o the more convenient and
euphonious designation suggested by Flinders himself, Australia.* (* Not
universally, however, even in official documents. In the Report of the
Committee of the Privy Council, dated May 1, 1849, "New Holland" is used
to designate the continent, but "Australia" is employed as including both
the continent and Tasmania. See Grey's Colonial Policy 1 424 and 439.)

But, important as was the work of the Dutch, and though the contributions
made by French navigators (possibly also by Spanish) are of much
consequence, it remains true that the broad outlines of the continent
were laid down by Dampier, Cook and Flinders. These are the principal
names in the story. A map of Australia which left out the parts
discovered by other sailors would be seriously defective in particular
features; but a map which left out the parts discovered by these three
Englishmen would gape out of all resemblance to the reality.

Dampier died about the year 1712; nobody knows precisely when. Matthew
Flinders came into the world in time to hear, as he may well have done as
a boy, of the murder of his illustrious predecessor in 1779. The news of
Cook's fate did not reach England till 1781. The lad was then seven years
of age, having been born on March 16th, 1774.

His father, also named Matthew, was a surgeon practising his profession
at Donington, Lincolnshire, where the boy was born. The Flinders family
had been settled in the same town for several generations. Three in
succession had been surgeons. The patronymic indicates a Flemish origin,
and the work on English surnames* that bids the reader looking for
information under "Flinders" to "see Flanders," sends him on a reasonable
quest, if to no great resulting advantage. (* Barker, Family Surnames
1903 page 143.)

The English middle-eastern counties received frequent large migrations of
Flemings during several centuries. Sometimes calamities due to the
harshness of nature, sometimes persecutions and wars, sometimes adverse
economic conditions, impelled companies of people from the Low Countries
to cross the North Sea and try to make homes for themselves in a land
which, despite intervals of distraction, offered greater security and a
better reward than did the place whence they came. England derived much
advantage from the infusion of this industrious, solid and dependable
Flemish stock; though the temporary difficulty of absorption gave rise to
local protests on more than