Adventures in Southern Seas: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

by George Forbes

E-text prepared by James Tenison

ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN SEAS

A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

by

GEORGE FORBES

First published August 1920 by George
G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 39-41 Parker
Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2
Reprinted July 1924
Printed in Great Britain by Neill & Co. Ltd., Edinburgh

INTRODUCTORY

In the year 1801 was found by the chief coxswain of the "Naturalist" (a ship commanded by Captain Hamelin on a voyage of discovery performed by order of the Emperor Napoleon I), at Shark's Bay, on the coast of West Australia, a pewter plate about six inches in diameter, bearing a roughly engraved Dutch inscription, of which the following is a translation:

"1616

"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.