evidence: Ashmore and Cartier Islands, external territory of Australia, in the Indian Ocean. The islands lie 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Western Australia state and some 105 miles (170 km) southwest of the island of Roti, Indonesia. The Ashmore Islands, comprising Middle, East, and West islands, are coral islets within a reef. Cartier Island, also lying within a reef, is sandier in composition. The islands and their surrounding waters were visited by Indonesian fishermen beginning about 1700. The first European to reach Cartier Island, in 1800, was a British sea captain named Nash, who sailed aboard the Cartier. Ashmore Reef was discovered in February 1811 by Capt. Samuel Ashmore of the ship Hibernia, for which another nearby reef was named. American whaling ships plied the area in the 1850s. Great Britain and the United States both claimed possession of the islands; Britain finally annexed Ashmore in 1878 and Cartier in 1909. In the late 19th century West Island was exploited for its deposits of phosphate, an activity that removed most of the island’s topsoil.