ve years after the death of Flinders, informed the
world that the illustrious French navigator did not pass through Torres
Strait, but was wrecked in the Santa Cruz group.* (* See the author's
Laperouse, Sydney 1912 pages 90 et sqq.) The fire, so many signs of which
were observed on Kangaroo Island, was in all probability caused naturally
in the heat of a dry summer.

Very shortly after leaving Kangaroo Island Flinders met one of the
vessels of the French exploring expedition; and the story of that
occurrence must occupy our particular consideration in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 15. FLINDERS AND BAUDIN IN ENCOUNTER BAY.

Flinders did not complete the examination of Kangaroo island. The
approach of the winter season, and an apprehension that shortness of
provisions might compel him to make for Port Jackson before concluding
the discovery of the south coast, induced him to leave the south and west
parts of the island, with the intention of making a second visit at a
later time. Therefore, in the afternoon of Tuesday, April 6th, the anchor
was weighed and he resumed the exploration of the mainland eastward from
Cape Jervis, at the extremity of St. Vincent's Gulf. Wind and tide made
against a rapid passage, and the east end of Kangaroo Island had not been
cleared by eight o'clock on the following evening.

At four o'clock on the afternoon of April 8th the sloop was making slow
progress eastward, when the man aloft reported that a white rock was to
be seen ahead. The attention of everybody on board was at once turned in
the direction of the object. Very soon it became apparent that it was not
a rock but a ship, which had sighted the Investigator, and was making
towards her. As no sail had been seen for five months, and it seemed
beyond all likelihood that another ship should be spoken in these
uncharted seas, where there was no settlement, no port at which
refreshment could be obtained, no possibility of trade, no customary
maritime route, it may be imagined that there was a feeling of excitement
among the ship's company. Flinders of course knew that the French had a
discovery expedition somewhere in Australasian waters, and the fact that
it had secured some months' start of him had occasioned a certain amount
of anxiety before he left England. He was aware that it was protected by
a passport from the British Government. The approaching vessel might be
one of Baudin's; but she might by some strange chance be an enemy's s