In the account of the voyage of discovery made to the south by the corvettes, _Geographe_ and _Naturaliste_, in the years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, published by F. Peron, vol. i, chap. 10, p. 193, we find, that in the month of July 1801, Captain Hamelin, of the _Naturaliste_, resolved on sailing to the extremity of Shark’s Bay; but he first dispatched three men to Dirck Hartog’s island, for the purpose of signalizing the _Geographe_, in case it should heave in sight at the entrance of the bay. On returning from Dirck Hartog’s island, the boatswain brought with them the plate of tin above described. It was about six inches diameter, and the inscriptions were described as coarsely cut. The plate was found on the north point of the island, which was named in consequence, the Cape of the Inscription; it was then half covered with sand, lying near an oaken post, on which it seemed to have been originally nailed. Having copied the inscriptions, Captain Hamelin had a new post made, and sent back the plate to be refixed on the same spot from which it had been taken; he would have looked upon it as sacrilege to have kept on board this plate, which, for nearly two centuries, had been spared by nature, and by those who might have observed it before him. He himself also placed on the north-east part of this island a second plate, on which were inscribed the name of his corvette, and the date of his arrival on those shores. In the translation given in Peron’s work of the earlier of these two inscriptions, a droll mistake is made by an error in punctuation, as will be seen by comparing the original inscription, see p. lxxxi, with the following: “1616. Le 25 Octobre est arrivé ici le navire l’Endraght d’Amsterdam: premier marchand, Gilles Miebais Van Luck; capitaine, Dirck Hartighs d’Amsterdam; il remit sous voile le 27 du même mois; Bantum étoit sous marchand; Janstins premier pilote: Pieter Ecoores Van-Bu ... Anne 1616.” Thus it will be seen, that Bantam, in Java, for which they set sail, is transformed into the undermerchant, and the person who really held that post is converted into chief pilot, while poor Pieter Dockes, whose name, perhaps more feebly scratched at the close of the inscription, had become obliterated by more than a century’s rough usage, is deprived of the honour of holding any post whatever. Even this rendering of the inscription is however highly interesting, as giving some indications of the degree of obliteration effected by the weather in this long space of time.