SECOND CAPE YORK SURVEYING VOYAGE 165 



ACCIDENT INLET is the outlet of CROOKED CREEK, one of the 

 mouths of the GILBERT RIVER, and there is every reason to believe 

 it to be the STATEN REVIER, the " Pera's " boat's " furthest south " 

 in the year 1623. Another opening was noted in 17 4' S., and this 

 is marked in modern charts " Southern Mouth of Gilbert R." It 

 is certainly a mouth of the Gilbert, but Accident Inlet, which is 

 another, is further south. This so-called " Southern Mouth " is 

 named the SMITHBURN RIVER in the maps of the Lands Depart- 

 ment. (SEE MAPS H, F, D, B and A.) 



From the Smithburn mouth of the Gilbert River, after the 

 wounded Lieutenant had been taken on board, the " Beagle " ran 

 along the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula to BOOBY 

 ISLAND. In passing, a cursory examination was made of the 

 NORTH WALLIS ISLAND (now RED WALLIS ISLAND), which is described 

 as a conical hill of coarse sandstone, 70 feet in height modern 

 charts say 60. A " grave " was seen, containing several skeletons 

 covered with turtle-shells. 



BOOBY ISLAND was left on ijth August, 1841. CAPE WESSEL 

 was passed on the iSth, and PORT ESSINGTON was reached on the 

 20th. KOEPANG (TIMOR) was visited. Touching at the SWAN 

 RIVER and ADELAIDE, the " Beagle " returned to SYDNEY on i$tb 

 March, 1842. After a visit to Tasmania, she arrived in England on 

 30th September, 1842. 



It is greatly to be regretted that Stokes accepted, without 

 hesitation or investigation, Flinders' erroneous identifications of 

 several of the " reviers," or inlets, named by the early Dutch 

 navigators. In the case of Flinders, as we have already seen, the 

 errors into which he fell were very pardonable, as he had not seen 

 Carstenszoon's Journal of the voyage of the " Pera " (1623) and 

 was only acquainted with the chart of Tasman's voyage of 1644 

 through the medium of Thevenot's by no means careful reduction. 

 Tasman's chart, in fact, only became available through Jacob 

 Swart's reproduction in 1860. We have to remind ourselves that 

 Flinders, although permitting himself to make guesses as to the 

 identity of Carstenszoon's and Tasman's inlets, modestly omitted 

 the names from his own chart. It would have been well if Stokes 

 had imitated Flinders' caution, since he, no more than Flinders, 

 could have seen Swart's version of Tasman's chart, and he was 

 equally unacquainted with Carstenszoon's " Pera " journal which 

 was first published by Van Dijk in 1859. The acceptance by 

 Stokes asjacts of what Flinders merely put forth as conjectures gave 

 official authority for a number of errors which must for all time 

 disfigure the maps, to the detriment of historical accuracy. 



Taking the various inlets in their order from south to north, 

 the corrections which should be made, but which have been 

 rendered impossible by long official and private usage, may be 

 traced, so as to distinguish between dejacto and de jure names. 



