VLAMING. 1696.

The relation of Willem DE VLAMING'S voyage to New Holland was published
at Amsterdam in 1701; but not having been fortunate enough to procure it,
I have had recourse to _Valentyn_, who, in his _Description of Banda_,
has given what appears to be an abridgment of the relation. What follows
is conformable to the sense of the translation which Dr. L. Tiarks had
the goodness to make for me; and the reasons for entering more into the
particulars of this voyage than usual are, the apparent correctness of
the observations, and that no account of them seems to have been
published in the English language.*

[* The Abbé Prévost in his _Hist. gen. des Voyages_, Tome XVI. (à la
Haye) p. 79-81, has given some account of Vlaming's voyage in French; but
the observations on the coast between Shark's Bay and Willem's River are
there wholly omitted.]

A Dutch ship, called the _Ridderschap_, having been missing from the time
she had left the Cape of Good Hope, in 1684 or 1685, it was thought
probable she might have been wrecked upon the GREAT SOUTH LAND, and that
some of the crew might (in 1696) be still living. Accordingly, the
commodore Willem de Vlaming, who was going out to India with the
_Geelvink_, _Nyptang_, and _Wezel_, was ordered to make a search for
them.

On Dec. 28, the ships got soundings in 48 fathoms, coral bottom; in
latitude 31° 53', and longitude 133° 44' (east, apparently, from the Peak
of Teneriffe, 16° 45' to the west of Greenwich); where the variation was
observed to be 10° 28' west: they afterwards had 25 fathoms, on better
ground. On the 29th, they anchored under the island _Rottenest_, which