WITH THE "INVESTIGATOR" 139 



for all time the STAATEN RIVER, de facto, though not de jure. It 

 is noteworthy that Flinders, although his diary carefully gives 

 the latitudes and his conjectures as to the identification of his 

 inlets with " the Dutch chart " (Thevenot's), his own chart, 

 " North Coast, Sheet 2," names no rivers or inlets south of Cape 

 Keerweer. The inference is that although he indulged in con- 

 jectures his intention was to be careful not to commit himself. 

 Flinders continues his narrative of i$th November: 



" The nearest approach made to the land in the afternoon was 5 or 6 miles, 

 with 3 fathoms water. At dusk we anchored in 6 fathoms, mud, at 6 or 7 miles from 

 the shore. [Flinders' chart gives the latitude of this anchorage as 16 41' S., i.e., 

 just outside of the ' Pera's ' anchorage of 26th April, 1623. R. L. J.]" 



The voyage was resumed at daylight on i^th November. 



" We steered," says Flinders, '* a course nearly due south, which, as the coast 

 then trended southward, brought us in with it. At noon, the latitude was 17 3' 15", 

 longitude 141 o' : a PROJECTING PART bore N. 59 E., 3 or 4 miles. [SEE MAP M.] 

 . . . There appeared to be a SMALL OPENING on the south side of this little 

 projection, which corresponds in latitude to VAN DIEMEN'S RIVER in the old chart 

 [Thevenot's. R. L. J.], but across the entrance was an extensive flat, nearly dry, 

 and would probably prevent even boats from getting in. If this place had any title 

 to be called a river in 1664 [i.e., by Tasman. R. L. J.], the coast must have undergone 

 a great alteration since that time." 



TASMAN'S CHART, according to Swart's version, gives to his 

 VAN DIEMEN RIVER the latitude of 17 30', and it cannot therefore 

 be doubted that Flinders was in error in supposing his " small 

 opening " south of the " little projection " where, in fact, one 

 of the mouths of Leichhardt's GILBERT RIVER is pushing out 

 delta-mud into the Gulf to be the Van Diemen Inlet. The 

 " small opening " must be the SMITHBURN RIVER of modern 

 Lands Department maps, which is one of the numerous mouths 

 of the GILBERT. 



November, continued. In the afternoon, our course along shore was more 

 westward ; and this, with the increasing shallowness of the water, made me apprehend 

 that the Gulph would be found to terminate nearly as represented in the old charts, 

 and disappoint the hopes formed of a strait or passage leading out at some other part 

 of Terra Australis. At 4 o'clock, after running more than an hour in 3^ fathoms, 

 or less than 3 at high water, our distance from the shore was 5 miles, and a SMALL 

 OPENING then bore S. 14 E., which seems to be the CARON RIVER marked at the 

 south-east extremity of the Gulph in the Dutch charts [i.e., in Thevenot's version 

 of Tasman's chart. My impression is that Thevenot, in reducing Tasman's chart 

 to an inconveniently small scale, found himself crowded towards the south-eastern 

 corner of the Gulf and omitted some of Tasman's names. R. L. J.], but," continues 

 Flinders, " whatever it might have been in Tasman's time, no navigator would now 

 think of attempting to enter it with a ship. The latitude is 17 26' and longitude 

 140 52' E. From 4 till 7, our course was W. by S., close to the wind, the depths 

 being mostly 3 fathoms and the land barely within sight from the masthead. We 



