102 
SIR JOSEFH BASKS. 
visited during the progress of the expedition. Accordingly H.M.S. 
“ Investigator ” was fitted out and Captain Matthew Flinders placed 
in command. (Infra, p. 200.) 
Banks, under date 12th December. 1800,* writes to Brown that a 
n-ituralist is required for the “ Investigator, ’’about to proceed to Xew 
Holland 
for the purpose of exploring the natural history (amongst other things). The 
salary of the naturalist will be £400 a year If you chuse to accept 
the appointment I will certainly recommend you The voyage will, 
I conclude, last three years at least. 
Brown accepted the proffered post. 
Flinders’ great workf should be studied. It gives minute details 
and maps of the itinerary of the expeditions, and many notes as to 
Brown’s collecting grounds. 
Brown’s general account is as follows : — 
The first part of Xew Holland examined in Captain Flinders’ voyage was the 
south coast, on various and distant points of which, and on several of its adjacent 
islands we landed, in circumstances more or less favourable for our researches. 
The survey of the coast took place from west to east, and our first anchorage 
was in King George Third’s Sound, in 3.5"south latitude, and 118° east longitude. 
In this port we remained for three weeks, in the most favourable season for our 
pursuits ; and our collections of j)lants made chiefly on its shores and a few miles 
into the interior of the country, amount to nearly oOO species, exclusive of those 
belonging to the class Cryi>togamia, which, though certainly bearing a small 
proportion to phtenogamous j)lants. were not. it must be admitted, equally attended 
to. At our second anchorage. Lucky Bay): of Captain Flinders’ chart, in 34° 
S. lat., and about 4° to the eastward of King George's Sound; we remained only 
three days, but even in that short time addeil upwards of 100 species to our former 
collection. 
Goose-Island Bay. in the same latitude and hardly one degree to the eastward 
of the second anchorage, where our stay was also very short, afforded us but few 
new plants ; and the remaining parts of the south coast, on five distinct points 
of which we landeil, as well as on seven of its adjacent islands, were still more 
barren, altogether producing only 200 additional sj>ecies. The smallness of this 
number is to be accounted for, partly, no doubt, from the less favourable season 
in which this part of the coast was examined ; but it apjieareil to dejiend also in 
a considerable degree on it • greater sterility, and especially that of its islands. 
Of Xew South Wales, or the east coast of Xew Holland, scarcely an_v part 
bevond the tropic was examined in the voyage; our first landing after leaving 
Port Jackson being at Sandy Cape, in nearly 2.5° S. lat. Between this and 21° 
S. lat. we had many, and upon the whole, favourable opportunities for observation, 
especialh' at Port Curtis. Keppel Bay. Port Bowen. Strong-tide Passage, Shoal- 
water Bay, and Broad Sound, the survey of which was completed ; we landed 
also on two of the Xorthumberland and on one of the Cumberland Isles. 
On the north coast we landed on Good's Island, one of the Prince of Wales’ 
Isles of Captain Cook; for a few hours at Coen River on the east side of the Gulph 
of Carpentaria; and in more favourable circumstances on many of the islands 
and some points of the mainland on the west side of this gulph. .Several of the 
• Hist. Rec., iv. 265. 
t “ Voyage to Terra Australis." 
t See iis . p. 66 of Westall’s landscapes eferriiir to tliis and other localities referred to by 
Brown. 
