Flinders' actual discovery work on the south coast was completed when he
met Baudin in Encounter Bay; for the whole coast line to the east had
been found a short while before he appeared upon it, though he was not
aware of this fact when completing his voyage. For about a hundred and
fifty miles, from the mouth of the Murray eastward to Cape Banks, the
credit of discovery properly belongs to Baudin, and Flinders duly marked
his name upon the chart. Further eastward, from Cape Banks to the deep
bend of the coast at the head of which lies Port Phillip, the discoverer
was Captain Grant of the Lady Nelson. His voyage was projected under the
following circumstances.
When Philip Gidley King, who in 1800 succeeded Hunter as Governor of New
South Wales, was in England in 1799, he represented to the Admiralty the
desirability of sending out to Australia a small, serviceable ship,
capable of being used in shallow waters, so that she might explore bays
and rivers. One of the Commissioners of the Transport Board, Captain John
Schanck, had designed a type of vessel that was considered suitable for
this purpose. She was to be fitted with a sliding keel, or centreboard,
and was deemed to be a boat of staunch sea-going qualities, as well as
being good for close-in coastal service. A sixty-ton brig, the Lady
Nelson, was built to Schanck's plans, and was entrusted to the command of
Lieutenant Grant. She was tried in the Downs in January, 1800, when Grant
reported enthusiastically on her behaviour. She rode out a gale in five
fathoms of water without shipping "even a sea that would come over the
sole of your shoe." Running her into Ramsgate in a heavy sea, Grant wrote
of her in terms that, though somewhat crabbed to a non-nautical ear, were
a sailor's equivalent for fine poetry: "though it blew very strong, I
found the vessel stand well up under sail, and with only one reef out of
the topsails, no jib set, a lee tide going, when close hauled she brought
her wake right aft and went at the rate of five knots."
Grant was ambitious to make discoveries on his own account, and did not
lack zeal. He was a skilful sailor, but was lacking in the scientific
accomplishment required for the service in which he aspired to shine.
When at length he returned from Australia, King summed him up in a
sentence: "I should have been glad if your ability as a surveyor, or
being able to determine the longitude of the different places you might
visit, was any ways equal to your ability as an officer and a seaman."
Grant left England early in 1800, intending to sail to Australia by the
usual route, making the Cape of Good Hope, and then rounding the south of
Van Diemen's Land. But news of the discovery of Bass Strait was received
after the Lady Nelson had put to sea; and the Admiralty (April, 1800)
sent instructions to reach him at the Cape, directing him to sail through
the strait from the west. This he did. Striking the Australian coast
opposite Cape Banks on December 3rd, 1800, he followed it along past Cape
Otway, thence in a line across to Wilson's Promontory and, penetrating
the strait, was the first navigator to work through it from the far
western side. He attempted no survey, and shortness of water and
provisions deterred him from even pursuing the in-and-out curves of the
shore; but he marked down upon a rough eye-sketch such prominent features
as Mount Gambier, Cape Northumberland, Cape Bridgewater, Cape Nelson,
Portland Bay, Julia Percy Island, and Cape Otway. "I took the liberty of
naming the different capes, bays, etc., for the sake of distinction," he
reported to the Governor on his arrival at Sydney on December 16th.
It was in this way that both Baudin and Flinders were anticipated in the
discovery of the western half of the coast of Victoria. The Investigator
voyage had not been planned when the Lady Nelson sailed; and when
Flinders was commissioned the Admiralty directed that Grant should be
placed under his orders, the brig being used as a tender.
The baffling winds that had delayed Flinders' departure from Kangaroo
Island on April 8th, 1802, continued after he sailed from Encounter Bay,
so that he did not pass the fifty leagues or so first traversed by Le
Geographe for eight tedious days. On April 17th he reached Grant's Cape
Banks; on April 18th passed Cape Northumberland; and on the 19th Capes
Bridgewater, Nelson and Grant. But the south-west gale blew so hard
during this part of the voyage that, the coast trending south-easterly,
it was difficult to keep the ship on a safe course; and Flinders
confessed that he was "glad to miss a small part of the coast." Thick
squally weather prevented the survey being made with safety; and, indeed,
it was rarely that the configuration of the land could be distinguished
at a greater distance than two miles. On the 21st Flinders noticed a
subsidence of the sea, which made him conclude that he was to the
windward of the large island concerning which he had questioned Baudin.
He resolved to take advantage of a period when the close examination of
the mainland had become dangerous to determine the exact position of this
island, of whose whereabouts he had heard from sealers in 1799.
The south part of King Island had been found by the skipper of a sealing
brig, named Reid, in 1799, but the name it bears was given to it by John
Black, commander of the brig Harbinger, who discovered the northern part
in January, 1801. Flinders was occupied for three days at King Island. On
the 24th, the wind having moderated, he made for Cape Otway. But it was
still considered imprudent to follow the shore too closely against a
south-east wind; and on the 26th the ship ran across the water to Grant's
Cape Schanck.
The details of these movements are of some moment, for the ship was
nearing the gates of Port Philip. "We bore away westward," Flinders
records, "in order to trace the land round the head of the deep bight."
In view of the importance of the harbour which he was about to enter, we
may quote his own description of his approach to it, and his surprise at
what he found:
"On the west side of the rocky point,* (* Point Nepean.) there was a
small opening, with breaking water across it. However, on advancing a
little more westward the opening assumed a more interesting aspect, and I
bore away to have a nearer view. A large extent of water presently became
visible withinside, and although the entrance seemed to be very narrow,
and there were in it strong ripplings like breakers, I was induced to
steer in at half-past one; the ship being close upon a wind and every man
ready for tacking at a moment's warning. The soundings were irregular,
between 6 and 12 fathoms, until we got four miles within the entrance,
when they shoaled quick to 2 3/4. We then tacked; and having a strong
tide in our favour, worked to the eastward, between the shoal and the
rocky point, with 12 fathoms for the deepest water. In making the last
stretch from the shoal, the depth diminished from 10 fathoms quickly to
3; and before the ship could come round, the flood tide set her upon a
mud bank and she stuck fast. A boat was lowered down to sound; and,
finding the deep water lie to the north-west, a kedge anchor was carried
out; and, having got the ship's head in that direction, the sails were
filled, and she drew off into 6 and 10 fathoms; and it being then dark,
we came to an anchor.
"The extensive harbour we had thus unexpectedly found I supposed must be
Westernport; although the narrowness of the entrance did by no means
correspond with the width given to it by Mr. Bass. It was the information
of Captain Baudin, who had coasted along from thence with fine weather,
and had found no inlet of any kind, which induced this supposition; and
the very great extent of the place, agreeing with that of Westernport,
was in confirmation of it. This, however, was not Westernport, as we
found next morning; and I congratulated myself on having made a new and
useful discovery. But here again I was in error. This place, as I
afterwards learned at Port Jackson, had been discovered ten weeks before
by Lieutenant John Murray, who had succeeded Captain Grant in the command
of the Lady Nelson. He had given it the name of Port Phillip, and to the
rocky point on the east side of the entrance that of Point Nepean."
It was characteristic of Flinders that he allowed no expression of
disappointment to escape him, on finding that he had been anticipated by
a few weeks in the discovery of Port Phillip. Baudin, it will be
remembered, observed the satisfaction felt by his visitor in Encounter
Bay, when he learnt that Le Geographe had not found King Island, because
he thought he would have the happiness of being the first to lay it down
upon a chart. In this he had been forestalled by Black of the Harbinger;
and now again he was to find that a predecessor had entered the finest
harbour in southern Australia. Disappointment he must have felt; but he
was by no means the man to begrudge the success that had accrued to
another navigator. He made no remark, such as surely might have been
forgiven to him, about the determining accidents of time and weather;
though it is but right for us to observe that, had the Investigator been
permitted to sail from England when she was ready (in April, 1801)
instead of being delayed by the Admiralty officials till July, Port
Phillip, as well as the stretch of coast discovered by Baudin, would have
been found by Flinders. That delay was caused by nothing more than a
temporary illness of the Secretary of the Admiralty, Evan Nepean, whose
name is commemorated in Point Nepean, one of the headlands flanking the
entrance to the Port.
A perfectly just recognition of the real significance of Flinders in
southern exploration has led to his name being honoured and commemorated
even with respect to parts where he was not the actual discoverer. It is
a function of history to do justice in the large, abiding sense,
discriminating the spiritual potency of personalities that dominate
events from the accidental connection of lesser persons with them. In
that wider sense, Flinders was the true discoverer of the whole of the
southern coast of Australia. He, of course, made no such claim; but we
who estimate the facts after a long lapse of years can see clearly that
it was so. Only the patching up of the old Reliance kept him in Sydney
while Bass was creeping round the coast to Westernport. Only the illness
of an official and other trifling causes prevented him from discovering
Port Phillip. It was the completion of his chart of Bass Strait, based
upon his friend's memoranda, that led the Admiralty to direct Grant to
sail through the strait from the west, and so enabled him to be the first
to come upon the coast from Cape Banks to Cape Schanck. It was only the
delay before-mentioned and the contrary winds that hindered him from
preceding Baudin along the fifty leagues that are credited to that
navigator.
Thus it is that although not a league of the coastline of Victoria is in
strict verity to be attributed to Flinders as discoverer, he is
habitually cited as if he were. Places are named after him, memorials are
erected to him. The highest mountain in the vicinity of Port Phillip
carries on its summit a tablet celebrating the fact that Flinders entered
the port at the end of April, 1802; but there is nowhere a memorial to
remind anyone that Murray actually discovered it in January of the same
year. The reason is that, while it is felt that time and circumstance
enabled others to do things which must be inscribed on the historical
page, the triumph that should have followed from skill, knowledge,
character, preparation and opportunities well and wisely used, was fairly
earned by Flinders. The dates, not the merits, prevent their being
claimed for him. His personality dominates the whole group of
discoveries. We chronicle the facts in regard to Grant, Baudin, Murray,
and Bass, but we feel all the time that Flinders was the central man.
Not being aware of Murray's good fortune in January, Flinders treated
Port Phillip as a fresh discovery, and examined its approaches with as
much thoroughness as his resources would allow. At this time, however,
the store of provisions was running low. The Investigator was forty weeks
out from England, and re-equipment was fast becoming imperative. Her
commander had felt the urgency of his needs before he reached Port
Phillip. He had seriously considered whether he should not make for
Sydney from King Island. "I determined, however, to run over to the high
land we had seen on the north side of Bass Strait, and to trace as much
of the coast from thence eastward as the state of the weather and our
remaining provisions could possibly allow."
As related in the passage quoted above, Flinders at first thought he had
reached Westernport, though the narrowness of the entrance did not
correspond with Bass's description of the harbour he had discovered four
years previously. But Baudin had told him that he found no port or
harbour of any kind between Westernport and Encounter Bay. Consequently,
it was all the more astonishing to behold this great sheet of blue water
broadening out to shores overlooked by high hills, and extending
northward further than the eye could penetrate. It was not until the
following day, April 27th, that he found he was not in the port which his
friend had discovered in the whaleboat. Immediately after breakfast he
rowed away from the ship in a boat, accompanied by Brown and Westall, to
ascend the bluff mountain on the east side which Murray had named
Arthur's Seat. From the top he was able to survey the landscape at a
height of a thousand feet; and then he saw the waters and islands of
Westernport lying beneath him only a few miles further to the east,
whilst, to his surprise, the curves of Port Phillip were seen to be so
extensive "that even at this elevation its boundary to the northward
could not be distinguished."
Next morning, April 28th, Flinders commenced to sail round the bay. But
the wind was slight and progress was slow; with his fast diminishing
store of provisions vexing his mind, he felt that he could not afford the
time for a complete survey. Besides, the lead showed many shallows, and
there was a constant fear of running the ship aground. He therefore
directed Fowler to take the Investigator back to the entrance, whilst, on
the 29th, he went with Midshipman Lacy, in a boat provisioned for three
days, to make a rapid reconnaissance of as much as could be seen in that
time. He rowed north-east nine miles from Arthur's Seat, reaching about
the neighbourhood of Mornington. Then he crossed to the western side of
the bay, and on the 30th traversed the opening of the arm at the head of
which Geelong now stands.
At dawn on May 1st he landed with three of the boat's crew, for the
purpose of ascending the highest point of the You-yang range, whose
conical peaks, standing up purple against the evening sky, had been
visible when the ship first entered Port Phillip. "Our way was over a low
plain, where the water appeared frequently to lodge. It was covered with
small-bladed grass, but almost destitute of wood, and the soil was clayey
and shallow. One or two miles before arriving at the feet of the hills,
we entered a wood, where an emu and a kangaroo were seen at a distance;
and the top of the peak was reached at ten o'clock."
From the crest of this granite mountain he would command a superb view.
Towards the north, in the interior, the dark bulk of Mount Macedon was
seen; and all around lay a fertile, promising country, mile after mile of
green pastures, as fair a prospect as the eye could wish to rest upon.
There can be little doubt that Flinders made his observations from the
flat top of a huge granite boulder which forms the apex of the peak. "I
left the ship's name," he says, "on a scroll of paper deposited in a
small pile of stones upon the top of the peak." He called it Station
Peak, for the reason that he had made it his station for making
observations. In 1912 a fine bronze tablet was fastened on the eastern
face of the boulder on which Flinders probably stood and worked.* (* It
is much to be regretted that this very laudable mark of honour to his
memory was not effected without doing a thing which is contrary to a good
rule and was repugnant to Flinders' practice. The name Station Peak was
sought to be changed to Flinders' Peak, and those who so admirably
occasioned the erection of the tablet managed to secure official sanction
for the alteration by its notification in the Victorian Government
Gazette. But nobody with any historical sense or proper regard for the
fame of Flinders will ever call the mountain by any other name than
Station Peak. It was his name; and names given by a discoverer should be
respected, except when there is a sound reason to the contrary, as there
is not in this instance. As previously observed, Flinders never named any
discovery after himself. Honour him by calling any other places after him
by all means; the name Flinders for the Commonwealth Naval Base in
Westernport is an excellent one, for instance. But his names for natural
features should not be disturbed.)
The boat was reached, after the descent of the mountain and the return
tramp across the sodden flats, at three o'clock in the afternoon. The
party were very weary from this twenty-mile excursion, a feat requiring
some power of endurance, as one who has walked along the same route and
climbed Station Peak several times can testify; and especially hard on
men who were fresh from a long voyage. The party camped for the night at
Indented Head, on the west side of the port, and on Sunday, May 2nd, they
again boarded the Investigator.
The ship was anchored under the shelter of the Nepean Peninsula, nearly
opposite the present Portsea. On the way back Flinders shot "some
delicate teal," near the piece of water which Murray had called Swan
Harbour, and a few black swans were caught.
Port Phillip has since become important as the seat of one of the great
cities of the world, and its channels are used by commercial fleets
flying every colour known to the trading nations. Scarcely an hour of the
day goes by, but the narrow waters dividing the port from the ocean are
churned by the propellers of great ships. The imagination sets itself a
task in trying to realize those few days in May, 1802, when Flinders
called it a "useful but obscure port" and when the only keels that lay
within the bay were those of one small sloop at anchor near the entrance,
and one tiny boat in which her captain was rowing over the surface and
making a map of the outline. And if it is difficult for us to recapture
that scene of spacious solitude, it was quite impossible for Flinders to
foresee what a century would bring forth. He recognised that the
surrounding country "has a pleasing and in many places a fertile
appearance." He described much of it as patently fit for agricultural
purposes. "It is in great measure a grassy country, and capable of
supporting much cattle, though much better calculated for sheep." It was,
indeed, largely on his report that settlement was attempted at Port
Phillip in 1803. But it is quaint, at this time of day, to read his
remark that "were a settlement made at Port Phillip, as doubtless there
will be some time hereafter, the entrance could be easily distinguished,
and it would not be difficult to establish a friendly intercourse with
the natives, for they are acquainted with the effect of firearms, and
desirous of possessing many of our conveniences."
Seaman Smith devotes a paragraph in his Journal to the visit to Port
Phillip, and it may as well be quoted for its historical interest: "On
the 28th we came to an anchor in a bay of very large size. Thinking there
was a good channel in a passage through, we got aground; but by good
management we got off without damadge. Here we caught a Shirk which
measured 10 feet 9 inch in length; in girt very large. 29th the captn and
boats went to investigate the interior part of the harbr for 3 days,
while those on board imploy'd in working ship to get as near the mouth of
the harbr as possible. May 2nd our boat and crew came on board. Brought
with them 2 swanns and a number of native spears."
At daylight on May 3rd the Investigator dropped out of Port Phillip with
the tide. Westall, the artist, made a drawing of the heads from a
distance of 5 miles.
At dusk on Saturday, May 8th, she stood seven miles off the entrance to
Port Jackson. Flinders was so thoroughly well acquainted with the harbour
that he tried to beat up in the night; but the wind was adverse, and he
did not pass the heads till one o'clock on the following day. At three
o'clock the ship was brought to anchor, and the long voyage of discovery,
which had had larger results than any voyage since the great days of
Cook, was over. It had lasted nine months and nine days.
The horrors of scurvy were such a customary accompaniment of long voyages
in those days that the condition of Flinders' company at the termination
of this protracted navigation was healthy almost beyond precedent. But
this young captain had learnt how to manage a ship in Cook's school, and
had profited from his master's admonitions. Cook, in his Endeavour voyage
of 1770 and 1771, brought his people through a protracted period at sea
with, "generally speaking," freedom from scurvy, and showed how by
scrupulous cleanliness, plenty of vegetable food, and anti-scorbutic
remedies the dreadful distemper could be kept at bay. But, fine as Cook's
record is in this respect, it is eclipsed by that of Flinders, who
entered Port Jackson at the end of this long period aboard ship with an
absolutely clean bill of health. There is no touch of pride, but there is
a note of very proper satisfaction, in the words which he was able to
write of this remarkable record:--
"There was not a single individual on board who was not on deck working
the ship into harbour; and it may be averred that the officers and crew
were, generally speaking, in better health than on the day we sailed from
Spithead, and not in less good spirits. I have said nothing of the
regulations observed after we made Cape Leeuwin. They were very little
different from those adopted in the commencement of the voyage, and of
which a strict attention to cleanliness and a free circulation of air in
the messing and sleeping places formed the most essential parts. Several
of the inhabitants of Port Jackson expressed themselves never to have
been so strongly reminded of England as by the fresh colour of many
amongst the Investigator's ship's company."
As soon as the anchor was dropped, Flinders went ashore and reported
himself to Governor King, to whom he delivered his orders from the
Admiralty. He also reported to Captain Hamelin of Le Naturaliste, who had
sought refuge in the port and had been lying there since April 24th, the
intention of Baudin to bring round Le Geographe in due course. Then he
set about making preparations for refitting the ship and getting ready
for further explorations.