oss was severely felt by me, and he was lamented by all
on board, more especially by his messmates, who knew more intimately the
goodness and stability of his disposition." (* In a letter to Banks from
Spithead on June 3rd, 1801, Flinders had written: "I am happy to inform
you that the Buffalo has brought home a person formerly of the Reliance
whom I wish to have as master. He volunteers, the captain of the ship
agrees, and I have made application by to-day's post and expect his
appointmnt by Friday." The reference was evidently to John Thistle.)

Taylor's Isle was named after the young midshipman of this catastrophe,
and six small islands in the vicinity bear the names of the boat's crew.
It is a singular fact that only two of the eight sailors drowned could
swim. Even Captain Cook never learnt to swim!

Before leaving the neighbourhood, Flinders erected a copper plate upon a
stone post at the head of Memory Cove, and had engraved upon it the names
of the unfortunates who had perished, with a brief account of the
accident. Two fragments of the original plate are now in the museum at
Adelaide. In later years it was beaten down by a storm, and the South
Australian Government erected a fresh tablet in Memory Cove to replace
it.

A thorough survey of Port Lincoln was made while the ship was being
replenished with water. Some anxiety had been felt owing to the lack of
this necessity, and Flinders showed the way to obtain it by digging holes
in the white clay surrounding a brackish marsh which he called Stamford
Mere. The water that drained into the holes was found to be sweet and
wholesome, though milky in appearance. As the filling of the casks and
conveying them to the ship--to a quantity of 60 tons--occupied several
days, the surveying and scientific employments were pursued diligently on
land.

The discovery of Port Lincoln was in itself an event of consequence,
since it is a harbour of singular commodiousness and beauty, and would,
did it but possess a more prolific territory at its back, be a maritime
station of no small importance. Nearly forty years later, Sir John
Franklin, then Governor of Tasmania, paid a visit to Port Lincoln,
expressly to renew acquaintance with a place in the discovery of which he
had participated in company with a commander whose memory he honoured;
and he erected on Stamford Hill, at his own cost, an obelisk in
commemoration of Flinders. In the same way, on his first great overland
arcti