ted
Port Phillip as a fresh discovery, and examined its approaches with as
much thoroughness as his resources would allow. At this time, however,
the store of provisions was running low. The Investigator was forty weeks
out from England, and re-equipment was fast becoming imperative. Her
commander had felt the urgency of his needs before he reached Port
Phillip. He had seriously considered whether he should not make for
Sydney from King Island. "I determined, however, to run over to the high
land we had seen on the north side of Bass Strait, and to trace as much
of the coast from thence eastward as the state of the weather and our
remaining provisions could possibly allow."

As related in the passage quoted above, Flinders at first thought he had
reached Westernport, though the narrowness of the entrance did not
correspond with Bass's description of the harbour he had discovered four
years previously. But Baudin had told him that he found no port or
harbour of any kind between Westernport and Encounter Bay. Consequently,
it was all the more astonishing to behold this great sheet of blue water
broadening out to shores overlooked by high hills, and extending
northward further than the eye could penetrate. It was not until the
following day, April 27th, that he found he was not in the port which his
friend had discovered in the whaleboat. Immediately after breakfast he
rowed away from the ship in a boat, accompanied by Brown and Westall, to
ascend the bluff mountain on the east side which Murray had named
Arthur's Seat. From the top he was able to survey the landscape at a
height of a thousand feet; and then he saw the waters and islands of
Westernport lying beneath him only a few miles further to the east,
whilst, to his surprise, the curves of Port Phillip were seen to be so
extensive "that even at this elevation its boundary to the northward
could not be distinguished."

Next morning, April 28th, Flinders commenced to sail round the bay. But
the wind was slight and progress was slow; with his fast diminishing
store of provisions vexing his mind, he felt that he could not afford the
time for a complete survey. Besides, the lead showed many shallows, and
there was a constant fear of running the ship aground. He therefore
directed Fowler to take the Investigator back to the entrance, whilst, on
the 29th, he went with Midshipman Lacy, in a boat provisioned for three
days, to make a rapid reconnaissance of as much as could