Original engraved chart of the Gulf of Carpentaria published for the atlas of Flinders' masterpiece A Voyage to Terra Australis. The Investigator entered the Gulf of Carpentaria on 4 November 1802 and Flinders then carefully charted the coast to Arnhem Land. On 17 February 1803, near Cape Wilberforce, the expedition encountered a Makassan trepanging fleet captained by a man called Pobasso, from whom Flinders obtained information about the region. Charting this region was particularly difficult for Flinders and his officers; beset by scurvy in the tropical heat they soon discovered the timbers of the Investigator to be rotten and the vessel barely seaworthy.

Original engraved chart of the Gulf of Carpentaria published for the atlas of Flinders' masterpiece A Voyage to Terra Australis. The Investigator entered the Gulf of Carpentaria on 4 November 1802 and Flinders then carefully charted the coast to Arnhem Land. On 17 February 1803, near Cape Wilberforce, the expedition encountered a Makassan trepanging fleet captained by a man called Pobasso, from whom Flinders obtained information about the region. Charting this region was particularly difficult for Flinders and his officers; beset by scurvy in the tropical heat they soon discovered the timbers of the Investigator to be rotten and the vessel barely seaworthy.

This map is one of sixteen published for the atlas, and is clearly identified as its first state by the publisher's details 'G. & W. Nicol, Jany. 1st 1814' engraved to the lower margin. Noted for their accuracy and utility, Flinders' charts were republished and updated by the Admiralty and remained in use for well over a century. Accordingly, examples of the first issue are increasingly uncommon, and it is probable that this unfolded copy backed on linen would have been used at sea.