, 4 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



under his command ten ships besides his own, which was named the Batavia, and they 

 were all titu-d out by the Dutch East India Company. On the 4th of June in the follow- 

 ing year, he was separated from his fleet by a storm, and driven on the shoals which 

 arc now marked on the maps as the Abrolhos of Frederic Houtman, lying in latitude 

 twenty-eight degrees south, and named after Houtman of Alkmaer, who commanded a 

 tlcct of Dutch East Indiamen in 1618. When the Batavia, which had upwards of two 

 hundred and thirty men on board, struck upon these banks there was no land visible, 

 but an island about the distance of three leagues, and a few rocks which were nearer 

 to hand. On these the greater part of the crew were landed, together with the most 

 valuable portion of the cargo and the ship's water, of which there was none to be 

 found on any of the islands. The scarcity of this article and the complaints of his 

 company obliged Pelsart, rather against his will, to set out in the skiff and attempt to 

 procure water from some of the neighbouring islands, leaving his lieutenant and seventy 

 of his men still aboard the ship, and in danger of perishing along with her. 



Pelsart coasted the islands with the greatest care, but found in most of them that 

 the rain water in the holes of the rocks was so mingled with sea water as to be 

 totally unfit for use. Obliged, therefore, to go further, he soon had sight of the main- 

 land, which seemed to be about sixteen miles north-by-west from the place where the 

 Batavia had struck. The day following he continued his quest, sailing sometimes north, 

 sometimes west, but the land appeared low and naked, and the shore excessively rocky 

 and uninviting. For two days the shipwrecked mariners steered on a northerly course 

 amid rough and tempestuous weather, the sea running so high as to make it impos- 

 sible for them to effect a landing. 



As they proceeded on their voyage the land trended away to the north-east, and 

 the coast seemed to be but one continuous rock, remarkably level at the top and of a 

 reddish colour, against which the sea broke with such impetuosity as to make it ex- 

 tremely dangerous to attempt a landing. In twenty-four degrees south latitude, as 

 Pelsart and his men were sailing slowly along the coast, they perceived in the distance 

 a great deal of smoke, and rowed towards it with the utmost of their power in the hope of 

 finding inhabitants and, as a consequence, water. Approaching the shore, however, the 

 rocks were found so steep and jagged, and the surf so violent, that any attempt to 

 effect a landing appeared the height of fool-hardiness. Thereupon six of the skiff's crew, 

 trusting to their skill as swimmers, leapt overboard, and were fortunate enough to reach 

 land, where they spent the whole day in searching for water. They saw four natives, 

 who came very close to them, but upon one of the Dutch sailors advancing they ran 

 away with the utmost precipitance. These people are naively described as black savages, 

 and quite naked, not having so much as a covering about their middle. Relinquishing 

 hope of finding water on this barren and uninviting coast, the men swam on board 

 again, much injured by the surf clashing them upon the rocks, and Pelsart weighed 

 anchor and continued on his course, trusting to find a better landing-place. 



On the morning of the seventh day since they quitted the Batavia they discovered 

 a cap<-. from the extreme points of which ran a ridge of rocks a mile into the sea, 

 and behind it lay a second ridge. The sea being calm they ventured in between, but 

 found no pass Towards noon another opening appeared which they attempted, being 



