Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/224

every inlet," and at the extreme westerly point attained, "found an open ocean westward, and by the mountainous sea which rolled from that quarter, and no land discoverable in that direction, we have much reason to conclude that there is an open strait through."

Want of provisions compelled Bass to turn back from the "very good harbour," Western Port, he had found. Bad weather had impeded the cruise, or Bass with his whale-boat would probably have discovered Port Phillip. At Western Port he was compelled to repair his battered boat. Returning, he found on an island seven white men, part of a gang of fourteen convicts who had escaped from Sydney in a boat. "These poor distressed wretches were chiefly Irish." Their companions had treacherously abandoned them. Bass could neither give them room in his boat nor spare much food. He put them on the mainland, gave them a musket, ammunition, a pocket compass, fishing lines, and hooks. Two who were ill he received into the boat. He advised the five to follow the coast in order to obtain food more easily. "He shared his provisions with them." When they parted with Mr. Bass "and his crew, who gave them what clothes they could spare, some tears were shed on both sides."

"After an absence of twelve weeks," Bass (24th Feb. 1798) delivered to Hunter "his observations on this adventurous expedition."

About the same time a vessel, the Sydney Cove, was wrecked on Preservation Island, in the Furneaux group, and Hunter sent Lieut. Flinders of the Reliance in the colonial schooner Francis, which was commissioned to save property from the wreck. Flinders, wistfully looking westward, persuaded the master "to make a stretch" westward so as to solve the doubts about the unknown latitudes (of Bass's Straits), but, "the schooner not being at his disposal," was fain to return where, on the 9th March 1798, the exploit of Bass was made known to him.

In after years he wrote thus of his friend:—"A voyage expressly undertaken for discovery in an open boat, and in which six hundred miles of coast was explored, has not perhaps its equal in the annals of maritime history. The public will award to its high-spirited and able conductor—