Chapter 31

minister's order for my liberation being suspended by the captain-general

Before explaining what I conceive to have been the true causes which led the captain-general to act so contrary to my passport, as to imprison me and seize my vessel, charts, and papers; it will be proper to give the reader a knowledge of some points in His Excellency's character, in addition to those he will have extracted from the abridged narrative. At the time of my arrival, he entertained, and does I believe still entertain, an indiscriminate animosity against Englishmen, whether this arose from his having been deprived of the advantage of fixing the seat of his government at Pondicherry, by the renewal of war in 1803, or from any antecedent circumstance, I cannot pretend to say; but that he did harbour such animosity, and that in an uncommon degree, is averred by his keeping in irons, contrary to the usages of war, the first English seamen that were brought to the island (Narrative page 58 and 70); by the surprise he testified at the proceeding of a French gentleman, who interceded with him for the liberty on parole of a sick English officer; on which occasion he said amongst other things, that had he his own will, he would send all the English prisoners to the Marquis Wellesley without their ears: this animosity is, besides, as well known at the Isle of France, as the existence of the island.

It is probably owing to an original want of education, and to having passed the greater part of his life in the tumult of camps during the French revolution, that arises his indifference for the arts and sciences, other than those which have an immediate relation to war. His Excellency's ideas seem even to be so strictly military, that the profession of a seaman has very little share in his estimation; and his ignorance of nautical affairs has been shewn by various circumstances to be greater than would be supposed in a moderately well informed man, who had made a voyage from Europe to India.

36. EXTRACT FROM FLINDERS' LETTER-BOOK, REFERRING TO OXLEY'S APPOINTMENT AS SURVEYOR-GENERAL.

(Melbourne Public Library.)

To Captain Thos. Hurd, Hydrographer, Admiralty Office.

London April 2, 1812.

My dear Sir

Understanding that Lieut. John Oxley of the Navy is going out surveyor-general of Lands in New South Wales, I wish to point out to you, that if he should be enabled, in intervals of his land duty, to accomplish the following nautical objects, in the vicinity of Port Jackson, and of the settlements in Van Diemen's Land, our knowledge of those coasts would be thereby improved, and some material advantages to the colonies probably obtained.

1st. Jervis Bay, a large piece of water whose entrance is in 35.5 south, and not from than 75 miles from Port Jackson, has never yet, to my knowledge been surveyed. There have been two or three eye sketches made of it; but it would be desirable to have it surveyed, with the streams which are said to fall into its North and western sides; and also the corresponding line of the sea coast, in which there are thought to be strata of coal.

The great semicircular range of mountains which has hitherto resisted all attempts to penetrate into the interior country behind Port Jackson, appears to terminate at Point Bass in latitude about 34.43; and the land behind Jervis Bay is represented to be low and flat. It is, therefore, probable, that a well conducted effort to obtain some knowledge of the interior of that vast country, would be attended with success if made by steering a West or N.N.W. course from the head of Jervis Bay.

37. FLINDERS' MEMORIAL IN PARISH CHURCH, AT HIS BIRTHPLACE, DONINGTON, LINCOLNSHIRE.

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN MATTHEW FLINDERS, R.N. WHO DIED JULY 19TH 1814, AGED 40 YEARS.

AFTER HAVING TWICE CIRCUMNAVIGATED THE GLOBE, HE WAS SENT BY THE ADMIRALTY IN THE YEAR 1801, TO MAKE DISCOVERIES ON THE COAST OF TERRA AUSTRALIS. RETURNING FROM THIS VOYAGE HE SUFFERED SHIPWRECK, AND BY THE INJUSTICE OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT WAS IMPRISONED SIX YEARS IN THE ISLAND OF MAURITIUS.

IN 1810, HE WAS RESTORED TO HIS NATIVE LAND, AND NOT LONG AFTER WAS ATTACKED BY AN EXCRUCIATING DISEASE, THE ANGUISH OF WHICH HE BORE UNTIL DEATH WITH UNDEVIATING FORTITUDE.

HIS COUNTRY WILL LONG REGRET THE LOSS OF ONE WHOSE EXERTIONS IN HER CAUSE WERE ONLY EQUALLED BY HIS PERSEVERANCE: BUT HIS FAMILY WILL MOST DEEPLY FEEL THE IRREPARABLE DEPRIVATION.

THEY DO NOT MERELY LAMENT A MAN OF SUPERIOR INTELLECT. THEY MOURN AN AFFECTIONATE HUSBAND, A TENDER FATHER, A KIND BROTHER, AND A FAITHFUL FRIEND.

38. MEMORIAL TO BASS AND FLINDERS AT THE COMMONWEALTH NAVAL BASE, WESTERNPORT, VICTORIA.)

The maps have been copied from Flinders' Atlas, with the omission of a few details, which, on the small scale necessarily adopted, would have caused confusion; it has been thought better to make what is given quite legible to the unassisted eye. All names on the maps are as Flinders spelt them, but in the body of the book modern spellings have been adopted. In the case of the Duyfhen the usual spelling, which is also that of Flinders, is retained; but the late J. Backhouse Walker has shown reason to believe that the real name of the vessel was Duyfken.

CHRONOLOGY.

1774 (March 16) : Born at Donington.

1789 (October 23) : Enters the Royal Navy.

1790 (July 31) : Midshipman on the Bellerophon.

1791 to 1793 : Voyage in the Providence.

1793 (September) : Rejoins the Bellerophon.

1794 (June) : Participates in the battle off Brest.

1795 (February) : Sails for Australia in the Reliance. Meets George Bass.

1796 (March) : Cruise of the Tom Thumb.

1797 (December) : Bass's whaleboat voyage.

1798 (January) : Discovery of Westernport.

1798 (January) : Flinders' voyage in the Francis.

1798 (January 31) : Flinders obtains lieutenant's commission.

1798 (October) : Voyage of the Norfolk.

1798 (November) : Discovery of Port Dalrymple.

1798 (December) : Bass Strait demonstrated.

1799 : Return to Port Jackson.

1799 (July) : Exploration on Queensland coast.

1800 (March) : Return to England in the Reliance.

1800 (October) : Arrival in England. Plan of Australian Exploration.

1800 (December) : The Investigator commissioned.

1801 (January 17) : Publication of Observations.

1801 (February 16) : Obtains commander's rank.

1801 (April) : Marriage of Flinders.

1801 (July 18) : Sailing of the Investigator.

1801 (December) : Australia reached.

1802 (February) : Discovery of Spencer's Gulf.

1802 (March) : Discovery of Kangaroo Island and St. Vincent's Gulf.

1802 (April) : Meeting of Flinders and Baudin in Encounter Bay.

1802 (May) : Flinders in Port Phillip.

1802 (July) : Voyage to Northern Australia.

1802 (August) : Discovery of Port Curtis and Port Bowen.

1802 (November) : In the Gulf of Carpentaria.

1803 (April) : Return voyage; Australia circumnavigated.

1803 (June) : Sydney reached; the Investigator condemned.

1803 (July 10) : Sails in the Porpoise.

1803 (August 17) : Wrecked on the Barrier Reef. Voyage in the Hope to Sydney.

1803 (September 8) : Arrival in Port Jackson.

1803 (September 21) : Sails in the Cumberland.

1803 (November) : Timor reached.

1803 (December 17) : Arrival at Ile-de-France; made a prisoner.

1804 (April) : Removal to the Garden Prison (Maison Despeaux).

1805 : Removal to Wilhelm's Plains.

1806 (March 21) : French Government orders release of Flinders.

1810 (June 13) : Release of Flinders.

1810 (October 24) : Return to England.

1814 (July 19) : Death of Flinders.

***

THE LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS.