HOUTMAN'S ABROLHOS. 135 



arrival shortly after from Batavia in the frigate " Sardam," that the conspirators 

 designed to seize his ship. Two boat-loads of armed men, in fact, put off 

 with this intention, but on being threatened by Captain Pelsart that he would 

 sink them with his big guns if they did not immediately throw their arms 

 overboard and surrender, they gave in. They and the remainder of the mutineers 

 were captured, and all the participators in the previous massacres were summarily 

 executed. 



A very considerable amount of treasure was on board the " Batavia " when she 

 was lost. Captain Pelsart succeeded in recovering all the jewellery and other valuables 

 which had been appropriated by the mutineers, and likewise in raising from the 

 wreck five out of the six chests of silver coin that were being brought out to Batavia. 

 The sixth one is supposed to be still somewhere immersed among the coral reefs 

 Numberless relics from the numerous wrecks that have occurred on Houtman's 

 Abrolhos, including a gun, cannon shot, coins, pipes, glass and earthenware, etc., 

 have been already discovered, more especially on Gun and Eat Islands, during the 

 process of excavating the guano which has accumulated there in large quantities, 

 and a large number of these are now on view in the Perth Museum. Possibly 

 the missing chest, or the bulk of its contents, may yet reward a persevering search. 



To proceed with the more legitimate subject of this Chapter, it is desir- 

 able in the first instance to give a brief account of the precise geographical 

 position and other essential details concerning the island group under discussion. 

 Topographically defined, Houtman's Rocks or Houtman's Abrolhos consists of a 

 little archipelago, for the most part of coral formation, situated between latitudes 

 28 15" and 29 S., some thirty miles off the mainland coast of Western Australia 

 and immediately opposite Champion Bay and the thriving port of Gerald ton. 

 More closely examined, the Abrolhos archipelago is found to be separable into four 

 secondary groups, characterised in order from north to south as the North Island, 

 Wallaby, Easter, and Pelsart groups. With the exception of the Wallaby group, 

 which contains plutonic rocks corresponding in character with those of the mainland, 

 and having an elevation of some thirty or forty feet, the larger residue is entirely 

 of coral formation, while reefs of considerable extent also encircle the Wallaby series. 

 Their composition, as manifested, more particularly in the islets of the Easter and 

 Pelsart groups, consists of hard coral limestone conglomerate, undermined and 

 weathered on its exposed aspects into low overhanging cliffs and promontories 

 often of the most fantastic shape, which frequently show embedded in their eroded 



