pedition; but it was reserved for two young men, who accompanied Captain Hunter, to make the first systematic exploration of the vast continent of Australia—or Terra Australis, as it was then generally called—a labour which was finally completed by one of them, in spite of obstacles which must have exhausted the patience of any discoverer less enthusiastic in the cause of science.
One of these young men, Matthew Flinders, was, at the time of sailing of Captain Hunter's vessel (1795), a simple midshipman in the navy. He had not long before returned from a voyage to the South Seas, when he was led, as he says, by his passion for exploring new countries to embrace this opportunity of going out upon a station, which of all others seemed to him to present the most ample field for his favourite pursuit. Flinders, as may be supposed, did not give these as his reasons, for his messmates would doubtless have treated with ridicule the idea of a young officer, in so humble a position, setting up as an explorer; but an opportunity soon arrived for putting his favourite schemes in execution. On arriving at Port Jackson in September of the same year, he learned that the investigation even of this portion of the coast had been only very slightly extended, and was still little further known than from Captain Cook's general chart, and none of the more distant openings marked, but not explored by that celebrated navigator, had been seen.
While meditating upon these facts, Flinders was fortunate in having a young friend whose zeal for science was scarcely less than his own. This was George Bass, the surgeon of the ship, a man, as his friend describes him, "whose ardour for discovery was
