It was determined that two decked boats, capable of conveying all but one boat's crew, should be built from the materials of the wreck, and that the largest cutter should be repaired and despatched, under the charge of Captain Flinders, to Port Jackson, a voyage of 750 miles.
On the 26th of August, a Friday, the cutter was launched, named the Hope, and pushed off "amidst the cheers and good wishes of those for whom we were going to seek relief. An ensign with the union downwards had hitherto been kept hoisted as a signal to Captain Palmer of our distress; but, in this moment of enthusiasm, a seaman quitted the crowd, and, having obtained permission, ran to the flagstaff, hauled down the ensign, and rehoisted it with the union in the upper canton. This symbolical contempt for the Bridgwater, and of confidence in the success of our voyage, I did not see without lively emotion."
Flinders safely reached Port Jackson on the 6th of September. He returned in the only vessel he could obtain for his purpose—a small leaky schooner, the Cumberland, of twenty-nine tons burden—accompanied by two trading vessels, on the 6th of October; and was received by his crew with frantic cheers of joy, although his brother, Lieutenant Flinders, after hearing that the rescue-ships were in sight, "calmly continued his calculations on lunar observations until they came to anchor."
In his absence the sailors had planted the reef with pumpkins, oats, and maize, which were sprouting above the sand flourishingly; and Flinders expresses his regret that he had not "palm cocoa-nuts to plant, of which he thought ten thousand might be usefully set in these seas, as warning-marks, and food for shipwrecked mariners, as they will flourish within the spray of the sea."
It is evident that Matthew Flinders in this, as in many other instances, displayed the stuff of which a colonial governor should be made. There have been very few among Australian rulers who would have thought of the cocoa-nuts, especially at such a moment: still less would they have inspired their men with the same spirit.
In the miserable Cumberland, Flinders, intent on laying the result of his researches before the Admiralty, set out on a voyage of sixteen thousand miles to England. Every man of his crew, except his clerk, volunteered to share the danger and accompany him; but the leaky state of his craft compelled him soon to seek shelter at the nearest port, and he put into the Mauritius, relying- upon his passport. This would have been a sufficient protection had the government of the island been in the hands of a gentleman and man of honour; but the governor
