D'Entrecasteaux.
1793.
observed by Dampier, of the inhabitants on the north-west coast of Terra Australis; and this coincidence, together with their similarity of person, particularly in the woolly hair, is sufficiently remarkable to induce a belief, that these people, placed at the two extremities of this vast country, have yet one common origin; although the intermediate inhabitants of the East Coast differ in some essential particulars.
Hayes.
1794.Captain John Hayes, of the Bombay marine, visited Storm Bay and D'Entrecasteaux's Channel, with the private ships Duke and Dutchess from India, in 1794. He went much further up the Rivière du Nord, than the boat from the French ships had done, and gave it the name of the Derwent River. This name is likely to efface the first appellation, and with some degree of propriety; both from the superior extent of captain Hayes' examination, and from North River being an equivocal term for a stream at the south end of Van Diemen's Land.
That captain Hayes had some intimation of the French discovery is evident, but not knowing the distinctive appellations given, he took upon himself to impose names every where. Succeeding visitors have gone with his sketch in their hands, whilst the charts of D'Entrecasteaux were unknown in that part of the world; from whence, and still more from those names having now become familiar to the settlement established in the Derwent River, it will be difficult, if not impossible in many cases, for the original discoverer to be reinstated in his rights.
The head of the Derwent is the sole part where captain Hayes' sketch conveys information, not to be found much more accurately delineated in the charts of D'Entrecasteaux.
