Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/319
In Encounter Bay he met the French ship Geographe;
hailed her; hove to; "veered round as Le Geographe was
passing, so as to keep our broadside to her, lest the flag of
truce should be a deception;" went on board with Mr. Brown
the naturalist, who spoke French, and learned that the
Frenchman had been exploring the south and east parts of
Van Diemen's Land, had been separated by rough weather
from the Naturaliste, had been to Western Port, and "had
explored the south coast from Western Port to the place of
our meeting, without finding any river, or the large island,
said to be at the western entrance of Bass's Strait." Captain Baudin spoke English, and received information from
Flinders which the latter thought full, but M. Peron, the
French narrator, thought guarded. The voyagers then
parted with mutual goodwill-to receive very different
treatment at the hands of those whose passports they held.
As Bass had surveyed the coast from Cape Howe to Western
Port, and Grant and Murray had examined it westward to
Cape Northumberland, there was no part of the coast which
the French could find unnamed except in the few miles
between Cape Northumberland and Encounter Bay. With
regard to Port Phillip, the French were in utter ignorance,
Captain Baudin having informed Flinders that "he had
coasted along from Western Port in fine weather and had
found no inlet of any kind."
When Flinders with his maps and journals was afterwards imprisoned at the Mauritius, and the French Government appropriated his discoveries, they attempted to change all the names given by Flinders. They did not know that before leaving Sydney Flinders had left two copies of his charts with Governor King. They did know from Flinders' journal that when he discovered Port Phillip, he had the magnanimity to respect Murray's prior visit, and as they knew that there were (in Sydney) records of that visit, they claimed credit for respecting the claim of Murray. "Nous le designames sous le nom de Port du Début; mais ayant appris dans la suite qu'il avoit été reconnu plus en détail par le brick Anglois, the Lady Nelson, et qu'il avait été nommé Port Phillip, nous lui conserverons avec d'autant plus de plaisir ce dernier nom, celui du fondateur d'une colonie dans laquelle nous avons