222 Analyses of Books. [March, 



it. About longitude 131, which is the furthest north point of the 

 south coast of New Holland, the shore becomes low, and consti- 

 tutes a sandy beach. Thus far east the south coast had been sur- 

 veyed by x\dmiral Entrecasteaux. 



From this place the coast assumes a south-easterly direction, is 

 usually sandy and low, but rises gradually as the land recedes from 

 the sea. There was no appearance of any river, though several 

 bays occurred, and different archipelagos of small islands were 

 passed, as Nuyts, Investigators, &c. At south latitude 35°, and 

 east longitude 13G°, they came to a point of land called Cape 

 Catastrophe, because here Mr. Thistle, the master, a midshipman, 

 and six seamen were lost by the oversetting of a boat in the dark. 

 At this point the land tended to the north, and there was every 

 appearance of a large opening, or bay, which Captain Flinders re- 

 solved to examine with every possible care. 



This gulf, to which he gave the name of Spencer's Gulf, is 

 about 50 miles wide at its entrance, and extends north about 183 

 miles, from latitude 3G° south to latitude 32i°. It gradually nar- 

 rows towards the north, and where it terminates the water is as salt 

 as out at sea. Yet a good deal of fresh water must be poured into 

 it here at certain seasons. The shore has a barren appearance on 

 the east side; towards the north there is a ridge of mountains, the 

 highest of which, Mount Brown, seems to be about 3000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. The view from this mountain is that of 

 an immense level country covered with wood. At the south side of 

 Spencer's gulf there is a large island called Kangaroo Island, from 

 the great number of kangaroos found on it. The strait between 

 this island and the main land was called Investigator's Strait. 

 Spencer's Gulf is separated from another gulf by a peninsula called 

 Yorke peninsula, about 30 miles broad. This new gulf received 

 the name of St. Vincent's Gulf. It is shorter than Spencer's 

 Gulf, not reaching quite so far north as latitude 34°. 



After leaving this gulf Captain Flinders met with Captain 

 Baudin in the French ship Geographe, who was likewise out on a 

 voyage of discovery. Fle had sailed through Bass's Straits, and 

 had met with foul weather, during which he separated from his 

 consort. Both here and afterwards in Botany Bay, the French 

 captain and his officers admitted that Captain Flinders had been the 

 discoverer of Spencer's and St. Vincent's Gulfs, Kangaroo Island, &c. 

 But when an account of the French voyage was afterwards pub- 

 lished in Paris by M. Peron, all this coast was claimed as the ex- 

 clusive discovery of the French Captain, and named Terre Bona- 

 parte, Golfe Napoleon, Golfe Josephine, &c. This we have no 

 doubt was by tlie express orders of the then existing French govern- 

 ment ; was of a piece with that systematic course of fraud and 

 falsehood which Bonaparte uniformly followed dining the whole 

 time of liis administration. We have no doubt that the French 

 nation will now give up these unvvarrantal)le and absurd claims; 

 and that in the account of Captain Baudin's voyage, just published 



