Chapter IV: Part 4

Abel Janszen Tasman, who, in the year 1642, had made the two great discoveries of south Van Diemen’s Land—in these days more correctly named after himself, Tasmania,—and of New Zealand, was again sent out in 1644, for the express purpose of examining the north and north-western shores of New Holland. His instructions, of which we have already repeatedly spoken, say, that “after quitting Point Ture, or False Cape, situate in 8 degrees on the south coast of New Guinea, you are to continue eastward along the coast to 9 degrees south latitude, crossing prudently the cove at that place. Looking about the _high islands or Speults River_, with the yachts for a harbour, despatching the tender _De Braak_ for two or three days into the cove, in order to discover whether, within the great inlet, there be not to be found an entrance into the South Sea. From this place you are to coast along the west coast of New Guinea, to the furthest discoveries in 17 degrees south latitude, following the coast further, as it may run west or southward. But it is to be feared you will meet in these parts with the south-east trade winds, from which it will be difficult to keep the coast on board, if stretching to the south-east; but, notwithstanding this, endeavour, by all means to proceed, that we may be sure whether this land is divided from the great known south continent or not.” Thus it became part of Tasman’s duty to explore Torres Straits, then unknown, though possibly suspected to exist. That they had unconsciously been passed through by Torres, in 1606, we have already seen. Tasman, however, failed, as will be presently shewn, in making the desired exploration, and it was not till 1770 that the separation of New Holland from New Guinea was established by Captain Cook. In the remaining portion of his duty, Tasman fully succeeded, viz., in establishing the continuity of the north-west coast of the land designated generally “the great known south continent,” as far south as about the twenty-second degree. It is greatly to be regretted that the account of this interesting voyage has not been published. The Burgomaster Witsen, in a work on the migrations of the human race, which appeared in 1705, gives some notes on the inhabitants of New Guinea and New Holland, in which Tasman is quoted among those from whom he gained his information; thus showing that Tasman’s narrative was then in existence. M. Van Wyk Roelandszoon, in a letter addressed to the editor of the _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, dated 26th July, 1825, states, that many _savans du premier ordre_ had for a long time sought in vain for the original papers of Abel Tasman. One young, but very able fellow-countryman of his, had even made a voyage for that express purpose to Batavia, in the hope that they might be found there, but he unfortunately died shortly after his arrival at that place. M. Van Wyk continues, “we still live in the hope of receiving some of these documents.” This hope, however, was not realized, and the efforts of the editor of the present volume, which have been exerted in influential quarters for the same object, have been equally unsuccessful. But, although we have to regret the loss or non-appearance of any detailed account of this most important voyage, the _outline_ of the coasts visited by Tasman is laid down, though without any reference to him or his voyage, on several maps which appeared within a few years after the voyage was performed. The earliest representation which the editor has found anywhere mentioned, although in all probability it was preceded by others published in Holland, was on the mappemonde of Louis Mayerne Turquet, published in Paris in 1648. It was also represented on a planisphere, inlaid in the floor of the Groote Zaal, in the Stad-huys at Amsterdam, a building commenced in 1648. The site adopted for this remarkable map was peculiar, and scarcely judicious; for though it gratified the eyes of the enterprising burghers, with the picture of the successful explorations of their countrymen, it exposed the representation itself to almost unceasing detrition from the soles of their feet. This outline was also given in the map entitled Mar di India, in the 1650 edition of Janssen’s Atlas, 5 vol. supplement. It also occurs in a large Atlas in the King’s Library in the British Museum, by J. Klencke, of Amsterdam, presented to King Charles the Second, on his restoration in 1660, and also in a chart inserted in Melchisedech Thevenot’s _Relation de divers voyages curieux_, 1663. From these maps it is apparent that it was from this voyage that the designation of New Holland was first given to this great country. In a map by Van Keulen, published at the close of the seventeenth century, _a portion_ of Tasman’s track with the soundings is given, but this also is without reference to Tasman himself. It has, however, been the good fortune of the editor of the present volume to light upon a document which, in the absence of Tasman’s narrative, and his own original chart, is the next to be desired: viz., an early copy, perhaps from his own chart, with the tracks of his two voyages pricked thereon, and the entire soundings of the voyage of 1644 laid down. A reduction of this chart is here given. It forms Art. 12 in a miscellaneous MS. collection marked 5222 in the department of MSS. in the British Museum. It bears no name or date, but is written on exactly the same kind of paper, with the same ink, and by the same hand, as one by Captain Thomas Bowrey, in the same volume, done at Fort St. George in 1687. It is observable, that in the preface to a work by Captain Bowrey, on the Malay language, he says, that in 1688, he embarked at Fort St. George, as a passenger for England, having been nineteen years in the East Indies, continually engaged in navigation and trading in those countries, in Sumatra, Borneo, Bantam, and Java. The twofold blunder, both as to fact and date, contained in the sentence inserted in the middle of the chart, “This large land of New Guinea was first discovered _to joyne to y^e south land_ by y^e Yot Lemmen as by this chart Francois Jacobus Vis. Pilot Major Anno 1643” is self-evidently an independent subsequent insertion, probably by Bowrey himself, and therefore by no means impugns the inference that the chart is otherwise a genuine copy. The soundings verify the track, and show that Tasman regarded the first point of his instructions as to the exploration of the “great inlet,” either as of less importance or of greater danger than the subsequent portion, as to establishing the continuity of the lands on the north and north-west coasts of “the great known southern continent.”

It is worthy of remark, that the map by Klencke, already referred to, leaves the passage towards Torres Strait open, while in the map here given it is closed. The missing narrative of Tasman alone could explain this discrepancy, or show us the amount of authenticity to be ascribed to either of these maps; but it appears to the editor, that the track laid down with the soundings, gives to the map here given the claim to preference, while the very depth of the imaginary bight here drawn, instead of the strait, throws it out of the line of exploration in the voyage whose track is described. From the notes of the Burgomaster Witsen (1705), we derive the only fragment of an account of this most important voyage. From thence we gain the earliest information respecting the inhabitants. The translation is given by Dalrymple, in his volume on _Papua_. It is as follows: “In latitude 13 degrees, 8 minutes south, longitude 146 degrees, 18 minutes (probably about 129½ degrees east of Greenwich), the coast is barren. The people are bad and wicked, shooting at the Dutch with arrows, without provocation, when they were coming on shore. It is here very populous.”

“In 14 degrees, 58 minutes south, longitude 138 degrees, 59 minutes (about 125 degrees east) the people are savage, and go naked: none can understand them. In 16 degrees, 10 minutes south, the people swam on board of a Dutch ship, and when they received a present of a piece of linen, they laid it upon their head in token of gratitude. Every where thereabout all the people are malicious. They use arrows and bows, of such a length that one end rests on the ground when shooting. They have also hazegayes and kalawayes, and attacked the Dutch, but did not know the execution of the guns.

“In Hollandia Nova [a term which seems to imply that the previously named plans were not supposed by Witsen to be included under the name of New Holland] in 17 degrees, 12 minutes south (longitude 121 degrees or 122 degrees east), Tasman found naked black people, with curly hair: malicious and cruel, using for arms bows and arrows, hazeygayes and kalawayes. They once came to the number of fifty, double armed, dividing themselves into two parties, intending to have surprised the Dutch, who had landed twenty-five men; but the firing of the guns frightened them so much that they took to flight. Their canoes are made of the bark of trees: their coast is dangerous: there is but little vegetation: the people have no houses.”

“In 19 degrees, 35 minutes S., longitude 134 degrees (about 120 degrees apparently), the inhabitants are very numerous, and threw stones at the boats sent by the Dutch to the shore. They made fires and smoke all along the coast, which it was conjectured they did to give notice to their neighbours of strangers being upon the coast. They appear to live very poorly; go naked; eat yams and other roots.”

This fragment of description is meagre enough; but it is all that we can boast of possessing. It is further remarkable that those who have spoken of the part of the coast visited by Tasman in this voyage, have led their readers into a misconception by attributing the discovery of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Carpenter, and of the northern Van Diemen’s Land to the governor so named. So soon after the voyage as the year 1663, we find Thevenot printing as follows: “We shall, in due course, give the voyages of Carpenter and Diemen, to whom is due the principal honour of this discovery. Van Diemen brought back gold, porcelain, and a thousand other articles of wealth; which at first gave rise to the notion that the country produced all these things: though it has been since ascertained that what he brought was recovered from a vessel which had been wrecked on these coasts. The mystery which the Dutch make of the matter, and the difficulties thrown in the way of publishing what is known about it, suggest the idea that the country is rich. But why should they shew such jealousy with respect to a country which produces nothing deserving so distant a journey?” La Neuville also, in his _Histoire de Hollande_ (Paris, 1703, tom. ii, p. 213), speaking of Van Diemen, says: “This latter not only examined the coasts of this great land, but had two years previously sailed as far as 43 degrees towards the antarctic pole, and discovered, on the 24th of November 1642, a new country in the other continent, which now bears the name of Van Diemen’s Land.” Here the very details clearly expose the nature of the mistake, since the maps and the instructions to Tasman shew his second voyage to have been in 1644, and the discovery of Van Diemen’s Land in 1642 is known to be his beyond all dispute. The fact is moreover confirmed by the identity of the names given to the tracts discovered in these two voyages, viz. those of the principal members of the council and of Marie van Diemen, to whom Tasman is supposed to have been attached.

Prévost, in his _Histoire des Voyages_ (Paris, 1753, tom. ii, p. 201), says that Carpentaria was discovered by Carpenter in 1662. We then find De Brosses correcting this statement (p. 433) by saying, “the Abbé Prevost ought not to have stated that, in 1662, Carpentaria was discovered by Pieter Carpenter, since he was Governor-General of the Company of the Indies, and returned to Europe in June 1628 with five vessels richly laden.” He then quotes the above passage from Thevenot, and continues: “Unfortunately Thevenot has not fulfilled his promise respecting Carpentaria. That learned collector was engaged in preparing, at the time of his decease, a fifth volume of his collection, of which some incomplete portions of what he had already published were found in his cabinet. From amongst these I have extracted the journal of Captain Tasman, who discovered Van Diemen’s Land. There was, however, nothing respecting the voyage of Captain Carpenter, nor that of the Governor-General, Van Diemen, even if he had left one: at least, if the manuscripts of these voyages were there originally, it is not known what has become of them.” De Brosses concludes by saying that his researches in private collections and in printed geographical works had been unsuccessful in procuring further information on the subject. Subsequent geographers continued to attribute to Carpenter the discovery of Carpentaria, and many of them to Van Diemen the discovery of the north Van Diemen’s Land. In Dubois’ work, _Vies des Gouverneurs Généraux_, already quoted, which was compiled in Holland from the manuscript journals and registers from Batavia, he says expressly, p. 82, in speaking of Carpenter, who was governor between 1623 and 1627: “Some writers attribute to him personally the honour of the discovery of Carpentaria, the southern land lying between New Guinea and New Holland; but this is without any apparent foundation, inasmuch as they fix this discovery in the year 1628, in which year he returned to Holland, on the 12th of June, with five vessels richly laden, having sailed from Batavia on the 12th of November of the previous year.” It should, moreover, be observed, that no evidence has been adduced of his having been on the coast at all, while there is every reason to believe that the exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria was not only “achevé,” as M. Eyriès suggests (p. 12, art. 1, vol. ii, of _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_), by Tasman in 1644, but accomplished by that navigator for the first time. It might then be asked how comes it that Tasman, who had in both his voyages so largely complimented the governor Van Diemen, by giving his name and that of his daughter Maria, to whom he was attached, to various points of his discovery, should finally give the name of Carpenter to an important gulf and tract of country, when the governor bearing that name had left Batavia sixteen years before? The answer is readily given. The Governor and Company of Batavia formed a local administration under the presidency of the Company of the Indies at Amsterdam, which latter consisted of seventeen delegates from the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands. In the year 1623, in which Carpenter commenced his governorship in the east, an event occurred in Amboina which threatened to produce a war between Holland and England. Some English officials, in concert with some Japanese soldiers, had formed a conspiracy to kill the Dutch in the island and to gain possession of the fortress. The conspiracy was discovered, and the governor had the conspirators put to death. In England the governor’s conduct was regarded as a piece of heartless cruelty. Mutual recriminations ensued, and for several years a contest between the two countries was imminent. After Carpenter’s return to Holland in 1628, he was sent out as one of a deputation to London on this subject despatched in the year 1629. He was also appointed president of the Company of the Indies in Amsterdam, which post he occupied till his death in 1659. It need, therefore, no longer be subject of surprise that Tasman should have given the name of Carpenter, the president of the Home Company of the Indies, to an extensive country and gulf discovered by him in 1644.

We cannot dismiss our notice of this important voyage, which thus gave the name of New Holland to the great South Land, without quoting the remark of Thevenot in the _Relation de l’estat présent des Indes_, prefixed to the second volume of his _Relation de Divers Voyages Curieux_. He says: “The Dutch pretend to have a right to the southern land which they have discovered.... They maintain that these coasts were never known by the Portuguese or the other nations of Europe.... It is to be noticed that all this extent of country falls within the line of demarcation of the Dutch _East_ India Company, if we are to believe their maps, and that this motive of interest has perhaps made them give a false position to New Zealand, lest it should fall within the line of demarcation of the Dutch _West_ India Company; for these two companies are as jealous of each other, as they are of the other nations of Europe.... It is to be observed, that although the Portuguese possess many places in the Indies, they are extremely weak, by reason that their enemies are masters of these seas and of the traffic which they themselves formerly possessed.”

The observation would seem to imply that Thevenot, a Frenchman, was not wanting in the belief that these coasts had really been discovered by the Portuguese before they were visited by the Dutch, while it passes by in silence any thought of a claim thereto on the part of his own countrymen, a point worth noticing in connexion with the evidence of the early French manuscript maps of which we have already so fully treated.

From the voyage of Tasman to the close of the seventeenth century, it is probable that a considerable number of voyages were made to the west coasts of New Holland, of which no account has ever been printed. By the obliging and intelligent assistance of Mr. Frederick Müller, of Amsterdam, (a rare example of a bookseller who interests himself not only in obtaining curious early books illustrative of the history of his country, but in minutely studying that history himself), the editor has been enabled to procure some documents from the Hague, which have never before been printed, and one which, although in print, has become exceedingly scarce, and has never before been rendered into English.

The earliest of these is an account of the ship _De Vergulde Draeck_, on the Southland, and the expedition undertaken both from Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope in search of the survivors, etc., drawn up and translated from authentic MS. copies of the logbooks in the Royal Archives at the Hague. _De Vergulde Draeck_, which set sail from the Texel in October 1655, was wrecked on a reef on the west coast, in latitude 30 degrees, 40 minutes, and a hundred and eighteen souls were lost. The news was brought to Batavia by one of the ship’s boats, sixty-eight of the survivors having remained behind, exerting themselves to get their boat afloat again, that they might send some more of their number to Batavia. The Governor General immediately dispatched the flyboat the _Witte Vaclk_, and the yacht the _Goede Hoop_, to the assistance of those men, and also to help in the rescue of the specie and merchandize lost in the _Vergulde Draeck_. This expedition was attended with bad success, as they reached the coast in the winter time. Similar ill luck attended the flyboat _Vinck_, which was directed to touch at New Holland, in its voyage from the Cape to Batavia in 1657, to search for the unfortunate men who had been left behind. The company next dispatched from Batavia two galliots, the _Waeckende Boey_, and the _Emeloort_, on the 1st of January, 1658. These vessels also returned to Batavia in April of the same year, having each of them separated, after parting company by the way, sailed backwards and forwards again and again, and landed parties at several points along the coast. They had also continually fired signal guns night and day, without, however, discovering either any Dutchmen, or the wreck of the vessel. The only things seen were some few planks and blocks, with a piece of the mast, a taffrail, fragments of barrels, and other objects scattered here and there along the coast, and supposed to be remnants of the wreck. This account, with a description of the west coast of the South Land, by the Captain Samuel Volkersen, of the Pink _Waeckende Boey_, is accompanied by copies of original charts, showing the coast visited by this vessel and the _Emeloort_, never before printed. These documents are followed by an extract from the Burgomaster Witsen’s _Noord en Oost Tartarye_, descriptive of the west coast, a portion of which is plainly derived from the account of Abraham Leeman, the mate of the _Waeckende Boey_.

We must not here omit to mention, that in the year 1693, appeared a work bearing the following title: Les Avantures de Jaques Sadeur dans la découverte et le voyage de la Terre Australe, contenant les coutumes et les mœurs des Australiens, leur religion, leurs exercises, leurs études, leurs guerres, leurs animaux, particuliers à ce pays et toutes les raretez curieuses qui s’y trouvent. À Paris, chez Claude Barbin, au Palais, sur le second perron de la Sainte Chapelle, 1693. In the Vannes edition, p. 3, the author’s Christian name is given Nicolas. An English translation appeared in the same year, entitled “A new discovery of Terra Incognita Australis, or the Southern World, by James Sadeur, a Frenchman, who, being cast there by a shipwreck, lived thirty-five years in that country, and gives a particular description of the manners, customs, religion, laws, studies and wars of those southern people, and of some animals peculiar to that place, with several other rarities. These memoirs were thought so curious, that they were kept secret in the closet of a late great minister of state, and never published till now, since his death. Translated from the French copy printed at Paris by publick authority, April 8. Imprimatur, Charles Hern, London. Printed for John Dunton, at the Raven, in the Poultry, 1693.” The work is purely fictitious throughout.

The next Dutch voyage of which we have succeeded in finding an account, is that of Willem de Vlamingh, in 1696, which also owed its origin to the loss of a ship, the _Ridderschap van Hollandt_. This vessel had been missing from the time she had left the Cape of Good Hope in 1684 or 1685, and it was thought probable she might have been wrecked upon the great South Land, and that some of the crew might, even after this lapse of time, be still living. The commodore, Willem de Vlaming, who was going out to India with the _Geelvink_, _Nyptang_, and _Wezel_, was, therefore, ordered to make a search for them. The account of this voyage, which was printed at Amsterdam in 1701, 4to, is exceedingly scarce; and after many years enquiry, the editor deemed himself fortunate in procuring it through the medium of Mr. Müller, of Amsterdam, and a translation of it is here given. The search of De Vlaming was, however, fruitless, and the two principal points of interest were the finding of the plate already described, with the inscription commemorating the arrival and departure of Dirk Hartog, in 1616, and the discovery of Swan River, where the embodiment of the poet’s notion of a _rara avis in terris_ was for the first time encountered, and two of the black swans were taken alive to Batavia.

Meanwhile, the shores of New Holland had been visited by a countryman of our own, the celebrated Dampier. In the buccaneering expedition in which he made a voyage round the world, he came upon the north-west coast in 16 degrees, 50 minutes due south from a shoal, whose longitude is now known to be 122¼ degrees east. Running along the shore N.E. by E., twelve leagues to a bay or opening convenient for landing, a party was sent ashore to search for water, and surprised some of the natives, some of whom they tried to induce to help in filling the water casks, and conveying them to the boat. “But all the signs we could make,” says Dampier, “were to no purpose; for they stood like statues, staring at one another, and grinning like so many monkeys. These poor creatures seem not accustomed to carry burdens; and I believe one of our ship’s boys, of ten years old, would carry as much as one of their men.” In his description of the natives, he agrees with Tasman in their being “a naked black people, with curly hair, like that of the negroes in Guinea; but he mentions other circumstances which are not mentioned in the note from Tasman.” He describes them as “the most miserable people in the world. The Hottentots compared with them are gentlemen. They have no houses, animals, or poultry; their persons are tall, straight bodied, thin, with long limbs; they have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows; their eyelids are always half closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes, for they are so troublesome here, that no fanning will keep them from one’s face; so that, from their infancy, they never open their eyes as other people do, and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads as if they were looking at something over them. They have great bottle noses, full lips, wide mouths; the two fore teeth of the upper jaw are wanting in all of them; neither have they any beard. Their hair is short, black and curled, and their skins coal black, like that of the negroes in Guinea. Their only food is fish, and they consequently search for them at low water; and they make little weirs or dams with stones across little coves of the sea. At one time, our boat being among the islands, seeking for game, espied a drove of these people swimming from one island to another, for they have neither boats, canoes, nor bark logs.” Dampier remained there from January 5 to March 12, 1688, but is silent as to any dangers upon the twelve leagues of coast seen by him.

In the year 1699, Great Britain being at peace with the other maritime states of Europe, king William ordered an expedition for the discovery of new countries, and for the examination of some of those already discovered, particularly New Holland and New Guinea. Dampier’s graphic narrative of his buccaneering voyages caused the Earl of Pembroke to select him to conduct the expedition. The _Roebuck_, a ship belonging to the royal navy, was equipped for the purpose. After a voyage of six months, Dampier struck soundings in the night of August 1st, 1699, upon the northern part of the Abrolhos shoal, in latitude about 27 degrees, 40 minutes S. Next morning he saw the main coast, and ran northward along it, discovering in 26 degrees, 10 minutes, an opening two leagues wide, but full of rocks and foul ground. August 6th, he anchored in Dirk Hartog’s Road, at the entrance of a sound which he named Shark’s Bay: where he remained eight days examining the sound, cutting wood upon the islands, fishing, etc., and gives a description of what was seen in his usual circumstantial manner. His description of the kangaroo, probably the first ever given of that singular animal, is a curious one. “The land animals we saw here were only a sort of raccoons, but different from those of the West Indies, chiefly as to their legs; for these have very short forelegs, but go jumping, and like the raccoons are very good meat.”

Sailing northward along the coast, he found an archipelago extending twenty leagues in length, which has been more recently examined by Captain King. He anchored in lat. 20 degrees, 21 minutes, under one of the largest of the islands, which he named Rosemary Island. This was near the southern part of De Witt’s Land; but besides an error in latitude of 40 minutes, he complains that in Tasman’s charts “the shore is laid down as all along joining in one body or continent, with some openings like rivers, and not like islands, as really they are.” “By what we saw of them, they must have been a range of islands, of about twenty leagues in length, stretching from E.N.E. to W.S.W., and, for aught I know, as far as to those of Shark’s Bay; and to a considerable breadth also, for we could see nine or ten leagues in amongst them, towards the continent or main land of New Holland, _if there be any such thing hereabouts_: and by the great tides I met with awhile afterwards more to the north-east, I had a strong suspicion that here might be a kind of archipelago of islands; and a passage, possibly, to the south of New Holland and New Guinea, into the great South Sea eastward.

“Not finding fresh water upon such of the islands as were visited that day, Captain Dampier quitted his anchorage next morning, and ‘steered away E.N.E., coasting along as the land lies.’ He seems to have kept the land in sight, in the daytime, at the distance of four to six leagues; but the shore being low, this was too far for him to be certain whether all was main land which he saw; and what might have been passed in the night was still more doubtful.

“August 30th, being in latitude 18 degrees, 21 minutes, and the weather fair, Captain Dampier steered in for the shore; and anchored in eight fathoms, about three-and-a-half leagues off. The tide ran ‘very swift here; so that our nun-buoy would not bear above the water to be seen. It flows here, as on that part of New Holland I described formerly, about five fathoms.’

“He had hitherto seen no inhabitants; but now met with several. The place at which he had touched in the former voyage ‘was not above forty or fifty leagues to the north-east of this. And these were much the same blinking creatures (here being also abundance of the same kind of flesh flies teizing them), and with the same black skins, and hair frizzled, tall and thin, etc., as those were. But we had not the opportunity to see whether these, as the former, wanted two of their fore teeth.’ One of them, who was supposed to be a chief, ‘was painted with a circle of white paste or pigment about his eyes, and a white streak down his nose, from his forehead to the tip of it. And his breast, and some part of his arms, were also made white with the same paint.’

“Neither bows nor arrows were observed amongst these people: they used wooden lances, such as Dampier had before seen. He saw no houses at either place, and believed they had none; but there were several ‘things like haycocks, standing in the savannah; which, at a distance, we thought were houses, looking just like the Hottentots’ houses at the Cape of Good Hope; but we found them to be so many rocks.’ These rocks he could not have examined very closely; for there can be little doubt that they were the anthills described by Pelsart as being ‘so large, that they might have been taken for the houses of Indians.’

“The land near the sea coast is described as equally sandy with the parts before visited, and producing, amongst its scanty vegetation, nothing for food. No stream of fresh water was seen, nor could any, fit to drink, be procured by digging.

“Quitting this inhospitable shore, Captain Dampier weighed his anchor on September 5th, with the intention of seeking water and refreshments further on to the north-eastward. The shoals obliged him to keep at a considerable distance from the land, and finally, when arrived at the latitude of 16 degrees, 9 minutes, to give up his project, and direct his course for Timor.”

With the voyage of Dampier terminates the information gained of the western coasts previously to the present century, which does not lie within the range of our inquiries.

In 1705 another and last voyage was made by the Dutch for the discovery of the north coast. The expedition consisted of three vessels, the _Vossenbosch_, the _Wayer_, and the _Nova Hollandia_. The commander was Martin van Delft. The journals appear to have been lost. At all events they have not hitherto been found, but a report to the Governor-General and Council of the discoveries and notable occurrences in the expedition, was drawn from the written journals and verbal recitals of the officers on their return, by the Councillors Extraordinary, Hendrick Swaardecroon and Cornelis Chastelijn. This report is given for the first time in English in the present collection, from which it appears that the part of the coast visited was carefully explored, and that the Dutch had intercourse with the natives, a result in which De Vlaming’s expedition had entirely failed. In the miscellaneous tracts of Nicholas Struyck, printed at Amsterdam, 1753, is also given an imperfect account of this voyage as follows: “March 1st, 1705. Three Dutch vessels were sent from Timor with order to explore the north coast of New Holland, better than it had before been done. They carefully examined the coasts, sand banks, and reefs. In their route to it, they did not meet with any land, but only some rocks above water, in 11 degrees, 52 minutes south latitude” (probably, says Flinders, the south part of the great Sahul Bank, which, according to Captain Peter Heywood, who saw it in 1801, lies in 11 degrees 40 minutes). “They saw the west coast of New Holland, four degrees to the eastward of the east point of Timor. From thence they continued their route towards the north, and passed a point, off which lies a bank of sand above water, in length more than five German miles of fifteen to a degree. After which they made sail to the east, along the coast of New Holland; observing everything with care, until they came to a gulf, the head of which they did not quite reach. I (Struyck) have seen a chart made of these parts.”

Flinders remarks upon this account, “What is here called the west must have been the north-west coast,” and he is right; for in the report here printed, the country is called “Van Diemen’s Land,” lying, as we know, on the north-west coast of New Holland, already in this introduction frequently referred to in distinction from the island more generally so known, and now called Tasmania. Flinders continues: “which the vessels appear to have made somewhat to the south of the western Cape Van Diemen. The point which they passed was probably this same cape itself; and in a chart, published by Mr. Dalrymple, August 27th, 1783, from a Dutch manuscript (possibly a copy of that which Struyck had seen), a shoal, of thirty geographic miles in length, is marked as running off from it, but incorrectly, according to Mr. M’Cluer. The gulf here mentioned was probably a deep bay in Arnhem’s Land; for had it been the Gulf of Carpentaria, some particular mention of the great change in the direction of the coast would, doubtless, have been made.”

In the year 1718 a Mons. Jean Pierre Purry, of Neufchatel, published a work entitled, _Mémoire sur le Pays des Caffres et la Terre de Nuyts par rapport à l’utilité que la Compagnie des Indes Orientales en pourroit rétirer pour son Commerce_, followed by a second memoir in the same year. These publications were explanatory of a project he entertained of founding a colony in the land of Nuyts. The scheme had been submitted to the Governor-General, Van Swoll, at Batavia, but was discountenanced. It subsequently met the same fate when laid by its author before the Directors of the Dutch East India Company at Amsterdam. M. Purry shortly afterwards brought his proposition before the West India Company, and it was supposed by some that the voyage of Roggeween to the South Seas in 1721 was a result of this application; but it is distinctly stated by Valentyn that it was an entirely distinct expedition. In 1699 Roggeween’s father had submitted to the West India Company a detailed memoir on the discovery of the southern land; but the contentions between Holland and Spain prevented the departure of the fleet destined for the expedition, and it was forgotten. Roggeween, however, who had received his father’s dying injunctions to prosecute this enterprize, succeeded at length in gaining the countenance of the directors, and was himself appointed commander of the three ships which were fitted out by the company for the expedition. According to Valentyn, the principal object of this voyage was the search for certain “islands of gold,” supposed to lie in 56 degrees south latitude; but the professed purpose was distinctly avowed by Roggeween to be directed to the south lands. Although the expedition resulted in some useful discoveries, it did not touch the shores of New Holland.

The last document in the collection here printed is a translation from a little work published in Dutch, in 1857, by Mr. P. A. Leupe, Captain of Marines in the Dutch Navy, “The Houtman’s Abrolhos in 1727,” detailing the disasters of which those dangerous shoals had been the cause.

It will be seen that we have been unable to supply any descriptive account of discoveries on the eastern coast of Australia. That it was really discovered, and in all probability by the Portuguese, in the early part of the sixteenth century, we have already endeavoured to show. During more than two centuries from that period, it was probably never visited by any European. The honour of exploring that portion of the great island was reserved for the immortal Cook, who first saw that coast on April 19th, 1770, but a reference to such well known explorations certainly does not fall within the scope of antiquarian investigation. The like may be said of the first visit to Van Diemen’s Land, subsequent to Tasman’s discovery in 1642, which was made by Marion a hundred and thirty years later.

In conclusion, it would be inappropriate to omit the remark that it is to that most able and distinguished voyager, Matthew Flinders, to whose valuable work, _A Voyage to Terra Australis_, the editor has been greatly indebted for help in this introduction, that we have to give the credit for the compact and useful name which Australia now bears. In a note on page 111 of his introduction, he modestly says, “Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term [Terra Australis], it would have been to convert it into Australia, as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth.”

* * * * *

It has been the habit, for the most part, of editors of works for the Hakluyt Society, to endeavour to elucidate their text by introductions, which have often reached to a considerable length. A very slight consideration of the nature of the subjects which the Society professes to deal with, will show the reasonableness, nay, even the necessity of such introductions. When the attention of a reader is invited to the narrative of a voyage, however interesting and curious in itself, which carries him back to a remote period, it is but reasonable that he should have explained to him the position which such a narrative, arbitrarily selected, holds in the history of the exploration of the country treated of. To do this satisfactorily is clearly a task requiring no little labour, and although it may necessarily involve a somewhat lengthy dissertation, certainly calls for no apology. Nevertheless, the simple fact of an introduction bearing a length at all approaching to that of the text itself, as is the case in the present volume, does, beyond question, at the first blush, justly require an explanation. All the publications of our Society consist of previously unpublished documents, or are reprints or translations of narratives of early voyages become exceedingly rare. But it is evidently matter of accident to what length the text may extend, while it is equally evident that the introductory matter illustrative of a small amount of text may be, of necessity, longer than that required to illustrate documents of greater extent. This is strikingly the case with the subject of the present volume. It has been matter of good fortune that the editor has been enabled to bring together even so many documents as are here produced, in connection with the early discoveries of Australia, while the enigmatical suggestions of early maps, unaccompanied by any descriptive matter to be found after diligent research, has necessitated an inquiry into their merits, which, though lengthy, it is hoped will not be deemed unnecessary. This so called introduction in fact, in a great measure, consists of matter, which, if supplied by original documents, would form a component part of the text itself.

The editor cannot close his labours on this most puzzling subject of the “Early Indications of Australia,” without expressing an earnest hope that further researches may yet result in the production of documents, as yet undiscovered, which may throw a light upon the history of the exploration of this interesting country in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and, if possible, solve the great mystery which still hangs over the origin of the early manuscript maps so fully treated of, and it is hoped not without some advance towards elucidation, in this introduction.

INDICATIONS OF AUSTRALIA,
ETC.

A MEMORIAL
ADDRESSED TO HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY PHILIP THE THIRD, KING OF SPAIN,
BY DR. JUAN LUIS ARIAS,
RESPECTING THE EXPLORATION, COLONIZATION, AND CONVERSION OF THE SOUTHERN
LAND.

SIRE,—The memorial of the Doctor Juan Luis Arias showeth: That in consideration of the great advantage which will accrue to the service of Your Majesty, to the extension of the Catholic Church, and to the increase of our holy faith, from the conversion of the gentiles of the southern land, which is the principal obligation to which Your Majesty and your crown are pledged, he now earnestly begs (great as have been his former importunities) to solicit Your Majesty’s consideration to that which is here set forth. At the instance of the fathers of the Seraphic order of St. Francis, and in particular of the father Fray Juan de Silva, he has composed a treatise dedicated to his most serene highness the Infant Don Ferdinand,[8] from which a judgment may be formed of the temperature, productions, and population of the southern hemisphere, and every other point desirable to be understood with respect to its most extensive provinces and kingdoms. He has done this with a view to its discovery, and the spiritual and evangelical conquest, and bringing in to our holy faith and Catholic religion of its numberless inhabitants, who are so long waiting for this divine and celestial benefit at the hand of Your Majesty. It is a subject upon which the father Fray Juan de Silva has bestowed the most serious attention, and for which he is most anxiously solicitous; for all his order desire to be engaged in this mighty enterprise, which is one of the greatest that the Catholic Church ever has or ever can undertake, and the accomplishment of which it is the duty of all us her faithful sons to pray should be accelerated as much as possible. For the English and Dutch heretics, whom the devil unites for this purpose by every means in his power, most diligently continue the exploration, discovery, and colonization of the principal ports of this large part of the world in the Pacific Ocean, and sow in it the most pernicious poisons of their apostasy, which they put forth with the most pressing anxiety in advance of us, who should put forth the sovereign light of the gospel. This they are now perseveringly doing in that great continent in which are the provinces of Florida, and they will afterwards proceed to do the same with New Spain, and then with New Mexico, the kingdom of Quivira, the Californias, and other most extensive provinces. For which purpose, and for other reasons connected with their machinations against our kingdom, they have already colonized Virginia. To further the same object also, they have fortified and colonized Bermuda, and continue most zealously and rapidly sowing the infernal poison of their heresy, and infecting with it the millions upon millions of excellent people who inhabit those regions. From Virginia also they are advancing most rapidly inland, with the most ardent desire to deprive the Catholic Church of the inestimable treasure of an infinite number of souls; and to found in that land an empire, in which they will at length possess much better and richer Indies than our own, and from which position they will be able to lord it absolutely over all our territories, and over all our navigation and commerce with the West Indies. This is a most grievous case for us, and most offensive to our Lord God and His Church, and this kingdom has reason to dread from so mischievous a state of things very great injuries from the hands of these enemies, and no less punishment from the divine indignation for having allowed these basilisks to locate themselves in such a position; from whence, before we of the Catholic Church arrive with the preaching of the gospel with which we are commissioned, they draw to themselves and infect with the depravity of their apostasy that countless number of gentiles which inhabit the said provinces, and which cover a greater surface of land than all Europe.

But as the said treatise of the southern hemisphere has not yet been put into a form to be communicated, which will soon be done, I have resolved herein to relate to Your Majesty, although very briefly, some of its contents; in order, meanwhile, to afford the necessary information concerning these southern lands, whither it is proposed to set on foot so great and mighty an undertaking as the evangelical and spiritual conquest of the said hemisphere.

In order to understand the question, it must be premised that the whole globe of earth and water is divided into two equal parts or halves by the equinoctial line. The northern hemisphere, which stretches from the equinoctial to the Arctic Pole, contains all which has been hitherto discovered and peopled in Asia, Europe, and the chief part of Africa. The remaining half, or southern hemisphere, which reaches from the equinoctial to the Antarctic Pole, comprises part of what we call America, and the whole of that Austral land, the discovery and apostolic conquest of which is now treated of. Now, if we except from this southern hemisphere all that there is of Africa lying between the equinoctial line and the Cape of Good Hope, and all that there is of Peru from the parallel of the said equinoctial line, which passes near Quito, down to the straits of Magellan, and that small portion of land which lies to the south of the strait, all the rest of the firm land of the said southern hemisphere remains to be discovered. Thus of the whole globe, there is little less than one entire half which remains to be discovered, and to have the gospel preached in it; and this discovery and evangelical conquest forms the principal part of the obligation under which these kingdoms lie for the preaching of the gospel to the gentiles, in conformity with the agreement made with the Catholic Church and its head, the supreme pontiffs Alexander VI and Paul III.

Some one will say, that what has been stated is contradictory to what the Apostle understands as meant by the Psalmist with reference to the preaching of the gospel, where he says; “Their sound is gone out into every land, and their words unto the ends of the world.” For the Apostle, speaking of the conversion of the gentiles, says thus: “How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? or how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” Then shortly after the Apostle saith: “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” According to which it seems that it must be affirmed, either that then or now the preaching of the gospel has already had its course, and its voice gone out throughout all the world, or that the gospel was to be only preached for the most part in the northern hemisphere and in some very small part of the aforesaid lands of Africa and Peru in the southern, and that in the remainder of the world there is no population or discovered land-surface uncovered by water where there could be populations or habitations, and thus that the voice of the gospel has already run its course as far as it can, and that in the rest of the southern hemisphere there is no provision for it. To all this I reply, that these words of the Psalmist were a prophecy of the preaching of the gospel, speaking out of the past into the future with the infallible certainty of prophecy. And although the Apostle, in quoting the said passage of the Psalmist, seems to affirm that already in his time the preaching of the gospel had had its course throughout the world, it is to be understood that he speaks in the sense of the aforesaid prophecy; that the preaching and the voice of the gospel had to run, and not that it had already run throughout the whole of the globe, since his quotation of the said passage of the Psalmist was made at so early a period that the gospel was then preached only in a small part of the northern hemisphere.