eral of Holland. Passing through the
strait which divided the newly discovered land from the Terra del Fuego
(called later the Straits of Le Maire after its discoverer), the
Dutchmen found a great sea full of whales and monsters innumerable.
Sea-mews larger than swans, with wings stretching six feet across,
fled screaming round the ship. The wind was against them, but after
endless tacking they reached the southern extremity of land, which
Schouten named after his native town and the little burnt
ship--_Horn_--and as Cape Horn it is known to-day.

But the explorers never reached the Terra Australis. Their little ship
could do no more, and they sailed to Java to repair.

Many a name on the Australian map to-day testifies to Dutch enterprise
about this time. In 1616, Captain Dirck Hartog of Amsterdam discovered
the island that bears his name off the coast of Western Australia.
A few years later the captain of a Dutch ship called the _Lewin_ or
_Lioness_ touched the south-west extremity of the continent, calling
that point Cape Lewin. Again a few years and we find Captain Nuyts
giving his name to a part of the southern coast, though the discovery
seems to have been accidental. In 1628, Carpentaria received its name
from Carpenter, a governor of the East India Company. Now, one day
a ship from Carpenter's Land returned laden with gold and spice;
and though certain men had their suspicions that these riches had been
fished out of some large ship wrecked upon the inhospitable coast,
yet a little fleet of eleven ships was at once dispatched to reconnoitre
further. Captain Pelsart commanded the _Batavia_, which in a great
storm was separated from the other ships and driven alone on to the
shoals marked as the Abrolhos (a Portuguese word meaning "Open your
eyes," implying a sharp lookout for dangerous reefs) on the west coast
of Australia. It was night when the ship struck, and Captain Pelsart
was sick in bed. He ran hastily on to the deck. The moon shone bright.
The sails were up. The sea appeared to be covered with white foam.
Captain Pelsart charged the master with the loss of the ship, and asked
him "in what part of the world he thought they were."

"God only knows that," replied the master, adding that the ship was
fast on a bank hitherto undiscovered. Suddenly a dreadful storm of
wind and rain arose, and, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the
ship was constantly striking. "The women, children, and sick people
were