"On the 25th of October arrived here the ship 'Endraght',
of Amsterdam; first supercargo Gilles Miebas Van Luck;
Captain Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam. She set sail again
on the 27th of the same month. Bantum was second
supercargo; Janstins first pilot.

"Peter Ecoores Van Bu, in the year 1616."

No connected account of the voyages of Dirk Hartog is extant, but the
report of the discovery of this pewter plate suggested the task of
compiling a narrative from the records kept by Dutch navigators, in
which Dirk Hartog is frequently referred to, and which is probably as
correct a history of Hartog's voyages as can be obtained. The
aborigines of New Holland, as Australia was then called, judging by the
description given of them by Van Bu, the author of the writing on the
pewter plate, appear to have been a more formidable race of savages
than those subsequently met with by Captain Cook on his landing at
Botany Bay, and the dimensions of the tribe among whom Van Bu was held
captive were certainly larger than those of the migratory tribes of
Australian blacks in more modern times. The "sea spider" described by
Van Bu in his second adventure was probably the octopus, which attains
to great size in the Pacific. The "hopping animals" are doubtless the
kangaroos, with which Australians are now familiar.

Captain Dampier, in 1699, first mentions the water serpents referred to
by Van Bu. "In passing," he says, "we saw three water serpents swimming
about in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown spots.
Next day we saw two water serpents, different in shape from such as we
had formerly seen; one very long and as big as a man's leg in girth,