des Filles_,* Island of Girls.

The Dutch translated the name on their charts where a _Meisje Eylandt_ may be seen; but, instead of the girls that they expected to see the island peopled with, they found it overrun by beautiful creatures, it is true, but, alas! of the small wallaby kind, peculiar to the outlying islands of Western Australia.
[* See Vangondy's map of Australia (1756).] It goes without saying that they did not know of the term _wallaby_, and taking those pretty creatures for overgrown rats, they called the island Rat Island or Rat's Nest, and Rottnest is the Dutch form thereof, preserved to this day.
Let us now turn to the eastern shores of Australia, for we need not trouble about the southern shores as they are connected with the Antarctic continent.
We notice first, _Simbana_, one of the original names of the island of Sumbawa.
You will remember that there are several islands left out in Ribero's map [see pp.

28-29].

Now the principal one between Java and Timor is Sumbawa, and, strangely enough, we find that island grafted on here, and thus forming the northernmost part of York Peninsula, with Timor to the east of it in its actual position with reference to Sumbawa and smaller islands around, although out of place with reference to Australia.

We next come to _Coste Dangereuse_, Dangerous Coast.