He was but a midshipman at the time, and it will be noticed that it was a personal observation which he was able to quote, not one taken as part of his duty as an officer.
The Reliance arrived at Port Jackson on September 7th, and in the following month Flinders, with a companion of whom it is time to speak, commenced the series of explorations which made his fame.
This companion was George Bass, a Lincolnshire man like Flinders himself, born at Aswarby near Sleaford.

He was a farmer's son, but his father died when he was quite a child, and his mother moved to Boston.

She managed out of her widow's resources to give her son an excellent education, and designed that he should enter the medical profession.

In due course he was apprenticed to a Boston surgeon, Mr.Francis--a common mode of securing training in medicine at that period.

He "walked" the Boston hospital for a finishing course of instruction, and won his surgeon's diploma with marked credit.
Bass had from his early years shown a desire to go to sea.