''Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht'' ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht") is a 1627 map by

Hessel Gerritsz Hessel Gerritsz ( – buried 4 September 1632) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer, and publisher. He was one of the notable figures in the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some "unques ...

. One of the earliest maps of Australia, it shows what little was then known of the west coast, based on a number of voyages beginning with the 1616 voyage of

Dirk Hartog Dirk Hartog (; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his ...

, when he named

Eendrachtsland Eendrachtsland or Eendraghtsland ( nl, het Landt van d'Eendracht and ) is an obsolete geographical name for an area centred on the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Between 1616 and 1644, during the European age of exploration, ''Eendraghtsl ...

after his ship. The map is oriented with north to the left and shows lines of

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

from

20th parallel south The 20th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 20 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America. Around the world Starting at ...

to the 35th parallel south and also shows the

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...

. The top left of the map shows a river labelled ''Willems revier, besocht by 't volck van 't Schip Mauritius in Iulius A° 1618'' ("Willem's River, visited by the crew of the ship Mauritius in July 1618"). The identity of this river, now referred to as ''

Willem River The Willem River or Willem's River was named during the voyage of the Dutch East India Company ship ''Mauritius'' in 1618, under the command of Supercargo Willem Janszoon and captained by Lenaert Jacobszoon, and is one of the few features named o ...

'', is unknown; it is possibly the Ashburton River. In the bottom left corner is a feature labelled ''Hier ist Engels schip de Trial vergaen in Iunias, A° 1622'' ("Here the English ship ''

Trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...

'' was wrecked in June 1622"). This is possibly the first appearance on a map of the

Tryal Rocks Tryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, northwest of the outer edge of the Montebell ...

, the identity of which was not determined until the 1960s. Other than these two features, the leftmost third of the map shows a fairly straight, featureless coastline, set in between the

21st parallel south The 21st parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 21 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America. Around the world Starting at t ...

and the

26th parallel south The 26th parallel south latitude is a circle of latitude that is 26 degrees south of Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australia, the Pacific Ocean and South America. Around the world Starting ...

, labelled T Landt van de Eendracht, opghedaen by Dirck Hartogs met 't Schip d'Eendracht in October A° 1616'' ("The Land of Eendracht", discovered by

of the '' Eendracht'' in October 1616"). The way this is written on the map in such bold figures implies that the Dutch were naming the entire

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

(land). Right on the 26th parallel south latitude is written "Dirk Hartog rec" showing what is now known as Dirk Hartog Island, as part of mainland

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The middle third of the map has two main features. One, labelled ''Fr. Houtman's abrolhos'', shows the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

discovered by Frederick de Houtman in 1619, and now known as the

Houtman Abrolhos The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral ...

. Although this map was not the first to show the Houtman Abrolhos, it represents the earliest known publication of the name. The other feature, labelled ''Tortelduyff'' ("Turtledove"), lies slightly to the south (that is, to the right) of the Houtman Abrolhos. Now known as

Turtle Dove Shoal Turtle Dove Shoal is a dangerous shoal about three kilometres wide, located at , in the Indian Ocean about fifty kilometres south of the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia. The shoal was first charted on a 1627 map by Hessel ...

, the name is thought to signify that the shoal was first discovered by the ship ''Tortelduif'', which is recorded as having arrived at

Batavia, Dutch East Indies Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residen ...

on 21 June 1623. Gerritsz's 1627 ''Caert'' is the earliest known map to show this feature. The rightmost third of the map shows a section of coastline labelled ''t Landt van de Leeuwin beseylt A° 1622 in Maert.'' ("Land made by the ship Leeuwin in March 1622.") This is thought to represent the coast between present-day

Hamelin Bay Hamelin Bay is a bay and a locality on the southwest coast of Western Australia between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. It is named after French explorer Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, who sailed through the area in about 1801. It is sou ...

and

Point D’Entrecasteaux Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

. Portions of this coastline are labelled ''Duynich landt boven met boomen ende boseage'' ("Dunes with trees and forest"), ''Laegh ghelijck verdroncken landt'' ("Low land like flood liable land") and ''Laegh duynich landt'' ("Low land with dunes"). This section of coastline is significant because the ''Leeuwin''s log book is lost, and very little is known of this ship's voyage, other than what is revealed by this map.

References

{{reflist 1627 works Exploration of Western Australia Historic maps of Oceania Maps of Australia Shark Bay Works of the Dutch Golden Age Cartography in the Dutch Republic 17th-century maps and globes