The Life of Captain Matthew FlindersScott, Ernest, Sir
History
The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders
Scott, Ernest, Sir
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814
The story of the interviews, as related by the two captains, is not in
agreement on several points, and the differences are not a little
curious. Baudin states that he knew Flinders at the very beginning of the
first interview, on April 8th: "Mr. Flinders, who commanded the ship,
presented himself, and as soon as I learnt his name I had no doubt that
he, like ourselves, was occupied with the exploration of the south coast
of New Holland." But Flinders affirms that Baudin did not learn his name
until the end of the second interview on April 9th: "At parting...on my
asking the name of the captain of Le Naturaliste he bethought himself to
ask mine; and finding it to be the same as the author of the chart which
he had been criticising, expressed not a little surprise, but had the
politeness to congratulate himself on meeting me." There may well have
been some misunderstanding between the two captains, especially as
Flinders did not speak French and Baudin only spoke English "so as to be
understood," which, as experience teaches, usually means so as to be
misunderstood. It is not very likely that Baudin was unaware of the name
of the English captain until the end of the second meeting. While the
interview of April 8th was taking place in the cabin, Flinders' boatmen
were questioned by some of Le Geographe's company who could speak
English, and Peron tells us that the men related the story of the
Investigator's voyage.* (* Peron, Voyage de Decouvertes 1 323. Flinders
also said that "some of his officers learnt from my boat's crew that our
object was also discovery.") It is difficult to believe that Flinders'
name would not be ascertained in this manner; equally difficult to
believe that Captain Baudin would sustain two interviews with the
commander of another ship without knowing to whom he was talking. In
fact, Baudin had the name of Flinders before him on the Bass Strait chart
which he had been criticising. It was a chart copied in Paris from an
English print, and was inscribed as "levee par Flinders." Baudin in his
letter to the Minister observed that he pointed out to Flinders errors in
the chart "that he had given us." Flinders was of opinion that Baudin
criticised the chart without knowing that he was the author of it. Baudin
may have been surprised at first to learn that the Captain Flinders with
whom he was conversing was the same as he whose name appeared on the
chart; but his own statement that he knew the name at the first interview
appears credible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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