Tasman and Visscher [*] did a great deal towards the solution of this problem, since in their voyage of 1644 they also skirted and mapped out the entire line of the West-coast of what since 1644 has borne the name of Nieuw-Nederland, Nova Hollandia, or New Holland, from Bathurst Island to a point south of the Tropic of Capricorn. In this case also certain mistakes were committed: they failed, for instance, to recognise the real character of Bathurst Island, which, like Melville Island, they looked upon as forming part of the mainland; but if we make due allowance for the imperfection of their means of observation, we are bound to say that the coast-line has by them been mapped out with remarkable accuracy [**].
[* I pass by certain other exploratory voyages on the westcoast (see e.g. No. [XXIV.] infra, etc.).]
[** Cf. Tasman's chart of 1644 in the Tasman Folio.]
About fifteen years after the west-coast was more accurately mapped out also, to the south of the tropic of Capricorn. In the year 1658 Samuel Volekersen with the ship de Wakende Boei [Floating Buoy], and Aucke Pieters Jonck with the ship Emeloord surveyed a portion of the west-coast, and the charts then made have been preserved [*]. The coast-line from a point near the Tortelduyf down to past Rottenest (the large island on which Volkertsen did not confer a name, preferring to "leave the naming to the pleasure of the Hon. Lord Governor-General") and the present Perth, were surveyed with special care. In the same year the ship Elburg, commanded by Jacob Peereboom, brought in further reports about the Land van de Leeuwin, where she had been at anchor "in Lat. 33° 14' South, under a projecting point" (in Geographe Bay?).
[* See infra No. [XXIX.], pp. 75 ff., and the charts sub No. [XXIX.] E, F and I.]
The surveying of the lines of the west-coast was finally brought to a close by the exploratory voyage of Willem De Vlamingh in 1696-7 with the ships Geelvink, Nijptang, and het Wezeltje. A remarkable chart referring to this voyage, here reproduced [*], as well as the ISAAC DE GRAAFF chart [**] of circa 1700, give an excellent survey of the expedition. The whole coast-line from the so-called Willemsrivier (N.W. Cape) to a point south of Rottenest, Garden-island and Perth, was now mapped out. And that, too, with great accuracy. Thus, for instance, the true situation of the belt of islands enclosing Shark Bay was this time observed with unerring exactitude, and Shark Bay itself actually discovered, though its discovery is usually credited to Dampier (August, 1699).
[* No. [13].]
[* No. [14].]