Feb. 1802, an honour was conferred upon him that promises to perpetuate his memory. "To the south-east of Franklin's island, at the distance of eleven miles, there is a low projection of the main land, to which the name of Point Brown was given, in compliment to the naturalist; and four leagues farther, in the same line, a cliffy head received the appellation of Cape Bauer, after the painter of Natural History.[1]" Such names are frequently changed by subsequent navigators, and it was with the view to obviate this possibility, that Governor Franklin, during his stay at Tasman's peninsula, issued orders that, in all official surveys, the original appellation, as bestowed by the earliest authentic discoverers, should always be preserved.
Although considerable delay took place ere Flinders' voyage was published, still its intrinsic and geographical value was duly appreciated. Bauer bore his full share in contributing to the production of this work, and I incline to think that he assisted Mr. Westall in executing the landscapes, for I know of no book, (the Vues des Cordillères even not excepted) where plants and groups of foreign trees, Seaforthia, Xanthorrhæa, and Casuarina, are pourtrayed with such surpassing beauty and truth. In the appendix, the description of ten species of plants are from Mr. Brown; these had been selected out of "the invaluable collection of drawings made by Bauer." It is easy to perceive by a glance at these plates, that they were never executed at home, and from dried specimens. Figures of Flindersia australis, Endesmia tetragona, and Franklandia fucifolia, are acknowleged by botanists to surpass every thing of the same kind.
In the year 1813, Bauer began his Illustrationes Floræ novæ Hollandiæ; a work which did not meet with the encouragement it deserved. The cause of failure lay wholly with our author himself; but the error which he committed was of the most honourable kind; for it may be truly said that this publication
- ↑ Voyage to Terra Australis, &c. By Capt. Flinders, 1818, vol. 1. p. 110.
