whilst on that coast, found the southern parts of De Witt's Land to consist of a range of islands (now bearing his name), among which he remarked such an extraordinary rise and fall of the tides, as induced him to give it as his opinion that the northern part of New Holland was separated from the lands to the southward by a strait; unless, says he, 'the high tides and indraughts thereabouts should be occasioned by the mouth of some large river, which hath often low lands on either side of the outlet, and many islands and shoals lying at its entrance.' This opinion, says Captain Flinders, he supports by a fair induction of facts, and the opening of twelve miles wide, seen near that part of the coast by Vlaming's two vessels, and in which they could find no anchorage, strongly corroborates Dampier's supposition.
What those early navigators remarked, has been more than abundantly confirmed, lately, by Captain King, whose more extended observations upon the character of the tides, the rushing force of the currents, and other phenomena on those inter-tropical shores, all lead to the conclusion, that if that peculiarly constituted country furnishes any streams of magnitude worthy to be compared with those of other continents, the estuaries of such will most assuredly be found on that extensive line of coast.
At the close of the surveys of this latter very able navigator in 1822, there remained between Dampier's Archipelago, in latitude 22°, and Cape Hay in 14°, about five hundred miles of coast, wholly unsurveyed and unseen. Moreover, there is reason to believe, that even of those portions of that coast which were examined during those voyages, which employed between four and five years, some parts will be found to be rather large groups of islands,—the main shore itself, being probably, far distant to the eastward.
To complete the survey of that considerable range of coast, the employment of a vessel, thoroughly equipped for so intricate, dangerous, but, at the same time, most interesting service, would at once settle the great geographical question, viz. whether or not Australia, with a surface equal nearly to that of Europe, discharges on its coast, a river of sufficient magnitude to lead, by a long, uninterrupted course of navigation to its central regions; by which alone a knowledge of the capabilities of such distant parts of the interior may be acquired, and the produce of the soil be one day conveyed to its coast.
