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Jackson. Observing seven runaway convicts on a small island, Mr. Bass brought them to the mainland, and generously supplied them with some provisions, a kettle, fishing line and hooks, a musket, and half his stock of provisions. Unable to carry them in his boat, he gave them the direction of Sydney camp, and left them to their over land route ; their two sick mates he took with him. Nothing was heard after of the others. They were, doubtless, the discoverers of the Australian Alps, in whose scrubby gullies their bones may yet be found. Mr. Bass observed, to his astonishment, that the southern coast seemed to run east and west, not dipping to the southward. At that time it was believed that Van Diemen’s Land was a part of New Holland, and that a deep Bay, but no strait, lay between it and the Cape Howe country. Our boat explorer, finding the coast of our colony going westward, and noticing strong and peculiar currents, began to suspect a Strait existed there, which made the land of Tasman an island. But his provisions failed him, and most unwillingly he doubled the Promontory and returned to Sydney. This fine headland received the name of Wilson from Governor Hunter, after a London friend of Flinders, at the request of Bass. The latitude of the point was afterwards proved to be 14 miles wrong through the rough quad rant employed. The exploring Surgeon could not rest quietly until he had solved the Strait problem. His friend Flinders had, during his absence, accom panied Captain Francis on a trip to some islands north of Van Diemen’s Land. Observing natives on the latter shore and none upon the islands, Flinders felt the more certain that Van Diemen’s Land was only the continuation of the southern coast of New Holland. The arguments of Bass’s Western Port discovery shook his opinion. Governor Hunter, ever interested in exploration, gave the two young voyagers the ship “ Norfolk," 25 tons, with eight seamen, to deter mine the question. On December 8th, 1798, they noticed the great flood from the westward, and on the ninth a long swell from the south west broke heavily upon the western shore of Tasman’s land, as they turned round Cape Grim. Flinders thus records his experience of that day : “ although it (the swell) was likely to prove troublesome and even dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual congratulation, as announcing the completion of our long wished for discovery of a passage into the Southern Indian Ocean.” Governor Hunter named the Strait after Bass, the discoverer, at the earnest request of Flinders. Phillip Land was not physically joined to Van
