XXIV 
INTRODUCTION, 
It was intended that the whole line of 
the Australian Coast should have been ex- 
amined and surveyed by Captain Flinders ; 
but the disgraceful and unwarrantable de- 
tention of this officer at the Mauritius by 
the French Governor, General Decaen, 
prevented the completion of this project. 
Captain Flinders had, however, previously 
succeeded in making a most minute and 
elaborate survey of the whole extent of 
the South coast, between Cape Leeuwin 
and Bass’ Strait ; of the East Coast, from 
Cape Howe to the Northumberland Islands ; 
of the passage through Torres Strait ; and 
of the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. 
The French expedition, under Commo- 
dore Baudin, had in the mean time visited 
some few parts of the West Coast, and 
skirted the islands which front the North- 
west Coast, without landing upon, and in- 
deed scarcely seeing, any part of the main 
land. The whole of the north, the north- 
