colony, p. 69.

Chapter 7 1

2 3

Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 195. Encounter Bay is situated off the coast of the present-day town of Victor Harbor. The position of the meeting was 35°40ʹS, 138°58ʹE. Margaret Steven, Trade, Tactics and Territory: Britain in the Pacific, 1783–1823 (Melbourne, 1983), pp. 64–105. Nicole Starbuck, ‘Sir Joseph Banks and the Baudin Expedition: Exploring the Politics

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7

8

9 10

11 12

13 14 15 16 17

Notes of the Republic of Letters’, French History and Civilization, Papers from the George Rudé seminar, 3 (2009), pp. 59–60. For helpful material on Flinders and Baudin at Encounter Bay, see www.slsa.gov.au /encounter/baudin/maps.htm. The most recent reappraisal of Baudin’s expedition is Nicole Starbuck, Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia (London, 2013). Baudin’s charting of the western coasts of Victoria and the South Australian coast as far as Encounter Bay is discussed in Trevor Lipscombe, ‘Two Continents or One? The Baudin Expedition’s Unacknowledged Achievements on the Coast of Victoria’, Victorian Historical Journal, 78 no. 1 (May 2007), pp. 23–41. Jean Fornasiero, Peter Monteath and John West-Sooby, Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders (Adelaide, 2004), p. 154. For details of the meeting between the English and French vessels, see ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 8 and 9 April 1802; entries for 8 and 9 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 360–5; Archives nationales de France, série Marine, 5JJ57, Journal de Joseph Brüe (available as part of ‘The Baudin Legacy Project’, http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/written_records/journals.shtml); Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 188–90; Christine Cornell, ed., Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin (Adelaide, 1974), pp. 379–80 (quotation on p. 380). James D. Mack, Matthew Flinders, 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), p. 107. Various discrepancies in contemporary accounts of the encounter between Flinders and Baudin are discussed in Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘A Cordial Encounter? The Meeting of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin (8–9 April 1802)’, French History and Civilization, Papers from the George Rudé seminar, 1 (2005), pp. 53–61. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 190. Brown, however, noted ‘the extreme badness’ of Baudin’s English (Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 178). Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 200. Entry for 9 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 362–5. There was extensive British monitoring of Baudin’s voyage: see John West-Sooby, ‘Une expédition sous haute surveillance: Le voyage aux Terres australes vu par les Anglais’ in Michel Jangoux, ed., Porté Par L’Air du Temps Les Voyages du Capitaine Baudin (Brussels, 2010), pp. 187–201. Cornell, ed., Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin, p. 379. David Mackay, ‘In the Shadow of Cook: The Ambition of Matthew Flinders’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost, eds, European Voyaging towards Australia, Australian Academy of the Humanities, occasional paper 9 (Canberra, 1990), pp. 103–4, and David Mackay, In the Wake of Cook: Exploration, Science and Empire, 1780–1801 (London, 1985), p. 4; Alan Frost, The Global Reach of Empire: Britain’s Maritime Expansion in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 1764–1815 (Melbourne, 2003), p. 237. Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 40. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 73. Ibid.; ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 9 April 1802 (quotation). Entry for 9 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 362–5. Most of these details are in ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 8 and 9 April 1802, but some are based on the testimony of Robert Brown and Hyacynthe de Bougainville (a midshipman on the Géographe) in B. S. Baldwin, ‘Flinders and the French’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian branch), 65 (1963–4), p. 54, and Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds,

Notes

18 19 20 21 22

23 24

25

26

27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34

233

Nature’s Investigator, pp. 179, 189 n.4. Bougainville was not present at the meetings. His account of the meeting appeared in his journal (available at ‘The Baudin Project’ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/project/). See also Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 202–3. Ernest Scott considered it unlikely that Baudin did not know he was speaking to Flinders until near the end of their second meeting, but this cannot be established for certain (Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 164). Entry for 9 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 365. Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, pp. 77–8; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 189 (quotation). Information kindly supplied by Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, who will be publishing a paper exploring Péron’s views of Flinders. Fornasiero, Monteath and West-Sooby, Encountering Terra Australis, p. 167. Phyllis Mander-Jones, ‘The Artists who sailed with Baudin and Flinders’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian branch), 66 (1964–5), p. 20. R. W. Giblin, ‘Flinders, Baudin, and Brown at Encounter Bay’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania (1929), p. 1. Jean Fornasiero, Peter Monteath and John West-Sooby, ‘Old Quarrels and New Approaches: Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders’, South Australian Geographical Journal, 106 (2007), p. 7. Popular books that depict the Flinders and Baudin voyages as a race include Klaus Toft, Navigators: Flinders vs. Baudin: The Race between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin to Discover the Fabled Passage Through the Middle of Australia (Sydney, 2002) and David Hill, The Great Race: The Race between the English and French to complete the Map of Australia (Sydney, 2012). See also John West-Sooby and Jean Fornasiero, ‘Matthew Flinders through French eyes: Nicolas Baudin’s lessons from Encounter Bay,’ Journal of Pacific History, 52 (2017), pp. 1–14. Flinders to Banks, 20 May 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 755–7. Respective claims from the Flinders and Baudin expeditions over which nation discovered the South Australian coast between Nuyts’ archipelago and Western Port were later a matter of controversy: see Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 191–3, and François Péron, Voyage de Découverte aux Terres Australes, exécuté par ordre de sa Majesté, l’Empereur et Roi, sur les corvettes le Géographe. le Naturaliste et la goëlette le Casuarina, pendant les années 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 3 vols and atlas (Paris, 1807–17), I, pp. 324–5, 327. Cornell, ed., Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin, pp. 379–401; Sarah Thomas, ed., The Encounter, 1802: Art of the Flinders and Baudin Voyages (Adelaide, 2002), p. 215; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 123–9. Cornell, ed., Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin, pp. 393, 401; Fornasiero, Monteath and West-Sooby, Encountering Terra Australis, pp. 176, 185–9. Sidney J. Baker, My Own Destroyer – A Biography of Matthew Flinders (Sydney, 1962), p. 49. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 202. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. lxxiii, 8. T. M. Perry, ‘Seasons for Exploration: The Second Daniel Brock Memorial Lecture, 1975’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian branch), 76 (1975), pp. 52, 54; Frank Horner, The French Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801–1803 (Melbourne, 1987), p. 222. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 201. Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, 14–20 April 1802, pp. 368–73. Flinders to the Admiralty, 11 May 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 749.

234 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

50 51

52 53

54

55 56 57 58 59

60

Notes ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 21 April 1802. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 208. Baker, My Own Destroyer, p. 47. The hydrographical results of the Baudin expedition are assessed in Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 149, 153–4, 274, 278, 280, 283, 286, 294–8. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 204, 219. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 74. Entry for 21 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 374–6. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 205; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 169. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 23, 24 April 1802. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 205. Scott, The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders, p. 169. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 74. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 24 April 1802; entry for 24 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 377–9. Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 74. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, 25 and 26 April 1802 (quotation). For a similar comment by Brown, see Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 189. Flinders to Banks, 20 May 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 755. In 1807, Péron wrongly claimed that the explorers on the Géographe saw and noted Port Phillip and its entrance. Baudin never made any such claim. Giblin, ‘Flinders, Baudin, and Brown at Encounter Bay’, p. 5. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 212. K. A. Austin, Matthew Flinders: On the Victorian Coast, April-May 1802: Select Documents (Melbourne, 1974), p. 34; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis Atlas, plate VI. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, 27 April 1802; entry for 27 April 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 382–5; Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 157. For detailed consideration of Flinders’ week-long stay at this location, see Thomas Walker Fowler, ‘The Work of Captain Matthew Flinders in Port Phillip’, Victorian Geographical Journal, 29 (1912), pp. 20–32. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 77; Austin, Matthew Flinders: On the Victorian Coast, p. 40; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 172–3. In January 1839, the hydrographer John Lort Stokes climbed Station Peak and found the pile of stones, but the message was no longer there. Trevor J. Lipscombe, On Austral Shores: A Modern Traveller’s Guide to the European Exploration of the Coasts of Victoria and New South Wales (Sydney, 2005), p. 101. Entry for 2 May 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 386–91. Mack, Matthew Flinders, p. 111. J. H. Willis, ‘Robert Brown’s Collectings in Victoria’, Muelleria: An Australian Journal of Botany, 1 no. 1 (August 1955), pp. 51–4. Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 77. John Currey, Matthew Flinders R.N. The Investigator in Port Phillip, April–May 1802 (Malvern, VIC, 2002); Austin, Matthew Flinders, on the Victorian Coast; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 213–14. See Shino Konishi, ‘Depicting Sexuality: A Case Study of the Baudin Expedition’s Aboriginal Ethnography’, and Margaret Sankey, ‘The Aborigines of Port Jackson, as seen by the Baudin Expedition’, Australian Journal of French Studies, XLI no. 2 (May– August 2004), pp. 98–125.

Notes 61 62 63 64 65 66

67 68

69

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85

235

Entry for 2 May 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 386–91. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 159. Entries for 3–9 May 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 392–7. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. 226–7. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, pp. 78–9. Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, eds, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales: François Péron’s Memoir on the English Settlements in New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land and the Archipelagos of the Great Pacific Ocean (Adelaide, 2014), pp. 61–7; Michel Jangoux, ‘La Première relâche du Naturaliste au Port Jackson (26 avril-18 mai 1802): le témoignage du capitaine Hamelin’, Australian Journal of French Studies, XLI no. 2 (2004), pp. 126–51. Margaret Steven, First Impressions: The British Discovery of Australia (London, 1988), pp. 70–1. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 120. See also James Grant, The Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery Performed in His Majesty’s Vessel, the Lady Nelson, of Sixty Tons Burthen, with Sliding Keels, in the Years 1800, 1801, and 1802, to New South Wales (London, 1804); ‘Remarks etc. on board His Majesty’s armed surveying vessel Lady Nelson, on a voyage to explore Basses Straits, 1801’, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 477–88; and Chart of Western Port and Coast to Wilson’s Promontory Forming Part of the North Side of Bass’s Strait, Surveyed by Order of Governor King by Ensign Barrallier in HM Armed Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson Lieut. James Grant, Commander in March-April & May 1801 (London, 1804). ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 10 May 1802. For an argument that Baudin should be credited with discovery of this part of the Victorian coast, see Lipscombe, ‘Two Continents or One?’, pp. 32–33, 36–7. Governor King to Banks, 5 June 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 782–3. Flinders to Banks, 20 May 1802, ibid., IV, p. 755. Governor King to Banks, 5 June 1802, ibid., IV, p. 783. ML, Flinders to Osborne Standert, 5 May 1802, and to the Hon. C. F. Greville, 19 May 1802, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). Flinders to Banks, 20 May 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 756. ML, Flinders to Dr Maskelyne, F.R.S., 25 May 1802, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). SLV, Flinders to Mrs Flinders, 31 May 1802, Flinders Papers. Governor King to the Duke of Portland, 21 May 1802, and to Banks, 5 June 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 764, 785. Russel Ward, Finding Australia: The History of Australia to 1821 (Richmond, VIC, 1987), p. 270. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 22 July 1802. Entry for 13 May 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, pp. 401–6. Geoffrey Badger, Explorers of Australia (East Roseville, NSW, 2001), pp. 89–90. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 14 May–18 July 1802. Entry for 16 July 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 416. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, pp. 80–1. Rae Else-Mitchell, ‘George Caley: His Life and Work’, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 25 part 6 (1939), pp. 437–542; D. T. Moore and E. W. Groves, ‘A Catalogue of Plants Written by Robert Brown (1773–1858) in New South Wales: First Impressions of the Flora of the Sydney Region’, Archives of Natural History, 24 no. 2 (1997), p. 283.

236 86 87 88

89 90 91

92 93

94 95 96 97

98 99 100

101 102 103

104 105 106 107

Notes Flinders to Secretary Nepean, 15 May 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 754. Entry for 6 June 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 410; Flinders to William Bowles, 2 July 1802, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 83. Anthony J. Brown, Ill-Starred Captains: Flinders & Baudin (Adelaide, 2000), pp. 478–9; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 177. For Baudin’s stay in Sydney see Margaret Sankey, ‘The Baudin Expedition in Port Jackson, 1802: Cultural Encounters and Enlightenment Politics’, Explorations, 31 (December 2001), pp. 5–36; Nicole Starbuck, ‘Nicolas Baudin: La relâche à Sydney et la deuxième campagne du Géographe’ in Jangoux, ed., Portés Par L’Air du Temps Les Voyages du Capitaine Baudin, pp. 133–42; Fornasiero and West-Sooby, eds, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales, pp. 58–86; and Starbuck, Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia, pp. 25–43. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 193. Frost, The Global Reach of Empire, p. 240. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 178; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 220; Huguette Ly-Tio-Fane Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle: Matthew Flinders at Ile de France, 1803–1810 (Moka, Mauritius, 1988), p. 29. Fornasiero and West-Sooby, eds, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales, pp. 76–7. John West-Sooby, ‘A Case of Peripheral Vision: Early Spanish and French Perceptions of the British Colony at Port Jackson’ in John West-Sooby, ed., Discovery and Empire: The French in the South Seas (Adelaide, 2013), p. 149. Governor King to Banks, 5 June 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, p. 786. Starbuck, Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia, p. 68. Brown to Banks, 30 May 1802, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 70–1. Baldwin, ‘Flinders and the French’, p. 55; David Mackay, ‘The Great Era of Pacific Exploration’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost, eds, Studies from Terra Australis to Australia, Australian Academy of the Humanities, occasional paper 6 (Canberra, 1989), p. 117. Starbuck, Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia, pp. 68–9. Robert T. Sexton, ‘Flinders’ Place in the Coastal Exploration of Australia’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, p. 46. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, I, 9 May 1802. When in 1807 Péron published the first volume of his account of the Baudin expedition, he claimed for France the south Australian coastline from Nuyts archipelago to Western Port and named it Terre Napoléon (Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes, I, p. 325). Flinders referred to this false claim in A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 191. Horner, The French Reconaissance, p. 248. Peter Hambly, ed., Pierre Bernard Milius, Last Commander of the Baudin Expedition: The Journal 1800–1804 (Canberra, 2013), p. 168. ML, Investigator Rough Journal, 22 July 1802; entry for 21 July 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 3–10; Flinders to Banks, 20 May 1802, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 81. Hambly, ed., Pierre Bernard Milius, p. 166. Steven, Trade, Tactics and Territory, p. 134; Banks to Philip Gidley King, 8 April 1803, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, p. 835. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 214. An English translation of Péron’s detailed report on Port Jackson is included in

Notes

237

Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 315–37, and, with some corrections, in Fornasiero and West Sooby, eds, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales, pp. 288–318. 108 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 179, 181–9.

Chapter 8 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9

10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Entry for 21 July 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 3–10. J. E. B. Currey, ed., George Caley, Reflections on the Colony of New South Wales (Melbourne, 1966), pp. 71, 73. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 191. J. C. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook (Stanford, CA, 1974), pp. 226–56; Andrew C. F. David, ‘Cook and the Cartography of Australia’, The Globe, 22 (1984), pp. 47–59. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 239. James Bowen and Margarita Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge, 2002), p. 63. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 227. Entries for 27 and 29 July 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 17–21. Entry for 31 July 1802, ibid., II, pp. 22–4; Ida Lee, The Logbooks of the ‘Lady Nelson’ with the Journal of Her First Commander, Lieutenant James Grant, R.N. (London, 1915), p. 165. See the following charts at UKHO: ‘Sketch of Port No 1 and Keppel Bay on the Northeastern Coast of New South Wales by John Murray, Commanders of HM Armed Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson 1802’ (chart y56 shelf Xp); ‘Route of HM Armed Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson along the east coast of New Holland in Company with HM Ship Investigator 1802 by Acting Lt. John Murray’ (chart y45/3 shelf Xd); ‘Continuation of the Route of HM Armed Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson in Company with HM Ship Investigator 1802 by Acting Lt John Murray’ (chart y45/2 shelf Xd); ‘Route of HM Survey Vessel Lady Nelson continued to Port No 2 in 1802 by Acting Lt John Murray’ (chart y45/1 shelf Xd); ‘Route of HM Vessel Lady Nelson by Acting Lt. John Murray in Company with HM Sloop Investigator on Discovery in 1802’ (chart y61). Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 230–6; Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 82. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 83. Entry for 31 July 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 22–4; Lee, The Logbooks of the ‘Lady Nelson’, p. 165. Entry for 2 August 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 25–7. K. A. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Captain Matthew Flinders, RN (Adelaide, 1964), p. 150. Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, pp. 83–4. Entry for 5 August 1802 in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 238. Ibid., pp. 239–40, 242. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 15–17. Ibid., II, pp. 21–3.

238

Notes

21 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 151. 22 Entry for 10 August 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 36–8. 23 Entry for 15 August 1802, ibid., II, pp. 45–6; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, pp. 85–6; entry for 16 August 1802 in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 248. 24 Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, pp. 62–5. 25 Entry for 16 August 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 46–8. 26 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, atlas, plate XVIII, views 6 and 7. 27 Entry for 21 August 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 53–4. 28 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 253. 29 Entry for 23 August 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 56–7. 30 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 40–1. 31 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 255; Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, nos. 74, 75 and 76. 32 Beaglehole, ed., Journals of Captain James Cook, I, p. 331. 33 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 54–5. 34 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 153. 35 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 47. 36 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 89. 37 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 263, 265. 38 UKHO, [Flinders] to Philip Gidley King, 18 October 1802, Miscellaneous Letters and Papers, box 6. 39 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 49. 40 In 1826 Irish sea captain Peter Dillon, sailing in the Santa Cruz Islands, discovered anchors and other wreckage belonging to one of La Pérouse’s ships at Vanikoro Island, but it was not until 1964 that the wreck of the other ship was found. The vessels had been wrecked on coral reefs: see J. W Davidson and O. H. K. Spate, Peter Dillon of Vanikoro: Chevalier of the South Seas (Oxford, 1975). 41 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 57; entry for 7 September 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 76–8. 42 Entry for 9 September 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 79–80; Beaglehole, ed., Journals of Captain James Cook, I, p. 328. 43 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 265, 267. 44 Ibid., pp. 270–1; entry for 14 September 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 85. 45 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 274–6; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 69–70. 46 Entry for 17 September 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 86–8; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 67. 47 Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 64. 48 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. v, vii. 49 Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 64. 50 Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 421–56. 51 TNA, ADM 352/492. 52 Andrew D. Short and Colin D. Woodroffe, The Coast of Australia (Cambridge, 2009), p. 43. 53 Entry for 26 September 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 93–7. 54 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 276–8. 55 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 68.

Notes 56 57 58 59 60 61

62

63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79

80 81 82 83 84 85 86

239

Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 278–83. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 95. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 83. TNA, ADM 352/487. J. E. N. Veron, A Reef in Time: The Great Barrier Reef from Beginning to End (London, 2008), p. 27; Short and Woodroffe, The Coast of Australia, p. 213. For modern maps and the track of Cook’s voyage up the east coast of Australia, see John Robson, Captain Cook’s World: Maps of the Life and Voyages of James Cook R.N. (London, 2000), maps 1.22–1.32. For a description of Flinders’ passage through the Great Barrier Reef, see Iain McCalman, The Reef: A Passionate History from Captain Cook to Climate Change (Melbourne, 2013), pp. 39–63. H. E. Maude, ‘Campbell, William Douglas (1770–1827)’ in Douglas Pike, ed., ADB, I, pp. 208–9. Flinders included data from Campbell’s passage through the reefs in 1797, based on Campbell’s logbook, in East Coast sheet IV of his charts of Terra Australis: see TNA, ADM 352/486 and ADM 352/489. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 232–3, 493. Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 59. Entry for 5 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 105–6. John C. H. Foley, ‘Through the Barrier – The Hydrographers Passage Story’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, XIII no. 5 (1988), p. 173. Entry for 6 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 106–8. G. S. Ritchie, ‘Matthew Flinders, Hydrographer’, The Journal of Navigation, 27 no. 3 (1974), p. 292. Entries for 8 and 10 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 110–15. Entry for 10 October 1802, ibid., II, pp. 112–15. Ibid. UKHO, [Flinders] to Philip Gidley King, 18 October 1802, Miscellaneous Letters and Papers, box 6. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 91. Entry for 16 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 121–3. TNA, ADM 352/487. Entry for 18 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 124–7; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 96. Lee, The Logbooks of the ‘Lady Nelson’, p. 200. TNA, ADM 52/4170, Logbook of the Lady Nelson, entry for 18 October 1802. Flinders’ and Murray’s accounts differ about which crew members were transferred: see ibid., p. 201 and entry for 18 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 124. Brown to Banks, 17 October 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 855–6; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 287–8. Flinders to King, 18 October 1802, in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 125–7. Ibid., II, p. 127 n. 3. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 238. See the track of the vessel in Robson, Captain Cook’s World, map 1.29. TNA, ADM 352/486. Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 64.

240 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97

98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105

106 107

108 109

Notes Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 102. Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 96. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 289; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 99–100. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 193; Foley, ‘Through the Barrier’, p. 175 (quotation). Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 65; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 102. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 105–6. Cook’s and Flinders’ tracks in this vicinity are marked on Flinders’ survey sheet in TNA, ADM 352/485. Entry for 30 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 140–3. Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, pp. 97–8; TNA, ADM 352/481. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, pp. xxv, xxxiv–xxxix. Entries for 29 and 30 October 1802 (quotation) in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 291–2; entry for 30 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 140–3. The canoes are depicted in a plate in Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 110. Plates 90, 91 and 92 in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 109–10. Brown, entry for 30 October 1802 in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 292–5. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 112. Ibid., I, pp. xix–xlv; entry for 28 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 137–9. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. xlvi. Stuart B. Kaye, The Torres Strait (The Hague, 1997), pp. 1, 4–5; Ross Babbage, The Strategic Significance of Torres Strait (Canberra, 1990), p. 57. Flinders, ed., A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 214; entry for 31 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 143–5. Flinders’ large-scale survey sheet of his route through Torres Strait is found at TNA, ADM 352/482. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 121. Bligh’s chart is ‘A Survey of the Straits between New Holland and New Guinea’, 1792. This is available in manuscript at TNA, MPI 1/96, extracted from Bligh’s log in the Providence at TNA, ADM 55/153. On 21 January 1798 Dalrymple published a Chart of the Passage of the Ship Hurmazier Capt. Bampton Thro’ Torres Strait 1793 Communicated by Philip Dundas esq. Superintendant [sic] at Bombay (http:// acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/ItemViewer.aspx?itemid=1070973&suppress=N&imgin dex=18). At the bottom left-hand corner of the chart is a box containing a smaller chart of the track of the Hurmazier though Torres Strait communicated by Governor Philip Gidley King. On 17 April 1799 Dalrymple published a Chart of the Ship Shaw Hurmazeer’s Track Thro’ the Strait between New Guinea and New Holland by W. Bampton 1793. Communicated by James Tate Esq. of Bombay Thro’ the Good Offices of David Scott Esq. For further details about these charts, see Andrew Cook, ‘Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808), Hydrographer to the East India Company and to the Admiralty as Publisher: A Catalogue of Books and Charts’, 3 vols (University of St Andrews PhD, 1993), III, pp. 1612, 1648. Entry for 8 April 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 331–47. Entries for 1–3 November 1802, ibid., II, pp. 145–50.

Notes

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110 Andrew C. F. David, ‘The Surveyors of the Bounty: A Preliminary Study of the Hydrographic Surveys of William Bligh, Thomas Hayward and Peter Heywood and the Charts Published from Them’, unpublished typescript, Royal Navy Hydrographic Department, Ministry of Defence Archives, Taunton, 1982, p. 22. 111 Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 479. 112 David, ‘Cook and the Cartography of Australia’, pp. 49–50. 113 Entry for 31 October 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 143–5. 114 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 123. Flinders’ voyaging through Torres Strait is discussed further in Kenneth Morgan, ‘From Cook to Flinders: The Navigation of Torres Strait’, International Journal of Maritime History, 27 no. 1 (2015), pp. 54–8. 115 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, pp. 156–7.

Chapter 9 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14

15

Nick Burningham, ‘Duyfken: Charting a Sea of Misconceptions’ (http://www .maritimeheritage.org.au/documents/duyfken_misconceptions.pdf ); Rupert Gerritsen, The Duyfken: Unveiling of the First Contact Memorial (Canberra, 2013). Andrew Sharp, The Discovery of Australia (Oxford, 1963), p. 52; Ken Austin, ‘Flinders on the Northern Coast’, Northern Perspective, 2 no. 1 (1978), p. 3. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 246. TNA, ADM 352/548. Rupert Gerritsen, ‘Getting the Straight Facts Straight’, The Globe, 72 (2013), pp. 12–13. Greg Wood, ‘Successive States: Aaron Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean, 1798–1832’, The Globe, 70 (2012), p. 11. Robert Tiley, Australian Navigators: Picking up Shells and Catching Butterflies in an Age of Revolution (East Roseville, NSW, 2002), p. 147. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. xlvi. Flinders defined shoal water as being less than 3 fathoms. Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 409. Ibid., II, p. 483. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 207. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 247. The Dutch charts are discussed in Robert Logan Jack, Northmost Australia: Three Centuries of Exploration, Discovery, and Adventure in and around the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, 2 vols (London, 1921), I, pp. 133–4. The Thévenot map is reproduced as an inset to Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, atlas, plate XIV, north coast, sheet II. See also ‘South Land to New Holland: Dutch Charting of Australia 1606–1756’ (http://pandora .nla.gov.au/pan/60542/20060914-0000/www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/southland /intro.html). Margaret Cameron Ash, ‘French Mischief: A Foxy Map of New Holland’, The Globe, 68 (2011), p. 1. T. M. Perry, ‘Seasons for Exploration. The Second Daniel Brock Memorial Lecture, 1975’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society Australasia, South Australian Branch, 76 (1975), pp. 52–3, 55. Carsten Berg Høgenhoff, Sweers Islands Unveiled: Details from Abel Tasman and Matthew Flinders’ Explorations of Australia (Oslo, 2006), p. 25.

242

Notes

16 Entries for 5–7 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 152–8; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 127. 17 Perry, ‘Seasons for Exploration’, p. 55. The Coen River is now called the Pennefather River. This is where the Duyfken made the first known Australian landfall by a European ship, in 1606. 18 Brown, 7 November 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 302. 19 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 127. 20 See the list in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 304–7. 21 Ibid., p. 303. 22 Entry for 7 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 157–8. 23 Entry for 9 November 1802, ibid., II, p. 160; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 308. 24 Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 208. 25 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 129. 26 Entry for 11 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 161–3. 27 ML, Investigator Rough Journal, II, 15 November 1802. 28 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 131–2. 29 Entry for 14 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 165–6. 30 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 133–5. 31 TNA, ADM 352/548. 32 Entry for 16 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 167–8. 33 Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 210. 34 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 101. 35 Brown, 17 November 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 310–11; T. G. Vallance and D. T. Moore, ‘Geological Aspects of the Voyage of HMS Investigator in Australian waters’, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), 10 (1982), pp. 19–20. 36 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 139–40, 146. 37 Entry for 18 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 172. 38 Entries for 19 and 20 November 1802, ibid., II, pp. 173–6. Flinders described his encounter with these people in detail in A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 137–9. 39 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 102. 40 Brown, 20 November 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 313. 41 Entry for 20 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 174–6. 42 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 138. 43 Ibid., II, p. 146. 44 Ibid., II, pp. 139–40. 45 Entry for 22 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 178–9. 46 Brown, 22–28 November 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 314. 47 Smith, 20 November 1802, in Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 53. 48 Entry for 24 November 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 179–80. 49 Entry for 25 November 1802, ibid., II, pp. 180–1. 50 Entry for 26 November 1802, ibid., II, pp. 181–4. 51 Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 210. 52 K. A. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Commander Matthew Flinders, RN (Adelaide, 1964), p. 163; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 253.

Notes

243

53 Brown, 22–28 November 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 315; Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 103. 54 A member of the crew carved his name on a tree trunk before the Investigator left Sweers Island. Later visitors to the same location followed suit, and by 1887, when the tree came down in a cyclone, there were thirteen inscriptions on the trunk. In 1841 John Lort Stokes saw the tree, with its inscriptions, when he stopped at Sweers Island during a voyage of the Beagle. The remains of the tree are now in the Queensland Museum. Stokes named the first river he discovered in the Gulf after Flinders. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 164; P. Saenger and B. J. Stubbs, ‘The Investigator Tree, Sweers Island; A Natural Historic Monument’, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Queensland, 104 (1994), pp. 67–78; Marsden Hordern, Mariners are Warned! John Lort Stokes and H.M. S. Beagle in Australia 1837–1843 (Melbourne, 1989), pp. 258–9. 55 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 144; Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 211. 56 Entry for 1 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 188–9. 57 Austin, ‘Flinders on the Northern Coast’, p. 7. 58 Brown, 3, 4 and 6 December 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 317, 319, 320; entries for 4 and 5 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 191–4. 59 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 104. 60 Brown, 10 December 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 322; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 160. There is still uncertainty about the exact location of Australian rivers named by the Dutch: see Høgenhoff, Sweers Islands, pp. 24–7. 61 Entry for 11 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 200–1; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 323. 62 Entry for 8 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 197–8. 63 Brown, 1–2 December 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 316. 64 Flinders named them after the admiral who helped him gain his release from the Ile de France in 1810. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 213. 65 Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator, p. 166. 66 Rupert Gerritsen, ‘Matthew Flinders, Intrepid Navigator’ in Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra, 2013), p. 220. 67 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 163–4. 68 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 326–31. 69 Entry for 17 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 207–9. 70 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 106. 71 Entry for 19 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 210–12. 72 Brown, 23 December 1802, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 331. 73 Entries for 25 December 1802 and 17 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 216–20, 285–6. See also C. C. Macknight, The Voyage to Marege’: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia (Melbourne, 1976), p. 52. 74 Entry for 26 December 1802 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 220–1. 75 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 108. 76 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 178–9; Brown, 1 January 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 336; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 108.

244 77 78 79 80 81 82

83

84 85 86

87 88 89 90 91 92

93 94 95 96

97 98 99 100 101 102 103

Notes Entries for 4 and 5 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 229–32. Entry for 8 January 1803, ibid., II, p. 235; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 185. Entry for 10 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 236–7. Austin, ‘Flinders on the Northern Coast’, p. 7. Entries for 14 and 16 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 240–1, 243–4; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 189. Nos. 100 and 101 in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall; Elizabeth Findlay, Arcadian Quest: William Westall’s Australian Sketches (Canberra, 1998), pp. 14–15, 39. See also Anne Clarke and Ursula Frederick, ‘The Mark of Marvellous Ideas: Groote Eylandt Rock Art and the Performance of Cross-Cultural Relations’ in Peter Veth, Peter Sutton and Margo Neale, eds, Strangers on the Shore: Early Coastal Contacts in Australia (Canberra, 2008), pp. 155–7. See F. D. McCarthy, ‘The Cave Paintings of Groote Eylandt and Chasm Island’ in C. P. Mountford, ed., Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (Melbourne, 1960), pp. 297–414. Entry for 16 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 243–4. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 340–4. Brown, 21 January 1803, ibid., pp. 345–8; entry for 21 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 250–3. For another description of these encounters, see Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, pp. 111–12. Entry for 22 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 253–4; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 112. Entry for 22 January 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 253–4; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 197–200. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 352. Brown, 3 February 1803, ibid., pp. 352–3; entry for 3 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 264–5. Entry for 5 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 267. The list is included in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 356–8. Flinders includes an abbreviated version of this list, sometimes with different spellings, in A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 215. Entry for 5 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 267. Frances Morphy, Djapu, a Yolngu Dialect, vol. 3 of R.M.W. Dixon and B. J. Blake, eds, Handbook of Australian Languages (Canberra, 1983). Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 115. Ibid., p. 116; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 209–10. Westall sketched an Aborigine called ‘Woogah’, who was presumably the same person: see nos. 105 and 106 in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall. Entry for 9 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 271–5. Brown, 10 and 11 February 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 363; Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, pp. 116–17. TNA, ADM 352/550. ‘The Baudin Legacy’, timeline, (http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/voyage /timeline.shtml). Brown, 17 February 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 368. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 229. D. J. Mulvaney, The Prehistory of Australia (London, 1969), p. 17.

Notes

245

104 Ibid., p. 19; UKHO, OD 76, Matthew Flinders, ‘Information collected from the Malay Praos met with on February 17 1803 near Cape Arnhem, Australia south and east coasts, and Torres Strait, thence to Timor.’ 105 Brown, 18 February 1803 in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 371. Makasars were known for their use of ippo poison (from the Upas tree) on bamboo arrows. 106 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 265. 107 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 118. 108 Entry for 18 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 286–90; UKHO, Flinders, ‘Information collected from the Malay Praos’; Macknight, The Voyage to Marege’, p. 51. See also Clive Moore, New Guinea: Crossing Boundaries and History (Honolulu, 2003), p. 66; Sandy Blair and Nicholas Hall, ‘ Travelling the “Malay Road”: Recognising the Heritage Significance of the Macassan Maritime Trade Route’ in Marshall Clark and Sally K. May, eds, Macassan History and Heritage: Journeys, Encounters and Influences (Canberra, 2013), pp. 205–26. 109 Regina Ganter, ‘China and the Beginning of Australian History’ in Henry Chan, Ann Curthoys and Nora Chiang, eds, The Overseas Chinese in Australasia: History, Settlement and Interactions (Canberra, 2001), pp. 36–7, and Mixed Relations: AsianAboriginal Contact in North Australia (Crawley, WA, 2006), p. 4. 110 C. C. Macknight, ‘Harvesting the Memory: Open Beaches in Makassar and Arnhem Land’ in Veth, Sutton and Neale, eds, Strangers on the Shore, pp. 136–7. 111 Ibid.; Campbell Macknight, ‘The View from Marege’: Australian Knowledge of Makassar and the Impact of the Trepang Industry across Two Centuries’, Aboriginal History, 35 (2011), p. 134. 112 Edwards, ed., Journal of Peter Good, p. 118. 113 Entry for 18 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 286–90. 114 Brown, 18 February 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 372. 115 John Gascoigne, Encountering the Pacific in the Age of Enlightenment (Cambridge, 2014), p. 350. 116 Entries for 21 and 22 February 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 294–7. 117 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 263. 118 Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 376–80. 119 Ibid., p. 381; entry for 4 March 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 306–9. 120 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 244–6. 121 Brown, 5 March 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 382; Austin, ‘Flinders on the Northern Coast’, p. 9. 122 Entry for 6 March 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 310–12; Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 248. 123 Entry for 6 March 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 310–12. 124 Quoted in James D. Mack, Matthew Flinders 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), p. 148. 125 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 268–9. 126 Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘An Appetite for Discovery: The Culinary Adventures of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders in Terra Australis, 1800–1804’ in A. Lynn Martin and Barbara Santich, eds, Gastronomic Encounters (Brampton, SA, 2004), p. 29.

246

Notes

Chapter 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25

Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 246–8. W. A. Spray, ‘The Surveys of John McCluer’, Mariner’s Mirror, 60 (1974), pp. 233–50; Andrew David, ‘As it Was’, Hydro International, 9 no. 4 (May 2005), n.p. Entry for 13 March 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 315–16. Entry for 26 March 1803, ibid., II, pp. 323–5. For similar conclusions, see Brown, entry for 26 March 1803 in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 384. Regina Ganter, Mixed Relations: Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia (Crawley, WA, 2006), pp. 15–16. Entry for 26 March 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 323–5. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 250–1. Brown to Banks, 30 March 1803, and Brown to Greville, 30 March 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 386–9. James Bowen and Margarita Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 68–9. Entry for 1 April 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 329–30. Entries for 2–5 April 1803, ibid., II, pp. 330–1. Entry for 8 April 1803, ibid., II, pp. 331–46. For Brown’s Timor plant list, see Vallance, Moore and Groves, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 391–402. Brown, 7 April 1803, ibid., p. 402. Entry for 8 April 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 331–46. The letters are included as enclosures in this journal. ML, Flinders to John Geesler, 7 April 1803, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). ML, Flinders to Henrietta Franklin, 2 April 1803, ibid. ML, Flinders to Christopher Smith, 1 April 1803, ibid. SLV, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 28 March and 4 April 1803, Flinders Papers. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 261–2; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 403. See above, p. 63. Entries for 13 and 28 April 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 350–1, 359–60; ML, Flinders to Evan Nepean, 21 July 1803, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6); Alexander Dalrymple, A Printed Chart showing Houtman’s Albrohos off the western coast of Australia, from Van Keulen. Including details of the dangerous rocks seen by the LONDON, Captain Daniel, in 1681. Also the Tryal Rocks, where the English ship TRYALL was lost in 1622, also seen by a Dutch ship in 1718 (London, 1782); Marsden Hordern, Mariners are Warned! John Lort Stokes and H.M.S. Beagle in Australia 1837–1843 (Melbourne, 1989), p. 227. Entry for 19 April 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 353. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 273. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 404; P. U. Henn, ‘The Tryal Rocks’, Journal and Proceedings of the Western Australian Historical Society, 2 (1935), pp. 38–43; Hordern, Mariners are Warned!, p. 228. In 1969, an exploration team found the wreck of the Tryall on Ritchie Reef, about ten miles northwest of the outer group of the Montebello islands: see J. N. Green, ‘The Survey and Identification of the English East India Company Ship Trial (1622)’, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 15 no. 3 (1986), pp. 195–202, and James A. Henderson, Phantoms of the Tryall: Australia’s First Shipwreck 1622 (Perth, 1993).

Notes

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26 Entry for 28 April 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 359–60. 27 Philip Parker King, Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the Years 1818 and 1822, 2 vols (London, 1826). 28 K. A. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Commander Matthew Flinders, RN (Adelaide, 1964), p. 177. 29 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 121. 30 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 264–5. 31 Entry for 14 May 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 366–7. 32 Michael Pearson, Great Southern Land: The Maritime Exploration of Terra Australis (Canberra, 2005), p. 88. 33 Entry for 18 May 1803, in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 370–1. 34 Edwards, ed., The Journal of Peter Good, p. 122. 35 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 267–9. 36 Entries for 18 and 21 May 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 370, 372–3. 37 Entry for 21 May 1803, ibid., II, pp. 372–3. An expedition from the South Australian Museum recovered these anchors on 19 January 1973. The best bower anchor is now in the South Australian Maritime Museum, Port Adelaide. The stream anchor lies alongside an anchor from Cook’s Endeavour in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Marine Life Society of South Australia, Newsletter no. 314 (September 2004). 38 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 269; entry for 26 May 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 375. 39 ML, Flinders to Bell, 27, 29, 30 May 1803, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). Bell’s letters to Flinders appear not to be extant. 40 Entry for 29 May 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 377. 41 Entries for 30 and 31 May 1803, ibid., II, pp. pp. 377–8. 42 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 271. 43 Entry for 2 June 1803 in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, p. 380. 44 Entries for 5 and 9 June 1803, ibid., II, pp. 381, 383. 45 New South Wales Advertiser, 1 no. 16, 19 June 1803. 46 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 279. 47 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 272; Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 228, 236. 48 NMM, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 25 June 1803, Flinders Papers, FLI/25. 49 Quoted in Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 199. In his will, Dr Flinders bequeathed £1,000 jointly to his sons Matthew and Samuel Ward Flinders in 5 per cent government securities: see Beardsley and Bennett, eds, ‘Gratefull to Providence’, II, pp. 241–6. 50 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 201–2. 51 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 286–8. 52 ML, Flinders to Bass, n.d., but 1803, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). 53 Bass’s fate has never been determined. In 1805, Robert Brown feared that Bass had either fallen to the treachery of South Sea islanders or had been captured on the coast of Peru. See Brown to Banks, 21 February 1805, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 428. T. M. Perry suggests that Bass probably died in Peru as a prisoner of the Spanish (Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, p. 6 n. 1). 54 ML, Flinders to Mrs Flinders, 25 June 1803, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6).

248 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86

Notes Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 280. This was printed in the Sydney Gazette, 12 June 1803, with a correction to the report in ibid., 31 July 1803. Flinders to King, 10 June 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 370–1. The report is printed in ibid., IV, pp. 378–9. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 274–5. King to Banks, July 1803, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 255. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 285. Flinders to King, 15 June 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 375–6; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 411. King to Flinders, 16 June 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 376–7. Sydney Gazette, 19 June 1803, p. 4. TNA, ADM 1/2020, Flinders to Philip Gidley King, 13 June 1803. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 234. King to Banks, July 1803, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 255. Sydney Gazette, 10 July 1803. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 275. Flinders to King, 6 July 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 377–8. King to Flinders, 10 July 1803, ibid., first series, IV, pp. 379–80; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 414. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803, p. 180. Flinders to King, 11 July 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 381–2. King to William Scott, 12 July 1803, ibid., first series, IV, pp. 382–3. Ibid. Brown to Flinders, 13 July 1803, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 170–1. BL, Add MS 32439, Flinders to Brown, 17 July 1803, f. 102. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 416. Based on the following documents from King: ‘Discharge of Members of the Crew, H.M.S. Porpoise’, 19 July 1803; Warrant to Lt. Fowler, 20 July 1803; Orders for the crew of the Investigator, 19 July 1803; all in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 385–8. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803, p. 181. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 297. Sydney Gazette, 17 July 1803, p. 2, 24 July 1803, p. 3. SLV, Flinders to J. W. Croker, 15 November 1810, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Orders (1807–14). King, Warrant to Lt. Fowler, 20 July 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, first series, IV, pp. 386–7. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 416. Ibid., p. 417; Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 239. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 290–1.

Chapter 11 1 2 3

Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 297. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 18 August 1803. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 293.

Notes 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

249

ML, John Franklin to William Franklin, 15 August 1804, Franklin Family Papers, MSS C 231. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 18 August 1803. Ibid.; Flinders, ‘Account of the Wreck of the Porpoise and Cato’, enclosure no. 3 in King to Evan Nepean, 17 September 1803, in Watson, ed., HRA, IV, p. 402. A vivid first-hand account of the wreck by Robert Purdie, surgeon’s mate, is given in ‘Narrative of the Wreck of His Majesty’s Ship Porpoise’ in the Naval Chronicle, XVI (1806), pp. 135–9, and XVII (1807), pp. 53–7. This is the only published account of life on the reef by an officer from the Investigator. It has been republished in Robert Purdie, Narrative of the Wreck of HMS Porpoise (Sydney, 2014). Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 295–6. ML, John Franklin to William Franklin, 15 August 1804, Franklin Family Papers, MSS C 231; Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders (quotation), p. 67. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 18–19 August 1803; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 295. Westall’s drawing of the sandbank at Wreck Reef is available at NLA. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 19 August 1803. SLV, Flinders to J. W. Croker, 15 November 1810, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Orders (1807–14). Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 298. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 21 August 1803. Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, Naval Chronicle, 32 (1814), p. 185. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 299; E. H. Palmer, account published in The Orphan, Calcutta, 3 February 1804, in Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 307. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 299–300; Williams, third officer of the Bridgewater, journal, in Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 308. The wreck site of the Porpoise has been known since 1965. Some artefacts from the wreck were located in 2009. See Graeme Henderson, Swallowed by the Sea: The Story of Australia’s Shipwrecks (Canberra, 2016), p. 90. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 22 August 1803. For a list of the stores, see Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 210. The letter is quoted in full in Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 212–14. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 26–27, 30 August, 2 and 9 September 1803. Ibid., 9 September 1803. Ibid., 19 September 1803; Flinders to King, 9 September 1803, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 107–8. Brown to Banks, 16 September 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 438. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Porpoise, 10 September 1803. King to Flinders, 17 September 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 438. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 305. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Cumberland, 20 September 1803. Flinders to King, 24 September 1803, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 108–9. Monteath, ed., Sailing with Flinders, p. 68. Flinders to King, 24 September 1803, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 109–10. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Cumberland, 8 October 1803. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 307. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Cumberland, 10 October 1803; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 308.

250 33 34

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

52

53 54

55 56 57 58 59 60 61

Notes TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Cumberland, 11 October 1803. William R. O’Byrne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary: Comprising the Life and Services of Every Living Officer in Her Majesty’s Navy from the Rank of Admiral of the Fleet to that of Lieutenant, Inclusive (Polstead, Suffolk, 1849), p. 375. Anthony J. Brown, ‘The Tangled Fortunes of War: The Story of Robert Fowler and Pierre Bernard Milius’, Australian Heritage (Winter 2007), p. 37. ML, John Franklin to William Franklin, 15 August 1804, Franklin Family Papers, MSS C 231. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 217–18. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Cumberland, 12 October 1803. TNA, ADM 1/1807, Flinders to J. W. Croker, 15 November 1810. Ibid., 10–15 November 1803. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 351. TNA, ADM 55/78, Log of the Cumberland, 4 December 1803. Ibid.; SLV, Memorial of Matthew Flinders to the Minister of the Marine and Colonies of France, 15 September 1808, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Orders (1807–14). Huguette Ly-Tio-Fane Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle: Matthew Flinders at the Ile de France 1803–1810, 2nd edn (Port Louis, 2004), p. 81. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 354–6. Baudin to King, 2 November 1802, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, IV, pp. 968–9. Peter Hambly, ed., Pierre Bernard Milius, Last Commander of the Baudin Expedition: The Journal 1800–1804 (Canberra, 2013), p. 20. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 231. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, pp. 360–1; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 321–2. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 222–30. This translated in ibid., pp. 315–37. See also Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, eds, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales: François Péron’s Memoir on the English Settlements in New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land and the Archipelagos of the Great Pacific Ocean (Adelaide, 2014). Anthony J. Brown, ‘Fiends of Humanity: The Scientific Origins, Objectives and Outcomes of the Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders’, South Australian Geographical Journal, 98 (1999), p. 58. Frank Horner, The French Reconnaisance: Baudin in Australia 1801–1803 (Melbourne, 1987), p. 322. A transcript of some of the questions and answers is included in Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 233–6. For a full version of the interrogation, see Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 489–93. See also A. Auxoux, ‘L’Arrestation de Capitaine Flinders (1803–1810)’, Revue d’Histoire Diplomatique, 26 (1912), pp. 481–515. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 323. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 363. Jean Fornasiero, ‘Of Rivalry and Reputation: Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders’ in Rivière and Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders, p. 171. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 231. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 366. Ibid., II, p. 373; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 243. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 374.

Notes 62 63 64 65 66

67

251

Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 238. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 381. I have not located Aken’s journal, or seen references to its whereabouts. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 384. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 239. Ibid., pp. 228–9, 242–3; Ernest Scott, Terre Napoleon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia (London, 1910), p. 114. Decaen’s report to the Minister of Marine and Colonies on Flinders’ arrest at the Ile de France has been published in French and translated into English: see A. Pitot, Ile de France, Esquisses historiques 1715–1810 (Port Louis, 1899), pp. 391–6, and Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 494–8. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 247–8.

Chapter 12 1

2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15

John Turnbull, A Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804: in Which the Author Visited Madeira, the Brazils, Cape of Good Hope, the English Settlements of Botany Bay and Norfolk Island; and the Principal Islands in the Pacific Ocean. With a Continuation of their History to the Present Period, 2 vols (London, 1813), I, pp. 483–4. A comprehensive study of the Ile de France in the Napoleonic Wars is available in Henri Prentout, L’Ile de France sous Decaen 1803–1810 (Paris, 1901), which refers to Decaen’s behaviour towards Flinders as maladroit and brutal (p. 661). Eóin Phillips, ‘Remembering Matthew Flinders’, Journal for Maritime Research, 14 no. 2 (2012), p. 114. Entry for 8 February 1804 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 22–3. Flinders to Philip Gidley King, 8 August 1804, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 113–14. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 246. Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 435. Marina Carter, Companions of Misfortune: Flinders and Friends at the Isle of France, 1803–1810 (London, 2003), pp. 9, 23; Huguette Ly-Tio-Fane Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle: Matthew Flinders at Ile de France, 1803–1810, 2nd edn (Port Louis, 2004), p. 113. Carter, Companions of Misfortune, p. 83. NMM, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 26 August 1804, Flinders Papers, FLI/25. Entry for 1–2 May 1804 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 32. Entry for 3–4 September 1804, ibid., p. 43; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 254. The sword, with a gilt brass stirrup hilt, is now among the collections at the State Library of New South Wales. Flinders to King, 8 August 1804, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 114. Entry for 16 December 1804, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 54–5. NMM, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 19 September 1808, Flinders Papers, FLI/25. Flinders to Banks, 24 February 1805, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 434.

252 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31 32 33 34

35 36 37

38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Notes Flinders to Banks, 28 March 1803, ibid., VI, p. 151. Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 4 November 1804, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 117. Flinders to Banks, 12 July 1804, ibid., p. 116. Flinders to Charles Baudin, 12 September 1808, ibid., p. 189. Flinders to Banks, 5 July 1805, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, p. 51. Flinders to Banks, 20 March 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 145. Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 6 December 1806, ibid., p. 165. Scott, The Life of Captain Flinders, p. 257. Flinders to Banks, 8 December 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 173; Carter, Companions of Misfortune, p. 42. Flinders to Ann Flinders, 20 November 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 134–5. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 257. Entries for 23, 27, 30 August 1804 and 10 October 1805 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 80, 84, 86, 96; ML, Flinders to Madame [Louise] D’Arifat, 10 October 1805, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). Flinders to Banks, 20 March 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 143–4. Entry for 1 January 1804, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 17. Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle, pp. 121–2. Entry for 8 February 1804 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 22–3. Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle, p. 104. Entry for 20 April 1807 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 162. Dixson Library, Sydney, Flinders to William Pearce, 26 April 1806, MS Q 578; Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Elizabeth Flinders, 9 December 1806, Flinders Correspondence, 3/15. Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, Mauritius, Flinders to Monsieur Quenot, 23 October 1809. Flinders to Ann Flinders, 15 May 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 125. Flinders to Thomi Pitot, n.d. but probably 6 September 1807, in Marc Serge Rivière, ed., My Dear Friend: The Flinders-Pitot Correspondence (1806–1814) at the Carnegie Library, Mauritius (Vacoas, Mauritius, 2003), p. 20. NMM, Matthew Flinders, Journal and Letterbook (1806–7), p. 189, FLI/12. ML, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 7 July 1805, ML DOC 1579. Entry for 17–19 February 1806 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 116. Entry for 18 August 1805, ibid., p. 75. Entries for 16 December 1808 and 16 December 1809, ibid., pp. 239, 289. Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle, p. 123. Flinders to Elizabeth Flinders, 13 April 1806, La Trobe Library Journal, 13 (1974), p. 2; NMM, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 16 August 1806, Flinders Papers, FLI/25. Entry for 22 June 1806 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 130. Flinders to Elizabeth Flinders, 13 April 1806, La Trobe Library Journal, 13 (1974), p. 2; Flinders to Banks, 20 March 1806, 28 July 1806, 1 July 1807, in Bladen, ed.,

Notes

47

48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58

59 60 61 62 63

64 65

66 67 68 69 70

253

HRNSW, VI, pp. 48–9, 116, 273; ML, Matthew Flinders, Memorial to the Comte de Fleurieu, 11 March 1805, MS A 1590 (http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/). SLV, Memorial of Flinders to the Minister of the Marine and Colonies of France, 15 September 1808, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Papers (1807–14), MS 6730, box 341, John J. Shillinglaw Papers. SLV, Flinders to the Minister of the French Marine and Colonies, 8 October 1807, ibid. Repeated letters, some in French and others in English, are found in ibid. Their letter was printed by Flinders in A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 447. Bibliothèque municipale, Caen, Philip Gidley King to General Decaen, 5 June 1805, Papiers Decaen, tome 84. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 262. NMM, Pellew to Decaen, 19 June 1807, Flinders Papers, FLI/3/5. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 262. TNA, ADM1/4197, E. Cooke to William Marsden, 4 September 1804. Flinders to Philip Gidley King, 3 July 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 148. Ibid. (quotation); Lincolnshire Archives, Flinders to Elizabeth Flinders, 9 December 1806, Flinders Correspondence, 3/15. Banks to Ann Flinders, 29 April 1805, 29 December 1806, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 29–30, 236–7; Banks to Ann Flinders, 22 May 1807, 19 July 1808, 12 June 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks, pp. 281, 285, 290. TNA, ADM 1/4578, F131, Ann Flinders to William Marsden, 14 April 1806. Flinders to Ann Flinders, 20 November 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 136. Banks to Ann Flinders, 4 June 1804, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 332–3. John Gascoigne, Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 159–60. Banks to Milius, 24 May 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 276–7 (quotation), and Flinders to Banks, 1 July 1807, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VI, p. 273. For a request to another French acquaintance for Flinders’ release, see Banks to JeanBaptiste Joseph Delambre, 22 August 1804, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 364–5. Denis Decrès to Decaen, 21 March 1806, in Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 460. Entry for 27 July 1807 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 173. Banks knew about this request for Flinders’ release about six months after Bonaparte made the decision: see Banks to Ann Flinders, 6 August 1806, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, p. 203, and Banks to Philip Gidley King, 20 September 1806, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VI, pp. 187–8. Flinders to Banks, 1 September 1807, in Bladen, HRNSW, VI, p. 282. Entry for 22 October 1808 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 233. SLV, Flinders to the Commissioners of His Majesty’s Navy, 31 August 1807, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Papers (1807–14), box 341, Shillinglaw Papers. Flinders to Banks, 24 January 1808, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VI, p. 421. Wilfred Blunt, ‘Introduction: Flinders’s Voyages’ in William T. Stearn, The Australian Flower Paintings of Ferdinand Bauer (London, 1976), p. 20.

254 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

79 80

81 82 83

84

85 86 87 88

89 90 91 92

93

Notes Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle, p. 120. Entry for 13 October 1804 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 47. Entries for 29 December 1803, 17 January 1805, ibid., pp. 17, 56. Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle, pp. 124–6. Entry for 10 August 1804 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 40. Entry for 20 August 1804, ibid., p. 41. Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 4 November 1804, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 125. Marina Carter, ‘Flinders and Friends at the Isle de France, 1803–1810: Insights from an Explorer Narrative’ in Rivière and Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders dans l’Océan Indien, p. 220. Carter, Companions of Misfortune, p. 41. Marc Serge Riviere, ‘“A degree of reciprocity” in Friendship: The Flinders-Pitot Correspondence (1805–1814)’, in Rivière and Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders, pp. 225–39; Rivière, ed., My Dear Friend, pp. iv, xi, xvi. Carter, Companions of Misfortune, p. 42. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, p. 320. For some examples of the latter, see Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 24 September and 18 October 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 131–3. For a list of Flinders’ hosts and hostesses on Mauritius, see http://library.flinders.edu.au/resources /collection/special/hitchcock/app_1.php. Entries for 2 October 1805, 16–17 June 1808, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 95, 217. For a list of the French books read by Flinders at the Ile de France, see http://library.flinders.edu.au/resources/collection/special /hitchcock/app_3.php Rivière, ed., My Dear Friend, p. 6; Carter, Companions of Misfortune, pp. 44, 49. Carter, Companions of Misfortune, pp. 90, 106–8. Ibid., pp. 27, 30, 48, 69, 120–1, 179; Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 6 December 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 165. Carter, Companions of Misfortune, pp. 70–2; Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 261; Marc Serge Rivière, ‘In Honour of a Fellow-Explorer: Flinders’ and Bougainville’s Monuments to La Pérouse in Mauritius and Botany Bay’, Humanities Research, 10 no. 2 (2003), pp. 9–20. Carter, Companions of Misfortune, pp. 29, 34, 61–5. Gillian Dooley, ‘“Well it is for Me that I have Books”: Books in the Life of Matthew Flinders’, Journal of Australian Studies, 90 (2007), pp. 43–6. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 259. Gillian Dooley, ‘The Uses of Adversity: Matthew Flinders’ Mauritius Writings’ in Anne Chittleborough, Gillian Dooley, Brenda Glover and Rick Hosking, eds, Alas, for the Pelicans! Flinders, Baudin & Beyond (Kent Town, SA, 2003), p. 88. See also K. A. Austin, ‘Matthew Flinders as an Author’, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, Proceedings for the Season 1965–66, 67 (1966), pp. 39–46, and Gillian Dooley, ’Matthew Flinders’s Private Journal: A Private Journey’ in Giselle Bastin, Kate Douglas, Michele McCrea and Michael X. Savvas, eds, Journeying and Journalling: Creative and Critical Meditations on Travel Writing (Kent Town, SA, 2010), pp. 122–32. Matthew Flinders, A Biographical Tribute to the Memory of Trim, Ile de France, 1809 (Sydney, 1997).

Notes 94

95 96 97

98 99

100

101 102 103

104 105 106 107

108

109 110 111 112 113

255

Good selections of his letters are Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, and Catherine Retter and Shirley Sinclair, Letters to Ann: The Love Story of Matthew Flinders and Ann Chappelle (Sydney, 2001). For a close reading of Flinders’ letters and diaries, see Alecia Simmonds, ‘Between Sentiment and Sea: The Meaning of Friendship in the Letters of Matthew Flinders,’ The Great Circle, 38 (2016), pp. 38–68. Flinders to Charles Grimes, 24 March 1807, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 174. For a detailed listing of Flinders’ manuscript charts, see Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 436–44. Entries for 6 July 1804 and 24 August 1807 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 38, 177; Bibliothèque municipale, Caen, Flinders to Decaen, 9 January 1804, Papiers Decaen, tome 84. Entry for 2 September 1804 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 43. The General Chart can be seen at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/. Flinders’ unpublished charts and survey sheets are deposited at TNA, ADM 352/437-563. The ideas and personal networks that underpinned Flinders’ mapmaking are explored in Dany Bréelle, ‘Matthew Flinders et la mise en cartes d’un nouvel espace indo-pacifique,’ Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography (2016). Entries for 16–18 May, 15 October 1804, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 33, 48. The spoiled items are the rough journals deposited at ML (http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/). Flinders to Banks, 31 December 1804, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 396. Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 6 December 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 162. Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 410–13. The Bearing Book is deposited at UKHO. For an appraisal of Flinders’ methodology in surveying, see M. K. Barritt, ‘Matthew Flinders’s Survey Practices and Records’, Journal of the Hakluyt Society (2014), pp. 1–15 (http://www.hakluyt.com/journal_index.htm). Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 410–13; T. M. Perry, ‘Matthew Flinders and the Charting of the Australian Coast’, The Globe, 23 (1985), p. 2. TNA, ADM 352/482. TNA, ADM 352/563/1. Entry for 9 May 1805 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 63; Flinders to Ann Flinders, 15 May 1805, and to Banks, 16 May 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 125. The first five chapters of the ‘Memoir’ (in their uncorrected form) are now deposited at CUL, RGO 14/64, fols. 213r-247v, Board of Longitude Papers. Drafts of chapters 6 and 7 of the ‘Memoir’ are deposited at UKHO, OD 779, ff. 596-613. Pineo, In the Grips of the Eagle, pp. 121, 127; CUL, RGO 15/51: 18, Flinders to Banks, 23 August 1804, Board of Longitude Papers, ff. 172–3; entries for 18 May 1805, 30 June–1 July and 7 July 1807, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 64, 169–70; Flinders to Banks, 28 July 1806, 1 July 1807, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VI, pp. 116, 273. NMM, Matthew Flinders Journal and Letterbook (1806–7), p. 198, FLI/12. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 263. Entry for 19 August 1808 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 225. Entry for 18 August 1805, ibid., p. 77. SLV, Flinders to Wellesley Pole, 3 August 1809, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Papers (1807–14), box 341, J. J. Shillinglaw Papers.

256

Notes

114 Flinders to Banks, 18 January 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, p. 474; and Flinders to Elizabeth Flinders, 23 November 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 139. 115 Flinders to Banks, 20 March 1806, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 145. 116 Entry for 18 August 1805 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 77. 117 Entry for 3 May 1806, ibid., p. 123. 118 Entry for 7 January 1809, ibid., p. 241; Flinders to Banks, 28 February 1809, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, pp. 439–40. The French naming of places on Australia’s south coast is discussed in Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘Naming and Shaming: The Baudin Expedition and the Nomenclature of Terra Australis’ in Anne M. Scott, Alfred Hiatt, Claire McIlroy and Christopher Wortham, eds, European Perceptions of Terra Australis (London, 2011), pp. 141–58. 119 Flinders to Banks, 27 February 1809, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 194–5. A later review of Péron’s voyage account referred to an ‘audacious attempt … to rob Captain Flinders of the well-earned merit of his nautical labours and discoveries’ (The Quarterly Review, XXXIII, April 1817, p. 229). 120 Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, eds, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales: François Péron’s Memoir on the English Settlements in New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land and the Archipelagos of the Great Pacific Ocean (Adelaide, 2014), pp. 26–32. 121 Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘Doing it by the Book: Breaking the Reputation of Nicolas Baudin’ in Jean Fornasiero and Colette Mrowa-Hopkins, eds, Explorations and Encounters in French (Adelaide, 2010), p. 148. 122 Dany Bréelle, ‘The Scientific Crucible of Ile de France: The French Contribution to the Work of Matthew Flinders’, Journal of the Hakluyt Society (2014), pp. 1–24 (http://www.hakluyt.com/journal_index.htm). 123 Carter, Companions of Misfortune, p. 17. 124 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 268–9. 125 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, II, p. 419. 126 Flinders to Hugh Hope, 13 March 1810, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 196. 127 Flinders to Banks, 3 August 1809, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VII, p. 202. 128 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 273–4. 129 Flinders to Hugh Hope, 13 March 1810, and to Charles Desbassayns, 16 April 1810 (quotation) in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 197–8. 130 Flinders to Ann Flinders, 11 May 1810, ibid., p. 200. 131 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 275; entry for 14 June 1810 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 314. 132 Carter, Companions of Misfortune, p. 131.

Chapter 13 1 2

Brown and Bauer to Flinders, 13 July 1803, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, p. 170. Phyllis Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’ in D. J. Carr and S. G. M. Carr, eds, People and Plants in Australia (Sydney, 1981), p. 148. See also Phyllis I. Edwards, ‘Robert Brown (1773–1858) and the Natural History of Matthew Flinders’ Voyage in H.M.S. Investigator, 1801–1805’, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 7 no. 4 (1976), pp. 385–407.

Notes 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30

257

Brown to Banks, 6 August 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 417–19. Banks duly received the twelve casks of plants: see Banks to Brown, 30 August 1804, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 461–2. Brown to Banks, 6 August 1803, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 419–21. BL, Add MS 32439, Brown to Charles Greville, 6 August 1803, ff. 121–4. Extracts from this letter are printed in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 185–7. Bauer to Banks, 8 August 1803, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, p. 280. Bauer to Joseph Anton Bauer, 8 August 1803, in Marlene J. Norst, Ferdinand Bauer: The Australian Natural History Drawings (London, 1989), p. 108. Westall to Banks, 31 January 1804, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 310–11. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 433. Ibid., pp. 433–43. Brown to Banks, [16] September 1803, ibid., pp. 438–9. For details see ibid., pp. 444–58. King to Bowen, 18 October 1803, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 243–6. T. G. Vallance, ‘Jupiter Botanicus in the Bush: Robert Brown’s Australian FieldWork, 1801–5’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 112 (1990), p. 79; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 460–3. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 459. Brown to Banks, 30 December 1803, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 306–7. Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, p. 148; Banks to Brown, 30 August 1804, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 461–2. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 464. Brown, entry for 4 January 1804, ibid., p. 469. D. T. Moore, ‘Some Aspects of the Work of the Botanist Robert Brown (1773–1858) in Tasmania in 1804’, Tasforests, 12 (2000), p. 132. Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 464–81. For the detailed itinerary, see the suggested routes given in Moore, ‘Some Aspects of the Work of the Botanist Robert Brown’, pp. 135–9, 144. Mary Nicholls, ed., The Diary of the Reverend Robert Knopwood 1803–1838 (Launceston, 1977), p. 52. Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, p. 149. Ibid., p. 139; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 459. Brown to Banks, 12 December 1804, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VI, pp. 387–9. BL, Add MS 32439, Brown to William Paterson, 4 March 1804, ff. 146–7. Vallance, ‘Jupiter Botanicus in the Bush’, p. 82. Natural History Museum, London, ‘Robert Brown’s report to Sir Joseph Banks on the arrangement and description of plants collected on the voyage of the Investigator’, Robert Brown Papers. Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, pp. 149, 155; Marlene J. Norst, ‘Recognition and Renaissance: Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (1760–1826)’, Australian Natural History, 23 no. 4 (1990), p. 300; D. T. Moore, ‘The Pencil Landscape Drawings Made by Ferdinand Bauer in Norfolk Island, from August 1804 to February 1805, in the Natural History Museum, London’, Archives of Natural History, 25 (1998), pp. 213–20.

258 31 32

33 34 35

36

37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

45

46 47 48

49 50 51 52 53 54

Notes Bauer to Banks, 27 August 1804, in Norst, Ferdinand Bauer, p. 110. Glyn Williams, Naturalists at Sea: From Dampier to Darwin (New Haven, CT, 2013), p. 228; Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks, p. 260; Brown to Philip Gidley King, 11 May 1805, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, p. 619. Brown, entry for 16 July 1805, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 594. Brown to Banks, 13 October 1805, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 711–12. Brown to Marsden, 5 November 1805, and to Dryander, 29 October 1805, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, pp. 603–5; BL, Add. MS 32439, ff. 244–5. Dryander to Banks, 7 November 1805, in Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 605. Brown’s account of the income and expenditure of the Investigator voyage is included in ibid., pp. 606–7. Peter Watts, Jo Anne Pomfret and David Mabberley, An Exquisite Eye: The Australian Flora & Fauna Drawings 1801–1820 of Ferdinand Bauer (Glebe, NSW, 1997), p. 21. Banks to Marsden, 3 January 1806, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, p. 181. On the insects see W. Kirby, ‘New Species of Insects Collected in New Holland by Robert Brown’, Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 12 (1818), pp. 454–82. Banks to Marsden, [25] January 1806, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 117–20. Watts, Pomfret and Mabberley, An Exquisite Eye, p. 22. Linnean Society, London, Aylmer Bourke Lambert to James Edward Smith, 29 November 1802, GB-110/JES/COR/6/31, Linnean Collections. Banks to Marsden, January 1806, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 121–2. Banks to Marsden, [25] January 1806 (quotation), ibid., VII, pp. 117–20, and Banks to Secretary Marsden, January 1806, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VI, pp. 16–19. For Banks’s handling of the plant species, drawings and minerals sent back from the Investigator’s voyage, see Neil Chambers, Joseph Banks and the British Museum: The World of Collecting, 1770–1830 (London, 2007), pp. 53–7. David Philip Miller, ‘Joseph Banks, Empire, and “Centers of Calculation” in Late Hanoverian London’ in David Philip Miller and Peter Hans Reill, eds, Visions of Empire: Voyages, Botany, and Representation of Nature (Cambridge, 1996), p. 29. Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, pp. 145, 147. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus, p. 177. Eric W. Groves, ‘Procrastination or Unpredictable Circumstances? The Handling of Robert Brown’s Australian Plant Collections in London’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, p. 130. Linnean Society, London, Brown to Smith, 12 January 1806, Sir James Edward Smith Correspondence, Linnean Collections, GB-110/JES/COR/2/88. Jonas Dryander, Catalogus Bibliothecae Historico-Naturalis Josephi Banks, 5 vols (London, 1796–1800). Brown to Banks, 18 June 1807, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 265–6. Trinity College, Cambridge, Brown to Dawson Turner, 15 February 1809, Dawson Turner Correspondence, O.13.7/22. Brown to Banks, 2 June 1809, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, p. 453. Williams, Naturalists at Sea, p. 220.

Notes 55 56 57 58 59

60

61 62 63 64

65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74

75 76 77

78 79 80

259

Brown to Banks, 6 January 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 469–70. Trinity College, Cambridge, Brown to Dawson Turner, 27 February 1810, Dawson Tuner Correspondence, O.13.8/20. BL, Add. MS 32439, n.d. but 1809, ff. 288–91. Brown to Banks, 6 January 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VII, pp. 469–70. Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, p. 160. For a list of the finished drawings and where they were published, see J. Britten, ‘Ferdinand Bauer’s Drawings of Australian Plants’, Journal of Botany British and Foreign, 47 (1909), pp. 140–6. For reproductions of Bauer’s drawings of these animals, see David Mabberley, ‘The Legacy of Flinders’ Naturalist’, Australian Geographic, 60 (October–December 2000), pp. 54–5. James Bowen and Margarita Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge, 2002), p. 73. BL, Add MS 32439, Banks to [the Admiralty], 30 April 1811, ff. 319–20. Phyllis Edwards, ‘Sir Joseph Banks and the Botany of Captain Cook’s Three Voyages of Exploration’, Pacific Studies, 2 no. 1 (1978), p. 27. J. C. Dryander, ‘Chloris Novae Hollandiae; Or, a Catalogue of the Plants of New Holland and Van Diemen’s IsIand Hitherto Published’, Annals of Botany, 2 (1806), pp. 504–32. Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 22. Mabberley, ‘The Legacy of Flinders’ Naturalist’, pp. 58, 63. K. A. Austin, The Voyage of the Investigator 1801–1803: Commander Matthew Flinders, RN (Adelaide, 1964), p. 199. Lynn G. Clark, ‘The Grasses (Poaceae): Robert Brown and Now’, Telopea, 10 (2004), p. 509. Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 72; Robert Brown, ‘On the Protocaeae of Jussieu’, Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 10 (1810), pp. 15–226. Margaret Steven, First Impressions: The British Discovery of Australia (London, 1988), p. 74. Trinity College, Cambridge, Brown to Dawson Turner, 7 December 1810, Dawson Turner Correspondence, O.13.8/113. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus, p. 161. Ibid., p. 162. Williams, Naturalists at Sea, p. 229; Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, pp. 152–3; Trinity College, Cambridge, Brown to Dawson Turner, 30 April 1810, Dawson Turner Correspondence, O.13.8/50. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus, p. 164. J. D. Hooker, The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror 1839–1843. Volume 3. Flora Tasmania I. CXII–CXXVII (London, 1860), p. cxiv. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus, p. 265; Vallance, Moore and Groves, eds, Nature’s Investigator, p. 10. The subsequent fate of Brown’s specimens, from the death of Banks in 1820 to the present, is outlined in Groves, ‘Procrastination or Unpredictable Circumstances?’ pp. 131–6. Mabberley, ‘The Legacy of Flinders’ Naturalist’, p. 57. Mabberley, Jupiter Botanicus, p. 132. Norst, ‘Recognition and Renaissance’, p. 299; H. Walter Lack and V. Ibáñez, ‘Recording Colour in Late Eighteenth-Century Botanical Drawings: Sydney

260

81 82 83

84

85

86 87

88 89 90 91 92 93

94

95

96 97 98 99

Notes Parkinson, Ferdinand Bauer, and Thaddäus Haenke’, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, series 6, 14 (1997), pp. 87–100; D. J. Mabberley and D. T. Moore, ‘Catalogue of the Holdings in the Natural History Museum (London) of the Australian Botanical Drawings of Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826) and Cognate Materials Relating to the Investigator Voyage of 1801–1805’, Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, London (Botany), 29 (1999), pp. 83, 85. Watts, Pomfret and Mabberley, An Exquisite Eye pp. 27–8. Norst, ‘Recognition and Renaissance’, pp. 300, 304. R. M. Barker, ‘The Botanical Legacy of 1802: South Australian Plants Collected by Robert Brown and Peter Good on Matthew Flinders’ Investigator and by the French Scientists on Baudin’s Géographe and Naturaliste’, Journal of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, 21 (2007), p. 9. Norst, Ferdinand Bauer, pp. 84–7; Edwards, ‘Botany of the Flinders Voyage’, p. 161. See also Mabberley and Moore, ‘Catalogue of the Holdings in the Natural History Museum (London) of the Australian Botanical Drawings of Ferdinand Bauer’, pp. 81–225. Twenty-five of Bauer’s finished plant drawings are reproduced in William T. Stearn, The Australian Flower Paintings of Ferdinand Bauer (London, 1976). The complicated dissemination of Bauer’s Investigator drawings is summarized in Mabberley and Moore, ‘Catalogue of the Holdings in the Natural History Museum (London) of the Australian Botanical Drawings of Ferdinand Bauer’, pp. 87–9. Nancy T. Burbridge, ‘Robert Brown’s Australian Collecting Localities’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, LXXX (1955), pp. 229–33. Greg Keighery and Neil Gibson, ‘The Influence of Robert Brown on Western Australian Botany’, Australian Garden History, 14 no. 3 (2002), pp. 5–8; Greg Keighery and Neil Gibson, ‘The Flinders Expedition in Western Australia: Robert Brown, the plants and their influence on W.A. botany’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 105–9. Watts, Pomfret and Mabberley, An Exquisite Eye, p. 18. J. H. Willis, ‘Robert Brown’s Collectings in Victoria’, Muelleria: An Australian Journal of Botany, 1 no.1(1955), pp. 51–4. Helen Hewson, Brunonia Australis: Robert Brown and His Contribution to the Botany of Victoria (Canberra, 2002), pp. 2–4. Barker, ‘The Botanical Legacy of 1802’, pp. 9–10, 29. Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 71. Linnean Society, Aylmer Bourke Lambert to James Edward Smith, 22 March 1805, Sir James Edward Smith Correspondence, Linnean Collections, GB-110/JES/ COR/6/43. Peter Monteath, ‘Contradictory Encounters: William Westall in Australia’ in Anne Chittleborough, Gillian Dooley, Brenda Glover and Rick Hosking, eds, Alas, for the Pelicans! Flinders, Baudin & Beyond (Kent Town, SA, 2003), p. 48. Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, 2nd edn (New Haven, 1985), p. 196; entry for 7 June 1809 in Kathryn Cave, ed., The Diary of Joseph Farington. Volume 9. January 1808–June 1809 (New Haven, 1982), p. 3481. Entry for 2 April 1809 in Cave, ed., The Diary of Joseph Farington. Volume 9, p. 3431. Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, pp. 196–7. Kay Stehn and Alex George, ‘Artist in a New Land: William Westall in New Holland’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 87–8. Bernard Smith, ‘William Westall’s Drawings and Paintings on Flinders’ Voyage’ in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, p. 25.

Notes

261

100 Elizabeth Findlay, Arcadian Quest – William Westall’s Australian Sketches (Canberra, 2000), p. 40. 101 Monteath, ‘Contradictory Encounters’, pp. 50–3; Tim Bonyhady, Images in Opposition: Australian Landscape Painting 1801–1890 (Melbourne, 1985), p. 87. 102 Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, pp. 191, 197.

Chapter 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

16 17

18 19 20 21

NMM, Flinders’ parole to leave the Ile de France, 7 June 1810, Flinders Papers, FLI/03. NMM, Isabella Tyler, ‘Biographical Outline of Capt. and Mrs Flinders’ (n.d. but after 1852), ibid., FLI/107. Banks to Ann Flinders, 25 and 28 September 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 2. NMM, John Franklin to Ann Flinders, 1 October 1810, Letters received by Mrs Flinders from Sir John Franklin (1810–42), Flinders Papers, FLI/27. NMM, John Franklin to Flinders, 1 November 1810, Flinders Papers, FLI/1. ML, Flinders to Charles Desbassayns, 2 February 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). ML, Flinders to Mrs Flinders, 20 November 1810, ibid.; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 434–5. Entry for 7 December 1810 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 336. Entries for 7 and December 1810, ibid., pp. 336; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 432–3. NMM, William Owen to Flinders, 10 September 1810, Flinders Papers, FLI/01; Richard Dunn and Rebekah Higgitt, Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude (Glasgow, 2014), p. 202. NMM, James Wiles to Flinders, 18 April 1811, Flinders Papers, FLI/01. NMM, John Franklin to Ann Flinders, 1 October 1810, Letters received by Mrs Flinders from Sir John Franklin (1810–42), ibid., FLI/27. NMM, William Wilberforce to Flinders, 20 May 1811, ibid., FLI/01. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 438–9. The Admiralty had already decided this would happen before Flinders arrived home: see John Barrow to Banks, 24 September 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 1. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 425. ML, Flinders to Commissioner Shield, 1 February 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14); NMM, John Barrow to Flinders, 26 October 1810, Flinders Papers, FLI/03; Royal Society, London, Banks to [John Barrow], 20 October 1810, Miscellaneous MSS 6/71; Banks to Barrow, 24 October [1810], in Chambers, ed., The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks, pp. 297–8. Barrow to Banks, 26 October 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 5. J. S. Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, Naval Chronicle, 32 (1814), p. 186. Entry for 12 January 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 340. ML, Flinders to Mrs Newbald, 15 April 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14).

262 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

50 51 52 53

Notes Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin to Robert Fowler, 22 June 1811, MS 248/301, Sir John Franklin Collection. Jean Fornasiero, ‘Of Rivalry and Reputation: Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders’ in Rivière and Issur, eds, Baudin-Flinders, p. 160. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 287. Ibid., p. 286. NMM, Admiralty to Flinders, 21 November 1810, Flinders Papers, FLI/03. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 426. NMM, John Barrow to Flinders, 18 November 1811, Flinders Papers, FLI/03. ML, Flinders to Mr Curtot, 19 June 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). TNA, ADM 1/1808, F465, Flinders to J. W. Croker, 14 November 1811. ML, Flinders to Capt. William Kent, 14 August 1811, and to James Wiles, 6 January 1813, ibid. ML, Flinders to James Wiles, 2 July 1811, ibid. Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 16 December 1811, in Marc Serge Rivière, ed., My Dear Friend: The Flinders-Pitot Correspondence (1806–1814) at the Carnegie Library, Mauritius (Vacoas, Mauritius, 2003), p. 53. Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 7 June 1813, ibid., p. 63. Paul Brunton, ‘Matthew Flinders through His Letters’ in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 12–13. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 441. Entry for 13 January 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 341. ML, Flinders to Capt. W. Owen, 22 February 1813, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). Entries for 30 October 1810, 16 November 1810, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, pp. 328, 331; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 426–7. Entries for 25 October 1810, 27 May 1811, 12 September 1811, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 326, 362, 376. Entry for 30 June 1811, ibid., p. 368. NMM, Matthew Flinders, Statement on the Ile de France, 24 February 1811, Yorke Papers, YOR/5/3. Entry for 25 March 1812 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 399. NMM, William Bligh to Flinders, 18 December 1811, Flinders Papers, FLI/01. Flinders to Banks, 16 May 1805, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 125. Flinders to Banks, 8 December 1806, ibid., p. 169. See above, p. 8. SLV, [W. H. Smyth], ‘A Brief Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders, R. N.’, John J. Shillinglaw Papers, box 81, 3(d). ML, Flinders to William Bligh, 13 November 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14); entry for 13 November 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 383. Entry for 13 April 1811, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 355. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 428. ML, Flinders to Frederic Edgcumbe, 16 April 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). ML, Flinders to Capt. Owen, 3 July 1811, ibid.; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 428–9.

Notes 54 55 56 57 58

59

60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71

72 73 74 75 76 77

78 79

263

Entry for 1 April 1812 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 400. ML, Flinders to Mrs Flinders, 2 April 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). Entry for 7 May 1812 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 406. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 456–7. Ibid., pp. 437–8; NMM, John Franklin to Flinders, 1 November 1810, Flinders Papers, FLI/01. Scott wrongly refers to Matt and Louth instead of Mart and Lound (The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 282). ML, Flinders to Frederic Edgcumbe, 16 April 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14); Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Flinders to John Franklin, 20 June 1811, MS 248/394, Willingham Franklin Collection. Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 454. ML, Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 19 June 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). See various letters in ML, ibid., ff. 3–4, 15, 23, 54–5, and Flinders to Capt. Patton, 17 June 2011, ibid. NMM, Admiralty to Flinders, 12 June 1811, Flinders Papers, FLI/03. See ML, Flinders to Madame D’Arifat, 7 March 1812, and various letters in Rivière, ed., My Dear Friend. Flinders to Banks, 25 October 1810, in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VII, pp. 436–7. Banks to Flinders, 28 October 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 6. BL, Add MS 32439, Banks to [the Admiralty], 30 April 1811, ff. 319–20. Entry for 9 November 1810 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 330. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Flinders to John Franklin, 18 November 1810, MS 248/383/1, Matthew Flinders Collection. Banks to William Marsden, 28 October 1810, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 6. Anthony Payne, ‘The Publication and Readership of Voyage Journals in the Age of Vancouver, 1730–1830’ in Stephen Haycox, James Barnett and Caedman Liburd, eds, Enlightenment and Exploration in the North Pacific 1741–1805 (Seattle, WA, 1997), pp. 176–7. TNA, ADM 1/4382, B 1120, Banks to the Admiralty, 13 January 1811. Entry for 16 January 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 341. Entry for 13 January 1811, ibid., p. 341; Barrow to Banks, 15 January 1811 (two letters), in Bladen, ed., HRNSW, VII, pp. 487–8. ML, Flinders to S. H. Greig, 22 February 1813, Matthew Flinders letterbook, (1810–14). Admiralty Hydrographic Office to Flinders, 18 January 1811, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence VIII, pp. 12–13. Rupert Gerritsen and Peter Reynders, ‘The Freycinet Map of 1811: The First Full Map of Australia?’, The Globe, 72 (2013), pp. 1–10; T. M. Perry, The Discovery of Australia: The Charts and Maps of the Navigators and Explorers (Sydney, 1982), p. 91. The second edition of Freycinet’s charts, published in 1824, removed the French names for Terre Napoléon in favour of Flinders’ names, except those made by Baudin by right of discovery. Martin Terry, ‘Global Roaming’ in Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra, 2013), pp. 208–9. Rupert Gerritsen, ‘Terra Australis or Australia’ in Mapping Our World, p. 225. Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, V, p. 329 n. 1.

264 80

Notes

Greg Wood, ‘Successive States: Aaron Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Pacific Ocean, 1798–1832’, The Globe, 70 (2012), p. 7. 81 Entries for 22 and 26 January 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 343; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 442. Details for the engravings of the charts are given in Flinders to Aaron Arrowsmith, c. 20 January 1811, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, pp. 13–14. 82 These sheets are now deposited at TNA, ADM 352/437-563. 83 Adrian Webb, ‘The Expansion of British Naval Hydrographic Administration, 1808–1829’ (University of Exeter PhD, 2010), p. 230. 84 Entries for 6, 27 March 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 349. 85 CUL, RGO 14/68, Samuel Ward Flinders to John Pond, 10 September 1811, ff. 55r-56r, Board of Longitude Papers. 86 Geoffrey Badger, Explorers of the Pacific (Kenthurst, NSW, 1988), p. 226. 87 Flinders to Louise D’Arifat, 25 November 1812, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 228. 88 CUL, RGO 14/68, Memorial of Samuel Ward Flinders to the Commissioners of Longitude, April 1806, f. 33r-v, ibid. 89 CUL, RGO 14/68, Petition of Samuel Ward Flinders to the Commissioners of Longitude, 2 December 1812, ff. 62r-63r, ibid. 90 Entries for 27 April and 22 August 1811, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 357, 374; R. A. Skelton, ‘The Charting of Australia by Flinders’ in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by Westall, p. 30. 91 ML, Finders to J. Pond, 1 May 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). The longitude readings made on the Investigator expedition are tabulated in NMM, FLI/10, fols. 1–42, Record of longitude by Earnshaw’s chronometers kept by Flinders in HMS Investigator (1801–3). 92 ML, Flinders to Lt, Flinders, 22 February 1813, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810– 14); Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 452. Surviving examples of Samuel’s detailed observations of latitude and longitude can be found in CUL, RGO 14/65, Reduction of the Astronomical Observations made in the voyage of the Investigator 1801–1805 by Samuel Ward Flinders, second lieutenant. 93 ML, Flinders to Lt. Flinders, 27 December 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 94 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 454. 95 CUL, RGO 14/68, John Crosley to the Commissioners of Longitude, 3 March 1814, f. 67r, Board of Longitude Papers; Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Flinders to John Franklin, 18 November 1812, MS 383/7, Matthew Flinders Collection. 96 CUL, RGO 14/68, Flinders to Captain Hurd, 15 July 1811, fols. 53r-54r, Board of Longitude Papers. 97 Entry for 9 February 1812 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 394. 98 ML, Flinders to Monsieur Rivière, 2 October 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 99 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 436; Frank Horner, ‘The “Missing” Third Journal of Flinders’, The Great Circle, 20 no. 2 (1998), pp. 138–40. 100 ML, Flinders to Charles Desbassayns, 14 July 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). See also Horner, ‘The “Missing” Third Journal of Flinders’, p. 140. 101 Entry for 26 June 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 367.

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102 Entries for 6 January 1811, 6 and 14 February 1811, 9 March 1811, 13 and 19 May 1811, 3 and 10 June 1811, 20 September 1811, 8 November 1811, 27 February 1812, ibid., pp. 339–40, 344–5, 349, 360–1, 363–4, 377, 383, 396. Heywood and Barrallier’s work in Australian waters is discussed in Andrew C. F. David, ‘Peter Heywood and Northwest Australia’, The Great Circle, 1 no. 1 (1979), pp. 4–14, and H. J. Steward, ‘Francis Barrallier: The Man behind the Maps’, The Globe, 50 (2000), pp. 27–46, and ‘Francis Barrallier: A Life in Context’ (paper presented at the symposium ‘Old Worlds – New Worlds: The History of Colonial Cartography, 1750–1950’, University of Utrecht, August 2006) (http://www.icahistcarto.org/PDF/Steward_HJ_-_Francis _Barrallier_A_Life_in_Context.pdf ). 103 Entry for 18 July 1812, in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 415. 104 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 443. 105 ML, Flinders to Charles Desbassayns, 2 February 1811, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 106 Ernest Scott, Terre Napoléon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia, 2nd edn (London, 1911), pp. 92–106. 107 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. 193. 108 ML. Finders to Madame D’Arifat, 25 November 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 109 Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, I, p. 91. 110 Dany Bréelle, ‘Matthew Flinders’s Australian Toponomy and its British Connections’, Journal of the Hakluyt Society (2013), pp. 1–41 (http://www.hakluyt.com/journal _index.htm). 111 Entries for 14 and 17 August 1813 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 450–1. 112 ML, Flinders to Rev. J. S. Clarke, 21 May 1813, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). Flinders used Terra Australis as a synonym for Australia and vice-versa, but he knew that Terra Australis had long been regarded as a separate entity to Australia. See Avan Judd Stallard, Antipodes: In Search of the Southern Continent (Clayton, VIC, 2016), pp. 233–5. 113 ML, Flinders to Sir Joseph Banks, 17 August 1813, ibid. 114 John Healey, ‘The Origins of the Name “Australia”’, South Australian Geographical Journal, 101 (2002), pp. 95, 104. On the naming of Australia, see also Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 304–10 and ML, Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 25 August 1804, redated 4 November 1804, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1801–6). 115 Entry for 19 August 1813 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 451; ML, Flinders to Banks, 17 August 1813, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 116 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. iii. Captain James Burney, who had sailed in the Resolution with Cook, and was then engaged in writing his Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, 5 vols (London, 1803– 17), demurred against the use of ‘Australia’: see James Bowen and Margarita Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge, 2002), p. 75. 117 See the chapter headings in Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 402, 405, 407, 414, 421, 456, 477; Flinders to Samuel Flinders, 4 November 1804, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 117. 118 Bowen and Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef, p. 75. 119 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 310. Manning Clark was irked by the fact that an Englishman named Australia: see C. M. H. Clark, A History of Australia. Volume 1. From the Earliest Days to the Age of Macquarie (Melbourne, 1962), p. 182.

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120 SLV, Flinders to Thomas Hurd, 2 April 1812, Matthew Flinders Public Letters and Orders (1807–14), MS 6730, J. J. Shillinglaw Papers, box 341. 121 Entry for 7 June 1809 in Kathryn Cave, ed., The Diary of Joseph Farington. Volume 9. January 1808–June 1809 (New Haven, 1982), p. 3481; Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, 2nd edn (New Haven, 1985), p. 196. 122 Entries for 31 January and 2 February 1811 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 344. 123 Kay Stehn and Alex George, ‘Artist in a New Land: William Westall in New Holland’ in Wege et al., eds, Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen, pp. 87–8. 124 Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings by William Westall, n.p. 125 NMM, John Barrow to Flinders, 17 April 1812, Flinders Papers, FLI/07; ML, Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 11 May 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 126 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. cxix. 127 Charles H. Cotter, ‘Matthew Flinders and Ship Magnetism’, Journal of Navigation, 29 no. 2 (1976), pp. 124–6. 128 NMM, Matthew Flinders, Notes upon the Magnetism of the Earth, and of Ships, Flinders Papers, FLI/7. 129 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 457. 130 NMM, Flinders to Ann Flinders, 21 May 1812, ibid., FLI/25; ML, Flinders to James Wiles, 2 July 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). For a summary of the main findings of his report, see ML, Flinders to Professor Inman, 23 September 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 131 Cotter, ‘Matthew Flinders and Ship Magnetism’, pp. 128–9. 132 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 460; Flinders to Banks, 1 October 1812, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 63. There is a manuscript copy of Flinders’ report in TNA, ADM 1/1809, F 130a. 133 Cotter, ‘Matthew Flinders and Ship Magnetism’, pp. 129–30; Badger, Explorers of the Pacific, pp. 226–8. 134 TNA, ADM1/1200, A 1193, Richard Bickerton to J. W. Croker, 30 May 1812. 135 ML, John Franklin to Ann Flinders, 14 October 1813, Sir John Franklin Papers, Af 1/1. 136 ML, Flinders to James Wiles, 5 March 1812, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 137 ML, Flinders to Madame D’Arifat, 16 December 1811, ibid. 138 Entry for 27 February 1814 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 466. 139 Entries for 26 March and 28 June 1814, ibid., pp. 468–9, 484. 140 ML, Flinders to Banks, 19 April 1814, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 141 BL, Add MS 32440, Flinders to Robert Brown, 1 April 1814, Correspondence of Robert Brown (1760–1858). 142 ML, Flinders to Monsieur Labauve, 27 April 1814, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 143 ML, Flinders to James Wiles, 3 May 1814, ibid. 144 Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Robert Fowler to John Franklin, 3 July 1814, MS 248/386, Robert Fowler Collection. 145 NMM, Isabella Tyler, Biographical Outline of Captain and Mrs Flinders, 1852, Flinders Papers, FLI/107. 146 T. Arrowsmith was probably a slip for J. Arrowsmith. 147 Entries for 9 May and 29 June 1814 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 475, 484. Flinders’ charts for A Voyage to Terra Australis are individually listed in Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 444–5.

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148 Perry, ‘Introduction’ in Perry and Simpson, eds, Drawings of William Westall, p. 11. 149 ML, Ann Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 29 July 1814, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 150 Elizabeth Findlay, Arcadian Quest – William Westall’s Australian Sketches (Canberra, 2000), p. 47. 151 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, where the dedication is on a separate page after the title page; Banks to Flinders, 27 April 1814, in Chambers, ed., The Indian and Pacific Correspondence, VIII, p. 89. 152 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, atlas. 153 T. M. Perry, ‘Charts and Views’ in Bernard Smith and Alwyne Wheeler, eds, The Art of the First Fleet and Other Early Australian Drawings (New Haven, CT, 1988), pp. 72, 74. 154 Andrew C. F. David, ‘Cook and the Cartography of Australia’, The Globe, 22 (1984), p. 55. 155 Perry, ‘Charts and Views’, pp. 72, 74; T. M. Perry and Dorothy F. Prescott, A Guide to Maps of Australia in Books Published 1780–1830 (Canberra, 1996), pp. 166–71; Bladen, ed., HRNSW, V, pp. 6, 263; Rupert Gerritsen, ‘Matthew Flinders, Intrepid Navigator’ and ‘Terra Australis or Australia’ in Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra, 2013), pp. 220, 225. 156 Scott, Terre Napoléon, p. 52. 157 Martin Woods, ‘The Last Great Dutch Voyage to Australia’ in Mapping Our World (Canberra, 2013), p. 163. 158 Elizabeth Baigent, ‘Arrowsmith, Aaron the elder (1750–1823)’ in Matthew and Harrison, eds, ODNB, 2, pp. 524–5. 159 Charles W. J. Withers, Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason (Chicago, 2007), p. 17. 160 Skelton, ‘The Charting of Australia by Flinders’, p. 32. 161 Wood, ‘Successive States’, pp. 12–13. 162 Morgan, ed., Australia Circumnavigated, II, pp. 350–9, 455, 479, 481–3. 163 Wood, ‘Successive States’, p. 15. 164 These are preserved at the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. 165 See two articles by T. M. Perry: ‘Matthew Flinders and the Charting of the Australian Coast’, The Globe, 23 (1985), p. 4, and ‘The Early Evolution of the British Hydrographical Office’s set of Charts of Australian Waters’, The Globe, 37 (1992), pp. 45–7. 166 Philip Parker King, Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia performed between the Years 1818 and 1822, 2 vols (London, 1826); J. Lort Stokes, Discoveries in Australia …, 2 vols (London, 1846). 167 Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, I, p. lxxvi. 168 Clarke, ‘Biographical Memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders’, Naval Chronicle, 32 (1814), p. 190. 169 Entry for 10 July 1814 in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, p. 485. 170 George Gordon McCrae, ‘Historical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Flinders’, Victorian Geographical Journal, XXVIII (1910–11), p. 29. This article publishes a manuscript written in 1814 that was discovered in 1903 between the leaves of a copy of the first volume of A Voyage to Terra Australis kept in the library of Donington vicarage. Much, but not all, of the account appeared in the biographical tribute to Flinders in the Naval Chronicle for 1814. Geoffrey C. Ingleton considers that Samuel Ward Flinders was the author of the sketch (see his Matthew Flinders, p. 424).

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171 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 285; Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 470; ML, Ann Flinders to Thomas Pitot, 29 July 1814, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). A transcript of Flinders’ will, proved at London on 26 August 1814, is included in Mack, Matthew Flinders, 1774–1814 (Melbourne, 1966), pp. 249–53. 172 ML, Ann Flinders to Thomi Pitot, 19 September 1814, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14); Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 472. 173 Peter Ashley, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy, (Clanfield, Hants., 2005), pp. 15–16, 65. 174 McCrae, ‘Historical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Flinders’, p. 23. 175 Stephen Milazzo, ‘Flinders’ Last Illness: The Final Five Months of the Journal, February to July 1814: A Medical Interpretation’ in Brown and Dooley, eds, Matthew Flinders Private Journal, pp. 506–11 (quotation on pp. 506–7). 176 NMM, Will of Matthew Flinders, 6 July 1812, Flinders Papers, FLI/06. 177 Quoted in Catherine Retter and Shirley Sinclair, Letters to Ann: The Love Story of Matthew Flinders and Ann Chappelle (Sydney, 2001), p. 141. 178 Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin to Robert Brown, 18 August 1814, MS 248/296/1, Sir John Franklin Collection. 179 NMM, Isabella Tyler, Biographical Outline of Captain and Mrs Flinders, 1852, Flinders Papers, FLI/107. 180 ML, Ann Flinders to Charles Hursthouse, 28 December 1814, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). 181 Klaus Toft, The Navigators: Flinders vs Baudin (Sydney, 2002), pp. 329–30. 182 TNA, ADM 1/1811, F 137, Robert Brice to J. W. Croker, 12 September 1814. 183 Estensen, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 474–5. Pious sentiments and financial woes are the twin themes in Ann’s letters from 1821 to 1832 preserved at the NMM: see FLI/10. Ann’s letters written to relatives between 1827 and 1849 survive in a private collection: see Elizabeth Gertsakis, ‘The Lost Letters of Ann Chappelle Flinders’ in Anne Chittleborough, Gillian Dooley, Brenda Glover and Rick Hosking, eds, Alas, for the Pelicans! Flinders, Baudin & Beyond (Kent Town, SA, 2002), p. 105. 184 Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, pp. 286, 288 (quotation). 185 Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, John Franklin to Robert Brown, 9 June 1815, MS 248/296/5, Sir John Franklin Collection. 186 Monthly Review, 77 (1815), pp. 35–6.

Epilogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 140. Flinders to Charles Baudin, 12 September 1808, in Brunton, ed., Matthew Flinders, p. 189. ML, Flinders to J. S. Clarke, 21 May 1813, Matthew Flinders letterbook (1810–14). Robert Kerr, General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, 18 vols (London, 1824), 18, p. 462. Scott, The Life of Matthew Flinders, p. 54. G. S. Graham, Great Britain in the Indian Ocean 1810–1850 (Oxford, 1967), pp. 406–43. The navigation of Torres Strait was further advanced in nautical surveys carried out in the 1830s and 1840s. Two studies by Jordan Goodman cover this topic: ‘Making Imperial Space: Settlement, Surveying and Trade in Northern Australia in

Notes

8 9 10 11 12

13 14

15 16

269

the Nineteenth Century’ in David Killingray, Margarette Lincoln and Nigel Rigby, eds, Maritime Empires: British Imperial Maritime Trade in the Nineteenth Century (Woodbridge, 2004), pp. 134, 136–7, 139–40, and The Rattlesnake: A Voyage of Discovery to the Coral Sea (London, 2005). Robert Brown, ‘The Late Captain Flinders’, The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle (January 1854), p. 30. O. H. K. Spate, ‘Baudin and Flinders’ in R. W. Russell, ed., Matthew Flinders – The Ifs of History (Bedford Park, SA, 1979), p. 87. J. Lort Stokes, Discoveries in Australia…, 2 vols (London, 1846), ii, p. 515. NMM, John Franklin to Ann Flinders, 27 December 1842, Letters received by Mrs Flinders from Sir John Franklin (1810–42), Flinders Papers, FLI/27. Brian Samuels, ‘South Australian Relics, Memorials and other Commemorations in Matthew Flinders’ and Nicolas Baudin’s Expeditions’, South Australian Geographical Journal, 99 (2000), pp. 48–51. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, pp. 100–1. Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N. Unveiling of Statue by His Excellency the Earl of Stradbroke, Governor of the State of Victoria, 8th November, 1925, at 3 o’clock, in St. Paul’s Cathedral Grounds, Swanston Street, Melbourne (Melbourne, 1925), p. 12. Adelaide Advertiser, 13 April 1934; Jude Elton, ‘Matthew Flinders Memorial’ (http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au). Andrew Hough, ‘Life-Size Bronze Statue of Explorer Matthew Flinders to Be Erected at London’s Euston Station’, Adelaide Advertiser, 25 July 2013.

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Index Aboriginal art 125 Aborigines 23–4, 36, 40, 78–9, 83, 86, 96, 99, 104–5, 118, 120, 125–7, 169 Adelaide 199–200 Admiral Troup 26 Admiralty 49, 58–60, 63, 73, 97–100, 112, 144, 155, 162–4, 171, 175, 180–8, 190–2, 197 Adventure 27 Adventure Bay 8, 42–3 Aiton, William 181 Aitutaki 10 Aken, John 121, 126, 136, 140, 143, 147, 151, 153, 156, 163 Albany 77–8, 175 Albatross Bay 118 Alder, George 147 Alert 6 Alexander, William 52 Allemene 50 Allen, John 52, 71, 141, 167, 179 Allen’s Island 120 Alt, Matthew Bowles 114 Amsterdam 19 anchors 111–12, 137 anteater 33 anti-scorbutics 65 apothecary 4 Arafura Sea 114, 128 Armstrong, Archibald 34 Armstrong Channel 134 Arnhem 128, 130 Arnhem Land 48, 126, 130, 177, 198 Arnhem North Bay 61, 129, 133 Arnhem South Bay 126, 128, 130 Arnold, John 52, 54, 69, 71, 98, 119 Arnold no. 176 69, 98 Arnold no. 82 69, 98 Arrowsmith, Aaron 25, 41–3, 48, 53, 60–2, 65, 91, 93, 117, 135, 184, 187, 191–2 Arrowsmith, John 184–5, 190

Arrowsmith, T., 190 Arthur’s Seat 96 artificial horizon 21 Ascension Island 11 Assistant 8, 11–12 Astell Island 130 Astronomer Royal 70, 185 astronomy 6, 20–1, 52, 55, 68–9, 76–7, 83, 99, 138, 185–6, 193 atlas 191–2 Augusta 86 Austin, K. A. vii Australia 188, 192 Bald Head 79, 136 Balmain, William 37 Baltimore 163 Bampton, William Wright 114–15 Bankes, Thomas 61 Banks, Sir Joseph viii, 7, 13, 19–20, 31, 37–8, 42, 45–6, 48–59, 63–5, 68, 72, 100, 103, 112, 134–40, 142, 155, 158–9, 161–3, 167–9, 170–2, 164–6, 180, 182–5, 187–9, 193–4 Bankstown 23 Bantam 117 Barnet, James 183 barometer 70 Barrallier, Francis 186 Barrow, John 180 Bass, Elizabeth 39 Bass, George viii, 3, 21–5, 27–9, 33–8,41, 43, 57, 68, 91–2, 139, 169, 191 Bass Strait 27, 29, 32, 35, 37–9, 41–2, 46, 51, 53, 56, 60–1, 90–4, 96, 98–9, 102, 131, 133, 136–7, 162–3, 167–8, 184, 186, 188–9, 198 Batavia 82, 145 Batavia River 118, 135 Bateman Bay 43 Bates, Daisy 78

Index Baudin, Charles 160, 164 Baudin, Nicolas 49, 89–94, 97, 100–1, 128, 135, 139, 148–9, 151, 158–9, 161, 164–5 Bauer, Ferdinand ix, 52, 64, 71, 95, 125, 139, 141, 146, 167–73, 175, 199 Bauer, Franz 52 Bauer, Joseph Anton 168 Bay of Inlets 51, 63, 110 Baye du Cap 148–9 Bayly, William 27 Beagle 122 Beautemps-Beaupré, Charles 55, 60, 77, 80 Bedford 183 Bell, Hugh 52, 65, 79, 126, 131, 137, 139, 142 Bellerophon 7, 10, 13–15, 17, 21, 183 Bentinck Island 120, 122 Bergeret, Jacques 154 Bickerton Island 125 Bickerton, Sir Richard 189 Bishop, Charles 32, 37, 139 Black, John 42 Blaeu, Joan 19, 61 Blane, Sir Gilbert 52 Blaxland, Gregory 25 Bligh, William 7–10, 12–13, 17, 36, 110, 114–16, 181–2 Bloodhound 182 Blue Mountains 25, 27, 168, 170 Blue-mud Bay 126 Boand, Johann 161 Board of Longitude 9, 19, 52, 69 Bolger, Etienne 148 Bombay Marine 35–6 boobies 113 Booby Isle 116 Bosanquet Island 130 botany 7, 49, 51–2, 55, 64–5, 68, 71, 78, 80, 83, 94, 106, 108, 112, 120, 122–3, 126, 133–4, 140–2, 167–77, 199 Botany Bay 17, 19, 22–3, 26, 28, 43, 49, 100, 137, 191 Boullanger, Charles 93 Bountiful Islands 122 Bounty 8–10, 13, 114–15, 135 Bourbon 50, 194 Bowen, Emanuel 61

303

Bowen, John 168 Braytoft 57 Brazil 20 breadfruit 7–8, 10–12, 17 Breaksea Island 79 Breaksea Spit 104 Bridgewater 139, 142–5, 147, 191 Bristol 194 Britannia 25 Broad Sound 108–10, 112, 120, 167 Broken Bay 22, 43, 104, 191 Brookes, Richard 67 Broughton, W. R., 43, 52 Brown, Robert ix, 51–2, 64–5, 67–8, 71, 78–9, 86–8, 96, 99, 103, 105, 108–9, 112, 114, 118, 120, 122–4, 128, 134, 141, 167–76, 186–7, 190, 199 Bruny Island 8, 36, 43, 169 Buffalo 141, 147 Bulmer, William 184 Bundaberg 105 Bungaree 40, 99, 108, 126, 200 Burnett River 105 Burney Island 126 Burney, James 188 Bustard Bay 105 Bustard Island 126 Byrne, John 191 Byron, John 184 Cadell & Davies 117 Calcutta 169 Calcutta 35, 37, 51 Calder Island 111 Caledon Bay 126–8 Caley, George 55, 100, 103, 170, 186 Calvert River 123 Campbell, John 19 Campbell, William Douglas 43, 110 Canoe Rivulet 23 Canton 32, 146–7 Cape Adieu 92 Cape Arnhem 128, 130, 135, 155 Cape Banks 46, 90, 191 Cape Barren Island 33–4, 37, 44, 188 Cape Bauer 83 Cape Bridgewater 98, 136, 184, 192 Cape Byron 40 Cape Catastrophe 85

304 Cape Chatham 72 Cape Flattery 48, 51, 61, 63, 110, 113 Cape Grafton 113 Cape Grim 35 Cape Horn 10, 44, 170 Cape Howe 32 Cape Jervis 184, 192 Cape Keer-Weer 117 Cape Leeuwin 61, 72, 75, 90–1, 98, 101, 136, 167 Cape Manifold 105 Cape Maria 124 Cape Northumberland 101, 136 Cape of Good Hope 8, 20, 25–7, 37, 54, 67–9, 71–2, 98–9, 121, 138, 140, 146–8, 150–1, 165–6, 172, 181 Cape Otway 35, 46, 94, 137, 191 Cape Portland 34 Cape Schanck 98 Cape Spencer 87 Cape Town 11, 67 Cape Tribulation 110 Cape Turnaround 117 Cape Van Diemen 122, 133 Cape Vanderlin 124 Cape Verde Islands 65 Cape Weymouth 48, 61, 110 Cape Wollamai 96 Cape York 17, 19, 22, 48, 51, 61, 103, 110, 113–14, 117, 163, 192 Caribbean 7–8, 10 Carpentier, Pieter de 117 Carstenz, Jan 117 Carter, James 147 Carteret, Philip 184 Casuarina 102 Cato 142–5, 191 Ceduna 82 Centre Island 124 Chappelle, Ann 20, 28, 38, 56–8, 60, 135, 138, 154, 179, 182, 194 Chappelle Isles 33 Charrington, Edward 147 charts 11, 31, 36, 42–3, 48, 53, 55, 61–2, 72, 76–7, 81, 83, 91–3, 98, 100–3, 110, 115, 117–19, 122, 124–5, 131, 135, 139, 149, 162, 184–5 Chasm Island 125, 176 Chateaubriand, François René de 161

Index Chatham 7 Chatham 75, 149 Chazal, Toussaint Antoine de 160 Chesterfield 114 Chevreau, Pierre Paulin 160 China 19, 32, 37, 52, 63, 124, 129, 145, 164 Chobham 194 Christian, Fletcher 8 Christianity 4 chronometer 9–11, 13, 28, 31–2, 54, 69–71, 77, 98, 103, 108–9, 118–19 Clarence River 40 Clarke’s Island 44 Cobourg Peninsula 198 Coen River 118 Coffin, Isaac 50 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 72 Collins, David 28 compass 21, 23, 28, 31, 70, 107, 189–90 convicts 9, 17, 19–20, 23, 27, 48 Cook, James 6–9, 11, 19, 27, 36, 39, 42–3, 48–9, 51, 55, 63, 65–6, 99, 103–10, 113, 115–16 copper sheathing 49–50 coral reef 110–11, 113 Coral Sea 114 Corner Inlet 32 Cowley, Thomas 5 Cox, John Henry 42, 192 Crookhaven River 27 Crosley, John 52, 68–9, 138, 185 Cumberland 146–53, 163, 190–1 Cumberland Islands 104 Curtis Island 96, 105 Curtis, Sir Roger 67 Cygnet 18 D’Unienville, Marie Claude Antoine 148 Dalrymple, Alexander 19, 34, 41–2, 55, 60, 66, 115, 135, 163 Dampier, William 18, 61, 135 Daniell, William 52 D’Arifat, Delphine 156 D’Arifat, Louise 156, 183 Darwin 98 Deal Island 168 Decaen, Charles Mathieu Isadore 148–54, 156–60, 164–6, 183, 186 Decrès, Denis 157

Index Défait, Monsieur 160 Defoe, Daniel 5 Dell, Joseph 6 Denial Bay 83 D’Entrecasteaux, Bruni 36, 49, 55, 60, 72, 75, 77, 79, 81, 92, 186, 192 Deptford 43, 110 Deptford 7, 20 Derwent River 35–6, 169, 188 Desbassayns, Charles 160 Dictator 7 dipping needle 69–70 Discovery 72, 75 Dollond, John 69 Donington 3–5, 17, 179, 194, 200 Dooley, Gillian 161 Double Island Point 104 Doubtful Islands 79 Douglas, Charles 136 Dryander, Jonas 52, 170, 172–3 Duchess 35 duckbill platypus 173 ducks 81 Duke 43 Duke of Clarence 35 Duke of Portland 28, 60 Dutch East India Company (VOC) 67–8, 75, 82 Duyfken 18, 117–18 eagles 88 Earl Camden 147 Earl of St Vincent 60, 191 Earnshaw no. 1503 10 Earnshaw no. 465 69 Earnshaw no. 520 68 Earnshaw no. 543 68 Earnshaw, Thomas 52, 54, 69, 71 East Cove 168 East India Company 9, 36, 51, 54, 67, 130–1, 133, 147, 155, 164 East Indies 8, 10 Eastern Group 81 echidna 28 Edels Land 90 Edwards, Edward 9, 114 Elder, John 139, 147, 151, 153, 156, 163, 183 Eliza 28, 34, 43, 110

305

Ellis, Elizabeth 4 emus 96 Encounter Bay 89–93, 101, 191, 200 Endeavour 7, 11, 19, 27, 39, 43, 51, 55, 63, 103, 106, 110, 113, 116, 118, 163, 173, 191 Endeavour River 110, 134 Endeavour Strait 110 English Company Islands 128 Entrance Island 106 Equator 65–6 Espérance 75 Estensen, Miriam viii eucalyptus 88, 171 Euclid 5 Evans, Thomas 183 eye-sketch 36 Eyre Peninsula 83–4, 92 Fiji 10 Fitzroy River 105 Flat Isles 108 Fleurieu, Charles Pierre Claret de 65–6, 157 Fleurieu Peninsula 197 Flinders, Ann. See Chappelle, Ann Flinders, Anne 182 Flinders, Hannah 4 Flinders, Henrietta 4, 6, 135, 179 Flinders Island 83 Flinders, John (brother) 4 Flinders, John (cousin) 5–6 Flinders, John (grandfather) 3 Flinders, Dr Matthew 3–7, 10, 12, 15, 17, 50, 57, 68, 138–9 Flinders, Matthew ambition of 56, 122, 180, 199 and Bass Strait 32–8 becomes a lieutenant 26 and the Cape of Good Hope 25–6, 67–71 charts of 11, 41–3, 100–1, 112, 151, 155–6, 162–4, 184–7, 190–3, 197–8 childhood 3–6 daughter of 182–3 description of 17 education 5–6 at the Ile de France 148–66 illness of 159, 190, 193–4 and the Investigator 49–142

306

Index

kidney problems 21, 193–4 marriage of 57 and naval battles 14–15 naval training of 7 and nomenclature of Australia 187 and the Norfolk 31–7, 39–41 and patronage 6, 10, 45–58, 155, 158, 183–4, 188–9, 193 and the Sydney Cove 28–9, 31 and the Tom Thumb 23–5 and Van Diemen’s Land 34–6 and venereal disease 9 wills of 57, 194 and Wreck Reef 143–7, 160 Flinders Passage 113 Flinders Petrie, Anne 194 Flinders Ranges 86 Flinders, Samuel Ward 4, 18, 26, 50, 53, 64–5, 68–9, 79, 108, 147, 182, 185, 193–4 Flinders, Susanna 3–4 Flock Pigeon Island 108 Fornasiero, Jean 150 Fowler, Robert, x, 52, 84, 108, 126, 133, 144, 147, 170, 183, 190 Fowler’s Bay 81, 88, 176 France 64, 158, 166, 186 Francis 28, 31–2, 35, 44, 141, 145, 147, 191 Franklin, John ix, 68, 85, 147, 179–80 Franklin, Mary 20 Franklin, Thomas 58 Franklin, Willingham 72 Fraser Island 104 Freeman, Walter 183 Freycinet, Henry 100 Freycinet, Louis de 102, 165, 184,187 Funchal 64 Furneaux Islands 28–9, 31–3, 37, 42–3, 53, 96, 188–9 Furneaux, Tobias 27, 36, 43, 61, 192 Garden Island 138 Gedling 3 geese 81, 83 George 183 George’s River 22–3, 168 Gerritz, Hessel 18 Gladstone 105 Glass House Bay 39–40

Glass-House Mountains 41 Glatton 69, 112 Glennie Islands 27 Glorious First of June 14–15, 17 Goat Island 82 Golphe Bonaparte 164 Golphe Josephine 164 Good, Peter ix, 51, 65–6, 71, 78–9, 86–8, 96, 99, 103, 105, 121–2, 124, 126, 129, 136, 138, 176 Goose Island 81, 136–7 Gosberton 3 Grant, Grant 44–7, 49, 98, 164 Grays Bay 126 Great Australian Bight 81, 83, 92, 137 Great Barrier Reef 103–4, 109–13, 116, 143, 173, 198 Great Oyster Bay 192 Great Sandy Peninsula 104 Greenhalgh, James 137 Green Island 34, 77 Greenwich 68, 70 Grenadines 11 Greville, Charles Francis 134 Grimes, Charles 25, 43, 161, 186, 191 Groote Eylandt 125–6 Gulden Zeepaard 82 Gulf of Carpentaria 41, 47, 51, 56, 60–2, 85, 88, 91, 102, 104, 108–9, 112, 114–15, 117–120, 122–3, 126, 129–32, 139, 151, 156, 176, 187, 192, 198 Gulf St Vincent 87–8, 164, 197 Hadley, John 70 Halfway/Zuizin Island 114 Hamelin, Emanuel 97, 161 Hamilton, Guy 28, 186 Harbinger 94 Harriet 166 Harrison, John 9 Hawkesbury River 99, 102, 140, 146, 168 Hawkesworth, John 11 Hayes, John 35–6, 42–3 Heir Apparent 183 herbarium 49 Hergest, Richard 27 Hervey Bay 39, 41, 79, 85, 103, 105, 108, 110, 112

Index Hervey Isles 106–7 Heywood, Peter 186 Hillier, William 136 Hitch, Frederick Brook 200 Hobart 168 Hogan’s Group 96 Holroyd River 118 Hood Point 79 Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton 174 Hope 146 Hope, Hugh 165–6 Horbling 5 Horseshoe Island 120 Howe, Admiral Richard 13–14 Hull 179 Hunter 156 Hunter, John 17, 20–3, 25–9, 31–2, 34–7, 41, 45, 47, 49, 85, 161, 181, 186, 191 Hunter’s Isles 35, 94 Hunter’s River 168, 186 Hurd, Thomas 185, 193 Hutton, Charles 69 Hydra 53 hydrography 29, 81 Ile de France 50, 88, 97, 148–66, 179–81, 183, 189–90, 192, 194, 197–8 Ilha das Enxadas 21 India 54, 133, 141, 158 Indian Head 104 Indonesia 63 Ingleton, Geoffrey C. viii, 122 Inglis Island 130 Inman, James 69, 99, 138, 142, 183 Institut de France 19, 158 Investigator 3, 19, 27, 45, 49–54, 58–69, 71–3, 76–9, 81–90, 92–6, 98–9, 101–5, 107–14, 117–18, 120–6, 128– 40, 142, 145–8, 150–1, 154, 158–9, 161, 163, 167–8, 170–1, 173–5, 177, 179–92, 195, 197, 199 Investigator Group 83 Investigator’s Road 120 Isle Decrès 164 Jamaica 10, 12, 21 Janszoon, Willem 18, 117 Java 117 Jervis Bay 27, 32, 43

307

Jode, Cornelis de 18 Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de 71, 173 Kangaroo Island 86–8, 91–2, 136–7, 164, 198, 200 kangaroos 28, 33–4, 81, 87–8, 96 Kemp, Samuel 27 Kendall, Larcum 99 Kendall River 118 Kent, William 22, 26, 181 Kents Bay 34, 44 Kents Group 28–9, 32, 96, 98, 168–9 Keppel Bay 105, 108, 143 Kerr, Robert 197 Kew Gardens 52, 63–4, 170, 175, 181, 199 kidney problems 21 King George Sound 37, 51–2, 56, 62, 71–3, 75–9, 83, 87, 126, 128, 132, 136, 162, 167, 176 King Island, Bass Strait 42, 90, 94, 97–8, 101, 163, 191 King, Philip Gidley 36–7, 42, 45–7, 64, 98–100, 102–3, 110, 112, 116, 139–42, 145–6, 148, 150, 154, 156–8, 162–3, 167, 186 King, Philip Parker 135–6, 193 King Sound 17 Kirkby Island 86 koalas 173 Kooranup 78–9 Kupang 10–11, 133–5, 147 Labauve, Paul David 156 Lacy, Denis 126, 146–7, 183 Lady Barlow 169 Lady Nelson 44–7, 49, 51, 60, 75, 96–8, 103–5, 108–13, 116, 137, 140–1, 163, 168–9, 191 La Fontaine, Jean de 160 Lake Alexandrina 93 Lake Illawarra 23 Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste 173 La Pérouse, Jean-François de Galaup 49, 60, 65, 72, 75, 87, 100, 102, 108, 160–1, 184, 186–7, 191–2 latitude 21, 37, 65, 68, 110, 119 Laurie & Whittle 117 Laurie, Robert 6 Lawson, William 25

308

Index

Le Géographe 89–90, 92–4, 97–8, 100–2, 130, 135, 147–50, 158, 160 Le Havre 90, 172 Le Naturaliste 89–90, 93, 97, 101, 130, 148–9, 161 Le Sage, Alain-René 161 Lewis, Henry 147 Lincoln 6, 57 Lincolnshire 5, 13, 52, 56, 60, 179, 181 Lindeman, John Lindestz 66 Linnean Society 51, 171, 174 Little Nore 57 Liverpool 170 livestock 26 lizards 88 logbooks 12–13, 117, 151, 186 London 3, 41, 49, 51, 55, 59, 100, 146, 153, 158, 171–2, 174–5, 179–82, 184–6, 199 longitude 9, 20–1, 62, 68, 70, 77, 99, 109–10, 115–16 Lord Mulgrave. See Phipps, Henry Lound, Sherrard 183 Lucky Bay 78, 80, 167 lunar distances 21, 70, 77 Mabberley, David 174 Mack, James D. vii Mackay, David 39 Mackenzie Island 105 Mackenzie, Murdoch 69 Macquarie, Lachlan 188 Madagascar 152, 165 Madeira 64–5 Maer Island 110, 113 Makassar 129–30 Malacca Straits 147 Malay Road 130 man-midwife 4 maps 18–19, 25, 41–3, 48, 55, 60–2, 117–18, 184 Marchand, Etienne 165 Maria Island 124, 188 marines 78 marriage 57–8 Mart, Russell 121, 140, 143, 183 Martin Isles 24 Martin, William 23 Maskelyne, Nevil 52, 68

Masson, Francis 64 Matavai Bay 8, 11 mathematical tables 69 Matilda 9 Matra, James Mario 19 McCluer, John 133 medicine 3–4 Melanesians 113–14 Melville Bay 128 Melville Island 87, 133, 198 Memory Cove 84–5 Menzies, Archibald 51 Middle Island 81, 109, 136 Middle Mount Barren 79 Middleton, Charles Theodore 67 Milazzo, Stephen 193–4 Milius, Pierre Bernard 158 Milton, John 161 mimosa 88 mineralogy 52, 55 Minto, Lord 165 Mississippi Hill 81 Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin 160 Moluccas 124 Monistrol, Louis Augustin Fulcher de 150, 156, 166 Montague Isle 43 Monte Bello Islands 135 Monthly Review 195 Moore, Henry 20 Moore, John Hamilton 5 Moore, Thomas 103, 139–40 Moreton Bay 40–1, 85, 103 Morgan, Benjamin 126 Morgan Island 126, 176 Mornington Island 122 Mornington peninsula 95–6, 175 Mount Brown 86 Mount Chappelle 28 Mount Clarence 77 Mount Dromedary 43 Mount Flinders 122 Mount Gambier 46 Mount Greenly 83 Mount Lofty 200 Mount-Pitt birds 28, 83 Mount Wellington 169 Mount Westall 107 Murat, Hyacinthe 165

Index Murray Islanders 113–14 Murray, John 98, 104, 110, 112, 163, 186, 191 Murray River 93 Murrays Island 110, 113–14, 116 mutiny 8 The Mysteries of Udolpho 38 Nairne and Blunt 69 Nanbaree 99 Napoléon 159 Nautilus 32–4, 37, 44 Naval Chronicle 193 navigation 6, 12, 28, 32, 108, 110, 113–14, 116, 162, 182, 198 Navy Board 49, 53, 181 Nebinyan 78 Nelson, David 135 Nepean Bay 200 Nepean, Evan 54, 60 New Caledonia 108 New Guinea 11, 17, 35, 110, 113–14, 133 New Hebrides 11 New Holland 18, 37–8, 41, 47–8, 50–1, 55–6, 62–3, 68, 86–8, 91, 98, 101, 105, 121, 130, 133, 140, 151, 155, 167, 172–3, 187, 198 New South Wales 3, 11, 17, 19–23, 26, 28–9, 32, 38–9, 41, 44–6, 48–9, 51, 53, 56, 61–2, 79, 85, 91, 93, 99–101, 110, 121, 138, 141–2, 149, 151, 155, 167–9, 174, 182, 186–8, 194, 197, 199 New South Wales Corps 21, 28 New Year Island 133 New Zealand 7–8, 25 Newcastle 170 Nichols, John 53 Nicol, George 184–5 Nore 59 Norfolk 27, 31–42, 60, 103, 105, 137, 163, 169, 191 Norfolk Island 21, 25, 31, 44, 169, 172 North Island 124 Northumberland Islands 53, 108 Nullabor Plain 81 Nuyts Archipelago 92 Nuyts Land 47, 93, 101 Nuyts, Pieter 82

309

Obrey, Mary 3 Ocean 169 Olive, John 183 Olympia 166 Otter 166 Owen, William 179 Oxford 52 Oxley, John 188 Oyster Harbour 72, 76–8 Pacific Ocean 19 Paine, Daniel 23 Palmer, Edward Hanmore 143–5 Pandora 9, 114–15, 163, 186 Pandoras Passage 114 Panther 133 parakeets 33 Paris 19, 90–1, 157, 160, 172, 186 Park, John 143, 145 Park, Mungo 45, 51 Parramatta 170 parrots 7–8 Partney 57, 179 Partney Island 86 Pasley, Sir Thomas 6–7, 10–11, 130–15, 26 passport 53, 60, 89–90, 148–9, 156 Paterson, William 162, 186 patronage 6, 8, 17, 19, 45–6, 50–1, 58 pelicans 87–8 Pellew, Sir Edward 157–8 penguins 28, 81 Pera 128 Percy Islands 109 Péron, François 91, 102, 149, 165, 172, 186–7 Peru 17 Petrel Bay 82–3 petrels 113 Petrie, William Flinders vii Phillip, Arthur 21–2 Phillip Island 27 Phipps, Henry 176 pigeons 87–8 Pisonia Island 123 Pitot de la Beaujardière, Thomi 159–60, 164, 183 Pitot, Edouard 159 Pitt the Younger, William 19, 54 Plaines Wilhelms 156

310

Index

plant cabin 53, 63 plantains 10 Pobassoo 129–30, 177 Pobassoo Island 130 Point Alexander 126 Point Hicks 27, 101 Point Solander 23 Point Upright 43 Point Venus 10 Point Westall 82 Pompee 183 Pond, John 185 Pondicherry 151–2 Porpoise 45, 96, 139–47, 162–3, 167–8, 176, 190–1 Port Bowen 106 Port Curtis 105 Port Dalrymple 34–5, 42–3, 53, 101, 168–9, 186, 191 Port Hacking 23, 25, 43 Port Hunter 191 Port Jackson 20–4, 27, 31–2, 36–41, 43–6, 55, 58–9, 62, 68–9, 71, 73, 75, 79, 85, 87, 89, 92, 96–8, 100–4, 108–9, 112, 121–2, 126, 128, 130–1, 135–40, 145–8, 150–1, 156, 164, 167–71, 173, 183, 188, 191 Port Jervis Bay 188 Port Lincoln 85–8, 137, 199 Port Louis 148–54, 156 Port Phillip 94–9, 101, 169, 175, 191 Port Royal 12 Port Stephens 43 Port St Vincent 188 Portland Bay 47 Portlock, Nathaniel 8 Porto Santo 64 Portsea 95 Portsmouth 8, 15, 20, 44, 46, 50, 58, 60, 152, 183, 189 Possession Island 11, 19 possum 84 praus 129 Preservation Island 33, 35, 42 Prince of Wales’ Isles 119 Princess Royal Harbour 72, 76–9 Pringle, Thomas 26 Prospect Hill 87 Proteacaeae 71, 173

Providence 7–8, 10–13, 21, 65, 114–15, 134, 159, 186, 194 Providential Cove 25 provisions 25, 27, 31, 60 Pulo Penang 164 Purdie, Robert 183 Pye, John 191 quails 88 Queen Charlotte 15 Quoin Island 105 Radcliffe, Ann 38 Rams Head 37, 53 Ramsden, Jesse 52, 68–9 rats 33 Recherche Archipelago 55, 79–81, 136, 175, 198 Red Cliff Point 86 Red Point 43 Reid, William 94 Reliance 17, 20–3, 25–7, 31, 35, 37–9, 44–6, 60, 65, 96, 189 Relph’s Bay 36 Rennell, James 189 Resolution 8, 27, 149 Resource 146 Revesby Abbey 13 Revesby Island 86 Révolutionnaire 14 Richards, Mark 200 Riedlé, Anselm 135 Rio de Janeiro 20–1 Risdon Cove 99, 168–9 River Tamar 169 River Van Alphen 123 rivers 23, 39, 41, 75, 83, 86–7, 93, 109, 118, 123, 164 Robbins, Charles 191 Robertson, John 5–6 Robinson Crusoe 5, 7, 131, 193 Robinson River 123 Robinson, Nicholas 20 Roebuck 18 Rolla 140–1, 145–7 Rosemary Isles 61, 98, 155, 164, 192 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 161 Royal Navy 9 Royal Observatory, Greenwich 70

Index Royal Society 19 Ruddington 3 Sable Island/St Pauls 65 Saddle Point 24 St Alöuarn, Louis Aleno de 75 St Francis Island 82, 92, 197 St Helena 10, 44 St Lucia 11 St Peter Island 82, 92, 197 St Vincent 10 Sandy Cape 103–4, 145, 167 sauerkraut 72 Saxemberg Island 66 science 19, 49, 52, 55, 68, 90, 134, 159, 167–77 Scilly Islands 14 Scipio 6–7 Scott, Ernest vii, 46, 194, 197 Scott, John 191 Scott, William 139, 141–2 scurvy 65, 100, 153 sea-eagle 84 Seal Island 77 seals 28, 32, 34, 83, 87, 136 Semau Strait 134 Serruria 71 sextant 21, 31, 69, 83 sexual intercourse 9 shark 85 Shark’s Bay 72 Shaw Hormazier 114–15 Sheerness 49–50, 53, 57, 182, 189 Shillinglaw, John J. vii Shinglar, John 5 ship magnetism 165, 189 shipwreck 28, 143–5 Shoal Bay 39–40 Shoalwater Bay 107–8, 110 Shortland, John 43 Simons Bay 67, 71 Simons Town 71 Simpson, Roger 32, 44 Sinclair, Kennet 183 Sir Edward Pellew Islands 123–4, 133, 191 Sir Joseph Banks Group 86 Sirius 17, 22 Sisters 188 Skelton, R. A. 192

311

sketches 170, 174, 177 Sloane, Sir Hans 64 Smith, Bernard 177 Smith, Christopher 7, 37–8, 135 Smith, Francis 147 Smith, James Edward 171 Smith, S. W. 191 Smith, Samuel ix, 66, 83, 90 Smith, William 147 Smyth, William Henry 17 Snug Cove 32 Societé d’Emulation 158, 160 Solander, Daniel 64 Solitary Isles 39 Southampton 194 South Australia 191, 199 South-East Cape 36 South-West Cape 36 Spalding 5 Spencer Gulf 83–7, 92, 156, 164, 176, 197 Spilsby Island 4, 86, 120 Spithead 20, 58–60, 64, 67–8, 189 Staaten River 119 Staël, Madame de 161 Stamford 181 Stamford Hill 85, 199 Station Peak 96 statues 200 Staunton, Sir George 52 Sterne, Laurence 26 Stokes, John Lort 122, 193 Storm Bay 36, 169 straits 26–8, 31, 35, 37–9, 47–8, 91, 93, 114–16, 119 Straits of Magellan 54 Streaky Bay 82 Sulawesi 129 Sullivans Cove 169 Supply 20, 22, 25–6, 31 surgeon 4, 21, 37 Swain, Captain 43, 110 Swan Bay 96 Swan Islands 34 swans 34 Sweers, Cornelius 119 Sweers Island 119–20, 122 Sydney 20, 37, 63, 79, 200 Sydney Cove 25, 92, 97, 99, 137, 142, 146 Sydney Cove 28, 31, 34

312 Table Bay 26, 67, 71 Table Cape 35 Table Mountain 169 Tahiti 8–10 taio 9 Tamar estuary 34 Tasman, Abel Janszoon 18 , 36 , 61–2 , 117–19 , 122 , 124 , 164 , 186–7 , 191 Tasmans River 123 Tellicherry 145 Tenerife 11, 20 tent observatory 68, 70, 77, 86 Termination Island 81 Terra Australis 187–8 Terra Australis Incognita 18 Terre Napoleon 164–5 theodolite 31, 69–70 thermometer 70 Thévonot, Melchisédec 19, 60–2, 118 Thijssen, François 82 Thirsty Sound 103, 107–9 Thistle Island 84 Thistle, John 27, 60, 85 tides 34–5, 43, 77, 79, 108–9 Timor 8, 10–11, 63, 90, 114, 133–5, 140, 147, 164, 172, 186 Timor Laut 129 Tippet, Jacob 147 Tom Thumb 23–5 Tonga Islands 10 Torres Strait 10–12, 51, 61–2, 87, 102, 108, 110, 113–16, 118, 122, 139–42, 146–7, 151, 162–3, 198 Torres Strait Islanders 10 trepang 128–30 trepangers 128–30, 135 Trial Rocks 63, 135, 192 Trial 63, 135 Trim 26 Turnbull, John 153 Twofold Bay 27, 32, 42, 53, 137 Tyler, Isabella 57 Tyler, William 57 Upper Head 108–9 Urquhart Islet 124 Ushant 14

Index Vancouver, George 37, 52, 54, 69, 72, 75, 77, 81, 99, 149, 155 Vanderlin Island 124 Van Diemen’s Land 3, 8, 17, 22, 26–9, 31–2, 34–8, 41–8, 61, 63, 79, 81, 85, 89, 91–2, 96–9, 137, 139, 140, 168, 170, 173, 182, 184, 186, 188, 191–2, 197, 199 Van Spult River 118 Veiertzen, Mynheer 147 venereal disease 9 Venus 10 Victor Harbor 200 Victoria 194 Vienna 175 Vlamingh, Willem de 192 Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet 160–1 A Voyage to Terra Australis 3, 83, 187, 194–5, 199 Waldegrave Islands 83 Wales, William 6 Walker, Ralph 21 wallabies 34, 83–4, 87 Wallis, Samuel 184 Warrior 183 watercolours 170 Waterhouse, Henry 17–18, 20–11, 23, 32, 37, 181 Wellesley, Arthur 122, 158 Wellesley’s Islands 122 Wells, John 182 Wentworth, William Charles 25 Wessel Islands 130 West, Benjamin 52 West Hill Island 108 West Indies 50 Westall, William ix, 52, 71, 79, 87, 95, 106 Western Australia 192 Western Port 27–8, 31, 34–5, 37, 42, 47, 53, 96, 98, 101, 186, 191 whaleboat 29, 50, 54, 118, 120, 126, 129 Wheatley Islet 124 Whitewood, John 126 Whitsunday Islands 110 Wide Bay 104 Wilberforce, William 180 Wiles, James 7, 13, 180

Index will 57, 194 Williams, Abraham 129 Wilson, Thomas 22 Wilsons Promontory 35, 46–7, 191 Winchelsea Island 126 Wingan Islet 27 Woga 126–7 wombat 33, 173 Wood, Greg 62

313

Wood, John 147 Woolmoth, William 191 Wreck Reef 144–7, 160, 167–9, 176–7, 198 Xenophon 49 yams 10 Yarra River 96 Yorke, Charles Philip 180, 191