One of his ships got separated from him, and the commander, Luys Vaz de Torres, sailed farther to the south-west, and thereby learned that the New Australia was not a continent but an island.

He proceeded farther till he came to New Guinea, which he coasted along the south coast, and seeing land to the south of him, he thus passed through the straits since named after him, and was probably the first European to see the continent of Australia.
In the very same year (1606) the Dutch yacht named the _Duyfken_ is said to have coasted along the south and west coasts of New Guinea nearly a thousand miles, till they reached Cape Keerweer, or "turn again." This was probably the north-west coast of Australia.

In the first thirty years of the seventeenth century the Dutch followed the west coast of Australia with as much industry as the Portuguese had done with the west coast of Africa, leaving up to the present day signs of their explorations in the names of islands, bays, and capes.

Dirk Hartog, in the _Endraaght_, discovered that Land which is named after his ship, and the cape and roadstead named after himself, in 1616.

Jan Edels left his name upon the western coast in 1619; while, three years later, a ship named the _Lioness_ or _Leeuwin_ reached the most western point of the continent, to which its name is still attached.