The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 35

Flinders says:--

"TO THE STRAIT WHICH HAD BEEN THE GREAT OBJECT OF RESEARCH, AND WHOSE DISCOVERY WAS NOW COMPLETED, GOVERNOR HUNTER GAVE, AT MY RECOMMENDATION, THE NAME OF 'Ba.s.s'S STRAITS.' THIS WAS NO MORE THAN A JUST TRIBUTE TO MY WORTHY FRIEND AND COMPANION FOR THE EXTREME DANGERS AND FATIGUES HE HAD UNDERGONE IN FIRST ENTERING IT IN THE WHALE BOAT, AND TO THE CORRECT JUDGMENT HE HAD FORMED, FROM VARIOUS INDICATIONS, OF THE EXISTENCE OF A WIDE OPENING BETWEEN VAN DIEMAN'S LAND AND NEW SOUTH WALES."

In 1799, Flinders, in the NORFOLK, followed up Cook's discoveries in the neighbourhood of Gla.s.s House Bay, and in 1801 we must accompany him on his great voyage round Terra Australis.

The north coast of Australia, both from its more interesting formation and the lack of settlement, has received a good deal of attention from our navigators of the present century, and by far the most fascinating part of Captain Flinders' log refers to the north coast.

In 1802, we find him following the track of M. D'Entrecasteaux round the Great Bight. Flinders seems to have been as much puzzled as he was regarding the great extent of level cliffs pa.s.sed. He conjectures that within this bank, as he terms it, there could be nothing but sandy plains or water, and that, in all probability, it formed a barrier between an exterior and interior sea. He little thought how, some years afterwards, a lonely white man would tramp round those barren cliffs, eagerly scanning Flinders' chart for any sign of a break in their iron uniformity.

On February 16th, 1801, Matthew Flinders was promoted to the rank of commandant, and left England with the INVESTIGATOR, to prosecute his voyage to Terra Australis. His instructions were:--

"To make the best of your way to New Holland, running down the coast from 130 degrees east longitude to Ba.s.s'S Straits, putting, if you should find it necessary, into KING GEORGE THE THIRD'S HARBOUR for refreshments and water, previous to your commencing the survey, and on your arrival on the coast, use your best endeavour to discover such harbours as may be in those parts, and in case you shall discover any creek or opening likely to lead to an INLAND SEA OR STRAIT, you are at liberty either to examine it or not, as you 'shall judge it most expedient, until a more favourable opportunity shall enable you so to do.

"When it shall appear to you necessary, you shall repair to SYDNEY COVE, for the purpose of refreshing your people, refitting the sloop under your command, and consulting the Governor of New South Wales upon the best means of carrying on the survey of the coast; and having received from him such information as he may be able to communicate, and taken under your command the LADY NELSON tender, which you may expect to find in Sydney Cove, you are to recommence your survey by first diligently examining the coast from Ba.s.s'S Straits to KING GEORGE THE THIRD'S HARBOUR."

Flinders was then instructed to repair from time to time to Sydney Cove, to be very diligent in the examination, and to take particular care to insert in his journal every circ.u.mstance that might be useful to a full and complete knowledge of the coast--the wind, weather, the productions, comparative fertility of the soil, the manners and customs of the inhabitants, and to examine the country as far inland as it was prudent to venture with so small a party as could be spared from the vessel whenever a chance of discovering anything useful to the commerce or manufacturies of the United Kingdom.

From thence they were to explore the north-west coast of New Holland, where, from the extreme height of tides observed by Dampier, it was thought probable valuable harbours might be found; also the Gulf of Carpentaria and the parts to the westward. When that was completed, a careful investigation and accurate survey of Torres Straits; then an examination of the whole of the remainder of the north, the west, and the north-west coasts of New Holland.

"So soon as you shall have completed the whole of these surveys and examinations as above directed, you are to proceed to, and examine very carefully the east coast of New Holland, seen by Captain Cook, from Cape Flattery to the Bay of Inlets; and in order to refresh your people, and give the advantages of variety to the painters, you are at liberty to touch at the Fijis, or some other islands in the South Seas."

As soon as the whole of the examinations and surveys were completed, he was to lose no time in returning with the sloop under his command to England.

The vessel was fitted with a plant cabin for the purpose of making botanical collections for the Royal Gardens at Kew, and on each return to Sydney Cove, all plants, trees, shrubs, etc., were to be transferred to the Governor's garden until the INVESTIGATOR sailed for Europe.

King George's Sound being chosen as the place to prepare themselves for the examination of the south coast of Terra Australis, they anch.o.r.ed off Point Possession, on the south side of the entrance to Princess Royal Harbour, previous to wind and water being favourable for entering the harbour to refit and procure wood and fresh water.

Many excursions were made by the naturalist, botanist, and artist, and a new survey of King George's Sound made.

"On the east side of the entrance to Princess Royal Harbour we landed, and found a spot of ground six or eight feet square dug up and trimmed like a garden, and upon it was lying a piece of sheet copper bearing this inscription:--

"'AUGUST 27TH 1800. CHR. DIXON.

'--SHIP ELLEGOOD.'"

This answered the finding of the felled trees on Point Possession, also of the disappearance of the bottle left by Captain Vancouver in 1791, containing parchment that Flinders had looked for on landing.

In Flinders' description of the country in the neighbourhood of King George's Sound he says:--

"The basis stone is granite, which frequently shows itself at the surface in the form of smooth, bare rock; but upon the sea-coast hills and the sh.o.r.es on the south side of the sound and Princess Royal Harbour the granite is generally covered with a crust of calcareous stone, as it is also upon Michaelmas Island. Captain Vancouver mentions having found upon the top of Bald Head branches of coral protruding through the sand, exactly like those seen in the coral beds beneath the surface of the sea--a circ.u.mstance which would seem to bespeak this country to have emerged from the ocean at no very distant period of time.

"This curious fact I was desirous to verify, and his description proved to be correct. I found, also, two broken columns of stone, three or four feet high, formed like stumps of trees, and of a thickness superior to the body of a man, but whether this was coral or wood now petrified, or whether they might not have been calcareous rocks worn into that particular form by the weather I cannot determine. Their elevation above the present level of the sea could not have been less than four hundred feet."

On January 4th, 1802, a bottle containing parchment, to inform future visitors of their arrival and departure, was left on the top of Seal Island, and on the morrow they sailed out of King George's Sound to continue the survey eastwards. They anch.o.r.ed on the 28th in Fowler's Bay--the extremity of the then known south coast of Terra Australis.

Off Cape Catastrophe, a cutter, with eight men, was sent on sh.o.r.e in search of an anchorage where water could be procured. Nothing of the boat and crew was again seen but the wreck of the boat showing that it had been stove in by the rocks. After a careful but hopeless search for the men, their pressing need for water caused them to abandon further delay, and they left to examine the opening to the northward.

"I caused an inscription to be engraven upon a sheet of copper, and set it up on a stout post at the head of the cove, which I named Memory Cove, and further to commemorate our loss, I gave each of the six islands nearest to Cape Catastrophe the name of one of the seamen."

Flinders sailed up the gulf, which he called Spencer's Gulf, and had a long look towards the interior from the summit of Mount Brown.

The Gulf of St. Vincent then fell to his share to discover, and shortly afterwards he met with the French ship LE GeOGRAPHE Captain Baudin; says Flinders:--

"We veered round as LE GeOGRAPHE was pa.s.sing, so as to keep our broadside to her, lest the flag of truce should be a deception, and having come to the wind on the other tack, a boat was hoisted out, and I went on board the French ship, which had also hove to."

The two Captains exchanged pa.s.sports and information, but Flinders was afterwards much annoyed to find on the publication of M. Peron's book, that all his late discoveries had been rechristened with French names, and, in fact, his work ignored completely. Parting from the French ship in Encounter Bay, as he named it, the English navigator sailed for Port Jackson.

Suddenly coming to the Harbour of Port Phillip, Flinders thinks he has entered Port Western, but finds his mistake next morning; then congratulates himself upon having made a new and most useful discovery, he says:--

"There I was again in error, this place, as I afterwards learned in Port Jackson had been discovered ten weeks before by Lieutenant John Murray, in command of the LADY NELSON. He had given to it the name of Port Phillip, and to the rocky point on the east side of the entrance Point Nepean."

On the 9th May, the INVESTIGATOR anchors in Sydney Cove, and again left in company with the LADY NELSON, on the morning Of July 22nd, for the examination of the east coast, making many discoveries before reaching Torres Straits that had escaped Captain Cook, among others Port Curtis and Port Bowen.

The LADY NELSON in consequence of being disabled left the INVESTIGATOR on the east coast, and returned to Port Jackson.

We will again take up Flinders' narrative during his examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which had not been visited since the days of the Dutch ships. The first point Flinders mentions finding corroborative of the fidelity of their charts is the entrance to the Batavia River and there is no doubt that this spot is indicated by the words "fresh water," in the map accredited to Tasman, as there is a capital boat entrance of two fathoms to this stream, and at a comparatively short distance from the mouth of the water at low tide is quite fresh. This river heads from a plateau of springs, a tableland covered with scrubby heath, and intersected by scores of running gullies, boggy and impa.s.sable; in fact, the same country as caused such trouble to the Jardine brothers when they explored this sh.o.r.e of the Gulf.

From this place, however, Flinders seems very doubtful as to the ident.i.ty of some of the rivers laid down. One point, the most remarkable on the coast, and which Yet was not in the Dutch chart, Flinders named "Duyfhen Point," and another, he called "Pera Head," after the second yacht that entered the Gulf.

At Cape Keer-Weer he fairly gives in that he could see nothing approaching a cape, but a slight projection being visible from the mast-head, out of respect to antiquity, he puts it down on his map. The "Vereenidge River" he concludes, has no existence, and the "Na.s.sau River" turned out to be a lagoon at the back of a beach. Still the existence of anything approaching the reality of what was indicated on the charts, proves that at any rate the ships had been there, even if they had not kept close enough to the land to be quite certain of what they saw. So shallow is the approach to this sh.o.r.e, that when so far from land even at the mast-head the tops of the trees could only be partially distinguished, Flinders only found from four to six fathoms of water.

Of the Staaten River he says that--"Where that river can be found I know not," and at last he begins to fancy that the formation of the mouths of the rivers must have altered since Tasman's time.

Reaching the head of the Gulf, Flinders sighted a hill, which gave him hope of a change in the flat monotony of the coast he had now followed for one hundred and seventy-five leagues. This Will, which turned out to 'be an island, Flinders judged to be a headland marked on the western side of "Maatsuyker's River." The river he failed to discover, to the island he gave the name of Sweer's Island. Here Flinders remained some time, having found fresh water, and an anchorage adapted to cleaning and caulking his ship. But a great disappointment awaited him. The report of the master and carpenter who overhauled the INVESTIGATOR, was to the effect that the ship was perfectly rotten. It ends in these words:--

"From the state to which the ship seems now advanced, it is our joint opinion that in twelve months there will scarcely be a sound timber in her; but that if she remains in fine weather and happen no accident, she may run six months longer without much risk."

This was a death blow to Flinders' hope of so completing the survey of the coast, that no after work should be necessary. Under the circ.u.mstances, he determined to finish the exploration of the Gulf, and then to proceed to Port Jackson by way of the west coast, should the ship prove capable, if not to make for the nearest port in the West Indies.

Leaving Sweer's Island, Flinders next investigated Cape Van Dieman, and found it to be an island, which he called Mornington Island. Cape Vanderlin of the Dutch was the next point sighted, and it too was an island, one of the Sir Edward Pellew Group. On taking leave of this group, Flinders remarks on these discrepancies as follows:--