A US TRA LA SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



Matthew Flinders was born at Donington, in Lincolnshire, England, in the year 

 1 760, and early entered the merchant service, but quitted it for the Navy, which he 

 joined as a midshipman in 1793. Donington is not far from Sleaford, in the same 

 county, and the latter was the birthplace of George Bass. It is more than probable 

 that the two explorers went to school together. When Flinders landed at Port Jackson 

 in September, 1795, the knowledge possessed by the colonists of even the three harbours 

 mentioned was of the most rudimentary and imperfect kind. Lieutenant Richard Bowen 

 had indeed entered Jervis Bay, and to the north, Surveyor-General Grimes and Captain 

 Broughton, of //. J/..S'. Providence, had examined Port Stephens ; but of the intermediate 

 parts of the coast, both in a northerly and in a southerly direction, little more was known 

 than could be learnt from Cook's general chart, while the exploration of the more remote 

 coastal indentations indicated by the famous sailor had been entirely neglected. 



The chance of adding something to hydrographical science fired the ardour of 

 Flinders, and in George Bass, who came out with Captain Hunter as surgeon of the 

 Reliance, he found a brave and determined coadjutor. Bass was the son of a farmer 

 who had a holding at Asworthy ; but unfortunately for the future explorer he lost this 



parent in his infancy. From his boyhood Bass 

 gave his heart to the sea, and although his 

 mother sought to cure him of what she 

 regarded as folly by having him apprenticed 

 to a Boston surgeon, her efforts were without 

 avail. Curiously enougn Flinders also was 

 intended for the medical profession, his father 

 being a doctor ; but his passion for the sea, 

 first stimulated, according to his own con- 

 fession, by the perusal of " Robinson Crusoe," 

 overcame all the opposition of his family. 



These two courageous men resolved to 

 complete the survey of the east coast of New 

 South Wales to the best of their ability and 

 to the utmost of their procurable means and 

 opportunities. The first venture was made in 

 a little boat only eight feet long, the famous 

 Tom 77uimb ; and Flinders, Bass and a boy 

 formed the entire crew. In this frail craft in 

 the month following the arrival of the Reliance 

 and the Supply, they left Port Jackson for 

 Botany Bay, and ascending George's River, 

 explored its tortuous course for twenty miles 

 beyond the point at which Hunter's survey 



had terminated. The result of this expedition was the establishment of a dc s pot under 

 the name of Bankstown, which has since grown into a flourishing suburb of Sydney. 



In 1796, upon the return of Hinders from a voyage to Norfolk Island, the 

 intrepid explorers sailed out of Port Jackson on a fresh March morning in search 



1 I.INDERS AND BASS IN THE "TOM THUMB.' 



