Cape Catastrophe.-] TERRA AUSTRALIS. 139 
Mr. Westall's view from the ship in Memory Cove, represents isos. 
Thistle's Island and three of the small isles in front of it. Wedn^i 
The reader will pardon me the observation, that Mr. Thistle (A tlas > 
m j i Plate XVII. 
was truly a valuable man, as a seaman, an officer, and a good mem- View 9.) 
ber of society. I had known him, and we had mostly served to- 
gether, from the year 1 794, He had been with Mr. Bass in his 
perilous expedition in the whale boat, and with me in the voyage 
round Van Diemen's Land, and in the succeeding expedition, 
to Glass-house and Hervey's Bays. From his merit and prudent 
conduct, he was promoted from before the mast to be a midshipman, 
and afterwards a master in his Majesty's service. His zeal for 
discovery had induced him to join the Investigator when atSpithead 
and ready to sail, although he had returned to England only three 
weeks before, after an absence of six years. Besides performing as- 
siduously the duties of his situation, Mr. Thistle had made himself well 
acquainted with the practice of nautical astronomy, and began to be 
very useful in the surveying department. His loss was severely felt 
by me ; and he was lamented by all on board, more especiall} T by 
his messmates, who knew more intimately the goodness and stability 
of his disposition. 
Mr. William Taylor, the midshipman of the boat, was a young 
officer who promised fair to become an ornament to the service, as 
he was to society by the amiability of his manners and temper. The 
six seamen had all volunteered for the voyage. They were active 
and useful young men ; and in a small and incomplete ship's com- 
pany, which had so many duties to perform, this diminution of our 
force was heavily felt. 
The latitude of our anchorage in Memory Cove was 34 0 58' 
south, and longitude 1 35 0 56^' east. The variation observed on the 
binnacle by lieutenant Flinders, when the ship's head was S. by W., 
was 2 0 38' east, or corrected for one point of western deviation from 
the magnetic meridian, 2* o' east. In the bearings taken on the 
eastern side of the high land behind the cove, the variation appeared 
