Chapter 17

Captain Cook compared to former Visitors--Point Hicks--Botany Bay-First natives seen--Indifference to Overtures--Abundant flora--Entrance to Port Jackson missed--Endeavour on a reef--Careened--Strange animals--Hostile natives--A sailor's devil--Possession Island-Territory of New South Wales--Torres Straits a passage--La Perouse--Probable fate discovered by Captain Dillon--M'Cluer touches Arnheim's Land--Bligh and Portlock--Wreck of the Pandora--Vancouver in the south--The D'Entrecasteaux quest--Recherche Archipelago--Bass and Flinders--Navigation and exploration extraordinary--The Tom Thumb--Bass explores south--Flinders in the Great Bight--Bass's Straits--Flinders in the Investigator--Special instructions--King George's Sound--Lossof boat's crew--Memory Cove--Baudin's courtesy--Port Phillip--Investigator and Lady Nelson on East Coast--The Gulf of Carpentaria and early Dutch navigators--Duyfhen Point--Cape Keer-Weer--Mythical rivers charted--Difficulty in recognising their landmarks--Flinders' great disappointment--A rotten ship--Return by way of West Coast--Cape Vanderlin--Dutch Charts--Malay proas, Pobassoo--Return to Port Jackson--Wreck of the Porpoise--Prisoner by the French--General de Caen--Private papers and journals appropriated--Prepares his charts and logs for press--Death--Sympathy by strangers--Forgotten by Australia--The fate of Bass--Mysterious disappearance--Supposed Death.