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At the southern entrance of D'Entrecasteaux Channel, a line of sunken rocks, known by the generic name of the Actaeon reef, attests that Bruny Head was once joined with the shores of Recherche Bay; while, from the South Cape to the jaws of Macquarie Harbour, the white water caused by sunken reefs, or the jagged peaks of single rocks abruptly rising in mid sea, warn the mariner off shore.
Captain Dampier, notwithstanding his intrepidity and experience, could not preserve his vessel from grounding when on the northwest coast of this continent, a coast already famous for the shipwreck of Vianin; on the east, Bougainville, menaced with destruction, was constrained to precipitate flight; Cook escaped by a kind of miracle, the rock which pierced his ship remaining in the breach it made, and alone preventing it from sinking; on the south-west, Vancouver and D'Entrecasteaux were not more fortunate in their several plans of completing its geography, and the French admiral nearly lost both his ships.
But D'Entrecasteaux, ignoring this communication rather uncertain, besides directed his course towards the Admiralty Islands, mentioned in a report of Captain Hunter's as being the place where La Perouse was wrecked. They sought in vain.
In our own days similar doubts were entertained by the naturalists, who, in the voyage of d'Entrecasteaux, saw the island of Amsterdam covered with a thick smoke.
According to D'Entrecasteaux the western shore abounds with coral-reefs, and the smaller islands are said to be attached to the larger ones by reefs; all the before-mentioned islands have been coloured red. BOUKA Islands.
The explorer, after this, searched ineffectually for the islands Stephen and De Carteret, and after comparing his own route with that taken by D'Entrecasteaux in 1792, he came to the conclusion that this group must be identical with that of Providence, discovered long since by Dampier. On the 3rd of September the north cape of New Guinea was recognized.
SANTA-CRUZ. I have carefully examined the works of Carteret, D'Entrecasteaux, Wilson, and Tromelin, and I cannot discover any mention of reefs on its shores; left uncoloured. TINAKORO is a constantly active volcano without reefs. I do not believe they include a lagoon; I have left them uncoloured. As I have no reason for supposing there is deep water within these reefs, I have coloured them red.
From Amboyna D'Urville proceeded to Hobart Town in Tasmania, a place not visited by any French vessel since the time of Baudin, arriving on the 27th December, 1827. Thirty-five years previously D'Entrecasteaux had met on the shores of this island only a few wretched savages; and ten years later Baudin found it quite deserted.
The close of the Seven Years' War seemed to be the starting point for a peaceful campaign against the unknown; but the efforts of Cook, d'Entrecasteaux, and others then had little practical result, owing to the American War of Independence, and the great cycle of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Through calms and wind they had much difficulty in doubling Cape Leeuwin, and on the 10th of January, 1802, they sighted the southern coast of Van Dieman's Land, and devoted some time to the examination of that island, finding many discrepancies in the chart of D'Entrecasteaux.
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