The Crew Laboring Under the Same Disorder

After several months’ stay in Port Jackson (Sydney), the Investigator left on July 22, 1802, to explore the northern part of Australia including the Great Barrier Reef. Brown collected a total of 49 angiosperm species from excursions in the Port Curtis area, i.e., the southern end of Curtis Island; Brown explored the northern end of Curtis Island (at Sea Hill), and found a few new species of plants such as a coastal cedar, several previously unidentified Proteaceae, and white leadwort, an herb with medicinal properties. They left Keppel Bay, on the way to Broad Sound and Port Clinton, arriving on the 21st of August. Brown went ashore almost immediately after the Investigator docked, noting that the Norfolk Pine was rather reduced in size with a very ragged appearance and irregular growth. Brown also observed the geological composition and a number of plants that he previously had not seen. The ship left Port Clinton on August 24th, heading for the “Clara Group” of the Hervey Islands. Brown found blady grass (Imperata cylindrica)—a grass common in Australia’s sandy regions—and a species of Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus tereticornis. He took various mineral samples, including quartz-sericite schist and white or milky quartz he called “pure fat quartz.” Brown reported the first sighting of the Great Barrier Reef on October 4th. Brown accompanied Flinders in the whaleboat to one of the reefs, and he noted the presence of sea cucumbers (Holothuria), sea urchins, as well as common varieties of coral. They negotiated the difficult waters in the Great Barrier Reef and found passage to the open sea. After a week, the Investigator was in sight of the Torres Strait—a body of water between Cape North, Australia, and the Melanesian island of New Guinea—and they arrived at the Murray Islands. Brown made an extensive list of the plants he observed from the Murray Islands, Zuizin Island, and Halfway Island, such as beach gardenia, bay cedar, coast caper, necklace pod, various species of kelp (Fucus), and lichens. Then the Investigator sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria, a large shallow sea bounded on three sides by northern Australia, and on the north by the Arafura Sea, which lies between northern Australia and New Guinea. The Investigator anchored off the mainland in the Gulf and southwest of Bickerton Island. Brown went ashore and surveyed the area, finding a freshwater lake, a great number of plants—nearly 200, 26 of which Brown had not seen before—and animals, including small kangaroos, and birds like a variety of ducks and black crows. At Cape Shield Peninsula, Brown found a freshwater lake and observed freshwater eelgrass, several species of green algae, and water nymph. In the Mount Caledon region he noted bush gardenia, black mangrove, gray mangrove, several different types of grasses, and a number of birds such as the collared kingfisher. Because of the growing cases of scurvy and dysentery, Flinders was determined to get to Sydney as soon as possible. The Investigator spent the rest of May and the first few days of June at sea with a few brief stops at Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia, King George Sound, and Middle Island in the Archipelago of the Recherche, and finally reached Sydney on June 9th (1803).