shores
depicted." That describes the Cape Otway country; and the part of the
letter which follows refers to the land on the west of the Otway. There
is no word of any port being sighted. The letter agrees with what Baudin
told Flinders, that "he had found no ports, harbours or inlets, or
anything to interest"; and Flinders was subsequently surprised to find
that so large a harbour as Port Phillip had been missed by Baudin, "more
especially as he had fine winds and weather."* (* Flinders to Banks,
Hist. Rec. 4 755.) Nevertheless, when Peron and Freycinet came to write
the history of the French voyage--knowing then of the existence of Port
Phillip, and having a chart of it before them--they very boldly claimed
that they had seen it, and had distinguished its contours from the
masthead,* a thing impossible to do from the situation in which they
were. (* Voyage de Decouvertes 1 316 and 3 115.)

The company on board Le Geographe were as excited about the ship sailing
eastward, as were the Investigator's men when the reported white rock
ahead proved to be the sails of another vessel. The French crew were in a
distressingly sick condition. Scurvy had played havoc among them, much of
the ship's meat was worm-eaten and stinking, and a large number of the
crew were incapacitated. On the morning of April 8th some of Baudin's
people had been engaged in harpooning dolphins. They were desperately in
need of fresh food, and a shoal of these rapid fish, appearing and
playing around the prow, appeared to them "like a gift from heaven." Nine
large dolphins had been caught, giving a happy promise of enough meat to
last a day or two, when the man at the masthead reported that there was a
sail in sight. At first Baudin was of opinion that the ship ahead was Le
Naturaliste, rejoining company after a month's separation. But as the
distance between the two ships diminished, and the Investigator ran up
her ensign, her nationality was perceived, and Baudin hoisted the
tricolour.

The situation of the Investigator when she hove to was in 35 degrees 40
minutes south and 138 degrees 58 minutes east. The time was half-past
five o'clock in the evening; the position about five miles south-west of
the nearest bit of coast, in what Flinders called Encounter Bay, in
commemoration of the event. Le Geographe passed the English ship with a
free wind, and as she did so Flinders hailed her, enquiring "Are you
Captain Baudin?" "It is he," was the response. Fl