add to the knowledge of his country and the greatness of the English name.
King George III. despatched Captain Flinders in 1801 on a voyage of discovery to Australia. The sloop Xenophon, of 334 tons, was fitted up specially for this expedition, and appropriately rechristened the Investigator. On July 18, 1801, Flinders left Spithead, and on Sunday, the 6th December, reached the south-western corner of Leeuwin's Land. He sailed along the south coast on his way to Sydney, and made a flying survey. He named various points, and on the 9th December entered King George’s Sound, where several days were passed in rambles in the woods and in surveying the sound, especially Oyster and Princess Royal Harbours. His party was a notable one. John Franklin, his lieutenant, became the great Franklin, whose fame in Arctic explorations will never be dimmed; the botanist, Robert Brown, had already made a great name; and William Westall, the famous painter, was a fellow voyager. Small inland lakes were visited, floral specimens were secured, and romantic scenes were viewed. In one of their journeys, when they had gone an unusual distance among the hills, Westall became so weary that it was with difficulty he was taken back to the boat. This pleasant party made valuable researches among the blacks, many of whom they met. They compiled a short vocabulary of their language, and gave some information as to their habits, while the surgeon took anatomical measurements of one aboriginal. Flinders described "the manners of these people" as "quick and vehement, and their conversation vociferous, like that of most uncivilised people. They seemed to have no idea of any superiority we possessed over them; on the contrary, they left us, after the first interview, with some appearance of contempt for our pusillanimity which was probably inferred from the desire we showed to be friendly with them." While each officer was attending to his own special work, and excursions were made into the solemn silent forests, the sailors mended the sails, obtained fresh provisions and water and wood, and on the 5th January, 1802, Flinders left King George's Sound to push on to his more important work east and north. He made a running survey of the coast, and remained at the Archipelago of the Recherche some days, taking soundings and acquiring general information through his various officers. He then went further east and discovered many parts hitherto unknown.
Among other things, Flinders will long be remembered for having awarded her present name to Australia. The continent had been known as Magellanica, Terra Australis, Great Java, and Great South Land, until after Tasman's second voyage in 1644, when New Holland was given to it. Then after Cook the eastern portion received the name of New South Wales, and the western remained New Holland. Flinders ascertained that these two parts were not bisected by Nature—that they were one continent,—and he re-adopted, with the "concurrence of opinions entitled to deference," the term "Terra Australis." But, going further, he preferred Australia, "as," in his own words, "being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth." His suggestion was adopted, and henceforth the Great South Land became the island-continent of Australia.
Flinders, before he returned to England, was imprisoned at Mauritius by the French Governor, where he toiled and languished as a common felon. He did not waste his time, for it was there that he arranged much of the matter which upon his release was published to the world. In his book he not only describes his own voyages but recounts the history of the discovery of Australia.
A second French expedition was now fitted out to search for traces of La Perouse. In 1801-2 the Geographe, commanded by Commodore Nicholas Baudin, the Naturaliste, by Captain Hamelin, and the Casuarina, a smaller vessel, by Captain De Freycinet, proceeded along considerable Western Australian coast-line. Some English authorities say that Baudin showed want of zeal in his coastal explorations; for, instead of making exhaustive researches with his splendidly-equipped expedition, he hurried over his work, and sought credit for many new discoveries which had already been made by other navigators, particularly by Flinders. Baudin awarded names to the chief features on the north-west coast, from Cape Leveque to North West Cape, and discovered a new opening to Sharks Bay, which he termed Geographe Channel. It was at this period that Captain Hamelin found the tin plate last seen by De Vlaming on Dirk Hartog Island. The expedition sailed up and down the west coast, touched parts of the southern, and then voyaged to the eastern shore. Naturaliste Channel, Heirrison Islands, Port Leschenault, Capes Hamelin, Freycinet, Clairault, and many other points were named by this party. M. Heirrison was one of the officers, and M. Leschenault the naturalist, and M. de Peron the historian to the expedition. Rottnest Island and Swan River were carefully explored by Baudin. The course of the latter was explored to above Perth, and small islands in the stream near the causeway were named. It is said that night coming upon them while exploring near these islets they were compelled to camp on one of them. It was a night of horrors. Strange, unusual sounds coming out of the samphire and bush on the banks greatly disturbed their rest, and they feared that wild beasts or wilder men were waiting to prey upon them. These sounds continued all night long, and when morning broke and no harm had been done they hurriedly left the place. During nearly every night they spent on land the same noises filled them with terror. It was the solemn, weird croakings of frogs which burdened the air.
Still another French expedition was the next in order to visit Western Australia. For some years Captain de Freycinet had been voyaging in different parts of the world, and particularly in southern seas. On September 17, 1817, he again left Toulon in the corvette Uranie to make scientific and general investigations. He anchored in Dampier Bay in 1818, skirted the north-west coast, and also visited the eastern. From letters of the draftsman to the expedition, M. J. Arago, are culled some interesting extracts. The north-western "coast exhibited nothing but a picture of desolation; no rivulet consoled the eye, no tree attracted it, no mountain gave variety to the landscape, no dwelling enlivened it, every where reigned sterility and death…. Threatening reefs, sometimes rising to the height of 40 or 50 feet, seem desirous of opposing the audacity of the mariner, and forbidding his approach to this land abandoned by nature." As in the case of Dampier, the navigators were attacked by innumerable flies, and were thereby caused much inconvenience until "the sun sets: everything is dead. The myriads of flies that devoured us have disappeared; no insect wings through the air; no voice disturbs the silence of this melancholy solitude; a sharp cold benumbs the limbs. The sun reappears: the air is again populated; a consuming heat oppresses us; we seek repose, and find nothing but fatigue. What a frightful abode!" The writer, judging from his journal, had no taste for life in Western Australia. The party met the natives, but could not approach them until an officer, happily taking castanets from his pockets, rattled them briskly, and the old man, or chief of the assembled natives, rose and "fell to dancing in such a manner that we were ready to die with laughing." De Freycinet made flying surveys during his voyage along the coast.
In 1817 the English Admiralty determined on sending out an
