The Claim Made In Behalf Of Baudin's Expedition Can Best Be Stated In The
Language Of Peron.
Dentrecasteaux, he wrote, not having advanced beyond
the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, which form the extremity
Of
Nuyts Land, and the English not having carried their researches farther
than Westernport, "it follows that all the portion between the
last-mentioned port and Nuyts Land was unknown at the time when we
arrived on these shores." Peron's words were not candid. It is true that
part of the shores in question were unknown when Baudin's ships
"arrived." They "arrived" off Cape Leeuwin in May 1801, before Flinders
left England, though not before Grant had discovered his stretch of
coast. (Grant reached Sydney, having roughly traced the coast from Cape
Banks to Cape Schanck, on December 16, 1800.) If, however, Peron meant to
convey that the coasts were unknown when Baudin's ships actually sailed
along them, he stated what was not the case. Let us hear Flinders in
reply. "M. Peron should not have said that the south coast from
Westernport to Nuyts Land was then unknown, but that it was unknown to
them, for Captain Grant, of the Lady Nelson, had discovered the eastern
part from Westernport to the longitude 140 degrees 14 minutes in the year
1800, before the French ships sailed from Europe, and on the west I had
explored the coast and islands from Nuyts Land to Cape Jervis in 138
degrees 10 minutes." In other words, Grant's eye-chart connected up the
coast between the extremity of George Bass's exploration, Westernport,
and Cape Banks to the east, while Flinders had traversed the coast
between Nuyts Land and Encounter Bay to the west, leaving a gap of only
about fifty leagues of sandy shore, upon which there is "neither river,
inlet, or place of shelter," that was actually discovered by Baudin.
Flinders not only admitted that the French had discovered this
particularly barren and uninteresting stretch of land, but marked it upon
his charts* (* Cf.
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