No. 162. | 
» 
THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
OCTOBER 1, 1807. 
€* As long as thofe who write are ambitious of making Converts, and of giving to their Opinions a Maximum of 
%* Influence and Celebrity, the moft extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the greateR Effect the 
®* Curiofity of thufe who read either for Amufement or Infruction.” JOHNSON, 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS, 
Lothe Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
sIR, 
N the early part of the year 1801, 
an expedition of discovery was fitted 
out by the British government, consist- 
ing of a ship of 420 tons burthen, pro- 
vided with an astronomer, a botanist, 
2 botanical draughtsman, and a portrait 
and landscape painter; to which were 
added a botanic gardener, and a practi- 
cal miner. ry 
The command of this vessel was given 
to Lieutenant Matthew Flinders, a young 
officer distinguished for his nautical abi- 
lities, the correctness of his charts, and 
the time and pains he had previously 
faken to improve our knowledge of the 
extensive coasts of New Holland. The 
ship, which had before been calied the 
Xenophon, was named the Investigator, 
and Lieut. F., previously to her sailing 
in July of the same year, was promoted 
to the rank of master and commander. 
Nothing authentic has yet appeared 
as to the object of this expedition ; the 
following brief statement of such cir- 
cuinstances'as occurred, cannot fail there- 
fore to prove acceptable to the public. 
Nothing particular happened till their 
arrival at Madeira, the longitude of 
which, as set down in the “ requisite Ta- 
bles,” was about a quarter of a degree 
too far west; indeed, from what was 
afterwards observed on their arrival in 
Symon’s Bay, an error of the same 
kind had also crept into the account 
of the longitude. of Cape Town, 
Cape of Good Hope. In Decem- 
ber, the Investigator made the west 
coast of New Holland about Lewin’s 
Land. From this time, till May, 1802, 
they were employed coasting the south- 
west shore, examining the survey of King 
George’s Sound, given by Vancouver, 
and-in delineating accurately the whole 
of that extensive range of coast, from 
Tewin’s Land, to Western Port; of 
which, little had been known, but from 
accounts published by the Dutch in the 
early part of the seventeenth century, 
In exploring this. tract of almost 
unknown ftand, off the part of -the 
coast near Western Port, Captain F, 
Monauty Mac. No. 162 
fell in with two French frigates just be- 
ginning the examination of the cvast 
which he had then completed : it appears 
these vessels had Jett France, twelve 
months before the Investigator quitted 
England, and that their particular object 
was, to explore the unknown south-west 
coast of New Holland, or Australasia, 
In July, 1802, in company with the 
Lady Nelson, a simali vessel intended 
fo assist the Investigator, Captain F, 
left Port Jackson, and procecded in his 
examination of the east and north-east 
coasts; and, after anchoring ane night 
under Murray’s Islaud, making a passave 
in thirty-six hours through Torre’s Strait, 
arrived im the gulph of Carpentaria, 
situated at the north end of New Hol- 
land, sometime in November, or De= 
cember, of the same year. He con- 
tinued examining this gulph, and the 
coast north-west of it, until March, 1803 - 
when, from the infirm state of the vessel. 
and sickliness of her crew, he was obliged 
to leave a part of this coast unexamined 
and strike off for the Island of Timor ; 
where having refreshed his people, he 
returned, by the south, to Port Jacksons 
thus having, in about eighteen months, 
circumnavigated New Holland, and sur« 
veyed the coasts of an island, little ine 
ferior in extent to all Europe. 
Iu August, 1808, he sailed from Port 
Jackson, in the Porpoise, intending to 
convey himself and his discoveries to 
England; but was, unfortunately, on the 
night of the 17th of that month, wrecked 
on an unknown coral reef, seven hun« 
dred miles from that settlement; which, 
however, he afierwards reached in an 
open boat; from thence he conducted 4 
vessel to the svot, saw all his officers 
and people safely embarked in a ship for 
China; and, still persevering in his fors 
mer resolution of conveying his disco= 
veries to Eneland with all possible exe 
pedition, he avain made sail in a litde 
vessel of nineteen tons, which he: had 
procured from the governor of Port Jacka 
son. 
In this vessel, which was called the 
Cumberland, he crossed the great South 
Sea, aid, in December, 1803, arrived 
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