It somewhat surprised me that captain Baudin made no enquiries concerning my business upon this unknown coast, but as he seemed more desirous of communicating information, I was happy to receive it; next morning [FRIDAY 9 APRIL 1802], however, he had become inquisitive, some of his officers having learned from my boat’s crew that our object was also discovery.  I then told him, generally, what our operations had been, particularly in the two gulphs, and the latitude to which I had ascended in the largest; explained the situation of Port Lincoln, where fresh water might be procured; showed him Cape Jervis, which was still in sight; and as a proof of the refreshments to be obtained at the large island opposite to it, pointed out the kangaroo-skin caps worn by my boat’s crew, and told him the name I had affixed to the island in consequence.  At parting the captain requested me to take care of his boat and people in case of meeting with them; and to say to Le Naturaliste that he should go to Port Jackson so soon as the bad weather set in.  On my asking the name of the captain of Le Naturaliste, he bethought himself to ask mine; and finding it to be the same as the author of the chart which he had been criticising, expressed not a little surprise, but had the politeness to congratulate himself on meeting me.

The situation of the Investigator, when I hove to for the purpose of speaking captain Baudin, was 35 deg. 40’ south and 138 deg. 58’ east.  No person was present at our conversations except Mr Brown; and they were mostly carried on in English, which the captain spoke so as to be understood.  He gave me, besides what is related above, some information of his losses in men, separations from his consort, and of the improper season at which he was directed to explore this coast; as also a memorandum of some rocks he had met with, lying two leagues from the shore, in latitude 37 deg. 1’, and he spoke of them as being very dangerous.

I have been the more particular in detailing all that passed at this interview from a circumstance which it seems proper to explain and discuss in this place.

At the above situation of 35 deg. 40’ south and 138 deg. 58’ east, the discoveries made by captain Baudin upon the South Coast have their termination to the west; as mine in the Investigator have to the eastward.  Yet Mons. Peron, naturalist in the French expedition, has laid a claim for his nation to the discovery of all the parts between Western Port in Bass Strait, and Nuyts’ Archipelago; and this part of New South Wales is called Terre Napoleon.  My Kangaroo Island, a name which they openly adopted in the expedition, has been converted at Paris into L’Isle Decres; Spencer’s Gulph is named Golfe Bonaparte; the Gulph of St. Vincent, Golfe Josephine; and so on along the whole coast to Cape Nuyts, not even the smallest island being left without some similar stamp of French discovery.*