surveyed with special care. In the same year the
ship Elburg, commanded by Jacob Peereboom, brought in further reports
about the Land van de Leeuwin, where she had been at anchor "in Lat. 33 deg.
14' South, under a projecting point" (in Geographe Bay?).

[* See _infra_ No. XXIX., pp. 75 ff., and the charts sub No. XXIX. E, F
and I.]

The surveying of the lines of the west-coast was finally brought to a
close by the exploratory voyage of Willem De Vlamingh in 1696-7 with the
ships Geelvink, Nijptang, and het Wezeltje. A remarkable chart referring
to this voyage, here reproduced [*], as well as the ISAAC DE GRAAFF chart
[**] of _circa_ 1700, give an excellent survey of the expedition. The
whole coast-line from the so-called Willemsrivier (N.W. Cape) to a point
south of Rottenest, Garden-island and Perth, was now mapped out. And
that, too, with great accuracy. Thus, for instance, the true situation of
the belt of islands enclosing Shark Bay was this time observed with
unerring exactitude, and Shark Bay itself actually discovered, though its
discovery is usually credited to Dampier (August, 1699).

[* No. 13.]

[* No. 14.]

VI.

THE NETHERLANDERS TO EASTWARD OF PIETER NUYTS-LAND.

The south-east- and east-coasts of Australia have never been visited by
the ships of the East India Company. Tasman and Visscher [*] discovered
Tasmania (Van Diemen's land) in 1642, but were unaware of the existence
of what is now known as Bass Strait; they discovered the west-coast of
New Zealand (Staten-land) and certain island-groups east of Australia,
but did not touch at or sight the east-coast of Australia. Of course,
after the discovery of the west-coast of New Zealand and of the
island-groups east of Australia [**], the existence of an east-coast of
Australia to westward of the regions thus discovered, was an indubitable
fact, but this east-coast itself was never visited by the Netherlanders.

[* See the journal of this voyage and the discussion of it in my Tasman
Folio.]

[** In the year 1616 Lemaire and Schouten (No. V), and in 1722 Roggeveen
(No. XXXIV), also touched at various island-groups east of Australia, but
these voyages fall outside the plan of the present work.]

{Page xiii}

VII.

OBJECT OF THE DUTCH VOYAGES FOR THE DISCOVERY OF THE
SOUTH-LAND.--CONCLUSION.

Although it is quite true that the south-east- and east-coasts of the
Australian continent were not discovered by Dutch ships, still it is an
undoubted