PRODUCTION NOTES:Notes referred to in the book (*) are shown in square brackets ([])at the end of the paragraph in which the note is indicated.References to the charts have been retained though the charts are notreproduced in the ebook.The original punctuation and spelling and the use of italics andcapital letters to highlight words and phrases have, for the mostpart, been retained. I think they help maintain the "feel" of thebook, which was published nearly 200 years ago. Flinders notes inthe preface that "I heard it declared that a man who published aquarto volume without an index ought to be set in the pillory, andbeing unwilling to incur the full rigour of this sentence, a runningtitle has been affixed to all the pages; on one side is expressedthe country or coast, and on the opposite the particular part wherethe ship is at anchor or which is the immediate subject of examination;this, it is hoped, will answer the main purpose of an index, withoutswelling the volumes." This treatment is, of course, not possible,where there are no defined pages. However, Flinders' page headingsare included at appropriate places where they seem relevant. These,together with the Notes which, in the book, appear in the margin,are represented as line headings with a blank line before and after them.
A VOYAGE
TO
TERRA AUSTRALIS
UNDERTAKEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPLETING THE DISCOVERY OF THAT
VAST COUNTRY,
AND PROSECUTED IN THE YEARS
1801, 1802 AND 1803,
IN
HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP THE INVESTIGATOR,
AND SUBSEQUENTLY IN THE ARMED VESSEL PORPOISE
AND CUMBERLAND SCHOONER.
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE
SHIPWRECK OF THE PORPOISE,
ARRIVAL OF THE CUMBERLAND AT MAURITIUS, AND IMPRISONMENT OF THE
COMMANDER DURING SIX YEARS AND A HALF IN THAT ISLAND.
BY MATTHEW FLINDERS
COMMANDER OF THE INVESTIGATOR.
IN 2 VOLUMES WITH AN ATLAS.
VOLUME 1.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND ROW,
AND PUBLISHED BY G. AND W. NICOL, BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY,
PALL-MALL.
1814
[Facsimile Edition, 1966]
TO
The Right Hon. George John, Earl Spencer,
The Right Hon. John, Earl of St Vincent,
The Right Hon. Charles Philip Yorke, and
The Right Hon. Robert Saunders, Viscount Melville,
who, as First Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,
successively honoured the Investigator's voyage
with their patronage,
This account of it is respectfully dedicated,
by
their Lordships' most obliged, and most obedient humble servant,
Matthew Flinders.
London,
20 May 1814.
This chart was published in 1804 a year after Flinders circumnavigated Australia. The continent's true shape was shown for the first time. This chart did NOT appear in
A Voyage to Terra Australis, published in 1814..
PREFACE.
The publication in 1814 of a voyage commenced in 1801, and of which all the essential parts were concluded within three years, requires some explanation. Shipwreck and a long imprisonment prevented my arrival in England until the latter end of 1810; much had then been done to forward the account, and the charts in particular were nearly prepared for the engraver; but it was desirable that the astronomical observations, upon which so