No mention is made by Valentyn of the ships entering the road, nor of their departure from it; but it should seem that they anchored on Feb. 4.  On the 5th, commodore Vlaming and the commander of the Nyptang went with three boats to the shore, which proved to be an island.  They found also a river, and went up it four or five leagues, amongst rocks and shoals; when they saw much water inland, as if the country were drowned, but no men, nor any thing for food; and, wherever they dug, the ground was salt.  They afterwards came to another river, which they ascended about one league, and found it to terminate in a round basin, and to be entirely salt water.  No men were seen, nor any animals, except divers which were very shy; and the country was destitute of grass and trees.  Returning downward on the 10th, they saw footsteps of men and children, of the common size, and observed the point of entrance into the river to be of a very red sand.

The ships appear to have left Dirk Hartog’s Road on Feb. 12.  In the evening, the west variation was observed to be 7 deg. 21’; am on the 13th, they saw a cliffy point from whence three shoals, connected by a reef, stretch out to the N. N. E. The shore here, in latitude 24 deg. 42’, lies S. by E. and N. by W. On the 16th, they passed round the point, and steered southward along the inner side of this land; and having doubled its south end, found that it was it was an island:  their latitude was then 24 deg. 54’.

Feb. 17.  The variation was observed to be 5 deg. west, in latitude 23 deg. 59’.  Eight miles south of this situation they saw a bay with a rugged point; but to the northward the land was low:  the variation was 7 deg. 3’, in the evening.  They discovered some reefs on the 19th, lying three geographic miles off shore; and also a point or cape (the North-west Cape) from which a reef extended two miles to the N. N. W. On the north side of this cape is a bay, where the Geelvink anchored; and a little further on (eastward), the other two vessels found an opening like a river, whose entrance was twelve miles wide.  They went into it, but could no where find anchorage.  The bay is called Willem’s River; and the two vessels afterwards there joined the Geelvink:  it is in 21 deg. 28’.  The same day it was determined to sail for Batavia, every thing having been done that the commodore’s orders required; and, on the 21st, they departed accordingly.

Thus the West Coast, from the island Rottenest to the North-west Cape, was examined with care by Vlaming; and it is most probable, that the chart in Van Keulen, which Mr. Dalrymple republished, and was the best known at the end of the eighteenth century, resulted from this same voyage.

DAMPIER. 1699.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER visited, a second time, the western coasts of Terra Australis; being then sent out purposely for discovery, in his Majesty’s ship the Roebuck.