A Voyage to Terra Australis

A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 1

Page 1 of 268

Produced by Col Choat

PRODUCTION NOTES:

Notes referred to in the book (*) are shown in square brackets ([]) at the end of the paragraph in which the note is indicated.

Italics are indicated by underscore characters (_) at the start and finish of the italicised words.

References to the charts have been retained though, of course, the charts are not present in the text only version of the ebook.

The original punctuation and spelling and the use of italics and capital letters to highlight words and phrases have, for the most part, been retained. I think they help maintain the "feel" of the book, which was published nearly 200 years ago. Flinders notes in the preface that "I heard it declared that a man who published a quarto volume without an index ought to be set in the pillory, and being unwilling to incur the full rigour of this sentence, a running title has been affixed to all the pages; on one side is expressed the country or coast, and on the opposite the particular part where the ship is at anchor or which is the immediate subject of examination; this, it is hoped, will answer the main purpose of an index, without swelling the volumes." This treatment is, of course, not possible, where there are no defined pages. However, Flinders' page headings are included at appropriate places where they seem relevant. These, together with the Notes which, in the book, appear in the margin, are represented as line headings with a blank line before and after them.

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

[Facsimile Edition, 1966]

TO The Right Hon. George John, Earl Spencer, The Right Hon. John, Earl of St Vincent, The Right Hon. Charles Philip Yorke, and The Right Hon. Robert Saunders, Viscount Melville, who, as First Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, successively honoured the Investigator's voyage with their patronage, This account of it is respectfully dedicated, by their Lordships' most obliged, and most obedient humble servant,

Matthew Flinders.

London, 20 May 1814.

PREFACE.

The publication in 1814 of a voyage commenced in 1801, and of which all the essential parts were concluded within three years, requires some explanation. Shipwreck and a long imprisonment prevented my arrival in England until the latter end of 1810; much had then been done to forward the account, and the charts in particular were nearly prepared for the engraver; but it was desirable that the astronomical observations, upon which so much depended, should undergo a re-calculation, and the lunar distances have the advantage of being compared with the observations made at the same time at Greenwich; and in July 1811, the necessary authority was obtained from the Board of Longitude. A considerable delay hence arose, and it was prolonged by the Greenwich observations being found to differ so much from the calculated places of the sun and moon, given in the Nautical Almanacks of 1801, 2 and 3, as to make considerable alterations in the longitudes of places settled during the voyage; and a reconstruction of all the charts becoming thence indispensable to accuracy, I wished also to employ in it corrections of another kind, which before had been adopted only in some particular instances.

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