CHAPTER XIV 

 CAPTAIN FLINDERS AND ROBERT BROWN 



A ING the sailor-adventurers of this period, 

 few men deserve more honour than Matthew 

 Flinders. Born about 1760, he served some 

 time in the mercantile marine before enter- 

 ing His Majesty's Navy. In 1795 he was on board a ship 

 carrying out a Governor to Botany Bay. George Bass, 

 the surgeon, found a congenial mind in Flinders. Each 

 wanted to explore something ; and after their arrival 

 in New Holland, they made important surveys and dis- 

 coveries in company. They were presently sent out 

 on a trip southwards, in order to settle the question 

 whether Van Diemen's Land was an island or no. They 

 found open water, which was forthwith called Bass's 

 Straits. They were afterward engaged on the still more 

 important task of defining and perfecting Cook's re- 

 searches on the east coast of New Holland. Then Flinders 

 came home, and was deservedly promoted. Bass pre- 

 sently went to sea again, in another direction. 1 



In 1800, the Investigator, 334 tons, was ordered out for 

 a scientific voyage to New Holland, under the command 

 of Flinders. An astronomer, a botanist, two draughtsmen, 

 a gardener, and a miner were chosen to go with this 

 Expedition. William Westall, afterward a famous 

 landscape painter, was the draughtsman. Ferdinand 

 Bauer, the botanic draughtsman ; Peter Good, the 



1 According to Jorgensen, Bass was entrapped ashore in Chili, and 

 ended as a captive in the silver mines. 



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