ENDING OF THE DUTCH PART 299 



report was made on the character of the land. " The 

 South-land has on its coasts downs covered with grass 

 and sand so deep that, in walking, one's foot is buried 

 ankle-deep, and leaves great traces behind it. ... Further 

 from the coast there is a raised ground tolerably level, 

 but of a dry and barren aspect." 1 



In 1685 a Dutch ship, making the voyage from the 

 Cape to Batavia, failed to arrive, and there was no news 

 of her. In 1696, after an unexplained interval of eleven 

 years, Willem de Vlamingh was ordered, on has way to Vlamingh 

 Batavia, to search for news of the missing ship. His USjt o? 

 search was fruitless, but in the course of it he made a West 

 minute examination of the coast from about the Swan 

 River to North-West Cape, and drew a map which still 

 exists, 2 showing with accuracy and detail Swan River, 

 Rottenest Island, Hartog's Road, Shark Bay, and North- 

 West Cape. He also left an account of his voyage that 

 should have interest, at all events, to West Australians. 

 He made a careful survey, he says, of Rottenest Island, 

 which chiefly consists of " white and rocky sand," with 

 no animals except " a kind of rat as big as a common cat." 

 They landed on the opposite coast, and, " after an hour's 

 march, came to a hut of a worse description than those cf 

 the Hottentots." Then they came to " a large basin of 

 brackish water," which they found to be a river. They Swan River, 

 ate the nuts of a fruit-tree, and, three hours later, says 

 the record, "we began to vomit so violently that we 

 were as dead men." Then they rowed up the river, six 

 or seven leagues, though some thought they had rowed 

 ten, but " without discovering anything of importance." 

 The country was sandy, and the shrubs bore no fruit, 

 and were full of prickles and thorns. They saw plenty 

 of black swans and other birds, and they " heard the 

 song of the nightingale." And they saw, or thought 

 they saw, " a crowd of men." But " the men, the birds, 

 the swans, the rotganzen, the geese, the cockatoos, the 

 parroquets all fled at the sight of us." The best thing was 



1 Major, p. 89. 



2 Heeres' Part borne by the Dutch, p. 86. See p. 300. 



