duty.
Nothing more could have been done on our part to prevent desertion, and
if blame rests anywhere it must be upon the officers of the Advice. The
three men were volunteers for this voyage, but having gotten on shore
with money in their pockets most probably stayed so long that they became
afraid to return."

On the subject of discipline he said: "It is only a duty to myself to
assert that the discipline and good order on board the Investigator is
exceeded in very few ships of her size, and is at least twice what it was
under her former commander. I beg to refer to Lieutenant Fowler on this
subject, who knows the ship intimately both as the Xenophon and
Investigator. On the last subject I excuse myself from not having thought
the occurrence of sufficient consequence to trouble Sir Joseph with, and
it was what I least suspected that my character required a defender, for
it was in my power to have suppressed almost the whole of those things
for which I am blamed; but I had the good of the service sufficiently at
heart to make the reports which brought them into light. That the
Admiralty have thrown blame on me, and should have represented to my
greatest and best friend that I had gotten the ship on shore, had let a
prisoner escape, and three of my men run away, without adding the
attendant circumstances, is most mortifying and grievous to me; but it is
impossible to express so gratefully as I feel the anxious concern with
which you took the part of one who has not the least claim to such
generosity."

The last two paragraphs refer to an incident which will be dealt with
presently.

Although the Investigator was ready to sail in April, 1801, the Admiralty
withheld orders till the middle of July. Flinders, vexed as he naturally
was at having to leave his young wife behind, was impatient at the delay
for two good reasons. First, he was anxious to have the benefit of the
Australian summer months, between November and February, for the
exploration of the south-west, the winter being the better time for the
northern work; and secondly, reports had appeared in the journals about
the progress of the French expedition, and he did not wish to be
forestalled in the making of probably important discoveries. The "Annual
Register" for 1801, for example (page 33) stated that letters were
received from the Isle of France, dated April 29th, stating that Le
Naturaliste and Le Geographe had left that station on their voyage to New
Ho