shore of New Guinea.

But to come back to the summary of Dutch voyages found in Tasman's
instructions: During 1605 and 1606 the Dutch yacht _Duyphen_ made two
exploring voyages to New Guinea. On one trip the commander, after
coasting New Guinea, steered southward along the islands on the west side
of Torres Straits to that part of Australia, a little to the west and
south of Cape York, marked on modern maps as Duyphen Point, thus
unconsciously--for he thought himself still on the west coast of New
Guinea--making the first authenticated discovery of the continent.

Dirk Hartog, in command of the _Endragt_, while on his way from Holland to
the East Indies, put into what Dampier afterwards called Sharks' Bay, and
on an island, which now bears his name, deposited a tin plate with an
inscription recording his arrival, and dated October 25th, 1616. The plate
was afterwards found by a Dutch navigator in 1697, and replaced by
another, which in its turn was discovered in July, 1801, by Captain
Hamelin, of the _Naturaliste_, on the well-known French voyage in search
of the ill-fated La Pérouse. The Frenchman copied the inscription, and
nailed the plate to a post with another recording his own voyage. These
inscriptions were a few years later removed by De Freycinet, and deposited
in the museum of the Institute of Paris. Hartog ran along the coast a few
degrees, naming the land after his ship, and was followed by many other
voyagers at frequent intervals down to the year [Sidenote: 1623-1627]
1727, from which time Dutch exploration has no more a place in Australian
discovery.

During the 122 years of which we have records of their voyages, although
the Dutch navigators' work, compared with that done by Cook and his
successors, was of small account; yet, considering the state of nautical