Title: The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765
Author: J. E. Heeres
Release date: January 3, 2006 [eBook #17450]
Most recently updated: October 15, 2021
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17450
Credits: Colin Choat
List of books, discussed or referred to in the work
DOCUMENTS:
I. Dutch notions respecting the Southland
in 1595
II. Notices of the south-coast of New
Guinea in 1602
III. Voyage of the ship Duifken under
command of Willem Jansz(oon) and Jan Lodewijkszoon Rosingeyn to
New Guinea.--Discovery of the east-coast of the present Gulf of
Carpentaria (1605-1606)
IV. Fresh expedition to New Guinea by the
ship Duifken (1607)
V. Voyage of the ships Eendracht and Hoorn,
commanded by Jacques Le Maire and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten
through the Pacific Ocean and along the north-coast of New Guinea
(1616)
VI. Project for the further discovery of
the Southland--Nova Guinea (1616)
VII. Voyage of de Eendracht under command
of Dirk Hartogs(zoon). Discovery of the West-coast of Australia
in 1616: Dirk Hartogs-island and -road, Land of the Eendracht or
Eendrachtsland (1616)
VIII. Voyage of the ship Zeewolf, from the
Netherlands to India, under the command of supercargo Pieter
Dirkszoon and skipper Haevik Claeszoon van Hillegom.--Further
discovery of the West-coast of Australia (1618)
IX. Voyage of the ship Mauritius from the
Netherlands to India under the command of supercargo Willem
Jansz. or Janszoon and skipper Lenaert Jacobsz(oon). Further
discovery of the West-coast of Australia.--Willems-rivier
(1618)
X. Further discovery of the South-coast of
New-Guinea by the ship Het Wapen van Amsterdam? (1619?)
XI. Voyage of the ships Dordrecht and
Amsterdam under commander Frederik De Houtman, supercargo Jacob
Dedel, and skipper Reyer Janszoon van Buiksloot and Maarten
Corneliszoon(?) from the Netherlands to the East-Indies.--Further
discovery of the West-coast of Australia: Dedelsland and
Houtman's Abrolhos (1619)
XII. Voyage of the ship Leeuwin from the
Netherlands to Java.--Discovery of the South-West coast of
Australia.--Leeuwin's land (1622)
XIII. The Triall. (English discovery)--The
ship Wapen van Hoorn touches at the West-coast of Australia.--New
projects for discovery made by the supreme government at Batavia
(1622)
XIV. Voyage of the ships Pera and Arnhem,
under command of Jan Carstenszoon or Carstensz., Dirk Meliszoon
and Willem Joosten van Colster or Van Coolsteerdt.--Further
discovery of the South-West coast of New Guinea. Discovery of the
Gulf of Carpentaria (1623)
XV. Voyage of the ship Leiden, commanded by
skipper Klaas Hermansz(oon) from the Netherlands to
Java.--Further discovery of the West-coast of Australia
(1623)
XVI. Discovery of the Tortelduif island
(rock) (1624?)
XVII. Voyage of the ship Leijden, commanded
by skipper Daniel Janssen Cock, from the Netherlands to Java.
Further discovery of the West-coast of Australia (1626)
XVIII. Discovery of the South-West coast of
Australia by the ship Het Gulden Zeepaard, commanded by Pieter
Nuijts, member of the Council of India, and by skipper Francois
Thijssen or Thijszoon (1627)
XIX. Voyage of the ships Galias, Utrecht
and Texel, commanded by Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon
Coen.--Further discovery of the West-coast of Australia
(1627)
XX. Voyage of the ship Het Wapen van Hoorn,
commanded by supercargo J. Van Roosenbergh.--Further discovery of
the West-coast of Australia (1627)
XXI. Discovery of the North-West coast of
Australia by the ship Vianen (Viane, Viana), commanded by Gerrit
Frederikszoon De Witt.--De Witt's land (1628)
XXII. Discovery of Jacob Remessens-,
Remens-, or Rommer-river, south of Willems-river (before
1629)
XXIII. Shipwreck of the ship Batavia under
commander Francois Pelsaert on Houtmans Abrolhos. Further
discovery of the West-coast of Australia (1629)
XXIV. Further surveyings of the West-coast
of Australia by the ship Amsterdam under commander Wollebrand
Geleynszoon De Jongh and skipper Pieter Dircksz, on her voyage
from the Netherlands to the East Indies (1635)
XXV. New discoveries on the North-coast of
Australia, by the ships Klein-Amsterdam and Wesel, commanded by
(Gerrit Thomaszoon Pool and) Pieter Pieterszoon (1636)
XXVI. Discovery of Tasmania (Van
Diemensland), New Zealand (Statenland), islands of the Tonga- and
Fiji-groups, etc. by the ships Heemskerk and de Zeehaen, under
the command of Abel Janszoon Tasman, Frans Jacobszoon Visscher,
Yde Tjerkszoon Holman or Holleman and Gerrit Jansz(oon)
(1642-1643)
XXVII. Further discovery of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, the North and North-West coasts of Australia by the
Ships Limmen, Zeemeeuw and de Bracq, under the command of Tasman,
Visscher, Dirk Corneliszoon Haen and Jasper Janszoon Koos
(1644)
XXVIII. Exploratory voyage to the
West-coast of Australia round by the south of Java, by the ship
Leeuwerik, commanded by Jan Janszoon Zeeuw (1648)
XXIX. Shipwreck of the Gulden or Vergulden
Draak on the West-coast of Australia, 1656.--Attempts to rescue
the survivors, 1656-1658.--Further surveyings of the West-coast
by the ship de Wakende Boei, commanded by Samuel Volckerts(zoon),
and by the ship Emeloord, commanded by Aucke Pieterszoon Jonck,
(1658)
XXX. The ship Elburg, commanded by Jacob
Pieterszoon Peereboom, touches at the South-West coast of
Australia and at cape Leeuwin, on her voyage from the Netherlands
to Batavia (1658)
XXXI. Further discovery of the
North-West-coast of Australia by the ship de Vliegende Zwaan,
commanded by Jan Van der Wall, on her voyage from Ternate to
Batavia in February 1678
XXXII. Further discovery of the West-coast
of Australia by the ship Geelvink, under the skipper-commander of
the expedition, Willem De Vlamingh, the ship Nijptang, under
Gerrit Collaert, and the ship het Wezeltje, commanded by Cornelis
De Vlamingh (1696-1697)
XXXIII. Further discovery of the
North-coast of Australia by the ships Vossenbosch, commanded by
Maarten Van Delft, de Waijer under Andries Rooseboom, of Hamburg,
and Nieuw-Holland or Nova-Hollandia, commanded by Pieter
Hendrikszoon, of Hamburg (1705)
XXXIV. Exploratory voyage by order of the
West-India Company "to the unknown part of the world, situated in
the South Sea to westward of America", by the ships Arend and the
African Galley, commanded by Mr. Jacob Roggeveen, Jan Koster,
Cornelis Bouman and Roelof Roosendaal (1721-1722)
XXXV. The ship Zeewijk, commanded by Jan
Steijns, lost on the Tortelduif rock (1727)
XXXVI. Exploratory voyage of the ships
Rijder and Buis, commanded by lieutenant Jan Etienne Gonzal and
first mate Lavienne Lodewijk Van Asschens, to the Gulf of
Carpentaria (1756)
INDICES. (Persons, Ships, Localities)
No. 1 Gedeelte der (Part of the)
Orbis terrae compendiosa describtio
No. 2 Gedeelte der (Part of the) Exacta
& accurata delineatio cum orarum maritimarum tum etjam
locorum terrestrium, quae in regjonibus China...una cum
omnium vicinarum insularum descriptjone ut sunt Sumatra, Java
utraque
No. 3 Zuidoostelijk gedeelte der Kaart
(South-eastern part of the Map) Indiae Orientalis Nova
descriptio
No. 4 Caert van (Chart of) 't Land van
d'Eendracht Ao 1627 door HESSEL GERRITSZ
No. 5 Uitslaande Kaart van het Zuidland
door HESSEL GERRITSZ (Folding chart of the Southland).
No. 6 Kaart van het Zuidland van (Alap of
the Southland by) JOANNES KEPPLER en PHILIPPUS ECKEBRECHT,
1630
No. 7 Kaart van den opperstuurman AREND
MARTENSZ. DE LEEUW, der Zuidwestkust van Nieuw Guinea en der
Oostkust van de Golf van Carpentaria (Chart, made by the upper
steersman Arend Martensz. De Leeuw, of the Southwest coast of
New-Guinea and the East-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria)
No. 8 Kaart van (Chart of) Eendrachtsland,
1658
No. 9 Kaart van (Chart of) Eendrachtsland,
1658
No. 10 Kaart van (Chart of)
Eendrachtsland, 1658
No. 11 Kaart van de Noordzijde van 't
Zuidland (Chart of the North side of the Southland), 1678
No. 12 Opschrift op den schotel, door
Willem De Vlamingh op het Zuidland achtergelaten (Inscription on
the dish, left by Willem De Vlamingh at the Southland), 1697.
No. 13 Kaart van het Zuidland, bezeild
door Willem De Vlamingh, in 1696-1697 door ISAAC DE GRAAFF (Chart
of the South-land, made and surveyed by Willem De Vlamingh in
1696-1697)
No. 14 Uitslaande kaart van den Maleischen
Archipel, de Noord- en West-kusten van Australië door ISAAC
DE GRAAFF (Folding chart of the Malay Archipelago, the North- and
West-coast of Australia) 1690-1714
No. 15 Kaart van (Chart of) Hollandia
Nova, nader ontdekt anno 1705 door (more exactly discovered by)
de Vossenbosch, de Waijer en de Nova Hollandia
No. 16-17 Kaarten betreffende de
schipbreuk der Zeewijk (Charts, concerning the shipwreck of the
Zeewijk) 1727.
No. 18 Typus orbis terrarum uit GERARDI
MERCATORIS Atlas...De Novo...emendatus...studio JUDOCI HONDIJ,
1632.
No. 19 Wereldkaartje uit het Journaal van
de Nassausche Vloot (Little map of the world from the Journal of
the Nassau fleet), 1626
{Page i}
In writing my biography of Tasman, forming part of Messrs. Frederik Muller and Co.'s edition of the Journal of Tasman's celebrated voyage of discovery of 1642-1643, I was time and again struck by the fact that the part borne by the Netherlanders in the discovery of the continent of Australia is very insufficiently known to the Dutch themselves, and altogether misunderstood or even ignored abroad. Not only those who with hypercritical eyes scrutinise, and with more or less scepticism as to its value, analyse whatever evidence on this point is submitted to them, but those others also who feel a profound and sympathetic interest in the historical study of the remarkable voyages which the Netherlanders undertook to the South-land, are almost invariably quite insufficiently informed concerning them. This fact is constantly brought home to the student who consults the more recent works published on the subject, and who fondly hopes to get light from such authors as CALVERT, COLLINGRIDGE, NORDENSKIOLD, RAINAUD and others. Such at least has time after time been my own case. Is it wonderful, therefore, that, while I was engaged in writing Tasman's life, the idea occurred to me of republishing the documents relating to this subject, preserved in the State Archives at the Hague--the repository of the archives of the famous General Dutch Chartered East-India Company extending over two centuries (1602-1800)--and in various other places? I was naturally led to lay before Messrs. Frederik Muller and Co. the question, whether they would eventually undertake such a publication, and I need hardly add that these gentlemen, to whom the historical study of Dutch discovery has repeatedly been so largely indebted, evinced great interest in the plan I submitted to them.[*]
[* See my Life of Tasman, p. 103, note 10.]
Meanwhile the Managing Board of the Royal Geographical Society of the Nether lands had resolved to publish a memorial volume on the occasion of the Society's twenty-fifth anniversary. Among the plans discussed by the Board was the idea of having the documents just referred to published at the expense of the Society. The name of jubilee publication could with complete justice be bestowed on a work having for its object once more to throw the most decided and fullest possible light on achievements of our forefathers in the 17th and 18th century, in a form that would appeal to foreigners no less than to native readers. An act of homage to our ancestors, therefore, a modest one certainly, but one inspired by the same feeling which in 1892 led Italy and the Iberian Peninsula to celebrate the memory of the discoverer of America, and in 1898 prompted the Portuguese to do homage to the navigator who first showed the world the sea-route to India.
{Page ii}
How imperfect and fragmentary even in our days is the information generally available concerning the part borne by the Netherlanders in the discovery of the fifth part of the world, may especially be seen from the works of foreigners. This, I think, must in the first place, though not, indeed, exclusively, be accounted for by the rarity of a working acquaintance with the Dutch tongue among foreign students. On this account the publication of the documents referred to would very imperfectly attain the object in view, unless accompanied by a careful translation of these pieces of evidence into one of the leading languages of Europe; and it stands to reason that in the case of the discovery of Australia the English language would naturally suggest itself as the most fitting medium of information[*]. So much to account for the bilingual character of the jubilee publication now offered to the reader.
[* The English translation is the work of Mr. C. Stoffel, of Nijmegen.]
Closely connected with this consideration is another circumstance which has influenced the mode of treatment followed in the preparation of this work. The defective acquaintance with the Dutch language of those who have made the history of the discovery of Australia the object of serious study, or even, in the case of some of them, their total ignorance of it, certainly appears to me one, nay even the most momentous of the causes of the incomplete knowledge of the subject we are discussing; but it cannot possibly be considered the only cause, if we remember that part of the documentary evidence proving the share of the Netherlanders in the discovery of Australia has already been given to the world through the medium of a leading European tongue.
In 1859 R. H. MAJOR brought out his well-known book Early Voyages to Terra Australis, now called Australia, containing translations of some of the archival pieces and of other documents pertaining to the subject. And though, from P. A. LEUPE'S work, entitled De Reizen der Nederlanders naar het Juidland of Nzeuw-Holland in de 17th en 18th eeuw, published in 1868, and from a book by L. C. D. Van Dijk, brought out in the same year in which MAJOR'S work appeared, and entitled Twee togten naar de golf van Carpentaria; though, I say, from these two books it became evident that MAJOR'S work was far from complete, still it cannot be denied that he had given a great deal, and what he had given, had in the English translation been made accessible also to those to whom Dutch was an unknown tongue. This circumstance could not but make itself felt in my treatment of the subject, since it was quite needless to print once more in their entirety various documents discussed by MAJOR. There was the less need for such republication in cases which would admit of the results of Dutch exploratory voyages being exhibited in the simplest and most effective way by the reproduction of charts made in the course of such voyages themselves: these charts sometimes speak more clearly to the reader than the circumstantial journals which usually, though not always, are of interest for our purpose only by specifying the route followed, the longitudes and latitudes taken, and the points touched at by the voyagers. These considerations have in some cases led me only to mention certain documents, without printing them in full, and the circumstance that my Tasman publication has been brought out in English, will sufficiently account for the absence from this work of the journal of Tasman's famous expedition of 1642/3.[*]
[* I would have the present work considered as forming one whole with my Tasman publication and with the fascicule of Remarkable Maps, prepared by me, containing the Nolpe-Dozy chart of 1652-3 (Cf. my Life of Tasman, pp. 75 f). Together they furnish all the most important pieces of evidence discovered up to now, for the share which the Netherlanders have had in the discovery of Australia.]
{Page iii}
The documents, here either republished or printed for the first time, are all of them preserved in the State Archives at the Hague[*], unless otherwise indicated. They have been arranged under the heads of the consecutive expeditions, which in their turn figure in chronological order. This seemed to me the best way to enable readers to obtain a clear view of the results of the exploratory voyages made along the coasts of Australia by the Netherlanders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[* My best thanks are due to Jhr. Th. Van Riemsdijk, LL. D., Principal Keeper, and to Dr. T. H. Colenbrander, Assistant-Keeper, of the State Archives of the Hague.]
For this and this only, was the object I had in view in selecting the materials for the present work: once more, as completely and convincingly as I could, to set forth the part borne by the Netherlanders in the discovery of the fifth part of the world. I have not been actuated by any desire to belittle the achievements of other nations in this field of human activity. The memorial volume here presented to the reader aims at nothing beyond once more laying before fellow-countrymen and foreigners the documentary evidence of Dutch achievement in this field; perhaps I may add the wish that it may induce other nations to follow the example here given as regards hitherto unpublished documents of similar nature. Still, it would be idle to deny that it was with a feeling of national pride that in the course of this investigation I was once more strengthened in the conviction that even at this day no one can justly gainsay MAJOR'S assertion on p. LXXX of his book, that "the first authenticated discovery of any part of the great Southland" was made in 1606 by a Dutch schip the Duifken. All that is asserted regarding a so-called previous discovery of Australia has no foundation beyond mere surmise and conjecture. Before the voyage of the ship Duifken all is an absolute blank.
If one would distribute over chronological periods the voyages of discovery, both accidental and of set purpose, made by the Netherlanders on the mainland coast of Australia, it might be desirable so to adjust these periods, that each of them was closed by the appearance in this field of discovery and exploration, of ships belonging to other European nations.
The first period, extending from 1595 to 1606, would in that case open with the years 1595-6, when JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN, in his highly remarkable book entitled Itinerario, imparted to his countrymen what he knew about the Far East; and it would conclude with the discovery of Torres Strait by the Spaniards in 1606, a few months after Willem Jansz. in the ship Duifken had discovered the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the latter discovery forming the main interest of this period.
The second period may be made to extend from 1606 to 1622, i.e. from the appearance of the Spaniards on the extreme north-coast of the fifth part of the world, to the year in which the English ship Trial was dashed to pieces on a rock to westward of the west-coast of Australia; the discovery of this west-coast by the Dutch in and after 1616, and of the south-western extremity of the continent in 1622, constituting the main facts of the period.
{Page iv}
We next come to the palmiest period of Dutch activity in the discovery of Australia (1622-1688), terminating with the first exploratory voyage of importance undertaken by the English, when in 1688 William Dampier touched at the north-west coast of Australia. This period embraces the very famous, at all events remarkable, voyages of Jan Carstensz (1623), of Pool and Pieterszoon (1636), of Tasman (1642-1644), of Van der Wall (1678), etc.
The last period with which we wish to deal, lies between Dampier's arrival and Cook's first visit to these regions (1688-1769), and is of secondary importance so far as Dutch discoveries are concerned. We may just mention Willem de Vlamingh's voyage of 1696-1697, and Maerten van Delft's of 1705; Gonzal's expedition (1756) is not quite without significance, but the results obtained in these voyages will not bear comparison with those achieved by the expeditions of the preceding period. Besides this, the English navigator Dampier and afterwards Captain Cook now began to inscribe their names on the rolls of history, and those names quite legitimately outshine those of the Dutch navigators of the eighteenth century. The palmy days of Dutch discovery fell in the seventeenth century.
In some such fashion the history of the Dutch wanderings and explorations on the coasts of Australia might be divided into chronological periods. The desire of being clear has, however, led me to adopt another mode of treatment in this Introduction: I shall one after another discuss the different coast-regions discovered and touched at by the Netherlanders.
[* As regards the period extending from 1595-1644, see also my Life of Tasman, Ch. XII, pp. 88ff.]
We may safely say that the information concerning the Far East at the disposal of those Dutchmen who set sail for India in 1595, was exclusively based on what their countryman JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN, had told them in his famous Itinerario. And as regards the present Australia this information amounted to little or nothing.
Unacquainted as he was with the fact that the south-coast of Java had already been circumnavigated by European navigators, VAN LINSCHOTEN did not venture decidedly to assert the insular nature of this island. It might be connected with the mysterious South-land, the Terra Australis, the Terra Incognita, whose fantastically shaped coast-line was reported to extend south of America, Africa and Asia, in fact to the southward of the whole then known world. This South-land was a mysterious region, no doubt, but this did not prevent its coast-lines from being studded with names equally mysterious: the charts of it showed the names of Beach [*], the gold-bearing land (provincia aurifera), of Lucach, of Maletur, a region overflowing with spices (scatens aromatibus). Forming one whole with it, figured Nova Guinea, encircled by a belt of islands.
[* That the Dutch identified Beach with the South-land discovered by them in 1616, is proved by No. XI A of the Documents (p. 14).]
{Page v}
So far the information furnished by VAN LINSCHOTEN [*]. At the same time, however, there were in the Netherlands persons who had other data to go by. In 1597 CORNELIS WIJTFLIET of Louvain brought out his Descriptionis Plolomaicae augmentum, which among the rest contained a chart on which not only Java figured as an island, but which also represented New Guinea as an island by itself, separated from Terra Australis. The question naturally suggests itself, whether this chart [**] will justify the assumption that the existence of Torres Strait was known to WIJTFLIET. I, for one, would not venture to infer as much, seeing that in other respects this chart so closely reproduces the vague conjectures touching a supposed Southland found on other charts of the period, that WIJTFLIET'S open passage between New Guinea and Terra Australis cannot, I think, be admitted as evidence that he actually knew of the existence of Torres Strait, in the absence of any indications of the basis on which this notion of his reposed. Such indications, however, are altogether wanting: none are found in WIJTFLIET'S work itself, and other contemporary authorities are equally silent on the point in question [***].
[** COLLINGRIDGE, Discovery, p. 219, has a rough sketch of it.]
[*** Cf. also my Life of Tasman, p. 89, and Note 8.]
After this digression let us return to the stand-point taken up by the North-Netherlanders who first set sail for the Indies in 1595. They "knew in part" only: they were aware that they knew nothing with certitude. But their mercantile interests very soon induced them to try to increase and strengthen their information concerning the regions of the East. What sort of country after all was this much-discussed New-Guinea, they began to ask. As early as 1602 information was sought from the natives of adjacent islands, but these proved to have "no certain knowledge of this island of Nova Guinea" [*]. The next step taken was the sending out of a ship for the purpose of obtaining this "certain knowledge": there were rumours afloat of gold being found in New Guinea!
[* See No. II of the Documents.]
On the 28th of November 1605 the ship Duifken, commanded by Willem Jansz., put to sea from Bantam with destination for New Guinea. The ship returned to Banda from its voyage before June of the same year. What were the results obtained? What things had been seen by Willem Jansz. and his men? The journal of the Duifken's voyage has not come down to us, so that we are fain to infer its results from other data, and fortunately such data are not wanting. An English ship's captain was staying at Bantam when the Duifken put to sea, and was still there when the first reports of her adventures reached the said town. Authentic documents of 1618, 1623, and 1644 are found to refer to her voyage. Above all, the journal of a subsequent expedition, the one commanded by Carstensz. in 1623, contains important particulars respecting the voyage of his predecessors in 1605-6. [*]
On the basis of these data we may safely take for granted the following points. The ship Duifken struck the south-west coast of New Guinea in about 5° S. Lat., ran along this coast on a south-east course [*], and sailed past the narrows now known as Torres Strait. Did Willem Jansz. look upon these narrows as an open strait, or did he take them to be a bay only? My answer is, that most probably he was content to leave this point altogether undecided; seeing that Carstensz. and his men in 1623 thought to find an "open passage" on the strength of information given by a chart with which they had been furnished. [**] This "open passage" can hardly refer to anything else than Torres Strait. But in that case it is clear that Jansz. cannot have solved the problem, but must have left it a moot point. At all events he sailed past the strait, through which a few months after him Luiz Vaez de Torres sailed from east to west.
[* As regards the names given on this expedition to various parts of this coast, see my Life of Tasman, pp. 90-91, and chart No. 3 on p. 5 infra.]
{Page vi}
Jansz. next surveyed the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria as far as about 13° 45'. To this point, the farthest reached by him, he gave the name of Kaap-Keerweer [Cape Turn-again]. That skipper Jansz. did not solve the problem of the existence or non-existence of an open passage between New Guinea and the land afterwards visited by him, is also proved by the circumstance that even after his time the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria was also called New Guinea by the Netherlanders. Indeed, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch discoverers continued in error regarding this point. They felt occasional doubts on this head [*] it is true, but these doubts were not removed.
[* See inter alia a report of a well-known functionary of the E.I.C., G. E. RUMPHUS, dated after 1685 in LEUPE Nieuw-Guinea, p. 86: "The Drooge bocht [shallow bay], where Nova-Guinea is surmised to be cut off from the rest of the Southland by a passage opening into the great South-Sea, though our men have been unable to pass through it owing to the shallows, so that it remains uncertain whether this strait is open on the other side."]
The Managers of the E.I.C. did not remain content with this first attempt to obtain more light [*] as regards these regions situated to eastward, the Southland-Nova Guinea as they styled it, using an appellation characteristic of their degree of knowledge concerning it. But it was not before 1623 that another voyage was undertaken that added to the knowledge about the Gulf of Carpentaria: I mean the voyage of the ships Pera and Arnhem, commanded by Jan Carstensz. and Willem Joosten van Colstjor or Van Coolsteerdt. [**]
On this occasion, too, the south-west coast of New Guinea was first touched at, after which the ships ran on on an eastern course. Torres Strait was again left alongside, and mistaken for a Drooge bocht,[*] "into which they had sailed as into a trap," and the error of New Guinea and the present Australia constituting one unbroken whole, was in this way perpetuated. The line of the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, "the land of Nova Guinea", was then followed up to about 17° 8' (Staten river), whence the return-voyage was undertaken [**]. Along this coast various names were conferred. [***]
[* As regards the attempts to survey and explore this shallow water, see infra pp. 33-34]
[** See p. 37 below.]
[*** As regards this, see especially the chart on p. 46.--Cf. my Life of Tasman, pp. 99-100.]
In the course of the same expedition discovery was also made of Arnhemsland on the west-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and almost certainly also of the so-called Groote Eyland or Van der Lijns island (Van Speultsland) [*] The whole of the southern part of the gulf remained, however, unvisited.
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 101-102; and pp. 47-48 below.]
{Page vii}
The honour of having first explored this part of the gulf in his second famous voyage of 1644 is due to our countryman Abel Janszoon Tasman together with Frans Jacobszoon Visscher and his other courageous coadjutors in the ships Limmen Zeemeeuw and Brak. [*] Abel Tasman's passagie [course] of 1644 lay again along the south-west coast of New Guinea; again also Tasman left unsolved the problem of the passage through between New Guinea and Australia: Torres Strait was again mistaken for a bay. The east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria was next further explored, and various new names were conferred especially on rivers on this coast, which most probably got the name of Carpentaria about this time; of the names then given a great many continue to figure in modern maps. After exploring the east-coast, Tasman turned to the south-coast of the gulf. In this latter case the results of the exploration proved to be less trustworthy afterwards. Thus Tasman mistook for a portion of the mainland the island now known as Mornington Island; the same mistake he made as regards Maria Eiland in Limmensbocht. For the rest however, the coast-line also of the south-coast was delineated with what we must call great accuracy if we keep in mind the defective instruments with which the navigators of the middle of the seventeenth century had to make shift. The west-coast of the gulf, too, was skirted and surveyed in this voyage; Tasman passed between this coast and the Groote (Van der Lijn's) eiland.
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 115-118, and especially chart No. I of the Tasman Folio. Much information may also be gathered from chart No. 14 of the present work, since it registers almost the whole amount of Dutch knowledge about Australia circa 1700.]
The entire coastline enclosing the Gulf of Carpentaria had accordingly now been skirted and mapped out. The value of Tasman's discoveries in this part of Australia directly appears, if we lay side by side, for instance, the chart of the upper-steersman De Leeuw [*], who formed part of the voyage of 1623, or Keppler's map of 1630 [**]; and Tasman's chart of 1644 [***], or Isaac De Graaff's made about 1700 [****], which last gives a pretty satisfactory survey of the results of Tasman's voyage of 1644 so far as the Gulf of Carpentaria is concerned. Although Tasman's expedition of 1644 did not yield complete information respecting the coast-line of the Gulf, and although it is easy to point out inaccuracies, the additions made by this voyage to our knowledge on this point are so considerable that we may say with complete justice that while the discovery of the east-coast of the Gulf is due to Jansz. (1606) and Carstensz. (1623), it was Tasman who made known the south-coast and the greater part of the west-coast.
[* No. 7 on p. 46.]
[** No. 6 on p. 10.]
[*** Chart No. I in the Tasman Folio.]
[**** No. 14 below.]
More than a century was to elapse before Dutch explorers again were to visit the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1756 the east- and west-coast of it were visited first by Jean Etienne Gonzal and next by Lavienne Lodewijk van Assehens [*]. The expedition is of little interest as regards the surveying of the coast-line, but these explorers got into more frequent contact with the natives than any of their predecessors--what especially Gonzal reports on this subject, is certainly worth noting. Gonzal also first touched at the south-west coast of New Guinea, and next, again without becoming aware of the real character of Torres Strait, sailed to the east-coast of the Gulf, skirting the same up to about 13° S. Lat., after which he crossed to the west-coast. What he did there is of little interest. Van Asschen's experiences are of even less importance for our present purpose. One remark of his, however, is worth noting: he states namely that he found the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria [**] to be "fully 12 miles more to eastward" than the charts at his disposal had led him to believe; and it would really seem to be a fact that Tasman had placed this coast too far to westward.
[* See No. XXXVI infra.]
[** The names there conferred by him on various parts of the coast, may be sufficiently gathered from Document No XXXVI.]
{Page viii}
In a previous work [*] I have attempted to show that the discovery of Arnhemsland must beyond any doubt be credited to the voyage of the yacht Arnhem, commanded by Van Colster or Van Coolsteerdt, which took place in 1623. Since the Journal and the charts of this voyage are no longer available, we are without the most important data for determining with certainty between what degrees of longitude the Arnhemsland then discovered was situated. To westward of it must be sought Van Diemens- and Maria's-land, touched at in 1636 by Pieter Pieterszoon with the ships Cleen Amsterdam and Wesell) [**]. There can be no doubt that Pieterszoon must have sailed far enough to westward to have passed Dundas Strait, and to have reached the western extremity of Melville Island (Roode hoek = red point). He took Dundas Strait to be not a strait, but a bay, and accordingly looked upon Melville Island not as an island, but as a portion of the mainland (Van Diemensland) [***].
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 100-102, and the Documents under No. XIV, 2 infra.]
[** See the Documents under No. XXV.]
[*** Maria-land lies immediately to eastward of Van Diemens-land, and to westward of Arnhems-land.]
In the course of these two voyages of 1623 and 1636, therefore, the whole of the north-west coast from Melville Bay to Melville Island was surveyed by Dutch ships. But in the absence of charts made on these voyages it is impossible for us to say with certainty, whether the coastline can have been traced with correctness. On this point also more light is thrown by the well-known chart of 1644, in which the results of Tasman's voyages are recorded. Tasman sailed along the whole of the coast, but in this case too, his observations were not on all points accurate. Thus the situation of Wessel-eiland and the islets south of it, with respect to the mainland, is not given correctly by him; nor has he apprehended the real character of Dundas Strait and of Van Diemen's Gulf, so that also according to him Melville island forms part of the mainland. But for the rest Tasman's chart also in this case approximately reproduces the coast-line with so much correctness, that we find it quite easy [*] to point out on the maps of our time the results of the Dutch voyages of discovery in this part of the Australian coast.
[* Chart No. 14 below may also be of excellent service here.]
Far more accurate, however, than Tasman's chart is the chart which in 1705 was made of the voyage of the ships Vossenbosch, de Waijer and Nova-Hollandia, commanded by Maarten van Delft [*]. This chart may at the same time be of service to elucidate Tasman's discoveries and those of his predecessors. It is to be regretted, therefore, that it only embraces a comparatively small portion of the north-west coast, namely the part extending from the west-coast of Bathurst island and the western extremity of Melville island to the eastern part of Coburg peninsula and Croker-island. This time again the real character of Dundas Strait and Van Diemens Gulf were not ascertained [**].
[** I subjoin the names of localities that are found in this chart, since the reproduction had to be made on too small a scale to allow of the names being distinctly visible to the naked eye. Going from west to east they are the following: Kliphoek, Duivelsklip, Droge Hoek, Boompjeshoek, Wille Hoek, Noordhoek van Van Diemens Land, Waterplacts, Vuyle Bocht, Vuijl Eijland, Hoek van Goede Hoop, Hoefyzer Hoek, Fortuyns Hoek, Schrale Hoek, Valsche Westhoek, Valsche Bocht, Bedriegers Hoek, Westhoek van 3 Bergen's bocht of Vossenbos Ruyge Hoek, Orangie Hoek, Witte Hoek, Waterplacts, Alkier liggen drie bergen, Toppershoedje, Oosthoek van Drie Bergens bocht, Scherpen Hoek, Vlacke Hoek, Westhoek en Costhoek (van) Mariaes Land, Maria's Hoek, de Konijnenberg, Marten Van Delft's baai, Pantjallings Hoek, Rustenburg, Wajershoek, Hoek van Onier, Hoek van Canthier, P. Frederiksrivier, Jan Melchers Hoek. Pieter Frederiks Hoek, Roseboomshoek, W. Sweershoek, Hoek van Calmocrie.]
{Page ix}
In the year 1616 the Dutch ship Eendracht, commanded by Dirk Hartogs on her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia unexpectedly touched at "divers islands, but uninhabited" and thus for the first time surveyed part of the west-coas of Australia[*]. As early as 1619 this coast, thus accidentally discovered, was known by the name of Eendrachtsland or Land van de Eendracht. The vaguenes of the knowledge respecting the coast-line then discovered, and its extent, is not unaptly illustrated in a small map of the world reproduced as below, and found in {Page x} GERARDI MERCATORIS Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica mundi et fabricati figura. De novo...auctus studio JUDOCI HONDIJ (Amsterodami; Sumptibus Johannis Cloppenburgij. Anno 1632) [**]. If, however, we compare this map of the world with KEPPLER'S map of 1630 [***], we become aware that Hondius has not recorded all that was then known in Europe respecting the light which since 1616 European explorers had thrown on the question of the western coast-line of Australia. In Keppler's map, namely, besides the English discovery of the Trial rocks (1622) [****], and the name "'T Landt van Eendracht" in fat characters, passing from the north to the south, we meet with the following names, which the smaller letters show to have been intended to indicate subordinate parts of Eendrachtsland: Jac. Rommer Revier [*****], Dirck Hartogs ree, F. Houtmans aebrooleus and Dedells lant. What is more, Keppler's map also exhibits the south-west coast of Australia.
[* See on this point the Documents sub No. VII (pp. 8f.).--It will hardly be denied that these pieces of evidence may justly be called "documents immediately describing" Hartogs's dicsovery.]
[** For my knowledge of this remarkable atlas I am indebted to Mr. ANTON MENSING, member of the firm of Messrs. Frederik Muller and Co., of Amsterdam. These gentlemen kindly enabled me to reproduce this chart for the present work. I received it too late to allow of its being placed among the charts accompanying the various documents.]
[*** See Chart No. 6 on p. 10 below.]
[**** See under No. XIII (p. 17) below.]
[***** See on this point p. 54 infra (No. XXII A and note 3).]