land which had been demonstrated by his own researches to be one great
continent. It will be remembered that he had investigated the whole
extent of the southern coasts, had penetrated to the extremities of the
two great gulfs found there, had proved that they did not open into a
passage cutting Terra Australis in two, and had thoroughly examined the
Gulf of Carpentaria, finding no inlet southward there. The country was
clearly one immense whole. But what was it to be called? Terra Australis,
Southern Land, was too long, was cumbrous, was Latin. That would not be a
convenient name for a country that was to play any part in the world. The
Dutch had named the part which they found New Holland. But they knew
nothing of the east. Cook called the part which he had discovered New
South Wales. But Cook knew nothing of the west. Neither the Dutch nor
Cook knew anything of the south, a large part of which Flinders himself
had discovered.

We find him for the first time using the word "Australia" in a letter
written to his brother Samuel on August 25th, 1804.* (* Flinders'
Papers.) He was then living at Wilhelm's Plains: "I call the whole island
Australia, or Terra Australis. New Holland is properly that portion of it
from 135 degrees of longitude westward; and eastward is New South Wales,
according to the Governor's patent."

Flinders' first public use of the word was not in English, but in French.
In the essay on the probable fate of Laperouse, written for the Societe
d'Emulation in Ile-de-France (1807), he again stated the need for a word
in terms which I translate as follows: "The examination of the eastern
part was commenced in 1770 by Captain Cook, and has since been completed
by English navigators.* (* By himself; but in this paper he modestly said
nothing of his own researches.) The first (i.e., the west) is New Holland
properly so called, and the second bears the name of New South Wales. I
have considered it convenient to unite the two parts under a common
designation which will do justice to the discovery rights of Holland and
England, and I have with that object in view had recourse to the name
Austral-land or Australia. But it remains to be seen whether the name
will be adopted by European geographers."* (* "Il reste a savoir si ce
nom sera adopte par des geographes europeens." The paper was printed in
the Annales des Voyages by Malte-Brun (Paris, 1810). Flinders kept a
copy, and his manuscript is now in the Melbourne