him for not having left the three unfortunate savans to their fate.
Before finally quitting Western Australia Captain Baudin touched at Dirk Hartog's Island, and found the ancient log half buried in the sand with the two inscriptions still legible, in spite of the hundred and eighty-six years which had passed since the writing of the first, and the hundred and five since the addition of the second. Perhaps the French captain thought that the non-destructive character of the climate had been sufficiently tested, for he bore away the interesting relic, and it is said to be now preserved at Paris. The northern point of Dirk Hartog's Island is still called Cape Inscription, though the object is removed that conferred the name upon it.
Between the years 1818 and 1822 Captain King examined the northern coast of Australia, accompanied by the naturalist Mr. Cunningham, both of whose names are preserved in West Australia in King Sound and Cunningham Point.
Bishop Salvado describes Captain King's survey as "a model of patience and precision," but he did not proceed southward, or make any investigation of Swan River proper, imagining that the French had already exhausted that subject. Many people, on the contrary, were of opinion that the French had performed their work in so slovenly a manner as to have added little or nothing to what the world had already known concerning Western Australia, and that a painstaking and laborious expedition might yet bring to light much useful information.
It so happened that Captain, afterwards Sir James Stirling, whilst in command of the 'Success' frigate, was
