Western Coasts.] INTRODUCTION lxi 
small shrubs. Some very indifferent water was the sole useful thing Vlamins 
met with, and it was too far off for any to be taken on board. 1697- 
Jan. 30. The boats were again sent on shore, and discovered two 
inlets, of which the southernmost, in latitude 26 0 16', was three 
miles in width. On Feb. 2, they found two other openings, very 
deep, one of which ran up northward, and the other to the east, far 
inland. They went eleven leagues up the first of these, and found 
that it had another communication with the sea, to the N. N. W.* 
On the 3rd, a boat brought the above account ; and also, that the 
chief mate of the Geelvink had found a plate of tin, with an inscrip- 
tion commemorating the arrival and departure of Dirk Hartog. ( See 
the inscription under the article Hartog, preceding. ) This Road of 
Dirk Hartog's Bay, where the plate had been set up, is in 25 0 24/; 
and the west variation was 8° 34/. 
No mention is made by Valenryn of the ships entering the road, 
nor of their departure from it; but it should seem that they anchored 
on Feb. 4. On the 5th, commodore Vlaming and the commander 
of the Nyptang went with three boats to the shore, which proved to 
be an island. They found also a river, and went up it four or five 
leagues, amongst rocks and shoals ; when they saw much water 
inland, as if the country were drowned, but no men, nor any thing 
for food ; and, wherever they dug, the ground was salt. They 
afterwards came to another river, which they ascended about one 
league, and found it to terminate in a round basin, and to be 
entirely salt water. No men were seen, nor any animals, except 
divers which were very shy ; and the country was destitute of grass 
and trees. Returning downward on the 10th, they saw footsteps of 
men and children, of the common size, and observed the point of 
entrance into the river to be of a very red sand. 
The ships appear to have left Dirk Hartog's Road on Feb. 12. 
-iiiese two openings, which in the original are called rivers, were nothing more than 
the entrance into Shark's Bay. A small island, lying a little within the entrance, proba- 
bly made it be taken for two openings. 
