XII.  Ditto from Cape Grafton to the Isle of Direction.

XIII.  Particular chart of the East Coast from the I. of Direction to Cape York, and of the North Coast from thence to Pera Head; including Torres Strait and parts of New Guinea.

XIV.  A particular chart of the North Coast, from Torres’ Strait to Point Dale and the Wessel’s Islands, including the whole of the Gulph of Carpentaria.

XV.  The north-west side of the Gulph of Carpentaria, on a large scale.

XVI.  Particular chart of Timor and some neighbouring islands.

XVII.  Fourteen views of headlands, etc. on the south coast
of Terra Australis.

XVIII.  Thirteen views on the east and north coasts,
and one of Samow Strait.

AND

Ten plates of selected plants from different parts of Terra Australis.

The reader is requested to correct the following errata.

[Errors have been corrected in this ebook]

INTRODUCTION.

The voyages which had been made, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by Dutch and by English navigators, had successively brought to light various extensive coasts in the southern hemisphere, which were thought to be united; and to comprise a land, which must be nearly equal in magnitude to the whole of Europe.  To this land, though known to be separated from all other great portions of the globe, geographers were disposed to give the appellation of Continent:  but doubts still existed, of the continuity of its widely extended shores; and it was urged, that, as our knowledge of some parts was not founded upon well authenticated information, and we were in total ignorance of some others, these coasts might, instead of forming one great land, be no other than parts of different large islands.

The establishment, in 1788, of a British colony on the easternmost, and last discovered, of these new regions, had added that degree of interest to the question of their continuity, which a mother country takes in favour, even, of her outcast children, to know the form, extent, and general nature of the land, where they may be placed.  The question had, therefore, ceased to be one in which geography was alone concerned:  it claimed the paternal consideration of the father of all his people, and the interests of the national commerce seconded the call for investigation.

Accordingly, the following voyage was undertaken by command of his majesty, in the year 1801; in a ship of 334 tons, which received the appropriate name of the investigator; and, besides great objects of clearing up the doubt respecting the unity of these southern regions, and of opening therein fresh sources to commerce, and new ports to seamen, it was intended, that the voyage should contribute to the advancement of natural knowledge in various branches; and that some parts of the neighbouring seas should he visited, wherein geography and navigation had still much to desire.