INTRODUCTORY 23 



arrived in Port Jackson on the 24th of March, and submitted the 

 result of his expedition to the Governor. 



Murray's full journal of these discoveries was transmitted by 

 Governor King to the Duke of Portland within two months of its 

 receipt, and having been entombed in the Eecord Office was only 

 discovered about seventy years after by Mr. F. P. Labilliere, who 

 published it almost verbatim in his valuable Early History of 

 Victoria. 



Only six weeks after the departure from Port Phillip of this 

 first visitor, its silent waters were again disturbed by a British 

 ship, the Investigator, of 334 tons, under the command of Captain 

 Matthew Flinders, outward bound from England on a mission to 

 survey the southern coast of New Holland. It is gratifying to 

 note the progressive improvement in the means of discovery fur- 

 nished by the Government, as it gradually realised the importance 

 of the work. From the open whale-boat of Bass to the colonial 

 sloop Norfolk was a decided step in the direction of efficiency, while 

 the exchange of the latter for the Lady Nelson added materially to 

 the comfort and convenience of the adventurers. The latest comer 

 was a comparative leviathan for those days, liberally equipped and 

 well provisioned, and carrying eighty-eight persons in all, includ- 

 ing a complete scientific staff. Amongst the midshipmen on board 

 was one whose name has long been embalmed in the annals of 

 British exploration, the distinguished but unfortunate Sir John 

 Franklin of Arctic fame. 



The Investigator had done good work in coast exploration from 

 King George's Sound to Cape Otway, and on the 26th of April, 

 1802, in the belief that he was entering Western Port, her com- 

 mander sailed through the Heads and anchored in the neighbour- 

 hood of the present village of Sorrento. The narrowness of the 

 entrance and the extent of the interior were so at variance with 

 the description of Western Port, as given by his old comrade 

 Bass, that Flinders soon came to the conclusion that he had 

 made an independent discovery. All doubt on this point was 

 resolved when next morning he landed and ascended Arthur's 

 Seat. He says : " I ascended the hill, and, to my surprise, found 

 the port so extensive that even at this elevation its boundary to 



