The First Sighting of Australia by the English

The story that William Dampier was the first Englishman to set foot upon the mainland of Australia may be true. But there is sufficient evidence in existence to show that long before Dampier doubled Cape Lévêque in January, 1688, in the ship Cygnet, of London, English ships had traversed Australian waters and English seamen had charted islands lying close to the shores of the continent.

Of these voyages perhaps that of Captain John Daniel is best remembered, owing to the fact that Alexander Dalrymple has handed down to us a copy of his chart. Captain Daniel first sighted Wallabi Group, the northernmost of the three groups comprising the Abrolhos. He named it. Dangerous Rocks. He also may have bestowed the name of Maiden's Isle upon Rottnest Island, for it is so called upon many an old map. His ship, the New London (not simply the London, as her name is often written), of six hundred tons, was freighted to Bantam in January, 1681. She arrived off the coast of Western Australia in the month of June, when Captain Daniel's printed journal records: "With the wind S.W. by W. steering by compass N.E. by E. at 10 a.m. the water was discoloured. A man at the foretop saw a breach rise ahead of us. We put our helm hard a starboard.and weathered the N.W. end of it about a mile.The breach that we first saw happened to be the northernmost of all, there being several and by our computation [they] are 20 miles in length. Within the breaches, several small white sandy islands were seen, with some bushes on them. A very heavy sea broke against the south part of these shoals. When close to them the mainland was not seen."