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FLINDERS, MATTHEW. 



FLINDERS, MATTHEW. 



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till 1722, when he resigned it on account of his great age, being then 

 in his eighty-third year. He died a few months afterwards. 



Fleury commenced his literary career with the ' Histoire du Droit 

 Francois," 1674. He afterwards published successively ' Institution au 

 Droit Eccl5siastique,' ' Cati5chisrne Hiatorique,' translated into Latin 

 by the author himself, a work which has become classical, and is con- 

 stantly reprinted ; ' Lea llceura des Israelites,' of which an English 

 translation was made by Dr. Adam Clarke. ' Les Mosurs des Chretiens,' 

 also translated into English. These two last works are considered, 

 for elegance and precision of style, as among the best in the French 

 language. He also wrote 'Trait<5 du Choix et de la Methods des 

 Etudes." But the most valuable of Fleury's works, and that which 

 has established his reputation as a first-rate writer, ia the ' Histcire 

 Eccl&iastique.' It comprehends a space of fourteen centuries, 

 beginning with the establishment of Christianity, and terminating at 

 the opening of the council of Constance. It was objected to the 

 author that he related too many miracles, but he excused himself on 

 the ground that such was the belief of the church to which he 

 belonged. Fleury was engaged on the 20th volume of his History at 

 the time of his death. It was continued till the year 1698 by Fobre, 

 of the Oratoire, in 16 vols. in 4to. Fleury's 'Ecclesiastical History' 

 is translated into English. The university library of Cambray contains 

 a manuscript of a ' History of France,' which Fleury drew up for the 

 use of the French princes while he was engaged with their education, 

 but it has never been printed. We must not omit to mention, that, 

 notwithstanding his grave occupations, Fleury had leisure to compose 

 a treatise on the duties of masters and servants. This little work, 

 which has been muc'a esteemed, is translated into English. 



FLINDERS, MATTHEW, was born at Donington, in Lincolnshire, 

 about 1760. He went early to sea in the merchant service. In 1795 

 he was a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and went to New Holland 

 with the ship that conveyed Captain Hunter, the new governor, to 

 Botany Bay. On board this ship he found a congenial mind in George 

 Bass, the surgeon, who, like himself, was bold and adventurous, and 

 had a passionate desire to explore new countries. Soon after their 

 arrival at Port Jackson these enterprising young men launched a little 

 boat, which was appropriately called Tom Thumb, being only eight feet 

 long. In this boat Flinders and Bass, with no other companion than 

 a boy, ran across Botany Bay, and explored George's River 20 miles 

 beyond the point where Governor Hunter's survey had stopped. 

 They made several discoveries and encountered many dangers. Their 

 heroism was appreciated by but few persons in the colony. Tke 

 Engliah had been ten yean in possession, and there was an imaginary 

 line of more than 250 leagues (beginning in the vicinity of the colony ) 

 set down on the charts as " unknown coast." Flinders was anxious 

 to remove this blot. The complete examination of Australia became 

 what he called his "darling object." It was not yet known that 

 Van Diemen's Land was a separate island ; the existence of a strait 

 dividing it from Australia was first mentioned as a probable fact by 

 Baas, who ran down the coast in a whale-boat, and who suggested 

 that the heavy swell which rolled in from the westward could be pro- 

 duced only from the Great Southern Ocean. Flinders was sent with 

 his old companion Bass to ascertain this fact. They embarked in the 

 Norfolk, a large decked boat built of the excellent fir of Norfolk 

 Island; and they had only six men to assist them. They went 

 through the straits, made a rapid survey, and returned to Port 

 Jackson in little more than three months. The name of Bass was 

 given to this strait. In the following year, 1799, Flinders, now a 

 lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was sent in the same small vessel to 

 explore the coast to the north of Port Jackson, where nothing had 

 been done since the imperfect notices by Cook. He visited and 

 examined all the creeks and bays as far north as 25, paying par- 

 ticular attention to Harvey's Bay, and returned to Port Jackson with 

 satisfactory accounts. On his return to England he was promoted. 

 Baas, we may add, appears to have met with no reward whatever. 

 In 1802 he left Port Jackson as mate or master of a trading vessel, 

 and was never more heard of. In 1820 there was a vague report that 

 Baas was alive and settled somewhere in Peru ; but the more probable 

 story is that he was lost at sea. 



In July 1801 Captain Flinders sailed from England in the Investi- 

 gator, a barque of 334 tons, carrying 88 men, including an astronomer, 

 a naturalist, two painters, a botanic gardener, and a miner. England 

 and France were at war at the time, the preliminaries of the treaty ol 

 Amiens not being signed until the 25th of October following ; but a 

 French pass, conceived in flattering terms, and speaking of the sacred 

 rights of science, was granted to Flinders, who, whether in war or 

 peace, was to be respected by all armed ships of France, and to be 

 entertained as a friend in any French colony that he might make 

 Such conditions, though not expressly laid down, had been acted upon 

 by the French in the time of Louis XV I.; ond about a year before 

 Captain Flinders's departure the English government had regularly 

 established a precedent M. Otto, in the name of Bonaparte, appliec 

 for a similar free pass in favour of Captain Baudin, who, it was said 

 was going with two ships on a voyage of discovery " round the 

 world;" and the Addington administration readily and courteously 

 granted it, notwithstanding the fierce hostilities which were then raging 

 between the two nations. 

 In the month of December Captain Flinders made Cape Leuwen, on 



;he south-east coast of Australia; and commencing operations, ho 

 gradually surveyed and examined the coast to the eastern extremity 

 of Bass's Straits, where, in Encounter Bay, he met the French ships, 

 which, instead of going round the world, had made straight for Aus- 

 .ralia, and devoted their whole care to the examination of Van 

 Diemeu's Land and New South Wales, evidently with a view to the 

 formation of a French colony. Capt. Baudiu had had the start of Flin- 

 ders by nine months ; but he had been delayed in collecting shells and 

 catching butterflies, and at the moment of their meeting he had done 

 ittle in the way of discovery or survey ; and Flinders says that by 

 issiduity and favourable circumstances he had anticipated him in the 

 nost interesting parts of the southern coast. He says that he gave 

 Baudin an account of his discoveries. Baudin afterwards said that he 

 'ound Captain Flinders not very communicative, but that he obtained 

 ntelligence of all that had been done on the southern coast from some 

 of his people. From Bass's Straits Flinders sailed to Port Jackson, 

 where he arrived on the 9th of May 1802. Having refitted, he set off 

 again on the 22nd of July. He then steered northerly along the cast 

 coast, exploring Northumberland and Cumberland Islands, and sur- 

 veying the great Barrier Reef of coral rocks a long and dangerous 

 ;ract, most necessary to lay down. In fourteen days he conducted 

 the Investigator through these perilous mazes, where he had nothing 

 to guide him but his own vigilance and skill ; then bearing still north, 

 lie made Torres Straits, and surveyed the vast gulf of Carpentaria, 

 which had been very imperfectly examined by General Carpenter, its 

 arst discoverer. While engaged in this duty the Investigator was 

 reported to be " quite rotten," and in such a state that she could not 

 possibly last above six months in fine weather. Three of these months 

 Flinders kept her in the gulf; he then stood away for the island of 

 Timor, where he refreshed his sick and over-fatigued crew. From 

 Timor he made his way with the leaky bark to Cape Leuweu. Sailing 

 again along the southern coast, he anchored in the Archipelago of the 

 Itecherche ; then passing Bass's Straits a second time, he made for 

 Port Jackson, where he arrived on the 9th of June 1803, having lost 

 many of his best men, and among others Good, the botanical gardener. 

 The Investigator was immediately condemned ; she was in such a 

 leaky state that people could scarcely conceive how she had been kept 

 afloat. 



Unable to continue the survey (there being no disposable vessel in 

 the colony), Captain Flinders embarked as passenger in the Porpoise, 

 a store-ship, in order, he says, " to lay his charts and journals before 

 the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and obtain, if suuh should 

 be their pleasure, another ship to complete the examination of the 

 Terra Australia." The Porpoise was accompanied by two trading 

 vessels the Bridgewater, Captain Palmer, and the Cato of London. 

 The route chosen was by Torres Straits. On the 17th of August, at 

 night, the Porpoise suddenly found herself among breakers, and the 

 very next instant " striking upon a coral-reef, she took a fearful heel 

 over her larboard beam-ends." A minute or two after, the Cato struck 

 on the same reef, about two cable-lengths off, and went over. The 

 Bridgewater, which was close by, cleared the rocks, and was perfectly 

 safe in smooth water ; but Palmer basely " bore away round all," and 

 then pursued his course without doing so much as sending a boat to 

 ascertain the fate of the two crews. As morning dawned, Flinders, 

 who acted with admirable self-possession, contrived to get the meu 

 safely landed on a sand-bank, which at all stages of the tide remained 

 a little above water-mark. They removed some portion of the stores 

 from the wrecks, and made themselves as comfortable as men could 

 be in such a situation. There is scarcely a more interesting case of 

 shipwreck upon record ; and the methods adopted, aud the admirable 

 order preserved, show that there was a master-mind among them. 

 On the 26th of August Flinders left the reef in a small open boat, to 

 make a voyage of 750 miles. He however got safely to Port Jackson 

 on the 6th of September, and procured a small schooner, the Cumber- 

 laud, which was only twenty nine tons, aud when she got to sea it was 

 found that she was very leaky. She was accompanied as far as the 

 wrecks by another schooner, and by a trading-vessel which was bound 

 for China, Flinders reached the reef on the 7th of October, and was 

 received with three cheers. In the meanwhile the poor sailors on 

 Wreck Reef Bank had planted oats, maize, aud pumpkins, aud the young 

 plants were up and flourishing. Captain Flinders regretted that ho 

 had no cocoa-nuts with him to plant on the bank. Some of the men 

 went back to Port Jackson in the schooner, some embarked in the 

 trading-ship bound for China, the rest cheerfully remained with Flin- 

 ders, to make, in the ill-conditioned Cumberland, which was not quite 

 so large as a Gravesend sailing-boat, the circumnavigation of half the 

 globe ; for Flinders intended to reach England with this miserable craft. 

 He mentions that noli a man refused to share the risk with him except 

 his clerk. Having gone through Torres Straits, and touched again at 

 Timor, Flinders stretched boldly across the Indian Ocean, aud made 

 the Isle of France, which was not yet taken by the English. Though 

 the war had been renewed, he relied on his French pass, and indeed 

 he could scarcely choose, for the little Cumberland was in a sinking 

 state when he got her into the French port. To his astonishment the 

 authorities of the Isle of France seized the vessel and all his papers, 

 and declared him and his people to be prisoners of war. The governor 

 even chose to consider Flinders as a spy, aud treated him with a 

 brutal severity which, united with his uneasiness of mind, certainly 



