| In 1627, the ship Gulden Zeepaert (Golden Seahorse) skippered by Francois Thyssen and carrying the Honourable Pieter Nuyts (Extraordinary Councillor of India) sailed along the south coast of Australia. |
Whether by chance or design it is not known, the ship sailed as far as the islands of Saint Francis & Saint Peter (off Fowler's Bay), before turning and making its way to Java.
It is not known exactly why this trip took place but some suggest either bad weather had blown them off their course or possibly a serious miscalculation of longitude took them too far east but they kept on in the hopes of seeing the coast trend north.
Pieter Nuyts was also on the Leeuwin which had discovered the southernmost point of Western Australia in 1622.
Gerrit Frederikszoon De Witt
In 1628, the ship Vyanen came ashore in latitude 21šS, some distance north of North-west Cape. The Vyanen was carrying a Gerrit Frederikszoon De Witt (descibed only as a person of some importance).
For a long time after the whole north-west coast was marked on Dutch maps as De Wittsland.
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