Answer:
Following Matthew Flinders' circumnavigation of the Australian continent, his first task was to report on his findings to the authorities in New South Wales. He did so, filling in the information on the southern coast and informing them of the possibilities of settlement there.
After this, he was returning to England when he was shipwrecked, in 1803. He sheltered with his crew (and his cat Trim) for two months in tents on islands. When some ships finally came to rescue Flinders, he chose to go aboard the small schooner Minikin rather than go aboard a larger, sturdier ship. The Minikin started to leak and Flinders was forced to take shelter on a French island, where he was taken for a spy. At that stage, Flinders was unaware that England and France were at war.
The French kept Flinders prisoner for almost seven years. When he was finally released, he returned to England (June 1810), but his years of improsinment had taken their toll, and he was in very poor health. He penned an account of his voyages, entitled A Voyage to Terra Australis, which was published in July 1814, just one day before he died.