Ixxii INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries. 
D'Entke- that in the appellation which it was judged proper to give to this 
casteaux. extens j ve group, the French admiral had not rather thought of doing 
honour to the original discoverer, or to the Guide Zeepaard, than to 
his own ship ; more especially, as his examination was far from being 
complete. This would have been more conformable to his general 
practice; but Archipel de la Recherche was the name adopted. 
Beyond the archipelago, the South Coast was found to trend 
east-north-eastward ; without any island lying off' it, or presenting 
any place of shelter. The shore was either a steep calcareous cliff, 
of an equal height, or low and sandy, with a few naked hillocks 
behind ; and above these, no hill, nor any thing of the interior 
country, could be discerned. " It is not surprising," says D'Entre- 
casteaux, " that Nuyts has given no details of this barren coast; for 
" its aspect is so uniform, that the most fruitful imagination could 
" find nothing to say of it." 
1793. Frustrated in his expectation of procuring fresh water, and having 
no more than sufficient, at a short allowance, to reach Van Diemen's 
Land, the admiral abandoned the investigation of the South Coast, 
on Jan. 3; being then in latitude 31 0 40/ south, and longitude 
1 3 1 ° 38^ east of Greenwich. 
In the otherwise excellent charts constructed by M. Beautemps- 
Beaupre, geographical engineer on board La Recherche, there is 
an extraordinary omission, arising either from the geographer, or 
the conductor of the voyage. In the first 12° of longitude no sound- 
ings are marked along the coast; whilst, in the last 5 0 , they are 
marked with tolerable regularity : the cause of this difference is 
not explained. 
In comparing the French chart with that of Nuyts, it appeared 
that the rear-admiral had not proceeded so far along this coast as 
the Dutch navigator had done ; for he did not see the islands of St. 
Francis and St. Peter, nor the reef marked about thirty leagues to 
the west of them. The point, however, where D'Entrecasteaux's 
examination terminated, was, in all probability, within a few leagues 
