THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 503 



should judge necessary, and Flinders' judgment was 

 probably the best in England. Among the men of science 

 whom Banks sent with him was the very famous botanist 

 Robert Brown Banks described him as " a Scotchman, 

 fitted to pursue an object with constancy and a cold mind " 

 and among the midshipmen was John Franklin, one 

 more famous Lincolnshire man, who was now first to learn 

 the business of discovery. 



Flinders' ambition was to explore with perfect and The " un- 

 final exactness all the Australian coasts, " as well those C Q> 

 which were imperfectly known as those entirely unknown." discovered 

 But the problem that dominated his mind was the problem 



of the " unknown coast " between De Nuytsland and Baudin, and 



Western Port, and especially the question whether it 



contained the entrance of a channel which " dismembered 



New Holland " by running to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



And it was the exploration of this " unknown coast " 



which, in fact, was the most interesting part of the 



Investigator's voyage. The end of the story was that 



this " unknown coast " was discovered in four parts 



by four explorers. Of these four explorers Flinders was 



one. Two others were Grant and Murray in the Lady 



Nelson. And the fourth was the French navigator Baudin 



in Le Geographe. And, in order to follow Flinders' story 



with intelligence, we must know something of the stories 



of the other three explorers. 



In 1799 Philip Gidley King, who perhaps knew as Grant 

 much about New South Wales as anyone, was in England ^om^C^e 

 and was preparing to sail back to Sydney as successor Banks to 

 to Governor Hunter. He explained to Banks that a small 

 boat was much needed in order to explore the shallow 

 waters of rivers and bays ; and it was finally agreed 

 that the perfect boat for the purpose was a sixty ton boat, 

 named the Lady Nelson, that had been built by Captain 

 Schanck of the Admiralty with a sliding keel, the effects 

 of which were vastly admired. In January 1800 this 

 tiny boat generally called, says Lieutenant Grant her 

 proud commander, His Majesty's Tinder Box sailed on 

 her long voyage. When Grant reached the Cape, he received 



