descending to the
sea a few miles south of his old resting place, Watta-Mowlee. His map and
notes are full of evidence of his careful observation. "Tolerably good
level ground," "good pastures," "mountainous brushy land," and so forth,
are remarks scored across his track line. But these were pastimes in
comparison with the enterprise that was now occupying his mind, and upon
which his fame chiefly rests.

Hunter's despatch to the Duke of Portland, dated March 1st, 1798,
explains the circumstances of the expedition leading to the discovery of
Bass Strait: "The tedious repairs which His Majesty's ship Reliance
necessarily required before she could be put in a condition for going
again to sea, having given an opportunity to Mr. George Bass, her
surgeon, a young man of a well-informed mind and an active disposition,
to offer himself to be employed in any way in which he could contribute
to the benefit of the public service, I enquired of him in what way he
was desirous of exerting himself, and he informed me nothing would
gratify him more effectually than my allowing him the use of a good boat
and permitting him to man her with volunteers from the King's ships. I
accordingly furnished him with an excellent whaleboat, well fitted,
victualled, and manned to his wish, for the purpose of examining the
coast to the southward of this port, as far as he could with safety and
convenience go."

It is clear from this despatch that the impulse was Bass's own, and that
the Governor merely supplied the boat, provisioned it, and permitted him
to select his own crew. Hunter gave Bass full credit for what he did, and
himself applied the name to the Strait when its existence had been
demonstrated. It is, however, but just to Hunter to observe, that he had
eight years before printed the opinion that there was either a strait or
a deep gulf between Van Diemen's Land and New Holland. In his Historical
Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (London,
1793), he gave an account of the voyage of the Sirius, in 1789, from Port
Jackson to the Cape of Good Hope to purchase provisions. In telling the
story of the return voyage he wrote (page 125):

"In passing at a distance from the coast between the islands of Schooten
and Furneaux and Point Hicks, the former being the northernmost of
Captain Furneaux's observations here, and the latter the southernmost
part which Captain Cook saw when he sailed along the coast, there has
b