Page:Northmost Australia volume 1.djvu/106

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THE "RIJDER" (GONZAL)
81


charts g-ive no name. The latitude of the anchorage was made out to be 13 S. at noon on the following day. I can only conclude that this was a faulty observation, as it is contradicted by the obser- vations of the two preceding days, which agree with the contour of the coast-line. In the morning of the same day, a boat's crew landed, after having been met by two men in a canoe, who invited them to come ashore. Eleven men and five women met them on the beach, the men being armed with spears. The NATIVES tried to take off the hats of the visitors, which the latter resisted ; where- upon the natives threatened with their spears. A shot was fired and the crowd fled, with the exception of one youth, who was carried on board. The sailors found a large pond of fresh water, and judged that the country, if cultivated, would prove fertile. It was remarked that the natives subsisted mainly on roots of trees, and wild fruits such as batatas or oubis, with a little fish, and that they seemed to have some knowledge of gold when some lumps of the metal were shown them. It is not stated on what occasion these observations were made. It cannot have been on the single interview above referred to. On 1 6th June, the course was set westward for AERNEM'S LAND. On the 24^, the " MAINLAND OF NEW HOLLAND " was sighted, and the home journey was concluded via Timor and Rotti. Inasmuch as her crew effected landings on Prince of Wales Island and at three different localities on the mainland, the "Rijder " added more to our knowledge of the interior and its inhabitants than the " Buijs" whose men were defeated on their only attempt at landing. The " Rijder " was the first (except, perhaps, the " Duyjken ") to land a party in the neighbourhood of DUYFKEN POINT and to explore the southern shore of ALBATROSS BAY. The landing south of PERA HEAD confirmed the existence of the " Pera's " watering-place. The last landing on the Peninsula, at RIJDER'S HOEK, was made in a locality till then unvisited. After this landing, probably no white footprint marked the soil until, fourteen years later, Captain Cook landed on the eastern coast of the Peninsula.