70 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



Keerweer, Tasman's chart shows the " VEREENIGDE REVIER " (the 

 "main channel" of the MITCHELL RIVER), in 15 12' (Swart) or 

 15 6' (Heeres). Modern charts place it in 15 9'. Did Tasman 

 identify the inlet so named by Carstenszoon, or did he merely copy 

 from the chart supplied to him ? 



Next in order comes the " WATER PLAETS " in 15 30', which 

 agrees with Carstenszoon's data. I doubt if Tasman would have 

 attempted to land here if he had had access to the text of 

 Carstenszoon's diary, which shows that water was only to be 

 collected by a tedious process and in trifling quantity. For this 

 reason, I conclude that he did not land, and that he merely copied 

 the note from the chart supplied to him. (SEE MAP H.) 



Tasman next places the REVIER NASSAU in 15 37' (Swart) or 

 15 48' (Heeres), instead of in 16 10' where it was placed by 

 Carstenszoon, and where, according to modern maps, an unnamed 

 creek runs into the sea. A large river, which modern maps name 

 the Nassau, and which is one of the mouths of the Mitchell River, 

 runs into the sea in latitude 15 54', but it was unnoticed by 

 Carstenszoon. It is more likely that Tasman copied the Revier 

 Nassau from the imperfect chart supplied to him than that he 

 was 33 or 22 minutes out in his own observation, so that I doubt 

 if he really visited it. His supposed identification of Carstenszoon's 

 Nassau was, unfortunately, accepted by FLINDERS (1802), and has, 

 since then, passed into geography and literature, so that the error 

 cannot now be corrected. It must, however, be understood that 

 the " NASSAU " MOUTH of the MITCHELL, as it appears on modern 

 land maps, is not Carstenszoon's Nassau, and that the name is 

 merely a complimentary one. 



On an inlet in 16 (Swart) or 16 15' (Heeres), Tasman bestows 

 the name of the REVIER PERA. If the latitude (16) scaled from 

 Swart's version of Tasman's chart correctly conveys Tasman's 

 meaning, this Pera Inlet must, according to the Lands Department 

 map, be the " TIDAL MOUTH" OF LEICHHARDT'S " ROCKY CREEK." 

 This mouth is navigable by small craft for four miles. It may, 

 therefore, be conceded that Tasman landed at or rowed up the 

 inlet which he named the Pera Revier. 



South of the Pera inlet, and 5 minutes south of the mouth of 

 the large river which modern maps (incorrectly, though irrevocably) 

 name the Staaten River, Tasman places the REVIER ARNHEM in 

 1 6 30'. Modern land maps show that a water-course, known as 

 VAN ROOK CREEK, leaks out of the Einasleigh, a tributary of the 

 Gilbert River, and falls into the Gulf in this latitude, only 6 miles 

 south of the mouth of the Staaten River, dejacto, after meandering 

 across the coastal plain, in a general WNW. direction, for 150 miles. 

 Carstenszoon, in the diary of the " Percfs " voyage, made no 

 mention of an inlet in this neighbourhood, where he was fuming 

 over the desertion and supposed treachery of the " Aernem" 



