The Naval Pioneers of Australia and Walter Jeffery

ork, but in a future chapter some reference will be made to the marvello

, has now become a rare book, to be found only in a few public libraries, and too expensive for any but well-to-do book-lovers to have upon their shelves. The printing in New South Wales by the local Government of the records of the colony has led to the discovery of a quanti

s landed for the first time, are too local in their interests to warrant more than a passing reference here. The bold explorers met with so many stirring adventures that the present writers can only "re

o Sir Joseph Banks, whose influence secured the appointment, this is only one of the many debts of gratitude owed by New South Wales for his foresig

n the Scipio under Pasley; then he accompanied Bligh in the Providence to Tahiti, and thence to the West Indies (this was Bligh's successful bread-fruit voya

olnshire; but his mother was early left a widow. The lad served his apprenticeship, duly walked the hospitals, and his mother spent most of her small substance in starting him in business as a village apo

Diemen's Land and the main continent. Full of desire for adventure and tired of the routine life of a penal settlement, Flinders and Bass, soon after they landed in th

boat, which they appropriately named the Tom Thumb, went poking in and out along the coast-line, mak

named Preservation and Clarke Islands; these and Armstrong Channel commemorate the wreck of the Sydney Cove, which occurred on February 9th, 1797. The Sydney C

ccour to their starving shipmates. They set out on the 28th February, were driven ashore; their boat was battered to pieces on the rocks, and they escaped only with their lives. This happened on the 1st of March, the scene of this second misfortune being a little distance

Those who survived had purchased their lives from the savages with shreds of cloth and buttons from their ragged clothing, and had kept themselves alive with such shell-fish as they could find upon the beaches. At Wattamolla they had halted to cook a scanty meal of shell

overy he determined to examine the

nate in discovering the place, and informed me he found a stratum six feet deep in the face of a steep cliff, which wa

outhern coalfields of New South Wales. Hunter, writing to the Duke of Portland

, for the purpose of examining along the coast to the southward of this port, as far as he could with safety and convenience go. His perseverance against adverse winds and almost incessant bad weather led him as far south as the latitude of 40°00 S., or a distance from this port, taking the bendings of the coast, of more than 600 miles." (This, remember, was accomplished in a whale-boat.) "He coasted the greatest part of the way, and sedulously examined every inlet along the shore, which does not in these parts afford a single harbour fit to admit even a small vessel, except a bay in latitude 35°06, called Jarvis' Bay, and which was so named by one of the transport ships, bound here, who entered it, and is the same

ing off the coast he discovered a smoke, and supposed it to have been made by some natives, with whom he wished to have an opportunity of conversing. On approaching the shore he found the men were white, and had some clothing on, and when he came near he observed two of them take to the water and swim off. They proved to be seven of a gang of fourteen convicts who escaped from hence in a boat o

s provision was nearly expended, he could only help them to the mainland, where he furnished them with a musket and ammunition and a pocket compass, with lines and fish-hooks. Two of the seven were very ill, and those he took into his boat, and shared his provisions with the other five, giving them the best directions in his power h

ve weeks, and Mr. Bass delivered to me his observations on this adventur'g expedition. I find he made several excursions into the interior of the country wherever he had an opportunity. I

), in order to give him an opportunity of making what observations he could amongst those islands; and the discoverys which was made there by him and Mr. Hamilton, the master of the wrecked ship, shall be annexed to those of Mr. Bass in one chart and forwarded to your Grace herewith, by which I presume it will appear that the lan

in detail all that Hunter tells in his despatch, but the intrepid explorer scarcely mentions the hardships and dangers with which he met. Incidentally he tells how th

red and named many islands and headlands-the Kent group, the Furneaux group, and Green Cape are only a few names, to wit-and he came back fully convinced that the set of the tide west "indicated a deep inlet or passage through the Indian Ocean." He had no time on t

h him. The sloop was accompanied by a snow called the Nautilus, which was bound to the Furneaux group on a sealing expedition. The voyage lasted from October 7th, 1798, till January 12th, 1799, and in that period the ex

' Straits. This was no more than a just tribute to my worthy friend and companion for the extensive dangers and fatigues he had undergone in first entering it in t

nt rivers. Then he returned to England in the Reliance. His tried comrade and friend, Bass, had already left the colony when the Nor

d be entered on the South American coast. A ship called the Venus was purchased for the purpose, and Bass and his father-in-law (he had just married) and the

was concluded between him and Governor King to continue in this trade. Meanwhile Bishop, the master of the vessel, had fallen ill, and Bass took command; and the foll

ea Islands. In a few hours I shall sail again on another pork v

to England immediately on my return from this trip; the fish are to answer a proposal I have made to Government to establish a fishery, on condition of receiving an exclusive privilege of the south part of New Zealand and of its neighbouring isles, which pr

ads; but, like the basket of eggs, all depend

n in obtaining the food wanted. And God grant you may fully succeed, says your warm heart, in so benevolent an object; and thus also say I. Amen, say many others of my friends.... Speak not of So. America, where you may hear I am digging gold, to anyone out of your family, for there is treason in the very name.... Pleasing prospects surround us, which time mu

ad been taken by the Spaniards on the coast of Peru. A Captain Campbell, master of the Harrington, is alleged to have made the statement that a Spanish gentleman told him that Bass had been seized when landing from his boat and carried to the mines, a

and Peru had been released, and that he had heard of Mr. Bass being in Lima five or six years before

th a whaler, and the capt'n informed him he had seen such a person, and described the person of Mr. Bass. The capt'n, knowing Mr. Bass well, is of a belief that, [from

on some lonely Pacific island, perhaps dragging his life out a broken-hearted

Diemen's Land, and while he was doing this Banks induced the Admiralty to prepare H.M.S. Investigator for surveying service in Australian waters and give Flinders charge of her, with the rank of commander. Banks had

l be approved; the whole is le

in a most elaborate fashion for the cruise, carrying with her an artist (Westa

otal complement numbered 83 hands. The Lady Nelson, a colonial government brig, was ordered, on the arrival of the Investigator at Port Jackson, to join the expedition and act as tender to the larger vessel, and he

t the Lady Nelson had preceded him in the February before. Arriving in Sydney in May, he sailed again a couple of months later to the northward, surveying the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Straits, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and

coasts were the foundation of all others that have since been made. He either first used the name of Australia or ada

best be told in the words of Flinders

arcase terribly, as the following summary of 1805 an examination by the

a little; on the starboard five out of eighty-nine timbers were good, fifty-six were uncertain, and twenty-

ting her down it might be possible to navigate her to England. This was done, and the old ship sailed from Sydney on May 24th, 1805, under the command of C

seen. Her maintopmast is reefed a third down; we have been long without topgal

hould it be so it will be an act of great injustice," and then he alludes to the thoroughly rotten condition of the ship. He was quick, too, to r

e Porpoise; some of his fellow-workers on the Investigator accompanied him, others went to the East Indies, and one or two stayed behind. It was with a feeling of intense satisfaction that Flinders took possession of his comfortable cabin on the

e coast, closely followed by the other two ships. With Flinders on board to consult, Fowler had no fear of the dangers of the Barrier Reef, and with a lusty south-east breeze, and a sky of clo

ing a quiet smoke, when a cry of "Breakers ahead!" from both the quarterdeck and forecastle rang out in the quiet night. The helm was put down, but the vessel had not enough way on, and scarce brought up to the wi

ther moment she struck the coral reef with a thud that shook her timbers from keel to bulwarks; then the ship fell over on her beam ends in the savage turmoil, her deck facing inshore. So sudden was the catastrophe that no one could fire a gun for help or for warning to the other ships, which were following closely. As the ship rolled over on her beam ends, huge, thundering seas leapt upon and smothered her, and the darkness of the night w

ike the Porpoise, she at once fell over on her side, but with her deck facing the sweeping rollers, and each succeeding wave spun her roun

istance of the Bridgewater. Meanwhile Fowler was thinking of lightening the Porpoise and letting her drive further up on the reef; but fear was expressed that she might be carried over its inside edge, and founder in 17 fathoms of water. The two cutters were launched, and stood by under the lee of the ship

at each fresh onslaught. Fowler, however, was hard at work constructing a raft, ready for launching at dawn,

gewater. But the Bridgewater had sailed on to meet another fate. She reached India safely, then left again for England, and was never afterwards heard of. It is difficult to understand how her people could have avoided seeing the others' distress; it is harder

y of seabirds' eggs. Close by were the Porpoise and Cato still holding together on the reef. Returning to the former ship, Flind

s, for their own clothing could not be reached. A landing was soon effected, and a topsail yard was set up as a flagstaff, with the blue ensign upside down, though but little hope was entertained of passing vessels in such a place. In all there were 94 people under Flinders' care, and they made themselves comfortable in sailcloth tents on the barren sand

ve water. Whilst looking for firewood some of Flinders' men found an old stern-post of a ship of ab

r, and raised her sides with such odd timber as he could find. She was christened The Hope, and on the 26th August he with the commander of th

ht to Government House, where King was having dinner. The Governor leapt from his chair with ast

on, and learned the melancholy cause, a tear started from the eye of friend

es, and tears of sorrow from those nearer and dearer to him were yet