144 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



fewer than sixty MALAY VESSELS, in squadrons. Their business 

 was to collect beche de mer for sale to Chinese merchants at Timor. 

 Early in March, a severe outbreak of SCURVY reinforced the 

 argument furnished by the rotten condition of the ship in favour 

 of a speedy return to Sydney. Flinders therefore made for TIMOR, 

 which was reached by the end of March. His intention was to 

 send Lieutenant Fowler home in any Europe-bound ship, with his 

 reports and charts, and a scheme for completing the survey. No 

 such ship offered itself, and the "Investigator" finally sailed for 

 Sydney on i6ih A'pril, 1803. She touched at CAPE LEEUWIN and 

 the north-west cape of Tasmania, but otherwise gave the land a 

 wide berth. SYDNEY was reached on qth June. Flinders was the 

 first to CIRCUMNAVIGATE AUSTRALIA, although Tasman had pre- 

 viously demonstrated its insularity, but not its separation from 

 Tasmania. The crew were in a very bad way with scurvy and 

 dysentery, and Flinders himself was much debilitated. As for the 

 "Investigator," she was in such a crazy condition that Flinders 

 believed she must have foundered had she encountered a single 

 gale between Timor and Sydney. She had done her last explor- 

 atory work, and was broken up at Deptford in iSio. 1 



i Terra Australis, II, p. 284. 



