Baudin had come from Van Diemen Land, and had conferred names on prominent features of the coast, including Rivoli Bay, Cape Bernouilli, and Guichen Bay, which Flinders accepted with true chivalry, recognising the prior claim of the first discoverer, but the Frenchman was not so courteous; he in his charts and journals ignored the claims of Flinders, and instead of adopting the nomenclature with which he was more fully acquainted, substituted another of his own. Thus for Kangaroo Island he put L' Isle Decrés; for Gulf St. Vincent, Golfe Joséphine; and for Spencer Gulf, Golfe Bonaparte. This objectionable breach of etiquette was exposed, and Flinders' designations were finally confirmed, while no attempt was made to alter those to which Baudin had a right. Lieutenant Freycinet, attached to Baudin's expedition, a few months later suggestively remarked to Flinders in the house of Governor King, at Sydney: "Captain, if we had not been kept so long picking up shells and catching butterflies at Van Diemen Land, you would not have discovered the south coast before us."
After separating from Baudin in Encounter Bay, Flinders followed the coastline beyond the borders of South Australia, noted geographical features, and sailed up the east coast to Port Jackson. The east and north coasts were charted, the circumnavigation of the continent completed for the first time, its name suggested, and then the Investigator, an old war vessel eaten away by parasites, and worn out with many years of severe and useful labor, was declared to be unfit for service. Other and smaller vessels were taken by Flinders, and, after shipwreck, he returned to Port Jackson. On a colonial cutter, the Cumberland, of 29 tons, he proceeded in the bold task of making his way to England. The frail craft might be safe enough for river and light coastal work, but he must be courageous who would seek to navigate it to the northern hemisphere. Even this great exploit Flinders might have accomplished had the French not arrested him in Mauritius for being without a passport. For six years he was immured in a small island prison, and was not liberated until 1810, when Mauritius capitulated to the English. On July 14, 1814, the great navigator died, but in Australia his memory will be perpetuated as long as the language lasts. Such is, in part, the story of the first forerunner of South Australian settlement, which deals with a great man and a hero who rendered inestimable service to his country, who deserved a better fate than he received, and to whom posterity owes a debt of gratitude it can never repay.
Next in both chronology and importance came the work of Captain Charles Sturt. of the 39th Regiment, a man inflexible, hardy, and enthusiastic, whose career is honorable in Australian records. Captains Dillon, Sutherland, and Jones at one time and another visited the coast near the capital, and the latter is said to have discovered Port Adelaide. But substantially from 1802 to 1830 nothing more was learnt of South Australia than was told by the navigator, Flinders. The Governors of New South Wales during all this period had supreme power over Australian affairs, and systematic exploration, like everything else, was almost wholly dependent on their initiative. By a process of natural development rather than by deliberate experiment. New South Wales was found to be eminently adapted
