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[Page 2]
intention of sending the Naturaliste to France with what he has collected, & to take only Men sufficient to navigate her I gave him permission to purchase a [indecipherable] Boat of about 20 tons with which he means on leaving [?] this to pass thru' Basses Straits & in some part of them, he means to land for the purpose of observing the Transit of Mercury. It is not till after this is completed that he dispatches the Naturaliste, in which Ship I have procured a passage for Mr J. Thompson one of the assistant surgeons & by whom I send my despatches together with Captn Flinders's letters -- The Bay Mns Baudin saw on the Land of Lyons is quite open, they named it Baye de Geographe, & is the only opening they saw either in [indecipherable], or the land of Endraght except Sharks Bay & Swan River -- he as well as his Officers describes the Coasts on the SW & west [indecipherable] hardly accesssible from the number of Small Islands with which they are lined, & every appearance of sterility, which is verified by the drawings made of every part of the Coasts he has visited which I have seen & are most accurately delineated -- his collections in Natural History are immense, he sends them all by the Naturaliste -- Mr Brown left six large Boxes with specimens from the South Coast but with directions that they were not to be sent but to be retained until the Investigator went home - they are safe in my