EARLY DISCOVERIES. 15 



this time successful. On landing they set immediately to work digging wells in order to 

 procure fresh water, but what they succeeded in getting was again so brackish that the)' 

 were unable to drink it, although ready to famish through excessive thirst. Ultimately 

 they discovered rain water in the hollows of the rocks, which was an inexpressible relief 

 to men who had for some days existed on an allowance of a pint apiece. 



Near the place where Pelsart and his crew landed was a large heap of ashes and 

 the remains of some cray-fish, and from this they very reasonably concluded that a party 



CAI'E TRIBULATION', NORTH-EASTERN COAST OK AUSTRALIA. 



of natives had lately been upon the spot. The country, however, appeared so barren 

 and unpromising that, although anxious to collect all the knowledge their circumstances 

 would admit of, they felt by no means allured far from the coast ; indeed, the part of 

 the Continent upon which they had landed is described by Pelsart as a thirsty, parched, 

 barren plain, covered with ant-hills, so high that at a distance they looked like the huts 

 of negroes, and the air was infested with such multitudes of flies that the Dutchmen 

 were scarcely able to keep themselves clear of them. 



As the sailors explored this arid land they saw eight more natives, who appeared 

 at a distance, each with a staff in his hand, and advanced until they were within 

 musket-shot ; but as soon as Pelsart's company moved forward to meet them, like those 

 whom the sailors had first seen, they fled at the top of their speed. 



The Commodore, entertaining no hope of procuring water, or of entering into 

 correspondence with the inhabitants, resolved to go on board and continue his course 

 northward, trusting to good fortune to find the river of Jacob Remmescens in De Witt's 

 Land ; the wind, however, veered about to the north-east, and he was no longer able 

 to follow the trend of the coast, and reflecting that they were now one hundred and 

 twenty leagues from Houtman's Shoals, with scarcely enough water to serve them during 

 the passage back, he came to a resolution to make the best of his way to Batavia, acquaint 

 the Governor-General with the misfortunes which had befallen his ship and his crew, 

 and obtain such assistance as he could procure for their relief. Pelsart's description of 

 this part of the Australian Coast agrees substantially with that given by Dampier, who 

 landed somewhere near the same spot sixty years later. 



In 1642, Abel Janszen Tasman entered on the work of discovery, being placed by 

 Antony Van Diemen in command of an expedition commissioned to search for new lands 



