tial discoveries on Terra Australis. Captain Marion was dispatched in the year 1772 from the Isle of France with two ships, the Mascaria and Marquis de Castries, on a voyage of' discovery, one of the objects of which was that of the supposed southern continent. He touched at Van Dieman's Land, quarrelled with the natives, and finding no fresh wa ter, and the weather being stormy, he set sail for New Zealand, having added very little to the prior discoveries of Tasman.
In the year 1792, Rear-Admiral having been sent out with two ships, La Recherche and L'Espera*ce, in search of the unfortunate La reroute, made the south coast of New Holland, which he explored as far as the Termination Island of Vancouver, the deficiencies of whose chart he was able to supply, by the state of the weather per mitting him to keep the coast closer on board than the English navigator had been able to do. Ter mination Island was found to be the first Qf a large group laid down by Nuyts, whose accuracy is praised by the Admiral, he having found " the lati tude of Point Leuwen and of the coast of Nuyts' Land laid down with an exactness surprising for the remote period in which they had been discovered." This liberal acknowledgment did not, however, pre vent him from giving to the group of Islands, which he only saw, but did not survey, the name of Archi pel 1k la Recherche. But the most important dis covery of D'Entrecasteaux was an inlet on the south coast of Van Dieman's Land, which was found to be the entrance into fine navigable channel, running more than thirty miles to the northward, and there communicating with Storm Bay ; contain ing a series of excellent harbours, or rather one con tinued harbour the whole way, from beginning to end. " The charts," says Captain Hinders, " of the bays, ports, and arms of the sea, at the south-east end of Van Dieman's Land, constructed, in this ex pedition, by Monsieurs Beautemps, Beaupre, and as sistants, appear to combine scientific accuracy and minuteness of detail, with an uncommon degree of' neatness in the execution. They contain some of the finest specimens of marine surveying, perhaps, ever made in a new country." In 1800, Captain Baudm was sent out with two armed vessels, Le Geograp14 and Le Naturaliste. on a voyage of discovery nominally round the world, but actually, as appears from his instructions, to examine every part of the coasts of :New MA land and Van Dieman's Land. The first volume of the account of this voyage was published by M. Peron, one of the naturalists, in 1807 ; the second never appeared. All the old names of the capes, bays, inlets, and islands, were unblushingly changed to those of Napoleon, his family, his marshals, and members of the Institute; and to 900 leagues of the southern coast, comprehending all the discoveries of Nuyts, Vancouver, D'Entrecasteaux, Flinders, Bass, and Grant, was given the general name of Terre Napoleon, while not 50 leagues of real dis covery were effected, which had not been anticipat ed by Captain Flinders ; who, after losing his ship, and proceeding homewards, was scandalously detain ed as a prisoner in the Isle of France, "to give time for the previous publication of the voyage of M. Baudin, to prepossess the world, that it was to the French nation only the complete discovery and examination of the south coast of Australia was due." Captain Flinders, however, ultimately triumphed.
After an unjust andcruel captivity of seven years, he arrived in England in 1810, and in 1814 published his discoveries in two volumes, accompanied with an atlas of charts, which may be held forth as models in mari time surveying. At this time, not a single chart of coast, bay, or island, of Captain Baudin's discoveries had appeared, though shortly afterwards, an atlas was published by Freycinet, the first lieutenant, di& fering in their form and structure very little from those of Captain Flinders, but bearing the names re corded is M. Peron's first volume. The frontispiece to this atlas affords an instance of that almost impious adulation which Buonaparte was in the habit of re ceiving from his slaves. An eye, having an N within it, darts its rays through a dark cloud overshadowing a Globe with the southern pole uppermost, on *hith is drawn the outline of New Holland, with this inscrip tion, " Fidget et ipso." It is to Captain Flinders that we Owe the comple tion in detail of the survey of the coasts of New Hot- . land, with the exception of the west ind north-west coasts, which he was prevented from accomplishing by the loss of his ship. Dampier had said, in anchor ing near the south end of De Witt's Land, behind Rosemary Island, which was one of an extentive cluster, by the tides I met with a while after wards, I had a strong suspicion that there might be a kind of archipelago of Islands, and a passage possibly to the south of New Holland and New Guinea, into the Great South Sea eastward ;" but whether it might be a channel or strait, or the mouth of a large river, he seems not to have !elide op his mind. Vlaming saw an opening IQ miles wide near the same place, and could find no anchorage. it hits now been ascertained, that there is no 6t1i. let into the great Ocean eastward, nor into the gulf of Carpentaria, nor Into Bata Strait; but the geogra phical problem yet remains to be solved, whether the opening in the coast behind Rosemary Island be not the mouth of a large river. Le Geographe and Le Naturalist., under Bandin, stood along this coast, ed. amined in a very slovenly manner some particular points, but assisted geography less than they perplex- ed it, by unwarrantably changing every old name far that of some of the upstarts created by the French revolution. Never, indeed, were two naval officers • so ill selected for the purpose of discovery as Cap tains Baudin and Hamelin ; not so those in the scientific department, who, under every unfavourable and discouraging circumstance, effected mere for physical science than could be expected. The whole of this coast then may still be considered as tern la-; cognita ; and it is somewhat remarkable, that the local government of New South Wales, which, we believe, has under its command several colonial vessels, should not before this have taken occasion to ascertain this ,point, dit which sop Many curious and unexplained phenomena. in the geography and geology of the fifth continent depend. It is no less remarkable, that in a period not far short of thirty years since the settle ment of Port Jackson wait first made, all beyond as many leagues was a complete terra incognita to the settlers, till about two years ago, when Mr Evans, the land-surveyor, penetrated behind the hitherto impass able barrier, the Blue Mountains, to the distiince of about 300 miles in two separate journeys.