quently Flinders visited Furneaux islands, and made known that they were covered with seals. It was not till the year 1797 that Bass, in a whaleboat with six men, ascertained Van Dieman's Land to be an island, and gave his name to the strait which divides them. Few voyages can compete with this daring exploit. Six hundred miles were traversed in an unknown sea by seven men in an open boat, three hundred miles of coast were added to our geographical knowledge, and the relative position of Australia and Van Dieman's Land decided! In 1798, Bass and his friend Flinders, in a schooner of twenty-five tons, completed the discovery—entered the river Derwent, and gave such information as led to the formation of a colony there in 1803. Flinders received his lieutenant's commission, with the command of an old rotten craft named the Investigator, and in her surveyed much of the western and southern coasts, examining the great gulf of Carpentaria, following the incurvations of the coast, and exploring about four hundred leagues.
In 1804 the indefatigable Flinders obtained a colonial brig, which was lost in Torres Straits, in company with the Cato: their consort, the Bridgewater, sailed away, leaving them to perish. With coolness and order, they removed from the wrecks to a dry sand, large enough to contain the men and provisions; and having erected tents, and secured all the stores they were able to recover from the wrecks, they selected Flinders to go
