ships; and among them by the ship _Endragt_." The recital gives no
further particulars; but from thence, and from a manuscript chart by
_Eessel Gerrits_, 1627,* there seems to be sufficient authority for
attributing the first authenticated discovery of any part of the Western
Coasts to DIRK HARTOG, commander of the ship _Endragt_, outward-bound
from Holland to India. He appears to have first seen the West Coast in
latitude about 26½° south; and to have sailed northward along it, to
about 23°; giving the name LANDT DE ENDRAGT, to the country so
discovered. An important part of his discovery was _Dirk Hartog's Road_
(at the entrance of a sound afterwards called _Shark's Bay_, by Dampier),
lying a little south Of 25°. Upon one of the islands which form the road
there was found, first in 1697, and afterwards in 1801, a plate of tin,
bearing the following inscription.

[* See Dalrymple's _Collection concerning Papua_, note, page 6.]

"Anno 1616, the 25th of October arrived here the ship _Endragt_ of
Amsterdam; the first merchant _Gillis Miebais_ of Luik, _Dirk Hartog_ of
Amsterdam, captain. They sailed from hence for Bantam, the 27th Do." On
the lower part, as far as could be distinguished in 1697, was cut with a
knife, "The under merchant _Jan Stins_; chief mate _Pieter Dookus_ of
Bill. Ao. 1616."

The _Mauritius_, another outward-bound ship, appears to have made some
further discovery upon the West Coast, in July 1618, particularly Of
WILLEM'S RIVER, near the North-west Cape; but no further particulars are
known.

EDEL. 1619.