Chapter III: Part 3

But although we have no evidence to show that the French made any original discoveries in the South Seas in the first half of the sixteenth century, we have the evidence that they were good hydrographers. Crignon describes Parmentier as “bon cosmographe et géographe,” and says, “par luy ont esté composez plusieurs mapemondes en globe et en plat, et maintes cartes marines sus les quelles plusieurs ont navigué seurement.” It is dangerous to draw conclusions from negatives; but it is both legitimate and desirable that we should give due weight to evidence of high probability when such fall within our notice. If all the French maps we have quoted are, as has been shown, derived from one source, since they all contain the same errors; and if Parmentier, who was a good hydrographer, was the only French navigator we find mentioned as having gone so far as Sumatra before the period of the earliest of these maps; and further, if these maps exhibit Portuguese names laid down in these maps on a country beyond Parmentier’s furthest point of exploration, we think the inference not unreasonable that Parmentier may have laid down, from Portuguese maps, the information which has been copied into those we have quoted, and that the descriptions round the coast, which are all (as may be plainly seen), with the exception of those which bear the stamp of Portuguese, convertible into French, have been naturally written by French mapmakers, in that language. We can but throw out this suggestion for _quantum valeat_. All positive evidence, in spite of laborious research, is wanting. The Portuguese names are but few, but there they are, and bear their stubborn evidence. The earliest Portuguese portolani which have met the editor’s eye are those of Joham Freire, of 1546, and of Diego Homem, of 1558. Both these are silent on the subject. That of Lazaro Luis and of Vas Dourado, later in the century, both examined by Dr. Martin in Lisbon, are equally so. But this has been already accounted for. It is true that, in a mappemonde of the date of 1526, by one Franciscus, monachus ordinis Franciscanorum, copied into the atlas to the “_Géographie du Moyen Age_” of Joachim Lelewel, the great Terra Australis, extending along the south of the globe from Tierra del Fuego, is laid down with the words “Is nobis detecta existet,” and “hæc pars ore nondum cognita;” but this is plainly nothing more than a fanciful extension of Magellan’s discovery of the north coast of Tierra del Fuego, combined with the old supposition of the existence of a great southern continent.

A similar remark occurs in the manuscript portolano of Ioan Martinez, of Messina, of the date of 1567, in the British Museum; and in the fifth map of the portolano of the same hydrographer, of the date of 1578, is laid down “Meridional discoperta novamente,” with no names on it, and only shewing the north part. The extent of what is seen is twice as long as Java Major, which seems here to be Sumatra. It is observable that Petan and Maletur, names occurring on or near the Terra Australis of other maps of about this date, occur here, but close under Java Minor, which is a long way to the west of the “Meridional discoperta novamente.”

In 1526 the Portuguese commander, Don Jorge de Meneses, in his passage from Malacca to the Moluccas, was carried by currents and through his want of information respecting the route, to the north coast of Papua, which we now know as New Guinea; and in the following year we find Don Alvaro de Saavedra, a Spaniard, and kinsman of the great Cortes, despatched from New Spain to the Moluccas, and also lighting on New Guinea, where he passed a month; but nowhere in the allusions to these voyages do we find reference to the great southern land, which is laid down with so much detail under the name of “La Grande Jave.”

Our surmises, therefore, lead us to regard it as highly probable that Australia was discovered by the Portuguese between the years 1511 and 1529, and, almost to a demonstrable certainty, that it was discovered before the year 1542.

A notion may be formed of the knowledge possessed by the Spaniards in the middle of the sixteenth century, on the part of the world on which we treat, from the following extract from a work entitled, “El libro de las costumbres de todas las gentes del mundo y de las Indias.” Translated and compiled by the Bachelor Francisco Themara. Antwerp, 1556. “Thirty leagues from Java the Less is Gatigara, nineteen degrees the other side of the equinoctial towards the south. Of the lands beyond this point nothing is known, for navigation has not been extended further, and it is impossible to proceed by land on account of the numerous lakes and lofty mountains in those parts. It is even said that there is the site of the Terrestrial Paradise.” Although this was not originally written in Spanish, but was translated from Johannes Bohemus, it would scarcely have been given forth to the Spaniards had better information on such a subject existed among that people.

It has been already stated at pages xvii and xviii of this Introduction, that in the early engraved maps of the sixteenth century, there occur apparent indications of Australia, with names and sentences, descriptive of the country so represented, derived from the narrative of Marco Polo, with an intimation that some of these representations may not have emanated solely from that narrative. The earliest of these occurs on a mappemonde in the third volume of the polyglot bible of Arias Montanus, and the indication of Australia there given is the more striking that it stands unconnected with any other land whatever, and bears no kind of description. It is simply a line indicating the north part of an unexplored land, exactly in the position of the north of Australia, distinctly implying an imperfect discovery, but not copied from, or bearing any resemblance to, any indication of the kind in any previous map with which the editor is acquainted.

In Thevet’s _Cosmographie Universelle_, Paris, 1575, is a map with Taprobane, La Grand Jave, Petite Jave, Partie de la Terre Australe; and in tom. i, liv. 12, the following passage:

“L’art et pratique du navigage est le plus pénible et dangereux de
toutes les sciences, que oncques les hommes ayent inventées, veu que
l’homme s’expose à la mercy des abysmes de ce grand ocean, qui
environne et abbreuve toute la terre. Davātage, avec ceste Esquille
lon peult visiter presque toute ce que le monde contient en sa
rotondité, soit vers la mer glaciale, ou les deux poles, et terre
Australe, qui n’est encor comme ie croy descouverte, mais selon mon
opinion d’aussi grande estendue que l’Asie ou l’Afrique, et laquelle
un iour sera recherchée par le moyen de ce petit instrument
navigatoire, quelque long voyage qui y peust estre.”

In Dalrymple’s _Hist. Coll. of Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean_, Juan Fernandez is said to have discovered the southern continent. Burney, who speaks of his discovery of the southern continent (vol. i, p. 300), refers to the memorial of Juan Luis Arias for the description. See the first article in the present collection.

It is needless here to repeat the names and sentences already described at page xvii as given on early engraved maps from Marco Polo, but it will be well to notice such peculiarities as distinguish these maps from those in manuscript, which we have already been speaking of as probably representing Australia under the name of La Grande Jave. Such notice is the more interesting as the date of these engraved maps is intermediate between that of the manuscript documents and the period of the authenticated discovery of Australia. In the 1587 edition of Ortelius is a map entitled “Typus Orbis Terrarum,” in which _New Guinea is made an island_, with the words “Nova Guinea quæ an sit insula aut pars continentis Australis incertum.” On the Terra Australis, here brought up far more to the north than elsewhere, and separated from New Guinea only by a strait, are the words, “Hanc continentem Australem nonnulli Magellanicam regionem ab ejus inventore nuncupant.” While this sentence shows how indefinite was the idea of the extent of Australia towards the south, we think that the entire delineation, which brings the great Terra Australis so far northward in this longitude into connexion with New Guinea, goes far to show that Australia had really been discovered.

In various editions of Mercator occur copies of a map entitled, “Orbis Terræ Compendiosa descriptio quam ex magna universali Gerardi Mercatoris Rumoldus Mercator fieri curabat aº 1587,” in which similar indications are given to those in the map of Ortelius just described.

In the map of Peter Plancius, given in the English edition of the voyages of Linschoten, 1598, similar indications of Australia occur, but leaving the question of the insular character of New Guinea doubtful.

In the _Speculum Orbis_ of C. de Judæis, Antwerp, 1592, is a map entitled “Brasilia et Peruvia,” on which occurs, “Chæsdia seu Australis Terra quam nautarum vulgus Tierra di Fuego vocant, alii Psittacorum Terram.” In the map of Asia, in the same volume, a tract is laid down which, by comparison with Ortelius’ map of the Pacific Ocean, is plainly New Guinea; and on both these maps, on the west coast of said tract, are the words, “Tierra baixa,” which seems to tally with “Baie Basse,” at about the corresponding point on the manuscript maps, and is confirmatory of the conclusion which the editor had formed, as stated on page xxvi. In the same volume is a map of the Antarctic hemisphere, in which the Terra Australis incognita is brought high up to the north in the longitude of Australia: on that part of it opposite the Cape of Good Hope is the following legend: “Lusitani bonæ spei legentes capitis promontorium, hanc terram austrum versus extare viderunt, sed nondum imploravere,” a significant sentence, if allowance be made for the difficulty at that time of reckoning the longitude.

In the map to illustrate the voyages of Drake and Cavendish by Jodocus Hondius, of which a fac-simile was given in _The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake_, printed for our Society, New Guinea is made a complete island, without a word to throw a doubt on the correctness of the representation; while the Terra Australis, which is separated from New Guinea only by a strait, has an outline remarkably similar to that of the Gulf of Carpentaria. These indications give to this map an especial interest, and the more so that it is shown to be earlier than the passage of Torres through Torres’ Straits in 1606, by its bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth, before the unicorn of Scotland had displaced the dragon of England.

In the article “Terra Australis,” in Cornelius Wytfliet’s _Descriptionis Ptolemaicæ Augmentum_, Louvain, 1598, we find the following passage:—

“The ‘Australis Terra’ is the most southern of all lands, and is
separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are
hitherto but little known, since after one voyage and another, that
route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited unless
when sailors are driven there by storms. The ‘Australis Terra’
begins at two or three degrees from the equator, and is maintained
by some to be of so great an extent, that if it were thoroughly
explored, it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world.”

The above significant statement was printed, it will be remembered, before any discovery of Australia of which we have an authentic account.

But while examining these indications of a discovery of Australia in the sixteenth century, it will be asked what explorations had been made by the Spaniards in that part of the world in the course of that century. From the period of the voyage of Don Alvaro de Saavedra to the Moluccas in 1527, already alluded to, we meet with no such active spirit of exploration on the part of the Spaniards in the South Seas. Embarrassed by his political position, and with an exhausted treasury, the emperor, in 1529, definitely renounced his pretensions to the Moluccas for a sum of money, although he retained his claim to the islands discovered by his subjects to the east of the line of demarcation now confined to the Portuguese. In 1542 an unsuccessful attempt to form a settlement in the Philippine Islands was made by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, but its failure having been attributed to mismanagement, a new expedition in 1564 was despatched with the like object under Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, which was completely successful, and a Spanish colony was established at Zebu. It is not impossible that this settlement gave rise to voyages of discovery about this time by the Spaniards, of which no accounts have been published. In 1567 Alvaro de Mendana sailed from Callao on a voyage of discovery, in which he discovered the Solomon Islands and several others. There are great discrepancies in the different relations of this voyage. In 1595 he made a second voyage from Peru, in which he discovered the Marquesas, and the group afterwards named by Carteret Queen Charlotte’s Islands. The object of this expedition was to found a colony on the Solomon Islands, which he had discovered in his previous voyage, but from the incorrectness of his reckoning he was unable to find them. In the island of Santa Cruz he attempted to establish a colony, but without success, and in this island he died. In this second voyage he had for his chief pilot Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who may be regarded as the last of the distinguished mariners of Spain, and whose name claims especial notice in a work treating of the early indications of Australia, although he himself never saw the shores of that great continental island.[7]

The discovery of the island of Santa Cruz suggested to the mind of Quiros that the great southern continent was at length discovered, and in two memoirs addressed by him to Don L. de Velasco, viceroy of Peru, we meet with the first detailed argument upon this great geographical question, which, though he himself was not destined to demonstrate it by an actual discovery, may nevertheless be said to have been indirectly brought to a solution through his instrumentality. It is true that it is difficult in dealing with these vague surmises respecting the existence of a southern continent to draw distinctions between Australia itself and the great continent discovered in the present century, some twenty or thirty degrees to the south of that vast island. It has been already stated, p. xxxi, that Dalrymple, nearly two centuries later, earnestly advocated the same cause as De Quiros had done, and speaking of that navigator he says: “The _discovery_ of the southern continent, _whenever_ and by _whomsoever_ it may be completely effected, is in _justice_ due to this _immortal_ name.” It should be premised that there are, in fact, three points of ambiguity in connexion with the name of that navigator, which it is well at once to state, as they might mislead the judgment of the superficial reader of the history of navigation of that period as to his connexion with the discovery of Australia. In the first place, though generally reputed to be a Spaniard, he is described by Nicolas Antonio, the author of the _Bibliotheca Hispana_, himself a Spaniard, and not unwilling, it may be supposed, to claim so distinguished a navigator for his countryman, as “Lusitanus. Eborensis, ut aiunt Lusitani” (a Portuguese, stated by the Portuguese to be a native of Evora), and the style of his writings bears out the supposition. Secondly, Antonio de Ulloa, in his _Resumen_, p. 119, quotes from an account of the voyage of Quiros, said to be given in the _Historia de la Religion Serafica of Diego de Cordova_ (a work which the editor has not met with), the discovery of a large island in _twenty-eight degrees_ south latitude, which latitude is farther south than Quiros or his companions are otherwise known to have made in any voyage. Thirdly, the printed memoirs of Quiros bear the title of Terra Australis Incognita, while the southern Tierra Austral, discovered by Quiros himself, and surnamed by him “del Espiritu Santo,” is none other than the “New Hebrides” of the maps of the present day.

At the same time, to both Quiros and Dalrymple we are indirectly indebted for the earliest designation which attaches in any sense to the modern nomenclature connected with Australia, viz., for the name of Torres Straits. That Quiros, whether by birth a Portuguese or a Spaniard, was in the Spanish service, cannot be doubted. The viceroy of Peru had warmly entertained his projects, but looked upon its execution as beyond the limits of his own power to put into operation. He therefore urged to Quiros to lay his case before the Spanish monarch at Madrid, and furnished him with letters to strengthen his application. Whether Philip III was more influenced by the arguments of De Quiros, as to the discovery of a southern continent, or rather by the desire to explore the route between Spain and America by the east, in the hope of discovering wealthy islands between New Guinea and China, we need not pause to question. It is possible that both these motives had their weight, for Quiros was despatched to Peru with full orders for the carrying out of his plans, addressed to the Viceroy, the Count de Monterey; and he was amply equipped with two well-armed vessels and a corvette, with which he sailed from Callao on the 21st of December, 1605. Luis Vaez de Torres was commander of the _Almirante_, or second ship, in this expedition. The voyage was looked upon as one of very great importance; and Torquemada, in his account of it in the _Monarquia Indiana_, says that the ships were the strongest and best armed which had been seen in those seas. The object was to make a settlement at the island Santa Cruz, and from thence to search for the Tierra Austral, or southern continent.

After the discovery of several islands, Quiros came to a land which he named Australia del Espiritu Santo, supposing it to be a part of the great southern continent. At midnight of the 11th of June, 1606, while the three ships were lying at anchor in the bay which they had named San Felipe and Santiago, Quiros, for reasons which are not known, and without giving any signal or notice, was either driven by a storm, or sailed away from the harbour, and was separated from the other two ships.

Subsequently to the separation, Torres found that the Australia del Espiritu Santo was an island, and then continued his course westward in pursuance of the exploration. In about the month of August, 1606, he fell in with a coast in 11½ degrees south lat., which he calls the beginning of New Guinea; apparently the south-eastern part of the land afterwards named Louisiade by M. de Bougainville, and now known to be a chain of islands. As he could not pass to windward of this land, Torres bore away along its south side, and himself gives the following account of his subsequent course. “We went along three hundred leagues of coast, as I have mentioned, and diminished the latitude 2½ degrees, which brought us into 9 degrees. From hence we fell in with a bank of from three to nine fathoms, which extends along the coast above one hundred and eighty leagues. We went over it, along the coast, to 7½ south latitude; and the end of it is in 5 degrees. We could not go further on for the many shoals and great currents, so we were obliged to sail south-west, in that depth, to 11 degrees south lat. There is all over it an archipelago of islands without number, by which we passed; and at the end of the eleventh degree the bank became shoaler. Here were very large islands, and there appeared more to the southward. They were inhabited by black people, very corpulent and naked. Their arms were lances, arrows, and clubs of stone ill fashioned. We could not get any of their arms. We caught, in all this land, twenty persons of different nations, that with them we might be able to give a better account to Your Majesty. They give much notice of other people, although as yet they do not make themselves well understood. We were upon this bank two months, at the end of which time we found ourselves in twenty-five fathoms, and 5 degrees south latitude, and ten leagues from the coast; and, having gone four hundred eighty leagues here, the coast goes to the north-east. I did not search it, for the bank became very shallow. So we stood to the north.”

The very large islands seen by Torres in the 11th degree of south latitude, are evidently the hills of Cape York; and the two months of intricate navigation, the passage through the strait which separates Australia from New Guinea. A copy of this letter of Torres was fortunately lodged in the archives of Manilla; and it was not till that city was taken, in 1762, by the English, that the document was discovered by Dalrymple; who paid a fitting tribute to the memory of this distinguished Spanish navigator, by giving to this dangerous passage the name of Torres’ Straits, which it has ever since retained. The editor has striven in vain to learn into whose hands Dalrymple’s copy of this letter has fallen. He has been compelled, therefore, to reprint it from Dalrymple’s translation, supplied to Admiral Burney, as inserted at the end of vol. ii of his _Discoveries and Voyages in the South Sea_.

De Quiros himself reached Mexico on the 3rd of October, 1606, nine months from his departure from Callao. Strongly imbued with a sense of the importance of his discoveries, he addressed various memoirs to Philip III, advocating the desirableness of further explorations in these unknown regions; but, after years of unavailing perseverance, he died at Panama in 1614, leaving behind him a name which for merit, though not for success, was second only to that of Columbus; and with him expired the naval heroism of Spain. “Reasoning,” as Dalrymple says, “from principles of science and deep reflection, he asserted the _existence_ of a southern continent; and devoted with unwearied though contemned diligence, the remainder of his life to the prosecution of this sublime conception.” In the first document printed in this collection, which is from the hand of the Fray Juan Luis Arias, is given an account of his earnest advocacy of the resuscitation of Spanish enterprise in the southern seas, and especially with reference to the great southern continent.

But while the glory of Spanish naval enterprise was thus on the wane, the very nation which Spain had bruised and persecuted was to supplant her in the career of adventure and prosperity. The war of independence had aroused the energies of those provinces of the Netherlands which had freed themselves from the Spanish yoke; while the cruelties perpetrated in those provinces which the Spaniards had succeeded in again subduing, drove an almost incredible number of families into exile. The majority of these settled in the northern provinces, and thus brought into them a prodigious influx of activity. Among these emigrants were a number of enterprising merchants, chiefly from Antwerp,—a town which had for many years enjoyed a most considerable, though indirect, share in the transatlantic trade of Spain and Portugal, and was well acquainted with its immense advantages. These men were naturally animated by the bitter hatred of exiles, enhanced by difference of faith and the memory of many wrongs. The idea which arose among them was, to deprive Spain of her transatlantic commerce, and thus to cripple her resources, and strengthen those of the Protestants, and by this means eventually to force the southern provinces of the Netherlands from their oppressors. This idea, at first vaguely entertained by a few, became general when the Spaniards forbad Dutch vessels to carry on any traffic with Spain. This traffic had existed in spite of the wars, and had furnished the Dutch with the principal means of carrying it on.

Being thus violently thrust out of their share in transatlantic commerce, the Dutch determined to gain it back with interest. Geography and hydrography now became the subjects of earnest study and instruction; and the period was distinguished by the appearance of such men as Ortelius, Mercator, Plancius, De Bry, Hulsius, Cluverius, etc., whom we are now bound to regard as the fathers of modern geography. Among these the most earnest in turning the resources of science into a weapon against the oppressors of his country, was Peter Plancius, a Calvinist clergyman, who opened a nautical and geographical school at Amsterdam for the express purpose of teaching his countrymen how to find a way to India, and the other sources whence Spain derived her strength. We do not here dwell on their efforts to find a northern route to the east. Their knowledge of the direct route to that wealthy portion of the world had become greatly increased by the appearance of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten’s great work. (Amst., 1595–96.) Linschoten had, for fourteen years, lived in the Portuguese possessions in the East, and had there collected a vast amount of information. The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602; and in 1606 we find a vessel from Holland making the first _authenticated_ discovery of that great south land which in our own time has been designated—at the suggestion of that worthy navigator, Matthew Flinders, to whom we are so largely indebted for our knowledge of the hydrography of that country—by the distinct and appropriate name of Australia.

Of the discoveries made by the Dutch on the coasts of Australia, our ancestors of a hundred years ago, and even the Dutch themselves, knew but little. That which was known was preserved in the _Relations de divers voyages curieux_ of Melchisedech Thevenot (Paris, 1663–72, fol.); in the _Noord en Oost Tartarye_ of Nicolas Witsen (Amst., 1692–1705, fol.); in Valentyn’s _Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien_ (Amst., 1724–26, fol.); and in the _Inleiding tot de algemeen Geographie_ of Nicolas Struyk (Amst., 1740, 4to.). We have, however, since gained a variety of information through a document which fell into the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, and was published by Alexander Dalrymple, at that time hydrographer to the Admiralty and the East India Company, in his collection concerning Papua. This curious and interesting document is a copy of the instructions to Commodore Abel Jansz Tasman for his second voyage of discovery. That distinguished commander had already, in 1642, discovered not only the island now named after him, Tasmania (but more generally known as Van Diemen’s Land, in compliment to the then governor of the Dutch East India Company at Batavia), but New Zealand also; and, passing round the east side of Australia, but without seeing it, sailed on his return voyage along the northern shores of New Guinea. In January 1644 he was despatched on his second voyage; and his instructions, signed by the Governor-General, Antonio Van Diemen, and the members of the council, are prefaced by a recital, in chronological order, of the previous discoveries of the Dutch. The document is reprinted in the present volume.

From this recital, combined with a passage from Saris, given in Purchas, vol. i, p. 385, we learn that, “On the 18th of November, 1605, the Dutch yacht, the _Duyfhen_ (the Dove), was despatched from Bantam to explore the islands of New Guinea, and that she sailed along what was thought to be the west side of that country, to 19¾° of south latitude.” This extensive country was found, for the greatest part, desert; but in some places inhabited by wild, cruel, black savages, by whom some of the crew were murdered; for which reason they could not learn anything of the land or waters, as had been desired of them; and from want of provisions, and other necessaries, they were obliged to leave the discovery unfinished. The furthest point of the land, in their maps, was called Cape Keer Weer, or “Turn Again.” As Flinders observes, “the course of the _Duyfhen_ from New Guinea was southward, along the islands on the west side of Torres’ Strait, to that part of Terra Australis a little to the west and south of Cape York. But all these lands were thought to be connected, and to form the west coast of New Guinea.” Thus, without being conscious of it, the commander of the _Duyfhen_ made the first _authenticated_ discovery of any part of the great south land about the month of March 1606; for it appears that he had returned to Banda in or before the beginning of June of that year.

The second expedition mentioned in the Dutch recital for the discovery of the great south land, was undertaken in a yacht in the year 1617, by order of the Fiscal d’Edel, “with little success,” and the journals and remarks were not to be found; but various ships outward bound from Holland to the East Indies, in the course of the years 1616, 1618, 1619, and 1622, made discoveries on the west coast of the great unknown south land, from 35° to 22° south latitude, and among them the ship _Eendragt_ (the Concord), commanded by Dirk Hartog, Hertoge, or Hartighs, of Amsterdam, fell in with land in about 25 degrees south, which afterwards received its name from this ship. The president, De Brosses, has fallen into the error of describing Dirk Hartog, as a native of Eendragt, adding that this coast has preserved the name of the vessel, and that of the country of its commander. The Dutch recital which mentions the voyage of the _Eendragt_, does not give Hartog’s name, but we learn it from a MS. chart by Hessel Gerritz, of Amsterdam, 1627, referred to by Dalrymple in his collection concerning Papua, note, page 6. An important part of Hartog’s discovery was Dirk Hartog’s Roads, at the entrance of the sound, afterwards called by Dampier Shark’s Bay, in 25°; and on Dirk Hartog’s island, one of the islands forming the road, he left a tin plate, bearing the following inscription: _Aº. 1616 den 25sten October is hier vangecomen het schip de Endracht van Amsterdam, den Oppercoopmen Gilles Mibais Van Luyck, Kapitein Dirk Hartog, van Amsterdam, den 27sten. dito t’ zeijl gegaen na Bantam, den Ondercoopman Jan Stoyn, Opperstiermann Pieter Dockes van Bil Aº. 1616._ Of which the following is a translation: _On the 25th of October, 1616, arrived here the ship Endraght, of Amsterdam: the first merchant, Gilles Mibais Van Luyck; Captain Dirck Hartog, of Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail for Bantam; undermerchant, Jan Stoyn; upper steersman, Pieter Dockes, from Bil. Aº. 1616._

In 1697, this plate was found by Wilhem Van Vlaming, Captain of the _Geelvink_, of whose voyage we shall have to speak in due course, and was replaced by another on which the inscription was copied, and the following new inscription added:

_1697. den 4 den Februarij is hier aengecomen het schip de Geelvinck van Amsterdam, den commandeur schipper Williem de Vlamingh van Vlielandt: Adsistent Joan van Bremen van Coppenhage; Opperstierman Michiel Blom van Estight van Bremen._

_De Hoecker de Nijptang, schipper Gerrit Collaert van Amsterdam; Adsistent Theodorus Heermans van d^o.; d’opper-stierman Gerrit Gerritz van Bremen._

_’t Galjoot t’ Weseltje, Gezaghebber Cornelis de Vlamigh van Vlielandt; stierman Coert Gerritsz van Bremen, en van hier gezeilt met ons vloot den 12 d^o. voorts het Zuijtlandt te ondersoecken en gedestineert voor Batavia._

Of which the following is a translation: _On the 4th of February, 1697, arrived here the ship Geelvinck, of Amsterdam: captain commandant, Wilhelm van Vlaming of Vlielandt; assistant, Jan van Bremen of Copenhagen; first pilot, Michéel Bloem van Estight of Bremen; the hooker the Nyptangh, captain Gerrit Collaert of Amsterdam; assistant, Theodorus Heermans of the same place; first pilot, Gerrit Gerritz of Bremen; then the galliot Weseltje; commander, Cornelis van Vlaming of Vlielandt; pilot, Coert Gerritzs of Bremen. Sailed from here with our fleet on the 12th, to explore the south land, and afterwards bound for Batavia._

In the account of the voyage of discovery made to the south by the corvettes, _Geographe_ and _Naturaliste_, in the years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, published by F. Peron, vol. i, chap. 10, p. 193, we find, that in the month of July 1801, Captain Hamelin, of the _Naturaliste_, resolved on sailing to the extremity of Shark’s Bay; but he first dispatched three men to Dirck Hartog’s island, for the purpose of signalizing the _Geographe_, in case it should heave in sight at the entrance of the bay. On returning from Dirck Hartog’s island, the boatswain brought with them the plate of tin above described. It was about six inches diameter, and the inscriptions were described as coarsely cut. The plate was found on the north point of the island, which was named in consequence, the Cape of the Inscription; it was then half covered with sand, lying near an oaken post, on which it seemed to have been originally nailed. Having copied the inscriptions, Captain Hamelin had a new post made, and sent back the plate to be refixed on the same spot from which it had been taken; he would have looked upon it as sacrilege to have kept on board this plate, which, for nearly two centuries, had been spared by nature, and by those who might have observed it before him. He himself also placed on the north-east part of this island a second plate, on which were inscribed the name of his corvette, and the date of his arrival on those shores. In the translation given in Peron’s work of the earlier of these two inscriptions, a droll mistake is made by an error in punctuation, as will be seen by comparing the original inscription, see p. lxxxi, with the following: “1616. Le 25 Octobre est arrivé ici le navire l’Endraght d’Amsterdam: premier marchand, Gilles Miebais Van Luck; capitaine, Dirck Hartighs d’Amsterdam; il remit sous voile le 27 du même mois; Bantum étoit sous marchand; Janstins premier pilote: Pieter Ecoores Van-Bu ... Anne 1616.”

Thus it will be seen, that Bantam, in Java, for which they set sail, is transformed into the undermerchant, and the person who really held that post is converted into chief pilot, while poor Pieter Dockes, whose name, perhaps more feebly scratched at the close of the inscription, had become obliterated by more than a century’s rough usage, is deprived of the honour of holding any post whatever. Even this rendering of the inscription is however highly interesting, as giving some indications of the degree of obliteration effected by the weather in this long space of time.

In 1617 appeared a work, the title of which renders some mention of it in this place necessary. It was entitled “_Mundus alter et idem, sive Terra Australis antehac semper incognita longis itineribus peregrini academici nuperrime lustrata._ Hanau, 1617.” The book bearing this delusive title was by Bishop Joseph Hall. It was in reality an invective against the characteristic vices of various nations, from which it is said that Swift borrowed the idea of _Gulliver’s Travels_.

A strange blunder has been made by the Abbé Prevost, tom. ii, p. 201, of his _Histoire des Voyages_, 4to. ed., and by the President de Brosses, in his _Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes_, tom. i, p. 432; and copied by Callander in his unacknowledged translation from De Brosses, to the effect that in the year 1618, one Zeachen, a native of Arnheim, discovered the land called Arnheim’s Land, and Van Diemen’s Land on the N. coast of Australia, in about the latitude of 14°. He proceeds to say that Diemen’s Land owes its name to Anthony Van Diemen, at that time general of the Dutch East India Company, who returned to Europe with vast riches in 1631. The blunder is easily demonstrable. Zeachen, or as it is also given, Zechaen, is a form of word plainly irreconcileable with the genius of the Dutch language, and is an evident misspelling for Zeehaen, which is the name not of a man, but of a ship, the _Sea-hen_.

No such voyage is mentioned in the recital of discoveries which preface the instructions to Tasman, nor is there any notice of the north coast of New Holland having been visited by the Dutch in that year. Moreover Van Diemen, as we learn from the _Vies des Gouverneurs Généraux avec l’abrégé de l’histoire des établissemens Hollandois_ by Dubois, was not governor general until January 1st, 1636, and it is observable that one of the ships employed in Tasman’s voyage in 1642, in which he discovered the island now known as Tasmania, but to which he, out of compliment, gave the name of the governor general, Van Diemen, was called the Zeehaen, from which in all probability, by some complication of mistakes, the mis-statement here made has originated.

The _Mauritius_, an outward bound ship, appears to have made some discoveries upon the west coasts, in July 1618, particularly of Willem’s River, near the north-west cape, but no further particulars are known.

It would seem that another of the outward bound ships referred to in the Dutch recital, as visiting the coasts of New Holland, was commanded by Edel, and the land there discovered, which was on the west coast, was named the land of Edel. From Campbell’s edition of Harris’s voyages, we learn that this discovery was made in 1619. It appears from Thevenot’s chart, published in 1663, to have extended from about 29° northward, to 26½, where the land of Eendragt commences, but in Van Keulen’s chart, published near the close of the century, it is made to extend still more southward, to 32° 20´, which Thevenot’s chart would attribute rather to the discovery made three years later (1622) by the ship _Leeuwin_ (_the Lioness_).

The great reef lying off the coast of Edel’s Land, called Houtman’s Abrolhos, was discovered at the same time. The name was doubtless given after the Dutch navigator Frederick Houtman, although we find no trace of his having himself visited this coast. The Portuguese name Abrolhos, meaning “open your eyes,” was given to dangerous reefs, implying the necessity of a sharp look out.

The name of the commander of the _Leeuwin_ has not yet appeared in any published document that has met the editor’s eye. The land to which the name of that vessel was given, extended from 35° northward, to about 31°; but as we have already stated, in Van Keulen’s and later charts, the northern portion of this tract has been included in the discovery by Edel.

For the nearer discovery of Eendraght’s Land, the Dutch recital informs us that the governor general, Jan Pietersz Coen, dispatched in September, 1622, the yachts De Haring and Harewind; but this voyage was rendered abortive by meeting the ship _Mauritius_, and searching after the ship _Rotterdam_.

In January 1623, the Dutch recital informs us, the yachts _Pera_ and _Arnhem_, under the command of Jan Carstens, were despatched from Amboina by order of his Excellency Jan Pieterz Coen. Carstens, with eight of the _Arnhem’s_ crew, was treacherously murdered by the natives of New Guinea; but the vessels prosecuted the voyage, and discovered “the great islands, Arnhem and the Spult.” Arnhem’s Land forms the easternmost portion of the north coast of New Holland, lying to the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria. In a chart inserted in Valentyn’s _Beschryvingh van Banda_, fo. 36, is laid down the river Spult in Arnhem’s Land, in about the position of Liverpool River, with which, in all probability, it is identical; and the country in its vicinity is probably what is here meant by the Spult.

The ships were then “untimely separated”, and the _Arnhem_ returned to Amboina. The _Pera_ persisted, and “sailed along the south coast of New Guinea to a flat cove situate in 10° south latitude, and ran along the west coast of this land to Cape Keer Weer; from thence discovered the coast further southwards, as far as 17 degrees, to Staten River. From this place, what more of the land could be discerned seemed to stretch westward.” The _Pera_ then returned to Amboina. “In this discovery were found everywhere shallow water and barren coasts; islands altogether thinly peopled by divers cruel, poor, and brutal nations, and of very little use to the Dutch East India Company.”

The first discovery of the south coast of New Holland was made in 1627. The Dutch recital says: “In the year 1627, the south coast of the great south land was accidently discovered by the ship the _Gulde Zeepaard_, outward bound from Fatherland, for the space of a thousand miles.” The journal of this voyage seems to have been lost. The editor has spared no pains, by inquiry in Holland and Belgium, to trace its existence, but without success; and the only testimony that we have to the voyage is derived from the above passage and Dutch charts, which give the name of Pieter Nuyts to the immense tract of country thus discovered. Nuyts is generally supposed to have commanded the ship; but Flinders judiciously remarks that, as on his arrival at Batavia, he was sent ambassador to Japan, and afterwards made governor of Formosa, it seems more probable that he was a civilian—perhaps the Company’s first merchant on board—rather than captain of the ship. In estimating the _thousand miles_ described in the recital, allowance must doubtless be made for the irregularities of the coast, embracing from Cape Leeuwin to St. Francis and St. Peter’s Islands.

The next discovery upon the western coasts was that of the ship _Vianen_, one of the seven which returned to Europe under the command of the Governor-General, Carpenter. In this year, the Dutch recital informs us that the coast was seen again accidentally, in the year 1628, on the north side, in the latitude 21° south, by the ship _Vianen_, homeward bound from India, when they coasted two hundred miles without gaining any knowledge of this great country; only observing “a foul and barren shore, green fields, and very wild, black, barbarous inhabitants.”

This was the part called De Witt’s Land; but whether the name were applied by the captain of the _Vianen_ does not appear. The President De Brosses, whose account, however, is too full of blunders to follow very implicitly, says, “William de Witt gave his own name to the country which he saw in 1628 to the north of Remessen’s River; and which Viane, a Dutch captain, had, to his misfortune, discovered in the month of January in the same year, when he was driven upon this coast of De Witt, in 21° of latitude, and lost all his riches.” The name of De Witt was subsequently retained on this part of the coast in all the maps.

In Thevenot’s _Recueil de divers Voyages curieux_, 1663, is given an account, translated from the Dutch, of the shipwreck of the _Batavia_, Captain Francis Pelsart, in the night of June 4, 1629, on the reef still known as Houtman’s Abrolhos, lying between 28° and 29° S. lat., on the west coast of Australia. A loose and incorrect translation of this account, is given in vol. i, p. 320, of Harris’s _Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca_ (Campbell’s edition), but a new translation is supplied, in its proper chronological place, in the present volume. At daylight, the shipwrecked sailors saw an island at about three leagues distance, and, still nearer, two islets, to which the passengers with some of the crew were sent. As no fresh water was found on these islets, Pelsart put to sea on the 8th of June, in one of the boats which he had had covered with a deck, and sailed to the main land for the purpose of seeking for water. He found his latitude at noon to be 28° 13´ south. The coast, which bore N. by W., he estimated to be eight leagues from the place of shipwreck. It was rocky and barren, and about of the same height as the coast of Dover. He essayed to put in at a small sandy bay, but the surf and unfavourableness of the weather compelled him to keep off the shore. He then steered north, but the abruptness of the shore, and the breakers which he found along the coast, prevented his landing for several days, till at length on the 14th of June, being then in 24° latitude, he saw some smokes at a distance, and steered towards them, but the shore was still found to be steep and rocky, and the sea broke high against it; at length six of his men leaped overboard, and with great exertion reached the land, the boat remaining at anchor in twenty-five fathoms. The sailors, while busily engaged in seeking for water, perceived four natives creeping towards them on their hands and feet; but suddenly, on one of the sailors appearing on an eminence, they rose up and fled, so that those who remained in the boat could see them distinctly. They were wild, black, and entirely naked.

The search for water was unsuccessful, and the sailors swam back to the boat, though much bruised by the waves and the rocks. They then again set sail, keeping outside of the shoals. On the morning of the 15th, they discovered a cape, off which lay a chain of rocks, stretching out four miles into the sea, and beyond this another reef, close to the shore. Finding here an opening where the water was smooth, they put into it, but with great risk, as they had but two feet of water with a stony bottom. Here in the holes of the rocks they found fresh rain water, of which they collected forty gallons. There were evident traces of the natives having been there but a short time before. On the 16th of July, they endeavoured to collect more water but without success. There were no signs of vegetation on the sandy level country to be seen beyond, and the ant hills were so large, that they might have been taken for the houses of the natives. The quantity of flies was so great, that they could with difficulty free themselves from them. Eight savages, carrying sticks or spears in their hands, came within musket shot, but fled when the Dutch sailors moved towards them. When Captain Pelsart found there was no hope of procuring water, he again weighed anchor, and got outside of the reef by a second opening more to the north; for having observed the latitude to be 22° 17´, his intention was to seek for the river of Jacob Remessens near the north-west cape, but the wind changing to north-east, he was compelled to quit the coast. Being now four hundred miles from the place of shipwreck, and having barely water enough for their own use, he determined to make the best of his way back to Batavia for assistance.

Meanwhile, by a fortunate accident, one of them who had been left on the Abrolhos chanced to taste the water in two holes, which water had been supposed to be salt, as it rose and fell with the tide. To their inexpressible joy it proved to be fit to drink, and afforded them an unfailing supply. Captain Pelsart afterwards returned to the Abrolhos in the yacht _Saardam_, from Batavia; but finding a shameful conspiracy on foot, he was compelled to execute some, and two men were set on shore on the opposite main land. In the instructions subsequently given to Tasman for his voyage in 1644, he was directed “to inquire at the continent thereabouts after two Dutch men, who, having forfeited their lives, were put on shore by the Commodore Francis Pelsart, if still alive. In such case, you may make your enquiries of them about the situation of those countries; and if they entreat you to that purpose, give them passage hither.”

Gerrit Tomaz Pool, or Poel, was sent in April of this year from Banda, with the yachts _Klyn_, _Amsterdam_, and _Wezel_ upon the same expedition as Carstens; and at the same place on the coast of New Guinea he met with the same fate. Nevertheless, “the voyage was assiduously continued under the charge of the super cargo Pieterz Pietersen; and the islands Key and Arouw visited. By reason of very strong eastwardly winds, they could not reach the west coast of New Guinea (Carpentaria); but shaping their course very near south, discovered the coast of Arnhem or Van Diemen’s Land, in 11° south latitude; so named from the governor general Van Diemen, who was sent out this year, and sailed along the shore for one hundred and twenty miles (thirty mijlen), without seeing any people, but many signs of smoke.”

A short account of this voyage is given by Valentyn, in his volume on _Banda_, p. 47, a translation of which will be found at p. 75 of the present volume.