THREE DUTCH VESSELS. 1705.

The President De Brosses* gives, from the miscellaneous tracts of
_Nicolas Struyck_, printed at Amsterdam, 1753, the following account of
another, and last voyage of the Dutch, for the discovery of the North
Coast.

[* _Hist. des Nav. aux Terres Aust_. Tome I. page 439.]

"March 1, 1705, three Dutch vessels were sent from _Timor_, with order to
explore the north coast of _New Holland_, better than it had before been
done. They carefully examined the coasts, sand banks, and reefs. In their
route to it, they did not meet with any land, but only some rocks above
water, in 11° 52' south latitude:" (probably the south part of the great
_Sahul Bank_; which, according to captain Peter Heywood, who saw it in
180l, lies in 11° 40'.) "They saw the west coast of New Holland 4° to the
eastward of the east point of Timor. From thence they continued their
route towards the north; and passed a point, off which lies a bank of
sand above water, in length _more than five German miles_ of fifteen to a
degree. After which, they made sail to the east, along the coast of New
Holland; observing every thing with care, until they came to a gulph, the
head of which they did not quite reach. I (Struyck) have seen a chart
made of these parts."

What is here called the _West_, must have been the North-west Coast;
which the vessels appear to have made somewhat to the south of the
western _Cape Van Diemen_. The point which they passed, was probably this
same Cape itself; and in a chart, published by Mr. Dalrymple, Aug. 27,
1783, from a Dutch manuscript (possibly a copy of that which Struyck had