We are, Sir,
To Matthew Flinders, Esq.      your obedient servants,
Commander of His Majesty’s     John Aken, master,
sloop the Investigator.         Russel Mart, carpenter.

I cannot express the surprise and sorrow which this statement gave me.  According to it, a return to Port Jackson was almost immediately necessary; as well to secure the journals and charts of the examinations already made, as to preserve the lives of the ship’s company; and my hopes of ascertaining completely the exterior form of this immense, and in many points interesting country, if not destroyed, would at least be deferred to an uncertain period.  My leading object had hitherto been, to make so accurate an investigation of the shores of Terra Australis that no future voyage to this country should be necessary; and with this always in view, I had ever endeavoured to follow the land so closely, that the washing of the surf upon it should be visible, and no opening, nor any thing of interest escape notice.  Such a degree of proximity is what navigators have usually thought neither necessary nor safe to pursue, nor was it always persevered in by us; sometimes because the direction of the wind or shallowness of the water made it impracticable, and at other times because the loss of the ship would have been the probable consequence of approaching so near to a lee shore.  But when circumstances were favourable, such was the plan I pursued; and with the blessing of GOD, nothing of importance should have been left for future discoverers, upon any part of these extensive coasts; but with a ship incapable of encountering bad weather—­which could not be repaired if sustaining injury from any of the numerous shoals or rocks upon the coast—­which, if constant fine weather could be ensured and all accidents avoided, could not run more than six months—­with such a ship, I knew not how to accomplish the task.

A passage to Port Jackson at this time, presented no common difficulties.  In proceeding by the west, the unfavourable monsoon was likely to prove an obstacle not to be surmounted; and in returning by the east, stormy weather was to be expected in Torres’ Strait, a place where the multiplied dangers caused such an addition to be peculiarly dreaded.  These considerations, with a strong desire to finish, if possible, the examination of the Gulph of Carpentaria, fixed my resolution to proceed as before in the survey, during the continuance of the north-west monsoon; and when the fair wind should come, to proceed by the west to Port Jackson, if the ship should prove capable of a winter’s passage along the South Coast, and if not, to make for the nearest port in the East Indies.

SUNDAY 28 NOVEMBER 1802