Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822
King, Philip Parker
Australia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Australia
The existence of Cloates Island also, of which there are so many
undeniable and particular descriptions, has been for a long time
questioned by navigators; I think however there is no doubt that it does
exist but that it is no other than the mainland to the southward of the
North West Cape. The descriptions of this island by Captain Nash of the
ship House of Austria, as well as that of the Haeslingfield in 1743, and
subsequently by Captain Pelly, accord exactly with the appearance of this
promontory; nor is the longitude much in error when we consider the
strength of the currents which set to the north-west, during the easterly
monsoon, in the space between New Holland and Java. Captain Nash places
Cloates Island 7 degrees 26 minutes East of Java Head, and the
Haeslingfield 7 degrees 12 minutes; the mean of the two accounts is 7
degrees 19 minutes; the true difference of the meridians of Java Head and
the North West Cape is 9 degrees 3 minutes, a difference only of 1 degree
44 minutes.
May not the Tryal Rocks also be some of the low islands that skirt the
coast? The account of them by the Dutch sloop in 1718 places them in
latitude 19 degrees 30 minutes and eighty leagues from the coast of New
Holland; but, unless it is Bedout Island (a sandy islet seen by Captain
Baudin, in longitude 118 degrees 50 minutes) there is no part of the
coast that can at all accord with the description in respect to latitude.
The rocks seen by the Fredensberg Castle in 1777 are certainly the
Montebello Isles, which answer the Dane's description exactly; for they
are very low and rocky and abound in reefs, one of which extends a long
distance to the north-west from Trimouille Island. There remains no doubt
in my mind but that Barrow's Island and Trimouille Island, and the
numerous reefs around them, are the identical Tryal Rocks which have been
the theme and dread of every voyager to the eastern islands for the two
last centuries.* Captain Flinders** spent some days in an ineffectual
search for them and has, I think, decidedly proved their non-existence
between the parallels of 20 1/4 and 21 degrees, and the meridians of 103
1/2 and 106 1/2 degrees. The above islands accord exactly as to latitude;
and the only argument against the probability of this supposition is
their longitude; but during the month of July the current sets with great
strength to the westward and might occasion considerable errors in ships'
reckonings, which, in former days, were so imperfectly kept that no
dependence can be placed upon them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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