In the morning the boats were despatched on their ordinary work, and Captain Wickham and myself landed on the largest island, a quarter of a mile long, forming the north-western extreme of Pelsart Group, and which we named Gun Island, from our finding on it a small brass four-pounder of singular construction, now deposited in the United Service Museum (see the cut annexed) with quantities of ornamental brasswork for harness, on which the gilding was in a wonderful state of preservation; a number of glass bottles and pipes, and two Dutch doits, bearing date 1707 and 1720.  This was a very interesting discovery, and left no doubt that we had found the island on which the crew of the Zeewyk were wrecked, in 1727, and where they remained so long, whilst building, from the fragments of their vessel, a sloop, in which they got to sea by the passage between Easter and Pelsart Groups, which has consequently been called Zeewyk Passage.  The scene of their disaster must have been on the outer reef, a mile and three-quarters south-west from Gun Island, along which ran a white ridge of high breakers.

The glass bottles I have mentioned were of a short stout Dutch build, and were placed in rows, as if for the purpose of collecting water; some of them were very large, being capable of holding five or six gallons; they were in part buried in the sand, and the portion which was left exposed to the air presented a singular appearance, being covered with a white substance that had eaten away the glaze.  A number of seal bones were noticed on this island; and I have no doubt they are the remains of those that were killed by the crew of the Zeewyk for their subsistence.  On the north end of the island was a hole containing brackish water; when we dug it deeper the salt water poured in.  The next small islet to the East-South-East we discovered to be that on which the Dutchmen had built their sloop.  On the west side of it was a spot free from coral reefs, thus offering them facilities, nowhere else afforded, for launching the bark which ultimately carried them in safety to Batavia.

A mile and a half to the southward of Gun Island, opposite a singular-looking indentation in the outer side of the reefs, a small cluster of cliffy islets approaches within half a mile of them.  It is rather singular that in another of the group—­larger than Gun Island, lying in the centre of the lagoon, and the only one not visited by the Beagle’s boats—­water should have been found by a party who came from Swan River to save the wreck of a ship lost in 1843, close to the spot on which the Batavia struck more than two hundred years ago.  This island is called in the chart Middle Island.  The well is on the south point, and the water, which is very good, rises and falls with the tide.  Doubtless this must have been the island on which the crew of Pelsart’s ship found water, though for some time they were deterred from tasting it by observing its ebb and flow, from which they inferred it would prove salt.  The north point of Gun Island, which our observations placed in latitude 28 degrees 53 minutes 10 seconds South, longitude 1 degree 53 minutes 35 seconds West of Swan River, is fronted for half a mile by a reef.