THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 517 



Still more one would have liked to follow the story of Flinders 

 Flinders' life in its bravery and its patience, its tragedy ^ 

 and its triumph. And, indeed, one is tempted to say Sydney to 

 that his circumnavigation falls in some sense within the strait 

 limits of our scheme. His voyage from Sydney worked 

 Cook's outline into detail in the North, somewhat as 

 Bass in his whale-boat had done in the South. Port 

 Curtis and Port Bowen were discovered. The Barrier 

 Reef was threaded at Flinders' Passage, though Flinders 

 adds the warning that, if a captain " do not feel his nerves 

 strong enough to thread the needle, as it is called, amongst 

 the reefs, while he directs the steerage from the mast-head, 

 I would strongly recommend him not to approach this 

 part of the coast." He passed Torres Strait by an entrance 

 previously discovered, and proved that " this most direct 

 passage may be accomplished in three days," though he 

 hoped to find a still more direct passage in the following 

 year. 1 He remarks, however, that a passage in the opposite 

 direction " has not to my knowledge, been attempted ; 

 and I have some doubt of its practicability. . . . The 

 experiment is too hazardous for any except a ship on 

 discovery." 2 



Then he began the careful survey of the Gulf coasts, and the 

 But the rottenness of the ship became evident. In Torres Gulf- 

 Strait she had leaked ten to fourteen inches an hour, 

 and the carpenter now reported that in twelve months 

 " there would scarcely be a sound timber in her." The 



they stole was a survey of Port Phillip, which they apparently obtained 

 during their stay in Sydney (Scott's Terre Napoleon, p. 105 et seq.). 

 Apart from this falsehood, the charge against them is, not they stole 

 information gained by the British voyagers, but that they ignored their 

 discoveries, and thus falsely claimed priority. See Scott's Terre 

 Napoleon and Life of Flinders. 



1 On the 28th of August, 1791, Capt. Edwards of the Pandora, 

 seeking passage through Torres Strait, sent a boat to examine an 

 opening in the reef. The boat made signal for a passage being found, 

 but, before the Pandora could sail it, she drifted upon the reef, and sank. 

 The crew sailed in four boats to Timor (Flinders, vol. i. p. xvi). Flinders 

 sailed through the Pandora's Entrance (vol. ii. p. 107) at 6 a.m., 2gth 

 October, and could have cleared Torres Strait before dusk on the 

 3ist (vol. ii. p. 126). 



2 Voyage, vol. ii. p. 294. 



