228 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



so nearly touches the land that, even on the modern 

 map, it looks like a peninsula. 1 The inlet or bay is the 

 great bay which Dampier, for good reasons, called Sharks 

 Bay. And " the land of Eendracht " is Wes.t Australia 

 from about North-West Cape to about Gautheaume Bay. 

 Secondly, we have another very astonishing piece 

 of evidence. In 1696 a Dutch skipper named Willem 

 de Vlamingh was sent to explore the land of Eendracht, 

 and in November 1697 the Governor-General and Coun- 

 cillors at Batavia wrote an account of his voyage to the 

 Managers at Amsterdam. " Nothing of importance," 

 they say, " has been discovered in this exploratory voyage. 

 Only we must not omit 'to mention that, in an island situated 

 in 25, near or before the South-land, they have found 

 fastened to a pole which, though half rotten wood, stood still 

 erect, a common pewter dish of medium size, which had 

 been flattened and nailed to the pole afore-said ; where 

 they found it still hanging ; the said dish bearing the 

 following words engraved on it, still distinctly legible : 

 ' A.D. 1616 on the 25th of Oct r , there arrived here 

 the ship den Eendraght of Amsterdam ; supercargo Gillis 

 Miebais of Liege ; skipper Dirck Hartog of Amsterdam : 

 she set sail again for Bantam on the 27th do ; subcargo 

 Jan Steyn, upper steersman Pieter Ledocker van Bil.' 

 This old dish which Skipper Willem de Vlamingh brought 

 us, has now likewise been handed to the Commander 

 (of the fleet) to be delivered to your Worships, who with 

 us will no doubt stand amazed that the same has for 

 so long a series of years been preserved, in spite of its being 

 exposed to the influence of sky, rain, and sun." 



What their amazed Worships did with " the common 

 pewter dish of medium size " was not known till a few 

 years ago. When in 1899 Professor Heeres published 

 his book of documents, he wrote, " the dish would seem 

 to be no longer extant." A Dutch journalist named 

 Verster who read the statement, thought of a dish he had 



1 " As an anchorage during the summer," wrote King in 1829, " Dirck 

 Hartog's Road has everything to recommend it, except total absence 

 of water." 



