138 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



to 2^- fathoms and obliged us to steer off, though 5 miles from the land ; and when 

 fair soundings were obtained, the tops of the trees only were visible from the deck. 

 [SEE MAP F.] At noon we had closed in again, the shore being distant 5 or 6 miles and 

 the depth 6 fathoms, on a gravelly bottom. Our latitude was 14 51' 5", long. 141 33'; 

 the extremes seen from the deck bore N. 29 to S. 26 E., and a smoke was seen 

 arising at S. 28 E. The sea breeze came in from the south-westward, but the 

 trending of the coast being nearly SSE., we lay along it until past 4 o'clock and then 

 tacked off, in 3 fathoms. ... At 8 in the evening, the breeze died away, and a 

 stream anchor was dropped in 5 fathoms, mud and shells, 5 or 6 miles off the shore, 

 where the latitude, from an observation of the moon, was 15 5' S. 



" I2tb November, 1802. At sunrise next morning, the ship was steering southward, 

 with a land wind at east ; and at 7 o'clock we passed an OPENING near which several 

 NATIVES were collected. The entrance seemed to be a full mile in width, but a spit 

 from the south side runs so far across that there is probably no access to it unless 

 for rowing boats. Its latitude is 15 12' S., corresponding with a bight in the Dutch 

 chart to the south of the second waterplaets. [This, beyond question, was the 

 VEREENICHDE REVIER, afterwards named by LEICHHARDT the MITCHELL RIVER. R.L.J.] 

 . . . Our course southward was continued at 2 or 3 miles from the shore. . . . The 

 latitude at noon was 15 25' 20", and long. 141 32'. At I o'clock, we steered SSW., 

 with the whaleboat ahead . . . until 7 in the evening, when the stream anchor was 

 dropped about 4 miles from the shore. [SEE MAP H.] 



" iT,th November, 1802. We were again under way very soon after 5 o'clock, 

 and at 6, being then 4 miles from the land and steering SSW., a LAGOON was seen from 

 the masthead over the front beach. It has doubtless some connection with the 

 sea, either by a constant or a temporary opening, but none such could be perceived. 

 The latitude, 15 53', corresponds with that of NASSAU REVIER in the old chart; 

 and from the examples already seen of the Dutch rivers here it seems probable that 

 this lagoon was meant. [Subsequent cartographers have accepted Flinders' suggestion, 

 which was, however, altogether a mistaken one. CARSTENSZOON gave the name 

 of NASSAU REVIER to an inlet in 16 10' S., where modern Lands Department charting 

 places the mouth of an unnamed creek, near the head of which were LEICHHARDT'S 

 CAMPS of 2nd and 3rd July, 1845. Thevenot's chart (perhaps reduced and generalised 

 from Tasman's) places the Nassau about 16. R. L. J.] 



" A few miles further south, the shoal water obliged me to run westward out of 

 sight of land from the deck. [Thus Flinders missed the ' Tidal Arm ' of LEICHHARDT'S 

 ' ROCKY CREEK,' which had already been named the REVIER PERA by TASMAN. 

 R. L. J.] At noon, when the latitude was 16 24' 29" and longitude 141 14^', trees 

 were visible from the deck at N. 70 E., and from thence to S. 50 E., the nearest 

 part, whence a smoke arose, being distant 7 or 8 miles, and the depth of water 4 fathoms. 

 The slight projection here is probably one of those marked in the old chart on each 

 side of STATEN RIVER ; but where the river can be found I know not." 



This " nearest part " of the land, " whence a smoke arose," 

 is identifiable, with the aid of Flinders' chart, about 16 25', 

 where, as a matter of fact, one of the mouths of a large river 

 is placed by modern Lands Department maps. Flinders' identi- 

 fication of it, however, with the STATEN REVIER of the " Pera's " 

 voyage is a very unhappy one, the latter (which was the " furthest 

 south " of the " Pera " and " Aernem ") being, in all proba- 

 bility, ACCIDENT INLET, one of the mouths of the GILBERT RIVER, 

 in latitude 17 13' S. To do Flinders justice, the identification 

 of an inlet which he did not even see was suggested by him in 

 the most tentative way ; but it was accepted by Stokes (1841), 

 Leichhardt (1845) and Jardine (1864), anc ^ tne rrver nas become 



