This paper was written by Matthew Flinders during 1807, while a prisoner of the French in Mauritius, for La Société d'Emulation de l'Ile-de-France, and later published by Malte-Brun in his Annales des Voyages (1810), thus preceding by four years the publication of similar material in his Voyage to Terra Australis (1814).

This paper was written by Matthew Flinders during 1807, while a prisoner of the French in Mauritius, for La Société d'Emulation de l'Ile-de-France, and later published by Malte-Brun in his Annales des Voyages (1810), thus preceding by four years the publication of similar material in his Voyage to Terra Australis (1814).

Flinders describes his shipwreck in the Cato in 1803, on a coral reef between the east coast of New South Wales and New Caledonia, and, on the basis of the finding of part of a ship's sternpost, speculates that La Pérouse had been shipwrecked on the same reef. The paper is noteworthy on two accounts. First, it was the earliest publication by Flinders of the reason why he believed "New Holland" and "New South Wales" should be combined into a new name of the style "Australe" or "Australie". British authorities did not agree to this new name and insisted that Flinders use the traditional name of "Terra Australis" on the title-page of his Voyage. Secondly, this is the first publication of his wish that this area should be given the name "The Coral Sea". So, ironically, the name "Australia" referring to the circumnavigated continent was first used in its French form, some years before it was adopted by England.