This group is the first of the two marked upon the chart of Nuyts; and admiral D'Entrecasteaux praises the general accuracy of the Dutch navigator, in that "the latitude of Point Leeuwin, and of the coast of Nuyts' Land, were laid down with an exactness, surprising for the remote period in which they had been discovered." This liberal acknowledgment renders it the more extraordinary, that in the appellation which it was judged proper to give to this extensive group, the French admiral had not rather thought of doing honour to the original discoverer, or to the Gulde Zeepaard, than to his own ship; more especially, as his examination was far from being complete. This would have been more conformable to his general practice; but ARCHIPEL DE LA RECHERCHE was the name adopted.
Beyond the archipelago, the South Coast was found to trend east-north-eastward; without any island lying off it, or presenting any place of shelter. The shore was either a steep calcareous cliff, of an equal height, or low and sandy, with a few naked hillocks behind; and above these, no hill., nor any thing of the interior country, could be discerned. "It is not surprising," says D'Entrecasteaux., "that Nuyts has given no details of this barren coast; for its aspect is so uniform, that the most fruitful imagination could find nothing to say of it."
1793.
Frustrated in his expectation of procuring fresh water, and having no more than sufficient, at a short allowance, to reach Van Diemen's Land, the admiral abandoned the investigation of the South Coast, on Jan. 3; being then in latitude 31° 49' south, and longitude 131° 38½' east of Greenwich.
In the otherwise excellent charts constructed by M. BEAUTEMPS-BEAUPRÉ, geographical engineer on board La Recherche, there is an extraordinary omission, arising either from the geographer, or the conductor of the voyage. In the first 12° of longitude no soundings are marked along the coast; whilst, in the last 50, they are marked with tolerable regularity: the cause of this difference is not explained.
In comparing the French chart with that of Nuyts, it appeared that the rear-admiral had not proceeded so far along this coast as the Dutch navigator had done; for he did not see the islands of St. Francis and St. Peter, nor the reef marked about thirty leagues to the west of them. The point, however, where D'Entrecasteaux's examination terminated, was, in all probability, within a few leagues of that reef; and the end of Nuyts' discovery would be between 133° and 134° to the east of Greenwich.
CONCLUSIVE REMARKS.
The South Coast was not known, in 1801, to have been visited by any other than the three navigators, Nuyts, Vancouver, and D'Entrecasteaux.* The coast line, from Cape Leeuwin to near the longitude of 132°, was generally so well ascertained, and the charts of Vancouver and D'Entrecasteaux appeared to be so good, that little remained in this space for future visitors to discover. At two places, the country and productions near the sea-side had also been examined; though no communication had any where been obtained with the inhabitants. It was known also from Nuyts, that at 133° or 134° of east longitude, commenced a second archipelago; and that the coast began there to assume an irregular form; but in what direction it trended, whether to the south-eastward for Bass' Strait, or northward for the Gulph of Carpentaria, was altogether uncertain.
[* It afterwards appeared, that lieutenant James Grant had discovered a part of it in 1800, in his way to Port Jackson with His Majesty's brig Lady Nelson.]
The great point, then, which required to be ascertained, was the form of the land from longitude 133° to 146° east, and from south latitude 32° to 38½°; comprising a space of two hundred and fifty leagues in a straight line. What rendered a knowledge of this part more particularly interesting, was the circumstance of no considerable river having been found on any of the coasts of Terra Australis previously explored: but it was scarcely credible that, if this vast country were one connected mass of land, it should not contain some large rivers; and if any, this unknown part was one of two remaining places, where they were expected to discharge themselves into the sea.