FLINDERS NAMES AUSTRALIA
We must now return to Australia, as yet so imperfectly explored, and
take up the story of the young colony at Sydney.
For seven years it thrived under the careful management of Governor
Phillips, who was then replaced by one Hunter. With the new governor
from England arrived two young men destined to distinguish themselves
in the exploration of New South Wales. They were midshipman Matthew
Flinders and surgeon George Bass. The reading of _Robinson Crusoe_
had created in young Flinders a passion for sea-adventure, and no
sooner had the _Reliance_ anchored in Sydney harbour than the two young
friends resolved on an exploring expedition to the south. For there
were rumours afloat that Van Diemen's Land did not join the main
continent of New South Wales. Little enough help was forthcoming for
the expedition, and the friends had to content themselves with a little
boat eight feet long--the _Tom Thumb_--and only a boy to help them.
But with all the eager enthusiasm of youth they sailed from Port Jackson
on 25th March 1796. It is impossible to follow all their adventures
as they attempted the survey of the coast. A storm on the 29th nearly
swallowed up the little _Tom Thumb_ and her plucky sailors.
"At ten o'clock," says Flinders, "the wind, which had been unsettled
and driving electric clouds in all directions, burst out in a gale.
In a few minutes the waves began to break, and the extreme danger to
which this exposed our little bark was increased by the darkness of
the night and the uncertainty of finding any place of shelter. Mr.
Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawing in a few inches
occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy sea following. I was
steering with an oar. A single wrong movement or a moment's inattention
would have sent us to the bottom. After running near an hour in this
critical manner, some huge breakers were distinguished ahead; it was
necessary to determine what was to be done at once, for our bark could
not live ten minutes longer. On coming to what appeared to be the
extremity of the breakers, the boat's head was brought to the wind,
the mast and sail taken down, and the oars taken out. Pulling then
towards the reef during the intervals of the heaviest seas, in three
minutes we were in smooth water--a nearer approach showed us the beach
of a well-sheltered cove in which we anchored for the rest of the night.
We thought Providential Cove a well-adapted name for the place."
[Illustration: MATTHEW FLINDERS.]
Important local discoveries were made by the young explorers, and
their skill and courage earned for them a better equipment for further
exploration. A whale-boat provisioned for six weeks, and a crew of
six, were placed at the disposal of Bass in order that he might discover
whether Van Diemen's Land was joined to the mainland or whether there
was a strait between. Cook had declared that there was no strait.
Flinders now tells the story of his friend's triumphant success in
finding the straits that now bear his name. He tells how Bass found
the coast turning westward exposed to the billows of a great ocean,
of the low sandy shore, of the spacious harbour which "from its relative
position to the hitherto known parts of the coasts was called Port
Western." His provisions were now at an end and, though he was keen
to make a survey of his new discovery, he was obliged to return. This
voyage of six hundred miles in an open boat on dangerous and unknown
shores is one of the most remarkable on record. It added another three
hundred miles of known coast-line, and showed that the shores of New
Holland were divided from Van Diemen's Land. So highly did the
colonists appreciate this voyage of discovery that the whale-boat in
which Bass sailed was long preserved as a curiosity.
A small boat of twenty-five tons, provisioned for twelve weeks, was
now put at the disposal of the two friends, Flinders and Bass, to
complete the survey of Van Diemen's Land, and in October 1798 they
sailed for the south. With gales and strong winds blowing across the
channel now known as Bass Strait, they made their way along the
coast--the northern shores of Van Diemen's Land--till they found a
wide inlet. Here they found a quantity of black swans, which they ate
with joy, and also kangaroos, mussels, and oysters. This inlet they
called Port Dalrymple, after the late hydrographer to the Admiralty
in England. On 9th December, still coasting onward, they passed
Three-Hummock Island and then a whole cluster of islands, to which,
"in honour of His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, I gave
the title of Hunter's Isles." And now a long swell was noticed from
the south-west. "It broke heavily upon a small reef and upon all the
western shores, but, although it was likely to prove troublesome and
perhaps dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual
congratulation, as announcing the completion of our long-wished-for
discovery of a passage into the southern Indian Ocean."
Calling the point where the island coast turned Cape Grime, they sailed
along the western shores, their little boat exposed to the swell of
the southern ocean. Sailing joyfully from point to point and naming
them at will, the two explorers reached the extreme west, which they
called South-West Cape. This had been already sighted by one of Cook's
party in 1773. South Cape and Tasman's Head had been likewise charted
as points at the extreme south of New South Wales. So the explorers
sailed right round the island on which Tasman had landed one hundred
and fifty-six years before, and after an absence of five months they
reached Sydney with their important news. Bass now disappears from
the annals of exploration, but his friend Flinders went off to England
and found in our old friend Banks a powerful friend. He was given a
stout north-country ship, H.M.S. _Investigator_ of three hundred and
thirty-four tons, with orders to return to New Holland and make a
complete survey of the coast, and was off again in July 1801 with young
John Franklin, his nephew, aboard.
The _Investigator_ arrived at Cape Leuwin in December and anchored
in King George's Sound, discovered by Vancouver some ten years before.
By the New Year he was ready to begin his great voyage round the Terra
Australis, as the new country was still called. Indeed, it was Flinders
who suggested the name of Australia for the tract of land hitherto
called New Holland. His voyage can easily be traced on our maps to-day.
Voyaging westward through the Recherches group of islands, Flinders
passed the low, sandy shore to a cape he named Cape Pasley, after his
late Admiral; high, bleak cliffs now rose to the height or some five
hundred feet for a distance of four hundred and fifty miles--the great
Australian Bight. Young Franklin's name was given to one island,
Investigator to another, Cape Catastrophe commemorated a melancholy
accident and the drowning of several of the crew. Kangaroo Island
speaks for itself. Here they killed thirty-one dark-brown kangaroos.
"The whole ship's company was employed this afternoon skinning and
cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful regale they afforded after
four months' privation from almost any fresh provisions. Half a
hundredweight of heads, forequarters, and tails were stewed down into
soup for dinner, and as much steaks given to both officers and men
as they could consume by day and night."
[Illustration: CAPE CATASTROPHE. From Flinders' _Voyages_.]
In April 1802 a strange encounter took place, when suddenly there
appeared a "heavy-looking ship without any top-gallant masts up,"
showing a French ensign. Flinders cleared his decks for action in case
of attack, but the strangers turned out to be the French ship _Le
Geographe_, which, in company with _Le Naturaliste_, had left France,
1800, for exploration of the Australian coasts.
Now it was well known that Napoleon had cast longing eyes upon the
Terra Australis--indeed, it is said that he took with him to Egypt
a copy of _Cook's Voyages_. Flinders, too, knew of this French
expedition, but he was not specially pleased to find French explorers
engaged on the same work as himself. The commanders met as friends,
and Baudin, the French explorer, told how he had landed also near Cape
Leuwin in May 1801, how he had given the names of his two ships to
Cape Naturaliste and Geographe Bay, and was now making his way round
the coast. Flinders little guessed at this time that the French were
going to claim the south of New South Wales as French territory under
the name of Terra Napoleon, though it was common knowledge that this
discovery was made by Englishmen.
"Ah, captain," said one of the French crew to Flinders, "if we had
not been kept so long picking up shells and catching butterflies at
Van Diemen's Land you would not have discovered this coast before us."
When Baudin put in at Port Jackson a couple of months later, he inquired
of the Governor the extent of British claims in the Pacific.
"The whole of Tasmania and Australia are British territory," was the
firm answer.
After this encounter Flinders discovered and named Port Phillip, at
the head of which stands the famous city of Melbourne to-day, and then
made his way on to Port Jackson. He had managed his crews so well that
the inhabitants of Port Jackson declared they were reminded of England
by the fresh colour of the men amongst the _Investigator_ ship's
company. The Frenchmen had not fared so well. One hundred and fifty
out of one hundred and seventy were down with scurvy and had to be
taken to the hospital at Sydney.
Before the end of July, Flinders was off again, sailing northwards
along the eastern coast of New South Wales. October found him passing
the Great Barrier reefs, and on the 21st he had reached the northernmost
point, Cape York. Three days of anxious steering took the
_Investigator_ through Torres Strait, and Flinders was soon sailing
into the great Gulf of Carpentaria. Still hugging the coast, he
discovered a group of islands to the south of the gulf, which he named
the Wellesley Islands, after General Wellesley, afterwards Duke of
Wellington. Here he found a wealth of vegetation; cabbage palm was
abundant, nutmegs plentiful, and a sort of sandal-wood was growing
freely. He spent one hundred and five days exploring the gulf; then
he continued his voyage round the west coast and back to Port Jackson
by the south. He returned after a year's absence with a sickly crew
and a rotten ship. Indeed, the _Investigator_ was incapable of further
service, and Flinders decided to go back to England for another ship.
As passenger on board the _Porpoise_, early in August 1802, he sailed
from Sydney for the Torres Strait accompanied by two returning
transports. All went well for the first four days, and they had reached
a spot on the coast of Queensland, when a cry of "Breakers ahead!"
fell on the evening air. In another moment the ship was carried amongst
the breakers and struck upon a coral reef. So sudden was the disaster
that there was no time to warn the other ships closely following. As
the _Porpoise_ rolled over on her beam ends, huge seas swept over her
and the white foam leapt high. Then the mast snapped, water rushed
in, and soon the _Porpoise_ was a hopeless wreck. A few minutes later,
one of the transports struck the coral reef: she fell on her side,
her deck facing the sweeping rollers, and was completely wrecked. The
other transport escaped, sailed right away from the scene of disaster,
and was never seen again by the crew of the _Porpoise_. The dawn of
day showed the shipwrecked crew a sandbank, to which some ninety-four
men made their way and soon set sailcloth tents on the barren shore.
They had saved enough food for three months. Flinders as usual was
the moving spirit. A fortnight later in one of the ship's boats, with
twelve rowers and food for three weeks, he left Wreck Reef amid ringing
cheers to get help from Sydney for the eighty men left on the sandbank.
"The reader," says the hero of this adventure, "has perhaps never gone
two hundred and fifty leagues at sea in an open boat or along a strange
coast inhabited by savages; but, if he recollect the eighty officers
and men upon Wreck Reef, and how important was our arrival to their
safety and to the saving of the charts, journals, and papers of the
_Investigator's_ voyage, he may have some idea of the pleasure we felt,
particularly myself, at entering our destined port."
Half-starved, unshaven, deplorable indeed were the men when they
staggered into Sydney, and "an involuntary tear started from the eye
of friendship and compassion" when the Governor learnt how nearly
Flinders and his friends had lost their lives.
[Illustration: THE HUTS OF THE CREW OF THE _PORPOISE_ ON THE SANDBANK,
WRECK REEF. From Flinders' _Voyages_.]
A few days later Flinders left Sydney for the last time, in a little
home-built ship of twenty-nine tons, the _Cumberland_. It was the
first ship ever built in the colony, and the colonists were glad it
should be of use to the man who had done so much for their country.
With all his papers and his beloved journals, Flinders put to sea
accompanied by a ship to rescue the men left on Wreck Reef. Three months
later, owing to the leaky condition of the ship, he landed at Mauritius.
Here he was taken prisoner and all his papers and journals were seized
by the French. During his imprisonment a French_ Voyage of Discovery_
was issued, Napoleon himself paying a sum of money to hasten
publication. All the places discovered by Flinders, or "Monsieur
Flinedore" as the French called him, were called by French names.
Fortunately before reaching Mauritius, Flinders had sent duplicate
copies of his charts home, and the whole fraud was exposed. Flinders
did not reach home till 1810. A last tragedy awaited him. For he died
in 1814, on the very day that his great book, _The Voyage to Terra
Australis_, was published. Flinders was a true explorer, and as he
lay dying he cried, "I know that in future days of exploration my spirit
will rise from the dead and follow the exploring ship!"