Flinders.—When Flinders returned from Norfolk Island, he obtained leave to join the next vessel that should start for the wreck of the Sydney Cove. Having arrived at Furneaux Island, during the time that the wreckage and remaining cargo were being gathered, he obtained the loan of a small boat for five days, and in it made careful surveys of the islands and straits to the north of Van Diemen’s Land. It was in this trip that he made the first discovery of that peculiar Australian animal, the wombat.

6. Circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land.—Next year (1798) Governor Hunter gave to the two ardent young men a small sloop—the Norfolk—in which to prosecute their discoveries. They received three months’ leave of absence, in which time they proposed to sail round Van Diemen’s Land. This they did, and discovered during their voyage the river Tamar and its estuary, Port Dalrymple. It was not in discovery alone that they were successful. Flinders made the most beautiful and exact charts of all the coasts; he sometimes spent whole days in careful and laborious observations and measurements, in order to have the latitude and longitude of a single place correctly marked.

7. Fate of Bass.—On their return to Sydney Bass met some friends, who persuaded him to join them in making their fortune by carrying contraband goods into South America, in spite of the Spaniards. What became of Bass is not known, but it is supposed that he was captured by the Spaniards and sent to the silver mines, where he was completely lost from sight. He who entered those dreary mines was lost for ever to human knowledge; and Bass may have perished there after years of wearisome and unknown labour. After all his hardships and adventures, his enthusiasm and his self-devotion, he passed away from men’s eyes, and no one was curious to know whither he had gone; but Australians of these days have learnt to honour the memory of the man who first, in company with his friend, laid the foundation of so much of their geography.