Page:Cyclopedia of Western Australia, volume 1.pdf/104

the hope of finding at some future time a still greater improvement of country between the two extremes."

The "Mermaid" left Sydney on the second voyage in May, 1819, and in the following September reached Cambridge Gulf, so named after the Duke of Cambridge. Here King thought he had made a great discovery, believing that it must terminate in a river of some kind. Instead of that he found it barren and useless, the surrounding country being devoid of vegetation, the soil sandy and salt, the water undrinkable, and the gulf itself tailing off on all sides into a series of mud flats. Within the gulf he discovered an island, named by him Adolphus Island, of which he was able to give a much more favourable account, as grass was growing luxuriantly over it and the water was fresh and abundant. Leaving there he sailed westward along the north coast, examining and naming as he passed Sir Graham Moore Islands, Eclipse Islands (from an eclipse of the moon taking place while there), Vansittart Bay, Admiralty Gulf, and Port Warrender. At this point King decided to leave the coast for the time, the scarcity of water and the absence of provisions having caused sickness among the crew. He therefore set sail for Timor, and thence returned to Sydney, having examined on his trip a further 540 miles of the northern coastline. In the following year a third voyage was undertaken for the purpose of extending the survey to Warrender, and in the course of this York Sound (after the Duke of York), Careening Bay (where the ship was repaired), Prince Regent River, and many other places were named and examined. A serious leak in the cutter compelled King to abandon the work, and he again returned to Sydney, arriving there at the end of the year, having narrowly escaped shipwreck at the entrance to the Heads. Unfortunately, owing to the unseaworthiness of the cutter, the amount of work done on this survey was but small. King's desire to complete his labour was, however, unabated, and in 1821 he again left Sydney for the north-west coast, this time in the brig "Bathurst," purchased for the purpose by the Government. With a larger vessel and an increased crew the expedition was much better equipped, and the commander was able to spend a longer time at the scene of his operations. The coast, as far down as Cape Latouche Treville, was examined and surveyed, after which King sailed across to the Mauritius to refit, returning at the end of 1821 to King George Sound. From there he sailed along the west coast, checking many points of previous surveys until he arrived at the Swan River, where he anchored for a while. Resuming his voyage he examined, with a good deal of accuracy, the intervening shore until he reached the Abrolhos and finally Dirk Hartog Island. Here he landed and searched without success for Vlaming's plate, and then proceeded northward to Cape Leveque, thus practically completing the survey of the whole Western Australian coast from King George Sound to Wyndham, with the exception of that part lying between Depuch Island and Cape Villaret. What Cook, Bass, and Flinders had done for the eastern and southern coasts King, following upon the earlier Dutch, French, and English navigators, had done for the western and northern, so that the Admiralty was in possession of fairly comprehensive charts of the whole Australian coastline.

With Lieutenant King the long line of discoverers may be said to have ended. Practically everything in the way of interior exploration had yet to he undertaken, but the few voyages that afterwards took place to these shores were in the nature of looking for satisfactory places of settlement rather than of discovering new territory, or else were for the purpose of checking and correcting existing surveys.