rried off the
honours of nearly all the discoveries on the south coast; but, in spite
of that, a report was published in France in which Flinders' claims
were quite ignored, and Baudin represented as the hero of Australian
discovery. The colonists at Port Jackson, however, treated the French
sailors with much kindness. Many of them were suffering from scurvy, and
these were carried to the Sydney hospital and carefully tended; and
though the colonists had themselves eaten only salt meat for months
before, in order to preserve their cattle, yet they killed these very
cattle to provide fresh meat for the sick sailors. Baudin and his
officers were feasted, and everything was done both by Flinders and the
people of Sydney to make their stay agreeable.

#10. Imprisonment of Flinders.#--Flinders continued his voyage
northwards, rounded Cape York, and examined the northern coasts, making
an excellent chart of Torres Strait; but his vessel becoming too rotten
to be longer used, he was forced to return to Sydney. Desiring to carry
his charts and journals to England, he took his passage in an old
store-ship, but she had not sailed far before she struck on a coral
reef; the crew with difficulty reached a small sandbank, from which they
were not released till two months after. Flinders saved his papers, and
brought them back to Sydney. A small schooner, the _Cumberland_, was
given him in which to sail for England; but she was too leaky, and too
small a vessel to carry food for so long a voyage; so that he was forced
to put into the Mauritius, which then belonged to France. He fancied
that his passport from Napoleon would be his protection; but the
Governor, De Caen, a low and ignorant fellow, seized him, took his
papers from him, and cast him into prison.

[Illustration: COOK'S MONUMENT, BOTANY BAY.]

Baudin soon after called at the Mauritius, and would probably have
procured the release of his brother-mariner had he not died immediately
after his arrival. The charts of Flinders, however, were all sent to
France, where they were published with altered names, as if they were
the work of Frenchmen. Meanwhile, Flinders was spending the weary months
in close confinement at the Mauritius.

#11. Death of Flinders.#--Nearly six years passed away before the approach
of an English fleet compelled the French to release him; and when he
went to England he found that people knew all about those very places
of which he thought he was bri