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We were detained in Recruit Harbour until May 21st, determining the position of the number of small islands and detached reefs to the south-east of Wallaby Islands; but at length, after completing the soundings on the north-east and north side and ascertaining the extent of the reef to the north-west, we proceeded to the isolated patch of land before mentioned as seen from Flag Hill, and which, from its relative position to the remainder of Houtman's Abrolhos, we called North Island.
The gale of May, 1840, at Houtman's Abrolhos, commenced in a similar manner with that already described, but being in a lower latitude, was of shorter duration, and the indications did not precede it such a length of time; still they were in every respect similar. After noon a light breeze sprang up from North-West which gradually freshened; and during the night the barometer fell 17-hundredths.
Frederick Houtman's Abrolhos were sighted on January 17th, and the passage or channel between the Abrolhos Bank and the coast has been distinguished by the name of Vlaming's ship, the GEELVINK, since she was the first vessel that passed there, 1697.
If one looks at the west coast of Australia one is struck by the large number of Dutch names which are jotted down the coast. There is Hoog Island, Diemen's Bay, Houtman's Abrolhos, De Wit land, and the Archipelago of Nuyts, besides Dirk Hartog's Island and Cape Leeuwin.
It may here be remarked that the birds met with on Houtman's Abrolhos, with the exception of one, resembling in shape and colour a small quail,* were known and common on the mainland.
A terrible storm destroyed ten of the fleet, and on June 4, 1629, the Batavia was driven ashore on the reef still known as Houtman's Abrolhos, which had been discovered and named by a Dutch East Indiaman some years earlier probably by the commander of the Leeuwin, who discovered and named after his ship the cape at the southwest point of the continent.
Bynoe's interesting observations on the Marsupiata, which the number of wallaby killed at Houtman's Abrolhos afforded him the means of perfecting. I may preface his remarks by stating, that all the information I could gain from the colonists on the subject was, that the young of the kangaroo were born on the nipple, which my own experience appears to corroborate. "My first examination," says Mr.
I was surprised to find this fort so much out of repair; the only guns fit to be fired out of were two brass six-pounders, the carriages indeed of which were not trustworthy. On these guns I noticed the same mark as on that we found at Houtman's Abrolhos, namely, two sides of a triangle bisecting two small circles.
The temperature of Houtman's Abrolhos is rendered equable by the fact that they lie at the limit of the land breezes; during the month we were there the thermometer averaged 71 degrees. Our protracted stay enabled us to get a tolerable series of tidal observations, which present some singular results. The time of high-water at the full and change was six o'clock when the tide rose 30 inches.
From Record Hill we had perceived that the sea was quite clear to the north and west beyond the reef, and being satisfied that we had reached the extremity of Houtman's Abrolhos,* we weighed in the morning, and passed about a mile and a half from the reef to the north of the island in 26 fathoms; and hauling up South-South-West, along the western side of the reefs, gradually deepened the water to 42 fathoms over a rocky ground, Record Hill bearing North 70 degrees East six miles and a half.
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