500 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



of the still " unknown coast " between De Nuyts's discovery 

 of the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, and Bass's 

 discovery of Western Port. Did this unknown coast 

 contain, as was generally believed, 1 " a still larger than 

 Bass's Strait," which " dismembered New Holland " 

 by running Northward till it opened into the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria ? That was the question in Flinders' mind 

 as he sailed back to Sydney, and the one thing certain 

 was that, if he did not answer it, the fault would not 

 be his. 



Flinders in Luck went with him. In spite of repairs, the Reliance 

 i8cK> ' was so r tten that, in March 1800, Governor Hunter thought 

 well to send her home, while there was still a chance that 

 " she may be capable of performing the voyage." She 

 performed the voyage, though with difficulty, and Flinders, 

 sailing upon her, came to England in October 1800. He 

 printed his " Observations " on the coasts he had discovered, 

 and he dedicated the pamphlet to Sir Joseph Banks. 

 Sir Joseph For Banks, whom we left at the end of his voyage a 

 joyful boy of twenty-eight, was in- 1800 a man of fifty- 

 seven, still boylike in enthusiasms and energies, but with 

 full powers to get those things done which his strong 

 will and hot temper decided ought to be done. For 

 twenty-three years he had been President of the Royal 

 Society, and for twenty years longer he was to remain 

 in that position. And, through all those years, he used 

 character, influence, and money to organize scientific 

 research as no one man ever organized scientific research 

 either before him or after him. He was, as one of his 

 political friends truly said, " His Majesty's Ministre des 

 Affaires Philosophiques," 2 and His Majesty was far more 

 open to advice in affairs of philosophy than in affairs of 

 politics ; though, as Banks knew, he could muddle an affair 

 of sheep as ignorantly and as obstinately as he muddled 

 an affair of America. And, while the whole world was the 



1 In September 1800, Governor King wrote that " a sea or strait 

 running from the Gulf of Carpentaria into the Southern Ocean " was 

 " a very favourite idea in this country." 



2 Smith's Banks, p. 207. 



