hip
of war. In any case, he prepared for emergencies: "we cleared for action
in case of being attacked."

Glasses were turned on the stranger, which proved on closer scrutiny to
be "a heavy-looking ship, without any top-gallant masts up." The
Investigator hoisted her colours--the Union Jack, it may be remarked,
since that flag was adopted by Great Britain at the beginning of 1801,
before the expedition sailed. The stranger put up the tricolour, "and
afterwards an English Jack forward, as we did a white flag."* (* Flinders
relates the story of his meeting with Baudin, in his Voyage to Terra
Australis, 1 188, and in letters to the Admiralty; and to Sir Joseph
Banks, printed in Historical Records of New South Wales, 4 749 and 755.
The official history of the French voyage was written by Francois Peron,
and is printed in his Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes, 1 324.
But Peron was not present at the interviews between Flinders and Baudin.
Captain Baudin's own account of the incident is related in his manuscript
diary, and in a long letter to the French Minister of Marine, dated "Port
Jackson, 10th November, 1802," both of which are in the Archives
Nationales, BB4, 995, Marine. These sources have been compared and used
in the writing of this chapter. Baudin's narrative is translated in an
appendix.)

It has already been explained (Chapter 11) that Le Geographe, commanded
by the commodore of the French expedition, separated from Le Naturaliste
at the eastern entrance to Bass Strait on March 7th and 8th, and that
Baudin sailed through the Strait westward. We take up the thread again at
that point, and will follow Baudin until he met Flinders. He was between
Wilson's Promontory and Cape Otway from March 28th to 31st, in very good
weather. The most important fact relating to this part of his voyage is
that he missed the entrance to Port Phillip. In his letter to the
Minister of Marine, he described the Promontory and the situation of
Westernport, and then proceeded to relate that "from the 9th to the 11th
(of the month Germinal in the French Revolutionary calendar, by which of
course Baudin dated events; equivalent to March 30 to April 1st) the
winds having been very favourable to us, we visited an extensive portion
of the coast, where the land is high, well-wooded, and of an agreeable
appearance, but does not present any place favourable to debarkation. All
the points were exactly determined, and the appearance of the