■2^J4 Analyses of Books, [March, 



and well wooded. Captain Flinders thinks it might be taken ad- 

 vantage of for ship-building. 



Our navigator now directed his course for Torres's Straits ; but 

 was entangled for 14 days among the extraordinary coral reefs, 

 which extend for 14 degrees of latitude along the east side of New 

 Holland, from south latitude 22° 50' to Torres's Straits. At first 

 they are at a considerable distance from the land ; but they gradually 

 approach it as we go north, and a little beyond Cape Tribulation 

 they touch it. Captain Flinders made his way at last through an 

 opening in about latitude 18^°, south, and met with no further 

 interruption on his way to Torres's Straits. Through these straits, 

 previously considered as so formidable, he passed without any 

 accident, in three days, by keeping more to the south than former 

 navigators : and there is every reason to consider tbem as affording j 

 the shortest, and a sufficiently safe passage to the southern ocean. 



The survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria occupied Captain Flinders 

 105 days. Its general form is pretty similar to that represented in 

 the old Dutch charts. It extends in longitude from Endeavour's 

 Straits to Cape VVilberforce 5^°, and in latitude 7°- The east side 

 of it consists of very low flat land without a single opening ; but at 

 the southern extremity, and along the west coast, there are various 

 groups of islands, which were carefully surveyed by our navigator, 

 and laid down in his chart. While in this gulf the Investigator 

 was examined, and found so much decayed as not to be reckoned 

 capable of keeping the sea for more than six months. Of these, 

 three were spent in tlie Gulf of Carpentaria. Captain Flinders 

 was therefore under the necessity of terminating his survey of New 

 Holland here. He sailed to Copang Bay, a Dutch colony in the 

 Island of Timor, in order to obtain a supply of provisions. From 

 this place he sailed round New Holland by the west and south 

 coasts, and arrived in safety at Port Jackson. Here the Investigator 

 was condemned as utterly incapable of repair, and Captain Flinders 

 resolved to return to Britain for another ship, to enable him to 

 continue his survey, and to leave the scientific gentlemen at Port 

 Jackson till his return. The rest of the voyage is little else than a 

 history of disasters. 



The command of the Porpoise, his Majesty's armed vessel at 

 that time lying in Port Jackson, was given to Lieutenant Fowler, 

 first of the Investigator, with a crew of 38 men ; and Captain 

 Flinders, with such of his officers as chose it, went on board her 

 to be conveyed to Englund as passengers. Two vessels lying at 

 that time in Port Jackson, the Bridgewater, Extra East Indiaman^ 

 commanded by Captain Palmer, and the Cato of London, com- 

 manded by ?.Ir. John Park, desired to accompany the Porpoise and 

 were permitted. These vessels sailed from Port Jackson on the 

 10th of August, 1803, and on the 18th, in the evening, the Por- 

 poise suddenly struck upon a reef and fell over. The Cato and 

 Bridgev.'atcr were coming up in such a direction that in a few 

 moments they must have struck against each other, and been both 

 fcnt to the bottom. The Cato, to prevent this, generously allowed 



