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THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
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CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, F.R.S. 
 From the portrait by Nathaniel Dance, R.A., in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF 
 AUSTRALIA 
 
 BY 
 
 G. ARNOLD WOOD 
 
 B.A. (Manchester), M.A. (Oxford) 
 
 I.ATE SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND STANHOPE ESSAYIST 
 PROFESSOR OF HLSTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 
 
 1922 
 
COPYRIGHT , 
 
 C<u4uudm 
 
 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 
 
DUf6 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY STUDENTS OF SYDNEY UNIVERSITY, 
 
 1891-1921, 
 
 AND ESPECIALLY TO ONE OF THEM. 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
 
 After this book had been printed off, a letter was received 
 from the author to the effect that his colleague Professor 
 W. J. Woodhouse, of the University of Sydney, had recently 
 ascertained that the autograph of Cook's Journal^ and also 
 of the Instructions and Secret Instructions issued to him, 
 are in the possession of Mr. H. W. F. Bolckow, of Marton 
 Hall, Marton-in-Cleveland. Following Admiral Wharton 
 and other previous writers, Professor Wood has in the 
 present volume referred to these documents as being no 
 longer extant, and has used what is known as the Corner 
 copy of the Journal (now in Sydney), which has hitherto 
 been regarded as the best authority, and is believed to be 
 an exact copy of the original. 
 
 It is unfortunate that this information reached Professor 
 Wood too late to be made use of in his book, though it is 
 not likely that his narrative of The Discovery of Australia 
 would be materially affected by the documents in question. 
 
 June, 1922. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The lectures, which make this book, were given to a class 
 in Sydney University in 191 7. The quahty of lectures 
 given in an Australian University is determined by the 
 mind of the students only less than by the mind of the 
 lecturer ; and with pleasure I take this opportunity to 
 thank the generations of students, who, for thirty years, 
 have not only made lecturing a happiness, but have also, 
 by kindly appreciation of good intention, well salted with 
 honest witness to evident failure, given reason to do one's 
 best. 
 
 Chapters I. and VI. were given as lectures to the Royal 
 Australian Historical Society, and are printed in its Journal, 
 Vol. III. Part 10, and Vol. IV. Part 4. 
 
 In preparation of the lectures, my chief debt was to the 
 Mitchell Library. Mr. David Mitchell of Sydney was a 
 gentleman of wealth and of culture, who devoted a large 
 part of his life to the collection of a Library of the Literature 
 of Australian History. This Library he gave to the State 
 of New South Wales, together with an endowment that 
 enables the Committee to purchase historical material of 
 the highest value. It is a marvellous collection of precious 
 things ; and in it the student of Australian History works 
 in an atmosphere of enervating luxury. I cannot suffi- 
 ciently express my gratitude to the Mitchell Librarian, 
 Mr. Hugh Wright, and to his Assistant Librarians, for the 
 infinite courtesy with which they have helped my work. 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 I am especially indebted to Mr. Wright for help in the 
 study of Banks's Journal, the treasure of the Mitchell. 
 
 In spite of the excellence of the Mitchell Library there 
 are some historical materials which cannot be used in 
 Sydney. I have tried to indicate the parts of the dis- 
 cussion in which, for this reason, my equipment is imperfect, 
 and I have had to take facts from the books of modern 
 writers. 
 
 Of these books, that which, perhaps, was most useful to 
 me was Rainaud's Le Continent Austral. I have con- 
 tinually had at hand the fascinating and most helpful 
 volumes of Fiske's Discovery of America. Mr. Major's 
 Introduction to the Early Voyages to Australia was of great 
 service. I wish to express my special obligation to Mr. 
 George Collingridge, whose Discovery of Australia first made 
 the subject of interest to me, and whose maps especially 
 are very useful. Though I differ in opinion from Mr. 
 Collingridge in respect to the interpretation of the early 
 maps, I am aware that his study of these maps, and especi- 
 ally of the Portuguese- French maps, has been more minute 
 than mine ; and I hope we may agree that, groping in a 
 fog, we are both guessers. It has been a peculiar pleasure to 
 plunder the admirable volumes of my old friend Professor 
 Beazley on the Dawn of Modern Geography ; a pleasure 
 mingled with fear that I have not got from them all that 
 I ought to have got. In telling the Spanish story, I 
 have used the translations in the admirable editions 
 published by the Hakluyt Society. In the Dutch part, 
 the EngHsh student must be mainly dependent on the 
 help of Mr. Heeres. In the discussion of Cook, Admiral 
 Wharton and Mr. Kitson have had the use of material 
 which cannot be used in Sydney. In the chapter on the 
 " Successors of Cook," I have continually used the books 
 of Professor Scott of Melbourne, who has kindly read my 
 chapter. 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 My thanks are due to Professor Todd and Professor 
 Woodhouse who gave kindly help in my slight sketch of 
 the " ancient conception " ; and to Professor David and 
 Professor Cotton who gave me the modern geological 
 criticism of the argument, so much used in our story, that 
 there must be a great continent in the South. Dr. Frederick 
 Watson has most kindly corrected the dates in the chapters 
 which tell the story of Cook's First Voyage. 
 
 And most hearty are my thanks to my sister-in-law. 
 Miss Laura Whitfeld, who, with incredible insight and 
 industry, translated impossible hand-writing into alluring 
 type, and made me hope that the lectures might become 
 a useful book. 
 
 G. A. WOOD. 
 
 University of Sydney, 
 December^ 1 92 1. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Ancient and Medieval Conceptions of the Land 
 
 OF the South - - . . . . i 
 
 II. The Indian Ocean in the Thirteenth Century - 20 
 
 III. Marco Polo 31 
 
 IV. The Successors of Marco Polo - - - - 47 
 
 V. The Portuguese and the Spaniards in the Indian 
 
 Ocean 61 
 
 VI. Was Australia known in the Sixteenth Century ? 82 
 
 VII. The Discovery of the Solomons - - - - 130 
 
 VIII. The Voyage of 1595 - - ■ - - - 140 
 
 IX. QuiROS 154 
 
 X. AUSTRIALIA del EsPIRITU SaNTO .... 169 
 
 XI. The Voyage of Torres 192 
 
 XII. The Spanish Story Ends 198 
 
 XIII. The Coming of the English and the Dutch - 205 
 
 XIV. The Dutch discover Australia .... 220 
 XV. Tasman's Voyage of 1642 . . . . . 253 
 
 XVI. Tasman's Voyage of 1644 285 
 
 XVII. The Ending of the Dutch Part - - - . 298 
 
 XVIII. Dampier 305 
 
 xiii 
 
xiv CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIX. The Voyage of the Roebuck - - - - - 321 
 
 XX. The Plans of the Eighteenth Century - - 337 
 
 XXI. The Precursors of Cook 366 
 
 XXII. The Voyage of the Endeavour ^ - - - 380 
 
 XXIII. The Discovery of Eastern Australia - - - 409 
 
 XXIV. The End of Terra Australis . . . . 457 
 XXV. The Successors of Cook 480 
 
 Index -20 
 
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Captain James Cook, F.R.S. Frontispiece 
 
 Rainaud's Interpretation of the Geographical Views of 
 
 PoMPONius Mela -- 5 
 
 The World according to Ptolemy ----- y 
 
 CosMAS : The Antipodes in derision ----- id 
 
 The Universe, according to Cosmas - - - - - 11 
 
 Eighth-Century Map - 13 
 
 Twelfth-Century Map - - 14 
 
 Chart of 1489 - 17 
 
 Part of Map showing the Geographical Knowledge of 
 
 the Arabians ---- 27 
 
 Yule's Map - -- - 35 
 
 Behaim's Globe of 1492 55 
 
 Map of 1489 ----------57 
 
 Fra Mauro's Map, 1459 --------59 
 
 Portuguese Dominions in the East, 1502-1558 - - - 67 
 Map to illustrate Voyage of the Victoria from the 
 
 Philippines --------- 75 
 
 Part of Linschoten's Chart of Java and the Islands to 
 
 THE Eastward - - 85 
 
 Part of Sebastian Cabot's Map ------ 86 
 
 Part of Diego Ribero's Map, 1529 ----- 87 
 
 Part of Reinel's Chart, c, 1517 - - - - - - 87 
 
 Part of Rodriguez's Chart ------- 89 
 
 Part of Mercator's Map, 1569 - - - - - - 91 
 
 Part of Map in Hakluyt's Voyages ----- 92 
 
 The Western Half of Schoner's First Globe, 1515- - 98 
 
 Map of Orontius Fin^us, 1531 ------ loi 
 
 Map of 1522 ---------- 103 
 
 Part of Plancius's Map, 1594 ------ 107 
 
 Part of Ortelius's Map, 1570 - - - - - -iii 
 
 Part of Wytfliet's Map, 1597 - - - - - - 112 
 
 Part of the "Dauphin" Map, 1530-1536 - - - - 114 
 
 Part of Jean Rotz's Chart, 1542 - - - - - 115 
 
 Part of Desceliers' Chart, 1550- - - - - - 117 
 
 XV 
 
xvi MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vallard's Map, 1547 - - - - - - - -119 
 
 Jean Rotz's Chart of 1542, with Modern Outline super- 
 imposed ---------- 123 
 
 Map of the Solomons and New Guinea (Herrera, 1601) - 136 
 
 Ortelius's Map of 1587 .._---_ 137 
 
 The New Hebrides --_-_-.- 167 
 
 Map of the Bay of St. Philip and St. James - - - 170 
 Part of Map in Dutch Translation of Quiros's Memorial : 
 
 Amsterdam, 1612 - - - - - - - -189 
 
 Part of Gerritz's Map, 1627 ------ 227 
 
 DiRCK. Hartog's Pewter Dish ------ 231 
 
 The French Copy of Vlamingh's Pewter Dish - - - 231 
 
 Part of Goos-Visscher's Map, 1639 _ _ _ . . 233 
 
 Part of De Leeuw's Map, 1623 ------ 240 
 
 Part of Hondius's Map, 1630 ------ 241 
 
 Part of Keppler's Map, 1630 ------ 245 
 
 Sketch from Tasman's Map of his Voyages, 1642-1644 - 259 
 
 Modern Map of Part of Tasmania ----- 272 
 
 Tasman's Map of Anthony Van Diemen's Land - - - 273 
 
 Tasman's Picture of Maoris ------ 277 
 
 Sketch of Vlamingh's Chart, 1696-1697 - - . - 300 
 
 William Dampier --------- 307 
 
 Map in Dampier's Voyages - - - - - - - 331 
 
 Part of Map in Harris's Voyages - . . . . 343 
 
 Part of Map in Dalrymple's Discoveries made in the South 
 
 Pacifick Ocean previous to 1764 _ - _ - _ 363 
 
 Louis Antoine de Bougainville ------ 367 
 
 Part of Map in Bougainville's Voyage autour du Monde - 375 
 
 Extract from the " Corner " Copy of Cook's Journal - 383 
 
 Joseph Banks- --------- 3g3 
 
 Cook's Map of Botany Bay ------- 414 
 
 Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay - - - - 417 
 
 Extract from the "Corner" Copy of Cook's Journal - 421 
 
 The Endeavour in Endeavour River ----- 433 
 
 Extract from Banks's Journal ------ 443 
 
 Extract from Cook's Letter from Batavia to the Secretary 
 
 OF THE Admiralty, dated 23RD Oct. 1770 - - - 451 
 
 Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N. ----- 486 
 
 Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., P.C. K.B., F.R.S. - - - 501 
 
 Part of Map in Grant's Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery - 505 
 
 Sketch from Flinders' Map of Australia - - - - 514 
 Australia and the Western Pacific, showing Tracks of 
 
 Explorers .-.---. /wse/ at end 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS OF 
 THE LAND OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Rainaud's Le Continent Austral. 
 
 Fiske's Discovery of America. 
 
 Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography. 
 
 Tillinghast's Essay on The Geographical Knowledge of the 
 
 Ancients inWiNSOR, Vol. I. 
 The Topographia Christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes, 
 
 ed. M'Crindle (Hakluyt Society). 
 Rawlinson's India and the Western World. 
 The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, ed. Bridges. 
 
 The story may begin in a Greelc Utopia, written by an A Greek 
 author named Theopompus about 350 b.c. the^Smith 
 
 " At length in process of talk Selenus told Midas of 
 certain islands named Europia, Asia, and Libia, which 
 the Ocean Sea circumscribeth and compaisseth round 
 about ; and that without this world there is a continent 
 or parcel of dry land which in greatness is infinite and 
 immeasurable " ; and he told of its " green meadows 
 and pasture plots," its " big' and mighty beasts," its 
 gigantic men, who, " in the same climate exceed the 
 stature of us twice," its " many and divers cities, its 
 laws and ordinances clean contrary to ours." ^ 
 
 The world, then, according to " the son of a nymph," 
 consists of " three islands," or rather of one island coiii- 
 
 ^ Major's Early Voyages to Australia (Hak. Soc), p. i. (note). See 
 longer quotation in Tillinghast's admirable essay on The Geographical 
 Knowledge of the Ancients in Justin Winsor, vol. i. p. 22, note i. 
 
2. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Greeks and 
 Romans 
 knew that 
 the earth 
 was a sphere 
 and that 
 probably 
 there was an 
 inhabited 
 land in the 
 South. 
 
 But they 
 thought 
 that, owing 
 to the 
 scorching 
 heat of the 
 Tropics, 
 passage to a 
 Southern 
 Continent 
 was 
 impossible. 
 
 posed of three parts, with shores washed by the circum- 
 fluent Ocean Sea. And what Hes beyond the Ocean 
 Sea } Why not some other huge island, some fourth 
 part of the world, some Utopia of the South, in which 
 one's dreams are facts ? 
 
 Fancy built on firm foundation. Greek geographers 
 were men of science, whose thought outstripped experience, 
 and conquered unseen worlds. They had proved that 
 the earth was a sphere ; proved it by reasonings, known 
 now to every schoolboy, which could never be refuted, 
 and which could never be forgotten. They had proved 
 the existence of climatic zones. They had made it certain 
 that, beyond scorched tropic seas, must be some great 
 region in which the cHmate was like that of the temperate 
 zone of the North. What more likely, in a well-ordered 
 lawfully governed Kosmos, than that South corresponds 
 to North ; that there, also, exists a continent as great as 
 the three-fold " island " of the known world ; and that, 
 since " nature loves life," this unknown continent is 
 inhabited by populous nations of human beings, like 
 and unlike to those of the North } 
 
 But to this land of the temperate South no Greek nor 
 Roman sailed. Thought was free to girdle the earth ; 
 but travel was bounded by the Tropics. Long before the 
 Equator was reached, knowledge of Africa faded into 
 speculation, romance, fable and fairy-tale. Herodotus, 
 it is true, once heard a story that about 6oo B.C., Phoeni- 
 cian seamen had sailed through the Red Sea, and had 
 returned three years afterwards through the Mediter- 
 ranean. The seamen had declared, so the tale was told 
 to Herodotus, that, sailing Southward, the sun had 
 appeared to the North ; a statement which seemed to him to 
 prove that the seamen were liars, but which the modern 
 critic is inclined to take as evidence that they had at all 
 events sailed to some point South of the Equator. On the 
 West coast of Africa, Carthaginian seamen under Hanno had 
 sailed Southward as far as Sierra Leone, and had returned 
 with stories of " wild men and women covered with hair 
 called gorillas " ; with stories, too, of lands burnt up with 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 3 
 
 everlasting fires ; bush-fires kindled by natives, explains 
 the modern critic ; but to Hanno it seemed that the land 
 was uninhabitable on account of intolerable heat. Thick 
 fogs and dust storms on the African coast gave to the 
 Atlantic the name of " the Sea of Darkness." Scorching 
 winds from the Sahara confirmed the opinion that the 
 Tropics were an eternal barrier to human travel. There 
 was speculation about the sources of the Nile ; and per- 
 haps some little knowledge is expressed in the legends 
 of the " Mountains of the Moon." And yet Pomponius 
 Mela, who wrote with authority on geographical matters 
 about 50 A.D., thought that the Nile probably rose in 
 the unknown continent of the South, and flowed by a 
 subterranean channel beneath the Ocean Sea, emerging 
 to the surface in Africa. 
 
 Knowledge of Southern Asia also ended at the Tropics. The 
 Alexander marched to the Sutlej, and told his soldiers fou^h^^* 
 that they had come to " the Sunrise and to the Ocean." 
 ** Unless your sloth and cowardice prevent, we shall 
 thence return in triumph to our native land, having con- 
 quered the earth to its remotest bounds." But the soldiers 
 answered, " We are standing now almost on the earth's 
 utmost verge, and yet you are preparing to go in quest 
 of an India unknown even to the Indians themselves. 
 You would fain root out from hidden recesses and dens 
 a race of men that herd with snakes and wild beasts, 
 so that you may traverse as conqueror more regions than 
 the sun surveys." ^ So Alexander's march was stayed. 
 He sailed down the Indus, and at its mouth he founded 
 the city of Patala.,^ a name which long dwelt in men's Patala. 
 minds as the name of the Furthest South, " where the 
 sun rises on the right {i.e. the North), and shadows fall 
 towards the South," and where the Wain can be seen 
 only in the first part of the night. So India remained 
 the land of Romance, a land equal, some said, to one-third 
 
 ^ Quintus Curtius Rufus in M'Crindle's Invasion of India, pp. 225-229. 
 Quoted in Synge's Book of Discovery, pp. 40-41. 
 
 2 See M'Crindle's note on Patala, p. 356. The name is sometimes 
 spelt Patalis, and sometimes Pathalis. 
 
4 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of the whole world, a land abounding in gold and in jewels, 
 and in elephants; and in dragons.^ 
 
 In later Roman times some vague distorted knowledge 
 was gained of the coasts of India, of Ceylon (known as 
 Taprobane. Taprobane), of the Ganges, of golden lands or islands 
 East of the Gangetic Gulf, and of the " Silk Land " 
 (Serica) to the North. Ceylon was thought to be an 
 island in the far distance, and of enormous size. Phny 
 wrote that a Roman freedman, while sailing round Arabia, 
 was driven to sea by the North wind, and on the fifteenth 
 day reached Taprobane. He stayed there six months ; and 
 the King became so interested in his talk about the Romans 
 and Caesar that he sent envoys to Rome. They reported 
 that in their country Canopus " shone by night a great 
 and bright star." And " what astonished them chiefly 
 was that (in Rome) their shadows fall towards our sky {i.e. 
 the North), not towards theirs {i.e. the South)." ^ Some 
 writers thought that Taprobane was no island, but the tip 
 of the great unknown continent of the South, " the first 
 part of the other world," the land of the " Antichthones " ; 
 Mela A.D. 50 and, says Pomponius Mela, this is likely enough, for it is 
 Taprobane inhabited, and yet there is no evidence that anyone has 
 the tip of sailed round it ! Thus at Taprobane all knowledge ended. 
 No travellers' tales were told of a further South. The 
 Tropic Seas, says Pliny, are " burnt and cremated by 
 flames, scorched by the near sun." Beyond those seas, 
 no doubt, was the " other world," probably inhabited 
 as thickly as the continent of the North. " But about 
 these people," says Mela, " we know nothing, for between / 
 us and them there intervenes a burning zone, which it 
 is impossible to cross." ^ 
 The world Thus the " world of ordinary classical geography," 
 
 geography ^^^ world as conceivcd by Greeks and Romans about the 
 date of the Christian era, stops far short of the Equator. 
 The West Coast of Africa ends about Sierra Leone, or 
 the Canary Islands. The East coast ends at about Cape 
 Gardafui. A grossly misunderstood Ceylon is both 
 
 1 Phny, Book VI., Chs. 21-23. ^ Pliny, Book VI., Ch. 24. 
 
 ^ See map, p. 5. 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 5 
 
 Furthest South and Furthest East. Southward of it hes 
 the circumfluent Ocean Sea, boihng, impassable. And 
 South of it, unknown, unknowable (unless perchance 
 Ceylon is its " first part "), lies the great island-continent 
 of the South, a land interesting to men of science as a 
 curious speculation, to men of letters as a site for Utopias, 
 
 Rainaud's Interpretation of the Geographical Views of PoiMponius Mela. 
 (From Rainaud, Le Continent Austral.) 
 
 and to rhetoricians as an illustration of the vanity of 
 human ambitions, and the smallness of the Empire to 
 which Jupiter had placed neither bounds nor end.^ 
 
 This was the popular geography of the early Empire. 
 But Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria knew better. ^ 
 By his time (a.d. 150) geographical science had made 
 great advance. He understood — as none before him, 
 and as none after him for the next thirteen hundred 
 years — the importance of making maps by the certain 
 rules of mathematics and astronomy. In his days also more 
 
 ^ Cicero made this use of those who " dwell directly opposite to you " 
 in his story of Scipio's dream (Justin Winsor, vol. i. p. 9). 
 2 See map, p. 7. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Ptolemy's 
 
 Terra 
 
 Incognita, 
 
 A.D. 150. 
 
 The geo- 
 graphy of 
 the Middle 
 Ages was 
 based 
 on inter- 
 pretations 
 of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 geographical information had been accumulated. Seamen 
 had pushed Southward down the East coast of Africa, 
 Southwards even of the Equator. Definite knowledge also 
 had been obtained of a " Silk-land," distant from India, 
 extending far to the East and far to the North. News 
 also had been heard, it seems, of lands stretching 
 down from Asia far to the South-East. It seems certain 
 that Ptolemy had some knowledge of the Malay Peninsula. 
 It seems certain, also, that rumours had reached him of 
 the long string of Malaysian islands, lying so close together 
 that they may well have been described as one continuous 
 land. Evidently there was far more land than had been 
 imagined. Much was still unknown ; but, when Ptolemy 
 thought, he thought in continents. Against Mela's " wet 
 theory," which supposed the unknown to be Ocean, he 
 set the " dry theory," which supposed the unknown to 
 be land. In his famous map the circumfluent Ocean 
 Sea disappears. Eastern Asia extends indefinitely both 
 Eastward and Southward. At about 15° S. Lat. it takes 
 a decisive turn to the West, and runs along that parallel 
 till it meets the continent of Africa in the same latitude. 
 Thus the Indian Ocean is made a *' mediterranean " 
 sea, wholly enclosed by land, so that you can reach it 
 neither by rounding Africa, nor by sailing West from 
 Europe. And the Southern coast of this sea, in about 
 Lat. 15° S., is a Terra Incognita, Ptolemy's way of re- 
 presenting the unknown land of the Southern temperate 
 zone. ^ 
 
 Such was the heritage which the ancient world handed 
 to medieval times. The knowledge was never wholly 
 lost. But it wholly ceased to grow. The " dark ages " 
 had no use for the science of the Greeks, and great dis- 
 trust of it. Philosophy gave place to the Scriptures ; 
 thought obeyed that which was written ; the spirit that 
 questions, and explores, and denies, and proves, was put 
 to sleep. In place of Socrates, " gadfly of the Athenian 
 people," stinging men into thought, into criticism of the 
 
 1 See Rawlinson's explanation of Ptolemy's geography of the East 
 in India and the Western World, pp. 130-137. 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 7 
 
 
 
 
 Q c 
 
 ^ S 
 
 o a 
 
 « 6 
 
8 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The geo- 
 graphy of 
 Cosmas 
 Indico- 
 pleustes, 
 about 547 
 
 A.D. 
 
 accepted opinion, into exploration of the unknown con- 
 tinents of the spiritual world, we have Thomas Aquinas, 
 enthroned, foot on neck of heretic, Bible on knee, and voice 
 from heaven saying, " Well hast thou written of me, 
 O Thomas!"^ The geography that interested was the 
 geography of Hell, of Purgatory, of Heaven. Earthly 
 geography must be learned from Scripture, or at least 
 must be consistent with Scripture. Jerusalem is the 
 centre of the earth, for "thus saith the Lord: 'This 
 is Jerusalem : I have set her in the midst of the nations, 
 and countries are round about her.' " The last phrase 
 seems to indicate that the earth is round ; and this opinion 
 may seem to be confirmed by the statement that God 
 " sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and all the inhabi- 
 tants thereof are as grasshoppers." But doubt is thrown 
 on this interpretation by the fact that Isaiah continues : 
 " He stretcheth out the Heavens as a curtain and spreadeth 
 them as a tent to dwxll in." And this doubt is increased 
 when we read that " the Son of Man shall send forth his 
 angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and shall gather 
 together his elect from the four angles.'' The earth is, 
 after all, a square rather than a round, and we shall most 
 truly conceive of it as a tent with curtains. 
 
 The best illustration of this method of geographical 
 study is the book written in the Sixth Century (about 
 547 A.D.) by the monk who is known to us as Cosmas 
 Indicopleustes : a name which seems to be a nom de 
 plume, meaning the cosmographer who sailed to India. 
 For, in his younger days, Cosmas had been a merchant 
 in the Indian Ocean, and had obtained real knowledge 
 of Ceylon, and information even about China. But though 
 he claims that his geographical opinions are confirmed 
 by his experience, his main assertion is that they are wholly 
 independent of human knowledge, being based on a 
 careful study of the Scriptures. From this careful study 
 he has learned the great central truth, which explains 
 all geography, the fact that " the Tabernacle prepared 
 by Moses " is " a pattern of the whole world." The earth 
 
 ^ These are the main features of the famous picture. 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 9 
 
 then is flat : an oblong flat, for was not the table of show- 
 bread twice as long as it was broad ? At the Northern 
 end is a high mountain, round which goes the sun — a sun 
 of forty miles radius, and four hundred miles away— 
 so that when the sun is behind the mountain it is night, 
 and when it appears again it is day. Round this fiat 
 oblong earth flows the ocean — the ocean on which Cosmas 
 had himself sailed when he travelled to India. And round 
 this Ocean, again, is an outer frame of land, in the Eastern 
 side of which is the Garden of Eden, whence the Four 
 great rivers, the Nile, the Ganges, the Tigris and the 
 Euphrates, flow from their common source by the 
 Tree of Life, " cleaving a passage through the Ocean, 
 and springing up in this earth." On this same outer 
 earth had dwelt the Patriarchs in the days before the 
 flood, when Noah, sailing over the Ocean sea in his Ark, 
 " reached our part of the earth, and settled in Persian 
 territory." To the outside edge of this outer earth, God 
 had " glued " the four '* walls " or " curtains " of the 
 " heavens," welding heaven and earth together, as Job 
 says, " as a square block of stone." " On high he formed 
 it into a most lofty vault overspanning the length of 
 the earth" ; and then, " having enclosed the space, made 
 a house, as one might call it, of enormous size, like an 
 oblong vaulted vapour bath." And, finally, by the inser- 
 tion of the "Firmament," this house had been made The world 
 into two houses, or rather a house with "an upper g^^^.^^^" 
 and a lower storey " ; the lower storey for man, the upper house, 
 for God, the angels and the saints.^ 
 
 Such was the geography taught by that Divine Wisdom 
 which was independent of human intelligence. How 
 different from the " inventions "of the Greeks," and how 
 
 muth more in accordance with commonsense ! If the The 
 
 , . , r 1 1 • 1 -I- absurdity 
 
 earth is, as they say, not founded on its own stability, and the 
 
 but revolves on its axis, pray what is that axis made of } ^^^.^^^^^^ of 
 
 And again why do not we hear it whizz } And what supports Antipodeans. 
 
 ^ " One of the huge receptacles in which female travellers of our day- 
 carry their dresses, forms a perfect model of the Kosmos of Kosmas " 
 (Yule). See map, p. ii. 
 
10 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 it ? And what can be more obviously absurd than the 
 Greek doctrine of the Antipodeans, " men carrying their 
 heads downwards!" These pagans, in fact, "take in hand 
 to turn everything upside down rather than follow the 
 doctrines of the truth," even as " they are whirled round 
 in ceaseless revolutions along with their sphered You 
 
 
 %UtiyX C-*<HfT» w'tS^ 
 
 CosMAS : The Antipodes in derision. 
 (From Beazley's The Dawn of Modern Geography. 
 
 have only to draw a picture of the sphere with four men 
 standing on it at the four points to realise the absurdity 
 of the idea. "We therefore depict, according to your view, 
 the earth and the antipodes, and let each one of you who 
 has sound vision, and the power of reasoning justly, turn 
 the earth round whichever way he pleases, and let him 
 say whether the Antipodeans can be all standing upright 
 in the same sense of the expression." These are clearly 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS ii 
 
 " old wives' fables," and an insult to Christian intelli- 
 gence. " For if two men, on opposite sides, placed the 
 soles of their feet against each, whether they chose to stand 
 on earth, on air, on fire, or any kind of body, how could 
 both be found standing upright ? The one would assuredly 
 be found in the natural upright position, and the other, 
 contrary to nature, head downwards. Such notions are 
 
 The Universe, according to Cosmas. 
 (From Beazley's The Dawn of Modern Geography.) 
 
 opposed to reason, and alien to our nature and condition. 
 And how, again, when it rains upon both of them, is it 
 possible to say that the rain falls down upon the two, 
 and not that it falls down on the one, and falls up to the 
 other } " And, once more, how could Antipodeans use the 
 power given by God to men to " tread upon serpents 
 and scorpions," when the serpents and scorpions would 
 be above them ? This is food for laughter. But more 
 serious matter remains. " For He made," saith the 
 Apostle, " of one the whole race of men to dwell upon 
 
12 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the whole face of the earth " — one face, not two faces ! 
 The theory of an antipodal world, shut off by an impass- 
 able tropic sea, implied the existence of a race of men 
 who had not died in Adam, and who had not in Christ 
 been made alive. The inventions of the Greeks were 
 " old wives' tales," but they were something worse. " The 
 blasphemous theory of the Antipodes makes Christ a 
 liar, and His word not in us." 
 
 Cosmas thought highly of the vigour of his own mental 
 powers, and he had, at all events, a pleasant freshness of 
 invective and a good gift of laughter at obvious absurdity. 
 But he was, in truth, rather a representative man than 
 a leader of thought. Most of his ideas, as Professor Beazley 
 has shown, had been expressed by earlier writers : — the 
 fiat, quadrilateral earth : the rivers of Eden that dive 
 under the sea : the world-tabernacle of two storeys : 
 the gluing together of earth and heaven : the absurdity 
 and the blasphemy of an antipodal world. Long before 
 Cosmas, Lactantius had asked the triumphant question : 
 " Can anyone be so foolish as to believe that there 
 are men whose feet are higher than their heads, or places 
 where things can be hanging upwards, trees growing 
 downwards, and water falling upwards ? " He who 
 begins by believing Ptolemy, another famous Father 
 had said, ends by denying God as Creator. " Can one 
 imagine," asks St. Augustine, "anything more absurd 
 than that which the ancients have maintained, that 
 there may be inhabitants in the regions of earth opposite 
 to ours } Those who have said this admit that they 
 have no knowledge by experience. It is mere con- 
 jecture drawn from certain pretended philosophical 
 arguments. But, assuming their propositions are correct, 
 can we argue that, because these lands are inhabitable, 
 therefore they are inhabited ? The Holy Scripture, 
 which is the rule of that which we should believe, says 
 no word about them. It is agreed that the descendants 
 of our first father could not have come to those lands. 
 How then can it be maintained that there are men 
 there ? " 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 13 
 
 And theological hatred of the doctrine of the spheri- Theological 
 city of the earth, and especially of the very closely connected ^^^^*^- 
 doctrine of an inhabited antipodal world, long continued. 
 Especially fatal was the " argument that an antipodal 
 race, living on the far side of the boiling Tropic sea, must 
 be outside God's great scheme of damnation and redemp- 
 tion, that there was no place for an Australian in Heaven, 
 
 '^^-n 
 
 Beyond the 
 three parts of 
 the world 
 there is a 
 fourth part 
 in the South 
 across the 
 interior ocean 
 unknown to 
 us on account 
 of the heat oi 
 the sun, in 
 whose boundj 
 the Antipode 
 are fabulously 
 said to live. 
 
 Eighth-Century Map. (From Nordenskiold's Periplits.) 
 
 in Hell, or in Purgatory, and that therefore the Australian 
 did not exist ! Even those who could not rid their minds 
 of the haunting thought that the classic arguments for 
 the sphericity of the earth had not been refuted, and 
 never could be refuted, and who felt bound to admit the 
 possibiHty, at least, of the existence of a world in the 
 
14 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 temperate zone, felt bound also to deny that this world 
 might possibly contain human inhabitants. " Beyond the 
 three parts of the world," wrote Isidore, "there is a fourth 
 part in the South, across the interior ocean, in whose bounds 
 the antipodes are fabulously said to live " ; — a phrase 
 destined to be quoted again and again, and to be illustrated 
 by a whole cycle of maps.^ 
 
 Beyond the 
 three parts of 
 the world 
 there is a 
 fourth part 
 across the 
 interior ocean, 
 unknown to 
 us on account 
 of the heat of 
 the sun, in 
 whose bounds 
 the Antipodes 
 are fabulously 
 said to live. 
 
 But people 
 still tell 
 stories of 
 marvels in 
 the South. 
 
 Twelfth-Century Map. (From Nordenskiold's Facsimile Atlas, p. 33.) 
 
 And yet the knowledge of ancient times was never 
 wholly forgotten ; though part was forgotten, and " part 
 seemed to be in a sort of limbo, on this side of Lethe, 
 not altogether out of sight, but out of touch of the 
 new times, uncared for, unattended to." ^ The scientific 
 
 1 See maps of the eighth and twelfth centuries printed in this volume, 
 pp. 13 and 14. 
 
 2 Beazley. 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 15 
 
 geography of Ptolemy was forgotten. But the popular 
 geography of Pliny, the stories of the marvels of natural 
 history in distant lands, still had their charm, and theo- 
 logical hatred could find no reason to disbelieve them. 
 They were collected, and they were improved. South 
 Africa became interesting as the home of people who 
 live on the milk of dog-headed apes ; of others who have 
 a dog for King ; of others who have four heads apiece ; 
 of others who have one eye only, in the middle of the 
 forehead. India, again, which in this description is placed 
 to the East of China, became noteworthy because there 
 dwelt " tribes who had their feet turned backwards, with 
 eight toes on each ; others who had dogs' heads and 
 talons for fingers, and ' barked for speech ' ; others again 
 with feet so huge that they could use them for shade 
 against the sun." ^ Maps were made which were, in effect, 
 picture books to illustrate the tales of marvels. The 
 world went back to childhood ; but at all events the stories 
 it listened to, and the pictures it gazed upon, were stories 
 and pictures which expressed, in blurred and distorted 
 form, the real knowledge of the ancients. The time would 
 come when the taste for marvels would grow into the 
 taste for knowledge. 
 
 And, in truth, the taste for knowledge was never wholly 
 lost. Human nature remained deep rooted even in Chris- 
 tian Fathers. Intellectual curiosity found pleasure in And 
 the thoughts of ancient times. The sense of beauty stiii°know 
 took delight in classic literature. Some sought to argue that the 
 that Holy Scripture, if interpreted by the Allegoric ^pf^g^j^ ^ 
 method, was not irreconcilable with pagan science. Some 
 urged that Christians might make use of pagan know- 
 ledge, as the Hebrews " borrowed " from the Egyptians,^ 
 or as Solomon employed foreign workmen in the building 
 of the Temple.^ Some showed an uneasy feeHng that 
 pagan science was in the right by contending that the 
 shape of the earth, and such-like things, are of no 
 
 ^ Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography, vol. i. ch. vi. 
 2 Augustine's view. ^ Bede's view. 
 
i6 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The 
 
 modernism 
 of Roger 
 Bacon. 
 
 Scholars of 
 the thir- 
 teenth 
 century 
 study 
 ancient 
 writers, and 
 beheve in 
 Anti- 
 podeans. 
 
 importance to the Christian. Some admitted that the earth 
 was spherical, and that temperate zones were habitable, 
 but saved their orthodoxy by the statement that in fact 
 the North alone was inhabited. An antipodal world exists, 
 but antipodal people are a fable. 
 
 And, as the long dark centuries passed, the love of 
 classic literature, and the love of science and of truth, 
 grew ever more fervent, and ever more unashamed. When 
 we open the book which Roger Bacon sent to the Pope 
 in 1267, we are amazed by the modernism of his sentiments. 
 His mistakes are many and obvious. But the spirit of 
 the man of science is in him, the consciousness of ignorance, 
 the patient search for truth. " Wise men know their 
 ignorance and are ready to learn from anyone"; and 
 he urges a " careful scrutiny of received opinions." " All 
 truth is contained in the Scriptures " ; but we need the 
 assistance of philosophy in order that we may understand 
 the Scriptures. For " Reason comes from God, and there- 
 fore Philosophy is divine ; and the wisdom of the Greeks 
 was revealed to them by God Himself, and their high 
 morality should make Christians ashamed. Wherever 
 truth is found it belongs to Christ." 
 
 Once more the spirit that enquires and explores is awake, 
 modest and confident. And for its teachers it looks 
 to the Greeks and to the Romans. Ptolemy remained 
 inaccessible to Christians. But long ago the Arabs had 
 translated his book, absorbed his ideas, and incorporated 
 them in their own geographical treatises. Christian 
 scholars of the thirteenth century, men like Roger Bacon, 
 and Albert the Great, were well acquainted with 
 Arabic literature, and, through Arabic literature, with 
 the knowledge of the ancient world. Once more the old 
 Greek arguments which prove the sphericity of the earth, 
 the system of zones, the existence of an antipodal world, 
 were thought out and re-stated. Once more the impor- 
 tance of the application of exact mathematical methods 
 to the study of geography was explained and enforced. 
 And once more scientific speculation began as to the con- 
 tents of the unknown world of the South. Bacon quotes 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 17 
 
 the passages which tell of lands in the far South of India, 
 Patala and Taprobane, where shadows fall towards the 
 South ; and in a passage, which was to bear curious fruit, 
 he argues that "the Southern front of India in the region 
 of Pathalis and the neighbouring lands runs out towards the 
 Tropic of Capricorn " ; ^ a misinterpretation which ended, 
 as we shall see, in placing the name of Alexander's town of 
 Patala at the mouth of the Indus on a promontory of the 
 imagined continent of the South having its centre at the 
 
 J' 
 cr 
 
 Chart of 1489. (From Rainaud, Le Continent Austral.) 
 
 South Pole ! Misinterpreting Aristotle, as he had misinter- 
 preted Pliny, Bacon argues that this " place beyond the 
 Tropic of Capricorn" not only exists, but is also " of best 
 habitation, seeing that it is the higher part of the world, 
 and the more noble ; and hence the opinion of some 
 that Paradise is there." Albert the Great held that 
 " the fourth part of the earth " not only existed but was 
 also habitable. He met the theological objection by the 
 argument, in his time growing more and more convincing, 
 that, though to pass the Tropic Ocean is difficult, it is 
 
 ^ " Dico igitur quod frons Indiae meridianus pellitur ad tropicum 
 Capricornum propter regionem Pathalis et terrarum vicinarum " 
 (Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, ed. Bridges, vol. i. p. 309). 
 
 W.A. B 
 
i8 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 7iot impossible ; and that therefore Antipodeans might 
 after all be children of Adam, to be damned, or to be saved. 
 Men, he argues, can live in the Tropics ; and they can live 
 pleasantly in the Southern temperate zone, between 24° 
 S. Lat. and 48° — 50° S. Lat., perhaps even more pleasantly 
 than we can. Dante took the hint of the scholars, and 
 combined it perhaps with some traveller's tale. From 
 the horrid circles. of Hell he emerges to find himself in 
 the Antipodes, exactly opposite Jerusalem. Here is the 
 Mount of Purgatory ; on its summit is the Terrestrial 
 Paradise; and in full view are "four stars ne'er seen 
 before save by the ken of our first parents." 
 An Italian By the fifteenth century we return to the point from 
 th^^South which we started — a Utopia in the South — devised by 
 an Italian scholar, who tells of its " towns, castles, and 
 empires." "These unknown nations are called the 
 Antipodes ; like us they have plants and animals, and 
 fight great battles." ^ 
 
 Thus, by the end of the thirteenth century, scholars 
 were once more acquainted with the geographical know- 
 ledge of Greeks and Romans.^ But they knew little or 
 The • nothing more. And what they read they often misunder- 
 e?lomtfon^ ^^^^'^- When Roger Bacon, thoroughly up-to-date, in- 
 1253. ' quisitive, daring, sat down in his Oxford study in 1267 
 
 to write of the world of the South, his best authorities 
 were Aristotle and Pliny, " whom all saints and ages 
 have followed." From Aristotle he learnt that the Garden 
 of Eden was in Australia. From Pliny he learnt that 
 Patala, really at the mouth of the Indus, was " towards 
 the Tropic of Capricorn." And yet, as we read his book, 
 we are conscious of a new spirit which will soon make 
 his geographical statements absurdly out of date. He 
 tells us that he has not been content to read Pliny and 
 other ancient authors. He has also had recourse to modern 
 travellers, and especially to a certain Franciscan brother, 
 William de Rubruquis, whom the King of France had 
 
 ^ Rainaud's Le Continent Austral, p. 134. 
 
 2 Cf. map of 1489 on p. 17, taken from Rainaud ; an illustration of 
 the reappearance of Mela's Alter Orbis. 
 
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 19 
 
 sent to the Tartars in 1253. " I have dihgently read his 
 book and talked with its author, and likewise with many 
 others who have travelled in places East and South." 
 This is the beginning of a new chapter in our story. Geo- 
 graphical knowledge is once more to be founded, not on 
 the study of ancient writings, but on modern travel, 
 interpreted by modern science. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE INDIAN OCEAN IN THE THIRTEENTH 
 CENTURY 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography. 
 Spencer's Native Tribes of North Australia. 
 Wallace's Malay Archipelago. 
 Macmillan Brown's The Dutch East. 
 MooKERji's Indian Shipping. 
 Hunter's History of British India. 
 
 But before we follow the story of European discovery 
 in the South, it is well that we gather what knowledge 
 we may of the Indian Ocean at the time this story began. 
 The lone While scholars, Greek, Roman, and Christian, had been 
 island spinning arguments about the contents of the Southern 
 temperate region "to us unknown," how were things 
 going in the island continent, and in the Ocean which 
 washed its shores ? 
 
 What seems to be certain, in the midst of so much 
 The uncertainty, is that the Australian natives who, in the 
 
 practice of <^3,teless backward of History, had .passed along the islands 
 Black from India, lived for untold centuries in their final home 
 in almost complete isolation.^ Their civilization was 
 a very poor thing, but it was their own. Throughout 
 
 ^ See an interesting essay by Professor Griffith Taylor on The Evolu- 
 tion and Distribution of Race, Culture, and Language in the Geographical 
 Review, Jan. 1921. " Nothing is so dangerous to a people as complete 
 isolation. The natural barrier, which preserved the Australian 
 aboriginals from invasion, also resulted in their remaining in the same 
 low state of civilisation for 100,000 years." The guess is that they got 
 to Australia by an almost continuous bridge, which was knocked to 
 pieces about 100,000 years ago ! 
 
 20 
 
 Australia. 
 
INDIAN OCEAN IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY 21 
 
 Australia manners and customs were essentially the same, 
 almost the worst manners and customs in the world, 
 except those of Tasmania. There is no trace, or at most 
 there is only a very faint trace, of any foreign element in 
 their midst, or of any foreign influence exercised upon them. 
 Australia was an all-black Australia. Immigrants from 
 other countries were not excluded by law, but they landed 
 at risk of their lives. " The coastal natives of the North," 
 writes Professor Spencer, " are strong and fierce, and 
 always on the look-out to kill intruders, and for a stranger 
 to venture into the bush would be certain death." 
 Australia resolutely played a lone hand in the world. ^ 
 
 And yet one cannot look at a modern map without Yet 
 feeling sure that Australia must have been visited in very ^^l ^t!^ 
 early times. It is not geographically a very isolated proachable. 
 land. It is tied to Asia by a string of islands, large, fertile, 
 populous, which lie so close together that they may possibly 
 have been represented to Ptolemy as one continuous land, 
 the great South-East extension of " Silk-land," which 
 formed the Eastern side of his land-locked Indian Ocean. 
 It seems, indeed, that at one time they were almost one 
 continuous land. "The chain of islands," writes Mr. Wallace, 
 "which extends from the Malay Peninsula towards Aus- 
 tralia, ending with Timor . . . represents a former con- 
 tinental extension, probably only broken by the channel 
 between Bali and Lombok (fifteen miles wide) and a 
 channel between Timor and Australia, twenty miles wide." ^ 
 
 ^ Cf. Spencer's Native Tribes of North Australia : " There is only- 
 very rarely indeed seen anything like a trace of Malay blood. ... It 
 is possible that, on very rare occasions, a Malay or Macassar man may- 
 have succeeded in having intercourse with an aboriginal woman, but he 
 could do so only at the risk of his life. . . . The coastal natives are 
 strong and fierce and always on the look-out to kill intruders . . . for 
 a stranger to venture into the bush would be certain death. ... I have 
 once, but only once, seen a native who had clearly some Malay blocd 
 in her." Spencer says, however, that the drawings and decorations 
 of the Melville and Bathurst islanders are entirely distinct from any 
 on the mainland, and suggest contact in time past with a people whose 
 art was more akin to that of the islands to the North-East than to 
 anything in Austraha (pp. 407-8). 
 
 2 " The former channel has sufficed to stop the advance of the larger 
 animals from the Asiatic to the Austral region, and the latter channel 
 has similarly prevented Australian mammals from entering Timor." 
 
22 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Galvano, the Portuguese governor of the Moluccas in the 
 early sixteenth century, who ought to have had good 
 information about the islands, thought that in Ptolemy's 
 time there probably had been a continuous land, after- 
 wards shattered into fragments by the earthquakes which 
 are so frequent and so tremendous in these regions ; and 
 he declared that, even in his days, the islands were so close 
 together that, sailing between two of them, you could 
 at the same time touch the trees on both sides ! This, 
 no doubt, exaggerated their nearness to a ridiculous degree. 
 And yet, taking the islands as they actually are, one thinks 
 that their inhabitants must have been a race as unenter- 
 prising and as stay-at-home as the Australian blackfellows 
 themselves, if they were incapable of the hop, skip, and 
 jump that would have landed them on the Northern 
 coast of Austraha. 
 
 As a matter of fact these islands were inhabited by 
 Probably the Malays, who were far from being an unenterprising or 
 visiSdthe stay-at-home race of men. They were a virile, energetic, 
 North-West fierce people, with a civilization, barbarous indeed, yet 
 far ahead of the simple savagery of the Australian natives. 
 The Javans, especially, were organized at an early date 
 under a strong, efficient monarchy, which dominated 
 the neighbouring islands, and even established an empire 
 in Asia.^ Cavendish, the Elizabethan seaman, said that the 
 Javans were " the most valiant people in all the Southern 
 parts of the world ; for they never fear any death." 
 And especially were they famous for their navigation, 
 which made them, said Laperouse, the Phoenicians 
 of the medieval world. Again and again the Portuguese 
 writers of the sixteenth century emphasize the Javan 
 reputation for seamanship. "They have got many 
 ships, and great navigators, and many rowing galleys. 
 They are great corsairs and mariners, and make arms of 
 steel." " They navigate to every part of the Eastern 
 Archipelago, and say that formerly they used to navigate 
 the Ocean as far as Madagascar." ^ " They claim 
 
 1 Beazley, vol. i. p. 438 
 
 ' Barbosa (15 15) edited Hakluyt Society, p. 198, 
 
INDIAN OCEAN IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY 23 
 
 priority in navigation to all others, though some say 
 the Chinese preceded the Javans." ^ It would be sur- 
 prising if these Javan corsairs and mariners, at home 
 in every part of the Eastern Archipelago, sailing the 
 ocean as far as Madagascar, did not chance now and then 
 to land on the North-West coast of Australia. When 
 Flinders was exploring the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1802, 
 he was startled by the appearance of six Malay prows 
 which proved to be engaged in collecting Trepang or 
 Beche-de-mer (sea-cucumber) as a dainty for the China 
 market. 2 He learnt that " the natives of Macassar had 
 long been accustomed to fish for the Trepang amongst 
 the islands in the vicinity of Java, . . . but, about twenty 
 years before, one of them had been driven by the North- 
 West monsoon to the coast of New Holland, and finding 
 the Trepang to be abundant, they afterwards returned, 
 and had continued to fish there since that time." ^ Who 
 shall say in what far-off unrecorded cycle of Cathay the 
 North-West monsoon first drove Malay prows to the North 
 Australian coast } Its desolate appearance, the ferocity 
 of its men, the unloveliness of its women, the apparent 
 lack of everything eatable except fish, are sufficient expla- 
 nation of the fact that visitors did not become settlers. 
 The Malays were barbarians, and not even respectable 
 barbarians. But they were in touch with other races And Malays 
 who were far from being barbarians. Their voyages jndlans^^^ 
 carried them far. Their islands were large and fertile, Arabians, 
 producing commodities very good for commerce. Among ^" mese. 
 them were the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, a httle group 
 of tiny specks of land, — Banda, Amboyna, Ternate, Tidore 
 — ^which produced the world's supply of nutmegs and 
 mace, cloves and allspice. The possession of a complete 
 monopoly of that which all civilized nations must have at 
 any price made the Malay prows welcome everywhere. 
 Especially were they welcome at Malacca, the great central 
 exchange of the Far East, where from time immemorial 
 Malays met Chinese, Hindus, and Arabs. With all these 
 
 ^ De Conti. 2 Flinders, vol. ii. p. 230. 
 
 ^ Flinders, vol. ii. p. 257. 
 
H THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 races they traded, and with all of them they talked ; and 
 it would again be surprising if nothing were said of the 
 desolate coast line to the far South, to which, according 
 to our reasonable conjecture, Malay prows had been 
 blown by some North- West monsoon, and from which, 
 likely enough, they may have brought away a store of 
 sea-cucumbers, acceptable to civilized palates in the nations 
 of Asia. 
 
 Moreover, these civilized nations traded to the Malay 
 islands, and especially to Java, " the Clapham Junction," 
 writes Mr. Macmillan Brown, " of ancient Oriental trade 
 routes." Let us notice the importance of this point more 
 exactly. We are to observe that the Malay islands, the 
 seamen of which probably had some sHght and disre- 
 spectful acquaintance with the coast of Austraha, were 
 themselves well within the scope of the regular system 
 of Asiatic commerce, in permanent touch with great 
 Oriental civilizations which existed in days before the 
 names of Athens and Rome had been heard, and which 
 still existed in those days of the young Renaissance, when 
 Europeans, following the beacon lit by Marco Polo, found 
 the long way to Australasian seas. 
 Indian " For three centuries," writes Professor Mookerji,^ 
 
 Suied'in^ " ^^^^^ stoo^ o^t ^s the very heart of the old world, 
 Java. and maintained her position as one of the foremost mari- 
 
 time countries.^ She had colonies in Pegu, in Cambodia, 
 in Java, in Sumatra, in Borneo, and even in the countries 
 of the Further East, as far as Japan. She had trading 
 settlements in South China, in the Malayan Peninsula, 
 in Arabia, and in all the chief cities of Persia, and all 
 . over the East coast of Africa." Buddhism was dominant 
 in India from about 250 B.C. to about 700 a.d. ; and 
 Buddhism, writes Sir Wilham Hunter, was " a rehgion 
 of enterprise both mercantile and missionary." ? 
 " During the first few centuries of the Christian era an 
 enthusiastic band of devoted Bengalis, burning with a 
 
 1 Mookerji, p. 4. 
 
 2 Cf. Rawlinson's India and the Western World, p. 138. 
 ' Hunter, vol. i. p. 44. 
 
INDIAN OCEAN IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY 25 
 
 proselytising zeal, went as far as China, Corea and Japan, 
 carrying with them the torch of Buddistic faith." ^ 
 Most interesting to us is the Buddhist colonization 
 of Java, which began in the year 75 a.d. " The adven- 
 turous navigators planted a colony, built towns and cities, 
 anil developed a trade with the mother country which 
 existed for several centuries,"^ Further migrations 
 took place from India to Java, and there grew up in that 
 fertile island a splendid Hindu civilization, which found 
 expression in the great Temples of Prambanam and 
 Borobudur, " the grandest specimen of Buddhist art 
 in the whole of Asia." ^ In their sculptures we may 
 still see the story told how Hindoo navigators set sail 
 to colonize Java. 
 
 We learn then that, from the first century of the Chris- 
 tian era, there were regular voyages between India and 
 Java, that in Java there was a permanent Hindu colony 
 of fervent missionaries and keen merchants, inspired 
 by high aims, commanding great material resources, 
 and possessing excellent ships. Of Hindu voyages beyond 
 Java we have no news. But we may assume that any- 
 thing the Javans may have learnt of the continent to 
 the South would travel, in the form of rumours at least, 
 as far as India. 
 
 More important, from our present point of view, were Arabian 
 the voyages of the Arabs, or Saracens, or Moors, as they voyages, 
 are variously called.* The religion of Mahomed was 
 a rehgion that aimed at the conquest of the world ; and 
 so fervent was its early missionary zeal, and so keen 
 was its sword, that in less than a century it had actually 
 conquered the world from the Atlantic to the Himalayas ; ^ 
 and, but for the sudden death of a Caliph, we are told, 
 ^^would probably have extended its sway to the Pacific. 
 
 ^^K ^ Mookerji, p. 155. 2 jyjQQi^gj-jj^ p j^g ^ jyjQQi^gj-jj^ p j^j 
 
 ^^B * See map in Beazley, vol. ill., to illustrate the geographical knowledge 
 ^^Ef the Arabians. Printed in this volume, p. 27. 
 
 ^F ^ " The last of the Ommiades (750 ad.) reigned over three-quarters 
 of the Empire of Alexander, and a quarter of the dominion of Trajan " 
 (Beazley, vol. i. p. 397). 
 
26 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 It was, moreover, a religion that made no war on civilization, 
 either material or intellectual. " Controlling as they 
 did from the seventh century most of the centres of ancient 
 learning in Africa and Asia, the Arabs were able to take 
 advantage of older knowledge " ; and " no race has ever 
 shown a greater keenness for the acquisition of knowledge 
 or more favour to the growth of science." ^ While 
 Europe sat in darkness, Bagdad became the centre of 
 a splendid civilization. Mahomedans, and not Christians, 
 became heirs to Greek culture. Especially was this the 
 case in respect to geographic knowledge. Ptolemy re- 
 mained unread by Europeans till the fifteenth century. 
 But, already in the ninth century, his books were translated 
 into Arabic, and became the inspiration of a native Arabic 
 science, which in its turn, though not till the thirteenth 
 century, was accepted by Christian scholars like Roger 
 Bacon as their teacher and master. Already in the 
 ninth century, observatories were founded at Bagdad 
 and at Damascus, and the " first school of geographical 
 science since the Antonines " was formed.^ Arabian 
 travellers co-operated with Arabian men of science, and 
 surveyed every sea from Spain to China, from Cairo to 
 Madagascar, from Java to Canton. Arabian merchants 
 traded and colonized on the East coast of Africa, on the 
 
 Arabians West coast of India, in Sumatra, in Java ^ and in China. 
 
 jltl!"^ '"^ " The Indian Ocean," writes Sir William Hunter, 
 " became an outlying domain of Islam." * Out of 
 Arabian travel-books Arabian writers spun the world- 
 romance of Sinbad the Sailor, " the Arabian Odyssey," 
 " a true history in a romantic setting of Moslem travels 
 in the ninth and tenth centuries." ^ Sinbad's tracks 
 have been traced by the modern scholar, and have been 
 reduced to the prose of geography. His flight from the 
 island, tied to the leg of a gigantic bird called a rue, 
 to the valley of Diamonds, is the romantic way of describing 
 a voyage from Madagascar to India. It is claimed that 
 
 ^ Beazley, vol. i. p. 393. * Beazley, vol. i. p. 409. 
 
 3 Beazley, vol. i. p. 428. * Hunter, vol. i. p. 47. 
 
 '^ Beazley, vol. i. pp. 439-446. 
 
I 
 
28 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 no evidence 
 that they 
 visited 
 Australia. 
 
 he has been traced to Japan, to the Moluccas, to Java, 
 and to Timor. The " old man of the sea " who never 
 spoke, who lived on fruits, whose skin was like a buffalo's, 
 and who had immense prehensile power in his legs, 
 was probably an orang-outang of Borneo or Sumatra,^ 
 the ancestor of those animals whose habits have been 
 so lovingly described by Mr. Wallace, 
 But there is We find then this great maritime race sailing in every 
 sea. And yet there were definite limits to their skill 
 and to their knowledge. Far as they sailed, they never 
 seem to have felt themselves at home on the open ocean. 
 Their writers even exaggerate the old superstitious dread 
 of its perils. "The Ocean," wrote Edrisi about 1150, 
 " encircles the ultimate bounds of the inhabited earth, 
 and all beyond is unknown. No one has been able to 
 verify anything concerning it, on account of its difficult 
 and perilous navigation, its great obscurity, its profound 
 depth, and frequent tempests ; through fear of its mighty 
 fishes and its haughty winds, there is no mariner who 
 dares to enter into its deep waters ; if any have done so, 
 they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing 
 from them." ^ Though they rejected Ptolemy's doctrine 
 of a landlocked Indian Ocean, they declared it impossible 
 to sail further South than Sofal'a or Madagascar or Zanzi- 
 bar ; so thick and so mountainous became the sea, and 
 so full of monstrous things.^ And though they knew 
 Sumatra, and Java, and perhaps Timor, and though they 
 must have shared whatever knowledge may have been 
 possessed by the Malays or Hindus, there seems no evidence 
 that they had heard of Australia. Sinbad the Sailor 
 knew a good deal about the orang-outang of Borneo 
 or Sumatra, and he had heard about the great bird of 
 Madagascar ; but there is no reason to believe that he 
 ever faced the Kangaroo. 
 
 Still more interesting to us are the voyages of the Chinese. 
 From time immemorial the Chinese were famous navi- 
 
 Chinese 
 traded to 
 Java. 
 
 1 Beazley, vol. i. p. 448. 
 
 ^ Quoted in Young's Columbus, vol. i. p. 41. 
 
 * Rainaud, p. 104. 
 
INDIAN OCEAN IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY 29 
 
 gators. They invented, if not the compass, at all events 
 something that resembled the compass, so early as a.d. 
 121, and Mr. Beazley gives us a picture of the little mag- 
 netized man who stood on the prow of the Chinese ship 
 in the eighth and ninth centuries, indicating the South 
 by outstretched hand.^ Under such guidance their 
 great junks, capable of holding six hundred or seven 
 hundred men, sailed the seas from Canton to the Persian 
 Gulf. 2 For, till the Revolution of 878, the Chinese were, 
 a commercial nation, welcoming the merchants of India, 
 of Persia, and of Arabia, and themselves making trading 
 voyages to these distant lands. In China, as in India, 
 religion as well as commerce had made men travellers. 
 Chinese Buddhists travelled to India both overland and 
 by sea. Sometimes they visited Java on the way ; for 
 Java, we remember, was at the time one of the great centres 
 of Buddhist worship. There is even a story that Chinese 
 Buddhists visited and colonized a distant land in the 
 East, which some historians have identified with America. 
 After 878, it is true, a new policy reigned in China. The 
 foreign merchants were massacred or expelled. Chinese 
 voyages henceforth seldom extended beyond Ceylon. 
 And yet, later improvements in the compass seem to show 
 that Chinese navigators still continued energetic, scien- 
 tific, progressive. The earliest use of the water-compass, 
 we are told, is fixed at iiii to 1117, nearly a century 
 earlier than its first mention in Europe (1180-1190).® 
 In the thirteenth century the Mongol conquest once 
 more made China a commercial nation, with doors wide 
 open to foreign trade, and with merchant ships eager 
 for new markets, however distant. But on the subject 
 of Chinese navigation in the days of the Great Kaan 
 our authority is Marco Polo, and we now turn from our 
 survey of the Indian Ocean in the thirteenth century 
 to follow the story of European travel. 
 
 Let us, for the present, note with emphasis the fact that The 
 our story centres in Java. If Asia had any knowledge of o? java^n^ 
 
 ^ Beazley, vol. i. p. 489. 2 Beazley, vol. i. p. 485. ^' 
 
 ^ Beazley, vol. i. p. 490 note. 
 
30 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Australia that knowledge came by way of Java. If Arabs, 
 Hindoos or Chinese had heard aught of the great land 
 of the South they must have heard it from the Malays 
 of that island. And we shall find that, when we ask 
 the question, what did European travellers know about 
 Austraha } we have at the same time to ask the question, 
 what did they know about Java } 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 MARCO POLO 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Yule's Marco Polo. 
 
 Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither. 
 
 Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography. 
 
 In the early thirteenth century the Eastern world was The open- 
 turned upside down by the Tartars or Mongols, whose 55on^ o1 
 conquests extended over the whole of the North of Asia 
 and the East of Europe. Now the Mongols were heathen, 
 but they were heathen with a singularly open and in- 
 quisitive mind. Here then to Europe was both a danger 
 and an opportunity ; a danger that the Mongol deluge, 
 which had swept the East, might also sweep the West : 
 an opportunity to convert the open-minded heathen to 
 Christian civilization, and to find in him an ally against 
 the Mahomedans. 
 
 , It was just at this time that the sons of Francis were Missionary 
 seeking knightly venture in distant lands; and in 1253 ^^^.^^^.^^^^^g 
 one of them, William de Rubruquis, had visited the Great from 1253. 
 Kaan in the heart of Mongolia, and came back to tell 
 his fellow Franciscan Roger Bacon of the singular 
 " Parliament of Religions," held at the suggestion 
 of the Mongol chief, and under his presidency, in 
 which Saracens, Christians and Buddhists had contended 
 for their Faiths. He brought back news also that Cathay 
 was bounded on the East by an open sea : news which 
 may have been in Roger Bacon's mind when he quoted 
 the opinion of Aristotle that the distance by sea from Spain 
 to Asia could not be very great : an opinion which did 
 
 31 
 
32 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 much to launch Columbus on the voyage in which he 
 sought Cathay, and found America. 
 
 But, for the present, the news was of greatest interest 
 to men of commerce, and especially to merchants of the 
 The enter- great ItaHan Republics, who for centuries had been agents 
 prise of ^^^ middlemen for Europe in the trade which brought 
 merchants, to rich men in the West the indispensable luxuries produced 
 by the East and by the East alone. Jewels and pearls, 
 precious woven fabrics of silk and of cotton, spices of all 
 sorts, had been brought from the East by various routes, 
 by land and by sea, till they arrived at a string of 
 seaports on the Mediterranean, extending from Constan- 
 tinople to Alexandria, whence Italian merchants dis- 
 tributed them throughout Europe. While the Crusades 
 prospered. Christian merchants had actually possessed 
 these invaluable ports. But in the thirteenth century 
 the Crusades were coming to an end, and, with the fall 
 of Acre, this commanding position was completely lost, 
 though both Christians and Mohamedans were by this 
 time sufficiently commercial to be willing to continue 
 a trade very profitable to both. And now the marvellous 
 Liberalism of the Mongol heathen gave the merchant 
 a chance to outflank the Mohamedan powers altogether, 
 to penetrate into the very heart of the golden East, and 
 to survey for himself the treasure-houses of the world. 
 In about 1260, two prosperous Venetian merchants, 
 Nicolo and Matteo Polo, took a " rich and varied cargo 
 of merchandise " to Constantinople, and determined, in 
 order " to improve their capital," that they would pro- 
 secute their journeys into the Black Sea. They sailed 
 The Polos to the Crimea, thence took horse to the court of a Chief 
 1^60^1292' ^^ ^^^ Western Tartars, and in the end, journeying through 
 Central Asia, came to the court of the Great Kaan ^ Kublai 
 in Cathay itself. The Great Kaan received them with 
 " condescension and affability," made " earnest enquiries " 
 about the condition of Europe, and "above all he questioned 
 
 1 See note on the words Kaan and Khan in Yule's Marco Polo, vol. i. 
 p. 10. " Polo always writes Kaan as applied to the Great Khan, and 
 • does not, I think, use Khan in any form." 
 
MARCO POLO 33 
 
 them particularly respecting the Pope, the affairs of the 
 Church, and the religious worship and doctrine of the 
 Christians." Finally he sent the Polos home with a 
 request to the Pope to send him one hundred men of learning, 
 thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the Christian 
 religion as well as with the Seven Arts. The Polos reached 
 Venice in 1269, and set out again for Cathay in 1 271. 
 They had failed to induce men of learning to accompany 
 them ; but they took with them Marco, the son of Nicolo. 
 They journeyed through Acre and Bagdad to Ormuz ; 
 then took " the straight road for Cathay " northward 
 of the Himalayas ; and, after a journey of three and 
 a half years, they arrived at the Court of the Great Kaan 
 in 1275. They were " graciously received." Marco was 
 " enrolled among his attendants of honour." He " adopted 
 the manners of the Tartars, and acquired a proficiency 
 in four different languages." He was employed on " im- 
 portant concerns of State," travelled as far as Tibet 
 and Bengal and " the Indian seas," and " endeavoured 
 wherever he went to obtain correct information, and made 
 notes of all he saw and heard." 
 
 In the course of seventeen years the Polos amassed 
 " considerable wealth in jewels and gold," and now wished 
 to return to Venice. The Great Kaan at first refused Marco comes 
 permission. It chanced, however, that a Mongol princess °"^^' ^^^^' 
 had to be convoyed to Persia, there to be married. The 
 overland route was blocked by wars among Tartar princes. 
 Just then Marco returned from a voyage he had made 
 tc " the East Indies," and guaranteed a passage to Persia 
 "with the utmost safety." The offer was accepted; 
 and the Polos," as being persons well skilled in the practice 
 of navigation," were placed in command of a fleet to take 
 the princess to Persia. The fleet was composed of " four- 
 teen ships, each having four masts, and capable of being 
 navigated with nine sails, and there were at least four 
 or five that had crews of two hundred and fifty or two 
 hundred and sixty men." The voyage was a long affair. 
 After about three months they arrived at Java Minor 
 (Sumatra), where they were detained five months by 
 
34 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 contrary winds. They " employed eighteen months in the 
 Indian seas." At last they landed their princess in Persia, 
 and journeyed on hy way of Trebizond and Constantinople 
 to Venice (1295). According to the traditionary story, 
 they were not recognized till they ripped open their thread- 
 bare garments, and poured on the table a stream of costly 
 jewels. 
 
 In 1298 Marco was given command of a galley in a 
 The Book of great naval battle with the Genoese. The Venetians 
 
 Ser Marco were defeated, and Marco was among the captured. In 
 
 Polo, 
 
 dictated prison he met with a gentleman of Pisa, who was so enter- 
 
 ^^98. tained by his anecdotes of travel that he wrote them 
 
 down, and made out of them the most famous and most 
 important travel book in the world's history, " the Book 
 of Ser Marco Polo concerning the kingdoms and marvels 
 of the East." " From the creation of Adam to this present 
 day," declares our Pisan editor, " no man whether pagan, 
 or Saracen, or Christian, or other, ever saw or enquired 
 into so much and such great things as Marco Polo." 
 The The claim was entirely just. How enormous was the 
 
 the^indian°^ sudden addition made to geographic knowledge we 
 Ocean. best realize by reading the pages in which Roger Bacon, 
 
 most up-to-date and dare-devil of Marco's contempor- 
 aries, sought by patient study of Aristotle and Pliny 
 to discover the contents of the unknown world of East 
 and South. Now, for the first time, and at one magic 
 stroke, there stood revealed all the kingdoms of the world, 
 and all the glory thereof. From Constantinople to Pekin, 
 from Pekin to Java, from Java to Colombo and to Aden, 
 from Cairo to Madagascar, the whole Eastern world was 
 described in convincing detail. The substance of the 
 book was based on his own travels and his own experiences 
 recorded in his " notes." And, where he could not see 
 for himself, he had made careful inquiries from those 
 who had seen, or who claimed to have seen. He had 
 studied maps and charts of Chinese and Arabians. He 
 had hstened to all the traveller's tales told by " persons 
 worthy of credit," all the rumours and legends written 
 in books or passed from mouth to mouth : and he had 
 
MARCO POLO 
 
 35 
 
 ^'b \ 
 
 
 
 
 -/^C r ^r-fV 
 
 ^ * •'' f- ^'\ /i-^ '".-v -^-T'n: 
 
 M 
 
 y 
 
 
 
36 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 put down everything, facts and fancies, in his book of 
 marvels for what they might seem worth. And thus 
 we get a wonderful picture of things seen and things heard, 
 a picture painted, on a gigantic canvas, and with Vene- 
 tian colour. It revolutionized geographical conceptions. 
 It was the main inspiration of Columbus. It influenced 
 for centuries the minds of those who made voyages in 
 Australian seas. And still, to the modern student, it 
 is both true history and delightful romance, embodying 
 geographical knowledge and guesses as to the contents 
 of the Indian Ocean at the end of the thirteenth century. 
 
 All things that men knew about the Indian Ocean 
 Marco Polo knew.^ The wisdom of China was at his 
 disposal, and we shall notice in a moment what he 
 Venetian learnt from it about the Southern World. Though he 
 CO our. never visited Java, he met Malay seamen in the ports 
 of " the Indian seas," and took notes of their talk. 
 Indian Buddhists, — " Idolaters " he irreverently calls 
 them, — he met both in Bengal and in Ceylon. Arabs or 
 " Saracens " he met everywhere. The Great Kaan's 
 prime minister was a Saracen, who oppressed the native 
 Chinese, caused a rebellion, and came to a bad end. In 
 Sumatra, Marco found Saracen merchants converting 
 the idolaters to the religion of Mahomed, and they told 
 him of " men with tails, a span in length," who lived 
 a secluded life among the mountains — the descendants 
 evidently of Sinbad's Old Man of the Sea ! He found 
 Saracens again in Ceylon, disputing with the " idolaters " 
 the great question as to whether the famous relics of 
 teeth and hair had belonged to Adam or to Buddha, 
 and representing the former view so effectually to the 
 Great Kaan that he sent an embassy to the King of Ceylon 
 to demand them, and actually obtained from him " two 
 large back teeth together with some of the hair of the 
 Father of Mankind." He talked with " mariners and 
 eminent pilots," and he read " the writings of those who 
 have navigated the Indian seas," and learnt that those 
 
 1 See Yule's Map (vol. i. p. io8) giving " Probable view of Marco 
 Polo's own geography," reproduced in this volume, p. 35. 
 
MARCO POLO 37 
 
 seas contained no fewer than 12,700 islands. He heard 
 of the unhappy island where there were men without 
 women ; and of the perhaps still more unhappy island 
 where there were women without men — all " baptized 
 Christians, but holding the law of the Old Testament." 
 He heard also of the very large island of Socotra, where 
 all the people were Christians, and did big business in 
 " ambergris voided from the entrails of whales." And he 
 heard also of the great island of Madagascar, in circuit 3,000 
 miles, " one of the largest and most fertile in the world," and 
 of " numerous islands lying further South," which however 
 were not frequented, in consequence of the current running 
 so strongly to the Southward as to render the return 
 impossible ! " Beyond Madagascar again lies the island 
 of Zanzibar, 2,000 miles in circuit, peopled by naked 
 blacks, with hair so crisp that even when dipped in water 
 it can with difficulty be drawn out, with large mouths, 
 turned-up noses, long ears, and eyes so large and frightful 
 that they have the aspect of demons " — a vivid, though 
 somewhat heightened, portrait of the negroes of the African 
 Continent. Marco's Arab friends told him also that the 
 people of Madagascar spoke of "an extraordinary kind 
 of bird which they call a rue," in form resembling an eagle, 
 but incomparably greater in size, being so large and strong 
 as to seize an elephant with its talons, lift it in the air, 
 as jackass ^ lifts snake, letting it fall to the ground, 
 in order that it may prey upon the carcase. Marco 
 thought the creatures must be griffins, such as are repre- 
 sented in paintings, half birds half lions ; but it was in- 
 sisted that they were wholly birds, like eagles. The 
 Great Kaan had sent messengers all the way to inquire 
 into this extraordinary phenomenon ; " and, when they 
 returned to the presence of his Majesty, they brought 
 with them (as I have heard) a feather of a rue, positively 
 affirmed to have measured ninety spans, and the quill 
 part to have been two palms in circumference. This sur- 
 prising exhibition afforded his Majesty extreme pleasure." 
 The science of zoology has made attempts to account 
 ^ The Australian Kookooburra, or Laughing Jackass. 
 
38 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 for the rue by referenees to various giant birds now 
 extinet. What is evident is that the rue who lifted 
 elephants into the air, was the same mighty bird to whose 
 leg Sinbad tied himself, and which conveyed him swiftly 
 from the great island in the South to the Valley of the 
 Diamonds in India. 
 The But the special interest of Marco's book for us is the 
 
 of^atha^ information he gives about Chinese navigators in the 
 direction of Australia in the days of the Great Kaan. 
 His description of China is written from intimate first- 
 hand knowledge extending over seventeen years, and 
 from notes taken on the spot. China is the seat of incom- 
 parably the most splendid civilization in the world. " The 
 magnificence of the Grand Kaan is unequalled by that of 
 any monarch in the world." " In respect of the numbers 
 of his subjects, the extent of his territory, the amount 
 of his revenue, he surpasses every sovereign that has 
 heretofore been or that now is in the world." Province 
 after province of the huge Empire Marco surveys, giving 
 a monotonous picture of a civilization far in advance, 
 both in intellectual and in material things, of the most 
 progressive countries of Europe. And this civilization 
 found its centres in huge seaport towns, with populations 
 running up to i,6oo,000 families, with streets well paved 
 and well drained, with excellent arrangements of police 
 and fire-brigade, and " surpassing in grandeur and in 
 wealth every other city in the world." This gigantic 
 prosperity was founded on maritime commerce. To 
 Cambaluc (Peking) " are brought articles of greater cost 
 and rarity, and in greater abundance of all kinds, than to 
 any other city in the world. For people of every descrip- 
 tion, and from every region, bring things (including all 
 the costly wares of India), some for the sovereign, some 
 for the court, some for the city which is so great, some for 
 the great hosts of the Emperor, which are quartered round 
 about ; and thus, between court and city, the quantity 
 brought in is endless." In Singu (I-ching-hien) — and 
 Singu was " a city of no great size" — Marco saw 15,000 
 ships at one time. Kinsay (Hang-chau), " the City of 
 
MARCO POLO 39 
 
 Heaven," one hundred miles in circuit, its canals crossed 
 by twelve thousand bridges, has, twenty-five miles away 
 down the river, " a town and an excellent haven, with 
 a vast amount of shipping, which is engaged in the traffic 
 to and from India and other foreign parts, exporting and 
 importing many kinds of wares, by which the city benefits." 
 " Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's 
 officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced 
 daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 
 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs." 
 
 This great ocean trade was carried in ships which Marco Chinese 
 describes in detail : — " These ships, you must know, are ^^p^ ^^^^ 
 of fir timber. They have but one deck, though each of their 
 them contains some fifty or sixty cabins, wherein the ^*^y^8®^- 
 merchants abide greatly at their ease, every man having 
 one to himself. The ship hath but one rudder, but it hath 
 four masts ; and sometimes they have two additional 
 masts, which they ship and unship at pleasure. Moreover 
 the larger of their vessels have some thirteen compartments 
 or severances in the interior^ made with planking strongly 
 framed, in case mayhap the ship should spring a leak 
 either by running on a rock or by the blow of a hungry 
 whale. . . . The fastenings are all of good iron nails, and 
 the sides are double, one plank laid over the other, and 
 caulked outside and in. The planks are not pitched, for 
 those people do not have any pitch, but they daub the 
 sides with another matter, deemed by them far better than 
 pitch ; it is this. You see they take some lime and some 
 chopped hemp, and these they knead together with a 
 certain wood-oil ; and, when the three are thoroughly 
 amalgamated, they hold like any glue. And with this 
 mixture they do paint their ships. Each of their great 
 ships requires at least 200 mariners, some of them 300. 
 They are indeed of great size, for one ship shall carry 
 5,000 or 6,000 baskets of pepper. And aboard these ships, 
 you must know, when there is no wind they use sweeps, 
 and these sweeps are so big that to pull them requires 
 four mariners to each. Each great ship has certain large 
 barks or tenders attached to it ; these are large enough to 
 
40 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 carry lOOO baskets of pepper, and carry fifty or sixty 
 
 mariners apiece, and they are likewise moved by oars. . . . 
 
 There are also ten small boats for the service of each 
 
 great ship. . . . When the ship is under sail she carries 
 
 these boats slung to her sides." 
 Whither did Now, how far did the Chinese merchants, sailing in these 
 they sail ? splendid ships, penetrate the ocean in the direction of 
 
 Australia } Marco tells what he knows in a passage that 
 requires careful study. After completing the description 
 of Cathay, the Pisan gentleman, who is telling us what 
 Marco had told him, remarks that " our Book as yet does 
 
 not contain nearly all that we purpose to put therein. For 
 we have still to tell you all about the people of India, and 
 the notable things of that country, which are well worth 
 describing, for they are marvellous indeed. What we shall 
 tell is all true, and without any lies. And we shall set 
 down all the particulars in writing just as Messer Marco 
 Polo related them. And he well knew the facts." 
 Cipango and After telling, apparently from hearsay, of Cipango 
 Isfands^^ (Japan), with its palaces roofed with gold — gold which 
 Columbus hoped to melt into coin to pay for the Crusades 
 that should recover the Holy Sepulchre — he describes 
 the " Eastern sea of Chin." " I tell you with regard to 
 that Eastern sea of Chin, according to what is said by the 
 experienced pilots and mariners of those parts, there be 
 7,459 Islands in the waters frequented by the said mariners ; 
 and that is how they know that fact, for their whole life 
 is spent in navigating that sea. And there is not one of 
 those Islands but produces valuable and odorous woods 
 like the lign-aloe, aye and better too ; and they produce 
 also a great quantity of spices. For example, in those 
 Islands grows pepper as white as snow, as well as the black 
 in great quantities. In fact the riches of those Islands is 
 something wonderful, whether in gold or precious stones, . 
 or in all manner of spices, but they lie so far off from the 
 main land that it is hard to get to them. And when the 
 ships of Zayton and Kinsay do voyage thither they make 
 vast profits by their venture. It takes them a whole year 
 for the voyage, going in winter and returning in summer. 
 
MARCO POLO 41 
 
 For in that Sea there be but two winds that blow, the one 
 that carries them outward, and the other that brings them 
 homeward ; and the one of these winds blows all the 
 winter, and the other all the summer. And you must 
 know these regions are so far from India that it takes a 
 long time also for the voyage thence. . . . Now let us have 
 done with that region which is very inaccessible and out 
 of the way. Moreover Messer Marco Polo never was 
 there. And let me tell you the Great Kaan has nothing to 
 do with them, nor do they render him any tribute or service." 
 He therefore returns to his description of the Chinese 
 coast, and takes us Southward to "the great country called 
 Chamba," the modern Cochin China, a very rich region, 
 where the people are idolaters, and pay a yearly tribute of 
 elephants, and nothing but elephants, to the Great Kaan. 
 And then comes the passage that is of especial interest to 
 us. " When you sail from Chamba 1,500 miles in a course Java " the 
 between South and South-East, you come to a great island ^^land^in the 
 called Java. And the experienced mariners of those world." 
 Islands, who know the matter well, say that it is the 
 greatest Island in the world, and has a compass of more 
 than 3,000 miles. The Island is of surpassing wealth, 
 producing black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingah, 
 cubebs, cloves and all other kinds of spices. The Island is 
 also frequented by a vast amount of shipping, and by 
 merchants who buy and sell costly goods for which they 
 reap great profit. Indeed the treasure " (" gold," says 
 another manuscript) "of this Island is so great as to be 
 past telling. And I can assure you the Great Kaan never 
 could get possession of this Island, on account of its great 
 distance, and the great expense of an expedition thither. 
 The merchants of Zayton and Manzi draw annually great 
 returns from the country." 
 
 . Marco's words are evidence that Chinese merchants 
 undertook long voyages, sometimes lasting a year, among 
 the Spice Islands. It is clear too that they had a pros- 
 perous trade with Java, though the account given of 
 that island (from hearsay again) is curiously inexact ; 
 and it has been thought that, in the matter of gold, he 
 
42 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Marco Polo 
 was under- 
 stood to say 
 that, South 
 of Java, is 
 a province 
 named 
 Locach or 
 Beach, 
 
 has confused Java with Borneo. Especially noteworthy 
 is the report that Java is " the largest island in the world, 
 being in circuit above 3,000 miles " — about double the 
 truth, says Yule. We shall notice again and again 
 evidence of the fact that navigators long remained 
 curiously ignorant of the South coast of Java. So 
 late as the end of the sixteenth century there were 
 well-informed geographers who doubted that Java had 
 a South coast, and who were inclined to think of it, as 
 ancient geographers had thought of Ceylon, as the 
 projecting tip of the unknown continent of the South. 
 
 " When you leave Java,'' — all the manuscripts and texts, 
 without exception, have these words, says Yule — "and sail 
 for 700 miles on a course between South and South-West, 
 you arrive at two Islands, a greater and a less. The one 
 is called Sondur and the other Condur. As there is nothing 
 about them worth mentioning, let us go on 500 miles — 
 another manuscript has 50 miles — beyond Sondur, and 
 then we find another country which is called Locac. It is 
 a good country and a rich ; it is on the mainland ; and it 
 has a King of its own. The people are Idolaters, and have 
 a peculiar language, and pay tribute to nobody, for their 
 country is so situated that no one can enter it to do them 
 ill. Indeed, if it were possible to get at it, the Great Kaan 
 would soon bring them under subjection to him. In this 
 country the brazil which we make use of grows in great 
 plants ; and they also have gold in incredible quantity. 
 They have elephants likewise, and much game. In this 
 kingdom too are gathered all the porcelain shells which 
 are used for small change in all those Islands as I have told 
 you before. There is nothing else to mention, except that 
 this is a very wild region, visited by few people ; nor does 
 the King desire that any strangers should frequent the 
 country and so find out about his treasures and other 
 resources." Another manuscript accounts for lack of 
 visitors to Locac by the phrase " so inhuman are its in- 
 habitants." 
 
 " When you leave Locac, and sail for 500 miles towards 
 the South, you -come to an island called Pentam, a very 
 
MARCO POLO 43 
 
 wild place. All the wood that grows therein consists of 
 odoriferous trees. . . . When you leave the island of 
 Pentam, and sail about lOO miles you reach the Island of 
 Java the Less. For all its name 'tis none so small but and an 
 that it has a compass of 2,000 miles and more. Now I named Java 
 will tell you all about this island. You see there are upon the Less, 
 it eight Kingdoms and eight crowned Kings. The people 
 are all Idolaters, and every Kingdom has a language of its 
 own. This island hath great abundance of treasure, with 
 costly spices, lign-aloes and spikenard, and many other 
 things that never come into our parts. Now I am going to 
 tell you all about these eight Kingdoms, or at least the 
 greater part of them. But let me premise one marvellous 
 thing, and that is the fact that this Island lies so far to the 
 South that the North Star, little or much, is never to be 
 seen ! " In one Kingdom " Messer Marco Polo was detained 
 five months by the weather, which would not allow his 
 going on. And I tell you here again, neither the Pole 
 Star nor the Stars of the Maestro (Great Bear or Plough ?) 
 were to be seen. The people here are wild Idolaters ; they 
 have a King who is great and rich, but they also call them- 
 selves subjects of the Great Kaan. When Messer Marco 
 was detained on this Island five months by contrary winds, 
 he landed with about 2,000 men in his company ; they dug 
 large ditches on the landward side to encompass the party, 
 resting at either end on the sea-haven, and within the 
 ditches they made bulwarks or stockades of timber for 
 fear of those brutes of man-eaters." Messer Marco Polo 
 gave a vivid account of things seen or heard of in the 
 island ; " wild elephants," " numerous unicorns " (rhin- 
 oceroses), and " men with tails " who " live in the 
 mountains." 
 
 " When you leave Java the Less, you sail North about Nicobar and 
 1 50 miles, and then you come to two Islands ; Necuveran isiands^and 
 and Angamanain. In the former are cloves and brazil, Ceylon, 
 and sundry other good spices. In the latter, I assure 
 you, all the men have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes 
 likewise ; in fact, in the face they are all just like big 
 mastiff dogs ! They are a most cruel generation, and eat 
 
44 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 everybody that they can catch." " When you leave the 
 Island of Angamanain, and sail about i,000 miles in a 
 direction a little South of West, you come to the Island of 
 Seilan (Ceylon), which is in good sooth the best island of 
 its size in the world. You must know that it has a compass 
 of 2,400 miles, but in old times it was greater still, for it 
 then had a circuit of about 3,600 miles, as you find in the 
 charts of the mariners of those seas." And he describes 
 its precious stones, and especially a ruby the King was 
 reported to possess, " which is the finest and biggest in 
 the world, about a palm in length and as thick as a man's 
 arm, the most resplendent object upon earth, quite free 
 from flaw and as red as fire." 
 
 Now all this is very curious, and even amazing ! For, 
 
 if we take this passage as it stands in our texts, Marco 
 
 Polo describes a great and fertile and auriferous continent 
 
 called Locac, as existing some 1 200 (or 750.?) miles 
 
 between South and South-West of Java. We think 
 
 at once of a possible discovery of the North- West coast 
 
 of Australia, though we are puzzled to find mention not 
 
 of kangaroos but of elephants. And about 600 miles 
 
 South of Locac is the very large and rich island of 
 
 Java the Lesser, an island which Marco Polo had 
 
 visited and explored, having been detained there for 
 
 five months by contrary winds ! That is to say, the 
 
 famous Venetian seaman had actually visited the great 
 
 Southern Continent, and its adjacent islands, which in 
 
 fact all lay on the ordinary sea route from China to 
 
 Ceylon ! 
 
 Map-makers Thus, according to our manuscripts, Marco Polo wrote, 
 
 puTLocach ^^ rather spoke ; and thus he was understood by his 
 
 Beach, and readers. In the Globe which Behaim constructed in 
 
 ihlre^^"^'^ 1492, the year when Columbus first sailed West, Java 
 
 Australia Minor stands in the place where Tasmania existed.^ 
 
 Mercator's map of 1569^ drew the outline of a great 
 
 Southern Continent in a way that suggested at least the 
 
 possibility of vague knowledge of the North coast of 
 
 ^ Collingridge, p. 80. See Behaim's map, p. 55. 
 ^ See map, p. 91. 
 
 existed. 
 
MARCO POLO 45 
 
 Australia. On what might conceivably be Dampier Land 
 he wrote " Lucach Regnum " ; and on what might con- 
 ceivably be Arnhem Land he wrote " Beach provincia 
 aurifera quam pauci ex alienis regionibus adeunt, propter 
 gentum inhumanitatem." Now Beach is a curious printer's 
 error for Locach ; and Mercator is simply copying out 
 Marco Polo's phrases, and interpreting them to describe 
 parts of the great continent of the South. And in the 
 midst of what might possibly be the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
 in a position roughly corresponding to Groote Eylandt, are 
 the islands of Pentan and Java Minor, the latter with a 
 legend summing up the information given by Marco Polo. 
 Still later, when in 1619 the Dutch sailor Houtman hit the 
 coast of Western Australia, he described the fact by saying 
 that he " suddenly came across the Southland of Beach." 
 Pie believed that the land which the Dutch called 
 Eendrachtsland, and which we call Western Australia, was 
 the same continent which Marco Polo was thought to have 
 described under the name of Locach or Beach, existing 
 about 1200 or 750 miles Southward of Java, a continent 
 where gold abounded to a degree scarcely credible, where 
 elephants were found, and inhuman inhabitants. 
 
 And yet modern critics have made clear that the But Marco 
 
 belief that Marco Polo had described a continent and ^?^° ^^^ 
 
 misunder- 
 
 islands lying far to the South of Java was founded on stood, 
 nothing more solid than a misunderstanding of Marco 
 Polo's meaning. In describing the countries between 
 China and India to the Pisan gentleman in the prison 
 at Genoa, Marco had reached Chamba or Cochin China. 
 At this point it had occurred to him to make a few remarks 
 about Java, which, as we have seen, he described inaccurately, 
 and probably from the loose talk of Malay, Chinese, 
 or Arab merchants and navigators. He then resumed 
 his narrative of travel, and spoke of places you come 
 to after leaving Chamba ; and his distances are therefore 
 measured not from Java but from Chamba. But, either 
 the Pisan gentleman misunderstood him, or the copyist 
 of the Pisan gentleman's manuscript made a mistake. 
 It was thought that, having described Java, Marco must 
 
 ¥ 
 
46 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 have visited Java, and that the distances of the place 
 
 mentioned must be measured not from Chamba but from 
 
 Java. And hence the notion arose and persisted that 
 
 Marco had voyaged from China to India by a route that 
 
 Locach and had brought him to lands in the Latitude of Western 
 
 Beach were Australia or Tasmania. If we measure our distances 
 
 Australia but from Chamba or Cochin China, the story at once becomes 
 
 Tavaktnor intelhgible. Locac, the land of gold and elephants, 
 
 was not was not part of the great Southern continent ; it was 
 
 Groote"^^ ^'^ part of Siam or Cambodia. Java Minor was not Tasmania 
 
 Eiland but or Groote Eiland ; it was Sumatra. It was hence that 
 
 umatra. ^^ sailed One hundred and fifty miles to the islands of 
 
 Nocuveran and Angamanain — the Nicobar Islands, and the 
 
 Andamans — where lived the dog-headed men of Arabian 
 
 legend, and thence a thousand miles South- West to Ceylon. 
 
 Thus we have to notice both what Marco Polo said, 
 
 and what he was thought to have said. For both what 
 
 he said, and what he was thought to have said, are important 
 
 facts in our story. We learn from him that the merchants 
 
 Marco Polo of China, like the merchants of India and of Arabia, traded 
 
 of \lnd^^'''^ with the Spice Islands and with Java, and that there 
 
 South of prevailed a vague and inaccurate conception of Java, 
 
 map-makers which declared it to be the greatest island in the world. 
 
 thought that Marco had nothing to tell of lands Southward of Java. 
 
 described the ^ut his words were misunderstood, and it was believed 
 
 Southern that he had described, and had even visited, a continent 
 
 and islands in the far South, which geographers of the 
 
 sixteenth century identified with the Terra Incognita 
 
 of ancient belief, and which Dutch navigators of the 
 
 seventeenth century thought they had actually found 
 
 in Eendrachtsland. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither. 
 
 Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography. 
 
 The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema, ed. Badger (Hakluyt 
 
 Society) . 
 Nordenskiold's Periplus and Facsimile Atlas. 
 Collingridge's Discovery of Australia. 
 
 Other travellers, commercial and missionary, following Franciscan 
 the footsteps of Marco Polo, pushed through the door china and 
 opened by the liberalism of the Mongol Kaans. An India in the 
 interesting story it is, that Mr. Beazley has to tell, of mission century, 
 labours of Franciscans and Dominicans in Mongolia, in 
 China, in Persia, and in India. The hero of the story is 
 John de Monte Corvino, who, after long years among 
 Saracens and heathens, travelled through India, leaving 
 us " the first good picture of India drawn by a Latin 
 Christian," and, passing the home-coming Polos on the 
 way, arrived in China in 1292 or 1293, a pioneer to regions 
 to which " never came apostle or disciple of apostles." For 
 thirty years he laboured in China — a Christian Archbishop 
 of Pekin in the early fourteenth century — building churches, 
 baptizing thousands of converts, and at last dying in 1 328. 
 The Mongols still held open the door, and in those days 
 one could get from Europe to Pekin, travelling through 
 Southern Asia, in six or seven months ! There were 
 Franciscan missions among the Tartars of Persia. There 
 were glorious Franciscan martyrs in India. Here they 
 lived and laboured and died, defying the " calores 
 horribilissimi et importabiles hominibus extraneis," and 
 
 47 
 
miles in 
 circuit 
 
 48 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 suggesting that the Pope ought to have a fleet on the Indian 
 Java 7,000 Sea ! One of them had heard of Java as an island " more 
 than seven thousand miles in circuit, producing nutmegs, 
 mace, and all the finest spices, beautiful white mice, shaggy 
 pygmies, and cloves of deadly odour." ^ 
 
 Of special interest in our story is the " Journal concerning 
 
 strange things which he saw among the Tartars of the 
 
 The East," which a Franciscan Friar named Odoric ^ dictated 
 
 ^Friirodoric to another Friar in " the place of St. Anthony of Padua" 
 
 dictated in May 1330— a journal which is described by Mr. Beazley 
 
 ^^^°* as " the fullest, the most graphic, and the most amusing 
 
 picture of Asia left by any religious traveller of this age." 
 
 " Being desirous to travel unto the foreign and remote 
 
 nations of infidels," Friar Odoric had seen and heard 
 
 " great and miraculous things," and he will tell nothing 
 
 save those things which " either I saw with mine own eyes, 
 
 or heard the same reported by credible and substantial 
 
 persons." After describing his journey through Persia 
 
 and India to Sumatra — he is the first European who dis- 
 
 Sumatra. tinctly and undoubtedly mentions the name of Sumatra — 
 
 he tells us that he travelled further into another island, 
 
 called Java, the compass whereof by sea is three thousand 
 
 miles. Java is " thoroughly inhabited and is thought to 
 
 Java "the be the principal island in the world " ; other manuscripts 
 
 Fs^and^n the ^^^ variously " the best island," " the second best," " the 
 
 world." third best " P It produces all kinds of spices. Its King 
 
 has " a most brave and sumptuous palace," with roof of 
 
 pure gold, stairs of gold and silver, floors paved with 
 
 gold and silver, walls covered with plates of beaten gold, 
 
 whereupon are engraved the pictures of knights. The 
 
 Kaan of Cathay has had many wars with the King of Java ; 
 
 but the said King hath always overcome and vanquished. 
 
 ^ Beazley, vol. iii. p. 228. 
 
 2 See discussion of Odoric's life in Yule's Cathay. He started 
 about 13 1 6, returned in 1330, and died in 1331. His reputation for 
 sanctity grew, for reasons that are unknown, and in 1755 he was declared 
 a saint. His narrative, however, " gives the impression of a man 
 of little refinement, with a very strong taste for roving and seeing 
 strange countries, but not much for preaching and asceticism." 
 
 3 Beazley, vol. iii. p. 265, note 6. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 49 
 
 Near this island is the country called Panten, which 
 has been identified with Singapore Island,^ and " by the 
 coast of this country is the sea called Mare Mortuum, 
 which runneth continuously Southward, into the which 
 whosoever falleth is never seen after." ^ 
 
 Friar Odoric then takes us to Campa, Marco Polo's The truth- 
 Chamba (Cochin China), where fishes pay homage to priafodoric 
 the emperor by casting themselves on shore for the 
 space of three days, and where he saw a tortoise 
 " bigger in compass than the dome of St. Anthony's 
 Church in Padua." Next he mentions that he travelled 
 on further by ocean sea to the South, till he came to 
 an island named Nicoveran (the Nicobars), two thousand 
 miles in circuit, " wherein men and women have dogs' 
 faces, and worship an ox for their god." Then he men- 
 tions Sillan (Ceylon), with its huge mountain, where, 
 the inhabitants report, Adam and Eve mourned for Abel 
 for the space of five hundred years, weeping so copiously 
 that their tears formed a lake which still existed ; " how- 
 beit, I proved that to be false, because I saw the water 
 flow in the lake." Here he saw " fowls as big as our 
 country geese, having two heads, and other miraculous 
 things which no man would credit, unless he saw them 
 with his own eyes " — though the Friar will relate " nothing 
 but of that only whereof I am as sure as a man can be sure." 
 From Ceylon he travelled East to Mangi in China, wherein 
 the Friars have two places of abode. Here he lived for 
 three years, and he gives an account of the country which 
 is evidently based on personal knowledge. 
 
 Our modern critic accepts Friar Odoric as a veracious 
 witness, telling according to his measure of ability of things 
 
 ^ Yule's Cathay, vol. ii. p. 156. Cordier's Ser Marco Polo, p. 105. 
 
 2 Mauro's map (fifteenth century) has a legend in the region of the 
 South-East of India, " ships sailing towards the South which allow 
 themselves to approach the Dim Islands will be carried by the currents 
 into the Darkness, and, once entered into those regions, through the 
 density of the air, and of the tenacious waters, they must perish " 
 A^ule's Cathay, vol. ii. p. 160). See map, p. 59. Barros, a Portuguese 
 A Titer of the sixteenth century, says that the natives of Java hold that 
 
 whoever should proceed beyond the straits of Bali to the South would 
 be hurried away by strong currents so as to never return." 
 
 W.A. D 
 
 k 
 
50 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 seen and heard. It is admitted, however, that " the 
 legendary jumble " of the chapter on the Nicobars, after 
 • a personal visit to those islands, is " disturbing." ^ I 
 confess that I am a good deal disturbed — and not only by 
 the dog-faced men of the Nicobars. Friar Odoric seems 
 to follow somewhat too closely in the footsteps of Marco 
 Polo, not only as a traveller but also as a writer. 
 His account of Java looks very like a combination of 
 Marco Polo's Java and Marco Polo's Cipango.^ However, 
 the point of interest to us is that the Friar's statements, 
 whether true or untrue, were believed by the men of 
 his time, and of the next time. They were enormously 
 advertised by being incorporated, without acknowledge- 
 ment, in the most successful wonder-book of the Middle 
 Ages, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. And, finally. 
 Confusion. the curious and inexplicable disarrangement of the 
 Friar's material,^ his description of the Andamans and 
 Ceylon in an order which implies that they are not far 
 away to the South of Cochin China, still more confounded 
 the growing confusion of the geography of these seas. 
 The journeys About a hundred years later, another Venetian traveller 
 de Contr returned home to add to this confusion. In the year 1444, 
 narrated says Poggio Bracciolini, a very famous scholar of the 
 ^'^'^'^' Italian Renaissance, a Venetian traveller named Nicolo de 
 
 Conti, who had penetrated to the interior of India, came 
 to Pope Eugenius IV., craving absolution, inasmuch as in 
 his travels he had been compelled to renounce his Faith. 
 " I, being very desirous of his conversation," says Poggio, 
 " questioned him diligently." He convinced himself that 
 de Conti had " gone further than any former traveller ever 
 penetrated, for he crossed the Ganges, and travelled far 
 beyond Taprobane (a name which in this narrative means 
 not Ceylon but Sumatra !) to a point which there is 
 no evidence to show that any European had yet reached, 
 except the commander of the fleet of Alexander and the 
 
 * Beazley, vol. ii. p. 268. 
 
 * Yule, however, thinks Odoric is describing the old Javan palaces 
 an 1 temples covered with gold leaf (vol. ii. p. 152). 
 
 3 This is discussed in the last edition of Yule's Cathay. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 51 
 
 Roman citizen mentioned by Pliny."' Poggio's ignorance 
 amazes one ! The commander of the fleet of Alexander 
 had sailed from the mouth of the Indus to the mouth of the 
 Euphrates. The Roman citizen mentioned by Pliny had 
 been driven by a storm to Taprobane, which then meant 
 not Sumatra but Ceylon. It seems inexplicable that Poggio, 
 with his keen interest in distant travels, should mention 
 as the travellers who had hitherto penetrated furthest 
 beyond the Ganges, not Marco Polo nor Friar Odoric, but 
 two persons of ancient times, neither of whom had sailed 
 eastward of Ceylon ! Without any sort of criticism 
 Poggio sets down statements which seem to add nothing 
 to the knowledge given in the book of Marco Polo, and 
 which do add very considerably to the extraordinary errors 
 already produced by misunderstandings of Marco Polo Chaos, 
 and Friar Odoric. Thus Poggio understood Nicolo to 
 say that Malepur, where the body of St. Thomas lies buried, 
 really a town near Madras, is " situated in the second gulf 
 beyond the Indus " ; which seems to have been interpreted 
 to mean that it was on the far side of what is now called 
 the Gulf of Siam ! " In the middle of the Gulf," continues 
 de Conti, " is a very noble island called Zeilan " ; a state- 
 ment which, apparently, was understood to confirm the 
 impression, already got from Marco Polo and Friar Odoric, 
 that Ceylon was somewhere to the South of Cochin China ! 
 Meanwhile de Conti has identified the ancient Taprobane, 
 not with Ceylon, but with Sumatra, which he describes as 
 an island no less than six thousand miles in circuit ! Thence 
 Nicolo passes to the region that is especially interesting to 
 us. " In Central India " (!), he writes, " are two islands, 
 towards the extreme confines of the world, both called De Conti's 
 
 Java. One of these islands is three thousand miles, the J ^^a Major 
 ■^ , '. and Java 
 
 other two thousand. Both are situated towards the East, Minor. 
 
 and are distinguished from each other by the names of the 
 
 Greater and the Less." " These islands," explains Poggio, 
 
 " lay in his route to the Ocean. They are distant from this 
 
 I continent one month's sail, and lie within one hundred 
 miles of each other. He remained here for nine months 
 with wife and children. ... At fifteen days beyond these 
 I 
 
52 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The futility 
 of Nicolo, 
 
 Ludovico di 
 
 Varthema 
 
 travels 
 
 eastward, 
 
 1502. 
 
 islands Eastward two others are found ; the one is called 
 Sandai, in which nutmegs and mace grow ; the other is 
 called Bandam ; this is the only island in which cloves 
 grow, which are exported thence to the Java islands. The 
 sea is not navigable beyond these islands, and the stormy 
 atmosphere keeps navigators at a distance." 
 
 The conversation which interested Poggio so deeply 
 seems to carry us not one step beyond Marco Polo ! All 
 that Nicolo adds are certain enormous mistakes. His 
 Java the Greater is simply a copy of the Java Major of 
 Marco Polo and of Odoric, a huge island of three thousand 
 miles in circuit. Polo's Java Minor, an island of two 
 thousand miles in circuit, was Sumatra. But de Conti had 
 already described Sumatra, under the name of Taprobane, 
 as an island of six thousand miles in circuit ! His Java the 
 Lesser, an island of two thousand miles, only one hundred 
 miles away from Java, if it represents anything on earth, 
 must represent Sumbava, in reality a very small island. 
 Then we have the names of two Spice Islands ; and then a 
 passage which reminds one of the Mare Mortuum of Friar 
 Odoric, declaring that navigation beyond these islands is 
 impossible, on account of the stormy atmosphere. Surely 
 Poggio could have learnt as much from the book of Marco 
 Polo and the Journal of Friar Odoric as he learnt from the 
 conversation of Nicolo de Conti. ^ 
 
 And now one more Italian traveller in the far East 
 comes to add to our knowledge and to our problems ! In 
 the year 1 502, Ludovico di Varthema, " longing for novelty 
 as a thirsty man longs for fresh water," set off in his travels 
 eastwards. He had experience of novelty in great plenty 
 in Cairo, in Mecca, in Aden ; and then joined a Persian 
 
 ^ See Yule's chapter (vol. i. p. 116) on " Contemporary recognition 
 of Polo and his book." Also Nordenskiold's Periplus, p. 140, on 
 scholars' ignorance of Marco Polo. Also Fiske's Discovery of America, 
 vol. i, p. 28. " Here was altogether too much geographical knowledge 
 for European ignorance in those days to digest. While Marco's book 
 attracted much attention, its influence upon the progress of geography 
 was slighter than it would have been if addressed to a more enlightened 
 public. Many of its sober statements of facts were received with 
 incredulity . . . Marco Polo's acquisitions were altogether too far in 
 advance of his age to be readily assimilated." 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 53 
 
 merchant to " explore a good part of the world, in order to 
 see and know many things." They passed to India, where 
 the merchant found business spoiled by the wars that 
 followed the arrival of the Portuguese — an event that will 
 become of first-rate importance in the next chapter of our 
 story. Joined now by Christian merchants of India, they 
 made for the Straits of Malacca. " More ships," says Varth- 
 ema, "arrive here than in any other part of the world, especi- 
 ally with spices." The Malaysian pirates, who had their 
 centre of operations at Malacca, are described as " the worst 
 race that was ever created on earth." Then they sailed on to 
 the Spice Islands, and Varthema is first of Europeans to 
 give an entirely trustworthy account of Banda, its nutmegs 
 and mace, and of the Moluccas with their grand monopoly 
 of cloves, which made these tiny specks of islands the most Java "the 
 desired places in the whole world. Thence, still in company isi^and^n the 
 with his merchant friends, he sailed towards " the beautiful world." 
 island called Java," which is once more described as " the 
 largest island in the world, and the most rich." He gives 
 an account of Java which seems singularly unconvincing. 
 The island, he says, produces silk, gold and the best emeralds 
 in the world. The Javans are " the most trustworthy men 
 in the world." Yet, he adds, " we determined to return, 
 partly through the fear of their cruelty in eating men, 
 partly also through the extreme cold " (!), " and also 
 because there was hardly any other place known to them," 
 i.e., his merchant friends.^ So he returned to India, where 
 he joined the victorious Portuguese, and told them stories 
 of the Spice Islands, which led to an expedition of great 
 consequence in our story. 
 
 But, at present, the chief interest to us of Varthema's The 
 narrative is the curious remark, which, he says, was made l^^^y^^f^ 
 by the captain of the boat on which he sailed to Java, inhabited 
 presumably a Malay or an Arab seaman. They noticed ^S(Jlfth^'^ 
 that he carried " the compass with the magnet after our 
 manner, and had a chart which was all marked with lines 
 perpendicular and across," an interesting illustration of 
 
 I he scientific methods used in Oriental navigation. They 
 I ^ Varthema, p. 258. 
 
 I 
 
54 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 asked him how he steered, now that we had lost the North 
 Star. " Is there any other North Star than this by which 
 we steer? " In answer the captain "showed us four or five 
 stars, among which was one which he said was opposite to 
 our North Star. He also told us that, on the other side of 
 the said island towards the South, there are some other 
 races who navigate by the said four or five stars opposite 
 to ours ; and moreover he gave us to understand that, 
 beyond the said island (Java), the day does not last more 
 than four hours, and that it was colder than in any other 
 part of the world." 
 
 Now it has been pointed out that a day of four hours 
 means a latitude fifteen degrees further South than Tas- 
 mania ! And it seems incredible that the Javanese, and 
 "other races" known to the Javanese, should have sailed 
 so far South as this, at least in the longitude of Java. 
 Was the captain thinking of Malay voyages to the North 
 coast of Australia, and immensely exaggerating the dis- 
 tance } Or was he thinking of Malay or Arab voyages to 
 far-away Madagascar and Zanzibar } Or was he simply 
 spinning a yarn for the amusement of his inquisitive 
 passengers ? Anyway Varthema took his statement in 
 great seriousness, and Varthema in his turn was taken in 
 great seriousness by the geographers. His story seemed to 
 confirm what had been previously gathered from Marco 
 Polo about the existence of a great continent in the far 
 South. When the sixteenth-century map-maker drew in 
 bold hard outline the coast of this great Southern Continent, 
 he wrote across it the words — " that immense lands exist 
 here is consistent with what is said by Paulus Venetus and 
 Ludovicus Varthema." 
 The night- We are now a little able to understand the tangled 
 
 geographers, geographical nightmare of the maps of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries. Pity the unhappy map-maker of 
 these centuries ! Firstly, he had to put into some sort of 
 geographic order the scraps of information imbedded in 
 the romantic narratives which the travellers had dictated 
 to friends far more interested in marvels than in science. 
 Thus Fra Mauro, who made the first famous map of the 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 
 
 55 
 
 
 o 
 
 (14 O 
 
56 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 stories with 
 Mela and 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 A map of 
 1489. 
 
 new age, did his best to make out the meaning of what 
 Nicolas de Conti had said to Poggio Bracciohni ; and the 
 result was that he confused the Indus with the Ganges, 
 They have to and the Ganges with the Kiang.^ Then, when the unhappy 
 travellers' map-maker thought that he had sifted truth from the 
 travellers' tales, he had to reconcile this truth with the 
 teaching of Ptolemy. For by that time the Renaissance 
 had brought Ptolemy to birth once more,^ and scholars were 
 eager to interpret the new discoveries in the form of scien- 
 tific maps. They endeavoured to solve the problem by 
 bringing out new editions of Ptolemy. The sixteenth- 
 century map was the map of Ptolemy somewhat timidly 
 brought up to date by the cautious insertion of guesses at 
 truth founded on the talk of the travellers. 
 
 We find a curious example of honest effort made to 
 achieve the impossible in a map of the year 1489.^ In 1 487 
 the Portuguese captain Bartholomew Diaz had rounded 
 the Cape, and it had become certain that Ptolemy had 
 made a mistake in describing the Indian Ocean as a land- 
 locked ocean. The map-maker has therefore smashed a 
 way through the too solid block of Terra Incognita, which, 
 according to Ptolemy, unites Asia and Africa in the South, 
 and has thus made ocean way from the Cape to India. 
 But the 'Eastern side of Ptolemy's Indian Ocean remains 
 substantially unchanged. We still have India and Tapro- 
 bane in very much the mis-shapen condition in which 
 Ptolemy had left them ; though the map-maker, having 
 read Marco Polo, is able to add Socotra, and the islands 
 of Men and Women. We still have the huge southerly 
 prolongation of Eastern Asia. We still have Ptolemy's 
 town of Cattigara marked on its coast. But further on 
 to the South and to the West are the Indian lands which 
 de Conti had described as " situated in the second gulf 
 beyond the Indus." Here we find St. Thomas, which should 
 have been near Madras on the East Coast of India ! And, 
 
 ^ See map, p. 59. 
 
 2 First translation of Ptolemy, 1409 
 gdographes allemands de la Renaissance. 
 * See map, p. 57. 
 
 or 1410. See Gallois' Les 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 
 
 57 
 
 still further on, in a position which suggests to Mr. Colling- 
 ridge some knowledge of the coast of Western Australia, 
 is de Conti's Ceylon, in spite of the fact that the real Ceylon, 
 under the name of Taprobane, is still in the same place 
 and in the same mis-shapen condition in which Ptolemy 
 had left "it thirteen hundred years ago ! It is surely clear 
 that the map-maker had no knowledge whatever of the 
 Australian coast. He is simply trying desperately to 
 
 skiold's Periplus.) 
 
 3. Regnum Cayln (Ceylon) 
 
 make some sort of compromise or reconcihation between 
 the well-nigh infallible map of the classical geographer and 
 the extraordinarily misunderstood statements of the recent 
 travellers in India. 
 
 The other maps of the end of the fifteenth century and Behaim's 
 the beginning of the sixteenth give further examples of the "^^P' ^^^^' 
 same effort to reconcile ancient cosmography with modern 
 narratives of travel. Thus Martin Behaim in 1492 made a 
 famous globe,^ which bears the inscription that " the whole 
 was borrowed with great care from the works of Ptolemy, 
 Pliny, Strabo, and Marco Polo " ! As in the map of 1 489, 
 Ptolemy's southern Terra Incognita is shattered to pieces. 
 
 ^ See map, p. 55. 
 
58 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 But more than half of the space which it had occupied in 
 Ptolemy's map is occupied in Behaim's globe by Marco 
 Polo's islands of Madagascar and Zanzibar, islands which 
 stretch their huge length from West to East, reaching 
 towards the shattered end of Ptolemy's great South-East 
 extension of Asia. This great South-East extension is 
 marked by names learned from Marco Polo or de Conti, or 
 other recent travellers in the East. Here, for example, 
 is India Patalis, the India of the town which Alexander the 
 Great had founded at the mouth of the Indus ! By its 
 side is Moabar, a province on the East coast of India. , 
 Further South in about 25° S. Lat. is St. Thomas, the 
 famous town near Madras. Still further to the South-East 
 is Ceylon, a huge island stretching as far South as about 
 38° S. Lat., a latitude further South than Sydney ! Marco 
 Polo's islands of Pentam and Neucuram, which in real 
 geography existed respectively near the Straits of Malacca 
 and in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, are placed near 
 together in a position which roughly corresponds to the 
 position actually occupied by the Eastern coast of Australia. 
 A place is found for Marco Polo's Java Minor, really 
 Sumatra, somewhere in the region of Tasmania : while 
 Anguana, the home of the dog-faced men in the Bay of 
 Bengal, is placed in a position which to Mr. Collingridge 
 suggests New Zealand ! Again, it is perfectly clear 
 that the map-maker had no knowledge whatever of 
 lands South of the equator. He is trying to bring 
 Ptolemy up to date by finding places in his map for 
 lands described by recent travellers. And, as we have 
 seen, those travellers had told their story in such disorderly 
 sequence that the geographical relations of the places 
 described had been misunderstood in a most extraordinary 
 way. 
 
 Varthema's meeting with the Portuguese in India is a 
 reminder that we have reached the end of a chapter of our 
 story, and are about to open another chapter of very 
 different characteristics. Before passing on, let us try to 
 sum up the main results of the speculations and travels of 
 the period we leave. What was the condition of knowledge 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 
 
 59 
 
 and surmise as to the contents of the Australasian regions 
 at the coming of the Portuguese and Spaniards ? 
 
 Fra Mauro's Map, 1459. 
 (From an engraving in Dr. Sophus Ruge's Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen.) 
 
 We have noticed that the cosmographical science of the 
 ancient world lived through the Dark Ages, and was under- 
 stood by the scholars of the thirteenth century. Men like 
 Albert the Great and Roger Bacon knew perfectly well that 
 the world was a sphere, that, as an orderly cosmos, it had 
 
6o 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Map-makers 
 had no 
 knowledge 
 of Australia, 
 but they 
 believed 
 that there 
 was a 
 Continent 
 South of 
 Java, and 
 that Marco 
 Polo and 
 Varthema 
 had written 
 of it. 
 
 climatic zones, that there was a temperate zone to the 
 South hke that of the North, that it was at least 
 possible that in this region existed inhabited lands. 
 The theological hatred of the Antipodes was in process 
 of being mitigated by the evidence gradually accumu- 
 lating that the Tropic seas were not impassable, and 
 that therefore the men of the South might well be children 
 of Adam. By the fourteenth century definite knowledge 
 had been gained of lands in the South of which ancient 
 cosmographers only knew dimly, or knew not at all — of 
 India, Ceylon, Sumatra, the Spice Islands and Java, 
 Zanzibar, Sofala, Madagascar. The South Tropic Ocean 
 had been sailed through and through. Varthema had found 
 the cHmate of Java too cold, and had hurried back to India 
 to get warm again ! Evidently exploration in this direction 
 need not be hindered by fear of seas " cremated by the near 
 sun." And traveller after traveller had laid stress on the 
 importance of the island of Java ; on its immense size, 
 three thousand to seven thousand miles in circuit, said 
 reports— and on its magnificent riches, its gold-roofed 
 palaces, its abundant spices. Beyond Java, mystery 
 reigned. There were tales of the Dead Sea, and its terrific 
 southerly current, of stormy atmosphere which prevented 
 further navigation. But who could say how far southward 
 Java itself extended } Was it not at least conceivable 
 that this " largest island in the world " was in reality part 
 of the great continent of the South, the fourth part of the 
 world ? Marco Polo at all events had told of great and rich 
 continents far away to the South of Java. And now came 
 Varthema with what seemed trustworthy reports of 
 voyages to the furthest South, where men steered by the 
 Southern Cross, and where it was colder than in any other 
 part of the world } Was it not becoming clear that, away 
 to the South of Java, was a huge continent, whether con- 
 tinuous with known Java, or separated from it by sea, a 
 continent rich in spices and in gold ? Such, we may imagine, 
 were the ideas in the minds of the Portuguese as they 
 listened to the Italian. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PORTUGUESE AND THE SPANIARDS IN THE 
 INDIAN OCEAN 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea by Gomes 
 
 Eannes de Azurara, ed. Beazley and Prestage (Hakluyt 
 
 Society) . 
 The Discoveries of the World, by Antonio Galvano, ed. 
 
 Bethune (Hakluyt Society). 
 The First Voyage round the World by Magellan, ed. Lord 
 
 Stanley of Alderley (Hakluyt Society). 
 The Journal of Christopher Columbus, ed. Markham (Hakluyt 
 
 Society) . 
 Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, ed. Major (Hakluyt 
 
 Society). 
 The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci, ed. Markham (Hakluyt 
 
 Society) , 
 The Philippine Islands, by Antonio de Morga, ed. Lord 
 
 Stanley of Alderley (Hakluyt Society). 
 Fiske's Discovery of America. 
 Major's Henry the Navigator. 
 Beazley's Henry the Navigator. 
 Hunter's History of British India. 
 Guillemard's Magellan. 
 
 And now we come to a new chapter in our story ; a chapter 
 in which our heroes will no longer be Italian merchants and 
 missionaries, but Portuguese and Spanish seamen. Let us 
 first notice how the great change came about. 
 
 Ever since the middle thirteenth century the interest of 
 East to West had been increasing. The East was the The call of 
 source of all the luxuries of life. In the East also was the missionaries 
 great mission field of the Knights of Christ. And, both to and 
 merchant and to missionary, access to the East had been 
 through the open door. Mongol indifferentists dominated 
 Eastern, Northern and Central Asia, and listened to 
 
 6i 
 
62 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Christians as willingly as they listened to Mahomedans and 
 to Buddhists. Western Asia, and especially the seaports 
 of the East Mediterranean coast, were in the hands of 
 Arabian powers of an old and advanced civilization, willing 
 to make terms with the Italian merchant cities for the 
 distribution of Eastern luxuries through the world of the 
 West. 
 Travel But now great changes took place. In 1368- 1370 a 
 
 (lUhe^ ^^ national Chinese movement overthrew the Mongol dynasty, 
 doctrine of established the doctrine of a Yellow China, and drove forth 
 China^and " Strangers of irregulated morals " with their " profane and 
 (2) Turkish foreign novelties."^ Meanwhile the Ottoman Turks, a 
 savagery. ^^^^^ ^^^^ q£ primitive savages, hating Christianity and 
 despising commerce, had started, about the year 1 300, from 
 the heart of Asia on the career of conquest that was step 
 by step to make them masters of Western Asia, including 
 the seaport towns of the Mediterranean. Venetians and 
 Genoese were driven from the Black Sea and from Con- 
 stantinople, driven from the seaports of Asia Minor, Syria 
 and Egypt, and, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
 were fighting back-to-wall a desperate defensive warfare, 
 which threatened to end in the destruction of their trade 
 in the Mediterranean itself. Europe could only acquiesce. 
 The age of effective crusade had passed. The Pope could 
 no longer stir religious enthusiasm to accomplish God's 
 will. The emperor had no authority outside Germany, 
 and very little authority inside Germany. The rivalry of 
 national dynasties had destroyed all possibility of a 
 Concert of Europe. Neither the religious motive nor the 
 commercial motive sufficed to unite Christendom in an 
 effective resistance to the Turks. It was not till 1572 that 
 the battle of Lepanto inflicted serious defeat on the Turkish 
 navy, and removed the fear that the Mediterranean was 
 destined to become a Turkish lake. 
 The New And yet the Western world was far from being willing 
 theVlw^ to acquiesce in exclusion from the East. In all lands of 
 Nations. Europe commerce was becoming more enterprising and 
 more profitable, wealth was accumulating, the demand for 
 ^ Beazley, vol. i. p. 186. 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 63 
 
 luxuries was becoming more insistent. Moreover, while 
 
 the Empire decayed, nations were coming into being in 
 
 the West, nations united, organic, patriotic, whose Kings 
 
 wielded a strength far greater than had belonged to Kings 
 
 and even to Emperors of the Feudal Age. And, moreover, 
 
 these new nations were animated by a new spirit, the 
 
 spirit of the New Birth, which now moved over the face of 
 
 the world, awakening the energies of soul and of mind and 
 
 of body to a new life. To men of the time it appeared that 
 
 all things were made new. There was a new unwillingness 
 
 to acquiesce in authority, in tradition, in custom. The 
 
 mind became active, inquisitive, critical, distrustful of the 
 
 accepted opinion, eager to investigate things anew, and to 
 
 build up a science which should have foundations well and 
 
 truly laid in experience. "To have seen 'with my own 
 
 eyes," said a scholar, " I believe to be the eighth science." 
 
 There was a new passionate pursuit of things desired, of 
 
 knowledge, of wealth, of honour and glory in the sight of God 
 
 and man ; a new and effectual ambition to face the unknown 
 
 with determination to know, to understand, and to possess. 
 
 Maritime enterprise was an essential expression and method 
 
 of the new spirit ; and the thought came into men's minds 
 
 that it was possible to make use of the new national strength Is there an 
 
 and of the new science to cleave a path by Ocean sea to the [Jj^th^E^^t ? 
 
 end of the earth, and thus renew in splendid ways missions 
 
 and commerce to East and South. 
 
 The Hero of the New Age was Prince Henry " the 
 Navigator" of Portugal, the third son of John "the 
 Great," who, in the late fourteenth century, had made 
 Portugal a nation, united, patriotic, commercial, crusading. 
 The long crusade of Portugal against the Moors of the 
 peninsula had come to an end. But the Crusading spirit 
 lived in the chivalry of Portugal, strong, sincere, fierce as 
 ever, combining with the new spirit of the Renaissance to 
 drive forth the Knight to seek venture in service of Christ. 
 Prince Henry had his part in the Middle Ages. He won his Henry the 
 sword of knighthood by the long fierce fight which won cru^^ader and 
 Ceuta from the African Moors, " that most glorious con- " Searcher." 
 quest, of which famous victory the heavens felt the glory 
 
 ii» 
 
64 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 and the earth the benefit." He was " Ruler and Governor 
 of the Chivalry of the Order of Christ," bound by monastic 
 vows ; and the flesh of the Virgin Knight, a year after 
 death, saw no corruption. The motive of the voyages 
 which he sent forth was " his great desire for the spread of 
 the Christian Faith, and for the redemption of the vast 
 tribes of men living under the wrath of God." He sought 
 for " some Christian Prince to the South, who, for the love 
 of Christ, would help him to fight the Moors." But there 
 was another aspect to his character, and to his story. He 
 was the mediaeval crusader and knight, but he was also the 
 hero of the new age, the man who far excelled all his con- 
 temporaries, among men of action, by his understanding of 
 the new opportunities, and by his effective endeavour to 
 grasp them. His fame is the fame of the " Navigator." 
 Astrologers told that " his ascendant " was in" the House 
 of Mars," and in the "House of Saturn," and it was therefore 
 clear my lord should be " a great conqueror, and a searcher 
 out of things hidden from other men." Henry is the man 
 who first showed how the resources of the new-made 
 nations of Western Europe might be used, at once to 
 develop the new science of navigation and cosmography, 
 and to organize expeditions which should use this 
 science to conquer the new world which lay beyond the 
 ocean. 
 The scientific In the great work to which Henry set his hand there were 
 navigation ^^^ parts : the scientific, the practical. It is characteristic 
 of the time and of the man that Henry deliberately chose 
 for himself the scientific part, as being the more radical. 
 " Brawny and large of frame, strong of limbs as any, brave 
 in heart and keen in mind, having a passion for the doing 
 of great things," the hero of Ceuta chose the life not of the 
 man of action, but of the assiduous student. His chosen 
 motto was " Talent de bien faire," desire or determination 
 to do things well, to be thorough or radical in method. The 
 key to the new world was the new science ; and Henry 
 now withdrew from court and army, and, living at Sagres, 
 " the place where both seas meet, the great Ocean sea, and 
 the Mediterranean," formed the first school of practical 
 
i 
 
 PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 65 
 
 science in modern Europe. Hither came all the learned 
 of the day ; Arabs, Jews and Italians ; mathematicians, 
 map-makers, shipbuilders and practical seamen ; and thus 
 in organised' scientific ways, backed by the resources of the 
 Portuguese monarchy, Henry undertook the conquest of 
 the Ocean sea, and the discovery of a way to India. Here 
 worked Henry day and night ; " often the sun found him 
 in the same place where it left him the day before, he having 
 watched throughout the whole arc of night without any 
 rest." He never went on a voyage. Yet this " Navi- 
 gator," who stuck to his desk, and never went to sea, 
 inspired men with enthusiasm and courage, helped them by 
 his science, and " by his unconquerable industry conquered 
 the impossibilities of other men." The " oared galley or 
 weak sailing craft of an inland sea " grew into " the ocean- 
 going ship." " The caravels of Portugal," said the Vene- 
 tian Cadamosto, who sailed in one of them in Henry's 
 service, " are the best sailing ships afloat." The new 
 science of map-making, which had lately grown up among 
 the Italian seamen in the Mediterranean, was applied to the 
 ocean coasts of Africa. " The old mappae mundi," said 
 Henry's sailors, " were not true, for they only depicted 
 things at hazard ; but this which is now placed on charts 
 is matter witnessed by eyes." The instruments of navi- 
 gation, such as the compass and the astrolabe, were made 
 more serviceable by gradual improvements, memory of 
 which has been eclipsed by later perfection. And, thus 
 equipped, Henry's captains set forth to serve God and the 
 prince by cleaving a path to India. 
 
 Voyage after voyage they groped their slow way down the Henry's 
 African coast. The Madeiras, the Azores, the Canaries, ^ay^oimd' 
 were rediscovered. Cape Bojador, hitherto " the Souther- Africa, 
 most limit of Christian knowledge " was passed ; and, to the 
 amazement of the voyagers, the sea beyond — pictured by 
 Arabian geographers as boiling with fiery heat, peopled by 
 fearsome sea-monsters, and threatened by the visible hand 
 of Satan — was found safe and easy saiHng. They out- 
 flanked the African Moors, came to the land of the negroes, 
 and began prosperous trade in slaves, ivory and gold dust. 
 
 W.A. E 
 
66 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 They reached the River Senegal, which " men say comes from 
 the Nile, being one of the four most glorious Rivers of Earth, 
 flowing from the Garden of Eden and the earthly paradise." 
 They took back from it a pipe of water to Lisbon, and 
 boasted that " not even Alexander, though he was one of 
 the monarchs of the world, ever drank of water that had 
 been brought from so far as this." ' Still they passed on, 
 carving on the trees of desert islands " the arms of the 
 Infante and the words of his motto," dreaming, as the 
 African coast took its easterly bend, that they had already 
 rounded the continent, and that India was no great distance 
 away. 
 The Portu- Henry died in 1 460. The result of forty- two years of 
 Indfa 7408^ enthusiastic work looks slight enough when put in terms 
 of modern geography. His captains had sailed from Cape 
 Bojador to Sierra Leone, eighteen degrees of latitude, 
 " not four days' course in a steam ship." ^ But he had done 
 enough to touch Portuguese imagination, to stir Portuguese 
 ambition, to make sure that the work which had made 
 Portugal the most famous nation of the new age would be 
 continued. There was disappointment and discontent 
 when the African coast again turned South. After all, 
 had Ptolemy been right when he thought there was no way 
 round Africa at all t But the Portuguese monarchs 
 persisted ; and the Portuguese seamen sailed on. In i486 
 Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape. On Christmas Day 
 1497, Vasco da Gama came to the land to which, by reason 
 of the day, he gave the name of Natal. He reached the 
 Arabian colonies on the East coast of Africa, and, obtaining 
 pilots, came to Calicut on the Western coast of India in 
 May 1498. " We come," said a Portuguese sailor, " in 
 search of Christians and spices." 
 
 Now follows the story of the foundation of the Portuguese 
 Empire of the East. It was essentially a maritime empire. 
 The Arab supremacy, which had made the whole Indian 
 Ocean the Domain of Islam, was challenged and was com- 
 pletely overthrown. " History, ancient and modern, 
 records no achievement of armed commerce so brilliant, 
 ^ Hunter's History of British India, vol. i. p. 69. 
 
 The Portu- 
 guese 
 Empire. 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 
 
 67 
 
 and so fraught with lasting result." ^ The Arab towns on 
 the East African coast were stormed, and Portuguese forts 
 were founded. The weak Hindoo princes of the Western 
 coast of India were forced to accept Portuguese factors and 
 Portuguese garrisons. The great Mahomedan Armada, 
 in which the strength of India and Arabia was reinforced 
 by the strength of Egypt, was utterly overthrown. Goa, 
 the headquarters of the Mahomedan League, was captured, 
 and became the splendid capital of the Portuguese Empire 
 
 Portuguese Dominions in the East, 1502-1558. 
 (Based on Map in Guillemard's Magellan.) 
 
 in the East. One by one, the gates of the Indian Ocean, 
 Socotra, Ormuz, Malacca, were conquered, or terrified into 
 submission. Aden alone remained unsubdued. And thus 
 in a few years the Portuguese won the overlordship of the 
 whole Indian Ocean. Their sphere of influence extended 
 over an ocean area six thousand miles by four thousand. 
 Their frontier was " a jagged semi-circle of over fifteen 
 thousand miles." And, over this huge ocean domain, the 
 tiny nation of Portugal held sway for a century ! ^ 
 
 Most significant, from our present point of view, was Conquest of 
 Albuquerque's conquest of Malacca (1511), the great ocean f^^^^"^^' 
 junction of all the trade routes, from China, Japan, and the 
 
 ^ Hunter, vol. i. p. 113. 
 
 * Hunter, vol. i. p. 134. See map on this page. 
 
I5I2. 
 
 68 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Spice Islands on the one hand, from India, Persia, Arabia 
 and Egypt, and the Mediterranean on the other. The 
 conquest of Malacca, Albuquerque believed, would prove 
 the ruin of Mecca and Cairo, and would give to Portugal 
 exclusive control of the trade of the furthest East. From 
 Malacca he sent envoys to Canton, to Siam, to Cochin 
 China, to Tongking, to Pegu, to Sumatra, and to Java. 
 And an expedition was immediately equipped for the 
 exploration of the Spice Islands. 
 The island This expedition is of great interest in our story. It was 
 ^^l^^^ ° rio doubt the direct result of information received by the 
 Portuguese from our Italian traveller, Ludovico di Var- 
 thema. On his return to India, after his visit to the Spice 
 Islands and Java, he had joined the Portuguese in Calicut, 
 just in time to witness the great victory of 1506 over the 
 Arabian fleet, which seemed, he says, " like some huge forest, 
 from the great masts of the ships. Never have I seen braver 
 men than these Portuguese." No doubt he told them of 
 Molucca and its cloves, of Banda and its nutmegs, of the 
 great and rich island of Java, and of the report of voyages 
 to some far distant land in the South. The conquest of 
 Malacca, the gate through which passed the spice trade, was 
 immediately followed by this expedition in search of the 
 Spice Islands themselves (December 151 1). It consisted 
 of three ships. The names of two of the captains were 
 d'Abreu and Francisco Serrano. According to some con- 
 temporary statements, the name of the third was Ferdinand 
 Magellan, who had " given a very good account of himself " 
 at the capture of Malacca. On the whole, these statements 
 seem untrustworthy ; ^ but it is a point of importance in our 
 story that Francisco Serrano and Ferdinand Magellan had 
 fought side by side and were very intimate friends. 
 
 The story of the voyage is told by Antonio Galvano, a 
 Portuguese writer of very high character, who went to 
 India in 1527, and was for six years Governor and Apostle 
 of the Moluccas. In the three ships, he writes, ^ sailed only 
 one hundred and twenty men ; " not more went to discover 
 New Spain with Columbus, nor India with Gama; nor, in 
 1 Guillemard, p. 69. ^ Galvano, p. 115. 
 
portuguf:se and Spaniards 69 
 
 comparison with these, is Maluco less wealthy, or ought to 
 
 be held in less" esteem." " They sailed by the noble island 
 
 of Java ; and they ran their course East, sailing between 
 
 it and the Island of Madura Beyond the Island of Java The Portu- 
 
 they sailed along another called Bali ; and then came also ^JJ^®^^ ^^^^ 
 
 unto others called Anjano, Simbiba, Solor, Galao, Mauluca, Northern 
 
 Vitara, Rosolanguin, and Arus, from whence are brought Sands^from 
 
 delicate birds which are of great estimation because of Java to 
 
 their feathers ; they came also to other islands lying in the ^"^' 
 
 same parallel on the South side in 7 or 8 degrees of latitude. 
 
 And they be so near the one to the other that they seem at 
 
 first to be one entire and main land. The course of these 
 
 islands is above 500 leagues. The ancient cosmographers 
 
 call all these islands the name of Javas ; but late experience 
 
 hath found their names to be diverse as you see. Beyond 
 
 these islands, it is said, there are others which are inhabited 
 
 with white people, going arrayed in shirts, doublets, and 
 
 slops, like unto the Portugals, having also money of silver. 
 
 The governors among them do carry in their hands red 
 
 staves, whereby they seem to have some affinity with the 
 
 people of China." Galvano then tells how " d'Abreu and 
 
 those that went with him took their course toward the 
 
 North," to Ternate ; " the first Portugals that came to the 
 
 islands of Cloves." The voyage led to the settlement of the 
 
 Portuguese in the Moluccas. Serrano went to live and 
 
 trade in Ternate ; and from Ternate he wrote to his old 
 
 friend Magellan, once more in Portugal, " giving him to 
 
 understand that he had discovered yet another new world, 
 
 larger and richer than that found by Gama." Magellan 
 
 resolved to find a way thither by a shorter route. 
 
 Thus, by the beginning of 1 5 12, Portuguese seamen 
 
 had sailed along the Northern coasts of the string of islands 
 
 from Java to Arus. They were already very near indeed 
 
 to the coast of Austraha. But, before we consider the 
 
 question whether they saw that coast, we will follow 
 
 another story. „ , 
 
 ■' Columbus 
 
 For, while the Portuguese had been groping their way seeks to 
 round Africa towards the Marco Polo paradise, Columbus Eas?bv^ 
 had been dreaming of a short cut. He had diligently read, saihng West- 
 
 k 
 
70 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 marked, and digested all the cosmographical literature 
 available in his time. He had read a Latin translation of 
 the book of Marco Polo, and his copy, with marginal notes 
 in his handwriting, still exists.^ His imagination had been 
 fired by the thought of a Great Kaan eagerly expecting the 
 Christian missionary. He thought also of the gold-roofed 
 palaces of Cipango, and of the incredible richness of the 
 Spice Islands. Here was wealth sufficient to arm Christen- 
 dom in a last great crusade, which should recover the Holy 
 Sepulchre, and make the whole world the Kingdom of God. 
 In the Imago Mundi, the geographical compendium of his 
 day, he read extracts from those authors of ancient and 
 recent times who had shown that the earth was a sphere, 
 and had drawn the inevitable conclusion that it was possible 
 to reach India and Cathay by travelling West. The 
 question remained — how great was the distance to be tra- 
 versed by him who, sailing from the Canaries, sought to 
 touch Cipango } Columbus consulted the ancient writers, 
 the Scriptures, Arabian and Italian cosmographers, and, 
 putting facts and arguments together, he reached the con- 
 clusion that the distance from the Canaries to Cipango was 
 but two thousand five hundred miles ! ^ That is to say, 
 he imagined the Eastern coast of Asia to be where the 
 Eastern coast of America actually is. He hoped to reach 
 the Marco Polo Paradise by a route as much shorter than 
 the Portuguese route as a direct voyage to the West Indies 
 is shorter than a voyage to the Spice Islands by way of the 
 Cape and India. 
 
 Columbus brought his proposal to Spain in good time. 
 Ferdinand and Isabella had united the Christian Kingdoms 
 of the peninsula in a Spanish nation, virile, fierce, 
 passionately devoted to the Faith of the Knight and 
 the Crusader. They fought the last great fight against 
 the Moors. In 1492 they conquered the Moorish capital 
 at Granada. Columbus was present at the surrender with 
 exulting heart. The triumph of the Cross at Granada was 
 to be but the beginning of a story of knightly venture, 
 which should make the Cross triumphant throughout the 
 ^ Fiske, vol. i. p. 372. '^ Ibid, 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 71 
 
 whole world. It was the year — so he wrote in the journal 
 of the most famous voyage in history — in which he "saw 
 the royal banners of your Highness placed on the towers of 
 the Alhambra," and " the Moorish King came forth from 
 the gates of the city to kiss the hands of your Highness," 
 that he received commission to search out the " Prince who 
 is called the Gran Can," and to convert him and the princes 
 and cities of India to the Christian Faith. He confidently 
 hoped to return, loaded with the riches of the East, to 
 complete the victory of Christ in Jerusalem. 
 
 Thus, in the year of the conquest of Granada, Columbus 
 sailed forth West two thousand five hundred miles, and 
 something more. And he found the island which we call Columbus 
 Hayti, and believed that he had found either Cipango or *|j°t§avti 
 Ophir. And he found a long coast, the Southern coast of was Cipango, 
 Cuba, and believed that he had found the coast of Cathay. ^^^ cathay 
 And the natives told him that they were visited by the 
 ships of the Gran Can. And he heard the expected stories 
 of men with one eye, and of men with dogs' noses who were 
 cannibals and drank the blood of their enemies, and he knew 
 that he was in the world of Marco Polo. And in another voy- 
 age. Southward, as he believed, of Cathay, he came to the 
 mouth of a huge river, the river Orinoco, which seemed to 
 him to prove the existence of a huge continent to the South 
 of Asia, like that which Mela and Ptolemy had drawn, and 
 Marco Polo and Ludovico Varthema had told of ; a con- 
 tinent which he (like Dante) believed culminated in a 
 mountain on the height of which was the Terrestrial 
 Paradise, the source of the great river whose tumultuous 
 outlet he had discovered. And in his last voyage he made 
 search for the Straits of Malacca, which should be some- 
 where between Cathay (Cuba) and the Great Land of the 
 South (South America) ; and he understood the natives 
 of the Isthmus of Panama to say that the strait was in fact 
 close by, and that, as he expected, it was thence but an 
 easy ten days' sail to the mouth of the Ganges. d th t 
 
 Most interesting to us was the discovery of the great South 
 land to the South, the land which we call South America. ^Tsou^them 
 The interpretation of the other discoveries seemed Continent. 
 
72 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 comparatively easy. Columbus was confident that he had 
 discovered the lands made familiar by Marco Polo and his 
 successors — Cipango, Cathay, India, Malacca, and the 
 seven thousand seven hundred and forty islands ! But 
 what was this great land to the South ? Was it Ptolemy's 
 Cattigara-land, the hitherto unknown East coast of the 
 huge southerly extension of Eastern Asia ? Or was it 
 Marco Polo's Locac, the great continent far South of Java, 
 rich in gold, in spices, in elephants ? Or was it the mys- 
 terious continent of the South, imagined by ancient cosmo- 
 graphers, and by medieval scholars, the continent which 
 Dante had described, existing under the Southern Cross, 
 and culminating in the heights of the Terrestrial Paradise ? 
 Most likely all these guesses were right. No wonder there 
 was excitement in the hearts of voyagers. They were to 
 know all that Ptolemy had known, and more ! And any 
 journey might end in the Garden of Eden. 
 Amerigo Gradually the successors of Columbus groped their way 
 
 tir^?h^h d southward down the unknown coast, and in 1502 Amerigo 
 proved this. Vespucci, Florentine " Pilot " on a Portuguese ship, traced 
 it through the tropics to Lat. 35° S. He had proved the 
 existence of a huge continent of the South, hitherto un- 
 visi'ted either by the ancients or by recent travellers — " a 
 land which thy charts do not indicate, O Ptolemy ! " boasted 
 a poetical admirer of Amerigo. " It is proper," wrote 
 Amerigo himself to a friend, " to call these lands a new 
 world. Since among our ancestors there was no knowledge 
 of them, and to all who hear of the affair it is most novel. 
 For it transcends the ideas of the ancients, since most of 
 them (i.e. the medieval scholars) say that beyond the 
 equator to the South there is no continent, but only the sea 
 which they call Atlantic, and if any of them asserted the 
 existence of a continent there they found reason for refusing 
 to consider it a habitable country. But this last voyage 
 of mine has proved that this opinion of theirs was erroneous, 
 and in every way contrary to the facts, since in those 
 southern regions I have found a continent more thickly 
 inhabited by peoples and animals than our Europe 
 or Asia or Africa, and moreover a climate more 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 73 
 
 temperate arid agreeable than in any other region known 
 to us." 
 
 Let us understand the situation. What Amerigo had The 
 done was to sail down a considerable part of the East coast andThe ^^' 
 of the continent we call South America. What he thought Anti- 
 he had done was to discover a great continent standing in ^° 
 relation to Asia somewhat as, in fact, Australia actually 
 stands to Asia. He believed also that this "Antarctic" 
 continent was the " fourth part of the world " of which 
 mediaeval cosmographers, copying the ancients, had 
 written. Christian Fathers, like Isidore, while allowing 
 that it was likely that this continent existed, had declared 
 the statement that it was inhabited by "Antipodes" to be 
 " a fable." Amerigo had actually discovered the continent, 
 the very existence of which had been a matter of conjecture 
 and dispute. " Henceforth," remarked a writer (Peter 
 Martyr), " you will know the Antipodes as you know your 
 own house ! " Amerigo was able to show you that it 
 was a rich country, thickly populated " by myriads of 
 Antipodes," in condition so healthy. that some of them lived 
 to be one hundred and fifty years old ! He agreed with 
 Dante and with Columbus, that, if the terrestrial paradise 
 is anywhere to be found on the earth, it cannot be far from 
 this region. 
 
 Cipango, then, and Cathay had been discovered ; or, 
 at all events, they could not be far away. And to the South 
 of them had been discovered this huge New Antarctic World. 
 There still remained the problem, how to get to India by 
 this western route. The place to look for was the Straits * • 
 
 of Malacca. Columbus thought he had found it in what we 
 call the Isthmus of Panama ; but that turned out to be a 
 mistake; though still in the 1520's Cortes believed that a 
 strait would there be found, and in 1520 the map-maker 
 Schoner actually marked this strait in his map, with Japan 
 a few miles away from the western side. Vespuccj's idea was 
 to look for the Straits of Malacca to the South of his 
 " Mundus Novus." His search also failed. But in 1513 
 Balboa saw from a peak in Darien a sea of unknown extent, 
 the " Sea of the South." And in 1 5 19 Magellan, the httle 
 
74 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Magellan man of Steel, Portuguese commander of a Spanish fleet, drove 
 
 strait Tt through the strait that bears his name, plunged into " a sea 
 
 Ptolemy's SO vast that the human mind can scarcely grasp it," and, 
 
 OctST and ^^^^^ ^^^ "^^^^ prodigious voyage recorded in history, broken 
 
 sailed to the only by a few " unfortunate islands," he reached at length 
 
 isTa^nds ^^^ " ^^^ world larger and richer than that found by Gama, ' ' 
 
 of which his friend Serrano had written ! The existence of 
 
 the huge Southern Pacific was revealed, and map-makers 
 
 gradually came to understand that Hayti was not Japan, 
 
 and that Cuba was not Cathay. 
 
 The voyage Magellan arrived, not at the Moluccas, but at the Philip- 
 
 ^Viaoria pi^es, where, like a good Portugal, he lost his life in mad 
 
 from Timor crusade against the heathen. But the Spaniards sailed on, 
 
 tot e ape. ^j-^^^^j. ggbastian del Cano, and touching at Borneo, Batuan 
 
 and Gilolo, they at length reached the Moluccas. Serrano 
 
 was dead ; but the Portuguese were in possession of the 
 
 " New World " he had discovered, doing a big trade in 
 
 Banda for mace and nutmeg, and in the Moluccas for cloves. 
 
 They had been so anxious " to keep these countries from, 
 
 and unknown to the Spaniards," says the very fascinating 
 
 journalist, Pigafetta, " that they had spread reports that 
 
 the seas about the Moluccas could not be navigated on 
 
 account of the shoals and the foggy atmosphere, and that 
 
 fresh water had to be imported from distant countries." 
 
 The Spaniards, however, " bought cloves like mad," and 
 
 then in the Victoria they sailed for home.^ " Sailing as far 
 
 as possible from the coast of India, lest they should be seen 
 
 by the Portuguese," they sought a passage through the 
 
 tangle of the island barrier which stretched from Sumatra 
 
 to Timor, trying to find the way by use of the map of 
 
 Ptolemy ; they made for Cattigara, they say, but couldn't 
 
 find it'! They touched at Ombaya and Timor, and our 
 
 journalist writes a full account of the latter island, so near 
 
 to Australia, and especially of its great trade with Malacca 
 
 and Java and the Philippines in wax and sandal-wood, 
 
 " for white sandal-wood only grows in this country." He 
 
 then tells how the Victoria sailed from Timor to the Cape, 
 
 on a track that must have been fairly near to the North- 
 
 1 See map, p. 75. 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 
 
 75 
 
 West coast of Australia. But he has no word to say of 
 land seen between Timor and the Cape. Galvano, however, 
 ex-governor of the Moluccas, writing about 1555, ^^^ the 
 following curious passage : " Beyond this island — one 
 hundred leagues — they discovered certain islands under "Certain 
 the Tropic of Capricorn, and further on others. All are ^Yie Tropic of 
 peopled thenceforward ; nor did they see land except it Capricorn." 
 
 ^^^^: 
 
 ^ - - -^ 
 
 Ei.iery\Vall<erUa..c. 
 
 Map to illustrate Voyage of the Victoria from the Philippines 
 
 might be some islets up to the Cape of Good Hope." Now, 
 if the Spaniards saw " certain islands under the Tropic of 
 Capricorn," these islands must have been near the Aus- 
 tralian coast. But we are left puzzled by this confused 
 statement of later date compared with the silence of the 
 eager note-taker on board. And so the Victoria rounded 
 the Cape, and sailed home to Spain, the first of all ships 
 to put a girdle round the world — in three and a half years ! 
 
 Thus both Portuguese and Spaniards had made a way The Portu- 
 to the " New World " which centred in the Spice Islands. |^^^'^ ^" *^^ 
 There was fierce strife between them; for, though the Pope, Islands. 
 
'jd THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 dividing the world " like an orange," had drawn his line 
 North to South down the Atlantic, none could yet say with 
 scientific certainty how this line would run when produced 
 to the other side of the globe. Eventually Charles of Spain 
 sold to the Portuguese his claim to the Spice Islands ; all 
 the more readily, no doubt, because the soHd Portuguese 
 settlements in India and Malacca gave them a hold on these 
 islands that could hardly be loosened by occasional Spanish 
 ships, sailing from Spain through the Straits of Magellan, 
 or from some part of Mexico or Peru. So the Portuguese 
 permanently enclosed the Moluccas within their maritime 
 empire, which dominated the whole Indian Ocean. And 
 Galvano, that " goodly example of a true and faithful 
 Portugal " (as his friend and editor called him) waged war 
 against a combination of " all the Kings and Governors of 
 all the islands about," who " had agreed to make war 
 against the Portugals until such time as they might drive 
 them all out of the country ; he fought against them all 
 with only one hundred and thirty Portugals and he gave 
 them the overthrow ! " From the Moluccas they sought 
 to enforce their claim to monopoly of trade throughout 
 the whole Far Eastern Seas, the trade with Malacca and 
 with India, with the thousand Islands, with China, and 
 with Japan; for in 1 542 they discovered Japan by 
 accident. " It seemeth," writes Galvano, "to be the 
 island of Zipango whereof Paulus Venetus (Marco Polo) 
 maketh mention." 
 
 But, though the Spaniards had sold their claim to the 
 
 Moluccas, they did not abandon ambition to found a great 
 
 Empire in the East. This was one of the huge schemes 
 
 Cortes which occupied the mind of Cortes, conqueror of Mexico, 
 
 Span^h° ^ eager to discover and subdue new worlds, and with imagina- 
 
 Empire tion Set on fire by the story of Magellan. " The informa- 
 
 South Seas, tion," he writes from Mexico to the Spanish King (May 
 
 1523), " gave me much pleasure, for it appeared to me that 
 
 the discovery would prove a great and signal service to Your 
 
 Majesty, especially as all who possess any knowledge or 
 
 experience in navigation to the Indies have considered it 
 
 certain that the discovery of the South Sea in those parts 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS "j^ 
 
 would bring to light many islands rich in gold, pearls, pre- 
 cious stones and spices, together with many other unknown 
 and choice productions ; and the same has been affirmed 
 by persons versed in learning and skilled in cosmography." 
 
 He made ports on the Pacific coast of Mexico, built ships, and of the 
 and sent them to explore, to conquer and to settle. " jft™°"^^^y°^ 
 will be the greatest achievement," he wrote, " and the one 
 that will redound more to the service of Your Majesty than 
 anything since the discovery of the Indies." " To these 
 ships I attach an importance I cannot express ; for I 
 consider it certain that by means of them Your Majesty will 
 become lord of more realms and states than there exists 
 any knowledge of, and I believe nothing will be wanting 
 to make Your Majesty monarch of the world." 
 
 In 1 527 Saavedra sailed West from Mexico ; Saavedra, the Saavedra's 
 man after Cortes's own heart, who had planned a Panama Z^^^i'^- *° 
 
 ' . . ^ , the Spice 
 
 Canal, so that the Spaniards might sail on a straight line Islands, 
 
 from the Canaries to the Moluccas. He was commissioned ^^^^" 
 to succour a Spanish expedition, which two years before 
 had sailed through the Straits of Magellan under Loaysa 
 and Del Cano, the circumnavigator, to assert Spain's claims 
 in the Far East. They had been destroyed by storms, and 
 by disease, and by the horrible longness of the voyage across 
 the Pacific. The leaders Loaysa and Del Cano had died, 
 and forty others, and the survivors, " one hundred and five 
 of us," had reached the Moluccas at last, to find the Portu- 
 guese in possession. Saavedra arrived and helped in the 
 fight, but with no good effect ; and, in the end, news came 
 that the Moluccas had been sold by our King to Portugal, 
 " and we, the miserable seventeen survivors, had to ask the 
 Governor of Portuguese India to ship us home, which 
 eventually he did, stealing however our charts ! " 
 
 But meanwhile, Saavedra, finding nothing good to be done Discovery of 
 in the Moluccas, had sailed for Mexico (1528). He came to by mSILTcT 
 the coast of a great land, two hundred leagues East of the (1526), and 
 Moluccas, which two years before had been sighted by a (1528). 
 Portuguese seaman named Meneses ; "a large island," 
 says the writer of our narrative, "well peopled by a black 
 race with woolly hair, who go naked." Saavedra coasted 
 
78 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the land for about a month, discovering about fifty leagues 
 beyond what had been seen by Meneses. He called the 
 land " Del Oro " — one more Land of Gold ! But contrary 
 winds drove him back to the Moluccas. The Spaniards 
 in the Moluccas advised him to sail by way of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, for, saihng due East towards Mexico, he was 
 certain to meet contrary winds. But the obstinate hero 
 persisted, and sailed once more eastward in May 1529. 
 In December his ship returned to the Moluccas with news 
 that the voyage had again failed, and that Saavedra had 
 " died by the way." His men told that he " had sight of 
 a land towards the South in 2°, and he ran East along by it 
 above five hundred leagues. The coast was clean and of 
 good anchorage, but the people black, and of curled hair. 
 . . . The people of Maluco call them Papuas, because they 
 be black and friseled in their hair, and so also do the Portu- 
 gal call them." Then, " having sailed 4° or 5° to the South 
 of the line, he returned unto it, and passed the equinoctial 
 towards the North." He came to islands the people of 
 which seemed to be " of China," and then made sail for 
 Panama. " For," explains Galvano, " from Maluco unto 
 Panama they sail continually between the Tropics and the 
 line ; but they never found wind to serve that course, and 
 therefore they came back again to Maluco very sad, because 
 Saavedra had died by the way." ^ 
 
 The Spaniards were cast down, but not dismayed. The 
 New World of the Spice Islands grew more and more 
 attractive. "In no part of the discovered world," writes 
 Urdaneta, a famous Spanish seaman, " are there spices, 
 but only in these islands." The discovery of the land 
 of the " Papuas, all black with woolly hair like those of 
 Guinea," was promise of great things. " No doubt," 
 Urdaneta declared, " many other islands remain to be 
 discovered and subjugated." So Cortes sent forth ex- 
 pedition after expedition Westward from Mexico. Again 
 the land of the Papuas was visited, " a land of black people 
 with frizzled hair, who are cannibals, and the devil walks 
 with them." But the Portuguese held fiercely to their 
 * Galvano, pp. 176-180. 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 79 
 
 monopoly in the Moluccas, and the Spaniards determined to 
 make the centre of their Eastern Empire in the group of 
 islands to the North which Magellan had discovered, and 
 in which he had died. In 1545 they founded a colony here, 
 but Portuguese jealousy pursued them, and the plan failed. 
 Once more the attempt was made to return to Mexico by 
 " the coast of Os Papua." " They ranged all along the 
 same, and, because they knew not that Saavedra had been 
 there before, they challenged the honour and fame of that 
 discovery, and because the people there were black and had 
 friseled hair they named it Nueva Guinea, for the memory 
 of Saavedra there was almost lost." ^ Then in 1564 an The 
 expedition was sent from Mexico under Legaspi, which Spaniards 
 succeeded in founding a flourishing colony in the islands, colony in the 
 which were now named the Philippines in honour of the Philippines, 
 Spanish King. Manila was founded. The natives were 
 " conquered by arms or by the industry of the monks who 
 sowed the Holy Gospel, in which all laboured valiantly." 
 Ine famous monk-seaman Urdaneta solved the problem, 
 which had hitherto baffled seamen, of the return voyage to 
 Mexico, and a regular service of ships was established 
 between Manila and Acapulco. It was found possible, by 
 sailing in June, to reach Acapulco in a voyage of five or six 
 months : a long and tedious journey, seeing that the out- 
 ward voyage to Manila could be done in less than three 
 months. But Spanish colonists must get back to Spain. 
 The Portuguese jealously barred the Cape route. It was 
 necessary to sail back Eastward, and " without any better 
 or more speedy way having been discovered by the South 
 Sea, though it has been attempted." So wrote De Morga, 
 ex-lieutenant-governor of the Philippines in 1609. 
 
 The Spanish rule in the Philippines is described by De 
 Morga in enthusiastic detail. ^ He had spent there " eight 
 years (i 595-1603) and the best years of my life." He tells 
 — and his testimony is accepted by the modern scholar ^ — 
 of the good government of the Spaniards, their humane and 
 
 ^ Galvano, p. 239. 
 
 2 The Philippine Islands, by Antonio de Morga (Hakluyt Society). 
 
 ^ See The Philippine Islands from 14^3 to i8g8, ed. Blair and Robertson. 
 
8o THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 disinterested treatment of the natives, of the excellent 
 service rendered to the Faith by the Inquisition, which finds 
 " no want of constant work on account of the entrance of so 
 many foreigners in those parts," of the prosperous trade of 
 Spanish merchants — for most of the Spanish settlers 
 were merchants — with Borneo and the other islands, with 
 Cambodia, with China and Japan, and of the heroic though 
 unsuccessful endeavours of Franciscan missionaries to win 
 the peoples of those lands to the Christian Faith. He 
 prints a letter written to him by a Franciscan " from the 
 road of execution," for the Friars, with their converts, were 
 crucified. The King of Spain draws no revenue from the 
 Philippines. All he gets from the colony is spent in the 
 service of the colony. He undertakes the work for the sake 
 of Christianity, and " in the hope of better results in other 
 kingdoms of Asia, when God so pleases.'' And the spirit of the 
 valiant Spanish soldier-governor catches fire as he tells once 
 more the great story of his countrymen ; how, having " by 
 the mercy of God preserved their realms in the purity of 
 the Christian Religion, deserving the title of Defenders of the 
 Faith, by the valour of their indomitable hearts they have 
 furrowed the seas, and discovered and conquered vast 
 kingdoms in the most remote and unknown parts of the 
 world, leading the inhabitants to knowledge of the true 
 God, and to the fold of the Christian Church, in which they 
 now live, governed in civil and political matters with peace 
 and justice, under the shelter and protection of the royal 
 arm. . . . From this cause the crown or sceptre of Spain 
 The Empire has come to extend itself over all that the sun looks on from 
 sunnever*^^ its rising to its Setting with the glory and splendour of its 
 sets. power and majesty ; but surpassing any of the other princes 
 
 of the earth by having gained innumerable souls for heaven, 
 which has been the Spaniard's principal intention and 
 wealth. . . . Having won America, one quarter of the earth, 
 they sailed following the sun, and discovered in the Western 
 Ocean an archipelago : raising the standard of the Faith, 
 they snatched them from the yoke of the Devil, so that justly 
 may they raise in those isles the pillars and trophies of 
 non plus ultra." 
 
PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 8i 
 
 One wonders whether De Morga owed something of his De Morga 
 enthusiasm to conversation with a man of kindred spirit, ^^ yuiros. 
 Fernando de Quiros, who, after adventurous voyage 
 through mid-Pacific, had come to Manila in 1595, full of a 
 grand scheme that should add to the Spanish Empires in 
 West and East a Spanish Empire in the South, " so that 
 all round the world God might be known and adored by 
 all his creatures." 
 
 h 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN IN THE SIXTEENTH 
 CENTURY ? 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Early Voyages to Australia, ed. Major (Hakluyt Society). 
 Collingridge's Discovery of Australia. 
 Collingridge's First Discovery of Australia. 
 
 Contempo- We have now followed the story of the coming of Portu- 
 narratives guese and Spaniards to the Indian Ocean. Our next con- 
 show no cern is to ask whether the seamen of those nations acquired 
 Australia^ ° ^^Y knowledge of Australia. 
 
 In telling the story of the Portuguese and Spanish 
 voyages I have sought to state all the facts known to me 
 that are at all likely to throw light on this question. And 
 remarkably little light they have thrown. Let us recall 
 our main facts. 
 
 In 1 5 12 the Portuguese reached the Spice Islands. From 
 that date Portuguese traders visited them, settled in them 
 in very small numbers — a governor thought he was very 
 well off with an army of a hundred or so — and made trading 
 voyages along the North coasts of the string of islands as 
 far Eastward as the island of Aru and the Northern coast of 
 New Guinea. There is, I think, no evidence that they 
 sailed along the Southern coast of New Guinea except the 
 fact that they described it as " a large island," a phrase that 
 seems to indicate some knowledge of the trend of the 
 Southern coast. Twice Spanish ships sailed from the 
 Straits of Magellan, and on several occasions Spanish ships 
 sailed from Mexico, to the Philippines and the Moluccas : 
 and some of these ships, trying to fight their way back to 
 
 82 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 83 
 
 Mexico, explored long stretches of the Northern coast of 
 New Guinea, and came away with exceedingly bad im- 
 pression of the looks and the morality of the inhabitants. 
 But neither in Portuguese nor in Spanish writing is there 
 one word (so far as I know) to suggest knowledge of any- 
 thing South of the North coasts of the island chain from 
 Java to Timor ; no word save the passage in Galvano telling 
 of "certain islands under the Tropic of Capricorn " to which, 
 he says, the Victoria came a hundred leagues beyond Timor. 
 
 And, while there is no word in our chronicles, save these, and confess 
 to suggest knowledge of Australia, there are a good many everything 
 words that suggest ignorance. Barros, a Portuguese south of 
 chronicler who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth J^^^- 
 century, tells that the natives of Java say that on the South 
 of Java is an undiscovered sea ; and they think that who- Barros. 
 ever proceeds beyond the straits between Java and Bali 
 will be hurried away by strong currents, so as never to be 
 able to return ; and for this reason they never attempt to 
 navigate it ; ^ a statement that reminds one at once of Friar 
 Odoric's story of " the sea called Mare Mortuum which 
 runneth continually southward, into which whosoever 
 falleth is never seen afterwards " ; and also of an inscription 
 of Fra Mauro to the effect that " ships sailing towards the 
 South which allow themselves to approach the Dim Islands 
 will be carried by the currents into the darkness, and once 
 entered into those regions, through the density of the air 
 or of the tenacious waters they must perish." ^ Readers 
 of Wallace's account of the Malay Archipelago will find that 
 these stories contain a certain amount of truth. So violent 
 and so uncertain, he writes, are the currents that flow 
 through the straits of Lombok, that " vessels preparing to 
 anchor in the bay are sometimes suddenly swept away into 
 
 ^ Quoted by Major, p. Iv. 
 
 2 Yule's Cathay, vol. ii. p. i6o. Cf. Themara, 1556 : " Thirty 
 Leagues from Java the Less is Gatigara, nineteen degrees the other 
 ide of the Equinoctial land towards the South. Of the lands beyond 
 his point nothing is known, for navigation has not been extended 
 urther, and it is impossible to proceed by land on account of the 
 umerous lakes and lofty mountains in these parts. It is even said 
 hat there is the seat of Paradise." Quoted by Major (p. Ixv) as 
 epresenting the best Spanish opinion at the time. 
 
84 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the straits, and are unable to get back again for a fort- 
 night." It is easy to beHeve that both natives and Portu- 
 guese feared to embark upon this ferocious current.^ And 
 this may help to explain the strange ignorance of the South 
 coast of Java, which is a matter of singular importance in 
 
 Couto. our study. " The South coast," writes Diego do Couto, 
 another Portuguese chronicler, about 1 570, "is not fre- 
 quented by us, and its bays and ports are not known ; but 
 the North coast is much frequented and has many good 
 ports." ^ According to this writer, then, the Portuguese 
 knew that Java was an island, and had a vague idea of the 
 contour of its Southern coast ; but there their knowledge 
 ended. 
 
 Linschoten. Still more remarkable is the testimony of Linschoten, the 
 famous Dutch traveller, who visited the Far East at the end 
 of the sixteenth century, and wrote the book that first put 
 into Dutch and English minds the idea of an eastern com- 
 mercial empire. He was a very industrious and careful 
 inquirer, and got, no doubt, the very best information 
 that could be got from Portuguese who had spent their lives 
 in tho$e seas. And this is what he wrote of Java : " This 
 island beginneth under seven degrees on the vSouth side, 
 and runneth East and by South 150 miles long (=600 
 English miles), but, touching the breadth, it is not found, 
 because as yet it is not discovered, nor by the inhabitants 
 themselves well known. Some think it to be firm land and 
 parcel of the country called Terra Incogmta,which, being so, 
 should reach from that place to the Capo de Bona Sperance, 
 but as yet it is not certainly known, and therefore it is 
 accounted an island " ; and he prints a map that makes 
 an island with North coast bravely carved into capes and 
 bays, and strewn with the names of towns, but with the 
 South coast a smooth curve, unbroken by capes and 
 bays and without a single name.^ That is to say, if we 
 
 ^ Cf. " Java " in Encyclopcedia Britannica. 
 
 2 Quoted .by Collingridge, p. 194. 
 
 ' See map, p. 85. Away to the South he has a continent marked 
 " Beach provincia aurifera," i.e. like Mercator and Ortehus he thinks 
 it necessary to find a place for Marco Polo's Locac or Beach, and, 
 like them, has no knowledge of Australia. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 85 
 
 are to believe this very intelligent and well-informed Dutch 
 traveller, the natives of the North coast of Java did not even 
 know whether their land was an island, or was a tip of the 
 great Southern Continent (of which we shall soon hear more), 
 reaching to the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 
 
 Part of Linschoten's Chart of Java and the Islands to the Eastward. 
 (From Linschoten's Voyages, 1623.) 
 
 If then we were to judge solely by the writings of the 
 Portuguese, and of those who wrote from Portuguese 
 information, it would appear certain that, excepting once 
 more the islands to the South of Timor which Galvano says 
 
 E""^*-e seen by the people in the Victoria, there was no 
 wledge of anything South of the North coast of Java, 
 [or does it seem to me that there is the least reason to 
 surprised by this apparent ignorance. There is nothing 
 
86 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 It seems 
 
 unlikely 
 
 that 
 
 Portuguese 
 
 or Spaniards 
 
 would visit 
 
 Australia. 
 
 whatever suspicious about it. It is what we should have 
 expected. The number of Portuguese and Spaniards in the 
 Far East was exceedingly small. The harvest of spices 
 was great, and the few labourers, with both hands full of 
 most precious stuff in the world, had no time to spare for 
 any other business save the entirely necessary business of 
 fighting the natives and fighting one another. There was 
 httle motive for further exploration, and little possibility 
 of undertaking it. They had neither ships nor men to 
 spare. Nor was it in the least likely that the ordinary 
 voyages, either of Portuguese or Spaniards, would lead 
 
 Part of Sebastian Cabot's Map. (From Jomard's Collection.) 
 
 to the accide7ital discovery of Australia. The Portuguese 
 sailed from the Cape to the Moluccas by a track that hugged 
 the Eastern coast of Africa. It was not till the Dutch in 
 the early seventeenth century struck Eastward from the 
 Cape on an entirely new track that the discovery of 
 the Western coast of Australia became likely. As for the 
 Spaniards, they sailed from Mexico and aimed straight at 
 the Moluccas or the Philippines, with winds that were very 
 unlikely to take them to the South of New Guinea. The 
 route by the Straits of Magellan had appeared so frightful 
 to the first voyagers by reason of its length and desolation, 
 that they had doubted that they would ever have suc- 
 cessors ; and, in fact, it was abandoned after the second 
 disastrous voyage of Del Cano in 1524. And from Peru no 
 ships sailed Westward till Mendafia's voyage of 1567, the 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 87 
 
 first voyage, of which we have knowledge, that might have 
 discovered Australia, and that actually did discover the 
 
 Solomon Islands. It may, I believe, be affirmed with 
 confidence that we have no news of any voyage in the 
 
 Part of Reinel's Chart, c. 1517. 
 (From an engraving in Recueil de Travaux, etc., Universite de Gand.) 
 
 sixteenth century at all likely to have led to knowledge of 
 any part of the Australian coast. And this fact seems to 
 
88 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 me good reason for entertaining a strong sceptical prejudice 
 
 in respect to arguments that seek to prove that the Aus- 
 
 trahan coast was well known. ^ 
 
 Maps of one If from contemporary writings we turn to contemporary 
 
 confess^^ maps, we find much to confirm us in our unbehef. Many 
 
 ignorance of of these maps seem to correspond to the narratives with 
 
 south^of^^ reasonable exactness, setting down the discoveries and the 
 
 Java. conjectures of which we have been told, and setting down 
 
 little more. Thus we have a series of charts made by 
 
 Rodriguez. Francisco Rodriguez, ^ one of the pilots of D'Abreu's famous 
 
 /fj^ expedition of 1511-12. They give a fairly correct rough 
 
 sketch of the string of islands from Sumatra to Timor, 
 
 showing the South coasts as well as the North coasts, and 
 
 with open sea to the South. They are, I think, the only 
 
 charts that draw the South coasts of the islands in a way 
 
 • that suggests knowledge. Another chart of about 15 17, 
 
 Reinel. %^^ by Pedro Reinel, gives the same string of islands, with the , 
 
 curious difference that their length is made to extend not 
 
 East and West, but North and South. ^ They seem to show 
 
 ignorance of the South coasts, and also to shew a tendency 
 
 to fill the unknown vacancy with land. The Spanish map 
 
 Ribero.; of Ribero (1529) shows an opposite tendency. The North 
 
 coasts only of the islands from Java to Timor are given. 
 
 On the South they have no outline, but fade into the ocean 
 
 on which sails Magellan's ship Victoria on its way home 
 
 " from Maluco " ; and the ocean extends shoreless to the 
 
 Cabot. bottom of the map.* The famous map of Sebastian Cabot 
 
 of 1544^ has similar characteristics. It gives the North 
 
 coast of the islands from Java to Timor with details that 
 
 are copious though not always correct. Java and Sumbava 
 
 are supposed to be one island. The impracticable straits 
 
 ^ I am especially impressed by the apparent complete ignorance of 
 Galvano, the ex-Governor of the Moluccas, who wrote his Discoveries 
 of the World before 1555. If Australia had been discovered he must 
 have heard of the discovery, and he gave so much information about 
 the rich islands which he knew that it seems impossible to believe that 
 he concealed knowledge of a barren territory in the South. 
 
 2 See map, p. 8g. 
 
 3 Cf. Hamy's L'CEuvre geographique de Reinel. See map, p. 87. 
 * See map, p. 87. ^ See map, p. 86. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 89 
 
 in 
 
 a ° 
 
90 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Miinster. 
 
 are turned into a closed gulf, in the midst of which are the 
 islands of Bali and Lomboc. But Java-Sumbava has no 
 South coast. And the sea to the South is one huge un- 
 broken vacancy, on which, with safety and with truthful- 
 ness, Cabot has written the words, " Unknown Sea or Land." ^ 
 This was the position of the reasonable agnostic. Sebastian 
 Miinster, on the other hand — and Sebastian Miinster was 
 the most famous German cosmographer of the period — was 
 a dogmatic unbeliever. As to the temperate zone of the 
 South, he wrote in 1532, " you will see that in it there is 
 almost no continent of land, but merely sea and certain 
 islands." ^ There are later Portuguese maps of 1546 and 
 1558 that give the same view. ^ Thus we have a large number 
 of maps, both Portuguese and Spanish, and of highest 
 authority, which assure us that there was no knowledge 
 of land South of Java. 
 
 There is one map of this type that has singular in- 
 
 map possibly ^gj.gg^ for Englishmen. In 1598-1600 Richard Hakluyt 
 snows vague ° -^-^ . ^ 
 
 published the second edition of his collection of voyages, 
 
 with a new map. Shakspere must have turned over its 
 
 leaves, for its " new map with the augmentation of 
 
 the Indies" came into mind when he thought of the 
 
 multitudinous "lines" of Malvolio's smile. ^ This map,^ 
 
 like the others we have noticed, makes the South Pacific 
 
 one huge vacant ocean, save for one interesting hint or 
 
 suggestion. South of Java, in the place where the North- 
 
 Hakluyt's 
 
 knowledge 
 of North- 
 west 
 Australia. 
 
 1 Rainaud, p. 310. 2 Rainaud, p. 311. 
 
 ' Major, p. Ixiii. 
 
 ^ See note in Variorum Shakspere, vol. xiii. p. 208, and especially 
 the argument of Coote in New Shakspere Society Transactions. 1877-79. 
 Coote shows that the map was drawn by Mollineux, " perhaps with 
 the assistance of Hakluyt." It seems curions that, whereas Hakluyt 
 in his first edition of 1589 published Ortelius's map, with its huge 
 Magellanican continent (Hakluyt, vol. i.), in the second edition of 
 1598 he published this " new map " in which the continent disappears, 
 and there is nought South of New Guinea and Java save the short 
 S-hice line. Cf. the Map of the New World dedicated to Hakluyt 
 in 1587 (Hakluyt, vol. viii. p. 272). It gives no Terra Australis. Yet in 
 1589 Hakluyt preferred to print Ortelius's map with a Terra Australis 
 occupying most of the South Pacific ! These facts seem to show 
 that the impartial geographic mind found it difficult to attain a settled 
 conviction. 
 
 ^ Hakluyt, vol. i. See p. 92. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 91 
 
 
92 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 West coast of Australia existed, appears a short line in 
 the shape of a rough-drawn S, without any sort of legend. 
 What does it stand for ? Its very modesty suggests that 
 it is no mere fancy, but stands for some definite piece of 
 news that had come to the map-makers. I would venture 
 to suggest that it may stand for the " certain islands under 
 the Tropic of Capricorn " which, according to Galvano, 
 
 *' 
 '•i. 
 
 '"■''^^A-'"^ 
 
 
 / , ^ ^f^^-f h a^ ^■•^^•■" > -Tie. ^f 
 
 Part of Map in Hakluyt's Voyages (published 1598-1600). 
 
 were seen from the Victoria one hundred leagues beyond 
 Timor. We know that Hakluyt very greatly valued 
 Galvano's book. He published an English translation, 
 and declared that " the work though small containeth so 
 much rare and profitable matter as I know not where to 
 seek the like within so narrow and straight a compass." 
 One wonders whether Galvano's vague phrase was not in 
 Hakluyt's mind when he discussed the " new map " with 
 its maker, and suggested perhaps the vague curve under the 
 Tropic of Capricorn.^ 
 
 1 Cf. a somewhat similar map of 1571 in the polyglot bible of Arias 
 Montanus. Coote's Remarkable Maps, ii. i. Here South of Java 
 is a land in the form of a broad-based pyramid, pointing North. " It 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 93 
 
 So far our argument has hung together, and has pointed 
 strongly to a conclusion : the conclusion that neither 
 Spaniards nor Portuguese knew anything whatever about 
 Australia. We now, however, have to give careful con- 
 sideration to two series of contemporary maps which, at 
 first sight, seem to point to a different conclusion. 
 
 As representative of the first series we may take Mercator's Maps of a 
 map of 1569.^ Here we find Tierra del Fuego depicted, not dmw^a*^^^ 
 as an island, but as a promontory of a huge continent, whose Mageilanican 
 coast line, drawn with firm hand, stretches in unbroken ^hich 
 curve away to the North-West till it all but touches New suggests 
 Guinea at a point which suggests Cape York. On the huge of North 
 continent is written, " This Austral continent some call Australia. 
 Mageilanican from its discoverer." New Guinea is repre- Mercator's 
 sented as a large square-built island. Its northern coast, ™^^ ° '^ ^' 
 which, as we have seen, had been discovered and redis- 
 covered, is drawn with deeply marked headlands and bays, 
 and with many names. The East, West and South coasts 
 are drawn in unbroken curves and have no names. The 
 passage between the South coast of New Guinea, and the 
 North coast of the Mageilanican continent — a passage that 
 makes one think of Torres Strait — is partially occupied by 
 a conventional pattern. And on New Guinea we have an 
 inscription which ends by saying that " whether it is an 
 island or part of the Austral continent is hitherto unknown." 
 Westward from New Guinea the coast line of the Austral 
 continent falls away into a great gulf, the Western side of 
 which is formed by another huge promontory which nearly 
 reaches Java. The great gulf makes one think of the Gulf 
 of Carpentaria : and in the midst of it — in addition to a 
 mighty fish which stretches its huge length half-way across 
 the gulf — are two islands, the larger of which looks as if it 
 might possibly be Groote Eyland. Then the coast line falls 
 away steeply to the South- West, and finally, after skirting 
 
 is," writes Major, " simply a line indicating the north part of an un- 
 explored 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 " 
 [Early Voyages, p. Ixv). 
 ^ See map, p. 91. 
 
94 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 " the Land of Parrots," and after rounding the Cape of 
 
 Good Hope, traverses the South Atlantic and joins the 
 
 Eastern coast of Tierra del Fuego. 
 
 But these At first sight one would be tempted to say that the man 
 
 sent not^^^ who drew this map must have had some knowledge of the 
 
 knowledge outline of the Northern coast of Australia. But closer 
 
 speculation, inspection of the map, and especially of certain inscriptions, 
 
 which I will discuss later, would stir suspicion. And when 
 
 one studies the map in connection with other maps of the 
 
 same series, and when one considers the explanations 
 
 offered by the map-makers, suspicion grows into certainty ; 
 
 certainty that Mercator's Austral continent was the creation 
 
 of Mercator's ingenious imagination, and that he had no 
 
 knowledge whatever of Australia. 
 
 When geographers of the school of which Mercator was 
 the most distinguished representative sat down to make 
 their maps, they had certain fixed ideas in mind which deter- 
 mined their drawing of those parts of the world of which 
 they had no authentic knowledge. 
 They are In the first place, they had in mind the conceptions of 
 
 ^iT^^nfi ^^^ ancient geographers, and especially of Pomponius Mela 
 dence in the and of Claudius Ptolemy. It is hardly possible, we are told, 
 of Mela and ^° exaggerate the influence of " the despotic sway " of 
 Ptolemy, Ptolemy. The map of the cosmographer of the school of 
 Mercator was a map of Ptolemy cautiously brought up to 
 date. Now, according to Ptolemy, as we remember, the 
 Indian Ocean was a land-locked Ocean. And the southern 
 coast of this Ocean was the great " Unknown Land " of the 
 Southern temperate zone, which, so ancient geographers 
 agreed, certainly existed in one form or another. The 
 map-maker of this school, then, was disposed to take 
 Ptolemy's Unknown Land of the South as basis of an 
 Austral continent. He perceived, it is true, that Ptolemy 
 had not known the whole truth. The Portuguese had 
 knocked a big hole in the Western corner of his Unknown 
 Land. And Magellan had bored a small hole in the eastern 
 corner. But otherwise Ptolemy's authority stood firm. 
 There seemed no reason to disbelieve in the rest of his 
 continent of the South. He had been in error in thinking 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 95 
 
 that this continent was joined to Asia on the East, and to 
 Africa on the West. But, after all, to give up Ptolemy's 
 teaching on this point was but to return to Mela and older 
 classical authorities, who had conceived of the land of the 
 Antichthones not as a continent, but as a huge continental 
 island. No doubt, on this matter, Mela had shown better 
 insight than Ptolemy. 
 
 In the second place, it seemed to the map-makers that 
 the authority of the ancient geographers was confirmed by 
 the authority of the new science. The laws of physics, 
 argued Mercator in 1569,^ determine that the earth must (2) the 
 be "in a state of perfect equilibrium." An excrescence on belief that 
 one side of the globe must in the nature of things be balanced Southern 
 by an excrescence on the opposite side ; for otherwise the is needed a 
 constitution of the world could not hold together in its ^ make 
 
 centre (" alioquin mundi constitutionem in suo centro non 
 posse consistere "). If the ancient geographers had grasped 
 this truth they could have proved that the existence of 
 America was a physical necessity, simply because a New 
 World in the West was needed to balance the Old World in 
 the East. And, in the same way, it was now reasonable to 
 assert that a huge unknown continent must, by reason of 
 physical necessity, exist in the South to balance the huge 
 known continents in the North. " Since Asia, Europe and 
 Africa are for the most part situated to the North of the 
 Equator, there must be under the antarctic pole a continent 
 so great that with the Southern parts of Asia, and the new 
 India or America, it should be a weight equal to the other 
 lands." 2 
 
 ^ Rainaud, p. 314. 
 
 2 My colleague, Professor Cotton, has kindly written the following 
 note on Mercator's argument : 
 
 " Although the science of geology cannot even yet afford an explana- 
 tion of the distribution of continental masses and ocean basins which 
 amounts to a demonstration, there is ample evidence that Mercator's 
 hypothesis, suggestive as it was, has no real foundation. 
 
 The geodetic measurements of the values of gravity in various 
 parts of the world have revealed the striking fact that the force of 
 gravity is greater in the oceanic regions than it is on the surface of the 
 continents. It is now generally accepted by geologists that this fact 
 has a genetic significance ; and that the depressions of the solid earth 
 in which the ocean waters now lie are due to the sinking in of the 
 
 weight, 
 
06 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 (3) the 
 misunder- 
 stood state- 
 ments of 
 Marco Folo 
 and 
 Varthema. 
 
 How the ^ 
 
 Magellanican 
 continent 
 was thought 
 out. 
 
 In the third place, the sixteenth-century map-maker had 
 in mind certain passages from the travel books of Marco 
 Polo and his successors. He remembered that Marco Polo 
 had been understood^ to say that some 1200 miles 
 (750 miles according to another text) South of Java "you 
 reach an extensive and rich province which forms a part of 
 the main land, and is named Locac," a word that was some- 
 times mis-printed Beach : — a province in which were found 
 elephants, and brazil wood, and gold in incredible quantity, 
 but which was " httle visited on account of the inhumanity 
 of its inhabitants." He remembered that Marco Polo had 
 also been understood to say that, still further Southward, " so 
 far to the Southward as to render the North Star invisible," 
 " you reach the island of Java the Lesser — not less than 
 2,000 miles in circuit," an island rich in spices which 
 the traveller had visited and explored, having been detained 
 there for five months by contrary winds, while on his 
 way from China to India. And he remembered that 
 these statements had been confirmed by the story told 
 by the skipper to Ludovico Varthema about races of men 
 who lived to the South of Java, and who navigated their 
 ships not by the North Star but by the Southern Cross. 
 
 Now let us observe in a little detail how the sixteenth- 
 century geographer, who had these three fixed ideas in 
 his mind, interpreted the new discoveries. 
 
 When Amerigo Vespucci in 1 502 brought home the 
 exciting news, which lost nothing in the telling, that 
 
 inherently denser portions of the earth's outer shell or crust under 
 gravitational attraction. 
 
 Mercator's hypothesis contains the implicit assumption that the 
 earth is either quite homogeneous in structure, or is built up of a series 
 of concentric shells each of which is homogeneous ; and it is now known 
 that this is not the case. 
 
 Although Mercator's hypothesis has not stood the test of time, its 
 fruitful results afford a most excellent illustration of the value of 
 imagination in stimulating research. It has so often been the case 
 that in the search for one truth the light of genius has revealed many 
 others." 
 
 1 It was, as we have seen, a misunderstanding. Marco Polo had 
 spoken of lands to the South not of Java but of Cochin-China. Locac 
 was not Australia but Siam. Java Minor was not Groote Eyland but 
 Sumatra. See Yule's Marco Polo and Beazley's Dawn of Modern 
 Geography. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 97 
 
 he had sailed down the coast of a New World as far as 
 35° South Latitude, how would the news be interpreted 
 by the professional cosmographer ? The student of, to- 
 day turns to his atlas, and remarks that Amerigo had sailed 
 down the Eastern coast of South America about as far 
 as the Rio de la Plata. The student of the early sixteenth Map-makers 
 century turned to his Ptolemy, and remarked that the ^^^'^^^^ *^^* 
 situation was very puzzling, but that the most likely had sailed 
 guess was that Amerigo had sailed down the hitherto East^coast of 
 unknown Eastern coast of Cattigara-land, i.e. the South- Ptolemy's 
 ward extension of Eastern Asia. What was to be done land!^^^^' 
 next in order that this theory might be proved or dis- 
 proved } If Ptolemy was to be believed there was no 
 way of getting through or round this land into the Indian 
 Ocean. But Ptolemy had also thought there was no 
 way of getting round Africa into the Indian Ocean, and 
 the Portuguese had already proved this opinion to be Explorers 
 wrong. It was at least worth while to follow further \^^^^ to^find 
 Southward the coast of the New World — " America," a passage 
 as readers of Amerigo's fascinating letters were beginning catTigara- 
 to call it — to see whether there were not some passage land and 
 between it and Ptolemy's " Unknown Land " in the incognita. 
 South. 
 
 In 1515 and in 1 520 a German cosmographer named Schoner's 
 Schoner published maps that are interesting evidence ^bout Vg°m 
 as to the way in which students were beginning to inter- incognita, 
 pret news. Schoner had been reading the account of 
 a voyage by Portuguese seamen who claimed that they 
 had actually discovered a passage to the Indian Ocean. 
 He thought the evidence was good enough, and in his 
 maps he drew this passage at 45° S. Lat. Now there 
 is no passage anywhere near 45° S. Lat., and it seems very 
 unlikely that these seamen had discovered the straits 
 which did exist at 52° S. Lat. They probably sailed up 
 some bay or estuary — most likely the Gulf of San Matias, — 
 and thought it was a strait. Schoner was a cosmographer 
 who was rather easily convinced by evidence that claimed 
 to prove the existence of straits. He drew a similar 
 narrow passage through the isthmus of Panama, and 
 
 W.A. G 
 
98 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 another very wide passage between Virginia and New- 
 foundland. But while his map is no good evidence as 
 to the discovery of a strait leading into the Indian Ocean, 
 it is very good evidence as to what geographers expected 
 would be found on the other side. According to Schoner's 
 
 The Western Half of Schoner's First Globe, 1515. 
 (From Steven's Johann Schoner.) 
 
 conception in the map of 151 5 ^ there is a great ocean round 
 the South Pole. But this ocean is surrounded by a thick 
 ring of land,2 with one opening in the ring in a direction 
 due South from Java. This ring of land Schoner calls 
 " the region of Brazil " in the map of I5I5> ^^^ 
 
 ^ See map on this page. 
 
 2 The map of 1520 breaks up this ring into a group of large islands : 
 which seems to show how wholly fanciful were the map-makers' dreams 
 about the structure of the Southern World. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 99 
 
 "Lower Brazil" in the map of 1520. He had 
 obtained his information, it seems, from Portuguese 
 seamen chiefly interested in the New World as a source 
 of supply of the very useful dye-wood called brazil, which 
 had long been one of the recognized precious commo- 
 dities of the Far East, and of which Marco Polo had made 
 honourable mention in his account of Locac and Java 
 Minor. This lower Brazilian region, Schoner explains, 
 extends nearly to Malacca, and is not far off the Cape 
 of Good Hope.^ And he draws the outline of this great 
 Austral Continent with a detail that suggests he was well 
 acquainted with every bay and headland, both on its 
 Northern and its Southern coasts. He is also able to 
 tell you of its snowy mountains, its excellent fruits, precious 
 metals, splendid birds, and its gigantic plants.^ At 
 a later date (1533), he is able to add that the in- 
 habitants of this region, " the very great Southern 
 Region of Brazil," live a good honest life, are not canni- 
 bals, reverence the older men, and call their children 
 Thomas.^ All these interesting facts the thoughtful 
 Schoner, with head full of the marvels of Amerigo's letter, 
 and reminiscences of earlier travel-books, was able, 
 it seems, to gather from information given by Portuguese 
 brazil-wood cutters of what they had seen on the Southern 
 side of some bay or estuary in Patagonia. 
 
 It seems Hkely that when Magellan sailed in 15 19 he Map-makers 
 had seen Schoner's map or some other map of this type.* that^^^ 
 He was, at least, confident that a strait did exist, and Magellan 
 he was determined to find it, he said, even if he had to ^tmit°""^ ^ 
 sail as far South as 75°. He found the strait in 52°, and between 
 sailed through it. To the South was a land which he called lan^d^fn^" 
 I Tierra del Fuego. And what was Tierra del Fuego ? Terra 
 I Was it an island } Or was it the tip of a great continent ? and^thaf ' 
 I The voyagers thought that it was an island or a collec- Tierra del 
 
 tion of islands. They "thought," says an enterprising a tfp^r^^ 
 
 Terra 
 i ^ " A capite bonae spei parum distat. Insuper modica distantia Incognita. 
 'A est ab hoc Brasiliae regione ad Mallaquam " (Guillemard, p. 193 note). 
 KL ^ Rainaud, p. 250. 3 Rainaud, p. 297. 
 
 ■■^ Guillemard's Magellan, p. 192. 
 
 I 
 
100 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 journalist who interviewed them on their return, " there was 
 
 no continent, but only islands, as they occasionally heard 
 
 on that side the reverberation and roar of the sea at a 
 
 more distant part of the coast " ;— surely a remarkably 
 
 bad argument ! If the geographers had believed the 
 
 travellers they would have had to abandon Schoner's 
 
 theory that a great Southern Continent extended from 
 
 the South side of the straits " somewhat as Africa extended 
 
 from the South side of the straits of Gibraltar." And, 
 
 as we have already seen, many map makers were sceptic 
 
 or agnostic, made their Southern world not continental 
 
 but oceanic, pointed out that no lands had been discovered, 
 
 and declined to fill their maps with vain imaginations. 
 
 But other cosmographers remained unconvinced by 
 
 the argument of the travellers. Is the " reverberation 
 
 and roar of the sea " never heard save on islands ? What 
 
 the seamen had heard could easily be accounted for by 
 
 the existence of some deep inlet. Tierra del Fuego, they 
 
 were convinced, was no island, but the tip of the continent 
 
 of the South ; the nature of which could be fully explained 
 
 by those who had studied the map of Ptolemy, had read 
 
 Marco Polo and Varthema, and were acquainted with the 
 
 laws of physical science. And when they made their maps 
 
 of the South they gave bold expression to this conviction. 
 
 Finseus Let US consider a map of this sort made by a Frenchman, 
 
 (1531) , Orontius Finaeus in 1531.^ Like a good orthodox 
 thought that , , . 1 • , • -o. 1 j • 1 • 
 
 Peru was geographer he is workmg on his Ptolemy, and is seeking 
 
 Cattigara- ^q bring him up to date. Magellan has bored a hole into 
 the extreme South-East corner of Ptolemy's land-locked 
 Indian Sea. Where then are we now ? The country 
 to the North, recently discovered and conquered by Pizarro 
 and his friends, is evidently Ptolemy's Southward exten- 
 sion of Eastern Asia. So Finaeus confidently marks 
 Ptolemy's Cattigara as a seaport of Peru. Following 
 Ptolemy's map Northward, one comes to Sinae (China) 
 or Cathay, and this is evidently the country, part of which 
 Cortez has recently conquered under the name of Mexico ; 
 so Finaeus puts down Pekin (Cambaluc) in the same land 
 1 See map, p. loi. Cf. Fiske's Discovery of America, vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN > 'r-Vfc - 
 
:o2- 
 
 rUFj DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Finaeus's 
 conception 
 of Terra 
 Australis. 
 
 The travels 
 of Patala, 
 
 as Mexico, about a thousand miles to the North-West. 
 In short, what recent voyages have done is to supply 
 Ptolemy's Asia with a badly needed Eastern coast. Thus, 
 e.g., Newfoundland (Baccalar) is obviously a promontory 
 of Siberia. 
 
 So far, Finaeus, no doubt, felt that he was treading 
 on firm ground. In constructing the map of Eastern 
 Asia he was simply adding to the map of Ptolemy the un- 
 doubted discoveries of Spaniards and Portuguese. But 
 what was one to say about the Southern side of the Indian 
 Ocean, the great sweep of " Unknown Land " which, in 
 Ptolemy's map, Hnked Asia to Africa. Why not, in general, 
 leave it as Ptolemy had left it, a great sweep of unknown 
 land } Diaz and Gama had knocked a hole in it in the 
 South- West corner, and now Magellan had knocked another 
 hole in it in the South-East corner ; but, for the rest, no 
 one had proved that Ptolemy was wrong. On the contrary, 
 Magellan had seen land to the South that was, no doubt, 
 a promontory of the unknown continent. That continent 
 accordingly Finaeus will draw upon his map, and in order 
 to be strictly honest he will write upon it " Austral Land 
 recently discovered but not yet fully known." But as, 
 in fact, no one knew anything whatever about it, he was 
 gloriously free to make it look pretty. So he put in gulfs 
 and creeks and headlands and rivers with a profuse detail 
 that would seem to suggest that he had returned from 
 a voyage of scientific survey with a portfolio full of charts. 
 In reality the fulness of detail is proof, if proof were needed, 
 of completeness of ignorance. The whole is purely the 
 work of the artistic imagination. 
 
 There are, however, certain features of the continent 
 that deserve our attention. Its coast line, on the Indian 
 Ocean, is broken into two huge bulges, separated by a 
 great gulf in a direction slightly East of the South of 
 Java, in a position that seems to correspond to the break 
 in the ring of Schoner's " Lower Brazil." We shall find 
 this gulf of interest when we return to the study of 
 Mercator's map of 1569. On the Eastern of the two 
 bulges, which is separated from South America b)^ the 
 
 I 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 103 
 
 " Magellanican Sea," Finaeus writes the amazing words 
 " Regio Patalis." The words are amazing because 
 Regio Patalis means the region of Patala, the town 
 which Alexander the Great had founded at the mouth 
 of the Indus ! Names in those days travelled the 
 
 PATALIS REGIO 
 
 Map of 1522. (From Nordenskiold's Facsimile Atlas, p. 36.) 
 
 world in invisible coat and in shoes of swiftness, and 
 we cannot always watch their strides. But in this case 
 what happened is pretty clear. Patala crossed the ocean 
 from India to Antarctica by the bridge built by the words 
 of Roger Bacon : — " The Southern front of India, in the 
 region of Pathalis and the neighbouring land, runs out 
 towards the Tropic of Capricorn." ^ We can even, to some 
 extent, watch its progress. Its route seems to have been 
 
 ^ See above, p. 17. 
 
104 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 determined by the phrase of Nicolo de Conti that certain 
 places in Southern India were situated " in the second 
 gulf beyond the Indus," which was understood to mean 
 that they were in the gulf of Siam. So, in Behaim's map 
 of 1492, " India Patalis " is somewhere in the longitude 
 of the Malay Peninsula, and has reached 10° S. Lat.^ And 
 in a map of the medieval type, first printed in 1522, 
 Patalis Regio, linked to India by the Terrestrial Paradise, 
 extends Southward to the very bottom of the map.^ In 
 fact Patala had travelled so far Southward, that Magellan's 
 voyage, breaking down the Roger Bacon bridge, cut off 
 its retreat, and Finaeus decided that it must stay in the 
 " Austral Continent." 
 
 On the Western bulge of his Austral Land Finaeus 
 and Brazil, writes " Brasielie Regio " ; a phrase which we recognize 
 at once as another illustration of the rapid ways of geo- 
 graphic names. Schoner had learnt about 151 5 that 
 South America was a good place for the dye-wood called 
 brazil. He therefore called the country Brazil, and the 
 land to the South he also called " Region of Brazil " 
 or " Lower Brazil." Finaeus thought the idea a good 
 one, but as he had decided to call the Eastern bulge 
 "Regio Patalis " he had, it seems, to push his " Region of 
 Brazil" Westward, to a point at which it nearly reached 
 Marco Polo's Island of Zanzibar in the neighbourhood 
 of Africa. This seems to explain the fact that in Mercator's 
 map there is a province of Terra Australis far away to 
 the South of the Cape of Good Hope called " Region 
 of Parrots " (Psittacorum Regio). ^ A coast far away 
 to the South of the Cape of Good Hope looks an unhkely 
 place for parrots, but there are always plenty of parrots 
 in " Brazil," and Frobisher and other map-makers assure 
 us that in this place " Portugals see popinjays commonly 
 of a marvellous greatness." 
 
 We are now able to look again at the Map of Mercator 
 
 1 See p. 55. 
 
 ^ See p. 103. 
 
 3 In Mercator the Region of the Parrots is in about 45°. In other 
 maps of the same type it is as far South as 60° or 70°. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 105 
 
 with better knowledge of the nature of the thoughts Mercator's 
 which it is hkely to express. His mind is possessed by speculations, 
 certain fixed ideas, (i) Tierra del Fuego is part of an 
 Austral continent. (2) This continent must be a very 
 big and heavy one, for it has to add much needed weight 
 to the scale which holds the comparatively meagre con- 
 tinents of the South in order that they may hold their 
 own against their bulky sisters of the North. (3) It 
 includes the lands South of Java of which Marco Polo 
 and Varthema had told. 
 
 He starts, then, with the known land of Tierra del Fuego, He spun a 
 
 which he draws with inlets and rivers, which are intended, Mageilamcan 
 
 ' ' continent 
 
 one may guess, to explain the reverberating roar of the out of 
 sea which Magellan's seamen had heard, and which had p^ego ^ 
 seemed to them to suggest the erroneous conclusion that 
 Tierra del Fue^o was an island. Then he continues the 
 coastline of Tierra del Fuego on a North-Westerly curve that 
 touches, or all but touches, New Guinea. More honest or 
 less artistic than Finaeus, he leaves the unknown coastline 
 undecorated. But he boldly writes across the whole 
 continent the monstrous statement that Magellan was 
 its discoverer ! The truth was that the continent was 
 not Magellanican but Mercatorian, and that of its many 
 thousand miles Magellan had seen about three hundred 
 and twenty. 
 
 The continent, then, which Magellan had discovered He knew 
 stretches away from Tierra del Fuego to New Guinea, coast^or^ 
 The Northern coast of New Guinea is marked by geo- New;Guinea, 
 graphic features and by names ; and it seems clear that l^,^^ it^mfght 
 Mercator got his information from Spanish or Portuguese be an island, 
 narratives of voyages.^ But the other coasts are given 
 in unbroken and nameless outline, that seems to express 
 ignorance, and he confesses that he does not even know 
 whether New Guinea is an island. It may be a hitherto 
 unknown part, he says, of the Austral continent. Now 
 it seems curious that Mercator, who had without question 
 
 ^ He makes the interesting though incorrect suggestion that New 
 Guinea may be the Labadii Insula which Ptolemy marked in the S.E. 
 corner of his Indian Ocean, and which probably was Sumatra. 
 
io6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 decided that Tierra del Fuego was part of the continent, 
 should have expressed this doubt about New Guinea, 
 and should have drawn his map in a way that suggests 
 that it probably is an island. One wonders whether 
 Spanish or Portuguese seamen had been in the neighbour- 
 hood of Torres Strait, and had come home, like Dutch 
 seamen a century later, doubting whether it was a strait 
 or only a shallow bay. They seem at least to have sailed 
 far enough down the Southern coast to get the suggestion 
 that New Guinea was possibly, and even probably, an 
 island. But the matter was so " uncertain " that map- 
 makers and writers continued to take different opinions. 
 Ortelius drew an island, but wrote on it that it was 
 " uncertain " whether it was an island or part of the 
 continent. Wytfliet drew an island, and wrote that it 
 was separated from the continent by a narrow strait.^ 
 Plancius definitely made it a part of the continent.^ On 
 the whole, however, the insular theory prevailed. " Almost 
 all the Northern side of it," wrote Dr. Arias soon after 
 1614, " has been discovered. It is a country encompassed 
 with water, and according to the greater number of those 
 who have seen it, it is 700 leagues in circuit." ^ 
 He put Then, passing Westward, Mercator shows us a huge 
 
 Pentam^n^^ §^^^ ^^^^ certainly ought to be the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
 the region of containing two islands, the larger of which certainly ought 
 Carpentaria, ^^ ^e Groote Eyland. But we observe that the great gulf 
 roughly corresponds to the great gulf in the Austral 
 continent of Finaeus, which in its turn roughly corre- 
 sponds to the opening in the ring of the Region of Brazil 
 of Schoner. For some inexplicable reason, it was the 
 fashion to draw a big gulf between two huge promon- 
 tories in this part of the Austral continent, and Mercator 
 has found this fashion particularly convenient because, 
 as we shall notice in a moment, it gave him an opportunity 
 to find space for two islands which, he understood, existed 
 South of Java. The main difference between his map 
 
 1 See map, p. 112. 2 gee map, p. 107. 
 
 ^ Dr. Arias, however, wrote with knowledge that the voyage -of 
 Torres (1606) had proved the insular theory to be correct. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 107 
 
 and those of his predecessors is that, in order to make 
 his continent as big and as heavy as possible, he has pushed 
 its coastHne up much further to the North. It seems to 
 me certain that the geography is still wholly imaginary. 
 
 As to the larger island, which ought to be Groote Eyland, 
 it turns out on closer inspection to be Marco Polo's Java 
 Minor {i.e. Sumatra) ; and Mercator tells you that the island 
 
 Part of Plancius's M\r, 1594. (From Linschoten's Voyages, 1623. 
 
 " produces various spices never seen by Europeans, as 
 you may read in M. Paulus Venetus, Book 3, Chapter 
 13." The smaller island is Marco Polo's Pentam, an island 
 which in real life stands in the straits of Malacca.^ Mercator 
 understood Marco Polo to mean that these islands existed 
 Southward of Java, and he therefore cut a particularly 
 big gulf in order to contain them. Another geographer, 
 Plancius, who made a map similar to that of Mercator 
 in 1594, recognized that Marco Polo's Java Minor was 
 
 ^ " The Singapore Island of our day. 
 Ser Marco Polo, p. 105. 
 
 See discussion in Cordier's 
 
io8 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Sumatra, and had therefore no place Southward from Java ; 
 so he removed the island from the map, and at the same 
 time greatly curtailed the gulf which had been made to 
 contain it ; it dwindles not because any discovery has been 
 made, but because Marco Polo has been better understood.^ 
 and Siam in Passing to the bulging promontory which forms the 
 West ^^^ ^ Western side of the gulf, and which, if it were anything 
 Australia. real, would be the coast of West Australia, we still find 
 ourselves in a country which owes its names, if not its 
 existence, to the misunderstood talk of Marco Polo. On 
 it we read : " Beach, an auriferous province, which few 
 foreigners approach on account of the inhumanity of its 
 people." We are, of course, tempted to see a reference 
 to the gold mines of West Australia, and the ferocious 
 manners of the blackfellows on the North-Western coast. 
 But Beach was an earher printer's error for Locac : ^ 
 and Locac was a region which Marco Polo described 
 as being South of Cochin China, but which his editor 
 believed that he had described as being South of Java. 
 The gold mines and the inhumane people were not in West 
 Australia but in Siam or Cambodia. 
 
 Below Beach in Mercator's map we find the inscrip- 
 tion, " Maletur, a kingdom in which is very great plenty 
 of spices." Maletur is Marco Polo's kingdom of Malaiur, 
 or Kingdom of Malays, which existed at the South-East 
 end of the Malay Peninsula. Then we have the " Kingdom 
 of Lucach," another rendering of Locac. It is evidently 
 a matter of great satisfaction to Mercator that his theory 
 of the physical necessity for a great and weighty Southern 
 
 ^ Plancius's map is printed in Hakluyt, vol. ix. See map, p. 107. 
 
 2 " In the Basle edition of Marco Polo in 1532, the printer unluckily 
 altered the L into a B, and the first C into an E, so that Locach became 
 Boeach. This was afterwards shortened into Beach. . . . As, however, 
 some editions of Marco Polo retained the word Locach and others 
 Beach, both names came to be copied on to maps, and, the point of 
 departure being Java, the map-makers following the course indicated 
 in Marco Polo, laid these countries down as forming part of the Great 
 Southern Land, which was supposed to occupy the entire South part 
 of the globe " (Major's Prince Henry the Navigator, Appendix, p. 307 ; 
 quoted by Collingridge, p. 199). On Behaim's globe Locach became 
 Coachs. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 109 
 
 continent received confirmation from the authority of 
 Oriental travellers. "That very vast regions exist here," 
 he wrote a little lower down, " he easily believes who has 
 read Book III, Chapters XI and XII of Marcus Paulus 
 the Venetian, and who has collated them with Book VI, 
 Chapter XXVII of Ludovicus Varthema, Roman Patrician." 
 
 It seems to me clear that Mercator's Magellanican Mercator 
 continent is the expression not of geographical information ^nowied 
 but of respect to the authority of Ptolemy, of desire to but made a 
 find habitation for the names mentioned in the misinter- ^^l^ ^^ ^ 
 preted passage of Marco Polo, and of hehef in a certain 
 physical theory of the globe. To do justice to Mercator's 
 map we should consider it not as a statement of fact, 
 but as a guess at truth. And, after all, it was not such 
 a very bad guess. He drew an outline that was curiously 
 like the outline of the Northern coast of Australia. And 
 when he insisted that there was a great mass of land in 
 the South the conclusion of his argument at least was 
 entirely right. There was not one continent, but there 
 were two continents : Australia and the Antarctic 
 Continent, which recent exploration has shown to be 
 as big as Australia and Europe put together,^ and with 
 mighty mountain ranges which, Mercator would have 
 argued, must greatly increase its importance as a make- 
 weight in the vast scales of the globe. 
 
 Apart from the question of its value as evidence of 
 geographical knowledge at the time, Mercator's map 
 of 1569 is a map of singular interest in view of the later 
 development of our story. It became the recognized 
 authority in the realm of scientific geography, the Ptolemy 
 of the New Age. A long series of later maps were, either 
 avowedly or virtually, merely later editions of the master- 
 piece. And they all tend to confirm the view that it 
 represents- not a knowledge of facts but a clever guess at 
 truth. In fact, in the Atlas published by Mercator's Magellan 
 friend Ortelius, realities are stated with perfect plainness, ^ashfuf 
 He wrote in the Preface : "Of the fifth part (of the world), virgin, 
 situated under the South Pole, which we call Magellan, 
 ^ Cf. Bruce's Polar Exploration. 
 
no THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 one cannot say much, since it has been discovered only in 
 two or three straits ; as in the region of the Straits of 
 Magellan, where we call the land Tierra del Fuego, etc., 
 and at New Guinea, which we likewise think to be a part 
 of it." On the frontispiece of the Atlas, the four continents 
 are represented as female figures at full length. And 
 near the figure of America is placed, not a fifth full-length 
 figure, but a female bust of head, neck and breasts, and 
 under the breasts burns a fire. And a Latin verse explains : 
 " Not far off, the last nymph raises her shining head, with 
 a virgin's face and features and lovely breasts, but hand- 
 less and foot-less, barely known even by a few. They say 
 that of late the Spaniard Magellan burned with love for 
 her, for he chanced to look once upon her unaware amid 
 the flames that flashed all about her. Then the maiden, 
 suffused with a deep blush, at once veiled her head, and 
 wrapped herself in dusky smoke and the shade of murky 
 darkness. But, so as not rashly to allow herself to be seen 
 a second time, she fixed this remembering flame beneath 
 her breast." ^ The love-adventure of Magellan and the 
 bashful virgin was a topic of singular fascination to geo- 
 grapher poets. The Latin verses were reprinted in every 
 new Latin edition of OrteHus ; and, when a French edition 
 was pubhshed, a new poet retold in French verse the 
 famous old story in a form enriched by further imagina- 
 tions. Magellan, he says, barely kissed her on the mouth, 
 and did not find out whether her limbs were " black, 
 white, shorn or hairy, but shrewdly did he suspect, from 
 the flames of fire that he saw around her, that he was not 
 
 ^ " Haud procul hinc nitidum caput exserit ultima Nymphe, 
 Virginis os vultumque gerens, pectusque venustum ; 
 Trunca manus et trunca pedes, vix cognita paucis. 
 Hujus amore aiunt Magellum nuper Iberum 
 Exarsisse, freto dum se commisit ad Austrum, 
 Et vocitasse suo de nomine Magellanam. 
 Ille etenim tum forte, micantibus undique flammis, 
 Incautam semel adspexit, solemnia festa 
 Dum parat ; Hinc virgo multo suffusa rubore 
 Extemplo caput occuluit, furvoque seipsam 
 Involvit fumo et fuscae calignis umbris. 
 At, ne fors iterum temere sese ilia videndam 
 Praebeat, hanc fixit memorem sub pectore flammam." 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN? in 
 
 welcome. And thus he turned away, without having 
 other glory, bestowing on her his everlasting name." ^ 
 And yet Ortelius, with these facts in mind, is not afraid 
 to draw with firm hand a great full-length continent, 
 extending all round the world from Tierra del Fuego to 
 New Guinea — about whose insularity he also is uncertain^ 
 
 I 
 
 Part of Ortelius's Map, 1570. (From Nordenskiold's Facsimile Atlas 
 
 and from New Guinea to Tierra del Fuego.^ And of this 
 huge outline all that had been " discovered " were " two 
 or three straits " in Tierra del Fuego and in New Guinea ; 
 the rest remained " unknown " behind the dusky veil of 
 the blushing nymph ! 
 
 There is one other map of this type that I will mention, 
 because it, and the treatise that accompanies the atlas 
 
 ^ " Non pas trop loin dela peut on voir le visage 
 
 D'une autre Nymphe, encore incognue et sauvage. 
 L'on dit, que seulement Magellanus un jour 
 En sa bouche une fois la baisoit par amour. 
 Sans taster plus avant ses membres incognuz, 
 Ignorant s'ilz sont noirs, blancs, tonduz ou veluz. 
 Mais bien il s'en doutoit, par les flammes de feu, 
 Qu'a I'entour d'elle il veit, de n'estre bien venu, 
 Et se retourne ainsi, sans avoir autre gloire. 
 En luy donnant son nom d'eternelle memoire." 
 
 2 See Map on this page. 
 
112 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 which contains it, have been used as an argument to show 
 
 that the coast of Austraha was visited during this period. 
 
 What It is a map pubHshed by Wytfliet in 1597.^ It represents 
 
 meant\)v ^ Terra AustraHs that has very much the same features 
 
 ~ as are represented in the earher maps we have noticed. 
 
 The source of much of the information represented in the 
 
 map may be partly guessed from the fact that the 
 
 Terra 
 A ustralis 
 
 Part of Wytfliet's Map, 1597. (From Nordenskiold's Facsimile Atlas, p. 134.) 
 
 author is able to draw you a deep creek which pierces 
 the Southern Land to its very heart, and has its origin 
 apparently a few miles away from the South Pole ! 
 
 But the argument as to the knowledge of Australia 
 is mainly founded not on the map, but on the following 
 passage in the treatise : "The Australis Terra is the most 
 Southern of all lands. It 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 
 
 1 See map on this page. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN? 113 
 
 extent, that, if it were thoroughly explored, it would 
 be regarded as a fifth part of the world." 
 
 It seems to me that the significance of this passage 
 has been very much exaggerated. It has its origin, in 
 my opinion, not in "a discovery of Australia" (as Mr. 
 CoUingridge thinks), but in the voyages through the straits 
 of Magellan, which, so geographers of the school of Mercator 
 contended, had meant the discovery of the Magellanican 
 continent or Terra Australis. 
 
 When a cosmographer of the school of Mercator said 
 that Terra Australis had been visited, all he meant was 
 that Tierra del Fuego had been visited, and that the 
 rest of the continent had bashfully veiled herself an-d had 
 refused to be visited. And, after the disastrous voyages 
 of Magellan and Del Cano, even the visits to Tierra del 
 Fuego has ceased. The route through the straits had 
 been abandoned, and the shy continent was permitted 
 to remain undisturbed behind the veil. That is the meaning 
 of Wytfliet's statement, as I understand it. The " sailors 
 driven to Terra Australia by storms " were, I imagine, 
 the same sailors as the " Portingals " who, according 
 to Frobisher, " saw popinjays commonly of a marvellous 
 greatness " on the shores of Terra Incognita far Southward 
 of the Cape of Good Hope. Their voyages probably 
 took place to the part of Brazil that is in South America, 
 not to the part of Brazil that, according to Schoner and 
 Finaeus, is in Antarctica. 
 
 So far our study both of narratives and of maps has 
 tended to foster in us the spirit of unbelief. But we Maps of a 
 now have to study another series of maps of a different t^ve^a^huge 
 type : maps which I regard as the difficulty of our present Southerly 
 chapter, and which I have therefore reserved for considera- ^av^^^°" 
 tion to the end, in order that we might have in mind 
 what, apart from them, is known about cosmographers 
 and cosmography in the sixteenth century. 
 
 These maps are of various dates, ranging from about 
 1530 to about 1570.^ One of them was made in the time 
 of Francis of France for the benefit of his son the Dauphin, 
 
 ^ See maps in the following pages, 
 W.A. H 
 
114 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 afterwards Henry 11. ; and it seems likely that its date 
 lies between 1530 and 1536. Another, made by Jean 
 Rotz, who dedicated it first to the King of France, and 
 afterwards to the King of England, bears the date 1542. 
 All the maps of this type were made by French map-makers ; 
 but they furnish conclusive evidence that they were based 
 on a common original, and that the common original 
 
 -> *'-" 
 
 
 
 Part of the " Dauphin " Map, 1530-36. (In the British Museum.) 
 
 was a Portuguese map. They represent Portuguese 
 knowledge or Portuguese speculation as to the contents 
 of the world to the South of Java. It is, therefore, well 
 to compare them with the Portuguese charts by Rodriguez 
 or Reinel which we have already noticed. The charts 
 of Rodriguez and Reinel show knowledge of the North 
 coasts of the islands from Java to Timor, and Rodriguez 
 even seems to show a knowledge also of their South coast ; 
 but neither chart shows any knowledge of land to the 
 South of these islands. Now the maps which we have 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 115 
 
 to study give the North coast of Java with geographical 
 features, and with nanies in plenty. The island is square 
 built, and its figure is singularly unlike reality. Detailed 
 information is given of the West coast, which is made 
 almost as long as the North coast. To the East of Java 
 we note, as in the map of Sebastian Cabot, a guh" in 
 which are the two little islands of Bali and Lomboc. 
 
 Taki ai' JiL.A.M Koi/.'s Chart, 154^. (In the British Museum.) 
 
 On the gulf are written the Portuguese words — which 
 the French copyist has, it seems, been unable to translate — 
 Anda ne barcha ^ : "no boats go here "; words that remind 
 us of the statement of the Portuguese writer, Barros, that 
 the natives say that " whoever shall proceed beyond these 
 straits will be hurried away by strong currents, so as never 
 to be able to return ; and for this reason they never attempt 
 to navigate it." But when we pass Eastward to the island 
 of Sumbava an amazing thing takes place. Sumbava is 
 drawn, not as an island, but as the tip of a gigantic con- 
 tinent stretching far away down to the South. In one 
 of the maps, which is probably the earliest, this continent 
 
 1 Mr. Collingridge first noticed these words, which seem to prove 
 that these maps are French copies of a lost Portuguese original. 
 
Ii6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 is called Jave la Grande. It is separated from Java 
 by a narrow channel which is called Rio Grande. In 
 another map — made by Pierre Desceliers and dated 
 1550 — two men are to be seen with mattocks in hand 
 in the act of digging this river. The outline of the coast 
 of Jave la Grande is broken by bays and capes, rivers 
 and islands, that are drawn with a definiteness and a 
 variety that, if used by a modern map-maker, would suggest 
 a claim to actual knowledge. In the two maps by Jean 
 Rotz the Western coast line ends at 35°. In another, 
 the " Dauphin " map, all detail ends at the same point, 
 whence a straight and nameless line is drawn to the bottom 
 of the paper. But Desceliers' maps of 1546 and 1550 
 have details and names down to 50°, at which point, 
 the coastline of Jave la Grande joins the coastline of 
 a great Southern continent, like that of Mercator's school, 
 which is called " La Terre Austral nondum tout (!) des- 
 couverte," though Desceliers can give you the names of 
 geographic features even on this not wholly discovered 
 continent. On the Eastern side, one map, by Rotz, 
 makes the coast end at 60°, while the others extend it 
 to the Southern margin. The interior is ornamented 
 with unusual profuseness and variety. In one map we 
 see animals that remind one of those seen by the comrades 
 of Magellan in Patagonia : ^ " with the head and ears 
 of a mule, the body of a camel, the legs of a stag, and 
 the tail of a horse " ; other animals that look rather like 
 cows, and also rather like stags ; well-built farms assailed 
 by naked savages, spears in hand. In another map we 
 have two lions, and a feudal castle. In another (Vallard's) 
 we have picturesque snow-clad mountains, a serpent nearly 
 as long as the tree up which it climbs, and animals that look 
 like camels. In another we have the two men with mattocks 
 digging the " River " between Java and Jave la Grande, 
 while the interior is occupied by illustrated quotations 
 from Marco Polo's descriptions of Java, Pegu, Malacca, 
 Sumatra, the Andaman islands and Ceylon. 
 
 Now it is contended by writers of great learning and 
 ^ Mr. CoUingridge's suggestion. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 117 
 
 ability that these maps prove that the West, North, 
 and East coasts of Austraha had been discovered 
 
 and carefully explored by navigators in the early years 
 of the sixteenth century. They lead Mr. Major to " regard 
 it as highly probable that Australia was discovered 
 
ii8 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 which 
 suggests 
 knowledge 
 Austraha. 
 
 Unhke- 
 nesses do 
 not prove 
 that this 
 view is 
 untrue. 
 
 by the Portuguese between the years 151 1 and 1529, 
 of and almost a demonstrable certainty that it was dis- 
 covered before the year 1542." On the West coast he 
 is able to identify Exmouth Gulf, Shark Bay, and Hout- 
 man's Abrolhos ; on the East coast he thinks it "by no 
 means improbable " that " Baye Neufve " is Bass's Straits, 
 and that " Gouffre " is Oyster Bay in Tasmania ; and 
 it " may be fairly presumed that the islands in the extreme 
 East . . . represent New Zealand." Mr. Collingridge is 
 still more prepared to go into detail, and to explain every 
 feature of these maps in terms of modern Australian 
 geography. And both Mr. Major and Mr. Collingridge 
 are able to explain all apparent difficulties in a way that, 
 they claim, makes their argument more convincing than 
 ever. 
 
 We should begin by recognizing that these authors 
 are right when they remind us that the many and great 
 unlikenesses of Jave la Grande to Australia do not prove 
 that it does not represent real knowledge. If the Portuguese 
 discovered Australia before 1542, and drew a map of it, 
 that map would certainly be unlike Australia in many 
 important respects. And especially we should expect 
 to find big mistakes in regard to Longitude. Seamen 
 in those days were able to find their Latitudes with fair 
 correctness, but the most skilful were, as they confessed, 
 mere guessers when they were calculating Longitude. 
 At a time when cosmographers were making Newfound- 
 land a promontory of Siberia, and Mexico a part of China, 
 there would be no sort of professional discredit in placing 
 Australia far too much to the West. And other re- 
 markable unlikenesses may easily be explained as mis- 
 takes, provided the likenesses are sufficient to convince 
 us of identity. 
 
 Nevertheless, I regard the claim that has been advanced 
 on behalf of these maps with suspicion : and mainly for 
 the following reasons. 
 
 In the first place, it seems to me exceedingly unlikely 
 that voyages took place during this period that would 
 have enabled cosmographers to draw maps of the Western, 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 119 
 
120 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 But (i) it 
 
 seems 
 
 improbable 
 
 that voyage? 
 
 were made 
 
 that would 
 
 give 
 
 knowledge 
 
 of 
 
 Australian 
 
 coasts, 
 
 and (2) it 
 seems likely 
 that these 
 maps, like 
 those of the 
 second type, 
 represent 
 voyages of 
 the 
 imagination. 
 
 Northern, and Eastern coasts of Australia. What 
 we are asked to beheve is that between 1 5 12 and 1536 
 Portuguese and Spanish seamen sailed the whole length 
 of the West coast to Cape Leeuwin, and the whole, 
 length of the East coast to Tasmania, and that they sur- 
 veyed those huge coast lines with the accuracy, if not of 
 a Cook or a Flinders, at least of a Columbus or a Vespucci. 
 Now in our contemporary narratives, written by men 
 who, like Galvano, must have known everything know- 
 able about this matter, there is no record, no hint, of a 
 single voyage of discovery on those coasts. In our con- 
 temporary maps, apart from the maps of this type, there 
 is no line that suggests knowledge of them. And every- 
 thing that we know of the ideas and habits of Portuguese 
 and Spaniards in this period makes it highly improbable 
 that these discoveries would be made. When I think 
 of the enormous difhculties of navigation on these Aus- 
 tralian coasts, of the scanty naval equipment of the handful 
 of Portuguese, who, in 1 5 1 2, had just arrived at the Moluccas, 
 and of the lack of motive for voyages of detailed and 
 scientific survey, I feel that nothing but evidence of the 
 most unanswerable nature would induce me to accept 
 those maps as representing the discovery of Australia. 
 
 And, in the second place, while I find it very difficult 
 to believe that these maps represent the results of voyages 
 of ships, I find it very easy to believe that they represent 
 the results of voyages of imagination. We have seen 
 that at this time, owing to various reasons, it was the 
 fashion to fill vacant spaces in the South with continents 
 which were the result not of discoveries but of philoso- 
 phical speculations. When voyagers reported that they had 
 seen a few miles of land, cosmographers at once declared 
 that this land must be the tip of a continent which centered 
 in the South Pole. Tierra del Fuego was a tip of this 
 continent. New Guinea was either a tip of this same 
 continent, or an island separated from it only by a very 
 narrow strait. And there was no coastline in the world 
 that was more likely to suggest a hinterland of continent 
 than the Northern coastline of Java. When the Portuguese 
 
 J 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN? 121 
 
 came to Java, they came to an island that had for centuries The form of 
 enjoyed the reputation of being the largest and most ContinentTn 
 magnificent island in the world, an island of from three these maps 
 thousand to seven thousand miles in circuit. And, away baibiy^^' 
 to the South of Java, Marco Polo had been understood suggested by 
 to say, was " an extensive and rich province that forms statements 
 a part of the mainland." And Ludovico Varthema ^^at Java 
 
 11111 • r r 1 -1 '^^S the 
 
 had brought home stones 01 races 01 men who navigated largest 
 by the Southern Cross, who lived in a country where island m the 
 the day did not last more than four hours, and where it 
 was colder than in any other part of the world. 
 
 We have seen how Mercator interpreted these state- Java may be 
 ments. He found a place on the map for Marco Polo's southern 
 " extensive and rich province " by adding to his Southern Continent. 
 Continent a huge promontory stretching Northwards 
 towards Java. And he wrote upon it that anyone who 
 has read certain chapters in Polo and Varthema will 
 easily believe that very vast regions here exist. But to 
 people who, like the Portuguese, actually visited Java, 
 it may well have appeared that a better interpretation 
 might be suggested. The travellers had not only spoken 
 of a continent South of Java ; they had also spoken of 
 Java itself as " Java Major," the greatest island in the 
 world ! Was it not likely that Java extended far South- 
 ward } Was it not possible that, like Tierra del Fuego 
 and perhaps New Guinea, it was a tip of the Austral con- 
 tinent with a centre in the South Pole } ^ To this it might 
 be objected that some said that Java was a comparatively 
 small island, and had even ventured to draw the vague 
 outline of its Southern coast, while admitting that no ships 
 went there. Well then, let us be reasonable cosmo- 
 graphers, and let us make a compromise. Let us suppose 
 that Java is a comparatively small island. But let 
 us also suppose that immediately to the South of it, 
 separated only by a tiny channel, lies a great continent, 
 which, being virtually a part of Java, we will call Jave 
 
 ^ Cf . Linschoten's statement, quoted above, p. 84, that some Javans 
 thought that Java was " firm land and parcel of the country called 
 Terra Incognita." 
 
122 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Resem- 
 blances do 
 not seem 
 convincing. 
 
 (i) The 
 North coast. 
 
 Mr. Major's 
 view. 
 
 la Grande. Perhaps Marco Polo's " Java Major " was 
 something like this. And perhaps the " extensive and 
 rich province that forms part of the mainland " is really 
 continuous with Java Major, and may connect it with 
 " the Austral Land not yet wholly discovered." Anyway, 
 as no one knows anything whatever about this land, it 
 will offer a fine opportunity to the geographic artist with 
 imagination and artistic skill. And, seeing that it is a 
 country that largely owes its existence on the map to 
 Marco Polo, decorations should mainly be chosen from 
 that traveller's famous book, though hints may wisely 
 be taken also from more recent travel stories. 
 
 No doubt an explanation of this sort is a guess, and a 
 guess that may easily be entirely wrong. But, on the whole, 
 I am so impressed by the difficulty of explaining these maps 
 as the product of voyages of discovery, and the easiness 
 of explaining them as the product of the imagination 
 working on scientific theories and Marco Polo narratives, 
 that nothing would induce me to accept Jave la Grande 
 as the equivalent of Australia save resemblances in detail 
 of a very undeniable nature. 
 
 Now the resemblances that have been pointed out do 
 not seem to me to be very convincing.^ 
 
 (i) The outline of the North coast of Jave la Grande 
 is exceedingly unlike the outline of the North coast of 
 Australia. What does " Sumbava " stand for in terms 
 of Austrahan geography } Mr. Major apparently thinks 
 that the Portuguese confused it with Arnhem's land, 
 and that the Eastern coast of Sumbava therefore is the 
 Western coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. But, in that 
 case, where is Cape York Peninsula } Mr. Major suggests 
 that Cape York Peninsula may have been " altogether 
 unvisited and' ignored." That is to say, Portuguese 
 seamen knew the Western and Southern coasts of the 
 Gulf and they also knew the coast of Queensland South 
 of Halifax Bay ; but they had no knowledge of the coast 
 between these separate discoveries, which the map-maker 
 
 ^ Compare outHne of Rotz's map with outHne of map of Austraha. 
 See p. 123. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 
 
 123 
 
124 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 therefore connected by an imaginary line decorated 
 with rivers and capes and names. This theory seems 
 to me to be incredible. If one large part of the coast- 
 line is admitted to be imaginary, the suspicion that the 
 whole line is imaginary becomes irresistible. For, as we 
 shall note in a moment, the contour of the East coast 
 also does not resemble the contour of the East coast 
 of Australia in any remarkable degree. Moreover, if 
 the ship that discovered the East coast did not come 
 by way of Cape York, by what way did it come ? 
 Not by the South coast, for no knowledge of a South 
 coast is pretended. Not by the North of New Guinea, 
 for the map shows no adequate knowledge of that 
 island. 
 
 Mr. Colling- But Mr. Collingridge has a quite different explanation. 
 
 ndge s view, j^^ thinks that the Portuguese navigators did visit Cape 
 York, and that they knew all about it. But he thinks 
 that, when they made their maps, their wishes were, firstly, 
 to show that Jave la Grande was on the Portuguese, and 
 not on the Spanish, side of the Pope's line ; and secondly, 
 to make the Spaniards believe that there was no practic- 
 able ocean-way South of Java. They, therefore, deliberately 
 drew a map which made Sumbava play two parts : the 
 part of the island of Sumbava, and the part of Cape York. 
 In this way they dragged the larger part of the continent 
 Westward into the Portuguese sphere, and at the same 
 time they dragged it so far Northward that there was 
 only a dubious river between it and Java, a river which 
 the two men are either digging out or filling up with their 
 industrious mattocks. 
 
 Now, if there were strong resemblances between Jave 
 la Grande and Australia, Mr. Collingridge's ingenious 
 argument would be worthy of careful consideration. 
 It is true that the Portuguese were very jealously on guard 
 against foreigners, and that they were entirely unscrupulous 
 in the falsification of maps, especially when they wished 
 to drag valuable properties on to their side of the Papal 
 line } In 1 502, for example, they made a famous map 
 of the Atlantic in which, with this purpose, they placed 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN? 125 
 
 Newfoundland nearer to Ireland than to America.^ If 
 the Portuguese discovered Australia, and considered 
 it valuable property, it is likely enough that their maps 
 would put Australia away to the West.^ And if they wished 
 to persuade Spaniards that Java had no South coast, 
 they would have no scruple in dragging Australia North 
 as well as West. 
 
 But my objection to Mr. Collingridge's argument about 
 the North coast is, not that there are important differences 
 in the two outlines, but that there are no important like- 
 nesses. Before we consent to the rather audacious sugges- 
 tion that Sumbava plays the part of Cape York, we must 
 at least ask that the rest of the Northern coast of Jave 
 la Grande be shown to be remarkably like the Northern 
 coast of Australia. But there seems to be no likeness 
 anywhere. If Sumbava is Cape York, where is the Gulf 
 of Carpentaria ? There seems no sign of it, unless we 
 are to identify it with the Straits East of Java, which are 
 extremely i^nlike the Gulf. Nor is there anything to 
 represent the great bulge of Arnhem's Land. In short, 
 the likeness of Cape York to Sumbava is the only likeness 
 in the two North coasts. And, in these circumstances, 
 there seems strong reason to suppose that, when the map- 
 maker drew Sumbava in its proper place, and called it 
 Sumbava, he meant Sumbava and did not mean Cape York. 
 
 As for the motive of the Portugese map-maker, it seems 
 to me that if his aim had been to discourage Spanish 
 voyages, he would, like so many others, have drawn an 
 empty Pacific Ocean. The Spaniards knew perfectly 
 well that there was an ocean passage from Java to the 
 Cape, for Ribero's map showed Magellan's Victoria 
 sailing along it. These Portuguese maps would have 
 failed to convince them that that ocean-way had been 
 closed ; while, on the other hand, they might have per- 
 suaded them of the existence of a great Southern Continent, 
 
 ^ Fiske's Discovery of America, vol. ii. p. 21. 
 
 2 It would seem to|Jbe a point in favour of this argument that Deslien's 
 map (i566)Jplaces Portuguese flags on Jave la Grande (Collingridge's 
 First Discovery, p. 62). 
 
126 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 a large part of which, at any rate, was shown even by 
 the Portuguese to be on the Spanish side of the Hne. The 
 thought of the Spanish navigator, as he looked at these 
 maps, would be — Let us at once form a colony at Cape de 
 Fremose ! But as a matter of fact there seems no evidence 
 either -'irt the Spaniards were acquainted with these 
 maps, or that the Portuguese ever sought to make them 
 acquainted. The probability seems to be that the maps 
 were made for the use of Portuguese seamen, and according 
 to the best Portuguese knowledge. 
 (2) The (2) I find it almost equally difficult to see convincing 
 
 East coast, resemblance in the two East coasts. If we accept Mr. 
 Collingridge's view that the Northern part of this coast 
 is the Northern part of the coast of Queensland, how are 
 we to explain the multitudinous rivers } ^ What, again, 
 are we to say about the remarkable peninsula which 
 ends in Cape de Fremose ? It seems quite unlike anything 
 on the coast of East Australia, and even Mr. Major calls 
 it a " manifest blunder and exaggeration." On the 
 other hand, it seems to be like the most prominent feature 
 on the Eastern coasts of Africa and South America, and 
 makes one wonder whether the map-maker was not guessing 
 that the unknown continent of the South took the shape 
 of the two known continents. 
 
 Moreover, the only map that brings this Eastern coast- 
 line to an end — the map by Rotz — makes it end at 60°, 
 immensely further to the South than Tasmania, so far 
 South indeed that one begins to think about the land 
 of which Varthema had heard, where the days were so 
 short and the cold so extreme. In fact, the contour 
 of the Eastern coast of Java la Grande seems so unlike 
 the contour of the Eastern coast of AustraHa that it seems 
 useless to go into detail, and to discuss, for example, whether 
 the " Baye des herbaiges " is Botany Bay, or whether 
 the " coste dangereuse " is the coral reef on which the 
 
 1 Mr. Major points out that " from Cape York all along the coast 
 of Australia to the 22nd or 23rd degree there is not even an indication 
 of a river emptying itself into the sea." He concludes that the coast 
 must be the coast, not of Queensland, but of the Gulf. 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN? 127 
 
 Endeavour was wrecked. But if anyone still inclines 
 to accept this Eastern coast as authentic, I will ask him 
 to read again the account which Cook gives in his journal 
 of the almost insuperable difficulties in the way of a first 
 explorer of the Queensland coast, and then to consider 
 if it is any way credible that Portuguese seamen, in the 
 circumstances of the time, were able to make the con- 
 tinuous discovery of that coast. 
 
 (3) The claim that the Western coast of these maps The West 
 has resemblances to the Western coast of Australia deserves, ^°^^* 
 I think, more serious consideration. I should be greatly 
 astonished if it were proved that Portuguese or Spaniards 
 had knowledge of the Eastern coast of Australia. But 
 I should not be greatly astonished if it were proved that 
 the Portuguese had some slight knowledge of the Western 
 coast. It seems possible, and even probable, that they 
 would hear news from Malay seamen of coasts to the South 
 of Java. And it seems possible, though, I think, not 
 probable, that they might see some part of the Western 
 coast while sailing to or from the Moluccas. I should 
 not, therefore, be surprised to find in a Portuguese map 
 some vague outline, like that, for example, in the Hakluyt 
 map, indicating some vague acquaintance with this coast. 
 I can enter into this West coast argument without the 
 hostile prejudice that I feel in respect to claims of dis- 
 covery on the East. I should be willingly persuaded 
 to accept the cautious opinion of Flinders that " the possibly 
 direction given to some parts of the coast approaches some^^" ^ 
 too near to the truth for the whole to have been marked knowledge, 
 from conjecture alone." 
 
 Now it is certainly curious that while one of these maps, 
 that by Rotz, makes the Western coasthne end at 35° 
 — exactly where the Western coastline of Australia ends 
 at Cape Leeuwin — another map (the " Dauphin " map) 
 ceases to give detail at the same point. This looks like 
 knowledge of real geography. But our suspicions begin 
 to wake when we observe that others of these maps — 
 those by Desceliers — prolong the coastline Southward and 
 give a very elaborate survey of the " Baye des Rivieres " in 
 
128 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 about 43° — that is eight degrees South of Cape Leeuwin 
 — continue to mark rivers at frequent intervals, even 
 after, at about 50°, the coastHne of Jave la Grande has 
 joined the coastline of the " Austral land not yet wholly (!) 
 discovered," and, finally draw an " Isle of Giants," with 
 full geographic detail, away to the West of the coast 
 which we are asked to believe is the coast of Australia. 
 If one guesses often enough, it is likely that one guess 
 or other will hit the mark. 
 
 The contour of the Western coast does not seem to 
 me to resemble the contour of the coast of West Australia 
 in a convincing degree. It is true that the differences 
 are not sufficiently great to disprove identity. But, 
 as the whole argument depends, in my opinion, on these 
 resemblances, one must demand that they be very con- 
 vincing indeed. Now the distinguishing features of the 
 Western coast of these maps is the great out-jutting 
 promontory ending in Cape de Grace, that is partly cut 
 out from the mainland by the " Baye Bresill " on the North 
 and the " Hame de Cylla " on the South. There 
 seems to be nothing in the Australian coastline that 
 corresponds to this great out-jutting promontory. If 
 we proceed to identify details, Baye Bresill will be King 
 Sound, Cape de Grace will be North-West Cape, Hame 
 de Cylla will be Swan River. It seems to me that the 
 mutual relations of the three places on the Portuguese 
 map do not show the remarkable similarity to the mutual 
 relations of the three places on the modern map that 
 the argument demands. 
 
 When we look at the geographical features of the coast- 
 line separately it is easy to see certain resemblances in 
 detail. The estuary of the Rio Grande looks rather 
 like Queen Channel or Cambridge Gulf. The coastline 
 from Rio Grande to the Baye de Bresill looks rather like 
 the coastline from Cambridge Gulf to King's Sound. 
 The Baye de Bresill is nearly in the same Latitude as 
 King's Sound. One is tempted to guess that Hame 
 de Cylla may be Swan River, and to find Houtman's 
 Abrolhos in the streak of shoals that appears in the 
 
WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN? 129 
 
 Portuguese map in the same Latitude. And yet, in spite 
 of these similarities in detail, my mind remains clouded 
 by a doubt. These map-makers knew too much. If 
 they had been contented to tell rne that they were ac- 
 quainted with King's Sound and Houtman's Abrolhos, 
 I should probably have believed them. But when they 
 go on to say that they are equally well acquainted with 
 a " Bay of Rivers " eight degrees South of Cape Leeuwin, 
 with an " Isle of Giants " off the West coast of Australia, 
 and with the harbours of Tasmania and New Zealand, 
 I begin to think once more that we are studying these maps 
 in the wrong spirit. In order to do justice to their merit, 
 we should regard them not as prosaic records of historical 
 facts, but as brilliant geographical romances, though the But the 
 brilliant geographic imagination may possibly have had ^amiy^^"^ 
 a fact or two to work upon. Let us crown their art with geographic 
 laurel ; but let us not do them the injustice of saying ^o^^^^^^- 
 that their story is true.^ 
 
 ^ These French-Portuguese maps apparently had no influence on 
 geographic conceptions and plans. The first geographer, so far as I 
 know, who identified Jave la Grande with Australia, was Dalrymple ; 
 and he did so, in 1786, with malicious intention to discredit Cook. 
 See Major's Early Voyages. f 
 
 I 
 
 W.A. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMONS 
 
 Authority : 
 
 Voyage of Mendana to the Solomon Islands, ed. Lord Amherst 
 OF Hackney and Basil Thompson (Hakluyt Society). 
 
 One main ground of my unbelief in respect to the dis- 
 covery of the Eastern coast of Austraha before 1542 
 has been the great improbabihty that voyages had been 
 made in this direction. It seems incredible that Portuguese 
 ships would reach the Eastern coast either by way of 
 Torres Straits or round the North of New Guinea. The 
 Dutch never once saw that coast in the whole course 
 of explorations which extended over a century and a 
 half. And it seems just as incredible that the Spaniards 
 would discover it by saihng from Mexico to the Moluccas, 
 or from the Moluccas to Mexico. 
 The first We now, however, have to follow the story of a voyage 
 
 that might, had it seemed good to the gods, have ended 
 
 recorded 
 voyage 
 
 which might in the discovcry of the Eastern coast, about two hundred 
 drscovered Y^^^^ before that coast actually was discovered by 
 
 Eastern Cook. 
 
 Australia. j^ -^ ^ ^^^^^ ^£ Spanish chivalry, and it starts from 
 
 Peru. Hitherto Spanish enterprise in the Pacific had 
 started from the Western ports of the prosperous state 
 which Cortes had founded in Mexico ; and its direction 
 had consequently been Northward of the Equator on a 
 hne making as straight as possible for the Moluccas or 
 the Phihppines. Peru, meanwhile, had been torn to pieces 
 by incessant and savage civil wars — the series of " blood- 
 and- thunder tragedies," as Mr. Fiske aptly calls them — 
 
 130 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMONS 131 
 
 which followed the conquests and the crimes of the 
 Pizarros. At last these things came to an end, and the 
 Peruvian viceroys were able to consider proposals for 
 further enterprise towards the unknown West. 
 
 We remember that at this time a very influential school 
 of cosmographers was persuading the world that this 
 unknown West was mainly occupied by great promon- 
 tories of the " Austral " or " Magellanican " continent, 
 which stretched Northward till it touched, or all but touched, 
 New Guinea. It was natural to suppose that large parts The belief in 
 of this continent would be full of all manner of riches ; f^ the West° 
 as indeed Marco Polo had declared was the case. There 
 was one sort of riches in particular which the successors 
 of Cortes and Pizarro expected to find everywhere. " It 
 was an age of gold," writes Lord Amherst, " and, to the 
 Spaniard, the whole unknown world was yellow." ^ 
 They believed in an " Eldorado " in the East, in the 
 valleys of the Orinoco and the Amazon, whither Peruvian 
 Incas had escaped with much gold. And they beheved 
 also in an Eldorado in the West, to which the Incas had 
 voyaged and whence they" had got much gold. And this 
 Eldorado of the West must obviously be situated some- 
 where in the Magellanican continent which Mercator 
 had drawn on his map. 
 
 This was the fervent belief especially of a famous Spanish The plea of 
 knight, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, who had gone to s^rmiento 
 Peru in 1557. He was a representative Spanish " Con- 
 queror," " instrument of perhaps the foulest judicial 
 murder in the whole of the Spanish annals," and as brave 
 as he was cruel. He was also a man of independence 
 of character and of mind ; for he got into trouble with 
 the Inquisition, and was accused of knowing a magic 
 ink which no woman could resist, and of using magical 
 rings in navigating ; for which crimes he was sentenced 
 to hear Mass in the Cathedral, stripped to the bare skin. 
 He was, moreover, a reader of books, and had studied 
 ancient Peruvian history. From this he gathered that 
 a certain Inca had once made a voyage to the West, had 
 ^ The Voyage of Mendana to the Solomon Islands, p. iv. 
 
132 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 discovered two islands,^ and had brought back much 
 gold and silver. The inevitable conclusion of the student 
 of Mercator was that these islands were off the coast 
 of the Magellanican continent. 
 
 Sarmiento urged the Viceroy, de Castro, to send him 
 in command of an expedition to search for these islands. 
 His urgency was increased by the fact that he was threatened 
 with a prosecution for divination before the Inquisition. 
 In 1567 the Viceroy consented to send an expedition; 
 Mendafia's but he gave the command to his own nephew Mendafia. 
 voyage, Mendafia, at this time a young man of about twenty -five, was 
 a Spaniard of the nobler type ; humane, self-controlled, 
 courteous and tactful, yet firm, when firmness was necessary. 
 His nature was sincerely and fervently religious, and he 
 thought of the adventure as of a mission for the salvation 
 of the natives of the unknown continent. The " Pilot " 
 was a famous seaman named Gallego, a firm believer 
 in the physical theory that a great Southern continent 
 must of necessity exist. Sarmiento, who sailed as " Cap- 
 tain " of the ship, claimed that it was the duty of the 
 Pilot to consult him as " Cosmographer." But the claim 
 was ignored ; and it seems pretty clear that, though the 
 expedition was mainly due to his urgency, he was given 
 only a subordinate part in its conduct. It was inevitable, 
 in such circumstances, that he should give much trouble 
 to those placed in command. 
 
 All the most conspicuous leaders — including Mendana, 
 Gallego, and Sarmiento — wrote narratives of the voyage, 
 which are full, detailed and generally trustworthy. The 
 trouble is that the writers held different views, and regarded 
 one another with hot anger ; and the historian finds 
 the work of arbitration difficult. 
 
 They sailed from Callao, the port of Lima, on November 
 19th, 1567. They had two ships, of 250 and 107 
 tons. On board were one hundred and fifty men — 
 sailors, soldiers, miners and four Franciscan Friars. Their 
 instructions were to sail " for the discovery of certain 
 
 ^ Markham suggests these were the Galapagos Islands {Sarmiento, 
 p. xiii). 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMONS 133 
 
 islands, and of a terra fir ma'' [i.e. continent), and to form 
 a settlement. A new province was to be added to the 
 Empire of Christ and of Spain. 
 
 Callao is in about 12° S. Lat., and had they sailed due 
 West, and sailed far enough, they would have hit the 
 East coast of Australia near Cape York. Sarmiento's 
 advice was that they should sail. W.S.W. to 23°, and 
 thence apparently set a Westward course, that would have 
 brought them to Rockhampton in Queensland. He 
 declared that it had been intended that Mendana should 
 direct the navigation on the advice of a council consisting 
 of the Pilots and himself as Cosmographer. On the 
 other hand Gallego claimed that the direction of naviga- 
 tion belonged to him as " Pilot" ; and, to the hot indig- 
 nation of Sarmiento, Mendana acted by the advice, not 
 of the Cosmographer, but of the Pilot. Now Gallego 
 had been told that the " rich islands " were in 15° S. Lat., 
 six hundred leagues from Peru. He steered South- 
 West, and sailed down to I5f° S. Lat. Then, in spite 
 of fierce protest from Sarmiento, he refused to sail further 
 on this track, and turned due West, thus " missing the "Missing the 
 discovery," writes Sarmiento. Westward he sailed " 620 ^^^^'•'^^y- 
 leagues, rather more than less " — so things seemed to 
 him — and then, seeing no sign of land, he steered West 
 quarter-North, and thereby lost his chance of discovering 
 the Eastern coast of Australia. Had he continued on the 
 Westward course he would have arrived at Cooktown 
 two hundred years before Cook. 
 
 Still the days passed. No land was seen nor sign of land, 
 and the pilots told Gallego that he was the only one whose 
 zeal had not flagged. He told them "that they need not 
 be disheartened, for that, with the favour of God, they should 
 see land by the end of January, whereupon they all held 
 their peace and said nothing." Apparently he was aiming 
 at New Guinea. On the 15th of January they passed 
 an island in the Ellice Group, which they named the 
 Island of Jesus. But Gallego feared the " great currents," 
 and would not allow his weary and angry men to land, 
 assuring them it was a tiny island, and that he would 
 
134 THE DISC0VE:RY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 " give them more land than they could people." On 
 
 Discovery of the 7 th of February, eighty days after leaving Callao, 
 
 t^^ Gallego ordered a sailor to " climb to the main- top and 
 
 Solomons, ° ^ 
 
 Feb. 1568. look towards the South for land," for he thought he saw 
 something very high. The sailor reported land, and soon 
 it was visible to all, and " everybody received the news 
 with great joy and gratitude for the Grace that God had 
 vouchsafed to us, through the intercession of the Virgin 
 of Good Fortune, the Glorious Mother of God, whom 
 we all worshipped, and whom we all praised, singing 
 the ' Te Deum Laudamus.' " 
 
 "The land," writes Mendana, "was so large and high, 
 that we thought it must be a continent." ^ At ten 
 o'clock in the morning they observed " a resplendent 
 star" — "a real star, though it was broad day" — and, 
 " firmly persuaded that our Lord favoured us, through 
 the intercession of His Divine Mother and the three Magi," 
 who had " sent the star to show us the passage," they 
 named the harbour " Bahia de la Estrella." They landed, 
 and erected a cross ; the Franciscans chanted " the 
 hymn Vexilla Regis pro deunf ; and they took possession 
 of the " continent " for Christ and for Spain. 
 
 Was it the Mendafia called the island Santa Ysabel, "because we 
 had sailed from the kingdom of Peru upon the feast of 
 Santa Ysabel, and also because she had been our patroness 
 throughout the voyage." At a spot that can still be 
 exactly identified — a photograph of it is given in the 
 admirable modern edition of these narratives — they built 
 a brigantine for the exploration of the islands ; for islands 
 they were, though no doubt very near to the mighty 
 continent that they sought. In this brigantine they 
 crept along the island coasts, by routes which can be 
 exactly traced on the modern map, and saw scenes which 
 the modern photographer can exactly pourtray. " They 
 brought back to Peru an account of their discoveries 
 so accurate and detailed that it is possible 333 years after- 
 wards to identify every harbour and islet and creek." 
 
 1 " The same island, which we believed to be a continent " (Gallego, 
 p. 17). 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMONS 135 
 
 They found no continent, but everywhere they saw more 
 land. " To the West," says Sarmiento, " there is an 
 archipelago of innumerable islands, and towards the South 
 one sees a great stretch of land " — it was New Georgia. 
 " The natives," says Gallego, " pointed to the South 
 East, and said there lay much land, and we saw it, but 
 not having any time we did not go back to look at it." 
 Some of the Spaniards sailing the long coast of the island 
 Guadalcanal, and seeing no end of it, seem to have thought 
 it " part of that continent which stretcheth to the Straits 
 of Magellan," ^ while others imagined it was part of New 
 Guinea.^ If the men in the brigantine had not discovered 
 a " continent," they had at least discovered " an extent 
 of land that seemed to have no limit." ^ 
 
 Everywhere natives were met, and earnest endeavours 
 were made at once to get food from them, and "to lead them 
 as labourers into the vineyard of our Lord." Sarmiento 
 -was sent at head of a party of men to explore the island 
 of Ysabel, and he reached a point which has never been 
 reached even in our own time. The instructions of the Fran- 
 ciscans, strongly backed by Mendafia, were that he should 
 treat the natives with humanity, and should lead them 
 with tenderness into the way of salvation. It would 
 have been a task impossible to a missionary far more 
 fervent than Sarmiento. The natives, then as now, were 
 head-hunting cannibals, and incurably treacherous. If 
 they were friendly, they would offer you the quarter of 
 a boy with some taru roots ; and if, after burying the 
 boy, you accepted their friendship, in a few minutes 
 they would be cutting you into pieces and sucking your 
 brains. Sarmiento met barbarism by Spanish cruelty, 
 and even the humane Mendaha was forced to sanction 
 the use of arms. 
 
 As a Franciscan mission the enterprise was a failure. Was it 
 But there remained the question of gold. The soldiers, ^'^^°^^^" '^ 
 ! seeing everything yellow, noted the heavy iron-stone 
 
 ^ Lopez Vaz in Hakluyt. ^ Arias, p. 17. 
 
 I '" " All the extent of land which seemed to have no limit, lay to the 
 West and South-East " (Gallego, p. 61). 
 
 I 
 
136 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 clubs of the natives, and insisted that they were heavy by 
 weight of gold ; and they refused to give up the pleasant 
 belief even when the clubs were broken in pieces, and 
 no gold was to be seen. The leaders themselves were 
 inclined to be hopeful, though some doubted. Sarmiento, 
 the optimist, says that he actually " saw a mineral 
 containing gold." The miners reported that there was 
 gold in the soil, but they could not get it owing to the 
 hostility of the natives. M^ndafia says that the natives 
 talked much of gold and pearls, but none were actually 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 ^ yritffaf , ^j 
 
 Map of the Solomons and New Guinea (Herrera, i6oi). 
 (From Nordenskiold's Periplus.) 
 
 handled ; also of cloves, ginger and nutmegs, but " they 
 brought only a little ginger." 
 
 For six months the Spaniards sailed among the islands. 
 
 Then, on the 7th of August, a " Parliament " was 
 
 held. Fifty-eight men were present, and they were invited 
 
 to express opinions as to three alternative proposals. 
 
 , Should they make a settlement } Should they explore 
 
 further ? Or, should they sail for home } 
 
 The plan of Mendana's instructions had been to make a settlement 
 
 abandoned. ^^ .^ good land ; and the soldiers, looking at the golden 
 
 war-clubs, said that the land was good enough for them. 
 
 Sarmiento was of the same mind, and was indignant 
 
 when Mendafia once more would not follow his advice. 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMONS 
 
 Z1 
 
 The Friars wished that they should sail Westward, think- 
 ing perhaps of mission work in New Guinea or the 
 Philippines. But the Pilots reported that the ships 
 were worm-eaten and worn out, and that it was necessary 
 to sail for home at once. The majority accepted this view, 
 and so did Mendana. The plan of a settlement in the 
 Solomons was abandoned ; and thereby, likely enough, 
 the discovery of the East coast of Australia was postponed 
 for two hundred years. 
 
 
 
 .y^<f' 
 
 Kv: ... 
 
 Ortelius's Map of 1587. 
 (From a copy in the British Museum.) Note addition of the Solomon Islands to the earlier Map. 
 
 On the nth of August, 1568, they sailed, not for The voyage 
 Peru, but for Mexico. Sarmiento once more protested. ^u^SeT' 
 He urged that they should sail for Peru on a South-East 1568. 
 course, and on the way make a search for the continent 
 and islands, which they had missed on their outward 
 voyage, arid which would be found " opposite Chili." 
 Mendana also seems to have wished to take this course. 
 But the Pilots declared that adverse winds made it 
 impossible ; a professional opinion that was afterwards 
 severely criticised by Quiros, who declares that the 
 winds on the South are as favourable as those on the 
 North. 
 
I3S 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 They sailed, then, for Mexico on a North-East course. 
 They passed the Marshall Group, where they found a 
 chisel made from an iron nail, a curious relic of some 
 untold story of Spanish shipwreck. They met with 
 tremendous storms, and were in the extremity of suffering 
 and peril, for their ships were built for the easy sailing 
 of the Peruvian coast. The men talked of mutiny, and 
 of sailing for the Philippines ; and Mendana with difficulty 
 dissuaded them from a plan which, at that season of the 
 year, meant inevitable disaster. At length, on December 
 19th, after a voyage of four months, they saw the 
 coast of California. In a Mexican harbour they were 
 amazed to find that their arrival caused dismay, " for 
 it had not been certified that we were not Lutherans " 
 —a strange saying, which was explained when, in another 
 harbour, the people fled away believing that they were 
 " the strange Scottish people" who, under John Hawkins, 
 had troubled them two years before. Finally, in July 
 1569, they returned to Callao, all that were left of 
 them, one hundred of the one hundred and fifty who had 
 sailed. 
 
 In Spain the voyage was regarded as a failure. The 
 official report declared that the islands, that had been 
 discovered, were of " little importance. They found no 
 specimens of spices, nor of gold and silver, nor of mer- 
 chandise, nor of any other source of profit, and all the 
 people were naked savages." The discovery, however, 
 did not seem wholly without value. " The advantages 
 that might be derived from exploring these islands would 
 be to make slaves of the people, and to found a settle- 
 ment in some part of one of them, where provisions could 
 be collected for the discovery of the mainland, where it 
 is reported there is gold and silver and people clothed." 
 The islands, that is, might be useful as a base for 
 voyages in search of the continent that must be near 
 at hand. There was still a chance that Spaniards might 
 discover Eastern Australia. 
 
 And yet, in spite of the official statement that there 
 was no evidence of gold in the newly discovered islands, 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMONS 139 
 
 they somehow got identified with the land of Ophir, the 
 land of fabulous richness, whence the ships of Solomon 
 had brought gold to Jerusalem. " The discoverers," says 
 Lopez Vaz, \Vho wrote twenty years later, ''named them 
 Solomon, to the end that Spaniards, supposing them to be 
 those isles whence Solomon fetched gold to adorn the Temple 
 at Jerusalem, might be more desirous to go and inherit 
 the same." But, in their original narratives, the dis- 
 coverers did not name them Solomon, and made no 
 suggestion that they were the Land of Ophir. Sarmiento, 
 who wrote later than the others, was the only discoverer 
 who used the name ; and he used it only in the title of 
 his book : — " The Western Islands in the South Ocean, 
 commonly called the Isles of Solomon." Our modern 
 editor finds the explanation in the tavern-talk of the 
 soldiers about the golden war-clubs of the natives, and 
 about the soil that showed colour when you scratched 
 it. In twenty years the story had grown that the Spaniards 
 had brought back with them forty thousand pesos of 
 gold — beside "great store of cloves and ginger" — from a 
 land from which they had, in fact, brought back not a 
 single ounce. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF 1595 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Hakluyt's Voyages. 
 
 Historia del descubrimierito de las regiones Austriales hecho por el 
 
 general Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, publicado por Don 
 
 JusTO Zaragossa. 
 Voyages of Quiros, ed. Markham (Hakluyt Society). 
 
 Mendana's Mendais A had handled no gold in the Solomons. But 
 voyage ^^ ^^^ scQn lands that were large and rich, and doubt- 
 postponed less close to " the mainland, where it is reported there 
 arrest ^ ^^ gold and silver and people clothed." There seemed 
 good chance of reigning over a second Peru. In 1574 
 he obtained a Royal Decree giving him authority to make 
 a permanent colony, which he and his family should 
 rule for two generations. Such decrees were obtained 
 at Madrid with some ease. But they were not always 
 obeyed in Peru. The new Viceroy was an enemy to 
 Mendaha and his enterprise. In 1577 he was arrested, 
 and we have no news of him for the next eighteen years, 
 and (2) by It seems likely that personal disfavour was not the 
 English, only reason. During those eighteen years things were 
 happening in the Pacific that had great influence on Spanish 
 minds. When Mendafia had reached Mexico in March 
 1569 his ships had been mistaken for those of " the strange 
 Scottish people " who, under Sir John Hawkins, had 
 " troubled them two years before." Why men of Devon 
 were turned by Spanish imagination into " strange 
 Scottish folk " we know not. But those who have read 
 the story of the exploits of Hawkins and his men at S. John 
 de Ulua will understand the strength of Spanish fears 
 
 140 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 141 
 
 that the South Sea, as well as the North Sea, was to be 
 the prey of strange seamen. 
 
 The fear was well-founded ; hut the leader was to be, Drake's 
 not John Hawkins, but Francis Drake. It was in i572^Q^nd\he 
 that Drake, Eternal English Boy, dimbed the " goodly world, 1578. 
 and great tree," whence he could " see at once the two 
 seas, which he had so longed for " ; and, having " seen 
 that sea of which he had heard such golden reports, 
 he besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him 
 life and leave to sail once in an English ship on that sea." 
 And in 1578, " his mind pricked on continually night 
 and day to perform his vow," he pierced once more the 
 long-abandoned strait which Magellan had discovered 
 fifty years before. At the Westera end " God by a con- 
 trary wind and intolerable tempest seemed to set Himself 
 against us." The ships were seized by a North-West 
 storm, the like of which *' no traveller hath felt, neither 
 hath there ever been seen such a tempest, that any records 
 make mention of, so vigilant and of such continuance, 
 since Noah's flood, for it lasted from September 7th 
 to October 28th, full 52 days." On second thought, 
 God's intention was not " to set Himself against us," 
 but to force us to make a highly important geographical 
 discovery — to bring us to " the uttermost part of the 
 land towards the South Pole." They discovered that 
 the Mercatorian maps were wrong ; that Tierra del Fuego Tierra del 
 was not part of a great South Continent, but the head fj^^^^ ^^ ^^ 
 of a group of islands, ending in a Cape where " the Atlantic 
 Ocean and the South Sea meet in a most large and free 
 scope." Chaplain Fletcher drew a map of the islands, 
 and wrote across them, with evident criticism of Mercator's 
 phrase, " Terra Australis, nunc bene cognita.^[ Drake 
 showed his joy in characteristic boyish way; "seeking 
 out the most Southerly part of the island, he cast himself 
 down upon the uttermost point grovelling, and so reached 
 his body over it.'' Then he told his people " that he had 
 been upon the Southernmost known land in the world, Drake's 
 and yet further to the Southward upon it than any of so^Jj^^* 
 them, yea, or any man as yet known." 
 
142 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Drake's 
 plunderings. 
 
 Drake in 
 the Spice 
 Islands and 
 Java. 
 
 He had, in short, made the maps of Mercator and Ortehus 
 wholly out of date. He had proved that there was good 
 Ocean way round what his chaplain calls Elizabeth's Island. 
 The Spaniards did not like the news, and Ortelius, their 
 map-maker, in his new edition of 1587, again drew Tierra 
 del Fuego as tip of a great Southern Continent blocking 
 all ways, save the Straits of Magellan, to the Pacific. But 
 the English map, published by Hakluyt in 1598, removed 
 all land South of Queen's Island. Dutch maps also showed 
 open way South of Tierra del Fuego, and in 161 6 Dutch 
 seamen proved the correctness of Drake's interpretation, 
 by sailing round the island. Unhappily they named " the 
 Southernmost known land in the World," over which he had 
 grovelled, not Cape Drake, but Cape Horn. 
 
 Then Drake sailed North up the coast of Peru, and 
 in the harbour of Valparaiso he met the very ship in which, 
 twelve years before, Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa 
 had sailed in the expedition which had discovered the 
 Solomons. The Spaniards fetched a bottle of wine to 
 entertain their supposed friends, and beat welcome with 
 their drums. But soon Tom Moone, carpenter, was over 
 the side laying about him, and shouting " Abaxo perro " 
 — " Below, dog." Northwards the English sailed, sacking 
 towns, plundering churches, rifling the richest treasure- 
 ships, with the good-humoured insolence of God's servants 
 whom " His Majesty is pleased to refresh." Drake's 
 plan had been to return by way of some passage to be 
 discovered in the North. But, baffled by cold and " most 
 vile, thick and stinking fogs," he sheltered in a bay of Cali- 
 fornia, took possession of the land by the name of " New 
 Albion," and then, helped by captured Spanish Pilots and 
 Charts, set sail in the Spanish route for the Philippines. 
 
 Sixty-eight days he sailed without sight of land, touched 
 at the Pelew Group, and so came to the PhiHppines, and 
 then to the Moluccas. Here, so at least Englishmen 
 declared, he made a treaty with the King of Ternate 
 which gave England a monopoly of the spice trade. And, 
 golden as were the spoils of Spanish America, still more 
 golden seemed the hopes of the Eastern World of Spices. 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 143 
 
 " Whether," writes Mr. Corbet, " this treaty was actually 
 concluded is not stated, but this visit was afterwards 
 regarded as the great result of Drake's voyage. It was 
 a picture of his reception at Ternate that the Queen had 
 engraved on the cup she gave him in honour of his achieve- 
 ment, and the alleged treaty became a sheet-anchor of 
 our Eastern diplomacy for nearly a century afterwards." 
 Thence Drake groped his way among the islands to Java, 
 where he put in " at some port on the South coast " — a 
 fact curious to those who have noted the apparent 
 ignorance, at this time, of the South coast, ^ — -and "found 
 great courtesy," for four of the five kings who governed the 
 island were " a-shipboard at once." Thence he sailed 
 home by the Portugal route round the Cape, having touched 
 with bare point the Spanish shield, and challenged to 
 mortal combat for the Pacific. 
 
 In 1586 Thomas Cavendish sailed in the same track, Cavendish's 
 and on the same business. Off the Cape of St. Lucar, ^cge^^' 
 on the West side of the point of California, he caught 
 " the Admiral of the South Sea, called the Sta. Anna, 
 and, after a valiant fight with the whole noise of trumpets," 
 he forced the Spaniards to " pari for mercy, desiring 
 our General to save their lives and to take their goods. 
 So the General of his great mercy and humanity promised 
 their lives, and good usage." And he took 122,000 pesos 
 of gold, and the rest of the riches that the ship was laden 
 with, silks, satins, damasks, with musks, and divers other 
 merchandise ; good samples of the great Asiatic trade 
 of Spain. And he also took men born in Japan and in 
 the Philippines, a Portugal skilled in the navigation of 
 China and Japan, and a Spaniard who was a very good 
 pilot for the trade route to the Philippines. And with 
 their help he sailed to these islands, where he met with good 
 reception. He summoned the chiefs of one island to appear 
 before him, and " made himself and his company known 
 unto them, that they were Englishmen and enemies of 
 the Spaniards ; and thereupon spread his ensign and 
 
 ^ The map of Hondius, however, which marks his track, shows 
 his port on the South coast (Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 336). 
 
144 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 sounded up the drums, which they much marvelled at ; 
 to conclude, they promised both themselves and all the 
 islands thereabouts to aid him, whenever he should come 
 again to overcome the Spaniards." At Manila he sent 
 a message to the Spanish captain, willing him to provide 
 good store of gold for which he would call with a bigger 
 boat within a few years. His narrative exalts the reputation 
 of these lands of spices. " The stateliness and richness 
 of which country I fear to make report of, lest I should 
 not be credited ; for, if I had not known sufficiently the 
 incomparable wealth of that country, I should have been 
 as incredulous thereof as others will be that have not 
 had the like experiences." Thence he sailed along the 
 islands of the Moluccos, well entreated by the heathen 
 people, confident that " our countrymen may have trade 
 as freely as the Portugals, if they will themselves." In 
 Java he came to anchor " under the South- West part," ^ 
 and here he met friendly Portugals buying " negroes, 
 cloves, pepper, sugar and many other commodities." 
 They were supporters of Don Antonio, the Prince who, 
 with Elizabeth's assistance, was still fighting in favour 
 of Portuguese independence against the Spanish conquest ; 
 and they declared that if King Don Antonio would come 
 with them, they would warrant him to have all the Moluccos, 
 besides China and the Philippines. Then the English 
 sailed " that great and vast sea between the isle of Java, 
 and the main of Africa," using Portuguese sea-charts 
 and finding that they over-estimated the route. Nearing 
 home they met a Flemish hulk which " came from Lisbon, 
 and declared unto us the overthrow of the Spanish fleet, 
 to the singular rejoicings and comfort of us all." And 
 Cavendish Cavendish hoped that his own voyage would lead to the 
 En^lish^ ^" gathering of the richest fruits pf victory. "As it hath 
 conquest of pleased God to give her Majesty the victory over part of 
 IslandT^ her enemies, so I trust ere long to see her overthrow them 
 all. For the places of their wealth, whereby they have 
 maintained or made their wars are now perfectly discovered ; 
 and, if it please her Majesty, with a very small power she 
 ^ See map by Hondius in Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 336. 
 
 i 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 145 
 
 may take the spoil of them all. I have either discovered, 
 or brought certain intelligence of, all the rich places of the 
 world that ever were known or discovered by a Christian." 
 
 These things were known to the Spaniards of Peru 
 who listened to Mendana's petition that he should be 
 sent to found a colony in the Solomons. Drake and 
 Cavendish had changed the point of view. *' When," 
 says a contemporary, " they thought to send colonies unto 
 these islands, Captain Drake entered the South Sea, where- 
 upoxi commandment was given that they should not be 
 inhabited, that the English or others who pass the Straits 
 of Magellan to go to the Moluccas might have no succour 
 there but such as they got of the Indians." ^ 
 
 But Mendafia did not despair. He still held the Royal 
 Decree. He still hoped to reign over a second Peru, 
 which should be truly a Kingdom of Christ. The stories of 
 Solomon's gold grew ever more splendid. The best men and Mendafia 
 the worst men were eager to go. And at last, in 1595, igJes^^/*^^ 
 twenty-eight years after the first voyage, Mendana was de- Solomon, 
 spatched by a friendly Viceroy, Mendoza, Marquis of Cafiete. ^' ^^^^' 
 
 But the interesting person in this story is the man whom 
 Mendafia now " persuaded and induced " to sail with 
 him as Chief Pilot. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was Quiros 
 born in 1565. He was by birth a Portuguese ; but when ^^^^^ ^^^°*' 
 in 1580 Philip H. of Spain made himself King also of 
 Portugal, Quiros became a Spanish subject, and his life 
 was spent in the service of the Spanish King. We have 
 no knowledge of his early years ; but his reputation 
 proves that he spent them on the sea, and that he acquired 
 the skill of a first-rate " Pilot," that is, one whose pro- 
 fession it was to know all that was known about the various 
 sciences necessary for the navigation of the Ocean. In. 
 1595, at the age of thirty, he was in Peru, and Mendafia 
 persuaded him — "throwing his arm round his neck" — 
 to act as Chief Pilot. 
 
 The narratives both of the expedition of 1595, ^^ which The Quiros- 
 Quiros sailed as Chief Pilot, and of the later expedition narStives. 
 y of 1606, in which he held the command, profess to have 
 
 IB: ^ Lopez Vaz in Hakluyt. 
 
 IB w.A. K 
 
 I 
 
146 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 been written by Quiros himself. There is evidence that 
 he was helped in the writing by one who accompanied 
 him on the voyage of i6o6 as " Secretary," Luis de Belmonte 
 Bermudez. Bermudez afterwards became a poet of some 
 fame, and there are passages in the narratives that are 
 evidently written not by the seaman but by the poet. 
 In the narrative of the later voyage we hear, sometimes 
 very distinctly, two voices, that of the leader and that of 
 the intimate friend at once sympathetic and critical. But 
 the substance of the narrative expressed the mind of Quiros 
 himself. And, though he made free use of the literary gift 
 of his young friend, he adopted the whole narrative as 
 his own, and read parts of it to an influential minister 
 of the Spanish Court as his own official report. 
 
 Noble ideals They sailed from Callao on the 9th of April, 1595. 
 
 an^^sin u There were four ships : the Capitana, or Captain's ship, San 
 Jeronimo, in which sailed Mendafia and Quiros ; the 
 Almirante, or Admiral's ship — for Admiral was then the 
 title of the second in command — named Santa Isabel^ 
 under Admiral Lope de Vega ; a " galeot," and a frigate. 
 In all there sailed three hundred and seventy-eight persons, 
 of whom two hundred and eighty were able to bear arms. 
 As a permanent colony was to be founded, " a good company 
 of married people " were taken ; and, says Quiros, " scarcely 
 a day passes without someone wishing to be married 
 next day. It seemed as if all would run in couples." 
 There were high hopes and good stories, but " none for 
 the good of the natives." For the expedition was ruined 
 ■^ ere it started. The ideal was noble, but the instruments 
 
 were unworthy. Mendana was humane and devout. 
 - Quiros was aflame with passionate missionary fervour. 
 But their men were Spaniards of the low type — greedy, 
 cruel, brutal. " They behave like Corsairs," said Quiros, 
 before the ship had left Spanish waters. They were 
 sailing to King Solomon's mines, and their only thoughts 
 were of " gold,, silver and pearls." Mendana from the 
 first feared desertion. He told Quiros to make charts, 
 for the navigation. He was to show the coast of Peru, 
 and six thousand miles to the West of Lima. The Solomons 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 147 
 
 he said, were at the furthest five thousand eight hundred 
 miles away. Two hundred more miles might be allowed 
 as margin, but " no more land was to be delineated lest 
 some ship steer to or desert to it." 
 
 On the 2ist of July they came to certain islands. 
 Mendafia^so vague was the reckoning of longitudes — was 
 joyfully confident that he had already reached the Solomons. 
 He was in fact little more than half way. Finding that 
 the islands were " a new discovery," he called them after 
 the friendly Viceroy, Las Marquesas de Mendoza. To-day The 
 we think of the Marquesas chiefly by reason of R. L. 5S\?i5q?' 
 Stevenson's sad stories of the miseries of their people.^ 
 Quiros received a very different impression. There was 
 " much reason," he wrote, " to praise God who created 
 them." He tells of women " prettier than the ladies 
 of Lima, who are famed for beauty," and of a boy " with 
 countenance like that of an angel, I never in my life felt 
 such pain as when I thought that so fair a creature should 
 be left to go to perdition." 
 
 The Mass was said, and the natives were taught to 
 make the sign of the cross, and to say " Jesus Mary " 
 and the rest. They did so " with great amusement" and 
 thorough good will. But they, were " great thieves," 
 and the soldiers began to shoot them. One, who had 
 wantonly shot down a man and child together, explained 
 that he had done so lest " he should lose his reputation 
 as a good marksman." Quiros asked how it would serve 
 him to enter into Hell with the fame of being a good shot ! 
 A friend of Quiros pointed his gun at the natives. Quiros 
 took the gun out of his hands, and " asked him what he 
 was going to do with so much diligence } " " He replied 
 that his diligence was to kill because he liked to kill." 
 *' It is a foul and sinful thing," said Quiros, " to murder 
 a body which contains a soul." 
 
 The Marquesas were not the Solomons, and the ships Mendana 
 sailed on. The soldiers grew mutinous as Mendana's ^^^^ *° ^^^ 
 promise that land would be soon sighted remained unful- Solomons, 
 filled. They began to " form both public and private 
 ^ In the South Seas, ch. 5. 
 
148 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 assemblies, to murmur and to talk." They had already 
 sailed beyond the distances given by Mendana, and the 
 sailors knew it, and blamed the innocent Pilot as well 
 as the Adelantado (Governor). " The Isles of Solomon," 
 said some, " had fled away, or the Adelantado had 
 forgotten where they were ! To call himself a Marquis, 
 and to advance his relatives, he had taken them, with 
 four hundred pounds of biscuits, to perish, to go to the 
 • bottom, and to fish there for the wonderful pearls ! We 
 shall go on to Great Tartary ! No one knows where we 
 are-! " And Quiros knew that they were right. A pro- 
 digious mistake had been made by Mendafia and Gallego 
 in their calculations. The Solomons were, in fact, two 
 thousand miles further away from Callao than they had 
 thought.^ It would not be right, Quiros explains, 
 to blame a Pilot of the high character and great skill 
 of Gallego. Such mistakes are inevitable. " Longitude 
 is not fixed except by such estimation as each one may 
 make, and in this there may be very great error." ^ 
 Santa Cruz, At length, on the 7th of September, they saw a 
 Sept. 1595. iQygiy island. That same night the Almirante, under 
 the Admiral Lope de Vega, vanished, and was never 
 seen again. Quiros writes of the event in the manner 
 of one who could say more than he thinks it wise to say. 
 " I make no favourable conjecture," he writes. Mendafia 
 suspected that de Vega had deserted him. " All saw that 
 his thoughts were bitter ; he was always apprehensive 
 of the loss of this ship, for many reasons which might be 
 given." ^ 
 
 1 " The discoverers themselves estimated the distance at seventeen 
 hundred leagues (six thousand eight hundred miles) which is nearly 
 two thousand miles short of the actual distance." Discovery of the 
 Solomons, ed. Amherst, p. Ixxii. 
 
 2 Amherst (p. Ixxii) quotes Pigafetta's statement : — " Pilots now- 
 a-days are satisfied with knowing the latitude, and are so presumptuous 
 that they refuse to hear the mention of longitude." 
 
 3 It seems probable that the Almirante sank during the foggy night. 
 It seems unlikely that she deserted, for she was very short both of water 
 and of fuel. The Admiral had complained that only nine jars of water 
 were left for 180 persons, and that it had been found necessary to burn 
 boxes and the upper work of the ship. " He told the General of his 
 
 i 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 149 
 
 Once more- Mendana thought he had rediscovered the 
 Solomons. He addressed the islanders in the language 
 he had learnt thirty years before ; but they could not 
 understand him. Though Quiros calculated they had 
 already sailed sixteen hundred miles past the place where 
 the Solomons were said to be, those islands were in fact 
 still some distance away to the West. But the island 
 they had come to, though not one of the Solomons, seemed 
 as good a place as they were likely to find. " The land 
 was' like Andalusia, and for a settlement the place was 
 as good as agreeable." They called the island Santa 
 Cruz; and it seemed, for a moment, as if " the spirit and 
 valour of Spaniards, which could do all, would overcome 
 all difficulties, for God and King." 
 
 But still " the devil was able to work so well with some The colony 
 that they kept in mind the delights of Lima." Complaints ^^^' 
 arose, and " they began to lose love and loyalty." These, 
 they said, were not the islands the Adelantado had spoken 
 of ! " We did not come here to sow ; for that purpose 
 there is plenty of land in Peru ; that is not the way to 
 follow the service of God and King." " People would only 
 come to take gold, silver, and pearls, and these are not 
 here ! " Quiros tried to chaff them. " They ought 
 to know how to find cities, vineyards and gardens ; to 
 enter a house ready furnished with the table spread, and 
 to make their owners give up their property and go into 
 servitude ; or they should know how to find mountains, 
 valleys, and plains of emeralds, rubies, and diamonds, 
 ready to be loaded and taken away." All the provinces 
 in the world had their beginnings ; Seville, Rome, and 
 Venice were once forests or bare plains. When the New 
 World was first discovered, there appeared to be only 
 " a few very small islands of little or no value." It is the 
 glory of the first workers that they " make the beginnings." 
 
 necessities, and begged that they would not part company, and with 
 this promise they were rejoiced . . . The Admiral showed much 
 despondency, saying that the defects of his ship were numerous, but 
 that he was determined to die with his people, because for that he was 
 come." It is, however, curious that Mendaiia, knowing these facts, 
 thought that the Admiral had deserted him. 
 
 II 
 
150 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Quiros argued victoriously, but in vain. The Spaniards 
 were determined to be gone. They murdered the natives, 
 in order to induce them to make war, and so compel us 
 to leave the island. At length they murdered the Chief, 
 who had been our faithful friend. Quiros protested 
 at great length. To abandon the enterprise would show 
 us enemies to God and to the King ; " For the work 
 we came to was for the honour of God and the salvation 
 of souls, to rescue from the Devil those whom he looks 
 upon as so secure." But the mutineers went back to their 
 old song, that they wanted to go to Manila. They threat- 
 ened to kill Quiros for his sermons ; and asked what they 
 should drink in his skull ! Quiros replied that all he 
 had put before them was in the service of God and the 
 King, and he would sustain it to the death ! A friend 
 advised him to " hold his tongue, for, if not, he would be 
 killed, or left alone on the island." 
 
 At last this tragedy of " the island where Solomon was 
 wanting" came to an end. Mendafia caused the leader 
 and Men- of the mutiny to be stabbed. Then Mendana himself 
 danadies. ^-^^^ ^^^ many others, among them the "Vicar." Only 
 fifteen soldiers remained in health, and they were lads. 
 Ten determined natives could have killed us all. And the 
 cause of disaster was also evident. An exploit of Christian 
 Chivalry had been committed to the hands of a gang 
 of scoundrels ; — men, said the dying Vicar, "who have not 
 confessed for three, five, seven, nine, fourteen, and thirty 
 years, and one who has confessed once in his life." Some 
 of them were murderers. One did not know whether 
 he was a Christian or a Moor. The disaster, said the 
 Vicar, was God's punishment of sin. The mission was 
 abandoned ; and the island was " left in the claws of 
 him who held it before, until God permits others to come 
 forward more desirous of the welfare of those lost ones, 
 that with a finger they may show the way to that Salvation 
 for which they were created." 
 
 Mendana was succeeded in command by his \yidow, 
 who was given the title of " Governess." She determined 
 to seek San Christobal, one of the Solomons, their original 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 151 
 
 object, " to see if the Almirante was there, and to do what 
 might be best for the service of God and His Majesty." 
 If they failed to find San Christobal, " her determination 
 was to go to the city of Manila, to engage priests and The \ oyage 
 people, and return to complete that discovery." They^^^^J"^' 
 sailed, then, on the lOth of November in search of San Feb. 1596. 
 Christobal. Forty-seven had died in one month, and 
 the survivors cursed the island they were leaving as " a 
 corner of Hell." They failed to find San Christobal, 
 and they failed to find the Almirante. Then they sailed 
 for Manila, avoiding the coast of New Guinea ; though, 
 said Ouiros, but for the wretched state of the ships, I 
 should have given orders to sail along that land, and find 
 out what it was. They suffered terrible distress. The 
 ships were rotten. The frigate disappeared one night, 
 and was never more seen. There was little food, and the 
 little was bad. The water was full of powdered cock- 
 roaches. Men prayed, like Dives in Hell, for a single 
 drop of water. The " Governess " refused to allow men 
 to share in her private stores of wine and oil, and used 
 precious water to wash her clothes. " You wash your 
 clothes," said Quiros, " with their life." The " Salve " 
 was recited every afternoon, our only consolation. Scarcely 
 a day passed without the throwing of one or two corpses 
 overboard. In a beautiful passage Quiros tells of the 
 Christian heroism of one Juan Leal, " servant of God," 
 in nursing the sick. He also died and " went to his reward 
 in heaven." 
 
 They passed various islands, and came to the Ladrones ; 
 and " navigating only by information, and without a 
 chart," Quiros groped for the Philippines. Some said 
 " We shall soon hear Mass, and seek God ! There is no 
 longer danger of death without confessing, for that is 
 a land where Christians dwell." But there were more 
 dangers of shipwreck, and once the " Governess " made 
 arrangements for a pious death, holding the book of 
 devotion in her hand, and turning her eyes to Heaven. 
 At last they came to Manila, in February 1 596. A native 
 came on board whom the English navigator Thomas 
 
152 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Cavendish had taken with him to point out channels 
 among the islands. The people of Manila, seeing the 
 ship, fled away ; because, as this was not the time when 
 the ships arrive from New Spain, they thought the ship 
 was English. For they remembered the ship of Thomas 
 Cavendish, and the warning of the Governor to act thus. 
 At last a boat approached with four Spaniards, who 
 seemed to the weary navigator " like four thousand 
 angels." Soon people crowded to see the ship which 
 " came from Peru to fetch the Queen of Sheba from the 
 Isles of Solomon." 
 
 At Manila Quiros wrote to de Morga, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the Philippines, a " brief narrative " of the 
 voyage, the object of which, he says, had been "to go 
 and subject and people the Western islands of the South 
 Sea." " I beg you," he concluded, "to keep it secret, for 
 man does not know what time brings ; for, looking at it 
 rightly, it is fit that the first islands should remain concealed 
 until His Majesty be informed, and order whatever may 
 Fear that the be most for his scrvicc ; for, as they are placed, taking 
 setfie^nThJ ^ middle position between Peru, New Spain, and this 
 islands. country, the English on knowing it, might settle in them, 
 
 and do much mischief in this sea." 
 The The voyage, then, had failed even to rediscover the 
 
 unvisited for Solomons ; and two hundred years passed before they 
 200 years. were again seen by European eyes. "Though ship after 
 ship set out to seek them, they were so completely lost 
 to Europeans that, in the course of two centuries, geo- 
 graphers came to doubt their existence, and they were 
 actually expunged from the chart. And this, although 
 the group included eight large islands stretched like a 
 net across the course of navigation in an almost unbroken 
 line for six hundred miles." ^ It was not till 1766 that 
 the Englishman Carteret sailed by them, and he did not 
 recognize them. Bougaineville did hkewise in 1767, 
 and Surville in 1769. It was not till 1 781 that a French 
 scholar proved that the Solomon Islands had at last been re- 
 discovered.2 " In the history of travel there is probably 
 ^ Amherst, p. i. 2 Amherst, pp. Ixxiv-lxxvi. 
 
THE VOYAGE OF 1595 153 
 
 no other instance of the veil being hfted for a brief moment 
 to afford a ghmpse of the Hfe of an isolated island race, 
 and then dropped again for nigh three centuries, during 
 which no ripple from the outer world came to disturb 
 the silent backwater.".^ 
 
 The reason of the failure to rediscover the Solomons 
 was, as Quiros pointed out, the impossibility of determin- 
 ing Longitude. In this case he felt sure Gallego had vastly 
 underestimated the distance. His own conclusion was 
 that " New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the islands 
 of Santa Cruz are all near each other," and that more 
 than eight thousand miles intervene between Lima and 
 New Guinea. And, away somewhere to the South, still Who will 
 extended the great golden populous continent, waiting goj^en^ 
 to be won for God and King— unless the heretic English continent ? 
 got there first. 
 
 ^ Amherst, p. Ixxvii. Cf. Discoveries of the French in 1768 and lydg 
 to the South East of New Guinea, by M .... 179 1. The writer prints 
 a map from Herrera (1601) of the Solomons and New Guinea. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 QUIROS 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Historia del descuhrimiento de las regiones Austriales hecho por el 
 general Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, publicada por Don 
 JusTo Zaragossa. 
 
 The Voyages of Quiros, edited by Markham (Hakluyt Society). 
 
 Quiros assumed the mission. He returned to Peru, 
 and asked a new Viceroy to send him at once to " return 
 and discover those lands which I suspect to exist, and 
 even feel certain that I shall find, in those seas." But the 
 Viceroy replied that Quiros must first win permission 
 Quiros the from the King of Spain. Quiros arrived in Seville, with 
 missionary, g-^ dollars in pocket, in February i6oo. It was Jubilee 
 year at Rome, and he determined to lay his foundation 
 true by a visit to the Holy City. Selling the little he 
 possessed, he bought the dress of a pilgrim, and, staff 
 in hand, walked through the cities of Italy. At Rome 
 he appealed to the Spanish ambassador, the Duke of 
 Sesa, to help win the sanction and the blessing of the 
 Pope for a mission which would " save an infinity of souls 
 in the New World." The great nobleman treated the 
 pilgrim with respect. He had received a letter from the 
 Prior of the Order of St. Dominic at Manila, testifying 
 that Quiros was " a great pilot, with much experience 
 of the South Sea, and of the great Gulf between the coasts 
 of New Spain and Peru and Japan and the Philippine 
 Islands," and that it " would be much for the service 
 of God and King to introduce him, that he might again 
 return to discover those unknown parts and islands." 
 
 154 
 
QUIROS 155 
 
 " So the Duke sent for him to his house to ask him con- 
 cerning curious things relating to his art, and entertained 
 him there for near seventeen months." Further, he called 
 a meeting of the best pilots and mathematicians to be 
 found in Rome, who examined papers and charts, and made 
 a report favourable both to the scheme and to the man. 
 "All were persuaded, by the proofs and reasonings he sub- 
 mitted to them, that there could not fail to be either a 
 continental land or a number of islands, from the Straits 
 of Magellan to New Guinea and Java and the other islands 
 of that great archipelago." This unknown land' in the 
 torrid and temperate zones must be a very good and rich 
 land, and they were of opinion that it was " very desirable 
 to lose no time in discovering that Southern region, un- 
 known till now, which will be a great service to God." 
 Of Quiros the mathematicians testified " that there are 
 few pilots who know as much as he does ; that he is expert 
 in making globes and charts for navigating ; that he well 
 understands the use of instruments necessary for navi- 
 gation " ; and they highly commended two of his inven- 
 tions. So the Lord Duke arranged an interview with 
 His Hohness, Clement VIII., who, says Quiros, " heard Approved 
 me very attentively, saw all the papers I showed him, ^^ ^^^^ 
 approved of my zeal and veracity, encouraged me to per- 
 severe in my laudable intentions, conceded many graces 
 and indulgences for the time when I should begin the 
 voyage, gave me letters of recommendation to the Majesty 
 of the King our Lord," and also " some rosaries that had 
 ^been blessed, and a piece of the wood of the Cross. About 
 this there was great difficulty." He urged the King of 
 [Spain to assist the intent of Quiros, even were it only for 
 " the salvation of one single soul " in " that Austral In- 
 cognita part." 
 
 Recommended by Lord Duke, by mathematicians and 
 by Pope, Quiros went to the Spanish court. Here there 
 were many voices. Some, says Quiros, " thought little and King, 
 of the enterprise, or of me, thinking that I promised 
 more than I could perform, and that for the perform- 
 ance of so great a deed a person of more parts and 
 
156 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 valour was needed." Others threw doubt on the 
 
 utihty of such conquests, saying that " sufficient lands 
 
 had been discovered for His Majesty, and that what 
 
 signified was to people and settle them, rather than 
 
 go in search of those which I said were new, which 
 
 were so distant that they would be difficult and costly 
 
 to maintain after they had been conquered and settled." 
 
 On the other hand were the very weighty testimonies 
 
 frorri Rome, summed up by the Lord Duke, who wrote, 
 
 says the King, " giving me a good account of his parts, 
 
 good judgment, and experience in his profession," and 
 
 '* assuring me that he is a worker, quiet, disinterested, 
 
 of decent life, zealous for the service of God and for my 
 
 service." So at length Quiros, after much importunity, 
 
 " submitting new Memorials every day," obtained his 
 
 heart's desire ; and the King wrote an order to the Viceroy 
 
 of Peru, that he must provide two very good ships, with 
 
 sailors good, useful, and obedient, and with all things 
 
 necessary for a voyage which aimed at the discovery 
 
 of " the Southern islands and lands as far as New Guinea 
 
 and Java Major (Java)." The Viceroy was also " to 
 
 give orders that some barefoot friars of the Order of 
 
 A Franciscan gt. Francis, exemplary and of good life, are taken." The 
 Mission. ' ^ ■^. , ^ . 
 
 voyage of discovery, m its inmost intention, was to be 
 
 a Franciscan Mission. 
 
 Neither Pope nor King nor Lord Duke thought it necessary 
 to pay a Pilgrim's passage to Peru ; and Quiros, after the 
 Don Quixote usual shipwreck, arrived at Panama, " so poor " (says he) 
 to Peru. " that for eight days I had not one rial, and owing for 
 
 the hire of mules." He asked the Governor of Panama 
 for a loan of two hundred dollars, which was refused ; 
 so he had to retire to his lodgings, to be sued by the mule- 
 teers and other creditors. He attended a religious ceremony 
 in the upper storey of the Hospital ; and " as the weight 
 of people was great, a large part of the building gave 
 way, and we fell, sixty of us, with the beds and patients, 
 a height of more than twenty feet. A priest was killed ; 
 there were many broken limbs ; I escaped with what 
 I got, which was a severe blow on the left side, a wound 
 
QUIROS 157 
 
 on the right ankle, and a hand cut by a nail. My cure 
 cost me four bleedings, and two months and a half in bed, 
 without possessing a single maravedi. When barely 
 convalescent I embarked in a ship bound for Peru, with- 
 out a bit of bread or a jar of water, I arrived at Callao 
 on the 6th of March, 1605, with debts for the passage 
 and food, and with no moneys. I hired horses from one 
 I had known before, and entered Lima by night. I 
 went round without being able to find any hostelry, until 
 God led me to a potter who, for that night and for three 
 other nights, hospitably received me with good will among 
 his pots ; so that I am able to say with good reason that 
 I arrived at Lima weighted down with very many old 
 labours to make a beginning of new ones." We begin 
 to perceive that we are in noble company. We travel 
 with Don Quixote in the sunset of Spain. 
 
 At Lima he met with more discouragements. The 
 
 r Viceroy was lukewarm, and suggested that the expedition 
 
 had better start from the Philippines. " I was forced 
 
 to continue my memorials." " I found more opposers 
 
 than helpers." The husband of Mendana's widow argued 
 
 I that the expedition would " trench on the Solomon Islands," 
 There were long delays. In vain Quiros urged that " if 
 the day of St. Francis, September 4th, should pass, the 
 best of the year would be lost for making sail and shaping 
 a South- West course." Three and a half months passed 
 after that date before preparations were completed. He Thej3ays of 
 : 
 
 [sailed not on the day of St. Francis, but on the day of J^^ s?^^^^ 
 
 'St. Thomas, the 21st of December, 1 605. Thomas. 
 
 The wish to sail on the day of St. Francis had a signi- 
 ficance beyond the convenience of date. Quiros had planned 
 a ceremony which should give expression to the Franciscan 
 character of the mission. A Festival was to be held 
 " in the convent of St. Francis where were the six Friars 
 who were to go in our ships. The standards and banners 
 were to be blessed, and we were to come forth with all 
 our people in procession, in the clothes of sackcloth which 
 almost all had made for the occasion. But envy put 
 a stop to this laudable intention, and some even opposed 
 
158 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The three 
 ships. 
 
 Quiros's 
 Instructions. 
 
 Shipboard 
 rehgion. 
 
 the blessing and raising of the standard, as if the under- 
 taking was not for the service of His Majesty ! " How- 
 ever all the people confessed, and took the Sacrament. 
 The standards and banners were embarked, rolled upon 
 their staves ; the six Friars came forth, and were "lovingly 
 embraced by many people, for at such partings many 
 tears are shed, and we all went on board together." " Our 
 dresses," says the Pilot de Leza, "were those of the Fran- 
 ciscans, adopted by the Captain and all his officers." 
 " The sails were set, and the men on their knees prayed 
 for a good voyage to Our Lady of Loretto, saying that 
 the fleet is dedicated to her name, and sails trusting to 
 her favour and protection." 
 
 Quiros commanded three ships, " painted with no little 
 art " ; the holy standards and carvings are described 
 in loving detail. The Capitana, the ship " well adapted 
 for such service," in which he sailed as Captain, was named 
 the " St. Peter and St. Paul." The Almirante, " the 
 rather small ship " in which the Admiral Luis Vaez 
 de Torres was to sail a very famous voyage, was named 
 the " St. Peter." The third ship, a Labra or launch, 
 of small size but strong and a good sailor, was named 
 " The Three Kings " : the three Kings of the Eastern 
 Spice-lands, who had seen the Star and followed the 
 Gleam. " In the three ships embarked nearly three 
 hundred men, sailors and soldiers, with some small pieces 
 of artillery, arquebuses and muskets, provisions of all 
 kinds for one year, iron implements, fruits and animals 
 of Peru for those who should form a settlement, and the said 
 six Friars of the Order of St. Francis, also four Brothers 
 of Juan de Dios to cure the sick." 
 
 The " instructions " which Quiros issued to Torres for the 
 direction of the voyage express the fervent religious spirit 
 which animated him, and which he sought to kindle in those 
 joined to him in a divine mission. Torres is to maintain 
 " Christian, pohtical, and military disciphne." But he 
 is also to " use much diligence in treating kindly and 
 lovingly all the people under his charge, .... to acquire 
 those methods and habits which are necessary to keep 
 
QUIROS 159 
 
 his people contented and firm in their love, truthfulness 
 and loyalty, remembering how worthy of esteem that 
 captain is who, without the use of knife or other rigour, 
 governs his people in peace." He is " to see that men 
 do not curse nor blaspheme, nor say or do other things evil 
 against God our Lord, nor against the most Holy Mother, 
 nor against angels, saints, or things sacred or divine." 
 A blasphemer is to be punished by forfeit of his day's 
 ration ; and, for the second offence, he may be put in irons 
 and fined for the benefit of the souls in Purgatory, Every 
 day in the afternoon all the people are to go on their 
 knees before an altar where are images of Christ and of 
 the Virgin Mary ; and the Litany of Our Lady of Loretto 
 is to be recited, " praying for her favour or intercession, 
 that God our Lord may guide us and show us the lands 
 and people we seek, and help us in all that undertaking 
 on which we are employed, and grant us that success 
 which will be to His honour and glory, and for the good 
 of so many of His creatures." If any playing-cards or 
 dice are found (except for the playing of backgammon) 
 they are to be thrown overboard. When, at a later date, 
 Quiros was asked to allow " a little play," on condition 
 that the winnings were given for the souls in Purgatory, 
 he " said to them many times that they would not risk 
 to go on with such new and good work if there was playing 
 and swearing. As for the alms offered from the result 
 of betting, he would not want to take a soul out of Purgatory, 
 and set it on the road to Heaven, if it left his and the souls 
 of others in Hell ; and it would be much better to give 
 without playing that which would be given by playing. 
 For passing the time there are very good books, and one 
 who would teach to read, write, and count to those who 
 do not know how ; also a master-at-arms, black swords 
 (wooden drill-swords), practised soldiers to teach recruits, 
 and one who would teach them the art of fortification 
 and artillery, the spheres and navigation ; and that these 
 pursuits were better than to play for money." 
 
 The plan was to strike South-West for the continent, 
 as had been advised by Sarmiento in 1567. They were 
 
i6o 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The plan of 
 the voyage. 
 
 How to treat 
 natives. 
 
 The Pope's 
 Indulgence. 
 
 Saints and 
 sinners. 
 
 to " shape a South-West course until the Latitude of 
 30° is reached." If no land was there found, their course 
 was to be changed to North-West until the Latitude 
 of 10° 15'. And if again no land was found, they were 
 to follow that parallel Westward in search of the island 
 of Santa Cruz. Thence they were to steer South-West 
 as far as 20°, then North-West to 4°, and on that parallel 
 Westward in search of New Guinea. After coasting 
 all along that land, they were to proceed to Manila, and 
 thence by the Eastern Indies to Spain. And Quiros 
 hoped to find land between Java and the Cape of Good 
 Hope. 
 
 They are to " avoid the danger of offending the natives, 
 or being offended by them." Spaniards should be " as 
 fathers to children, but the children must be watched 
 as if they were known enemies. Our part is always to 
 be in the right, with open and honest intentions ; then 
 God will help us, as He helps all those whose objects 
 are good." And Quiros gives very sensible advice as to 
 innocent thievish natives whose souls have to be saved. 
 
 " It is well known to all those persons who are engaged 
 on this discovery how His Holiness Clement VIIL, at 
 my humble petition, has conceded that if Our Lord should 
 be served by removing us from this world to another, 
 at the hour of death, if unable to confess or to take the 
 Sacrament, being contrite, we name the most holy name 
 of Jesus, either with our mouths or in our hearts, he gives 
 us plenary indulgence and remission of all our sins." 
 
 The voyage, in the Captain's eyes, was a chivalrous 
 missionary enterprise, demanding the personal sancti- 
 iication of each man who had the glory of sharing in it. 
 Every soldier and every sailor was to be a Knight of the 
 Holy Ghost. In reality, the soldiers and sailors were 
 all sorts and conditions of men, illustrating once more 
 the extraordinary contrasts which are the continual 
 surprise to students of Spanish story. There were the 
 Franciscans under their " Commissary," an aged Brother 
 of nearly eighty years, who came to give his life for the 
 cause for which he had lived, and who died worn out 
 
 J 
 
QUIROS i6i 
 
 by age and hardship within sight of home. There was 
 " the well-disposed and soldierly youth," who was so 
 deeply impressed by the reading of the life of St. Anthony 
 the hermit that one night he launched a frail raft, and 
 slipped overboard, " determined to leave us here, to teach 
 the heathen and to live in solitude, . . . the act of a man 
 whom we held to be rational and a good Christian, yet 
 hazardous for many reasons, above all his being cut off 
 from the divine offices and the sacrament." There was the 
 Peruvian youth named Francisco, who " wore the habit 
 of a lay brother, his life being one of self-denial. He 
 was a humble, frugal and grateful man, very peaceful, 
 and so zealous for the good of the souls in the new dis- 
 coveries, that he wished to be left behind with them." 
 And, in amazing contrast, were those who, after wanton 
 massacre of natives, would say that " it was of little im- 
 portance that we should send them to the devil to-day, 
 as they would have to go to-morrow," " a sentiment," 
 comments Quiros, " very far from all reason, and especially 
 when they had the faith of Christ at the doors of their 
 soul." The generality was of the stuff with which the 
 ■great Spanish captains had to do their heroisms ; men of 
 .unsurpassable courage, and of unsurpassable cruelty, 
 [willing enough to help Don Quixote to conquer islands 
 :(if he could find them ! ), pleased by the thought that 
 :hey could obtain remission of all sins by naming the name 
 )f Jesus, but determined meanwhile to have a good time 
 fin their own way. They were not the men to pass the 
 day in contented attendance of religious services, or in 
 study of the three R's. All they wanted, Quiros found, 
 was " good health, plenty to eat and drink, little work, 
 much grumbling together, with much fear of the weather ! " 
 Every misadventure made them think of the great abun- 
 dance of the court, cold snows, fresh fruits, and other 
 memories which cooled their will. They were " far from 
 having the valorous minds which ought to animate the 
 searchers for unknown lands, to uphold the original motives, 
 and perform heroic deeds." " Like moths they ate against 
 the enterprise and caused discontent." 
 
 W.A. L 
 
l62 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Quiros ill. Quiros himself was desperately ill. "He took such 
 • a headache from Lima that he could suffer neither sun 
 nor shade. On this malady came a spasm which caused 
 much suffering, but none of these changes sufficed to 
 finish him. For whom God wishes will live ! " Sheer 
 physical weakness disabled him from contending with 
 the riotous discontents of men impatient with every 
 day that passed without sight of a golden land. The 
 leader of the discontented was the Chief Pilot, Juan Ochoa 
 de Bilboa, whom Quiros had been compelled to take 
 against his will : — ** he did much injury." 
 Ships sail, Quiros was sailing on the South-West course, aiming 
 Dec. 1605. ^^ latitude 30°, where he hoped to see land. Had he been 
 able to start on the day of St. Francis (September 4th), 
 he would have reached this point by the middle of October, 
 and would have had five months of Southern summer 
 for explorations West, South-West, or North-West — 
 explorations that would probably have brought him to 
 New Zealand or to Australia. But the delay of three and 
 a half months was fatal. On the 22nd of January, 1606, 
 while still only in Latitude 26°, they met with " a squall 
 .and showers from the South-East, and with a great swell 
 from the South." The seamen were alarmed. " Whither," 
 they said, " are they taking us, in this great Gulf in the 
 winter season } " Provision of water was running short. 
 Quiros was sick in bed, and word reached him that the 
 Pilot and other persons in the ship had " mutinous ten- 
 Course dencies." Quiros could make no fight. The ship's course 
 changed or 
 
 Jan. 1606. was changed to West-North-West, in spite of written 
 protest from Torres that "it was not a thing obvious that 
 we ought to diminish our latitude till we got beyond 30° S." 
 They now made North-West for the loth line of Latitude 
 on which lay Santa Cruz ; Quiros himself had carefully 
 " taken the sun " in that island and was certain that 
 the Latitude was 10° 20'. They passed several unin- 
 habited islands, and on the lOth of February came to an 
 island with people on the beach ; at last some of the 
 " millions upon millions of natives " of whom, grumbled 
 the sailors, Quiros continually talked. He called the 
 
QUIROS 163 
 
 island *' Conversion de San Pablo." It has been iden- Conversion 
 
 tified with Anaa or Chain Island, about two hundred p^^^^^ 
 
 miles East of Tahiti. Some Spaniards swam ashore Feb. 1606 
 
 through the dangerous surf, and were welcomed " with 
 
 smiles and kisses." They found " the place where the 
 
 Devil spoke to and deceived these miserable natives," 
 
 and they " set up a cross, and gave God thanks on their 
 
 knees for being the first to hoist His Royal Standard 
 
 in an unknown land inhabited by heathens." A chieftain 
 
 came on board, and was " saluted three times to the sound 
 
 of the flute, as a grandee." Then Quiros " dressed him 
 
 in a pair of breeches, a shirt of yellow silk, put a hat upon 
 
 his head, a tin medal round his neck, gave him a case 
 
 of knives, and ordered the boat to take him ashore." 
 
 They struck the loth degree of Latitude, and made 
 West for Santa Cruz. On the 1st of March they came 
 to an island which Quiros called Peregrino, whose people Peregrino, 
 were " the most beautiful, white, and elegant, that were ^3,rch, 1606. 
 met with during the voyage." They were, of course, 
 good-natured thieves, and the inevitable things happened, 
 
 I Quiros urged humanity, but suspected that his commands 
 were not obeyed. He ordered Torres to capture four 
 boys, in order that these at least might be saved from the 
 Devil. Torres tried to do so, but " Satan, who does 
 not sleep at such important junctures," caused the natives 
 to resist. Foul deeds followed, — Torres would not tell 
 the story. The " beautiful people " must " remain' in 
 the wilderness, until God takes pity upon them." 
 
 Still they sailed Westward, day after day, week after Vain search 
 week, searching for Santa Cruz. Their chief trouble ^^ Santa 
 was lack of water. Quiros had a copper instrument 
 to distil sweet water from sea water, and he got two 
 or three jars full every day, very good and sweet. But 
 fuel failed, and the allowance of water was reduced to one 
 quartillo. Quiros took his one quartillo with the rest. 
 But " the salted food and excessive heat afflicted the 
 people," and they longed to " quench the terrible thirst they 
 felt in the water-springs of Santa Cruz." For thirty-two 
 days they sailed on the same line in search of it. Again 
 
 t 
 
i64 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 came endless disputes about Longitudes. Everyone cal- 
 culated how far they had sailed, and the calculations 
 were enormously different. Quiros said that the dis- 
 tance to Santa Cruz was seven thousand four hundred 
 miles. The Pilot retorted that they had already sailed 
 eight thousand eight hundred. Disputes grew hot. Quiros 
 was told that there was a plot to stab him and to throw 
 the body overboard. The Pilot shouted to the Captain 
 of the launch that winter was near, and " other things 
 that it is not well for the men to hear." One night the 
 sick Captain heard a great disturb'ance, and found the 
 Pilot with blood-stained sword in hand. The sword 
 was taken from him ; " but that which the Captain felt 
 he kept to himself, confessing that he was so weak that 
 he was unable to say in a loud voice a third word." It 
 was evident that the Pilot " did not wish that lands should 
 be discovered, nor that anything should be found." He 
 was " designing to go directly to Manila." Quiros could 
 Torres and not deal with the plot. But Torres was a very different 
 the Pilot, j^-^^j^^ ^^^ insisted that land must be found. Finally 
 he induced Quiros to arrest the Pilot, and to send him 
 on board Torres' ship, though that vigorous seaman 
 regrets that he was " not allowed to inflict due punishment." 
 For the moment, however, Quiros had been persuaded 
 that something more severe than Franciscan methods 
 were needed. The Pilot's friends were told to " hold 
 their tongues " ; a block was placed for villains at the 
 yard-arm ; and Quiros regretted that he had not " thought 
 of bringing iron fetters and chains from Lima, intending 
 to oblige by faithful treatment, and to bring out the 
 good." But it was in vain that Don Quixote tried to be 
 sane. The block was never used. Instead of hanging his 
 " villains," he made them " Knights of the Holy Ghost." 
 His friends would bear witness, he afterwards said, that 
 he was " deterniined never to take life or reputation ; and 
 if he had done so, he would have been discontented and 
 unquiet for all the rest of his life." 
 
 They saw " drifts of wood, and snakes, and many birds, 
 all signs of land on both sides." But they drove straight 
 
 I 
 
OUIROS 165 
 
 along the lOth line to make sure of Santa Cruz. On the 
 
 7th of April the mast-head man cried that he saw " land 
 
 to the North- West, high and black." Soon smoke was 
 
 seen, which " doubled our delight." A port was found, 
 
 and they " anchored with incredible joy." But it was 
 
 not Santa Cruz. It was the chief island of the Duff Group. 
 
 The native name was Taumaco. Quiros called it " Nuestra Nuestra 
 
 Sefiora del Socorro in memory of the succour found there." socorro. ^ 
 
 The Chief, named Taumai, was " a man with a good-looking Ap. 1606. 
 
 body and face, handsome eyes, well formed nose, colour 
 
 rather brown, beard and hair turning grey. He was 
 
 grave and sedate, prudent and wise in what he did, and 
 
 what he promised he performed." " Never was there 
 
 a barbarian," says one of our writers, " who possessed 
 
 the good sense of this one." Quiros dressed him in shot 
 
 silk which he seemed to value highly. The Friars landed, 
 
 and performed the first Mass of our Lady of Loretto, 
 
 with a commemoration of St. Peter. The natives were 
 
 very attentive on their knees, " beating their breasts 
 
 and doing everything they saw the Christians do." " When 
 
 they saw that we worshipped the Cross, they desired 
 
 to paint the same cross on their breasts, and many did 
 
 so. They asked us for ink to do this, and we gave them 
 
 gunpowder." " Pity," says Quiros, *' to think with what 
 
 facility all the people of those lands would receive the 
 
 Faith if there was any one to teach them ; and yet what 
 
 a great perdition there is of such a vast number of souls 
 
 as are condemned here ! "' 
 
 Taumaco was not Santa Cruz, but it was near Santa News of land 
 Cruz. That island, said Taumai, was "five days' voyage ^'^ *^^ ^°"*^' 
 to the West," or, according to Torres, two hundred and 
 forty miles. The natives knew all the details of the story 
 of the Spanish colony at Santa Cruz, and for that reason 
 were " alarmed when they saw arquebuses." But Taumai 
 also gave news that put Santa Cruz out of mind. He 
 spoke of great lands in the South. " He began counting 
 on his fingers as many as sixty islands, and a very large 
 land, which he called Manicolo. ... To explain which 
 were small islands he made small circles, and for larger 
 
1 66 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 ones larger circles ; while for the large land he opened 
 both his arms and hands without making them meet. 
 To explain which were the distant islands, and which 
 were nearer, he pointed to the sun, then rested his head 
 on his hand, shut his eyes and with his fingers counted 
 the number of nights one had to sleep on the voyage. In 
 a similar manner he explained which people were white, 
 black, or mulattos, which were mixed, which friendly, 
 which hostile. He gave it to be understood that in one 
 island they ate human flesh by biting his arm,' and he 
 indicated that he did not hke such peoples." The natives 
 confirmed these statements, and said, using " very in- 
 telligent signs," that in those great lands were cows and 
 buffaloes and pearls. 
 
 They caught four natives — " the General rejoiced 
 greatly at the sight of them " — and sailed, no longer West, 
 but South-East. " They now," says Quiros, " had suffi- 
 cient wood and water to enable them to find that they 
 were seeking. God had given us a North-West wind, 
 one well suited for that intention." One after another, 
 three of the four kidnapped natives leapt overboard, 
 and swam for land which, in one case, appeared to 
 be three leagues away ! " See how the Devil deceives 
 him," cried the sailors. " Why lose so much good as 
 surrounds you here .? " At 14° the Captain was asked 
 what the course was to be. " Put the ships' heads where 
 they like," answered he, "for God will guide them as may 
 be right." " Don Quixote," wrote Cervantes, *' rode calmly 
 on, leaving it to his horse to go which way he pleased, 
 firmly believing that in this consisted the very essence 
 of adventure." God's wind drove them South- West, 
 and next day a sailor of the Capitana, named Francisco 
 Rodriguez, went to the mast-head, and cried in a cheerful 
 voice " Very high land ahead ! " They called the island 
 San Marcos because it was discovered on that Saint's 
 Day. Beautiful islands were seen in all directions. They 
 came to one, which " owing to its great beauty " they called 
 " Virgen Maria." A man rushed down from some rocks, 
 jumped into the boat, and seemed to ask by signs, " Where 
 
OUIROS 
 
 167 
 
 do you come from ? What do you want ? What do you 
 seek?" "We come from the East," a Spaniard repHed, 
 
 Taumaco*^,; 
 (Duff Group) \ 
 
 ' Santa Cruz 
 
 
 <$>v 
 
 ^(Tupua I.) 
 
 W^fVanikoro I.) 
 
 \^ 
 
 \^ 
 
 Tucopia'a 
 
 (Torres Is.) 
 
 (' Pilar de Zaragoza 
 
 ' Q (Ureparaparal.) 
 
 Portales de ?elen 
 
 San Marcos 
 
 Espiritu Sj 
 
 (/\feuj Hebrides) 
 
 Lal^iementina 
 
 'entecoat I. ) 
 
 r; Walker Ltd. M 
 
 The New Hebrides. 
 (From Markham (ed.) Voyage of Quires (Hakluyt Society).) 
 
 "we seek you, and we want you to be ours." The questioner 
 and another native were captured ; and the captain, to 
 show his benevolent intentions, ordered the barber to shave 
 their beards and hair, had their finger and toe-nails cut 
 
i68 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 with scissors (the use of which they admired), caused 
 them to be dressed in silk and divers colours, gave them 
 hats with plumes, tinsel and other ornaments, knives 
 and a mirror, into which they' looked with caution." Then 
 he sent them ashore to join their friends, and so excellent 
 was the effect produced that, when " one of our men asked 
 a mother for her baby, she gave it ; and, seeing that it 
 was passed from one to another to be seen and kissed, 
 the natives were well pleased." They saw innumerable 
 natives of three different colours, yellow, black and white ; 
 which seemed to prove the extent and length of the island, 
 and that it must be the mainland. 
 
 Twelve leagues to the South-West and South, a man 
 looking out at the mast-head saw " an extensive land, 
 — the eye could not turn to a point that was not all land " ; 
 " a great land with high mountains," says another writer, 
 " which promised to be no less than continental." At 
 last, it seemed, the Great Continent had been discovered, 
 and " this day was the most joyful and the most celebrated 
 day of the whole voyage." Far away to the South- 
 East again was seen a massive and very lofty chain of 
 mountains whose tops were covered by thick masses 
 of white cloud. They were in fact in the midst of the 
 group of mountainous islands, which Cook rediscovered 
 in 1774, and called the New Hebrides. But the islands 
 lay so close together that they " appeared to form one 
 land," and to suggest at least the possibility of a continent. "• 
 They determined to sail " in the direction of the first 
 land that bore South," and on the 1st of May they entered 
 " a great Bay," which " received the names of St. Philip 
 The Bay of and St. James, the day of the discovery being the day 
 and st/^ of those Apostles." "The Bay," says one writer, "is 
 JfJ^eS'^ist very large and beautiful, and all the fleets of the world 
 might enter it; and, as our General saw its beauty, he wished 
 that we should enter it and anchor." " All their designs," 
 says another, " had now been accomplished. They held 
 in their hands the most abundant and powerful land ever 
 discovered by Spaniards." 
 
 1 See map, p. 167. 
 
 May, 1606. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 
 
 Next day (2nd of May) Torres was sent in the boat to Good 
 look for a landing-place. All day he looked, for the Bay a^c^orage. 
 was very large and very deep. At length, at the extreme 
 end of the Bay, six or seven leagues from the entrance, 
 he found " good anchorage in from forty to twenty fathoms 
 of very clean sand, a port with a river, ballast and fuel, 
 and all that we could desire." This was joyful news ; 
 " for without a port the discovery would be of little im- 
 portance." Hither, in the course of three days — so 
 long and so difficult was the bay — they slowly worked 
 their way, and came to anchor. 
 
 Of this port of St. Philip and St. James we get ample 
 information. Here the Spaniards stayed five weeks, 
 and wrote vivid narratives of their doings. One of them 
 drew a map of the Bay, which we still have.^ Captain 
 Cook rediscovered the Bay in 1774, and wrote an account 
 of its geography that is of singular use to the student. 
 Moresby visited it in 1876, and made some interesting 
 remarks. " Doubtless," he wrote, " in time Australia 
 will throw off settlers to this glorious island, which is 
 capable of bearing all the spices of the East." ^ 
 
 To Quiros the situation grew better at every look. The 
 river, which he named the Jordan, appeared as big as the The river 
 Guadalquiver at Seville. He was sure that it must be -^^^ ^^' 
 two hundred and forty miles long at least, and that it 
 must drain a continent. Moresby describes it as " a fine 
 
 ^ See map, p. 170. 
 
 2 Moresby's New Guinea and Polynesia. 
 
 169 
 
170 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 rapid torrent, coming from a lofty range of hills, and 
 running, through the lower part of its course, through 
 rich open country." In this rich open, country appeared 
 the ideal site for the Mother City of the Southern World. 
 Walking through the forest, along a clean well-shaded 
 road, they came to a native village. Round the huts 
 were many fruit trees, surrounded by intertwined pali- 
 sades, to keep off the multitudinous pigs. In the bush 
 
 Map of the Bay of St. Philip and St. James. 
 (From a facsimile in the Boletin de la Sociedad Geografica de Madrid, 1878.) 
 
 were partridges, doves, ducks, parrots, parroquets, herons, 
 and song-birds, "which in the morning gave us pleasure 
 to hear such gentle and musical notes." They found 
 also cocoa-nuts, plantains, oranges, nutmegs, and almonds 
 and above all yams, which are the chief food. The land 
 yielded so much food that there could not be more. They 
 saw great trees that would furnish very good spars for 
 yards of large and small ships, and these so near the sea 
 that they rose to heaven ready for use. In short, " there 
 is scarcely a tree in all this land that is not of some use." 
 The climate was perfect. It was so cool at night that 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESP IR ITU SANTO 171 
 
 blankets were welcome. And in this earthly paradise 
 there were " no snakes, jiggers, ants, nor mosquitoes." 
 " I am able to say with good reason," writes Quiros, " that 
 a land more delightful, healthy, and fertile, a site better 
 supplied with quarries, timber, clay for tiles, bricks for 
 founding a great city on the sea, with a port and a good 
 river on a plain, with level lands near the hills, nor better 
 adapted to raise plants and all that Europe and the Indies 
 produce, could not be found." It was a land, he beheved, 
 that could easily support two hundred thousand Spaniards. 
 A big river must mean a big land. And quite close were 
 seven islands extending eight hundred miles. Here 
 then should rise the New Jerusalem, "a very great and New 
 prosperous city," the capital of a continent stretching •'^^"^^^"^' 
 from the Equator to the Pole, a link of strength in the 
 golden chain of that Empire on which the sun never set, 
 and which in the end would bind the whole world in blessed 
 submission to God and to His Church. 
 
 Every prospect pleased, but the men were vile. Their 
 unchanged descendants are described by Moresby as 
 "black fine athletic men, woolly-headed, many of them 
 with really pleasing faces, well-armed with clubs and 
 three-pronged spears, barbed with human bones, which 
 they throw to a great distance " ; the women, he adds, Spaniards 
 are " unsightly Eves." The great desire of Quiros was JJ^"[^gg 
 to catch the souls of these people ; and to catch their 
 souls, he thought, you must first catch their bodies, " so 
 as to establish peace and friendship based on the good 
 work we intended to do for them." And the men who 
 had to catch them were — not the sick captain and the 
 Franciscans, who do singularly little in this story — but 
 Torres and the soldiers. And their methods were primitive. 
 " When," says one writer, simply, " our people saw so many 
 people on the beach, they began to fire off some arque- 
 buses, on which the beach was left clear, all flying into 
 the woods." There followed a fight. A native was shot, 
 his head and foot were cut off, and his body was hung to 
 a tree, and shown to other natives ; the soldiers, complains 
 Quiros, " pretending that this cruelty was a means of 
 
172 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 making peace ! " " Such was the end of the peace which 
 the Captain hoped for, and sought for, as the means of 
 discovering the grandeur of the land, and all that was 
 contained in it ; such indeed was the intention the Captain 
 had, but it was only a sound." 
 
 The first thing necessary now was to protect the mission- 
 aries against the hostility which they had so wantonly 
 provoked. Quiros sought to do this, in the Spanish 
 way, by the creation of " a ministry of War and Finance," 
 and he gives a list of the nineteen ministers who were to 
 provide for the safety of the colony. On the 13th of May, 
 Torres, transformed from " Admiral " into " Master of the 
 Camp," was sent on shore " to put up a Church, so that 
 next day Mass might be said, and possession taken of the 
 land in the name of the Majesty, divine and human." So 
 they made a Church, the Church of " Our Lady of Loretto," 
 with trees and branches of plantains, and they surrounded 
 it with stakes, so that it might serve as a fort in case of 
 necessity. In the afternoon, Quiros assembled the people 
 of all the ships, and made to them a triumphant speech. 
 To strengthen their resolves, to give firmness and hope, 
 which are the qualities needed to achieve great and famous 
 deeds, he had resolved to give sacramental expression 
 to the ideal of the mission by incorporating all those 
 and become engaged in it into a new chivalrous Order, " the Knights 
 the^Holy"* of the Holy Ghost " ; an Order which Pope and King 
 Ghost. would " confirm, with advantageous privileges, as long 
 
 as the World endures." " In the name of the Most Holy 
 Trinity, in the name of the Roman Pontiff, in the name 
 of His Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, and my Lord, 
 I the Captain Don Fernandez de Quiros give to each 
 one of your mercies this cross of a blue colour, which 
 presently you are to place on your breasts, being the 
 insignia by which the Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost 
 are to be known ; the persons in whose charge, if I should 
 fail, is to be placed the discovery, pacification, and posses- 
 sion of all these parts which we are discovering, and may 
 discover in the time to come." Let them know and esteem , 
 the value of the cross ; it signified determination to win i 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 173 
 
 much higher honours. Let them bear in mind that what 
 remains in their power to attain in this very high enter- 
 prise is very great, for it is now known that the enterprise 
 holds a world for its heaven and its earth. " Pray to God, 
 .gentlemen, that it may serve Him to send us greater lands, 
 and other things. ... I charge you all to be, as it were, 
 members of one body." 
 
 It seemed to Quiros that his words were " listened 
 to with much pleasure and accepted with satisfaction." 
 The Franciscans persuaded all the new-made Knights 
 to confess, in order that, on the next day, the day of Pente- 
 cost, they might earn the Holy Jubilee which His Holi- 
 ness had conceded to the expedition. At night all the 
 ships were illuminated, and sent off rockets and fire-wheels. 
 All the artillery was fired off ; and when the natives heard 
 the noise, and the echoes resounding over hills and valleys, 
 they raised great shouts. We sounded drums, rang the 
 bells, had music and dancing ; and the Captain said to 
 all, " Gentlemen, this is the eve of my long desired day." 
 
 Next day, the day of Pentecost (14th May), just before 
 dawn, Torres the "Camp master" and the other "Ministers" 
 landed with an armed party, and with the help of the Friars The official • 
 prepared the " booth made of branches " that was to serve ^J^^' ^^ 
 both as Church and as Fort. Then Quiros landed in state. 
 On his left was carried a cross made of the orange wood 
 of the country, on his right the royal standard. The 
 Knights of the Holy Ghost, with cross on breast,, were 
 drawn up in good order on the beach, showing, it seemed 
 to Quiros, sharpened resolves to finish what they had 
 commenced, and to begin much greater things ! He 
 went down on his knees, saying, " To God alone be the 
 honour and the glory." Then, putting his hand on the 
 ground, he kissed it and said : " Oh Land ! sought for 
 so long, intended to be found by so many, and so desired 
 by me ! " The six Friars, bare-footed and kneeling on 
 the beach, received the cross in their arms, saying with 
 great tenderness : "I adore thee, Holy Cross, for the 
 Author of Our life, made flesh, died on thee for me, so 
 great a sinner, and for the whole human race." They raised 
 
174 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 it, and singing the " Lignum," with the people in procession, 
 we arrived at the door of the Church. There, on a pedestal 
 which had been placed for the purpose, the Captain planted 
 our cross, and ordered that the people should come round, 
 and that the secretary should read, as in a loud voice 
 he did read, the following documents :— 
 
 Quiros called the heavens and the earth, and the sea 
 with all its inhabitants, and those who were present, 
 to witness that in these parts, which up to the present 
 time had been unknown, he raised and planted in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, son of the Eternal Father, and 
 of the Holy Virgin Mary, true God and Man, this sign 
 of the Holy Cross, on which His most holy body was cruci- 
 fied, and on which He gave His life as a ransom for the 
 whole human race. Then in the name of the Catholic 
 Church, in the name of " My Father, St. Francis " and 
 his Order, in the name of John of God and his Order, and 
 in the name of the Knights of the Holy Ghost, the 
 discoverers, settlers, defenders and preservers, he took 
 possession of " all the islands and lands that he had newly 
 discovered, and desired to discover as far as the South 
 Foley " I take possession of this Bay, named the Bay 
 of St. Philip and St. James, and of its Port named Santa 
 Cruz, and of the site on which is to be founded the city 
 of New Jerusalem, and of all the lands which I sighted, 
 and am going to sight, and of all this region of the South as 
 Austriaiiadel far as the Pole, which from this timeshall be called Austrialia 
 Santo^^ del Espiritu Santo,^ with all its dependencies and belongings." 
 
 1. Quiros, vol. i. p. 251. 
 
 The Spanish phrase for the Southern Land was " la tierra Austral," 
 or "la parte Austral incognita." The name that would naturally 
 come from this phrase is Australia. Quiros would have this name in 
 mind for the same obvious reason that put it into Flinders' mind two 
 hundred years later. Compared to Terra Australis, wrote Flinders, 
 Australia is " more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the 
 names of the other great portions of the earth " (Flinders' Voyage, 
 Introduction, p. iii). But, of the two original manuscripts, the more 
 trustworthy reads not Australia but Austrialia. In the second manu- 
 script the word, says Zaragossa (vol. i. p. 316) has been " wrongly 
 emended " to Australia ; wrongly, because Quiros, in the Memorial 
 which he addressed to the King of Spain in 1607, says that he named 
 the land Austrialia " in happy memory of Your Majesty, whose dynastic 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 175 
 
 Then all cried with loud voice " Long live the King of 
 Spain, Don Philip IIL, our Lord ! " There followed 
 more masses, more discharge of firearms, more rockets 
 and firewheels, and,' in the midst of all this noise, all shouted 
 with almost infinite joy and many times " Long Live 
 the Faith of Christ." ''Then we went to dine under the 
 shade of great tufted trees near a clear running stream." 
 
 The city had received the name of New Jerusalem. The munici- 
 The next thing to do was to provide for its government, ^ew^ ^ 
 The final thing, perhaps, would be to build it. Having Jerusalem. 
 
 name is Austria" — " cuja felice memoria de V.M., por el apellido de 
 Austria le di por nombre la Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, porque en 
 su mismo dia tome la posesion de ella " (Zaragossa, vol. ii. p. 201). 
 In a later Memorial of 1610 Quiros wrote that the King had ordered 
 him to discover land "en la parte Austrialia Incognita " (Zaragossa, 
 vol. ii. p. 217), and explained : " All this, and what more there is, 
 I have done as a loyal vassal of Your Majesty, and that Your Majesty, 
 as soon as its grandeur is understood, may add to your titles that of 
 Austrial del Espiritu Santo, for the greater glory of the same Lord, 
 who raised me and showed it me and brought me to the presence of 
 Your Majesty " (Quiros, edited by Markham, vol. ii. p. 485. Original 
 in Zaragossa, vol. ii. p. 227). It seems that the ingenious thought came 
 into his mind that, by inserting an " i " into the middle of Australia, 
 he could indicate that the new-found-land of the South was also the 
 land of the Austrian House of Spain, whose name would thus be 
 " blazoned and spread over the face of the whole world to the Glory 
 of God." 
 
 It was a name, however, which had little chance of general acceptance. 
 Even the second of our Spanish manuscripts " wrongly emends " it to 
 Australia. And it was unthinkable that English and Dutch should 
 use a word coined to express Spanish claim to the New World in the 
 South. When Purchas translated Quiros's Memorial of -1610, he 
 meant to be a faithful translator, for in paragraph 7 he wrote down 
 Quiros's word Austrialia ; but in paragraph i he had, in carelessness 
 no doubt, written Australia ; and when he wrote the name for himself 
 it was Australia (Purchas, edition 1625, vol. iv. pp. 1422, 1423, 1432 ; 
 cf. Watson's note in Historical Records of Australia, vol. ix. p. 867). 
 Other translators sometimes wrote Austrialia {e.g. the Latin edition 
 published in Amsterdam in 1612), but more generally Australia. See 
 list of titles of English, Dutch and Latin translations in the Hakluyt 
 Society edition of Quiros, vol. i. pp. xlvi-xlvii ; e.g. " Australia the 
 Unknown," " Australia Incognita," " cui Australiae nomen est," 
 " vierde deel des Werelts, ghenaemt Australia incognita." Other 
 editions held to the old phrase Terra Australis Incognita {e.g. London 
 edition of 161 7) or its equivalent {e.g. La Terra Australle in Paris edition 
 of 1617). Austrialia had not the smallest chance of survival. But 
 it is curious that Terra A ustralis so long held its own against the rivalry 
 of Australia. See Watson in Historical Records of Australia, vol. ix. 
 p. 369, and Scott's Flinders, chapter 30. 
 
176 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 had his siesta, Quiros told his officers that he would " elect 
 a municipality, and such officers as are usual in the city 
 that was the capital of a province." So they elected 
 thirteen magistrates, a Secretary to the muncipality, two 
 Justices of the Peace, the Chief Constable, the Accountant, 
 the Treasurer, the Factor, the Registrar of Mines, the 
 Store Keeper General, and the Overseer. The city of 
 - New Jerusalem was now well equipped with all that a 
 city which was the capital of a province should possess ; 
 only, unfortunately, there was no city, save the little booth 
 of branches on the beach, that served at once for Fort 
 and Church ; and the province remained to be dis- 
 covered. However, the municipal officers formed in order, 
 and, accompanied by the rest of the people, went to the 
 Church, and the Father Commissary pointed once more 
 to the upraised cross ; but such were the tears he shed 
 that he could not proceed. Then the Captain returned 
 to his ship, taking with him the cross, the standard and 
 banners ; and, arriving on board, " he ordered that block 
 on the yard-arm to be taken down, where it had been 
 placed to punish crimes. For the Captain could not 
 believe that persons with such an honourable destiny 
 would do things the punishment of which would be the 
 rope." Meanwhile a hundred of the Knights remained 
 on shore, marched inland to some villages, put the natives 
 to flight in great fear, entered their houses, and " took 
 some very large pigs." 
 
 Three days later (17th of May) they had even better 
 success. They made " a rapid attack on the natives, 
 did great execution," and captured and brought to 
 the ship three young boys, and twenty very fat pigs. 
 The regret of the " Knights " was that they had not caught 
 fewer boys and more pigs. " Thirty pigs," said one in 
 Souls or a loud voice, "would be better eating than three boys." 
 P^^^ • Quiros was shocked, and " said with much feeling that 
 he would rather have one of those children than the whole 
 world besides." The man who talked such nonsense 
 should have given praise to God, Who, in a way so strange 
 and unthought-of, had saved those three souls. But 
 
AUSTRIALIA DFX ESPIRITU SANTO 177 
 
 the parents wanted their boys back, showing a strong 
 affection that sought, though in vain, to buy them 
 with any number of fat pigs. Then, in their rage, they 
 came to destroy the Church, and Quiros had to send 
 hurriedly an armed party to prevent them. One of the 
 boys besought that he might be allowed to return to his 
 father. " Silence, child," replied the Captain, " you know- 
 not what you ask. Greater good awaits than the sight 
 and the communion of heathen parents." And, indeed, 
 when the boy died a few months later, he died a baptised 
 Catholic, saved from the claws of the Devil, assured of 
 eternal salvation. 
 
 The triumph reached its climax in the Festival of Corpus The festival 
 Christi. The church was bravely decorated with green christF"^ 
 boughs. " For an altar-piece there was a painted Christ 
 crucified on a great cloth, with four candles at the sides 
 and incense-sticks burning." Outside were triumphal 
 arches, " enlaced with palms and flowers, while the ground 
 also was strewn with flowers." Under two other arches 
 were placed two altars with their canopies, and the image 
 of St. Peter and St. Paul. "The day was clear and serene, 
 and, as the sun rose over the crowns of the trees, its rays 
 entering through the branches, the difference in the fruits 
 of each plant was shown in great profusion. The birds 
 sang and chanted ; the leaves and branches moved gently 
 in the breeze, and the whole place was agreeable, fresh, 
 shady, with a gentle air moving and the sea smooth." 
 Three Masses were said, and the festivities began ; — a 
 very picturesque sword-dance by eleven sailor lads, dressed 
 in red and green silk, with bells on their feet, who danced 
 with much dexterity and grace to the sound of a guitar 
 played by a respected old sailor ; then " another dance 
 by eight boys, all dressed like Indians in shirts and breeches 
 of silk, coloured brown, blue and gray, with garlands 
 on their heads and white palms in their hands, singing 
 their canticles to the sound of tambourines and flutes " ; 
 then more splendid ceremony with much discharge of 
 firearms ; and, " when the smoke cleared away there 
 were seen among the green branches so many plumes 
 
 W.A. M 
 
178 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 and feathers and sashes, so many crosses and so much 
 gold, and so many colours and silken dresses, that many 
 eyes could not contain what sprang from the heart, and 
 they shed tears of joy." The poet-secretary, Bermudez, 
 whose pen certainly wrote this vivid description, exults 
 in the good fortune which has allowed him to see " the 
 first festival celebrated in honour of the most high Lord 
 in these strange and unknown lands." " As our force 
 was small," he writes, " and the natives numerous, it was 
 considered by some to be an act of great audacity. I say 
 it was a great hit, and that it was done in full faith." 
 There came into his mind a verse written by a Spanish 
 poet : 
 
 " Behold where hidden are the lands, 
 
 Scarce discerned by mortal ken, 
 
 Those are regions still unknown, 
 
 Never pressed by Christian men. 
 
 This will ever be their fate, 
 
 Want of knowledge keeps them there, 
 
 Wrapt within a fleecy cloud. 
 
 Until God shall lay them bare." 
 
 He quotes the lines, and triumphantly " by slight 
 alterations " adapts them to the present occasion: 
 
 " Behold how we have found these lands. 
 Now clearly seen by mortal ken, 
 Those are regions now made known, 
 Pressed by feet of Christian men. 
 Unknown no longer is their fate. 
 Now full knowledge points them there, 
 No longer hid in fleecy clouds 
 God his secrets now lays bare." ^ 
 
 Such was the vision which Quiros saw that day of the 
 Festival of Corpus Christi. And then, thus his narrative 
 continues, " he marched inland to the sound of drums. 
 He saw what he had sown already sprouting, the farms, 
 houses, fruit orchards ; and, having walked a league, 
 he returned as it was getting late. When he came on 
 board he said that, as these natives were at war with us, 
 
 ^ Markham's translation, in Hakluyt Society's edition of Quiros, 
 vol. i. p, 262. 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESP IR ITU SANTO 179 
 
 and there was not a chance on our side, we would leave 
 
 the port next day to visit the lands to windward." The 
 
 city of New Jerusalem must remain the city of vision, 
 
 unbuilt by human hands ! 
 
 The purpose of the proposal to visit the lands seen to is it a 
 
 the South was to determine the question whether New continent . 
 
 Jerusalem was situated on the continent itself, or on one 
 
 of a large group of islands in the neighbourhood of the 
 
 continent. There seemed many reasons to believe that 
 
 it was part of a continent. The largeness of the River 
 
 Jordan seemed to indicate an extensive land. The high 
 
 mountains, it was argued, were evidence of the same. 
 
 They had experience of an earthquake, and it was thought 
 
 that earthquakes only happened in continents. And 
 
 it seemed to many " who had a look out from the mast- 
 
 rhead that all those lands were joined one to the others." It 
 
 (was resolved to " coast along the land to windward, that 
 
 lis to South-East and East-South-East, to make out for 
 
 fcertain whether it was mainland." Quiros hoped that 
 
 }*' a near view of the great and high chain of mountains, 
 
 ^ould reanimate all his companions ; so that, if he should 
 
 [die, they would remain with the ardour to continue the 
 
 work until it was finished." There was delay caused 
 
 by the eating of poisonous fishes, the ancestors of those 
 
 eaten one hundred and seventy years later by Cook and 
 
 his men. The dogs, cats, and pigs that ate the fish all . 
 
 died ; but the men by the use of treacle made marvellous 
 
 recovery. And on Thursday, the 8th of June, in midst Quiros sails 
 
 ^of the Southern winter, they again sailed South. South. 8th 
 
 > -^ c' June, 1606. 
 
 They did not sail far. At 3 p.m. the next day, Friday, 
 
 June the 9th, they met a strong South-East wind, against 
 which they worked in vain. The Pilots cried from one 
 ship to another, " Where are we going } " Quiros aban- 
 doned his plan and resolved to return to the port, with 
 the intention he says " of wintering there, building a strong 
 house, sowing the land, getting a better knowledge of the 
 
 ^season, and building a brigantine to send with the launch, 
 to discover what was so much desired ; it being clear 
 
 Ito all that this was necessary, for the place which seemed 
 
i8o 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Quiros tries 
 to return 
 to the Bay, 
 gth June. 
 
 The launch 
 and the 
 Almirante 
 reach 
 anchorage, 
 but the 
 Capitana 
 fails, 
 nth June. 
 
 The narra- 
 tive of Pilot 
 de Leza. 
 
 SO important to the sight, had as yet yielded but a bad 
 account." The port, which he had condemned a few 
 days before, on the ground that " there was not a chance 
 on our side," was to be made a permanent base for future 
 exploration Southward in midwinter. The sudden total 
 change of plan is perplexing, and is inadequately explained 
 by anything that is said in our narratives. We are in 
 fact becoming aware that these are not telling the whole 
 truth. 
 
 The end of the story was that the three ships re-entered 
 the Bay, that the launch and the Almirante under Torres 
 succeeded in reaching the anchorage at the head, while 
 the Capitana under Quiros failed to do so and eventually 
 sailed for home. We have diverse explanations of this 
 failure. And it will be best, first, to note the explanation 
 given by the writers on the Capitana. There is the narra- 
 tive of Quiros himself, which he wrote with the help of his 
 secretary Bermudez, who took the opportunity freely 
 to assert his own opinions. And there is the narrative 
 of the Pilot de Leza,^ who had taken the place of the trouble- 
 some Pilot now in the custody of Torres. De Leza is 
 described by Quiros as " an honest man and a good Pilot." 
 His journal seems to be a careful and an able piece of work. 
 The writer professes warm sympathy with the aims of 
 Quiros, and there seems nothing to suggest suspicion 
 that the profession is insincere. 
 
 To get to their anchorage at the head of the Bay, twenty- 
 four miles from the entrance, they had to battle against a 
 strong vSouth wind. " All Saturday and Sunday till sunset " 
 (lOth and nth June), says the Pilot, "we were within the 
 Bay, beating from one side to the other. Our launch reached 
 the port, but we did not know whether she anchored 
 or not ; for the Capitana and the Almirante were more 
 than a league and a half away. The Almirante was half 
 a league to windward of us. From this tack the two 
 ships made for the anchorage. When we were so near 
 as to be standing for it, we heard the people of the Almirante 
 apparently taking in sail and anchoring. This was at 
 ^ Quiros, ed. Markham, pp. 393-395. 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO i8i 
 
 about 9 at night. We began to sound, to find whether 
 there was bottom for us to anchor, but could find none. 
 It was dark, and there is no anchorage in all that bay, 
 except in that one corner. At this time such a strong 
 gust came from the South, ofi the land, that undoubtedly 
 we should have come to grief if we had persisted. We 
 could get no soundings, but we saw that there were lights 
 near the beach, apart from each other, and that they must 
 be our vessels. We were under small sail, and the wind 
 kept increasing in violence, so that we were only able 
 to show a fore course to it. The general " and officers 
 then decided that we should tack, and then stand for the 
 middle of the bay, as we were near a rock ; and, even if 
 we had been closer, we should not have got soundings. 
 All these ships built in Peru are bad under little sail. A 
 man aloft said he had seen the Almirante anchored to 
 windward of us, but we could never make up the distance. 
 
 I Every time we tacked we went away to leeward, the wind 
 blowing fresh. For this reason it was resolved by the same 
 persons that we should run before it, only under a spritsail, 
 striking the topmasts that we might find shelter from the 
 point to windward ; and so it was done. At dawn (June 
 1 2th) we were about four leagues out at sea, outside the 
 Bay. All night we had the lanterns burning, that the other 
 ships might follow us ; but they did not do so. We stood 
 off and on, and at the mouth of the Bay, in sight of the 
 port, the weather continuing the same, without the other 
 ships joining company, and always with the topmasts 
 struck ; and in this way we remained three days, till we 
 found ourselves nine leagues to leeward of the Cape. . . . 
 We worked from the 13th to the 19th, striving if the wind 
 would let us get into the Bay ; but by no means could 
 we succeed, for the weather not only remained the same, 
 but got worse. On the 20th, seeing that the weather 
 did not improve, the General, with the concurrence of 
 the crew, decided, if the wind permitted us, to go as far 
 as 10° 20' S. to make for Santa Cruz where we might wait 
 y for our consorts, and get in necessary supplies." ^ 
 ■■■ ^ Quiros, ed, Markham, vol. ii. pp. 394-5. 
 
 I 
 
1 82 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Such is the Pilot's story. Owing to a series of mis- 
 adventures of a purely nautical character, the Capitana, 
 in sight of port, and so near to it that those on board 
 could hear the people of the Almirante taking in sail and 
 anchoring, was blown away from it, blown into the middle 
 of the Harbour, blown out of the Harbour altogether, 
 blown out to sea, and, after spending eight days trying 
 to regain the Harbour, had to give it up, and sailed away 
 for the appointed rendezvous at Santa Cruz. 
 
 There seems nothing suspicious about the story. One 
 hundred and seventy years later Cook found himself 
 in similar difficulties in the same place. The Bay, he 
 says, is of unfathomable depth except near the shores. 
 He found three fathoms' depth close to the beach, yet 
 fifty or fifty-five two cables away. Two miles from the 
 beach there was no sounding at one hundred and seventy 
 fathoms. It was only by a lucky change of weather 
 that " we were relieved from the apprehension of being 
 forced to anchor in a great depth on a lee shore, and in 
 a dark obscure night." One feels certain that Cook 
 would find no nautical difficulty in the Pilot's story. 
 
 The narrative of Quiros,^ evidently written in this part 
 by Bermudez, and with a free hand, tells a story which is 
 substantially the same, but which has a difference or addi- 
 tion. At 3 p.m., the writer says, Quiros noted that the 
 Almirante and the launch were far ahead, and near the port. 
 He asked the reason, for the Capitana was the best ship, and 
 he was told that the other ships had met with more favour- 
 able winds, while the Capitana had used very little sail, and 
 had made very short tacks ; reasons that seemed good 
 enough. The wind grew stronger, and the night came 
 on very dark, and the Pilot ordered that, if they could 
 not reach the port, they must anchor wherever it was 
 possible. The Almirante and the launch appeared to 
 have anchored, and had lit their lanterns as leading marks 
 for the Capitana. Soundings were taken, and they found 
 the bottom at thirty fathoms, not being an arquebus 
 shot from the port. But the wind came down in a gust. 
 1 Quiros, ed. Markham, pp. 278-281. 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESP IR ITU SANTO 183 
 
 Sails were taken in, and the ship fell away. And " the 
 Chief Pilot, exaggerating very much the importance of 
 being unable to find bottom, together with the darkness 
 of the night, the strong wind, the numerous lights he 
 saw, without being able to judge with certainty which 
 were those of the two ships, said to the Captain that he 
 was unable to reach the port. The Captain commended 
 his zeal and vigilance." 
 
 The passage seems to me to suggest composite author- 
 ship. The story is essentially the same as that told by 
 the Pilot, and, like his, gives nautical reasons that are 
 apparently sufficient to explain the failure. And Quiros 
 explicitl}^ praises the Pilot's "zeal and vigilance." And 
 yet, in the same sentence, he blames him for " exaggerating 
 very much the importance of being unable to find the 
 bottom." The phrase rouses suspicion that it expresses 
 the mind, not of the Captain, but of the secretary. And 
 the suspicion becomes a certainty when we read what 
 follows : — " There was one " (evidently Bermudez himself) 
 "who said, and made it clearly to be understood, that Bermudez 
 more diligence might easily have been shown to anchor, the^hip 
 or to remain without leaving the Bay ; and that, with could have 
 only the spritsail braced up, she might have run for shelter anchorage, 
 under the Cape to windward. It was also said that they 
 went to sleep." 
 
 Next morning, the Quiros-Bermudez narrative continues, 
 the Captain asked the Pilot what was the position of 
 the ship. He replied that she was to leeward of the Cape, 
 and the Captain told him to make sail that she might 
 not make leeway. The Pilot answered that the sea was 
 too high and against them, and that the bows driving 
 into the water would cause her timbers to open, though 
 he would do his best. " / say " (thus indignantly Bermudez 
 breaks into the narrative), " / say that this was a great 
 misfortune, owing to the Captain being disabled by ill- 
 ness on this and other occasions, when the Pilots wasted 
 time, obliging him to believe what they said, to take what 
 they gave, measured out as they pleased ! " Attempts 
 were made, the writer admits, during this and the two 
 
resolution. 
 
 184 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 following days, to re-enter the Bay. But they failed. 
 The wind did not go down. They lost ground, so that 
 they found themselves eighty miles to leeward of the 
 port," all looking at those high mountains with sorrow 
 at not being able to get near them." In vain they " dili- 
 gently sought to shelter behind an island past which 
 they drove one hundred and twenty miles North-West 
 of the Bay." " We were obliged to give it up, owing 
 to the wind and currents, and on the next day we found 
 ourselves at sea, out of sight of land." 
 A want of The narrative then gives the reasons which induced 
 " the sorrowful captain " to abandon the enterprise and 
 make for vSanta Cruz. " He considered the strong contrary 
 winds, the very threatening weather, the fact that their 
 present position was unknown, that the ship must need 
 repairs, the necessity for going to a place where she could 
 be got into harbour or careened on a coast. He had very 
 prominently in his mind that, at the first difficulty or danger, 
 there would be a want of resolution or of management, 
 or of the desire to apply a remedy ; for which reason, it 
 might be said with truth, that he was without pilots on 
 whom he could rely, and that from some other persons 
 there was little to be expected or hoped. Then there 
 were his own infirmities ; so that altogether the case was 
 one of evident danger." The view of Bermudez, then, 
 was that the failure was due to the fault of the Pilots, 
 as well as the fault of the weather : that the conduct of, 
 the Pilots showed a want of resolution or management, 
 and especially of fervent desire to apply a remedy. Th 
 Knights of the Holy Ghost were, after all, what they had 
 been before they received their crosses : men " far from 
 having the valorous minds which ought to animate the' 
 searchers for unknown lands, to uphold their original motiv 
 and perform heroic deeds." 
 The^ opinion Next, let US look at the letter which Torres, after the 
 famous passage of the Strait, wrote to the King from Manila 
 on the 1 2th of July, 1607. Throughout the story Torres 
 had been champion of the Southward course. He tells 
 in this letter that he had handed to Quiros a formal 
 
 of Torres. 
 
AUSTRTALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 185 
 
 written protest against the Northward course taken by 
 the troublesome Pilot at 26°. Ultimately he had persuaded 
 Quiros to hand this troublesome Pilot into his own custody, 
 and he expresses his regret that Quiros had refused to 
 " do anything further to him or others, though I strongly 
 importuned him to punish or give me leave to punish 
 them." Torres' opinion was that this adverse spirit still 
 persisted on the Capitana. It had shown itself when 
 they had turned Southward from Taumaco ; "a certain 
 person from the Almirante shouted that they should go 
 in search of Santa Cruz." It was held, says Torres, that 
 " as it was winter, we could not exceed the Latitude 
 of 14°, though my opinion was always directly contrary." 
 They had in fact sailed to the Harbour of St. Philip and 
 
 I St. James in 15°. But the opinion of Torres was, that the 
 malignant party had determined that in midwinter they 
 should sail no further South. This seemed to him the Quiros had 
 I 
 
 >bvious explanation of the conduct of the Capitana, as compelled 
 een from the Almirante on that dark stormy Sunday to sail home. 
 
 night. " From within the Bay," he writes, " and from 
 the most sheltered part of it, the Capitana departed at 
 one hour past midnight." Things were again as they had 
 been when the fatal change had been made at 26°. Once 
 more the sick and unhappy captain had been " made to 
 turn out of his course," made to sail North when his duty 
 was to sail South. Such was the opinion of Torres, written 
 without opportunity of conversation with Quiros. 
 
 One of those who sailed with Torres was a man named of^Die^cTde^ 
 Diego de Prado y Tobar. On the 24th and 25th of December, Prado y 
 161 3, he wrote letters to the King, enclosing very impor- ° ^^' 
 tant maps. These letters were WTitten by one who had heard 
 the story told by some who had sailed on the Capitana. 
 The writer describes Quiros as an entirely incompetent 
 person of low-class Portuguese origin. The only dis- 
 coveries of " this impostor " were " some reefs and small 
 islands," from which he was driven by the mutiny of 
 his crew. " The wind coming rather fresh from the South, 
 at eight o'clock in the night the mutineers effected their 
 evil intention ; and it being dark, and far from us, they 
 
1 86 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A mutiny 
 against a 
 lunatic. 
 
 The doubt 
 Dr. Arias. 
 
 What was 
 probably 
 the truth. 
 
 passed astern, without that talker seeing it, for he was 
 in his cabin aft. Next morning the land they had left 
 
 ■ was out of sight. He was not listened to, and they told 
 him to keep in his cabin, and hold his tongue. He thus 
 saved his life, and they landed at Acapulco. His own 
 commander told the Marquis of Montes Claros (Viceroy 
 of Mexico) what sort of a man he was, and that he might 
 as well be confined as a lunatic. I know not what respect 
 the Spaniards of Peru can have for one who was but yester- 
 day a clerk of a ship of merchants, and a Portuguese. . . . 
 Such low and mendacious fellows ought to be of no account. 
 He is a liar and a fraud. By his fault he did not discover 
 the Crown of the Antarctic Pole, though we were so near 
 it. His men treated him as the man he is fit to be, of the 
 Rua Nova in Lisbon, in whose mouth there is nought 
 but lies, bragging and dishonesty. He is fit to be clerk 
 in a merchant ship ; and he was the cause of the Adelan- 
 tado Mendana being lost with his fleet." 
 
 of This discord of voices seems to have left public opinion 
 in the uncertainty that is expressed in the words of Dr. 
 Arias, an Advocate of Santiago in Chili, who, after the 
 death of Quiros, wrote a memorial vehemently urging 
 the King to persevere in the great mission in which Quiros, 
 nearly succeeding, had failed. " For certain reasons' 
 (they ought to have been very weighty), which hitherto:^ 
 have not been ascertained with entire certainty, Pedro 
 Fernandez de Quiros left the Almirante and the Launch 
 in the said Bay, and himself sailed with his ship the Capitana 
 for Mexico." Even those most heartily in sympathy 
 with the aims of the mission were puzzled and offended. 
 It is impossible to discover the correct detail of the 
 story. But certain facts stand evident. Quiros was 
 desperately ill. Though a skilful Pilot he was a weak 
 commander. To Spanish soldiers and seamen he was 
 at best " that talker." To them the voyage was a proved 
 failure. There were no King Solomon's gold mines. 
 The soil was good, but the natives were bad. Quiros 
 himself admitted that " there was not a chance on our 
 side," and that " the place which seemed so important 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 187 
 
 to the sight had as yet yielded but a bad account." Yet 
 he proposed to make a settlement at this place, as a 
 base for exploration Southward in midwinter ! No doubt 
 the majority were opposed to the proposal and eager 
 to defeat it. There seems no reason to believe that Quiros 
 was betrayed by the Pilot. The nautical explanation of 
 the failure to get to anchorage seems quite adequate and 
 acceptable. But when the ship was driven by South winds 
 out of the sight of the island, and the question had to be 
 considered, what was now the best plan, it becomes easy 
 to believe that the way was determined not by the Captain 
 but by the crew. No doubt men like Quiros and Bermudez 
 heartily wished to return, and to carry through the project. 
 But the counter-arguments were strong. There were 
 his " own infirmities." The ship needed repair. Any 
 further voyage into the unknown of South and West would 
 be dangerous in the highest degree. It was, no doubt, im- 
 possible to compel a mutinous crew in these circumstances 
 to undertake it. There would be " want of resolution, 
 or of management, or of the desire to apply a remedy." 
 In short, Don Quixote must acquiesce in the tyranny 
 of facts. 
 
 The narrative of Quiros becomes a narrative of " sor- 
 rowful discourses." He discusses, with his sympathetic The causes of 
 but critical friend, the failure and its causes. He ^^^^"r^- 
 deplores the delay at Callao, which had so disarranged 
 his plan that at the last " only half an hour took it from 
 his hands." Then, going deeper, he attributes the failure 
 to his own sin : — " he was not worthy to see the end of 
 a work in which those who loved righteousness would 
 be well employed." Bermudez seems to have urged 
 that Quiros had made a mistake when he had refused 
 to punish the wicked. Quiros replied that " had he done 
 so he would have been discontented and unquiet all the 
 rest of his life." Bermudez argued that the criminals, 
 whom he had spared, would speak evil of his person and 
 services and would ruin the cause he loved so well." " It 
 would be great cowardice," answered Quiros, " to fear 
 for the truth on account of this." " He well knew the 
 
1 88 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The 
 
 Franciscan 
 
 Gospel. 
 
 " A 
 
 beginning 
 with great 
 foundation. 
 
 Not falcons 
 but p2licans. 
 
 bad recompense of men, and never hoped for good report, 
 nor would waste a single moment in such nonsense, needing 
 time for more important matters." 
 
 These "more important matters" were the belief and 
 practice of Christianity. " To pardon ingrates and enemies 
 without having cause to do so, to do them good by force, 
 is a very great vengeance." " He had come out of this 
 first attempt without blood having been shed, though 
 he had bought this result very dear, and it would cost 
 him more hereafter." And thus he had made sure that 
 " over the bones of so many martyrs would rise a good 
 work with good reputation in the world, w^hich was his 
 chief desire." Such had been the aim of " many valorous 
 prudent captains, mirrors into which he was looking 
 day and night with desire to imitate them." 
 
 For, in the midst of " sorrowful discourses " came gleams 
 of hope and faith : — " discourses more consolatory." 
 The voyage had ended in personal failure and humiliation, 
 but the Cause for which he had striven had not failed. 
 He had discovered, and had taken possession of, good 
 and populous lands that seemed without end ; and this 
 was " a beginning with very great foundation." The 
 completion of a task so glorious could not be achieved 
 in one voyage, nor in three, even with very efficient help, 
 and with men who would work with the same love for 
 the Cause as the Captain felt. Torres, he believed, 
 would do all in his power to discover more lands. But, 
 for the present, Quiros, " being about to die," sought 
 strength in depicting in his " Will " the vision that he had 
 seen, and that made his life ; — the vision of the Land 
 of the Holy Spirit in the South. It is to be a land very 
 different from the Spanish colonies in America, where 
 Spanish falcons have grasped the people with cruel talons, 
 and with fierce and sharp beaks tear them into two thousand 
 pieces : — " it is money, I say, that they want, and more 
 money, though it be torn from men's entrails." In the 
 New Land of the South, Spaniards are not to be falcons 
 but " pelicans who first tear their own flesh," and so feed 
 their spiritual children with pure and clean love. Thus, 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 189 
 
 in Austrialia of the Holy Spirit, will be "nests without 
 brambles, nor any other kind of thorn, refuges, and pleasant 
 abiding-places," where will be " plenty for all." Its 
 people will do works that are honourable and beautiful. 
 " God and His Majesty will be served in all those regions, 
 and the natives will be made to prosper as is just and 
 
 Part of Map in Dutch Translation of Quiros's Memorial. 
 (Amsterdam, 1612.) 
 
 right ; and this will be my reward." Thus, with grotesque 
 complication of phrases, the Captain gave in his " Will " 
 the ideal of Franciscan Spain. 
 
 Meanwhile they were sailing North from Santa Cruz. The voyage 
 When they reached the Latitude of that island, io° 30', *° Mexico, 
 no land was to be seen, and they did not know whether 
 Santa Cruz was to the East or to the West. There was 
 talk of sailing West. But Quiros explained that this 
 course would bring them to " the Southern side of New 
 Guinea, w^hence it would be a bad time of the year 
 to make a voyage, being the season of South-West 
 
190 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 gales." ^ Some wished to sail for the Philippines, others to 
 " seek employment in the porcelains or silks of China " ; but 
 in the end all agreed to make for Mexico by " the customary 
 navigation." God gave them rain, and they had plenty 
 of biscuit. Off Cape St. Lucar they stood to arms, 
 and had look-out men at the mast-head ; for it was there 
 that " the Englishman, Thomas Cavendish, robbed the 
 Santa Anna'' ; but they passed in peace. At the mouth 
 of the Gulf of California they encountered a storm so 
 prodigious that hope was abandoned. The Captain, 
 ill in bed, in great haste ordered the two natives to be 
 brought to him. A Franciscan Father asked whether 
 they wished to become Christians. They assented very 
 fervently, and, when they had recited the Creed, the Father 
 baptised them, calling them Pedro and Pablo. Quiros 
 was their Godfather, and embraced them, with his eyes 
 full of tears, thanking God for " this small fruit, small 
 as compared with my desires but really great, for they 
 are two souls newly baptised, and brought into the 
 bosom of our Catholic Church." Pedro and Pablo were 
 very devout and constant in their prayers, with their 
 hands joined, and, when the ship appeared to be sinking, 
 they cried " Jesus ! Mary ! " making the sign of the cross 
 towards the sea. The ship ran on, and hope arose. " Fear 
 nothing," said someone, " for such a work is done that 
 God will add what is needful to save the ship and crew." 
 The fury of the storm passed, and it began to go down. 
 On the 2 1st of October they came to the Mexican port 
 of Navidad, weary of " always seeing the same faces." 
 A Franciscan " I say no wonder," comments Quiros, " if fathers tire 
 nump , ^£ ^j^gjj. gQj^g^ brothers and friends quarrel, and a husband 
 sometimes comes to abhor his dear wife." " Satan did 
 not neglect to sow bad and mischievous seeds in this port." 
 There were quarrels even with Franciscans, and unhappy 
 stories were told to the Viceroy. On the 25th of November 
 they came to Acapulco. Here the guardian of the Convent 
 of Barefoot Franciscans obtained their request that in 
 
 1 See map of Espiritu Santo in Dutch translation (161 2) of Quiros's 
 Memorial. See^p. 189. 
 
AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 191 
 
 the Church might be placed the cross of orange wood, 
 which had been set up in the Bay of St. PhiHp and St. 
 James. And, on the day of the Conception of the Mother 
 of God, the Captain with great solemnity took the cross 
 from the ship to the seashore, where the Franciscans 
 received it on their knees with much devotion, and, forming 
 procession, bore it to the Convent Church, Pedro and 
 Pablo walking on each side with lighted torches. Here 
 it was fastened to the High Altar, with ringings of bells, 
 sound of trumpets, and discharge of guns. " All the 
 people showed their joy, and not less did the captain, 
 although he had desired to go to Rome, and put this 
 :ross in the hands of the Pontiff, and tell him that it was 
 the first that had been raised in those new lands in the 
 lame of the Catholic Church. He wished to bring the 
 latives as first fruit. It happened that events robbed 
 lim of his triumph ; but he gave many thanks to God, 
 through whose goodness he hopes to return the cross to 
 ^he place whence it came." 
 
 As had been foreseen, the wicked, whom Quiros had 
 refused to punish, wrote to the Viceroy of Mexico, and 
 " sowed many letters all over the land, trying to misre- 
 present and discredit the expedition." Quiros did his Don Quixote 
 best to satisfy people, proclaiming his truthfulness and ^°"^^^^°"^®- 
 zeal. He was kindly received, he says, by the Viceroy 
 and others. But their kindness did not extend to the 
 supply of his necessities ; and he departed " without 
 possessing a single dollar to set me on the road." He 
 owed his passage to the kindness of friends, and landed 
 penniless at Cadiz. " I sold my bed," he writes, " to reach 
 San Lucar, where I pawned something else, which enabled 
 me to go to Seville. There I sold all I had left to sustain 
 me." With further help from friends he arrived at Madrid 
 the 9th of October, 1607. He had two maravedis in pocket, 
 and he gave them to a beggar. Don Quixote was at home. 
 
 Some half year after Quiros came to Madrid, news News from 
 was brought that put new hopes into his heart — news T°^^^^- 
 that Torres had arrived at Ternate, and had said that 
 he had coasted along land for eight hundred leagues ! 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF TORRES 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Voyages of Quiros, Markham (Hakluyt Society). 
 Collingridge's Discovery of Australia. 
 
 Torres obeys At midnight on Sunday the nth of June, Torres, at 
 instructions, ^j^^^^or at the head of the Bay, had seen the Capitana 
 blown through the Bay and out of sight. Next morning 
 he put to sea to seek her, but all efforts failed. It seeme( 
 evident that she " did not sail on the proper course, nor 
 with good intention." The weak Captain had once more 
 been mastered by his crew, and had been compelled to 
 abandon the plan. But Torres still had the Almirante, 
 which was " a good ship," and also the launch, and he 
 determined to obey the instructions that had been given by 
 Quiros at the beginning of his voyage. These had ordered 
 that, when in this part of the world, " he will steer South- 
 West as far as 20°, thence North- West to 4°, and on that 
 parallel he is to steer West in search of New Guinea," 
 and so by way of the North coast of New Guinea to Manila. 
 Torres determined to obey those instructions, " although 
 contrary to the inclination of many, I may say of the 
 greater part ; but my temper was different from that 
 of Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros." 
 Slightnessof The voyage that followed is one of the most remarkable 
 formation. ^^ history, and it is unfortunate that our information 
 is so very little. Our main authority is the letter which 
 Torres wrote to the King of vSpain from Manila on the 
 1 2th of July, 1607. He complains that the " Royal 
 Audience of Manila have not hitherto thought proper 
 
 192 
 
 our 
 in 
 
^ 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF TORRES • 193 
 
 to give me dispatch for completing the voyage as Your 
 Majesty commanded " : and he is therefore unable to 
 be " the first," as he had hoped, " to give Your Majesty 
 a relation of the discovery." So he sends one of the 
 Franciscans, "who, having been an eye-witness, will give 
 a full relation to Your Majesty." And he sends with him 
 an " account," which is written in vigorous phrase, but Torres' 
 with extreme brevity. The story of the voyage from the 
 Harbour to the West end of New Guinea is told in three 
 pages of modern print. " I do not make a relation of 
 labours and victories to Your Majesty, for I hope to give 
 t at large." 
 
 This is the last word of Torres. He wrote also a letter 
 Quiros, to which the latter refers in vaguest terms. 
 And no doubt he wrote letters to others ; but, if so, these 
 have disappeared. The best guess seems to be that he 
 died soon afterwards. In December 161 3 one of his crew, 
 Diego de Prado, wrote from Goa to the King of Spain, 
 enclosing four maps of places visited by Torres ; maps which Maps, 
 add a little interesting geographic detail to Torres' bald 
 narrative, but do not touch the main problems.^ He refers 
 to "the map of discoveries," which he had sent before, but 
 this map, which would have been invaluable, has vanished. 
 Our only other evidence, I think, is a slight reference in 
 the pamphlet written by Dr. Arias shortly after 1 6 14. Arias. 
 
 Torres waited in the Harbour fifteen days, and then, Torres sails 
 with reluctant crew, struck South-West. He sought *° ^^ * 
 to sail round the "island"; but the season and strong 
 currents would not permit it, though he " ran along a 
 great part of it," and evidently saw enough to make him 
 feel certain that it was an " island." He saw " very 
 large mountains, many ports, and all was well watered 
 with rivers." Then he sailed South-West, in the teeth of 
 difficulties that should make us think more kindly of 
 the failure of Quiros to persuade his men to face them, 
 " We had at this time nothing but bread and water ; it 
 was the height of winter, with sea, wind, and ill-will against 
 us. All this did not prevent me from reaching the men- 
 
 ^ These maps are reproduced by Markham and Collingridge. 
 W.A. N 
 
194 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 tioned Latitude (20°), which I passed one degree, and 
 would have gone further if the weather had permitted ; 
 for the ship was good. It was proper to act in this manner, 
 for these are not voyages performed every day, nor could 
 Your Majesty otherwise be properly informed." But 
 there was " no sign of land." He had not quite hit the 
 coast of Queensland. 
 Torres sails The next instruction had been to sail " North-West 
 the*south°^ to 4°, and thence West in search of New Guinea " ; a 
 side of New phrase which seems to suggest that Spanish knowledge 
 Guinea. ^£ ^^^ North coast of New Guinea did not extend South- 
 
 ward of 4°. He now, therefore " stood back to the North- 
 West." Arias, writing soon after 1614, and using we 
 know not what information, says that Torres " put back 
 to the North-West and North-East up to 14°, in which 
 he sighted a very extensive coast which he took for that 
 of New Guadalcanal,^ and thence turned Westward for 
 New Guinea." Torres himself says nothing about this. 
 His statement is : — " From hence (21°) I stood back to 
 the North- West to 1 1 J° ; there we fell in with the beginning 
 of New Guinea. I could not weather the East point, 
 so I coasted along to the Westward on the South side." 
 He found himself compelled to seek a way to Manila by 
 the South of New Guinea. 
 Torres The reticence of Torres is exasperating. Those who 
 
 have read more recent stories of navigations in the tangles 
 Eastward of New Guinea realise that he must have been 
 in a position of difficulty that could hardly be surpassed. 
 Read the story of Bougainville, and the story of Moresby, 
 and you wonder by what miraculous chance Torres found 
 his way through those seas. Yet he says not one word 
 of complaint ! And, when he " coasted along to the 
 Westward on the South side " what did he expect to 
 find } Not one word exists to indicate that man had ever 
 sailed through the Strait to the South of New Guinea. 
 Mercator and Ortelius had drawn a strait between New 
 Guinea and their Magellanican continent ; but Mercator 
 had partially covered the strait with a pattern, and both 
 ^ The largest of the Solomons. 
 
 Strait. 
 
THE VOYAGE OF TORRES 195 
 
 geographers had said that its existence was " uncertain," 
 giving no word of argument either for belief, or for un- 
 belief. Wytfliet had said there was a strait, and had 
 drawn it ; but again without one word of evidence. Yet 
 Torres simply ''coasted along to Westward on the South 
 side," without any reference either to strait expected 
 or to strait found. And he sailed through this strait 
 • — a strait in which, Moresby says, " a ship is never safe out 
 of the beaten track, the lurking dangers are so many" ^ — 
 and all we get from him are a few bald phrases about 
 " many islands " and " a reef of shoals," and " great 
 currents." 
 
 It seems difficult to draw the route of Torres with any The route of 
 exactness. His few sentences seem extremely obscure, T°^^^^- 
 ,and some of them seem irreconcilable with the modern 
 Lap. The facts that we know certainly are those given, 
 not by the narrative of Torres, but by the maps sent 
 by de Prado. On the 1 8th of July, after battling for 
 five days with extensive and very dangerous reefs, Torres 
 anchored in the Bay at the extreme South of New Guinea, 
 which Moresby visited in 1873, and called Jenkins Bay. 
 Torres called the land " the land of Buenaventura," and 
 he, or his artist, drew a map the features of which can 
 be easily recognised.^ On the lOth of August they anchored 
 eighty miles Westward in a Bay which they called the 
 
 ^ Moresby writes : " Torres Straits are about two hundred miles 
 long with a least breadth of eighty miles between Cape York and New 
 Guinea. At this part the depth of water nowhere exceeds twelve 
 fathoms, but elsewhere in the Straits the depth is somewhat greater, 
 but rarely exceeds twenty fathoms. The entire surface of the Straits 
 is strewn with coral reefs and sandbanks and islands, the larger of which 
 are of volcanic origin. The smaller are low white islands of coral 
 formation, scarcely raised ten feet above the sea level. West of Cape 
 York a series of lofty volcanic islands, succeeded by lines of coral 
 reefs, with very narrow channels for ships between, lie like giant stepping- 
 stones between Queensland and New Guinea, suggesting the idea that 
 New Guinea and Australia were one land." " A ship is never safe 
 in Torres Straits when out of the beaten track, the lurking dangers 
 are so many. The changes made during heavy gales in the shape of 
 rapid shifts and other accumulations of sand defy calculation, added 
 to which the sea is so discoloured by the New Guinea rivers flowing 
 down that such dangers are made imperceptible." 
 
 t 
 
 * See Collingridge and Markham. 
 
196 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Bay of San Lorenzo ; the modern Bay of I'Orangerie. 
 It is "very beautiful and pleasant," says the map maker, 
 " the best land and the most fertile that has yet been 
 discovered" ; and he drew a map of something that looks 
 like a Spanish town laid out in streets. On the 1 8th 
 of October they were in a Bay in 3°, 40', one thousand 
 four hundred and eighty miles from their first landfall, 
 which they called the Bay of San Pedro de Arlanca. It 
 is the modern Triton Bay. 
 Torres silent These facts are clear and exact. The trouble is to 
 Australia understand exactly how Torres got from the second of 
 these places to the third, and exactly what were his re- 
 flections as he made the first recorded passage of this 
 most dangerous Strait. It is difficult for the student to 
 blame too severely the baldness and the apparent confusion 
 of the narrative. Here at last is a man who definitely 
 saw the Southern Continent. He had sailed in search 
 of it under a captain whose soul blazed with passionate 
 desire of its glories. Quiros, the Moses of this great enter- 
 prise, had seemed to get vision of the continent, and then, 
 " for lack of half an hour," had sailed home with " sorrow- 
 ful discourses." And now here was Torres, the Joshua 
 of our story, actually in touch with the Promised Land 
 — and he has not a word to say about it ! His thought 
 runs always Northward. By adding his figures we gather 
 that he has sailed along a coast on this side extending 
 two thousand, four hundred and forty miles. He has 
 nothing of interest to say even about this huge country 
 save that at the Western end are " Mahomedan Moors," 
 who " said that in all the land there was much gold, and 
 other good things, such as pepper and nutmegs." About 
 things seen on the South he says no word that even 
 Quiros could use as argument for further enterprise. He 
 writes as one who neither expected a continent, nor saw 
 one. 
 
 The only passage that can possibly refer to Australia 
 is a very confused string of sentences which seem to tell 
 that in 9° Torres was obliged by " many shoals and great 
 currents" to "sail out South-West in that depth to 11° 
 
THE VOYAGE OF TORRES 197 
 
 S. Lat. There is all over it an archipelago of islands '' Very large 
 without number, by which we passed, and at the end of the^So^uth- 
 the nth degree the bank became more shoal. There ward." 
 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." Apparently these 
 words describe the passage of the straits, and one must 
 imagine that among the very large islands to the Southward 
 was Cape York. The inexplicable marvel is that there 
 is no word to hint that a continent was seen, or even 
 looked for ! And yet Torres had seen the maps of Mercator 
 ^and Ortelius and Wytfliet, and he had journeyed with 
 
 luiros ! 
 
 Thus unsatisfyingly Torres wrote his account of the Torres' 
 [first recorded voyage through the Strait in 1606. The generally 
 ^second recorded voyage was that by Cook in 1770. The unknown 
 [account of Torres was not published by the Spaniards, ^^ ^^ °" 
 
 md the fact that he had passed through the Strait was 
 forgotten. Spain's day of exploration had reached its 
 sunset. Why point new paths to the Eriglish and the 
 Dutch : The voyagers of those nations had no knowledge 
 of Torres' exploit. To them, for another century and 
 a half, the existence of the Strait remained as " uncertain " 
 as it had been to Mercator and Ortelius. Then in the 
 1760's Alexander Dalrymple obtained a copy of the pamph- 
 let of Arias, saw that a strait had been passed, and that 
 it ought to be called by Torres' name. When Cook sailed 
 on his first great voyage in 1 769, his passenger, Mr. Joseph 
 Banks, had been supplied by Dalrymple with this informa- 
 tion, and it fell to Cook ""o prove with decisiveness the 
 truthfulness of his predecessor, and to give the detail 
 which this predecessor had omitted. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SPANISH STORY ENDS 
 
 Quiros QuiROS had arrived in Madrid, his two maravedis in 
 
 Mem^ i 1 pocket for a moment, on the 9th of October, 1 607. Poor 
 in purse, he was richer than ever in hope, "a Job in poverty 
 but not in patience." He was " an insignificant ant," 
 he would be content with the wages of a cabin boy, but 
 his cause, Hke Milton's, was the cause of God and of His 
 Church.^ During the next seven years he remained in 
 Spain in poverty and in debt — possessing not one penny, 
 and owing two thousand five hundred dollars, he somewhere 
 says — and he. wrote endless Memorials, imploring that he 
 might be sent to complete the mission of which he had 
 made " beginning with such good foundation." " During 
 the first eleven days he had not money to buy ink and paper. 
 He wrote his first Memorial on the fly-leaves of a pamphlet. 
 He printed it by selling his clothes. To finish the second 
 he sold his bedding ; for the third he pawned the Royal 
 Banner under which he had taken possession of Espiritu 
 Santo." 2 When money failed, he wrote copies, and dis- 
 tributed them among Court officials. 
 The great- Altogether he wrote fifty Memorials, and drew more 
 
 richness of than two hundred maps. All the maps have disappeared, 
 the New In the Dutch translation of one of the Memorials, however, 
 South. there is a map, which, whether drawn by Quiros or not, 
 
 seems to represent the geography of the new discovery 
 
 ^ " Neither do I fear those dark and stormy nights, looking in the 
 midst of real dangers for undiscovered lands ; and be it known that I 
 also love courts and populous cities, and I give it up all for the service 
 of God only." 
 
 ^ Markham, p. xxx. 
 
 198 
 
THE SPANISH STORY ENDS 199 
 
 as it appeared to his mind. ^ Of the Memorials, eight remain. 
 Two of them were translated into English, French, German, 
 Dutch, and Latin, and were the chief source of information 
 during this period about the exploits and the hopes of 
 Quiros. In them, with abundant detail and endless 
 repetition, he insists on the various branches of the great 
 argument. He had discovered either a continent, or 
 islands that were very near a continent — " never have 
 there been found inhabited islands that are not very near 
 a continent." This continent would be " another New 
 World," like America, just as great and with prospects 
 of becoming greater. He himself had seen silver and 
 pearls ^ — statements that one cannot explain ! And further 
 facts had been learned from Pedro, the captured native 
 of Taumaco. Before he died, a saved and happy Chris- 
 tian, " led to the gift of God's holy Glory," he had made 
 marvellous statements concerning great lands to the South 
 of his islands ; lands where were large towns, " in- 
 _ habited by people as white as ours," a country of very 
 high mountains and large rivers, abounding in spices 
 and silver and gigantic pearls produced by oysters so 
 huge that, if the hand is put inside the shell, and the shell 
 shuts, there is no hand, and the oyster must be captured 
 by means of a stick with a noose of rope at the end. These 
 are strong reasons for believing that " in that hidden 
 quarter of the globe are very large provinces, all full of 
 many and of various peoples." The proof is completed 
 by the letters of Torres, which, says Quiros, " gave me 
 great pleasure, and incited me to send in more Memorials." 
 The voyage of Torres, he curiously argues, " establishes 
 the greatness of the land newly discovered " ; curiously, 
 because all that Torres had discovered was that New 
 Guinea had a South coast, and that there was a way to 
 it through a very difficult strait. The length of this 
 New World, Quiros now declares, "is as much as all 
 Europe and Asia Minor, as far -as the Caspian and Persia, 
 
 ^ See map, p. i8g. 
 
 2 He writes : — " the silver that by good chance I saw in that land, 
 as well as samples of pearls." 
 
200 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 with all the islands of the Mediterranean and the Ocean 
 which encompasses, including the two islands of England 
 and Ireland. That hidden part is one fourth of the Globe, 
 and is of such capacity that double the Kingdoms and 
 provinces of which Your Majesty is at present the Lord 
 could fit into it." The lands that have been seen " touch 
 the Equator," and they " may perhaps go as far as 90°." 
 They will be lands " antipodal to the greater part of Africa, 
 to all Europe, and to the greater Asia." Quiros had seen 
 silver and pearls, and Torres says that he saw gold — state- 
 ments again that need explanation ! Mace, pepper, and 
 ginger had been seen. There were accounts of cinnamon. 
 There must be clove islands on the line of Ternate. And 
 " the industry of the Spaniards will make the products 
 of the country better and more profitable, than what 
 is raised in Peru or Mexico." 
 
 Quiros did his best to make this territorial argument 
 attractive. But his own mind ran elsewhere. He loved 
 the New World not for its gold and its spices, but for its 
 " mine of souls." He urged exploration as part of Spain's 
 duty to Christ. A century earlier a treaty had been 
 mediated by Christ's Vicar between Christ and the King 
 of Spain. Christ had granted the New Worlds to Spain 
 on one strict condition : the condition that to these 
 New Worlds Spain would be evangelist. Christ had 
 fulfilled His Word ; and the boast of Spain was that the 
 whole globe did not suffice. Possession of America should 
 have rendered the King undisputed Master of the World, 
 able to make the Church of God triumphant over Turk 
 and Moor and all her enemies, in such wise that " all 
 round the world God would be known and adored by all 
 his creatures." And what had Spain done ? She had de- 
 stroyed America. She had not saved the natives, but had 
 exterminated them. She had almost sinned away her soul. 
 Yet now God offered one more opportunity. "All that 
 has been lost in America may be gained in Austrialia 
 del Espiritu Santo. It seems as if God kept the better 
 and richer lands to the last, and for a man of such good 
 intent. Hasten, my Lord, hasten the measures for this 
 
 I 
 
THE SPANISH STORY ENDS 201 
 
 great and necessitous enterprise." For the need is urgent. 
 There is fear lest Dutch and Enghsh " pirates " enter 
 the new discoveries, settle there, prey on the Spanish 
 possessions, sow false doctrines and bring everything 
 to ruin. " My Lord, this is a great work. For the 
 Devil wages such mortal war, and it is not well that he 
 should be able to do so much. Your Majesty being the 
 Defender of the Right." 
 
 The Spanish Councils read these Memorials. But The 
 they had to consider also other evidence. Quiros' fellow ^^^"s^^^- 
 voyagers were telling a different story. Torres wrote 
 that, in the late voyage, the captain had been unable to 
 deal with mutiny. Seamen in Mexico were saying that 
 he was no better than a lunatic. A man named Iturbe, 
 j^who had been accountant on the Capitana, wrote to Madrid 
 :hat the failure had been due to Quiros ; he had disobeyed 
 »he instructions to sail South ; the Knighthood of the 
 
 [oly Ghost was an absurdity ; Quiros was wholly unfit 
 to command. 
 The Spanish Councillors were a good deal impressed. 
 
 |uiros is "not a very reliable man," said one of them, 
 '* though he has the idea in his head that he is going to be 
 a second Columbus, and that is his affliction." ^ " Though 
 Quiros possesses both knowledge and talent," said another, 
 " he lacks all the other qualities so necessary to accomphsh 
 success." And the opinion was not far wrong. The Council 
 had also other arguments to consider. The reports of 
 their debates and papers, which still exist, show that 
 the minds of Spanish statesmen were beset by the feeling 
 that Spain's day of exploration was done. The state- The 
 ments of Quiros, that the existence of a great and golden Argument 
 continent had been proved, were very open to criticism. 
 But suppose they were true ! To whom would this great 
 and golden continent belong } Certainly not to the 
 Spaniards, who now sailed the Pacific in fear of the guns 
 of English and Dutch pirates. In view especially of the 
 Dutch danger, said some Councillors, "it will be well 
 
 ^ Columbus's obstinacy, wrote Quiros, was " not so much as mine, 
 nor so great his work." 
 
202 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 to occupy immediately the lands discovered by Quiros, 
 even if only by trading factories." But people knew 
 that such trading factories would soon be welcome refresh- 
 ment to the heretic enemy. The Devil, complains Quiros, 
 is " a very old and experienced soldier, expert in all arts 
 and sciences, shrewd in making what is really bad appear 
 to be in the best interests of the State." And the Devil 
 made it appear to the Spanish Councils that it would 
 be better to spend Spanish money, if there was any, in 
 completing the exploration of Mexico and Peru. And 
 there was common sense in the Devil's opinion. 
 
 On the other hand, Quiros must be treated with respect. 
 After all, he possessed " knowledge and skill." He 
 appeared " very discontented and suspicious " ; and 
 it was feared — a strange fear ! — that he would enter the 
 Delay and service of Dutch or English. It might be well to tell 
 ^^"*' him that his argument had much weight, but that the 
 time was not opportune, that it might be possible to attend 
 to the matter in two or three years ; that meanwhile 
 His Majesty would enquire whether the Viceroy of Peru 
 had ships to spare ; and that for the present he would 
 be given a well-paid appointment at court. 
 
 So Quiros was kept waiting. Most of the Ministers, 
 he says, " received the Memorials well, and seemed to 
 value them, but they did not despatch any faster. My 
 ill-luck was so great that I could never get anything settled. 
 I procured an interview with His Majesty, showed my 
 papers, maps, and sea charts, explained what were the 
 lands I proposed to seek, and their grandeur, and related 
 the events of the voyage I had already made. Having 
 seen all my demonstrations with interest, he rose " — and 
 Quiros was assured that all would be well. 
 
 Finally in 1614 Quiros was ordered to go to Peru with 
 a new Viceroy, who had instructions " to despatch him 
 from Callao to the settlement of the Southern region 
 when he judged it to be convenient, and the state of affairs 
 in Peru makes it proper to do so." The Government 
 had decided that Quiros must be sent to Peru, " otherwise 
 he would never be pacified." But it had also decided 
 
THE SPANISH STORY ENDS 203 
 
 fto send to the Viceroy two despatches, the one to say 
 
 [that Quiros was to be given ships, the other to say that 
 
 le was to be detained. There was fear that Quiros might 
 
 liscover the existence of the second despatch, and might 
 
 JO to other princes. Quiros strongly suspected the truth. 
 
 tut hfe and patience, he writes, were worn out, and he 
 
 '^ent. Thus abruptly his narrative ends. The only 
 
 [further knowledge we possess is that he died at Panama Death of 
 
 in 161 5, at the age of fifty. It was, as Sir Clement Markham jgjc^^' 
 
 )bserves, " a timely death." He would never have been 
 
 sent on voyage again. And, if he had been sent on 
 
 ''oyage again, the voyage would have failed. He could 
 
 lot have controlled the best crews of Spaniards that ever 
 
 ;ailed from Callao. It is well that our Don Quixote 
 
 lied with the divine madness still ablaze, still cherishing 
 
 [unconquerable belief that the cause of God and of His 
 
 'hurch will unite the World, and that this " will be done 
 
 >y means of a few Spaniards." 
 
 In following the story of Quiros we have continuously Don Quixote 
 in mind the contemporary Spanish picture of the Knight qj^^^^ ^°^^ 
 )f the rueful countenance, with withered and dusty visage, 
 md with respectful demeanour, who affirmed that the world 
 )tood in need of nothing so much as Knights Errant, 
 md the revival of Chivalry. But the Knight Errantry 
 )f Quiros was the Knight Errantry of Christ ; and the 
 'hivalry which he revived was the Chivalry of the Holy 
 rhost. He did not discover a continent, but he achieved 
 spiritual exploit. He so dreamed that his dreams entered 
 ito the aims of those, of other times and other nations, 
 ^ho achieved the work which Spain had refused. 
 
 Note on the history of the original sources of information 
 about the voyages of Quiros. 
 
 The Narrative of Quiros was not printed till 1 876- 1 882, Knowledge 
 but Figuera's Life of one of the Viceroys of Peru " con- ^o^^^gg ^f 
 tains an abbreviated version " (Markham, vol. i. p. xiii). Quiros and 
 Torquemada's narrative, which gave the Franciscan view ^^^^5^^' ^^°''" 
 of the story, was published in 161 4. ■ The narrative of the 
 
204 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 pilot De Leza was not printed till 1876. Two of Quiros' 
 Memorials were printed in his lifetime and were trans- 
 lated into English, French, German, Dutch and Latin ; 
 and it was from them that students mainly drew know- 
 ledge of the voyage. The Memorial of Arias was printed 
 in 1640 (Markham, xliii), but seems to have been for- 
 gotten until Dalrymple got a copy in the 1760's. The 
 letter of Torres was first printed by Burney in 1806 from 
 a copy " lately " obtained by Dalrymple. Cf. Dal- 
 rymple's bibliography for Quiros in his Voyages (ly/o). 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH AND THE DUTCH 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies, 
 
 ed, BuRNELL and Tiele (Hakluyt Society). 
 Hunter's History of British India. 
 Motley's Dutch Republic. 
 Heeres' Part home by the Dutch in the Exploration of Australia. 
 
 HE enterprise of the South had been a Franciscan mission, 
 nd the Franciscans of Peru were determined to do all 
 ossible to prevent its abandonment. They wrote Mem- 
 rials to the King which may still be read in the British 
 Museum ; and they persuaded Don Juan Luis Arias, The treatise 
 an advocate of Santiago de Chili, to sum up their arguments °^ Anas, 
 in a treatise that is an interesting illustration of the mind 
 of religious Spain. ^ 
 
 The writer explains the physical argument which proves 
 that a Southern Continent exists. He brings together the 
 facts which indicate that, at various points, this continent The evidence 
 had actually been touched. He attaches much import- southern 
 ance to a story that Juan Fernandez, the discoverer Continent 
 of the famous island, had also discovered, somewhere 
 between West and South- West of Chili, " a very fertile 
 and agreeable continent, inhabited by a white well-pro- 
 portioned people of our own height, well-clad and of a 
 peaceful and gentle disposition." The failure of Quiros, 
 he argues, was due to his " great mistake " in refusing 
 to sail Southward of 26° ; where, says the writer " they 
 
 ^ Early Voyages to Australia, ed. Major ; Voyages of Quiros, ed. 
 Markham. 
 
 205 
 
2o6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 " Signs of saw to the South very extensive and thick banks of clouds 
 
 mainland " • ^.j^^ horizon, and other well-known signs of mainland." ^ 
 in 26 . ' , ,. . 
 
 But the stress is laid on the religious argument : on the 
 
 duty of Spain to fulfil the prophecies which foretell, so 
 it is argued, that Spaniards shall redeem the sheep of 
 the " other " or Southern fold ; and above all on the 
 urgent need to undertake this work at once. " For the 
 Dutch and English and Dutch heretics, whom the Devil unites for 
 English ^]^-g purpose by every means in his power, most diligently 
 West and continue the exploration, discovery, and colonisation 
 East. q£ ^j^g principal ports of this large part of the world in 
 
 the Pacific Ocean, and sow in it the most pernicious poison 
 of their apostasy, which they put forth with the most 
 anxiety in advance of us, who should put forth the sover- 
 eign light of the Gospel." Heretics were raging in East 
 and in West. They were trading and fighting in the 
 Moluccas. They were actually setthng in Virginia and 
 in Bermuda, infecting " millions upon millions " with their^ 
 " infernal poison," depriving the Church of "an infinite 
 number of souls," seeking to found an empire that " will' 
 at length possess much better and richer Indies than our 
 own, and from which they will be able to lord it absolutely 
 over all our territories, and all our navigations and com- 
 merce with the West Indies." As in the West, so in the 
 East. Drake and Cavendish had surveyed the Spanisl 
 world from Peru to the Moluccas, laughing at Spanisl 
 claims, trampling on Spanish pride, sacking Spanish cities 
 in the West, smashing the fence of Spanish monopoly ii 
 the East. Meanwhile the Dutch — the despised Dutch !- 
 were trading from the Cape to the Moluccas, and fromi 
 the Straits to the Moluccas. " We have reached such] 
 a point that the most inconsiderable nations of EuropeJ 
 
 ^ These statements about the voyage of Juan Fernandez, and the 
 " signs of mainland " in 26°, were used by Dalrymple in his endeavour 
 to prove the existence of the Continent. It seems likely that the 
 land which Fernandez discovered was either the island that bears 
 his name, or possibly Easter Island. The documents of the voyagers 
 of 1606 do not seem to mention " signs of mainland " in 26°. Possibly 
 Arias had received information by word of mouth, or possibly he has 
 in mind the " signs of land on both sides of us," which Torres mentions 
 at a later stage in the voyage. 
 
COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 207 
 
 whom we formerly held beneath our feet, now look upon 
 
 us as an afflicted nation, and of small account ; — which 
 
 is a horrible fact, and an easily recognisable effect of divine 
 
 indignation." Let the Spanish King, before too late, The 
 
 act in the spirit of his most Christian predecessors, who command of 
 
 declared that, when other means failed, they themselves 
 
 would go forth. " Thus should Your Majesty set the 
 
 eyes of your heart upon preaching the gospel in the South, 
 
 as Christ is now recounting to you, with the Crown of 
 
 the universal Empire of the Globe in his hand." " To 
 
 you, the Apostle says, ' Do the work of an evangelist ! ' 
 
 Do this work, and then your Majesty will be able to say 
 
 at the Day of account, ' Bonum certamen certavi ' ; 
 
 overcoming the greater power of Lucifer, giving liberty 
 
 from his tyrannical and abominable servitude to so great 
 
 a number of souls in the Southern hemisphere. So gain 
 
 I the reward of that unspeakably glorious crown ! " 
 The memorial of Dr. Arias is the last word of Spanish 
 l^hivalry seeking to conquer for Christ " the universal 
 Empire of the Globe." It failed to move the mind of 
 Spain. With visibly failing resources, she already possessed 
 lan Empire on which the sun never set, to exploit, to settle, 
 to defend against heretic " basilisks and dragons." Sen- 
 sible men were saying that Spain's hands were already 
 over-full ; using, complains Arias, " plausible but super- 
 ficial arguments of expediency," " reasons of State ad- " 
 vanced in opposition to the imperative command of the 
 Apostle, ' Do the work of an evangelist.' " But Don 
 Quixote, said the Spaniard, became sane — and died. Don Quixote 
 The madness of Spain, which had achieved the impossible, becomes 
 departed. The government became wise — and weak ; dies, 
 the government of "an afflicted nation." Spain was 
 able to hold what she had conquered. But the continent 
 of the South was to be the land of the heretic. 
 
 English interest in the East was of early date. Before English seek 
 the voyage of Columbus, Bristol merchants had sent pg^g^^'^g'^^^^^ 
 ships Westward in search of an island of " Brasil," which the Spice 
 was thought to be a stepping-stone to Cathay. Then 
 
208 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 in 1497 they sent John Cabot who, Hke Columbus, beheved 
 that he could find the Spice Islands by sailing West, and 
 who hoped " to make London a greater place for spices 
 than Alexandria." He sailed North- West, discovered 
 a Newfoundland, and was believed to have won for England 
 *' a great part of Asia without a stroke of a sword." The 
 Cape was the Portugal route, and the Straits were the 
 Spanish route, but Englishmen believed they would 
 find a North-West passage that would be much shorter 
 than these. In the days of Henry VIII. wise men urged 
 that England should give up her " attempts against 
 the terra firma " — i.e. attempts to conquer France — 
 " and travel by that way which it seems eternal provi- 
 dence has destined us, which is by sea." If Spaniards 
 and Portuguese would not suffer Enghshmen to join 
 with them, " there will yet be region enough for all to 
 enjoy." 
 
 Attempts to find a North-West passage failed. So, 
 
 under Mary, Englishmen tried the North-East. Chancellor 
 
 discovered, not Cathay, but Russia ; which seemed an 
 
 The amazing novelty. The Muscovy Company was formed, 
 
 ComparT ^"^' under Elizabeth, its famous commercial travellers, 
 
 and the like Anthony Jenkinson, pushed across the Caspian to 
 
 ConTpany P^^'sia, and opened trade with India. But this was a 
 
 trade with very long and troublesome route, and profits diminished. 
 
 And, at the same time, the old trade by way of the 
 
 Mediterranean was failing. The last " Venetian argosy " 
 
 was wrecked ofT the Isle of Wight in 1587. Then 
 
 English merchants strove to do their own trade. A 
 
 commercial treaty was made with the Sultan, and the 
 
 Levant Company was formed with permission to trade 
 
 as far as India. But Spain possessed sea-power in the 
 
 Mediterranean, and British trade became precarious. 
 
 And when in 1580 Philip of Spain became King of 
 
 the Portuguese, he put a stop to the large trade 
 
 in Oriental goods that had grown up between Lisbon, 
 
 Antwerp, and London. Dutchmen and Englishmen must 
 
 either go without their luxuries, or must send their own 
 
 ships to the East to get them. 
 
COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 209 
 
 And meanwhile the East was becoming both better known Drake, 
 
 Cavend 
 and Fitch. 
 
 and more attractive. In 1580 Drake came home with ^^^^"^^®^- 
 
 the ship-load of cloves, and the alleged monopoly treaty 
 with the King of Ternate. In 1588 Cavendish brought 
 news that Englishmen might trade as freely as the Por- 
 tugal in the Moluccas, and urged that Elizabeth should 
 take advantage of the defeat of the Armada to seize the 
 spoil of her enemy in all the richest places of the world. 
 In 1583 Ralph Fitch set forth on a grand Asiatic tour 
 which brought him to the court at Delhi of Akbar 
 the Great, founder of the Moghul Empire, to Burmah, 
 and to Malacca, and enabled him to bring home great 
 news to English merchants when he returned to London 
 in 1591. 
 
 But by far the most important newsbook ^as that written Linschoten 
 in 1595-6 by the Dutchman John Huyghen van Linschoten,. [^g^^^g^g^^^ 
 the Marco Polo of this part of our story. As a boy at Haar- World, 
 lem, he had taken " no small delight in reading of histories ^^^^' 
 and strange adventures." Thinking that " no time is 
 more wasted than when a young fellow hangs about his 
 mother's kitchen like a baby," he traded in Seville, and 
 then in 1583 sailed to India in the suite of a new bishop 
 of Goa. At Goa he lived five years, learning the news 
 of the whole Eastern world, and making notes. On his 
 way home in 1589 the Portuguese ship in which he sailed 
 was compelled to stay at the Azores. He stayed there 
 for two years ; and it is to this accident that we owe his 
 vivid picture of the last fight of the Revenge. His 
 books describing the routes to India, and the various 
 lands of the East, were printed in 1595 'and 1596. An 
 English translation appeared in 1598. The English 
 editor, in his preface, believes that readers will give close 
 attention to " the great provinces, puissant cities, and 
 unmeasurable islands of the Indies." " I do not doubt, 
 but yet I do most heartily pray a wish that this poor 
 translation may work in our English nation a further 
 desire and increase of honour over all countries of the 
 world by means of our wooden walls." The riches of 
 the Eastern world, and the vicious weakness of the Spanish- 
 
 W,A. Q 
 
210 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Lancaster's 
 
 voyage, 
 
 1591- 
 
 Portuguese Empire were revealed ; and the way to . act 
 was by wooden walls. 
 
 The English merchants easily understood. Already 
 in 1589, the year after the Armada, they had obtained 
 a licence from the Queen to send three ships in -direct 
 trade to India, and in 1591 the first English squadron, 
 under James Lancaster, sailed, by way of the Cape, to 
 the Indian Seas. The voyage was disastrous. Of one 
 hundred and ninety-eight men only twenty-five returned 
 in 1594. But Lancaster had made his voyage. He brought 
 back a " precious cargo of pepper and rich booty." He 
 had convinced the declining Levant Company that it 
 must transform itself into an East India Company, and 
 claim the trade of the Pacific. In 1 600 they obtained 
 a Charter which granted the exclusive privilege of trade 
 with all lands beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the 
 Straits of Magellan, except those lands actually possessed 
 by Christian princes in amity with the Queen. Among 
 the lands not actually possessed by friendly Christians 
 was Terra Australis Incognita. 
 
 The English East India Company was in its early years 
 a somewhat weakly body. The ventures were ventures, 
 not of the whole Company, but of separate groups of mem- 
 bers. It was not till the days of Cromwell, " the first ruler 
 of England to realise that the Indian trade was a concern 
 of the nation," that the Company was transformed " from 
 a feeble relic of medieval trade guild into a vigorous 
 fore-runner of the modern Joint Stock Company." The 
 Stuart Kings regarded it as their creature, and violated 
 its charter whenever it seemed to mean minds that money 
 could thereby be made. To the Parliament, accordingly, 
 it appeared to be a suspicious institution, liable to become 
 a source of extra-Parliamentary revenue. Economists 
 described it as a " canker of the Commonwealth." In 
 the West Indies you could get " gold, silver and precious 
 things for beads, bells, knives, looking-glasses, and such 
 toys and trifles." But in the East Indies you paid out 
 solid gold and got unlasting spices. The Company sought 
 to argue that they were a Hercules yet in the cradle. 
 
COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 211 
 
 Their fleets were training schools for the Enghsh marine. 
 They counterpoised " the Hollanders' swelling greatness 
 by trade," and kept them " from being absolute lords of 
 the sea." English gentlemen were enabled to export 
 more wool, and to raise more rent. True, Indian goods 
 were bought by Enghsh gold ; but much of the goods 
 was re-sold to foreigners at a profit. Englishmen got 
 their spices cheap, and their gold also increased, as 
 farmers gain by sowing and reaping. There was much 
 interesting argument ; but the Company, betrayed by the 
 King, and ill-supported by the nation, made slow way.^ 
 
 But it was at least strong enough to break through the yet is 
 Portuguese fence. Their agents travelled through India, ^q^q!^X to 
 won the favour of the Great Moghul at Delhi, obtained break the 
 permission to establish a factory at Surat, and even to fence"^"^^^ 
 act as maritime patrol for the Moghul Empire, with 
 duty to clear the sea of Portuguese, and to keep open 
 the pilgrim path to Mecca. They broke the sea-power 
 of Portugal in famous battles. They won supremacy 
 in the Persian Gulf. They passed Eastward through 
 the Straits of Malacca. " A native festival," we are told, 
 " still annually commemorates the first Englishman 
 who lived and died in Japan. "^ And they found by far 
 their most valuable market in the Spiceries, where, so they 
 claimed, Drake's Treaty gave them right to monopoly. 
 They had factories in Sumatra, Amboyna, and Java. 
 It was clear that neither Spaniards nor Portuguese could 
 fight them. Had these been the only rivals, England 
 would have become as supreme in the islands as in India. 
 There would, perchance, have risen a Jamestown or a 
 Charlestown in Java ; and, sailing thence, English 
 merchantmen would have discovered Australia. But 
 
 ^ See admirable discussion in Hunter's History of British India. 
 
 2 See interesting account of William Adams in Hunter, vol. i. pp. 298-9. 
 He was sailing-master on a Dutch ship, which came to Japan in 1600. 
 It was seized, and the crew were detained. Adams's Letters are 
 printed in Memorials of the Empire of Japan, ed. Rundall (Hakluyt 
 Society). The first English ship came to Japan in 1613. See The 
 Voyage of Captain John Saris to Japan, 161 3, ed. Satour (Hakluyt 
 Society) . 
 
212 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 England had other rivals in the far East. In addition to 
 Portuguese Crusaders, were Dutch men of business. 
 
 The Dutch In spirit, as in date, the Dutch Republic was by far 
 
 rival. ^YiQ most modern state in Europe. Dutch patriots 
 
 had fought and had died for justice and liberty in one 
 of the great pitched battles of human history. " The 
 pohtical reformation of Europe," writes Sir William 
 Hunter, " dates from the Dutch Declaration of Independ- 
 ence of 1 581. Then, for the first time, was asserted and 
 enforced the principle that government exists for nations, 
 not nations for governments, as no abstract dogma, but 
 as a truth for which a whole nation was willing to die." 
 Strife against tyranny stiffened the fibre of character, 
 and gave consistency and strength to conduct. The 
 
 Liberty. Republic became the home of Soul-Liberty. The intellect 
 was stirred and strengthened to free and vigorous life. 
 The people were the best educated in the world. The 
 University of Leyden, child of war for an idea, explained 
 that idea to Europe. Free soul and free mind grew 
 in a free state that represented and served the whole 
 people. 
 
 Wealth. There was equal pre-eminence in things material. Con- 
 
 science and intelligence found expression in the industry 
 of day to day. No people of their number produced 
 wealth so great. In all pastoral and agricultural pursuits ■ 
 the Dutch taught the world. But their industrial strength 
 centred in the great cities. Here were made the best 
 linens in the world. And here lived the Burghers, who 
 had organized world-commerce with skill and with success 
 that far surpassed all precedent. It was they, above 
 all, who won wealth for that " extraordinary soil which 
 produced nothing, and teemed with everything " ; which 
 " had neither timber, nor stone, nor wheat, nor spices, 
 yet was the great world-market for all that men desire." 
 " Commerce and Holland were simply synonymous terms 
 ... Its morsel of territory was but the wharf to which 
 the Republic was occasionally moored ; its home was 
 in every Ocean and all over the World." ^ 
 1 Motley's Dutch Republic. 
 
COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 213 
 
 Even before the war, the Dutch had been a sea-going 
 people. An enormous herring fishery had created a fleet. 
 A very great trade developed with Lisbon in Oriental 
 goods. War with Spain stopped this trade with Lisbon, 
 but it also created a fleet that was able to go fighting 
 to India. Merchantmen in those days easily became 
 Dreadnoughts, and " turned a desperate land warfare Dutch 
 into a triumphant naval campaign." ^ They had two nJ^gjits 
 thousand ships of war. Their captains had the reputation 
 of Sir Richard Grenville, and fought the fight of the 
 Revenge. "It is difficult," cried one of them, " not 
 to conquer on salt water. It is for us to tear from the 
 enemy's list of titles his arrogant appellation of Monarch 
 of the Ocean. Remember we are all sailors, accustomed 
 from our cradle to the Ocean, while yonder Spaniards 
 are mainly soldiers and landsmen, qualmish at the smell 
 of bilge water, and sickening at the roll of the waves." ^ 
 
 Thus when Philip II. stopped the Dutch trade with the 
 Indies by way of Lisbon, Dutch traders knew how to act. 
 They would fight him, not merely in the European waters, 
 but in the Far East also. 
 
 There were three possible ways to the East. There was The Dutch 
 the North-East route, which Mercator's map showed to^the East 
 to the North of Asia. The English had tried this route 
 and had failed. But Linschoten, who knew all that was 
 known about the Cape route, thought the North-East 
 would prove better. And he sailed in the two first of the 
 three Dutch voyages that were made in this direction in (i) by a 
 1 594, 1595, and 1 596. They all failed ; but the failures were passage T 
 made memorable by the stiff heroism of Barentz and his 
 men, and show " the intelligence, enthusiasm and tenacity 
 in wrestling against immense obstacles manifested by the 
 young Repubhc." ^ There were Dutch voyages by Drake's (2) by the 
 way through the Straits, and the voyagers saw further 
 evidence of the coast of Terra Australis. In 1599 Theodore 
 Gerards, being carried by tempest into 64°, saw a country 
 mountainous and covered with snow, looking like Norway, 
 and seeming to extend to the Islands of Solomon. In 1624 
 ^ Motley's Dutch Republic. 
 
214 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the Orange Tree reported that the Southern continent 
 
 had been seen in 50°, and again in 41°. Some of these 
 
 ships got to the Phihppines, and had fierce fight with 
 
 De Morga, who captured one of them, and executed his 
 
 prisoners as pirates with the garotte. But Drake's 
 
 way was long and hazardous. Most Dutch ships, with 
 
 Lindschoten's guide-book in hand, went, after 1595, by 
 
 (3) round the Portugal route round the Cape. And they went 
 
 the Cape. -^^ ^^^.y g^gat numbers — fifteen fleets, with sixty-five 
 
 ships, between 1595 and 1 601. "The Dutch," complains 
 
 De Morga from the Philippines, " come in squadrons, 
 
 and, supported by them, the Muslims revolt against the 
 
 Spaniards. Their interests in the trade for cloves and 
 
 other spices are very great, and they expect by this trade 
 
 to subjugate the East. If a fundamental remedy be not 
 
 applied in good time, the trouble will soon grow so great 
 
 that it will never be ended. In the Javas they get such 
 
 big profits that it will be hard to drive them from the East, 
 
 where they have done such great injuries in spiritual 
 
 and temporal matters." 
 
 The Dutch But the Dutch were not content. Like the English, 
 
 East India ^jjgy found that "separate" voyages were instruments 
 Company, , -^ ^ •' ^ . , 
 
 1602. inadequate for the foundation of a commercial Empire 
 
 at the ends of the earth ; and, unhke the English, they 
 
 made the essential change at once. In 1602 the separate 
 
 syndicates of merchants were united into one joint stock 
 
 association, with the title of the United East India Company. 
 
 The Dutch merchants were to put their whole strength 
 
 into great national ventures. The Government of the 
 
 Company was to be in the hands of seventeen Directors, 
 
 chosen by the Chambers of the various States in proportion 
 
 to their contributions. They were to act as commercial 
 
 Council for the Repubhc. They had support both from 
 
 the Dutch Government and from the Dutch people ; 
 
 and the Dutch Company, far more truly than the English, 
 
 became, in Burke's words, " a delegation of the whole 
 
 power and sovereignty of the State sent in the East." 
 
 And thus the Company became strong with the strength 
 
 that had made the Republic. " It was," writes Sir Wilham 
 
p 
 
 COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 215 
 
 Hunter, " the spirit which had cut the dykes that gained 
 the Spice Archipelago for Holland." 
 
 The Company was both an instrument of commerce The Dutch 
 and a weapon of war. Its captains, excluded from ™deTn the 
 Lisbon, blocked the Tagus. They smashed the Spanish East, 1609. 
 fleet in Gibraltar Bay. They routed the Portuguese off 
 Java, and won Sea Power in all the Eastern seas. Sea 
 Power gave them the islands. In dealing with the natives 
 they had, in rivalry with Spaniards and Portuguese, im- 
 portant advantages. They had no crusade to wage 
 against the " Muslims." They wished neither to conquer 
 nor to convert. Their sole wish was to buy and sell, 
 and to buy and sell with a strict monopoly of trade. They 
 treated the natives fairly well, and appeared as deliverers 
 from Portuguese cruelty. Spain became convinced, though 
 not by argument, that it was best to give what could not be 
 withheld. In 1 609, while Quiros was writing Memorials, 
 the King of Spain made a truce with the Dutch, in which 
 he promised that he would not interfere with Dutch 
 trade in the East. The Spanish fence was broken down, 
 and the Dutch were allowed to enjoy that free trade 
 without which, as they said, their State " would melt 
 away like snow in the sun." 
 
 The Dutch used the Sea Power to build an Empire 
 in the East, firm in its foundations, and touching the 
 coasts of all the Eastern seas. In 1619 Governor-General Batavia 
 Coen, who " was to the Dutch Indies in the seventeenth j^^g*^^^' 
 century what Albuquerque had been to the Portuguese 
 in the sixteenth, and what Dupleix became to the French 
 in the eighteenth," founded " in a congenial swamp " 
 the city that was destined to be the new Amsterdam of 
 the East. Batavia commanded the whole archipelago, 
 and in an especial way it commanded the Straits of Sunda, 
 one of its two main entrances. Here, in the large rich 
 island of Java, Coen established the Dutch Power, giving 
 it that solid basis in territory and population which the 
 Portuguese Empire had lacked. He wished, but wished 
 in vain, to make Batavia a colony of Dutch settlers. It 
 remained an outpost of commercial Empire; and "the 
 
2i6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 ingathering of a multitude of people from all parts," which 
 Coen desired " to people our country withal," gave Batavia 
 a character of Asiatic cosmopolitanism that reminds 
 one of the European cosmopolitanism of the New Amster- 
 dam that became New York. Batavia grew into a city 
 large, prosperous, strong, the seat of incomparably the 
 The Dutch greatest power in the Eastern World. It dominated 
 Eastern ^^ island, extensive, fertile, and populous, providing 
 cheap labour and large revenues. Over the whole Spice 
 Archipelago the Dutch ruled with omnipotent and tyrannic 
 sway. And this was but the centre of a huge maritime 
 Empire, which extended " from Madagascar to Japan, 
 from New Guinea to the Red Sea." St. Helena was 
 occupied for the refreshment of their ships, the Cape as 
 the essential half-way house between West and East, 
 Mauritius as a basis for the slave-trade in Madagascar, 
 . and for explorations in the far South. They traded in 
 the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf. They conquered 
 Ceylon, and established factories in India. The capture 
 of Malacca gave them command of one entrance to the 
 Spice Archipelago, as the foundation of Batavia had 
 given them command of the other. They had factories 
 in Cambodia, in Formosa, and in Japan. They threat- 
 ened China with the Mailed Fist. According to Coen's 
 plans there was to be a Dutch garrison in some Fortress 
 to be captured or to be erected on the Chinese Coast, 
 and a sufficient Dutch Fleet, to be permanently placed 
 on this station, was to " bend the Chinese to our will." 
 " It is," he writes, " our fixed intention not to allow in 
 future any Chinese to sail to any other port than Batavia, 
 on pain of being declared our enemies, and treated as 
 such." The Dutch possessed all the gates of the Indian 
 Ocean, as the Arabs and Portuguese had possessed them 
 in the past, and as the British were to possess them in the 
 future. 
 The Dutch Thus the rival of England in the Far East was not Spain, 
 monopoly ^^^ Holland. Very curious is the story of the relations 
 of trade, of these two Protestant States in the later sixteenth cen- 
 tury and in the seventeenth, swinging between a friendship 
 
COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 217 
 
 so close that it seeks actual union, and enmity so ferocious 
 that it finds expression in unforgivable massacre, and 
 in long obstinate equal war. Both England and Holland 
 had become World-Powers in the course of warfare with 
 Spain. In both countries Sea Power had been the child 
 of the Reformation. Up to the Armada, close alliance 
 had been of essential importance to both States ; and, 
 for twenty years afterwards, it remained of value. In 
 the Far East, Dutch and English ships fought side by 
 side against the Portuguese. But, as Spain grew weak, 
 the question of the defence of Protestantism was succeeded 
 by the question of the division of the spoils. The in- 
 fluence of common religion was displaced by the influence 
 of commercial rivalry. For in those days commerce 
 meant monopoly, and the Dutch were as severe monopo- 
 lists as had been the Portuguese. The instructions 
 to the first Dutch Governor-General were that " the 
 commerce of the Moluccas, Amboyna, and Banda should 
 belong to the Company, and that 710 other nation in the 
 world shall have the least part.'' ^ 
 
 The claim was intolerable to countrymen of Drake Quarrels of 
 and Cavendish. In 1605 the King of Ternate asked after ^^gf^jf""^ 
 Drake's health, and complained that the Dutch prevented 
 him from granting a factory to the English. The English 
 replied by claiming a factory, "for that Sir F. Drake 
 had trade in Ternate before the Dutch were known in 
 ■ these parts of the world." The Dutch, they said, were 
 taking use of " the negligent and inconsiderate English," 
 fand were pocketing the profits of their trade. Mutual 
 enmity quickly grew hot and bitter. " The envy of the 
 Hollanders," wrote an Englishman, "is so great that 
 to take out one of our eyes, they will lose both of theirs." 
 They showed to the natives English prisoners in chains, 
 dying of- ill-usage. They boasted that " one Holland 
 ship will take ten English, that they care not for our King, 
 for St. George was now turned child." On one occasion 
 they put the English flag on Dutch pirate ships, and 
 " covered all the seas from the Red Sea to China, spoiling 
 ^ Hunter, vol, i. p. 341. 
 
2l8 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The 
 
 massacre of 
 Amboyna, 
 1623. 
 
 English 
 
 and robbing all nations in the name and under the colour 
 of the English." Such, at least, were the EngHsh stories, 
 and words grew bitter. Sir Thomas Dale, infamous for 
 methods of barbarism in Virginia, receiving a document 
 in Flemish, " scolded, stamped, swore and cursed," and 
 asked " why the letter was not written in French, Spanish, 
 Latin, or any other language, if we did not like to write 
 English." 1 
 
 In 1623 Governor-General Coen sailed for Holland, leaving 
 instructions to " treat the English no more than a public 
 enemy ought to be treated ; not weighing too scrupulously 
 what may fall out." Governor Speult of Amboyna, 
 who had been accused of some slackness of duty, acted 
 on the hint. He manufactured evidence of English 
 conspiracy out of the confessions of a tortured Japanese. 
 The accused English were tormented with long-drawn 
 atrocity, and ten of them were executed. Some of them 
 managed to write on pages of their prayer-books, or other 
 scraps of paper, notes like the following : — " We through 
 torment were constrained to speak that which we never 
 meant, nor man imagined. They tortured with that 
 extreme torment of fire and water that flesh and blood 
 could not endure. Written in the dark." 
 
 The English people did not love the English Company, 
 
 rhiYrh °^ *^^ t>ut the cruel and insolent outrage burnt hot and deep. . 
 
 The Company talked of " joining with the Portugals, 
 and rooting the bloody Dutch out of the Indies." James I. 
 threatened war, but did nothing. Charles even seized 
 Dutch ships, but was satisfied by payment of £30,000 
 into his personal pocket. At length Cromwell, determined 
 to make the name of Englishman as respected through 
 the world as had been the name of Civis Romanus, insisted 
 that the Dutch must pay compensation to the Company 
 for the old iniquity. But it remained unforgiven. " The 
 spectres of the tortured victims," writes Sir William 
 Hunter, " stood between the two great Protestant Powers 
 during a century." 
 
 1 This discussion is mainly based on Sir W. Hunter's History of British 
 India. 
 
COMING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH 219 
 
 But, among the islands, " the insatiable covetousness The Dutch 
 of the Hollanders" had won. The English had to be |^X^°^^ 
 content with what then appeared the second-best. They islands, 
 withdrew to India, and built the Indian Empire. The 
 Dutch remained for a hundred and fifty years in complete 
 possession of the Australasian Oceans : and to them came 
 the opportunity of exploration in the South. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Australian navigations discovered by Jacob Le Maire, in The 
 East and West Indian Mirror, ed. Villiers (Hakluyt Society). 
 Heeres' Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia. 
 Heeres' Tasman. 
 
 Major's Early Voyages to Australia (Hakluyt Society). 
 Coote's Remarkable Maps. 
 
 QuiROS had died his "timely death" in 1615. And 
 
 in the same year Dutchmen sailed to achieve his plans. 
 
 The voyage Isaac Le Maire was a great merchant of Amsterdam. 
 
 and^ ^^^^ -^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Memorials of Quiros, and was convinced 
 
 Schouten, that a huge continent, rich in gold and spices, existed 
 
 ^^* in the South Pacific. Schouten, a famous seaman, who 
 
 had made three voyages to the East Indies, agreed to 
 
 • undertake, together with Le Maire's son James, the voyage 
 
 of exploration which had been refused by the Spaniards. 
 
 The adventurers were not members of the Dutch East 
 
 India Company, and they were therefore barred from sailing 
 
 thither by way of the Cape, or by way of the Straits. But 
 
 they believed that it would be possible to find a new passage 
 
 South of Tierra del Fuego. Magellan and his sailors 
 
 had suspected that the land to the South of the Straits 
 
 was not part of a continent but an archipelago of islands. 
 
 Drake had proved that this view was true, and it had been 
 
 represented both in English and in Dutch maps.^ It was 
 
 now proposed to seek this hitherto unexplored passage, 
 
 to sail through it to the South Seas, to follow in the track 
 
 ^ Corbett's Drake, vol. i. p. 258 (1899 edition). 
 220 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 221 
 
 of Quiros, complete the discovery of the great Southern 
 Continent, and finally proceed to Asia. A company 
 was formed called " the Australian Company," ^ and in 1610 
 Prince Maurice, paying singularly little regard to the 
 chartered monopoly of the East India Company, granted 
 permission "to go to trade in the Kingdoms of Tartary, 
 China, Japan, India, Terra Australis, and the islands 
 of the South Sea." 
 
 In 161 5 James Le Maire and Schouten sailed from the 
 seaport of Horn in two ships named the Eendracht and They sail 
 the Horn. Fear of the jealousy of the East India Company ^"^^^ ^^P® 
 made them keep secret the real design of their enterprise. 
 But, arriving in the South Atlantic, it was explained that 
 they were " to find another passage other than the Straits 
 of Magellan, to enter the South Sea, and discover new lands 
 and isles towards the South, where, according to some, 
 great riches are to be found." The sailors rejoiced, each 
 looking to make his profit. They found a passage between 
 Tierra del Fuego and a land which they called Staten 
 Land, and believed to be part of Terra Australis. ^ It was 
 not till 1643 that a Dutch captain proved that Staten 
 Land was no continent but an island off Tierra del Fuego, 
 " of about nine or ten leagues in length, destitute of any 
 convenient bay or port." Sailing through the new-found 
 strait, they rounded the cape which they called, after 
 the name of the Dutch town whence they had sailed. 
 Cape Horn. They saw the Western mouth of the Straits 
 of Magellan, and " rendered thanks to good fortune in 
 a cup of wine which went three times round the Company." 
 Billows rolling from the South-West proved to them that 
 no continent existed in that direction. 
 
 Then, sailing North-West, they began, with Quiros for 
 guide-book, the search for Terra Australis. They came 
 to several islands to which they gave names — Dog 
 
 ^ " Very diverse opinions obtained among the crews concerning 
 this voyage and these ships, which were finally called the Goldseekers, 
 but the aforesaid directors called their assembly the Australian Com- 
 pany " (East and West Indian Mirror, p. 167). 
 
 2 Rainaud, p. 347. 
 
222 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 island, Fly island, Cocoa island. Water island, Horn island, 
 and the like — in singular contrast with the saint-names 
 of the Spaniards. The islands answered so closely to the 
 descriptions of Quiros, that it seemed to Le Maire they 
 must already be near the Solomons, or the Bay of Quiros, 
 on the edge of Terra Australis. In fact, in terms of modern 
 geography, they were between the Fijis and Samoa. Le 
 Maire, the optimist, was eager to complete the discovery 
 by sailing Westward on a course which might have taken 
 them to the New Hebrides and to the Eastern coast of 
 Cape York peninsula. But Schouten, the practical sea- 
 man, declared the plan unsafe. A Westerly course would 
 bring them on the South side of New Guinea among 
 unknown and dangerous coasts. The route of Torres 
 was unknown. All would depend on the discovery of 
 the " uncertain " passage between New Guinea and Terra 
 Australis, and if they found no passage they must be lost. 
 The only safe plan now, so Schouten argued, was to sail 
 on a North-West course, in order to round New Guinea by 
 the North, and so reach the Moluccas. The argument pre- 
 vailed. Once more the search was abandoned. The Dutch 
 ships sailed North-West on a course that took them along 
 the coasts of New Ireland, New Hanover, and New Guinea. 
 At length they came to Java, where Governor- General 
 Coen required them, by virtue of his commission from the 
 East India Company, to deliver up the ships and cargoes. 
 The voyage is memorable, in the story of exploration, 
 as the first voyage round Cape Horn, and as the voyage 
 that revealed with some definiteness of detail the long 
 North coast of New Guinea. It is still more memorable 
 as the Dutch link between Quiros and Cook. Like both 
 these seamen, Le Maire definitely sought for Terra Australis, 
 and, if he had sailed according to his wish, he would have 
 discovered the East coast of Australia. But in fact he 
 discovered only a few coral islands, whose geography 
 remained a puzzle to his successors. Nor did the voyage 
 lead to other voyages of discovery by this route. A 
 century passed before Roggeveen's endeavour to accom- 
 plish the task in which Le Maire had failed. For the present, 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 223 
 
 we must follow the slow groping process by which Dutch 
 seamen discovered bit after bit of the Australian coastline, 
 and pieced these bits together till they grew into the map 
 of Tasman. 
 
 It is not a very interesting story. It is, in fact, a story Dutch 
 of unsurpassable dryness. We have been told that " it ^f ^}^°J"^*^°'^ 
 was the spirit which had cut the dykes that gained the Australian 
 Spice Archipelago for Holland." But there was very 
 little of " the spirit of the dykes " in the use which the 
 Dutch made of their gain. The trail of business is over 
 the whole story ; indeed the whole story is nothing but 
 a trail of business. Complete and singular is the contrast 
 between the Spaniard and his successor. It is the contrast 
 of the Cathedral full of men with all human virtues and 
 vices, and the Factory wherein is neither virtue nor vice, 
 nor even men, but one thing only, desire to make' money. 
 In place of Don Quixote we have a bagman, and by Don Quixote 
 no means an " inspired bagman." In place of voyages wman 
 of knightly mariners, following ' the gleam of a golden 
 continent, we have a dull story of the gropings, along rocky 
 and barren shores, which cut the utterly uninteresting 
 continent of New Holland out of the beautiful Spanish 
 dreamland of Terra Incognita. In place of quest of 
 a great " mine of souls," we have long inventories of things 
 for barter for " the benefit of the Company." There is 
 no religion in the Dutch story, and there is very little 
 pretence of religion. The Dutch, wrote their representative 
 in Japan, have persuaded the Japanese to expel Spaniards 
 and Portuguese on the ground that they are Christian 
 proselytizers ; and now some " jealous detractors " have 
 persuaded the Japanese that the Dutch also are Christians, 
 and " that the duty of a Christian forbids him from suffering 
 his faith and doctrine to remain stationary. Thus do 
 venomous serpents attempt to suck our blood ! " The 
 Japanese have pulled down the newly erected Dutch ware- 
 house, and " the glory of our nation, only lately shining 
 with radiant lustre in the eyes of the Japanese magnates, 
 has been sadly eclipsed by the Christian name." ^ " The 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 46. 
 
224 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The Dutch 
 man of 
 business. 
 
 The Duyfhen 
 sails down 
 the West 
 coast of 
 Cape York 
 Peninsula to 
 Cape 
 Keerweer 
 
 i:i 131°. 
 
 March 
 
 1606. 
 
 Company," our modern Dutch historian quaintly explains, 
 " gave as much attention to Christianity as could in reason 
 be demanded from a man of business." 
 
 Nor, again, do our Dutch records show any trace of that 
 cultured and instructed inquisitiveness that lightens 
 every page of later travellers like Dampier and Cook. 
 Science is interesting only as science helps business. 
 Business is interesting only as business produces dividends. 
 Many of the merchi-nt princes, who ruled the East from 
 Amsterdam, were no doubt men of culture wide and deep, 
 and they were prepared to listen with a fairly open mind 
 to proposals of exploration ; but those proposals must 
 suggest more business for the Company. And the men 
 who went to Java to trade, and to sail, and to govern, 
 seem generally to have been drawn from the poorest 
 and least educated class. They were good men of business 
 and skilful navigators, and that sufficed. In the whole 
 story no single individual stands out from the crowd 
 of able skippers by virtue of distinct character and ideas. 
 All we learn from our records is, that men with Dutch 
 names sailed on voyages for the benefit of the Company, 
 and that they discovered barren coasts of no benefit 
 to the Company, nor to anyone else. 
 
 The Dutch discovered Australia by exploring the Southern 
 coast of New Guinea. The existence of New Guinea 
 had now been known for nearly a century, and it had 
 a reputation interesting to the commercial traveller. 
 Already in 1526 Saavedra had named the North coast 
 the " land of gold." When, late in 1606, Torres came 
 to the South-West end, he was told by the Moors, whom 
 he found conquering the Papuans, that " in all the land 
 there was much gold, and other good things, such as pepper 
 and nutmegs." The same news had reached the Dutch 
 at Java. In November 1605 a small pinnace named the 
 Duyfhen was sent from the Company's factory at Bantam 
 " for the discovery of the land called Nova Guinea which, 
 it is said, affordeth great store of gold." In their passage, 
 says our Dutch record, " they sailed by the islands of 
 Key and Aroum, and discovered the South and West 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 225 
 
 coasts of New Guinea, for about eight hundred and 
 eighty miles (220 Dutch miles), from 5° to I3|°." 
 That is to say, they passed from the South coast 
 of New Guinea across the strait to the West coast of 
 Cape York peninsula, and sailed down it some con- 
 siderable way. " They found this extensive country 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, by the want of provisions, and other necessaries, 
 they were obliged to leave the discovery unfinished ; 
 the furthest point of the land was called in their map 
 Cape Keer-weer (Turn Again) situated in I3|° S." 
 According to Flinders, who sailed that way in 1 802, Keer- 
 weer is a Cape hardly worthy to be called a Cape. " I 
 could see," he writes, " nothing like a Cape here ; but 
 the Southern extreme of the land seen from the mast- 
 head projected a little ; and, for respect to antiquity, 
 the Dutch name is there preserved." ^ 
 
 The Duyfheii:^wsiS back at Banda in June 1606. So that Disappoint- 
 the "first authenticated discovery of any part of Australia" "^^^^• 
 took place about March 1606, some six months before 
 Torres sailed through his strait, perhaps saw Cape York, 
 and crossed the track of the Dutch pinnace. The voyage 
 of the Duyfhen had been a failure. They brought home 
 a story of arid coasts and man-eating savages. They 
 left the question of the strait as they found it. Their 
 maps have disappeared, so we know not how they thought 
 of the tangled region through which they passed from coast 
 to coast. Apparently it looked to them more like a passage 
 than a bay, for their successors, who had use of their maps, 
 expected to find " an open passage." 
 
 The next Dutch discovery was made in a different Brouwer's 
 part, and in a different way. In the voyages to the East, java^°i^i^i ° 
 the Dutch had at first followed the Portugal route, which 
 struck Northward from the Cape along the coast of Africa 
 or Madagascar, and then Eastward to India and the 
 
 1 Flinders, vol. ii. p. 129. 
 w.A. P 
 
226 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The 
 
 Eendracht 
 
 discovers 
 
 West 
 
 Australia 
 
 from 2if° 
 
 to 28°. 
 
 Gerritz's 
 map, 1627. 
 
 islands. But in 161 1 Commander Brouwer tried another 
 way. After leaving the Cape, he sailed Eastward for four 
 thousand miles before turning Northward. It was found 
 that the new way was twice as fast as the old way. In 
 1 61 4 three ships sailed from Holland. Two took the old 
 way, and arrived in sixteen and eighteen months. One 
 took the new way, and arrived in six. The Company 
 ordered its commanders henceforth to take the new way, 
 and offered rewards for quick passages.^ 
 
 The change made the discovery of the Western coast 
 inevitable. In October 161 6, says an official letter, the 
 ship Eendracht " sailed so far Southward as to come upon 
 various islands, which were, however, found un-inhabited." 
 Our knowledge of this famous voyage is sadly deficient 
 as far as journals are concerned. No one who sailed on 
 the Eendracht wrote an account of the discovery that 
 has had luck enough to survive. We have, however, 
 two very satisfactory pieces of evidence of a different 
 character. 
 
 Firstly, we have the map ^ drawn in 1627 by Hessel 
 Gerritz, who was cartographer to the Company from 
 1 61 9 to 1629. It is a map that stands in striking contrast 
 to other maps of that period which are copied from Mercator 
 and Ortelius, and give the huge wavy outline of Terra 
 Australis, marked with Marco Polo names. When we 
 look at Gerritz we pass at last from the geography of the 
 imagination to the geography of discovery. He gives 
 us very little information, but the httle that he gives 
 is a precise scientific record of things seen and measured. 
 From about 2i|-° to about 28° he draws a coastline that 
 is definite though broken ; and behind it he writes : — ■ 
 " Tlandt van de Eendracht opghedaen by Dirck Hartogs 
 met 't Schip d'Eendracht in October A° 1616." In about 
 26° there is shown what appears to be a peninsula sheltering 
 an inlet or bay ; and on the peninsula is written " Dirck 
 Hartogs ree. (road)." Now this is very satisfactory. Dirck 
 Hartog's Road is evidently the water sheltered by the 
 long thin island, still called Dirck Hartog's island, which 
 ^ Walker's Early Tasmania, pp. 192-3. ^ See p. 227. 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 
 
 227 
 
 
 '^.S 
 
 ^^g_ ^. 
 
 ' s 
 
228 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 so nearly touches the land that, even on the modern 
 map, it looks like a peninsula.^ The inlet or bay is the 
 great bay which Dampier, for good reasons, called Sharks 
 Bay. And " the land of Eendracht " is West Australia 
 from about North- West Cape to about Gautheaume Bay. 
 Secondly, we have another very astonishing piece 
 of evidence. In 1696 a Dutch skipper named Willem 
 de Vlamingh was sent to explore the land of Eendracht, 
 and in November 1697 the Governor-General and Coun- 
 cillors at Batavia wrote an account of his voyage to the 
 drh*'^''^i6q6 Managers at Amsterdam. " Nothing of importance," 
 they say, " has been discovered in this exploratory voyage. 
 Only we must not omit to mention that, in an island situated 
 in 25°, near or before the South-land, they have found 
 fastened to a pole which, though half rotten wood, stood still 
 erect, a common pewter dish of medium size, which had 
 been flattened and nailed to the pole afore-said ; where 
 they found it still hanging ; the said dish bearing the 
 following words engraved on it, still distinctly legible : — 
 'a.d. 1616 on the 25th of Ocf, there arrived here 
 the ship den Eendraght of Amsterdam ; supercargo Gillis 
 Miebais of Liege ; skipper Dirck Hartog of Amsterdam : 
 she set sail again for Bantam on the 27th do ; subcargo 
 Jan Steyn, upper steersman Pieter Ledocker van Bil.' 
 This old dish which Skipper Willem de Vlamingh brought 1 
 us, has now likewise been handed to the Commander 
 (of the fleet) to be delivered to your Worships, who with 
 us will no doubt stand amazed that the same has for 
 so long a series of years been preserved, in spite of its being 
 exposed to the influence of sky, rain, and sun." 
 
 What their amazed Worships did with " the common 
 pewter dish of medium size " was not known till a few 
 years ago. When in 1899 Professor Heeres published 
 his book of documents, he wrote, — " the dish would seem 
 to be no longer extant." A Dutch journalist named 
 Verster who read the statement, thought of a dish he had 
 
 ^ " As an anchorage during the summer," wrote King in 1829, " Dirck 
 Hartog's Road has everything to recommend it, except total absence 
 of water." 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 229 
 
 seen in the States' Museum of Amsterdam ; and he found 
 that it is indeed the very same common pewter dish on 
 which Dirck Hartog had recorded his discovery in October 
 1616.1 
 
 But this is not the end of the story. When, in Vlamingh's 
 February 1697, Vlamingh took away "the old dish," PfJ^^^^^^^j^^^ 
 he erected on the same spot " a new pole with a flattened 1801. 
 pewter dish nailed to it," on which he inscribed both 
 the old record and a record of his visit. One hundred 
 and four more years passed, and, in August 1801, Captain 
 Hemelin, sailing in a famous French voyage, sent men 
 to inspect the island. They returned bringing with them 
 this second Dutch dish, which they had found " half 
 covered with sand, lying near a decayed oaken post to 
 which it appeared to have been nailed." The French 
 captain copied the inscriptions, made a curiously bad 
 attempt to translate them,^ and then put the dish once 
 more on a new post in the old position ; " for he would 
 have deemed it sacrilege to have kept this plate, respected 
 for two centuries by nature, and by those individuals who 
 might have observed it." It seems, however, that Vla- 
 mingh's dish was brought to Paris by a later French 
 expedition, and apparently has been lost.^ 
 
 Dirck Hartog's discovery had been the inevitable result 
 of the new route. Two years later, in 161 8, the skipper of 
 the Zeewulf, without knowledge of Hartog's voyage, came The Zeewuif 
 upon part of the same coast rather further to the North. cS^n^2o°, 
 "We found land," writes the Supercargo, "in 20° 15', a 1618. 
 low-lying shore of great length. We do not know whether it 
 
 ^ See very interesting articles by Mr. George Collingridge in Sydney 
 Morning Herald, 2nd and 9th August, 191 3. The lower part of the 
 inscription has decayed away. But it seems perfectly certain that the 
 identification is correct. See p. 231. 
 
 ^ Major's Early Voyages to Australia, p. Ixxxiv ; Heeres' Part borne 
 by the Dutch, etc., pp. 84-5. 
 
 ^ Heeres' Part borne by the Dutch, p. 85 n. Cf. Dr. Hamy's statement, 
 quoted by Mr. Collingridge. " Vlamingh's replica of Dirck Hartog's 
 plate," conjectures Mr. Collingridge, " must be lying perdu in some 
 corner of the French Institute." Freycinet distinctly states that he 
 sent it there. He made " an evidently inaccurate copy," which is 
 printed by Heeres, p. 85, and reproduced in this volume, p. 231. 
 
230 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 is unbroken coastline or made up of islands. Only the Lord 
 knows the real state of the affair. It would seem never 
 to have been made or discovered by anyone before us, 
 as we never heard of such a discovery, and the chart 
 shows nothing but open ocean at this place." The Captain 
 suggests' that " this land is a fit point to be made by ships 
 coming here with the Eastern monsoon in order to get 
 a fixed course for Java." 
 
 By 1618 news had reached Holland of the discovery 
 of Eendrachtsland, and the captains sailing on the new 
 route were on the look-out for the coast, which some 
 identified with the Terra Australis of Mercatorian maps, 
 about which, it was believed, Marco Polo had written. 
 They expected, it seems, that Eendrachtsland would 
 prove to be Marco Polo's Beach, with its great supply 
 of gold, of elephants, and spices. In 1 61 9 two ships 
 were sailing for Batavia under Commander Frederick 
 de Houtman. " On the 19th of July," he writes, " we 
 suddenly came upon this South-land of Beach in 32° 
 20'"; — that is, slightly to the South of Perth. "We 
 resolved to use our utmost endeavour to obtain some 
 knowledge of this coast, which seems to be a very good 
 land, but could find no spot for convenient landing owing 
 to the surf and heavy seas." For nine days they sought 
 to land, and failed. At last they were " forced to leave 
 the land aforesaid, not deeming it advisable to continue 
 inshore in the bad weather with such heavy ships, and 
 such costly cargoes as we had entrusted to our care, being 
 contented with having seen the land, which at more favour- 
 able time may be more fully explored with more fitting 
 vessels and smaller craft." 
 
 On the evening of the 28th of July, the land was out 
 of sight, and " deeming ourselves to be in an open sea 
 we shaped our course North by East." During the night 
 of the 29th, however, three hours before daybreak, 
 " we again unexpectedly came upon a low-lying coast, 
 a level broken country with reefs all round it. We saw 
 no high land or mainland, so that this shoal is to be care- 
 fully avoided, as very dangerous to ships that wish to touch 
 
'JHE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 
 
 23 1' 
 
 Djrck Hartog's Pewter Dish. 
 
 •••^6 1G :- >■ 
 
 ieR> 
 
 DEKI eS OCTOBER 15HII 
 ^/=\EN CECOMEN HET 5CHIPPEENDRflCHr^ 
 ^I/AIV AMSTERDA^.-DE-OfPEK KOPMAN ca^ 
 1E5 N/£I5Al$^VAN LYCKoSCHlPP.eRDiaCKHaTlCHS'^ 
 /AN AM5TEf\I?AM 0£ 17 DlTOie SEllC^CHN N(<^ 3AM*\ 
 /T\/MDEONO£RC0£PM/lKMWSriNSDE0P.PeRSTVIER 
 
 ^MAN piereR aooats van/ biu anno -i^-^i?- 
 
 J 697 DEN/ <?.p£BREVAf\7 i^mt^iMN C,tKoMiKHiTfCH\P 
 
 DECEELVlNk;V00RAMST£RDAMD£NCOM/lN>£R£NTS"CHlP'. 
 
 PE.I< WILLEKI DEVlAKIIIVGHVANLieUWDTADf/mwTJOAIV' 
 
 m mtm\\'AHC0??lHH({CtHOPPtRSl\JlWM\N MOIL 
 
 BL0£niYANT5TlC(lT BREMEN D£ hO£C«£a DENrvypTAWGH 
 
 SCH lPPe« CEl5,Rir <:o(:AART VAN AM STE^PAM ADS15T TkEO 
 
 DOjiis HEIKM/^NS VAN DITO OPPERSTlEl^/^^-IAN 0£R = 
 
 RIT CERIT/EN VAN BREMEN T£o/^LJOoT het 
 
 WEEfELTIIi CEfACH I-E.8BERC0aNEUfP£VLAMiN£M 
 
 ^/Am VIEiLANDT 5TVIRM/^N COEI^TCERRiTi-£N, 
 
 VAN Ba£M£NENfVANHlEI^CE2EyLTM=.r0WS£ 
 
 VLOT DEN V0DRT5HET ZWDLA^'DTr 
 
 MERDEa T£OMDEftSOECa£Mi:-W^£0iJ> 
 
 TfNEEar Vj30A BAT^Via = 
 
 ^V"^i): 
 
 The French Copy of Vlamingh's Pewter Dish. 
 
232 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 at this coast. It is fully ten miles in length, lying in 
 28° 46'." 
 
 Houtman is describing the exceedingly dangerous 
 shoals, which still bear the name Houtman's Abrolhos. 
 Abrolhos is Portuguese for " Open your eyes." Why 
 the Dutch used a Portuguese word I do not know ; but 
 its advice was very good. When King sailed that way 
 in 1829 the mast-head man for some time persisted that 
 the three low small islands were only the " shadows of 
 clouds." 1 
 
 Gold ? Houtman got away as fast as possible from these in- 
 
 visible dangers. But three days later, on the 2nd of 
 August, he saw a long stretch of land in 27° 40'. The coast 
 was made of red mud, and it seemed to some, who no 
 doubt had read Marco Polo's account of Beach, that it 
 " might not unlikely prove to be gold-b,earing,^ a point 
 -which might be cleared up in time." It was evident 
 that this coast in 27° was Hartog's Eendrachtsland ; 
 and it was further evident that the land, which Hartog 
 had seen in 22°, 23°, and 25°, and which Houtman had 
 seen down to 33°, was " one uninterrupted mainland 
 coast." Along this coast they sailed to Dirck Hartog's 
 island, and then made for Java. 
 
 " A fixed Houtman agreed with his predecessor that the discovery 
 
 course. should be used to make " a fixed course from the Cape 
 to Java." You should leave the Cape, run Eastward 
 for four thousand miles, then North and North by East 
 to the South-land in 26° or 27°, making sure that you 
 avoid the ' ' shoal " in 28° 46', and thence, by a course North 
 by West and North-North-West, you are sure to make 
 the Western extremity of Java. 
 
 The voyage of Houtman is faithfully described in the 
 invaluable map made by Gerritz in 1627. He draws a 
 broken coast, with soundings, from about 33° to about 
 31°. Behind the coast is written " dunes with trees and 
 
 I. d'Edels underwood at top." Northward the coastline is broken ; 
 
 landt. ^^^ i-j^g shoals in 28° 29' are indicated by two inscriptions ; 
 
 1 King, vol. ii. p. 172. 
 
 2 See Goos-Visscher's map, p. 233. 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 
 
 233 
 
 " Torteldurf," an island discovered by the ship Torteldurf 
 in 1624 ; and " Houtman's Abrolhos." And at the back 
 of the whole coast, which is rightly imagined to exist 
 continuously from 33° to 28°, is written: "I. d'Edels 
 landt." For some reason that is not explained, the land 
 discovered in this voyage is called by the name of Jacob 
 Dedel, the supercargo of the Amsterdam, whose letter 
 
 
 .1 ^^^^ ,3^ 
 
 i 
 
 ^^ 
 
 j 
 
 Part of Goos-Visscher's Map, 1639. (From Coote, Remarkable Maps.) 
 
 supplements in an interesting way the information given 
 
 by Commander Houtman,^ 
 
 In March 1622 the Dutch ship Leeuwm made a discovery The Leeuwin 
 
 of land to the South of that discovered by Houtman. discovers 
 
 ^ coast from 
 
 We have no journal to tell this story. But on the map 35° to 34°, 
 
 of Gerritz, to the South of D'Edel's land, and united to ^^^^^ 
 
 it by a dotted line, is shown a coastline which, first running 
 
 Southward, makes at about 34° an elbow to the South- 
 
 East, and- runs in that direction to 35°, where it is cut 
 
 short by the termination of the map. On the elbow 
 
 is written " land made by the ship Leeuwin in March 
 
 ^The supercargo wrote his name Dedel. Why the^name is changed 
 to d'Edel on the map I do not know. 
 
234 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Reasons 
 for further 
 exploration 
 
 1622." On its Western side is " low land submerged " ; 
 on the South East " low land with dunes." 
 
 It was becoming evident that there were good reasons 
 for a systematic exploration of the " South-lands behind 
 Java." Ships sailing on the new route were almost bound 
 to see the coast, and were in great danger of running into it. 
 On the other hand, it might be used as a convenient land- 
 mark, and might eventually become the much-needed 
 place of refreshment for ships sailing from the Cape to 
 Batavia. Houtman had described the land from 31° 
 to 33° as very good land. Dedel had suggested that 
 the " red muddy coast," seen in 27°, " might not unlikely 
 prove to be gold-bearing." Both Houtman and Dedel 
 had declared that further investigation was required in 
 more suitable ships, and in a more leisurely time. And 
 then there was the long and still unknown coastline be- 
 tween the new discoveries and Nova Guinea, still imagined 
 in the light of Marco Polo information.^ And once more, 
 there was the elbow to the East that had been observed 
 at Cape Leeuwin, with suggestions that deserved 
 exploration. 
 
 But what made exploration urgent was the constant 
 danger of shipwreck on broken coasts and invisible islands. 
 Several Dutch ships found themselves in great peril ; and. 
 The wreck of in July i622, an event took place that seemed to demand 
 immediate action. On the 5th of July, there came to 
 Batavia a boat with ten men, and three days later came 
 another boat with thirty-six. They were what remained of 
 the crew of an English ship named the Trial. "They state," 
 wrote Governor-General Coen, " that they have lost 
 and abandoned their ship with ninety-seven men, and 
 the cargo she had taken in, on certain rocks situated 
 in Latitude 20° lo', in the Longitude of the Western 
 extremity of Java. These rocks are near a number of 
 broken islands lying very far apart, South-East and North- 
 West, at thirty miles distance North-West of a certain 
 island which in our charts is laid down in 20°. The said 
 
 the Trial 
 1622 
 
 ^ See maps, pp. 233, 
 Keppler's map, p. 245. 
 
 241. Note the disappearance of Beach in 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 235 
 
 ship Trial ran on these rocks in the night time, in fine 
 weather, without having seen land, and, since the heavy 
 swells caused the ship to run aground directly, so that 
 it got filled with water, the forty-six persons afore mentioned 
 put off from her in the greatest disorder, leaving ninety- 
 seven persons in the ship, whose fate is known to God 
 alone." The Governor-General shows that the adoption 
 of the new route — the Eastward course of four thousand 
 miles from the Cape — makes it " necessary that great 
 caution should be used, and the best measures taken 
 in order to avoid such accidents." The Englishmen 
 say that they " met with this accident through following 
 the course of our ships ; and they intended to dissuade 
 their countrymen from imitating their example." 
 
 The broken islands are duly marked in the Map of Where were 
 
 Gerritz, in Latitude 20° and in Longitude due South of ^^^ J^l"'^ 
 ' ' ° Rocks ? 
 
 the West end of Java, exactly where the Englishmen 
 had stated that they had been wrecked. And the curious 
 thing is that, from that day to this, islands have never 
 been seen in that locality. Dutch captains searched for 
 them in vain. Flinders in 1 803 spent some days in un- 
 successful quest. King had a similar experience in 1829 ; 
 and he came to the conclusion that probably the rocks 
 on which the Trial was wrecked were Barrows Island, 
 Trinonville Island, or one of the numerous reefs around 
 them. These places are on the Latitude that the English- 
 men named. The Longitude is quite wrong. " But," 
 writes King, " during the month of July the current sets 
 with great strength to the Westward, and might occasion 
 considerable errors in ship-reckonings, which in former 
 days were so imperfectly kept that no dependence can 
 be placed upon them." ^ The story illustrates the fact 
 that should always be in the minds of students of the 
 early voyagers : their Latitudes are generally right, but 
 their Longitudes are the result of guess-work. 
 
 The " Masters " at home had already " earnestly en- Coen 
 
 joined " that yachts should be sent " for the purpose Proposes a 
 -' -' t^ r voyage of 
 
 of making discovery of the South-land " ; and it seemed discovery. 
 
 ^ King, vol. ii. p. 444. 
 
236 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 to Governor-General Coen that the wreck of the Enghsh 
 ship on unknown islands in the ordinary route proved 
 " the urgent necessity of obtaining a full and accurate 
 knowledge of the true bearing and conformation of the 
 said land." It was, moreover, " highly desirable that 
 an investigation should be made to ascertain whether 
 these regions, or any part of the same, are inhabited, 
 and whether any trade with them might be established." 
 For these reasons, and for others, on the 29th of September, 
 1622, the Governor-General issued "Instructions" to two 
 yachts, the Haringh and the Hasewint, " to discover 
 and explore the South-land, and to ascertain as much 
 of the situation and nature of these regions as God Almighty 
 shall vouchsafe to allow them." 
 Coen plans The voyage that was contemplated was not sailed, 
 navigation of ^^^ Coen's " Instructions " are a very interesting illustration 
 Australia. of the mind and plans of an energetic Governor-General. 
 The yachts were to sail Southward from the Western 
 end of Java, i.e. the alleged Longitude of the Trial Rocks. 
 Having discovered all that was to be discovered about 
 these rocks, they were to sail still Southward, as far as 
 32° or 33°, the Latitude in which " sundry ships " coming 
 from Holland had accidentally come upon the South land. 
 Here they were to come to the coast. Then they were 
 to follow this coast Southward as far as 50°, if the land 
 should extend so far — if, in other words, they were on 
 a coast something like the Southern Continent of Mercator 
 and Ortelius. If, on the other hand, the coast turned 
 Eastward — as the news brought by the Leeuwin perhaps 
 suggested — they were to follow this coast " for some 
 time " ; but then, unless it again trended Southward, 
 they were to return. And " in returning, you will run 
 along the coast as far as it extends to Northward, next 
 proceeding on an Eastern course, or in such wise as you 
 shall find the land to extend ; in which manner you will 
 follow the coast as close inshore and as long as you find 
 practicable, and as you deem your victuals and provisions 
 to be sufficient for the return voyage ; even if, by so doing, 
 you should sail round the whole land and emerge to South- 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 237 
 
 ward." An amazing proposal which, in terms of modern 
 geography, seems to suggest a voyage from Adelaide 
 Westward, then Northward, then Eastward, and then 
 Southward to Sydney and Melbourne ! 
 
 The chief object of the voyage was to be the systematic 
 exploration and survey of this huge coastline ; and the 
 " Instructions " are a good example of the businesslike 
 thoroughness of Dutch methods. " You will have to dis- 
 cover and survey all capes, forelands, bights, lands, islands, 
 rocks, reefs, sand-banks, depths, shallows, roads, winds, and 
 currents, and all that pertains to the same, so as to be 
 able to map out and duly mark everything in its true 
 Latitude, Longitude, bearings, and conformation. You 
 will, moreover, go ashore in various places, and diligently 
 examine the coast in order to ascertain whether or no Dutch 
 
 it is inhabited, the nature of the land and the people, inquisitive- 
 ' r r > ness 
 
 their towns and inhabited villages, the divisions of the 
 Kingdom, their religion and policy, their wars, their rivers, 
 the shape of their vessels, their fisheries, commodities, 
 and manufactures, but specially to inform yourselves 
 what minerals, such as gold, silver, tin, iron, lead and copper, 
 what precious stones, pearls, vegetables, animals and 
 fruits, these lands yield and produce." One wonders 
 what it is that these Dutch seamen are not to observe ! 
 Further they were to keep a " careful record or daily 
 journal," that the Company may obtain " due and per- 
 fect knowledge of the situation, and the natural features 
 of these regions, in return for the heavy expenses to which 
 she is put by this expedition." They were to give appro- 
 priate names to their discoveries, and were to " take 
 formal possession " by erecting a stone column recording 
 " in bold, legible characters the year, the month and 
 the day of the week and the date, the persons by whom 
 and the hour of the day when such possession has been 
 taken." They were to " endeavour to enter into friendly 
 relations, and to make covenants with all such kings 
 and nations as you shall happen to fall in with, and try 
 to prevail upon them to place themselves under the pro- 
 tection of the States of the United Netherlands." Articles 
 
238 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA ' 
 
 of trade were to be put on board, and it was to be carefully 
 noted what articles were most demanded. Special inquiry- 
 Expectation was to be made for gold. In " the Northern extremity 
 of gold and q£ ^j^g Y.2Lst coast of the South-land," diligent inquiry 
 was to be made for sandal-wood, nutmegs, cloves, and 
 other spices ; " likewise whether it has any good harbours, 
 and fertile tracts, where it would be possible to establish 
 settlements, which might be expected to yield satisfactory 
 returns." When they met with natives, they were " to 
 endeavour, either by adroit management, or by other 
 means, to get hold of a number of full-grown persons, 
 or, better still, of boys and girls, to the end that the latter 
 may be brought up here, and be turned to useful purpose 
 when occasion shall serve." 
 The voyage Coen's vast scheme was not accomplished, nor even 
 ^Arnhem and attempted. The two yachts had to serve in other more 
 the Peru, urgent business. Four months later, in January 1623, 
 ^^' Coen sailed for Holland. In the same month, however, 
 
 Herman van Speult, Governor of Amboyna, sent two 
 other yachts, the Arnhem and the Pera, on a voyage of 
 discovery less formidable than that which Coen had 
 devised. The plan now was to follow up the discoveries 
 made by the Duyfhen in 1606. One may guess that the 
 chief thought was of " the Northern extremity of the 
 East coast of the South-land," the country which Coen 
 had hoped might provide " sandal-wood, nutmegs and 
 cloves," and perchance offer opportunity of profitable 
 "settlement." The commander of the expedition, Jan 
 Carstenz, was given general instructions for conduct similar 
 to those drawn up by Coen for the abandoned voyage. 
 Carstenz sailed on the 21st of January 1623. He 
 visited the islands of Quey, Aru, and Tenimber ; and 
 the islanders, of their own free will, placed themselves 
 under the obedience and dominion of their High Mighti- 
 nesses the States General, and promised to trade with 
 the Dutch fortresses in Banda and Amboyna. He struck 
 the coast of New Guinea at 4° 45', and sailed the whole 
 Sast^of^New ^^ngth of the South coast to Torres Strait, proving 
 Guinea. for the first time that there was "an -unbroken coast." 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 239 
 
 Ten miles inland they noted a very high mountain range, 
 white with snow, which they thought a very singular 
 sight, being so near the equator. As seen from afar, 
 the land seemed to have numerous pleasant valleys and 
 running fresh-water rivers. " But we are unable to give 
 any information as to what fruits, metals, and animals 
 it contains, and as to the manner of its cultivation, since 
 the natives, whom we found to be savages and man-eaters, 
 refused to hold parley with us, and fell upon our men, 
 who suffered grievous damage." The skipper of the 
 Arnhem and nine of his men were slain, " partly owing 
 to their own negligence." A vivid picture is drawn of the 
 Papuan savage, coal-black like the Caffirs, stark naked, 
 hole in midst of nose pierced by bones protruding at least 
 three fingers' breadth on either side, "so that in appear- 
 ance they are more like monsters than human beings." 
 
 They worked their way down the coast till in 9° 6' " A shallow 
 they found themselves entrapped by sandbanks, reefs ^^§^^- 
 and shallows on every side. They were using a chart, 
 presumably made in the Duyfhen, which showed an open 
 passage. The ship's boats were sent forth to sound in 
 all directions, but returned reporting shallows everywhere. 
 It was " clearly impossible any longer to follow the coast 
 line which we had so long skirted in an Eastward direction." 
 The ships were " caught in the shallows as in a trap," 
 and the best plan possible was to get out of the trap by 
 the way they got in. This they managed to do with 
 " extreme difficulty and great peril " ; " for which happy 
 deliverence God be praised ! " It seemed to them that 
 the tangle of reefs from which they had escaped was not 
 a strait but a bay ; "to which on account of its shallows 
 we have by resolution given the name of Drooge Bocht 
 (shallow bight) in the new chart." They determined 
 to call New Guinea " the West End of Nova Guinea." 
 The. land to the South (Cape York peninsula) they called 
 Nova Guinea. 
 
 Making South, writes Carstenz, " we saw the land Voyage 
 of Nova Guinea showing itself a low-lying coast without ^^^^^^^""^ ^° 
 hills or mountains." One hundred and eighty years River, 17° 8'. 
 
240 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 later Flinders sailed along this coast. After 'sailing one 
 hundred and seventy-five leagues, he says, he came to 
 a hill ; a hill that " did not much exceed the height of 
 the ship's masthead." Following the tracks of the Duyfhen, 
 and noting its places of call, the two Dutch ships sailed 
 Southward, past Cape Keerweer, as far as 17° 8'. Here 
 
 Part of De Leeuw's Map, 1623. 
 (From Coote, Remarkable Maps. De Leeuw was Pilot in Carstenz's voyage.) 
 
 at a river or inlet — " there was no fresh water here " — 
 which they called the Staten River,^ they decided to turn 
 again. " We might get into a vast bay ; it is evident 
 that North winds prevail ; we should then fall on a lee- 
 shore." In default of stone, they caused a wooden tablet 
 to be nailed to a tree, recording the arrival on the 24th 
 
 ^ Carstenz's Staten River, says Mr. A. W. Jose, was not the Staten 
 River which FHnders put upon the modern map, but " a southern 
 mouth of the Gilbert delta." Flinders, using Tasman's map, did his 
 best to identify the old Dutch names. " But the Peru's chart, which 
 can be corrected very exactly, and seems to have been rarely more 
 than ten minutes wrong in its latitude, shows most of the identifications 
 to be mistaken," Cf. Flinders' statement, p. 482, 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 
 
 241 
 
 of April, 1623, of " two yachts despatched by their High 
 Mightinesses, the States General." Next day the Arnhem, 
 which had already given much trouble, " on purpose, 
 and with malice prepense, cut away from us." Carstenz 
 thought that the deserter would make for the island 
 of Aru, "to have a good time of it there " ; but, as we shall 
 
 Part of Hondius's Map, 1630. (From Coote, Remarkable Maps.) 
 
 see, he was mistaken. The Pera sailed back along the 
 coast of Nova Guinea (Cape York peninsula), and then 
 along the coast of " the West End of Nova Guinea " 
 (New Guinea), and arrived at Amboyna on the 8th of 
 June. 
 
 Both in coming and in returning Carstenz made short Cape York 
 expeditions into the inland of Cape York peninsula, with P^^^^iisiala. 
 very unsatisfactory results. He did his best, in accordance 
 with Coen's instructions, to capture some natives. " By 
 showing them bits of iron and strings of beads we kept 
 them on the beach, until we had come near them ; upon 
 which, one of them who had lost his weapon was by the 
 
 R W.A. 2 
 
242 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 " A barren 
 and arid 
 tract." 
 
 " Utter 
 barbarians. 
 
 skipper seized round the waist, while at the same time 
 the quartermaster put a noose round his neck, by which he 
 was dragged to the pinnace. The other blacks seeing this 
 tried to rescue their captured brother by furiously assailing 
 us with their assegais. In defending ourselves we shot 
 one of them." After telling this story, Carstenz complains 
 with bitterness that, " in spite of our especial kindness 
 and our fair semblance, the blacks received us as enemies 
 everywhere." In one place, they were attacked by a 
 body of two hundred men. Owing to the ungrateful 
 conduct of the natives the Dutchmen were unable to obtain 
 all the information required by the Governor-GCTiicral. 
 " We have not been able to learn anything about the 
 population of Nova Guinea" (Cape York peninsula), " and 
 the nature of its inhabitants and soil ; nor did we get 
 information touching its towns and villages, about the 
 division of the land, the religion of the natives, their 
 policy, wars, rivers, vessels, fisheries ; what commodities 
 they- have, what ^manufactures, what minerals, whether 
 gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, copper or quicksilver." 
 
 Carstenz did, however, learn enough about land and 
 people to write the following description. " The land 
 between 13° and 17° 8' is a barren and arid tract, without 
 any fruit trees, and producing nothing fit for the use of 
 man ; it is low-lying and flat, without hills or mountains, 
 in many places overgrown with brushwood and stunted 
 wild trees ; it has not much fresh water, and what little 
 there is has to be collected in pits dug for the purpose; there 
 is an utter absence of bays and inlets, with the exception 
 of a few bights not sheltered from the sea wind ; it has 
 numerous salt rivers, extending into the interior, across 
 which the natives drag their wives and children by means 
 of dry sticks and- boughs of trees. The natives are, in 
 general, utter barbarians, coal-black ; they are utterly 
 unacquainted with gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, and copper, 
 nor do they know anything about nutmegs, cloves, and 
 peppex. It may safely be concluded that they are poor 
 and abject wretches, caring mainly for bits of iron and 
 strings of beads. Their weapons are shields, assegays, 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 243 
 
 and callaways of the length of one and a half fathoms, 
 made of hght wood and cane, some with fishbones, and 
 others with human bones fastened to their tops ; they 
 are very expert in throwing the said weapons by means 
 of a piece of wood half a fathom in length with a small 
 hook tied to it in front, which they place upon the callaway 
 or assegay." 
 
 Elsewhere Carstenz uses language even stronger in its 
 comprehensive condemnation. The land " is very dry 
 and barren. We have not seen one fruit-bearing tree. The worst 
 nor anything that man can make use of. There are no ^q^^j^^^ ^^^ 
 mountains nor even hills, so that it may be safely concluded 
 that the land contains no metals, nor yields precious woods. 
 In our judgement this is the most arid and barren region 
 that could be found anywhere on the earth. The in- 
 habitants, too, are the most wretched and the poorest 
 creatures that I have ever seen." The best he can say 
 for the Australian blacks is that they " seem to be less 
 cunning, bold, and ill-natured " than the blacks of Papua. 
 Great quantities of human bones seemed to prove them 
 to be man-eaters. 
 
 Carstenz in the Pera reached Amboyna on the 8th of June 
 without news of the Arnhem, which had deserted him with 
 malice prepense, intending, as he suspected, to make for 
 Aru and have a good time. The Aruese, however, told The voyage 
 him that they "had not seen the said yacht." It J^^^^Xm. *^^ 
 turned out that the Arnhem had arrived at Banda 
 three weeks before the Pera. " They have done nothing 
 worth mentioning," wrote the Governor of Banda to the 
 new Governor-General Carpentier, who had just arrived 
 to take the place of Coen. Yet, though no journal of the 
 ArnhenCs voyage has been preserved, there is proof that 
 on its way home an important discovery was made. In 
 1636 Commander Pool was instructed to sail to " Arnhems 
 and Speultsland, situated between 9 and 13 degrees, dis- 
 covered A.D. 1623. They are vast lands." On the return 
 of Pool's ships it was reported that they had " discovered 
 vast lands to which they gave the names of Van Diemen's 
 Ifcand Maria land, and which we suspect to^be^'Arnhem's 
 
 I 
 
244 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 and Speult's islands, though they extend in another direc- 
 tion than the latter." " Owing to untimely separation," 
 says a record of 1 644, " the yacht Arnhem, after discovering 
 the large islands of Arnhem and Speult, returned to 
 Amboyna." 
 Discovery of Later maps enable us to interpret these phrases with 
 land^^"^^ certainty, and to understand with some exactness what 
 happened to the Arnhem after separation " with malice 
 prepense " from the Pera. On the following days Easterly 
 winds blew. If the crew of the Arnhem had intended 
 to go to Aru to have a good time, they had to abandon that 
 intention. They were blown across the great Gulf, the 
 existence of which had been suspected ; and, on the other 
 side, they discovered " islands " and " vast lands," to 
 which they gave the names of their ship and of the Governor 
 of Amboyna who had sent them. '' Speultland," the land 
 of the wicked governor, villain of the Amboyna massacre, 
 has happily vanished from the map. Professor Heeres 
 guesses that it was Groote Eylandt. But the land to 
 the West of the Gulf is still named " Arnhem's Land." 
 It is the same vast land which Pool's men rediscovered 
 in 1636, and named after the new Governor-General Van 
 Diemen and his wife Maria, the vast land round the gulf 
 which is still named Van Diemen's Gulf. 
 Still no To the business mind the voyages of the Pera and the 
 
 th°Gulf^^ ° ^rw/^^m were complete failures. They had found " nothing 
 worth mentioning." Yet their services to the growth 
 of geographic knowledge had been considerable. In 
 terms of the modern map they had traced the length 
 of the Eastern coast, and had obtained some knowledge 
 of the Western coast, of the great Gulf which eventually 
 received the name of Governor-General Carpentier. 
 We must, however, be careful to observe that there was 
 as yet no knowledge of the bottom of the Gulf, no know- 
 ledge even that it was a Gulf. It was still possible to 
 guess that it was rather the opening of some great Ocean 
 passage to the South, dividing the land of Nova Guinea 
 (Cape York peninsula) from Arnhem's Land, and the 
 Great South land of Eendracht. 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 
 
 245 
 
 In January 1627 a voyage of singular interest was made, The Gulden 
 of which we have hardly any information. "The ^^"^^Y ^^IcoZls the 
 Register of what has happened here at Batavia from the 1st coast from 
 of January, 1627" has, Professor Heeres tells us, this entry : Leeuwinto 
 " On the 1 0th of April there arrived here from the Nether- Fowler's 
 lands the ship Gulden Seepaart, fitted out by the Zealand ^^' ^ ^^' 
 Chamber, having on board the Hon. Peter Nuyts, Extra-, 
 ordinary Councillor of India, having sailed from there 
 
 Part of Keppler's Map, 1630. (From Coote, Remarkable Maps.) 
 
 on the 22nd of May, 1626." "The Daily Register" 
 gives no hint that anything remarkable had happened 
 on the voyage ; and no journal or letter has survived 
 to tell its story. Yet there is evidence that this ship, 
 which sailed under skipper Frangois Thijssen, had made 
 discoveries of very remarkable interest. Gerritz's map 
 of 1627 ends Southward at the " Landt van de Leeuwin," 
 discovered in 1622. But there is another map by Gerritz,^ 
 which, though dated 1 61 8, contains facts of a later date. 
 One is inclined to guess that 1 61 8 is a printer's mistake, 
 and that the true date is 1628. And on this map the 
 
 ^ End of Heeres' Part borne by the Dutch. Cf. Keppler's map of 
 1630, above. 
 
246 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Why the 
 discovery 
 happened. 
 
 The 
 
 barrenness 
 of the land. 
 
 coastline runs Eastwards from the land of Leeuwin, past 
 (to use modern terms) King George's Sound, past the 
 Mount Barrens and Mount Arids described by FHnders, 
 past the hundred and forty-five leagues of cliffs which 
 line the Australian Bight, and past the head of the Bight 
 to Fowler's Bay ; while, slightly further again to J;he 
 South-East, are shown two groups of tiny islands which 
 are called, as they are still called on the modern map, 
 the islands of St. Francis and St. Peter. At the back 
 of the long bare coastline is the inscription " 't Landt 
 van P. Nuyts, discovered by the Gulden Zeepaerdt of 
 Middleburgh, 26 Jan., 1627." Our only other informa- 
 tion is the statement in a document of 1 644 that, " in 
 the year 1627, the South coast of the great South-land 
 was accidently discovered by the ship the Guide Zeepaert^ 
 outward bound from the Fatherland, for the space of 
 one thousand miles " (250 Dutch miles). ^ 
 
 That is the whole of our knowledge. For the rest, 
 we are left to conjecture. We may guess that the Gulden 
 Seepaart, ' sailing by accident out of the ordinary route, 
 saw the South coast Eastward of the Land of Leeuwin, 
 and, remembering perhaps the scheme which Coen had 
 drawn up in 1622, was tempted to follow the unknown 
 coast Eastward, did so for what seemed to them one thou- 
 sand miles, and, then returning, gave the new land the 
 name of their distinguished passenger the Hon. Pieter 
 Nuyts, and called the two httle groups of islands which 
 marked their furthest East by the sanctified names of 
 the same "Extraordinary Councillor" and of the ship's 
 skipper. 
 
 What report the Councillor and the Skipper made as 
 to the character of land discovered we do not know. But 
 we may form a guess sufficiently accurate by reading 
 the reports of the navigators who next followed in their 
 tracks — a century and three-quarters later ! In 1792 
 the French captain Dentrecasteaux sailed along the 
 Western portion of the coast surveyed by the Dutch 
 
 ^ Tasman, ed. Heeres, p. 148. It will be noted that the name of the 
 ship is spelt in various ways. Heeres writes Gulden Zeepaard. 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 247 
 
 in 1627, as far as the head of the Austrahan Bight. He 
 gave high praise to the accuracy of the Dutch chart, 
 and he gave French names to the Dutch discoveries ! 
 "It is not surprising," he writes, " that Nuyts has given 
 no details of the barren coast ; for its aspect is so uniform 
 that the most fruitful imagination could find nothing 
 to say of it." In January and February 1802,. Flinders 
 surveyed with most exact carefulness the whole length 
 of the coastline discovered by the Dutch to its furthest 
 East at Fowler's Bay, and the islands of St. Francis and 
 St. Peter. The furthest East of 1627- was still the furthest 
 East of 1802. In what direction the unknown coast 
 trended, "whether to the South Eastward for Bass's 
 Straits, or Northward for the Gulf of Carpentaria was," 
 writes Flinders, "altogether uncertain"; and he was there, 
 in the days of George III., to solve the problem suggested 
 by Dutch voyages which had taken place when Charles I. 
 sat on the English throne. From 133° to 146° was still 
 " traced upon the Charts under the title of unknown 
 coast.''' Like the French captain. Flinders paid his tribute 
 to the excellence of the Dutch Chart; "making allowance 
 for the state of navigation at that time, it is as correct 
 in form as could reasonably have been expected." And, 
 like the French captain, he wrote an account of the aspect 
 of the coast likely to suggest that the reason why De 
 Nuyts told so little of what he saw was that there was 
 so little to see that was worth the trouble of telling. We 
 read of mountains called " West, Middle, and East Mount 
 Barren," of " sand and stone without the slightest covering 
 of vegetation," of soil producing " a delightful harvest 
 to the botanist," but producing nothing to the herdsman 
 and cultivator ; " not a blade of grass, nor a square yard 
 of soil from which the seed delivered to it could be expected 
 back, was perceivable to the eye in its course over those 
 arid plains." The monotonous line of cliifs, five hundred 
 feet high, and one hundred and forty-five leagues long, 
 looked hke the " exterior line of a vast coral reef," and 
 suggested an interior of flat sandy plains or water. The 
 interior was, in fact, the "dreary and barren region" 
 
248 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 afterwards described by Eyre in his narrative of one of 
 the most dreadful journeys ever taken by land. At 
 Fowler's Bay, the point at which the Dutch gave up their 
 survey of the coastline, Flinders found " the same ridge 
 of barren land." In the islands he, like the Dutch, found 
 good anchorage, but he found no other good thing. The 
 islands were made of rocks and sand and chalk and " arid 
 sterihty." The thermometer showed 98° in the shade 
 and 125° in the sand. No wonder that the Councillor 
 E^xtraordinary, who visited the islands in January, thought 
 the time had come to sail home. One more voyage had 
 resulted in " nothing worth mentioning." 
 The Vyanen In 1 628 an important discovery was made on the North- 
 de wTtsiand West coast. A ship named Vyanen was driven ashore 
 in 21°, 1628. in about 21°. " She was forced to throw overboard 
 eight or ten lasts of pepper, and a quantity of copper, 
 upon which, through God's mercy, she got off again, with- 
 out further damage." The Dutch then sailed two hundred 
 miles along the coast, but came home without obtaining 
 any considerable information respecting the situation 
 and condition of this vast land, it only having been found 
 that it has barren and dangerous coasts, green fertile 
 fields, and exceedingly black barbarian inhabitants." 
 The new discovery is recorded in the chart of Gerritz 
 of " 1618," which was apparently brought up to date 
 in 1628. To the North-East of Willem's River, is drawn 
 a detached stretch of coastline with the legend " G. F de 
 Witsland, discovered 1628." We have evidence that 
 a man named G^rrit Frederikszoon de Witt sailed on 
 board the Vyanen. Opposite the coast are a number 
 of islands which are identified with " the chain of islands 
 of which the Monte Bello and the Barrow islands are 
 the principal, and certain islands of the Dampier 
 Archipelago." 
 
 But the coast that was always interesting to the Dutch 
 was the coast of " the land of D'Eendracht." They had 
 made this a regular landmark on their way from the 
 Cape to Batavia ; and the difficulty was to see it in about 
 26° without running on the almost invisible Abrolhos in 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 249 
 
 about 28|-°. The cartography of the coast had never coen is 
 
 been successfully accomplished, and Dutch ships were, nearly 
 
 •^ wrecked 
 
 said Coen, in "daily peril." In September 1627, as he on the 
 
 returned to Java for a second period of government, his Abrolhos, 
 ship suddenly one afternoon " came upon the land of 
 D'Eendracht" in 28J°. "We were," he says, "at less 
 than half a mile's distance from the breakers before per- 
 ceiving the same. If we had come upon this place in the 
 night time, we should have been in a thousand perils 
 with our ship and crew." The danger, he explains, was 
 largely due to the fact that Dutch ships made use of 
 various types of maps, and that these various types placed 
 the Abrolhos in very different places. According to the 
 " plane Charts," the ship was between three hundred and 
 fifty miles from land. According to the " Chart with 
 increasing degrees," land was a hundred miles away. 
 According to the "terrestrial globe," it was fifty miles 
 away. And, according to facts, they were almost on top. 
 of it. Here were matters to which most seamen pay 
 little attention, but they were " still daily bringing many 
 vessels into great perils." 
 
 Next year (1629) the greatness of the peril was shown The wreck of 
 by the shipwreck of the Batavia, sailing under Francois ^^^ Batavta 
 Pelsart. The shipwreck is the one coloured picture Abrolhos, 
 in the drab Dutch narrative, and it is coloured in hues ^^^^" 
 so ghastly that one is made inclined to praise the usual 
 drab. On the night of the 4th of June, Pelsart, sick in 
 bed, " felt the ship strike the rocks with a violent horrible 
 shock." The " Master," who had been in charge of the 
 steering, defended himself by saying that he thought 
 the whiteness of the froth was caused by the rays of the 
 moon ; and when asked what was to be done, and in what 
 part of the world they were, replied that " God only knew, 
 and that the ship was on an unknown reef." It was evident, 
 however, that the unknown reef was among the Abrolhos, 
 and that they were surrounded by rocks and shoals. No 
 land was in sight that seemed likely to remain above , 
 water at high tide, save " two small islets or cliffs " ; 
 and, " moved by the loud lamentations raised on board 
 
 k 
 
250 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Pelsart's 
 boat-trip 
 from the 
 Abrolhos to 
 North-West 
 Point. 
 
 " A barren 
 
 accursed 
 
 earth." 
 
 by women, children, sick people, and faint-hearted men," 
 they thought it best to land the greater part. Pelsart 
 tells the story in detail ; the difficult landing of one hundred 
 and .eighty persons on one barren rocky island, of forty 
 on another ; the brutal behaviour of the crew who made 
 themselves drunk with wine ; the discovery that water 
 had been forgotten ; the failure of the attempt to communi- 
 cate with the fast-breaking ship, which had at last to 
 be left with seventy men on board " on the very point 
 of perishing." 
 
 The survivors on the waterless islands were " not in 
 much better condition." It was resolved that Pelsart 
 should take a crew in the pinnace, should seek water 
 on the neighbouring islands or on the coast, and, if none 
 were found, should " at the mercy of God, continue the 
 voyage to Batavia." They found only brackish water 
 on the islands. The coast was " barren and rocky," 
 they failed to land, and were nearly overwhelmed by a 
 storm. They sailed North, and the coast " seemed to 
 us a barren accursed earth, without leafage or grass." 
 In 24° they saw smoke ; and, concluding that smoke meant 
 men and water, six men swam ashore on " a steeply rising 
 coast, full of rocks and stones, and with the surf running 
 violently." They saw four black men, stark naked, 
 creeping up to them on all fours, who ran away in full 
 career when approached. But they found no water, 
 and swam on board grievously wounded by the rocks. 
 They landed again in 23°, and found rain-water in the 
 cavities of a rock, and " somewhat quenched our cruel 
 thirst, which almost prevented us from dragging ourselves 
 along." But still there was no running water, and the 
 higher ground was still barren and unpromising, without 
 trees, shrubs or grass. They saw high ant-hills in all 
 directions, which from afar somewhat resembled huts 
 for the abode of men. And multitudes of flies " perched 
 on our mouths, and crept into our eyes." They went 
 on to 22° 17', and then struck for Batavia, where they 
 arrived on the 7th of July, " God be thanked and praised ! " 
 Pelsart in his pinnace had sailed from 28^-° to 22° 1 7 J', 
 
THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 251 
 
 i.e. from the Abrolhos to North-West Cape. All this coast 
 had been seen before, but not at such close quarters. 
 Pelsart's voyage established its reputation ; the reputation 
 of a coast where there were no harbours or good landings, 
 no water, plenty of ant-hills and flies, a barren and cursed 
 soil, and bad black natives. 
 
 Pelsart was given a frigate for the rescue of the people 
 on the Abrolhos. When he reached them on the 17th 
 of September, he observed that smoke still rose from 
 two islands. He approached one of them, and a boat 
 came alongside with four men who told a tale of horror. 
 
 Jerome Cornells, supercargo of the Batavia, was one Tragedy 
 of the seventy men whom Pelsart had been forced to leave AbroDios 
 upon the wreck. He floated thence upon the mainmast 
 for two days, and came to land on the larger of the two 
 islands. In the course of the voyage he had plotted 
 with the pilots and some others to seize the ship, and use 
 her for purposes of piracy. He now resumed the old 
 plan, and he and his friends signed a compact to seize 
 the ship in which Pelsart would come to their rescue. 
 They murdered all those on the island whom they dis- 
 trusted, thirty or forty altogether ; but forty-five joined 
 pieces of wood together, and drifted to a third island 
 on which a man named Weybehays had found water. 
 But the murderers attacked those on the smaller island, 
 and killed all the men. Then Cornells broke open the 
 chests of merchandise, and clothed his body-guard in 
 scarlet, embroidered with gold and silver. But his attack 
 on the company under Weybehays failed, and he was 
 taken prisoner. This was the story that Weybehays 
 now told Pelsart, warning him that the pirates still designed 
 to surprise him. And in fact two boats at once came 
 alongside, filled with men " covered with embroidery 
 of gold and silver, and with weapons in their hands." 
 Pelsart threatened to sink them, they surrendered, and 
 were put in irons. The wreck was found to be broken 
 into a hundred pieces, but several chests of silver were 
 recovered. Then Pelsart held a Council to determine 
 whether the prisoners should be tried on the spot, or should 
 
252 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 be carried to Batavia. Their numbers were large, and 
 treasure was on board. It was decided that delay would 
 be dangerous, and the prisoners were tried, condemned, 
 and executed. Then Pelsart sailed from " these luckless 
 Abrolhos." They managed to land on the coast, and' 
 Criminals put ashore two criminals ; — " God grant that this 
 maroone . punishment may ultimately redound to the service of the 
 Company, and that the two delinquents may come off 
 with their lives, so as to be able to give trustworthy 
 information about these parts." 
 
 Thus concludes a horrid story that seems to establish 
 the bad character, not only of D'Eendrachtsland, but 
 also of the service of the Dutch Company. In Pelsart's 
 narrative there is only one pleasant remark. He saw 
 Kangaroos, on the islands, he says, " a species of cat, which are very 
 strange creatures ; they are about the size of a hare, 
 their head resembling the head of a civet-cat ; the fore- 
 paws are very short, about the length of a finger. Its 
 hind legs are upwards of half an ell, and it walks on these 
 alone." Thus for the first time is introduced to the 
 European reader the tribe of Kangaroo. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Heeres' Tasman. 
 Walker's Early Tasmania. 
 
 Meanwhile nothing had been done to carry forward the Anthony 
 plan for systematic exploration, which had been devised Governor-^"' 
 by Coen in September 1622. " Our Masters " in Holland General, 
 were " instantly recommending the discovery of the ^ ^ * 
 South-land," and the Batavian officials were very willing ; 
 but they lacked ships, and were " prevented by voyages 
 of greater necessity." In January 1636, however, there 
 became Governor-General a man whose name is very 
 famous in our story, Anthony Van Diemen. As usual 
 we learn very little about our Dutchman, and as usual 
 the little that we do learn is not altogether satisfactory. 
 " Our manuscript memoirs," wrote Du Bois in 1763, ^ 
 " tell us that it was to escape the pursuit of his creditors 
 that he decided to go to the Indies, under a borrowed 
 name, and with a title that hardly distinguished him 
 from the common soldiers ; but his extraordinary skill 
 in the art of writing, and certain Placets which he drew 
 up for his comrades, were so admired that the Governor- 
 General of the time took him as clerk in the secretariate." 
 The fortunate clerk soon became " Ordinary Councillor 
 of the Indies," " Director General," Admiral of the fleet, 
 " First Councillor and Director General," and finally 
 Governor-General in January 1636. So good was it in 
 Batavia to have this " extraordinary skill in the art of 
 writing." 
 
 1 Du Bois, p. 116. 
 253 
 
254 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Instructions 
 for 
 
 Commander 
 Pool, 1636. 
 
 Problems in 
 
 Australian 
 
 geography. 
 
 Van Diemen was a reader as well as a writer. He read 
 those memorials of Quiros that had been printed and 
 translated, and he hoped to realise some of the great 
 Spanish ambition in Dutch form. But his first thought 
 was to push the scheme of exploration which had been 
 mapped by his patron Coen. And, in February 1636, 
 he issued " Instructions for Commander Gerrit Thomasz 
 Pool," who was to explore the lands East of Banda, and 
 furthermore " the South-lands thence extending to the 
 South-West" 
 
 Let us realise what in 1636 was known, and what was 
 unknown, of the coasts of "the South-lands." The Dutch 
 knew the West coast of Cape York Peninsula. They called 
 it Nova Guinea, and thought that it was probably con- 
 tinuous with our New Guinea, which they called " the 
 West end of Nova Guinea." They had some little know- 
 ledge also of Arnhem Land ; but they had no knowledge 
 of any land between Cape York Peninsula and Arnhem 
 Land. They called the sea between these two lands the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria, apparently because, when the Pera 
 and the Arnhem returned from the voyage of 1623, the 
 name of the Governor-General was Carpentier. But 
 was it a Gulf } Or was it the opening of a passage to the 
 South Sea } Who could say } Then West of Arnhem 
 Land, again, there was a huge gap in Dutch knowledge, 
 till you came to our Barrow Island and North- West Cape 
 in about 21°, where began the land of D'Eendracht, well 
 enough known as a very dangerous landmark. Was 
 this huge gap between Arnhem Land and D'Eendracht 
 Land all land, or was it all water, or was it islands and 
 Ocean passages ? From D'Eendracht Land, the Dutch 
 drew the outline of the coast Southward and then East- 
 ward, all the way to our Fowler's Bay, and to the Islands 
 of St. Francis and St. Peter. And there knowledge ended. 
 Was there land further East } Or would it be possible to 
 sail thence Northward up an East coast of D'Eendracht 
 Land, till you found yourself in the Gulf of Carpentaria 
 with Nova Guinea on your right } Here were problems 
 that were interesting, and whose solution might be profit- 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 255 
 
 Jpable. Landings had so far been disappointing ; but the 
 early landings of Columbus had also been disappointing. 
 Here in the South was Marco Polo's land of " Beach," 
 and any moment you might sail into a rich and civilised 
 
 I Kingdom, abounding in spices, in elephants, and in 
 gold. 
 Van Diemen instructed Pool to sail from Banda to Pool is to 
 Arnhem Land. Then he was to cross to Nova Guinea, ^ape York 
 and to sail down its coast to 17° 8', the furthest South to Cape 
 of the voyage of 1623, and then beyond ! Van Diemen ^^"^^"• 
 believed that this land of Nova Guinea joined the land 
 of D'Eendracht by an unbroken coastline, though no 
 doubt this was an uncertain speculation. Pool was there- 
 fore instructed to attempt to follow the coast from 17° 8' 
 to "as far as Houtman's Abrolhos in 28° and 29°, and 
 further still, if your provisions hold out, if the condition 
 of your crews will allow it, and if your yachts are proof 
 against the rough seas that prevail in the Southern Ocean 
 in ^^ and 34 degrees." Thence he was to return to Batavia, 
 and to try, in passing, " to touch at the Trials, that further 
 information about this rock, and its situation may be 
 obtained." 
 
 Everywhere, and especially in the Northern part of the Is the Gulf 
 voyage, Pool was to keep a sharp look out for the discovery channeU^ 
 of channels or openings that might give passage into the 
 South Sea, or prove that the South-land consisted of 
 islands. Such channels, if found, were to be explored. 
 In case it is found that the Gulf of Carpentaria is no gulf 
 but an opening of a great Ocean passage. Pool is to sail 
 the whole length of that passage along its Eastern side 
 till he reaches the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, 
 discovered by the Zeepaart in 1627. Thence he is to sail 
 back Northwards along the Western side of the passage 
 to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and thence proceed on the 
 route previously prescribed, Westward and Southward 
 to 33 or 34 degrees. 
 
 Pool is to look for the " Dutch delinquents " marooned 
 by Pelsart in 1 629, and is to grant them a passage 
 " if they should be alive to show themselves, and should 
 
256 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A place of 
 refreshment 
 between 26° 
 and 28°. 
 
 Arnhem's 
 land re- 
 discovered, 
 and called 
 Van 
 
 Diemen's 
 land. 
 
 The 
 
 Instructions 
 of August, 
 1642. 
 
 request you to bring them hither." He is also to look 
 in the coast between 26 and 28 degrees for some " fitting 
 place for obtaining refreshments and fresh water, seeing 
 that mainly about that Latitude scorbut and other 
 diseases begin to show themselves, at times carrying off 
 numbers of men," The natives are to be treated with 
 " great kindness, wary caution, and skilful judgement. 
 Whoever endeavours to discover unknown lands and 
 tribes, had need to be patient and long-suffering, 
 noways quick to fly out, but always keen on ingratiating 
 himself." 
 
 This grand scheme was not accomphshed. In April 
 1636 Pool sailed for New Guinea, but was " murdered 
 by the barbarous inhabitants at the same place where 
 the skipper of the Arnhem was killed in 1623." The voyage 
 was continued under Pietersen. But winds blew him 
 to " a new land," which he called Van Diemen's Land, 
 and afterwards identified with Arnhem Land. He came 
 home with the report that he had seen " many fires and 
 frequent clouds of smoke, but no natives, houses, prows, 
 or fruit-trees, though he had paddled close along the shore 
 with an orangebay, and gone ashore in places, finding 
 the shore wild and barren." The addition made to Dutch 
 knowledge was that Arnhem Land or Van Diemen's 
 Land was as " wild and barren " as all the other parts 
 of the South-land hitherto explored. 
 
 But Van Diemen did not abandon his high hopes. On 
 the contrary they rose higher. To complete discovery 
 of the South-land was an obvious scheme. But the South- 
 land itself was but one part that was being cut out of 
 the unknown Southern world. In 1 642 he and his Coun- 
 cillors devised the plan of a general survey of the whole 
 of the South Pacific. They had been busily reading 
 Quiros ; and the prologue to the " Instructions " which 
 they issued on the 13th of August, 1642, sounds like a 
 curious Dutch echo of a Quiros Memorial. It mentions 
 " the highly renowned naval heroes, Christopher Columbus 
 and Americus Vesputius " ; likewise " the famous Vasco 
 Da Gama, and other Portuguese captains." " With what 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 257 
 
 invaluable treasures, profitable trade-connection, useful A Dutch 
 trades, excellent territories, vast powers and dominions, >^"^^*^^' 
 have the Kings of Spain and Portugal, by these dis- 
 coveries and their consequences, enriched their Kingdoms 
 and crowns ! " And what " numberless multitudes of 
 blind heathen " have thereby " been introduced to the 
 blessed light of the Christian religion 1 " Yet, in spite 
 of these splendid facts, " up to this time no Christian 
 Kings, Princes, or Commonwealth have seriously endea- 
 voured to make timely discovery of the remaining unknown 
 part of the terrestrial globe, situated in the South, and 
 presumably almost as large as the Old and the New Worlds, 
 though there are good reasons to suppose that it contains 
 many excellent and fertile regions, like the gold and 
 silver-bearing provinces of Peru and Chili, which stand 
 in the same Southern Latitude, " so that it may be con- 
 fidently expected that the expense and trouble that must be 
 bestowed in the eventual discovery of so large a portion of 
 the world will be rewarded with certain fruits of material 
 profit and immortal fame." ^ The argument was the 
 argument of Quiros, and the thought about the salvation 
 of " numberless multitudes of blind heathen " sounds 
 strangely in the mouth of a Commercial Company whose 
 representative in Japan was complaining that profits 
 were being diminished by the false and scandalous accusa- 
 tion that the Dutch were interested in the progress of 
 Christianity. The Councillors came to firmer ground 
 when they claimed that the Dutch possessed great advan- 
 tages in the prosecution of the work in which the Spaniards 
 had failed. They had as permanent base of their work 
 the city of Batavia, " which is, as it were, the centre 
 of East India, both known and unknown^ Backed by 
 the resources of a strong and rich Commercial Company, 
 the able Dutch skipper, with carefully chosen cargo on 
 board, and nought in his mind but pounds, shillings, 
 and pence, would have far better chance of profitable 
 discovery than Don Quixote of Spain in command of 
 a ship containing all the virtues and all the vices of 
 1 Heeres' Tasman, p. 131. 
 
 W.A. R 
 
258 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Pilot 
 
 Frans 
 
 Visscher. 
 
 Visscher's 
 Memoir, 
 Jan. 1642. 
 
 He suggests 
 (i) a ivoyage 
 South of 
 Australia, 
 and back 
 by the 
 Solomons. 
 
 mankind. It was the day of the Oceanic Gradgrind, and 
 the Pacific was a matter of fact.^ 
 
 The man to whom the Governor- General chiefly looked 
 for technical advice was " the renowned Pilot, Frans 
 Visscher," a man who had good knowledge of all the regions 
 of the Eastern seas, and who was thought to have " greater 
 skill in the surveying of coasts and the mapping out of 
 lands than any of the steersmen present in these parts." ^ 
 So valuable was his assistance considered, that Van Diemen, 
 impatiently chafing against " the unexampled delay in the 
 arrivalof ships from Persia and Surat," was forced sorely 
 against his will " to detain him in this roadstead (Batavia) 
 for the space of nine months." ^ 
 
 Visscher spent the time well. In January 1642 he 
 wrote a " Memoir touching the discovery of the South- 
 land," * which laid down the fines on which the famous 
 voyage actually sailed, and which is, moreover, of singular 
 interest as indicating the vast schemes now breeding 
 in the minds of Dutch Pilots. The ships, he says, should 
 sail from Batavia about the middle of August, or the 1st 
 of September at latest. By so doing they would " use 
 the main part of the summer season and the long days 
 for making discoveries." It was desirable to call at 
 Mauritius to get water and firewood. This meant a voyage 
 of a month, and a stay of fifteen to twenty days. Then 
 they should " sail South with the sun " as far as 52° or 
 54°. By that time it would be the beginning of November, 
 " when in those Southern regions the longest days are 
 approaching, together with the most favourable weather, 
 and Northerly winds from time to time." This would 
 give three or three and a half months to make the dis- 
 coveries with minute care. In 52° or 54°, in case they 
 
 ^ " Thomas Gradgrind, Sir, a man of realities. A man of Facts 
 and Calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that 
 2 and 2 are 4, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing 
 for anything over ! With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplica- 
 tion table always in his pocket. Sir, ready to weigh and measure any 
 parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to " 
 (Dickens's Hard Times). 
 
 *Heeres' Tasman, p. 100. ^ Ih. p. 105. 
 
 * Ih. p. 141. See Tasman's map, p. 259. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 
 
 259 
 
26o 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 (2) The 
 
 thorough 
 
 exploration 
 
 of South 
 
 Pacific and 
 
 South 
 
 Atlantic. 
 
 (3) A voyage 
 from Cape 
 Horn to 
 the 
 
 Solomons 
 and back. 
 
 have met with no land, they should sail Eastward till 
 they met with land, or till they reached the Longitude 
 of the East side of New Guinea. Then, in the latter case, 
 they should sail North by West in order to fetch up New 
 Guinea. Or, as an alternative plan, they might run 
 further Eastward as far as the Longitude of the Solomons, 
 and then keep a Northward course in order to " discover 
 the said islands which be spread over so vast an area that 
 we could hardly miss them." " This seems to us the 
 best way of going to work, since we do not in the least 
 doubt that divers strange things will be revealed to us 
 in the Solomon Islands." They might return by way 
 of the North coast of New Guinea. 
 
 But the scheme, adds Visscher, might take a larger 
 form. The ships might start from the Netherlands, sai 
 to the Cape, run Southward to 54°, and then, on an Eastward 
 course, explore the whole South Pacific to the Longitude 
 of the Solomons. Or, a still larger variation, they might 
 sail from the Netherlands to the Straits of Le Maire — 
 i.e. the straits through which Le Maire had sailed in 1 61 5 
 between Tierra del Fuego and Staten Land — thoroughly 
 explore Staten Land (suspected to be part of Terra Aus- 
 tralis), and then sail Eastward right away to the Longitude 
 of the Solomons, in a voyage that would explore the 
 South Atlantic as well as the South Pacific ; "in which 
 way one would become acquainted with all the utterly 
 unknown provinces of Beach " — Marco Polo's Beach, 
 still waiting, full of elephants and spices and gold, for its 
 new discoverer — " and could return to Amboyna or Banda 
 by the aforesaid route Northward of New Guinea." 
 
 This would leave only one region of the Southern world 
 unexplored, the region between Cape Horn and the Longi- 
 tude of the Solomons. Visscher suggests that it would 
 be well, in order to attack this difficult problem, that the 
 Dutch should possess " some fitting refreshing station " 
 on the coast of Chili. Hence ships might run with the 
 trade wind to the Latitude 12° to 15°, " where the Solomon 
 Islands are currently believed to lie." If the current 
 belief proved correct, the ships could get refreshment 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 261 
 
 at the Solomons. Then " one would have to do one's 
 
 best to get to the South and to fall in with the Westerly 
 
 winds, even if it were as far South as 50° or until land 
 
 were met with." With these Westerly winds one could 
 
 sail Eastward again as far as the Straits of Le Maire, or 
 
 the ancient Straits of Magellan ; by which methods one 
 
 will be enabled to discover " the Southern portion of the 
 
 world all round the Globe, and to find out what it consists 
 
 of, whether land, sea, or icebergs, all that God has ordained 
 
 there." All that would then remain unexplored would 
 
 be the region between Nova Guinea and D'Eendrachtsland. 
 
 Visscher recommends a plan for its exploration similar (4) A voyage 
 
 to that which Van Diemen had recommended in his in- yo^ tcT^^ 
 
 structions to Pool. Let ships sail down the coast of West 
 
 Nova Guinea, and go on till they come to 22°. 
 
 Had Visscher been able to accomplish these great 
 schemes he would have left Cook little to do save to admire 
 the work of his predecessor. It was determined that an 
 attempt should be made at least to accomplish some 
 large part of them. All conditions were favourable. 
 Governor-General and Councillors were " greatly inclined 
 to forward the navigation." The " Worshipful Masters " 
 in Holland highly approved. There was " no want of 
 able skippers and skilful steermen, much less, thanks 
 to God, of victuals, and all sorts of necessaries required 
 for such voyage." ^ The trouble, as usual, was to find 
 ships and sailors that could be spared from " voyages 
 of greater necessity." But the new peace with Portugal 
 gave an opportunity, " though for how long the good 
 God only knows ! " Visscher had to be kept nine months 
 in Batavia, because of unexampled delay in the return 
 of ships from Persia and India. But, at last, difficulties 
 were overcome, and on the 1st of August, 1642, Governor- 
 General and Council passed a resolution " to despatch 
 for the discovery and exploration of the supposed rich 
 Southern and Eastern lands, etc., the ship Heemskerck, 
 
 and the flute Zeehan.'' The commander is to be the ■'^^^"^^^ ^ 
 
 commander, 
 
 Hon. Abel Janssen Tasman, who " is now strongly inchned Aug. 1642. 
 ' ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 137. 
 
262 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 to this discovery," and he is to be " seconded by the 
 Pilot Major Frans Visscher." 
 Tasman's Of the Hon. Abel Janssen Tasman we have little know- 
 character, ledge, and it is doubtful that we should wish to have more. 
 The complete researches of our modern Dutch scholar, 
 Professor Heeres, while robbing him of the one touch of 
 humanity that used to be attributed to him — his supposed 
 love of the daughter of a Governor-General who, it turns 
 out, was daughterless — have discovered not one fact, 
 save superior technical skill, that could give him favour- 
 able distinction among the crowd of "able skippers and 
 skilful seamen," of whom there was " no want " in Batavia. 
 His services, remarkable as they now appear, were appre- 
 ciated by his employers in a singularly critical and grudging 
 spirit. On the one occasion in which his personal action 
 came into prominence it was greatly to his discredit, 
 and seemed to reveal a nature coarse-grained, and even 
 brutal. The society of Batavia was not a society likely 
 to be squeamish in its moral judgment, but it thought 
 that Tasman in his later years was unworthy to serve it 
 as Church elder. In short, we are forbidden to imagine 
 Tasman as a man of heroic nature, of high ideals, or of 
 personal charm. We must be content to take him as 
 Van Diemen and his Council took him ; — an able and 
 businesslike skipper, whom they could wisely trust to 
 command the ships that were to make the Pacific a Dutch 
 Ocean. 
 His early Our modern scholar has proved that Tasman was born 
 ^ ®* in 1603 in the little village of Luytjegast in the province of 
 
 Groningen. Of his early years we know nothing, save 
 the fact that he learned to write, and " even showed no 
 inconsiderable talent in committing his ideas and experi- 
 ences to paper ; a gift uncommon among servants of 
 the Company." ^ A document of December 163 1, which 
 records his intention to marry a second time, describes 
 him as a " common sailor," and as living in one of the 
 poorest quarters in Amsterdam. In 1633 he came to 
 Batavia, as servant of the Company. In 1634 he was 
 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 7, 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 263 
 
 ^skipper of a yacht ; and from that time " we can trace 
 his career from day to day." We find him, in the records, 
 'Seeking safe routes among the dangerous seas, chastising 
 rebelHous islanders, cruising in search of smugglers. His 
 [crew on one occasion accused him of having sold their 
 [victuals to the natives ; but the accusation is held by the 
 ^modern critic to be not proven. 
 
 In 1639 Tasman sailed, as second in command, in a Golden 
 fvoyage to discover famous islands which, according to ^J^^h^ ^" 
 
 persistent story, existed in the North Pacific, Eastward Pacific, 
 of Japan. Long ago, the story said, Spanish ships had 
 been driven by a storm to " a large and high-rising island," 
 where " gold and silver were almost to be picked up at 
 discretion on the shore," and where " the kettles and other 
 cooking utensils of the natives were made of these metals." ^ 
 Attempts to rediscover the island had failed ; and it 
 was piously believed that " the Lord God, considering 
 the wickedness of the Spanish projects, may have 
 frustrated their plan, being unwilling to allow the 
 poor natives to be robbed of their heritage and posses- 
 sions." The Lord God, in short, was reserving another 
 good thing for His Dutchmen. The Government at 
 Batavia, then, thought well of the plan. Likely enough 
 the islands would be found to contain good gold and silver, 
 and would provide an excellent market for cloth. The 
 Directors in Holland pushed the proposal with enthusiasm. 
 " The gold-bearing island " would be the one thing that 
 the Company needed " to get over its heavy burdens, 
 and come into the real enjoyment of the profits of the 
 East Indian trade." 
 
 In June 1639 two ships sailed on this quest under a The voyage 
 seaman named Quast, with Tasman second in command, and T?sman 
 In case they failed to find the golden islands, they were 1639. 
 to explore Corea and Tartaria ; for trade with these coun- 
 tries, it was believed, would prove some compensation 
 in case, " contrary to our hopes, the trade to Japan should 
 prove less profitable in the future." If unfavourable 
 winds made this plan impossible, the ships were to sail 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. i8. 
 
264 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 to the Ladrones " in order to find out the exact Rendez- 
 vous of the Spanish ships " that sailed from America 
 to Manila, so that " the Company's ships may be enabled 
 to cruise with more hope of success in search of that rich 
 booty." 
 
 These instructions show once more how far-reaching 
 were the Dutch plans. North Pacific as well as South 
 Pacific must be included in the Dutch Ocean. But the 
 Failure. voyage was a failure. They sailed over six hundred 
 
 leagues to the East of Japan, but they did not find the 
 golden islands. They resolved to explore the coasts 
 of Corea and Tartaria, but were prevented by disease. 
 They came back " in very bad plight," having lost nearly 
 half their men. 
 
 But the Dutch did not know when they were beaten. 
 Though they " had not seen any land, they had observed 
 numerous unmistakable signs of the same." Tasman 
 was eager to be off again on the same voyage, and the 
 Directors determined to send him " in the course of next 
 year 1641" He made a Chart, which together with Quast's 
 journal, formed the basis of later exploration in the North 
 Pacific. But when the Dutch ships next sailed North, 
 it was in 1643, and under another captain. Tasman 
 was busy elsewhere. In 1641 he was engaged in the 
 very lucrative but very precarious trade in Japan, where 
 the Dutch were vainly protesting that they, unlike the 
 Portuguese, might be trusted to make no attempt to 
 convert people to Christianity. He was also in Cambodia, 
 chasing Cambodian ships that sought to carry Portuguese 
 goods to Japan. Early in 1642 he was in Sumatra, dealing 
 with a certain Chinaman, high in favour at court, and 
 " putting great affronts upon us." Tasman lured him 
 on board by pretence of friendship, put him in 
 Tasman sails irons, and shipped him to Batavia. Six weeks later, 
 °" ■ he was ready to take command of the voyage " for the 
 
 discovery and exploration of the supposed rich Southern 
 and Eastern lands," and " strongly inclined to this 
 discovery." Tasmania was to be not in North Pacific 
 but in South. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 265 
 
 On the 13th of August, 1642, Tasman's " Instructions" His 
 were issued.^ They had been drafted by the Hon. Justus AlTgygt 
 Schouten, Councillor Extraordinary of India, and approved 1642. 
 by the Governor-General and Council. The prologue, 
 as we have seen, was a Dutch echo of the call of Quiros, 
 whose name and exploits, however, are not mentioned. 
 But the business part of the instructions was " drawn 
 up in conjunction with Pilot Visscher," and in the main 
 expressed the recommendations of his Memoir. Tasman 
 was to sail next day, the 14th of August, with the South- 
 East trade-wind for Mauritius, where he was to take in He is to sail 
 water, fire-wood, and refreshments. Then he was to sail Mauritius 
 Southward till he got into the West trade-wind ; and South of 
 again further South "till you come upon the unknown ^^ ^j^g 
 South Land, or as far as S. Lat. 52° or 54°." In case he Solomons, 
 did not discover land here, he was to sail due East to the 
 Longitude of the Eastern point of New Guinea, or of the 
 Solomon Islands, or even eight hundred miles beyond. 
 If land was met, it was to be coasted Eastward to the 
 same point ; and all its features were to be surveyed and 
 mapped out by the able draughtsmen. Tasman was 
 to be careful to waste no time, and to make the most 
 of the summer season, and the favourable weather " when 
 you will be able to sail on by day and by night alike." 
 A great deal was to be discovered in a short time. 
 
 Tasman, however, was given permission to sail a different unless he 
 route, should he choose to do so. Instead of sailing fj'^there is^a^ 
 Eastward so far as the Longitude of the Solomons, he channel from 
 might, if he preferred, seek to complete the work of the ^^e clflf. 
 Gulden Zeepaart^ and to solve the problem, which in fact 
 remained unsolved to the time of Flinders, as to whither 
 the coastline of the South-land went from the point, near 
 the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, at which the 
 
 ^ Cf. the summary of objects in the letter of the Governor-General 
 and the Council to the Seventeen, 12th December, 1642 (Heeres' 
 Tasman, p. 138). They are asked to pray that the voyage " may 
 redound to the benefit and increase of God's Church, and to the con- 
 version of many blinded heathen, to the profit of the Company's 
 shareholders, and to the credit of our country, and especially to the 
 honour of the discoverers." The letter also insists on the hope of 
 discovering " a better and shorter route from here to Chili." 
 
266 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 explorers of 1627 had left it. Tasman might, if he chose, 
 sail Northward to this point, and thence follow the coast 
 Eastward " to ascertain how far it extends, and whether 
 the discovered South-land joins Nova Guinea " {i.e. whether 
 the coast of the Australian Bight is connected in an un- 
 broken way with Cape York Peninsula) "or whether it is 
 separated from the same by channels or passages." In 
 case Tasman found that the latter alternative was the 
 truth, he might sail through the channel or passage to 
 its Northern end, and thence, turning Westward, explore 
 the mainly unknown region between Cape Keerweer 
 (on Cape York Peninsula), and Willem's River (the Ash- 
 burton River }), the Northernmost limit of the land of 
 D'Eendracht. Tasman might take this course if, after 
 mature consideration, he thought it best to do so. But 
 the Governor-General and Council considered it probable 
 that no such channel existed. They thought it to be 
 most likely that those lands (Nuytsland and Nova Guinea) 
 join each other without a break. And their judgment 
 was that it would prove better to follow the route first 
 proposed, and to keep on a far-Southward line as far East 
 as the Longitude of East New Guinea, or the Solomons, 
 or eight hundred miles beyond. One. great object was 
 to find a short route to Chili, in order to " do great 
 things with the Chilese, and to snatch rich booty from the 
 Castilian." And, on the whole, this Easterly course 
 seemed to offer the best chance of finding this route. 
 From the From his Easternmost point Tasman was, assuming it 
 
 to East"^ proved practicable, to sail with theSouth-East trade-wind for 
 New Guinea, the Solomons. He was to explore them if he could find 
 them ; and thence he was to " sail Northward and West- 
 ward, South or North of the islands, if such they are, 
 towards the East coast of New Guinea." He was given a 
 " Spanish description of New Guinea and of the Solomons," 
 and a " vocabulary of certain words of the languages 
 of the Solomons, New Guinea, and the adjacent islands." 
 It was hoped that he would come home able to throw 
 light on the baffling geographical problems bequeathed 
 by Mendafia, Quiros, and Le Maire. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 267 
 
 Having found the East coast of New Guinea, Tasman 
 was to sail the North coast in the tracks of Le Maire. 
 At the Western extremity he was to find some passage 
 Southward, and to sail through it, if possible, about " the 
 unsettled month of April, in order to reach Cape Keerweer Through 
 (on Cape York Peninsula) before the Eastern monsoon to^cape^^^^^ 
 begins to stiffen." Then he was to sail Westward with Keerweer, 
 this monsoon till he came to Willem's River (Ashburton ^he coast 
 River ?) i.e. the Northern hmit of the land of D'Eendracht. to Wiiiem's 
 He was definitely to endeavour to ascertain whether 
 in the course of the unknown region he would pass, and 
 especially near Cape Keerweer and Willem's River, there 
 were channels or passages Southward, for such channels 
 and passages would be "of the utmost importance for 
 getting speedily into the South Sea." It was expected 
 that Tasman would reach Willem's River between May 
 and July 1643, ^^id he was to sail thence straight to 
 Java. 
 
 The natives were to be treated with kindness, and none Prospects 
 were to be carried off against their will. But caution ° *^^ ^' 
 also was to be shown, " seeing it is well known that the 
 Southern regions are peopled by fierce savages." In 
 spite of the expectations that had been expressed — in 
 words stolen from Quiros — of wealthy lands in the un- 
 known South, it is now declared, in plain Dutch, to be 
 " unhkely " that Tasman would " happen to come to any 
 country peopled by civilised men." If he did so, however, 
 he was to treat them with respect, and not to annex their 
 country till he had obtained their consent. He was 
 to bring them to profitable trade, and to conceal the fact 
 that the Dutch valued gold and silver. The ships sailed 
 well prepared for any trade they might come to. The 
 Bill of Lading shows the Voyage of the South-land debtor to 
 the Office of Batavia for f. 2965 .16.12 for goods on board, 
 which are enumerated in detail in lists which illustrate 
 the extensiveness of Dutch commerce. Among the goods 
 for which it was hoped to find customers in the South-lands 
 were silk, Guinea linen, Golconda blankets, sandal-wood, 
 Dutch steel and Surat chintzes. 
 
268 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The 
 
 Heemskerk 
 and 
 
 Zeehaen. 
 
 Tasman's 
 Journal. 
 
 The ships 
 sail, 14th 
 Aug. 1642. 
 
 Mauritius, 
 5th Sept. 
 to 8th Oct. 
 
 Sixty men sailed on the Heemskerk, and fifty on the 
 Zeehaen. The ships were victualled for twelve months, 
 and had rice for eighteen. Two days a week were meat 
 days, and one day was bacon day. One mutchkin and 
 a half of arrack was allowed each day. 
 
 Tasman was instructed to keep " an ample and elabo- 
 rate journal," and the instruction was well obeyed. He 
 kept a " daily register," illustrated by careful drawings, 
 and on this record was based the " Journal or Description " 
 which he handed in, under his signature, to the Governor- 
 General and Council as the official report of his voyage. 
 Extracts from it were afterwards printed. Cook and 
 Banks had one of these extracts on board the Endeavour, 
 and highly interesting they found it. Later, Banks managed 
 to buy a complete copy of the Journal. Recently Pro- 
 fessor Heeres has pubhshed a facsimile of the original 
 manuscript which still exists in the Colonial Archives 
 at the Hague. It is written in the hand, not of Tasman, 
 but of some unknown Government ofhcial. But it bears 
 Tasman's signature, and is evidently based on the " daily 
 register," which, it seems, has disappeared.^ Thus it 
 begins : — " Journal or Description drawn up by me. Abel 
 Janssen ^ Tasman, of a voyage made from Batavia in East 
 India, for the discovery of the unknown South-land, 
 in the year of our Lord 1 642, the 14th of August. May 
 God Almighty vouchsafe His blessing on this work. 
 Amen." 
 
 They came to Mauritius on the 5th of September, having 
 accomplished in twenty-two days a voyage for which 
 Visscher had allowed at least a month. They came in 
 condition so bad that some explanation is needed beyond 
 the difficulty of getting ships for a voyage of discovery. 
 The Governor of the island wrote that " their outfit for 
 a voyage of such a nature was hopelessly unsatisfactory," 
 and that the upper work of the Zeehaen was " so rotten 
 that a great part had to be repaired and renewed." They 
 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 67. 
 
 2 The second name is sometimes spelled Janssen, sometimes Janszoon, 
 Tasman in his signature wrote Jansz. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 269 
 
 left Mauritius on the 8th of October, having spent thirty- 
 three days there instead of the fifteen or twenty allowed 
 by Visscher's time-table. They were still, however, 
 in good time. His point had been that they must be 
 at work far South by the beginning of November ; and 
 on the 1st of November they were already in 47°. On 
 the 6th they were in 49° 4', which was to be their furthest The 
 South. The weather had not been as good as weather gouth^ 
 should be in early summer. A few days before they had 
 been beset by " dense fog and darkness," that made it 
 " hardly possible to survey known shores, let alone 
 to discover unknown land." And now " the sea ran 
 very high, and our men began to suffer badly from severe 
 cold." This was discouraging. The plan had been 
 to sail as far South as 52° or 54°. But now, on the 6th 
 of November, Visscher handed in a formal note advising 
 that they should make for 44°, should sail along that line 
 of Latitude to the 150th degree of Longitude {i.e. the 130th 
 from Greenwich), then Northward to 40° S. Lat., then 
 once more Eastward to the 220th degree of Longitude ■ 
 (the 1 60th from Greenwich), whence they should make 
 Northward for the Solomons.^ 
 
 Visscher's advice was accepted by the Council of Officers Tasman 
 on the Heemskerk. In order to get the opinion of those ^^^^^ ^^^** 
 on the Zeehaen, the documents were enclosed " in a wooden 
 canister-shot-case duly waxed, and closely wrapped up 
 in a tarred canvas, which was set adrift from the stern- 
 part of the poop " ; and " those of the Zeehaen hoisted 
 the Prince-flag in sign of approbation." So, by the 9th 
 of November, they were in Latitude 44°, and sailing an 
 Easterly course. It was noted that the sea was " still 
 running high from the South-West," which seemed to 
 show that there was no mainland in that direction. On 
 the 17th, they calculated that in Longitude they had 
 " already passed the South-land, known up to the present, 
 that is so far as Pieter Nuyts had run to Eastward." 
 There seems to have been no thought of taking advantage 
 of the permission that had been given to pick up the 
 1 Walker, p. 203. 
 
270 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 thread of De Nuyts's discovery, and to ascertain whither 
 
 his coasthne trended. Visscher preferred " gradually 
 
 to deviate more to the Northward " ; a decision which 
 
 left to Flinders, one hundred and sixty years later, the 
 
 task of discovering what lay to the East of Fowler's Bay, 
 
 and the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis. 
 
 Discoveryof On the 23rd of November, they estimated they were 
 
 DLmen's ^^ Latitude 42° 50', Longitude 162° 5' (from Teneriffe), 
 
 Land, 24th and that " the West side of New Guinea must be North 
 
 ^°^' of us. " Next day," in the afternoon about 4 o'clock, 
 
 we saw land bearing East by North of us at about ten 
 
 miles distance by estimation ; the land we sighted was 
 
 very high ; towards evening we also saw East-South- East 
 
 of us three high mountains, and to the North-East two 
 
 more mountains, but less high than those to the Southward. 
 
 . . . This land being the first we have met with in the South 
 
 Sea, and not known to any European nation, we have 
 
 conferred on it the name of Anthony van Diemenslandt, 
 
 in honour of the Hon. Governor-General, our illustrious 
 
 • master, who sent us to make the discovery ; the islands 
 
 circumjacent, so far as known to us, we have named 
 
 after the Hon. Councillors of India, as may be seen from 
 
 the httle chart which has been made of them," 
 
 Tasman had come to the West coast of the island that now 
 bears his name. "It is probable," writes Mr. Walker, ^ 
 " that the first land seen was the mountainous country 
 to the North of Macquarie Harbour." The two mountains 
 were identified by Flinders, the voyager who next sailed 
 that way, in 1798, and were named by him Mount Heems- 
 kerck and Mount Zeehan. Sailing South, Tasman noted 
 on the 28th " an islet which in shape resembles a lion " 
 (" the Mewstone "), and on the 29th " we passed two 
 rocks of which the Westernmost " (" Peter's Banks," 
 says Mr. Walker, p. 130) "was hke Pedra Branca off 
 the coast of China ; the Easternmost was like a tall obtuse 
 square tower." " In the evening about 5, we came before 
 a Bay, which seemed likely to afford a good anchorage ; 
 upon which we resolved with our ship's Council to run 
 ^ Walker, p. 129. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 271 
 
 into it. We had nearly got into the Bay, when there arose 
 
 so strong a gale that we were obliged to take in sail, and storm Bay. 
 
 to run out to sea again under reduced sail, seeing that it 
 
 was impossible to come to anchor in such a storm." The 
 
 Bay is named on Tasman's Chart "Storm Bay."^ Furneaux 
 
 anchored in it in 1773, and called it "Adventure Bay." 
 
 Tasman's name of "Storm Bay" has been transferred 
 
 to the wider opening, at the entrance to which lies his 
 
 Storm Bay. The gale which prevented him from anchoring 
 
 where Furneaux anchored one hundred and thirty years 
 
 later prevented him also from sailing the modern Storm 
 
 Bay, and the River Derwent, to the site of Hobart. 
 
 Driven off from the shore by wind and current so far 
 that they " could barely see the land," they rounded 
 " Tasman's eyland " (" the Pillar " in modern maps), 
 and " De Suyd Cap " (the modern Tasman peninsula), 
 and sailed Northward up the East coast. On the afternoon 
 of the 1st of December, it was resolved " to touch at the 
 land both to get better acquainted with its condition, 
 and to procure refreshment for our own behoof ; and, about 
 one hour after sunset, we dropped anchor in a good harbour. The landing 
 for all which it behooves us to thank God Almighty with P^^^^' 
 grateful hearts." " The position of the anchorage as 
 shown in Tasman's Chart," explains Mr. Walker, ^ " is 
 North-west of the rocks now called Green Island, just 
 North of the basaltic cliffs of Cape Frederick Henry." ^ 
 The scenery, Mr. Walker tells us, is " unaltered after two 
 and a half centuries." The coast is still " wild and rugged 
 and scarcely known except to the hardy fisherman. . . . 
 The country inland is poor, almost without water, covered 
 with thin gum forest, scrub, and meagre grass. It is only 
 the shore that is interesting. The rocky headlands, cliffs, 
 and islands, against which the ocean dashes are rent 
 and scarred by sudden fissures and chasms, into which 
 the waves rush roaring and tumbling. Between the 
 
 1 See map, p. 273. 2 p j^i. 
 
 3 In the Admiralty chart this point is named C. Frederick Hendrik. 
 See J. Moore-Robinson's Record of Tasmanian Nomenclature, and 
 Clive L. Lord's The Early Explorers of Tasmania. 
 
272 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 points lie a variety of lovely bays, now a broad white beach 
 with long rollers of broken surf, now a rocky nook, now 
 a quiet and sheltered cove." ^ 
 
 Modern Map of Part of Tasmania. 
 
 Bmery Walker Ltd. sc 
 
 Kackman's Next day (2nd December), early in the morning, Visscher 
 
 Bay, 2nd 
 Dec 
 
 was sent in command of the boats to a bay four miles 
 
 to the North-West— the modern Blackman's Bay. They 
 
 returned, bringing samples of vegetables and making 
 
 * Walker, p. 132. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 
 
 273 
 
 a report which, Mr. Walker tells us,^ is still " thoroughly 
 characteristic of the Eastern shores of Blackman's Bay." 
 They had " found high but level ground, covered with 
 vegetation, not cultivated, but growing naturally by the 
 will of God, abundance of excellent timber, and a gently 
 
 ,4^ i 
 
 Tasman's Map of Anthony Van Diemen's Land. 
 (From The Journal of Tasman, ed. by J. E. Heeres.) 
 
 sloping watercourse in a barren valley, the said water, 
 though of good quality, being difficult to procure, because 
 the watercourse was so shallow that the water could 
 be dipped with bowls only." They had heard certain 
 human sounds, and also sounds nearly resembling the 
 music of a trump or a small gong, not far from them, though 
 they had seen no one. They had " seen two trees about 
 1 Ih. p. 134. 
 
274 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 two or two and a half fathoms in thickness, measuring 
 from sixty to sixty-five feet from the ground to the lower- 
 most branches, which trees bore notches made with flint 
 implements, the bark having been removed for the purpose. 
 These notches, forming a kind of steps to enable persons 
 to get up trees and rob the birds' nests in their tops, were 
 
 Giants ! fully five feet apart, so that our men concluded that the 
 natives must be of very tall stature, and must be in posses- 
 sion of some sort of artifice for getting up the said trees. 
 On the ground they had observed certain footprints of 
 animals, not unlike those of a tiger's claws. They brought 
 on board a small quantity of gum of a seemingly very 
 fine quality, which exuded from trees and bore some re- 
 semblance to gum-lac. The land is generally covered 
 with trees, standing so far apart that they allow a passage 
 everywhere, and a look-out to a great distance, so that, 
 when landing, our man could always get sight of natives 
 and wild beasts, unhindered by dense shrubbery and 
 underwood, which would prove a great advantage in 
 • exploring the country." 
 
 Possession Next day (3rd December), the two boats put off again. 
 
 ^^d^D ^^^ ^^^ shore to take formal possession. " We carried 
 with us a pole with the Company's mark carved into it, 
 and a Prince-flag to be set up there, that those who come 
 after us may become aware that we have been here, and 
 have taken possession of the said land as our lawful pro- 
 perty." A stiff wind and a high sea compelled one boat to 
 pull back, and prevented the other from landing. " We 
 then ordered the carpenter to swim to the shore alone, 
 with the pole and flag. We made him plant the said 
 pole about the centre of the Bay " — Prince of Wales's 
 Bay, says Mr. Walker ^ — " near four tall trees, easily recog- 
 nisable, and standing in the form of a crescent exactly 
 before the one standing lowest," which is a tree crowned 
 by two long dry branches, which " look hke the large 
 antlers of a stag," while one of its lower branches looks 
 like " the upper part of a larding pin." Then " we pulled 
 back to the ships, leaving the above-mentioned as a 
 1 Walker, p. 134. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 275 
 
 memorial for those who shall come after us, and for the 
 natives of this country, who did not show themselves, 
 though we suspect some of them were at no great 
 distance and closely watching our proceedings." Those 
 who came after Tasman could not have failed to recognise 
 his landmarks had they come after him in reasonable 
 time ; but a century and a half was to pass before they 
 arrived. 
 
 Next day, the 4th of December, Tasman sailed North- Eastward 
 ward to seek a better watering-place. He sailed past jf^^^' "^ 
 islands to which he gave the names of Maria — who was 
 the wife, not the daughter, of the Governor-General — 
 and the two Councillors Schouten and Verdelius ; the 
 last of these islands has proved to be a peninsula. " At 
 this point the land fell off to the North-West, so that 
 we could no longer steer near th^ coast here, seeing that 
 the wind was almost ahead." A full Council was called, 
 and it was decided to resume the plan that had been 
 interrupted by the discovery of Van Diemen's Land, 
 that is, to sail due Eastward to the Longitude of the Solo- 
 mons. This decision did not please the Governor-General 
 and Council. Some censure seems to be implied in the 
 words of their Report to the Masters at Amsterdam : — 
 " which land they have christened Anthony Van Diemen's 
 land, without, however, being aware how far it extends 
 to North-West and North-East, and without communi- 
 cating with any of its inhabitants." Why did they not 
 insist on an interview with the giants who could climb 
 trees in five-feet strides } Why did they not inquire 
 whether Van Diemen's Land was connected with Nuyts's 
 Land to the North-West, or with Nova Guinea to the 
 North } Tasman sailed away, and left these problems 
 to be solved by Flinders and Bass in 1798. 
 
 As Tasman sailed Eastward, he noted that heavy swells The dis- 
 continued from the South-West, which again proved ^Sw^^ 
 that there was no mainland in that direction. On the 13th Zealand, 
 of December, towards noon, he saw " a large high-lying ^^ ^^' 
 land being South-East of us at about sixty miles distance." 
 He had reached the West coast of the South Island of New 
 
276 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Zealand. He sailed Northwards, describing, both in Journal 
 and in Charts, the prominent features of the coast in such 
 a way that they can be easily identified by the modern 
 student.^ On the i6th, he reached a point at which " the 
 land fell off so abruptly that we did not doubt that this 
 was the furthest extremity." In fact it was the Cape 
 which the next visitor, Cook in 1770, called Cape Fare- 
 well, the Northernmost point of the South Island. Round- 
 ing this point, they " saw a large open bay " and resolved 
 to "try to get ashore here and find a good harbour" 
 (i8th December). They anchored,^ and two prows came 
 towards them. "The men began to call out to us in a 
 rough hollow voice, but we could not understand a word 
 of what they said." They also blew several times on 
 an instrument of which the sound was " like that of a 
 Moorish trumpet." The Dutch trumpeters replied, and 
 the natives paddled home. 
 The Maori. Next day, they came again, but the Dutch again failed 
 to understand their speech by use of their vocabularies of 
 New Guinea and the Solomons. They got a good view^, 
 however, of the men, and wrote the first European descrip- 
 tion of the Maori. " As far as we could observe, these 
 people were of ordinary height. They had rough voices 
 and strong bones. The colour of their skin was between 
 brown and yellow. They wore tufts of black hair right 
 upon the tops of their heads, tied fast in the manner of the 
 Japanese at the back of their heads, but somewhat longer 
 and thicker, and surmounted by a large, thick, white 
 feather. Their boats consisted of two long narrow prows 
 side by side, over which a number of planks or other seats 
 were placed. Their paddles are upwards of a fathom in 
 length, narrow and pointed at the end. With these 
 vessels they could make considerable speed. For clothing 
 it seemed to us some of them wore mats, others cotton 
 stuffs. Almost all of them were naked from the shoulders 
 
 1 See exact explanation of the detail in M'Nab's From Tasman to 
 Marsden, pp. 4 to 15. 
 
 2 Tasman's anchorage was " in Golden Bay, off Waramanga Beach, 
 two miles W. by N. ^ N. of Separation Point " (M'Nab's From Tasman 
 to Marsden, p. 9). 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 
 
 277 
 
 to the waist." The draughtsman drew a picture of them in 
 exact accordance with this description. 
 
 The Dutch invited them on board by showing white 
 hnen and knives. But they would come no nearer than 
 a stone's throw, and again paddled away. The Dutch, 
 however, thought that their meaning was friendly, and 
 
 Tasman's Picture of Maoris. 
 (From the Journal of Tastnan, ed. by J. E. Heeres.) 
 
 determined to anchor as near shore as they could. Seven 
 prows came out, but again no business could be done. 
 So the skipper of the Zeehaen launched his cock-boat, 
 no doubt with friendly meaning. Whereupon the people 
 in one of the prows began to paddle furiously, and rammed 
 the cock-boat. Then " the foremost man in this prow 
 of villains with a long blunt pike thrust the quartermaster 
 Cornells Joppen in the neck several times, with so much 
 force that the poor man fell overboard. Upon this the 
 other natives, with short thick clubs, which we at first 
 
278 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 mistook for heavy blunt parangs {i.e. knives for cutting 
 wood), and with their paddles, fell upon the men in the 
 cock-boat, and overcame them by main force, in which 
 fray three of our men were killed, and a fourth got mortally 
 wounded through the heavy blows. The quartermaster and 
 two sailors swam to our ship (the Heemskerk), whence we had 
 sent our pinnace to pick them up, which they got into alive. 
 After this outrageous and detestable crime, the murderers 
 sent "the cock-boat adrift, having taken one of the dead 
 bodies into their prow, and thrown another into the sea." 
 
 Murderers' The Dutch " diligently fired muskets and guns," but 
 ^^' the prows got away. So the Dutch named the place 
 
 " Murderers' Bay," and set sail, " seeing we could not hope 
 to enter into any friendly relations with those people, nor to 
 be able to get water or refreshments here." They decided 
 to sail Eastward along the coast in search of these things. 
 
 Staten And what was this second land that had been discovered ? 
 
 Is^it part " ^^ seems," wrote Tasman, "to be a very fine country, 
 
 of the and we trust this is the mainland coast of the unknown 
 South-land." That is, he thought that New Zealand 
 was probably a Northern promontory of the great Southern 
 or Magellanican continent, which was still drawn on the 
 maps. Now in i6i6, as we have seen, Le Maire sailing 
 on the East coast of Tierra del Fuego had seen a land 
 which is really a rather small island, but which he thought 
 was probably part of the Southern Continent, and he had 
 called it Statenlandt. The idea in Tasman's mind was 
 that Le Maire and he had discovered parts of the 
 same continent, and that it would therefore be well to 
 use the same name. " In honour of their High Mighti- 
 ness," he wrote," we gave to this land the name of Staten 
 Landt, since we deemed it quite possible that this land is 
 part of the great Staten Landt, though this is not certain." ^ 
 
 ^ Heeres, p. ii8, writes : " The Statenland discovered by Tasman 
 had afterwards conferred on it the name of Nova Zeelandia or Nieuw 
 Zeeland. . . . The name was most probably given after the voyage 
 by Brouwer in 1643 had removed all doubts as regards the insular 
 character of the Statenland South of South America." The earliest 
 instance of Nova Zeelandia seems to be on Blaeu's Globe which Coote 
 dates 1 647- 1 656. Cf. Heeres, p. 76. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 279 
 
 To the passage between Van Diemen's Landt and the new 
 Staten Landt " we have given the name of Abel Tasman 
 Passage, because he has been the first to navigate it." 
 
 The main object now was to fight a way through or Is it a Bay 
 ound this block of South-land, in order to make the ""^ ^ ^^'''''^ ■ 
 shortest route to Chili, a matter which the rulers of the 
 Company regarded as " the main point of the voyage." ^ 
 For this reason it had been resolved to sail Eastward 
 along the coast. If Tasman had persisted in this resolu- 
 tion, he would have proved that he was right, and would 
 have discovered Cook's Straits. And in fact he did sail one 
 hundred and twenty miles (30 Dutch miles) into a Bay, 
 " nothing doubting that we should here find a passage to the 
 open South Sea. "^ But to his "grievous disappointment, 
 it proved quite otherwise." The land seemed to close 
 in upon them from all sides, and they concluded that 
 it was a Bay, and not a Strait. They tried to get out 
 of it Westward in order to follow the coast to the North. 
 But wind and tide baffled them, they were blown and 
 dragged forwards and backwards across the Bay, and 
 they anchored at last behind an island, in a place which 
 they called " Tasman's Road." Here Tasman noticed 
 that a strong tide was running from the South East. 
 This seemed to make it at least likely that a strait .did 
 after all exist, and he proposed that, as soon as wind 
 and tide should permit, they should investigate the matter. 
 Wind and tide, however, did not permit. When the 
 weather cleared, the wind was in the East. The search 
 for the Strait was abandoned. Tasman sailed Westward 
 out of the Bay, and then steered a Northward course, 
 hoping that, since he had failed to get through the obstacle, 
 he would be able to get round it. The Dutch, then, 
 remained uncertain whether they had sailed into a Bay 
 or into the mouth of a Strait. Tasman's map made it 
 a Bay — " Zeehaen Bight." But Pilot Visscher's Chart ^ 
 showed an opening, that suggests, at all events, the pro- 
 bability of a Strait. Cook in 1770 found his extract 
 from Tasman of especial interest at this point ; and 
 1 Heeres' Tasman, p. 144. '^ Ibid., p. 21. ^ Ibid., p. 112. 
 
28o THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 he would have been still more interested had he been 
 able to consult the map of Visscher. 
 
 From the 26th of December to the 4th of January, 
 
 Tasman sailed along the West coast of the North island 
 
 in search of a passage round it that would open the 
 
 way to Chili. His Chart shows a continuous coastline 
 
 with features that can be identified. Then, on the 4th of 
 
 January, 1643, he saw a cape and an island. He gave 
 
 the cape the name of the Governor-General's wife, Maria 
 
 Three Kings Van Diemen ; and he named the island Drie Coningen 
 
 4th ^ an Island, " because we came to anchor there on Twelfth 
 
 1643. night even." " There was a heavy sea running from 
 
 the North-East, which gave us great hopes of finding a 
 
 passage here. The land falls away to Eastward." 
 
 Next day, Tasman sent the boats to see if they could 
 get water in the island. They returned with .the report 
 that they had seen " good fresh water coming down in great 
 plenty from a steep mountain, but that, owing to the 
 heavy surf, it was highly dangerous, nay well-nigh impossible, 
 for us to get water there." They had also seen in several 
 places on the highest hills from thirty to thirty-five persons 
 of tall stature, so far as they could see from a distance, 
 armed with sticks or clubs, who called out to them in 
 a very loud rough voice certain words which our men could 
 More giants, not understand. They had noticed that " these people 
 in walking took enormous steps or strides " ; and, no 
 doubt, they thought them akin to the gigantic tree-climbers 
 of Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 Tasman had failed even to make landing on the new 
 country, and he decided to run on. The Eastward fall- 
 away of the land, together with the heavy sea running from 
 the Eastward, seemed to prove that he had rounded Staten 
 A passage to Land, and had shown an open ocean passage to Chili 
 for those who wished to do great business, or to damage 
 the Castilians. His experience during the next two days 
 confirmed the belief. " The sea," he noted as he sailed 
 North, " is running very high from the Eastward," so that 
 "the great swells," he wrote next day, " now come from 
 the South-East. This passage from Batavia to Chili is in 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 281 
 
 smooth water, so that there is no objection to following 
 it." It seemed to him that he had achieved the main 
 object of his voyage. His employers, the Governor- 
 General and Council, however, took a different view. 
 To them it seemed that the existence of the passage 
 had not been proved. If Tasman had run a few more 
 degrees to the South he might, not unlikely, have come 
 upon land again ; for Staten Land itself might extend 
 to Le Maire's Straits on the East of Tierra del Fuego, 
 and there was no information about the region between 
 the discoveries of Tasman and Le Maire. " All this," 
 they said, " is mere guess-work, and nothing positive 
 can be laid down respecting unknown matters." Tasman 
 had been " somewhat remiss " in his investigations, 
 and " as regards the main point, had left everything 
 to be more closely inquired into by more inquisitive 
 successors." ^ 
 
 Tasman little expected these arm-chair criticisms. Search for 
 To him it seemed that he had been sufficiently inquisitive ifiJ^drand 
 in murderous Staten Land, and that he had made a good the Solo- 
 voyage. He now determined to sail Northward for home. 
 Anyone who wishes to understand the incredible difficulties 
 of navigation in the Pacific at this time should read the 
 baffling account that is given in the Journal of this part 
 of the voyage. The plan was to call for water and refresh- 
 ments at Le Maire's islands of Horn and Kokus, and thence, 
 to sail by way of the Solomons for New Guinea. But 
 though they had fair knowledge of their Latitudes, their 
 Longitudes were a matter of wild guess-work. They did 
 not know where Le Maire's islands were ; they did not 
 know where the Solomons were ; and they did not know 
 where they themselves were. And on all these insoluble 
 problems learned skippers and pilots debated and reported, 
 as they groped a way through the huge, unknown, and 
 highly dangerous ocean. 
 
 Their first object was to make sure that they were 
 to the Eastward of the islands which they sought. They 
 therefore sailed North- East, and, on the 19th of January, 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 114. 
 
 mons. 
 
282 THE DISC0VP:R.Y OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Discovery of Came to a group of islands which Cook later named " the 
 islandT^^ Friendly Islands." They called the largest island " Amster- 
 19th Jan. dam," " because of the abundance of refreshments we 
 got there." Another island they called " Rotterdam," 
 " seeing that here we got our casks filled with water." 
 There was much friendly traffic in cocoa-nuts, yams, 
 and hogs, in exchange for nails and beads. They dressed 
 a chief in a shirt and pair of drawers, " in which he thought 
 himself very gallantly attired." Dutch musical experts 
 performed on the trumpet, the violin, and the German 
 flute ; " at which music they were greatly astonished." 
 It was noticed that the prows were shaped like those 
 described by Le Maire. They called the Roadstead 
 Van Diemen's Road ; and " to the Bay, near which the 
 King resides, we have given the name of Maria Bay, in 
 honour of the Honourable Consort of the Honourable 
 Governor-General Anthony VanJ^iemen." We note this 
 unanswerable evidence that Maria, whose name Tasman 
 was writing on every island of the Pacific, was the " Hon- 
 ourable Consort," and not the Honourable daughter, 
 of the " Honourable Governor-General." 
 
 Tasman was now sure that he was Eastward enough, 
 and made sail North or North-West, keeping a good 
 look out for Le Maire's islands, which were in Lat. 17°. 
 On the night of the 5 th of February in Lat. 17^° they saw 
 land, and next day they found themselves " entangled 
 between islands and shoals to such a degree that we could 
 with difficulty keep clear. The islands are eighteen 
 The Fijis, or twenty in number as we can count them, though 
 5th Feb. j^ |g quite possible that there are more." They were, 
 explains the modern student, among the Fiji Islands. 
 
 But Tasman was puzzled. He believed that he was 
 in the track of Le Maire, yet Le Maire " did not find any 
 such islands." The " Great Chart of the South Sea " 
 showed islands in this Latitude, but these were eight 
 hundred miles further West. But after a voyage so long 
 and so stormy " the proverb which says that guess-work 
 often shoots wide of the mark may well be applicable 
 to us, and we be so far out of our reckoning." In short 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 283 
 
 the Dutch had not the least idea where they were, and knew Where are 
 enough to be aware of their ignorance. Perhaps the ^^ • 
 islands were Le Maire's islands. Perhaps they were the 
 Solomons. Perhaps they were the islands of Quiros. 
 Perhaps they fringed the Eastern coast of New Guinea. 
 Tasman thought it wise to ask for a formal expression 
 of opinion from Visscher, and the other chief officers, 
 as to the best course. His own opinion was that " we 
 should from here run due North, as far as 4° S. Lat., and 
 then due West as far as the coast of Nova Guinea, seeing 
 that the weather we now have is such that one might easily 
 miss a known coast, let alone an unknown one, and that 
 we are in the bad season here, when the South-East trade- 
 wind and the North monsoon meet each other." 
 
 The opinions of Visscher and the other officers were to the 
 same effect. Their problem was virtually the same as 
 that which had been discussed, and in a locahty not very 
 distant, by Le Maire and Schouten twenty-six years 
 before. Le Maire had wished to sail hence Westward 
 in search of Terra Australis. Schouten had victoriously 
 answered that this course would bring them on the South Fear of the 
 side of New Guinea, among unknown and dangerous coas?of New 
 coasts, where a passage was at best uncertain ; for there Guinea, 
 was no knowledge of the route of Torres. So argued 
 Visscher now. It was true that their " Instructions " 
 seemed to suggest, in a phrase of horrible obscurity, that 
 from the Latitude of the Solomons, which were supposed 
 to stretch from 7° to 15°, they should sail Westward 
 towards the East coast of New Guinea. But, argued 
 Visscher, " this could not be done without incurring 
 the risk of being cast aside into a Bay from which it might 
 be difficult or impossible to beat out again ; and, since 
 the East coast of New Guinea is still unknown, it is quite 
 possible that there may be plenty of small islands and 
 shoals to the Eastward of the said land of New Guinea, 
 such as we have already met with before ; and, having 
 no secure anchorage in such rough weather, in which it 
 is impossible to keep a proper look-out, we might happen 
 to be cast on the shores, before we had become aware 
 
284 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of the same." His advice, therefore, was that they should 
 sail Northward as far as 4° or 5° S. Lat., in order to avoid 
 all risks, and "prevent our being thrown on a lee-shore." 
 The North Thus in 1642, as in 1 61 6, the Dutch declined a voyage 
 cSnea* ^^^ ^^^^ might have made them first discoverers of East 
 Australia, and second discoverers of Torres Strait. From 
 the Fijis they made Northward, in the tracks of Le Maire 
 and Schouten, sailing wide of the Solomons, coasting 
 New Ireland and New Hanover, which were thought 
 to be parts of New Guinea, and coming to the North coast 
 of New Guinea in April. They hoped to find a passage 
 through New Guinea, sailing through which they would 
 have had time to explore the unknown regions between Cape 
 Keerweer and Willem's River. The Journal gives a view 
 of " De bocht van Goede Hoop " (the Bay of Good Hope), 
 Noway where " we hoped, but in vain, to find a passage." They 
 
 GuTne?! ^^^ had to sail the whole long length of the North coast of 
 New Guinea, identifying the islands on Schouten's Chart, 
 and making use of Le Maire's vocabulary to ask the natives 
 for hogs, fowls, cocoa-nuts, and bananas. In the end of 
 May, they came to " the extremity of New Guinea," 
 which, says Tasman, " consists of broken land that would 
 take more time in mapping out than we think necessary 
 to bestow upon it." It was already too late in the season 
 for the voyage by Cape Keerweer to Willem's River. 
 Return to Tasman made for home, and on the 14th of June anchored 
 f^t^h June, ^t Batavia. " Item, the 15th do. In the morning at day- 
 break, I went to Batavia in the pinnace. God be praised 
 and thanked for this happy voyage. Amen." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 
 
 Authority : 
 Heeres' Tasman. 
 
 Governor-General and Council heard Tasman's " happy " Dutch 
 news with calmness. He had discovered two lands of calmness, 
 an apparently unprofitable character, and he claimed 
 that he had discovered a passage from the Indian Ocean 
 into the South Sea through which ships might sail to the 
 gold-bearing coast of Chili ; a claim that needed investi- 
 gation by more inquisitive successors. He had " found 
 no treasures or matters of great profit." Yet officers 
 and crew should have their reward : the former two 
 months' pay, the latter one month's pay. " Our Masters " 
 in Amsterdam heard the news with calmness so great 
 that they did not think it worth while to say anything 
 about it. 
 
 Governor-General and Council, however, thought the 
 news about the alleged passage " promising " enough 
 to justify another voyage, which should seek to make 
 way thereby to Chili, form alliance and trade connec- 
 tions with the Chilese, and with God's aid obtain some 
 good booty in the South Sea. But the plan for a voyage in Plan of a 
 October 1643 was frustrated by new war with " the over ^^^^^^^ *° 
 bold Portuguese," who were, no doubt, " bringing about 
 their own destruction," but were, unhappily, at the 
 same time " doing the Spaniards such staunch service 
 that for the moment we are forced to leave the latter 
 unmolested in the South Sea, and elsewhere." But they 
 resolved to stand by the plan, and to send the voyage 
 
 285 
 
2 86 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The voyage 
 of 1644. 
 
 The 
 
 " Instruc- 
 tions." 
 
 (i) Is the 
 Shallow 
 Bight a 
 strait ? 
 
 (2) Is there 
 a channel 
 between 
 West and 
 East ? 
 
 in September or October 1644, and " this time arms in 
 hands." They are certain, they write, that " something 
 profitable will ultimately turn up in Chili." By this 
 time they had thought more wisely of the industry and 
 inquisitiveness of Tasman and Visscher. They had formed 
 the opinion that the voyage of 1642 was " a remarkable 
 voyage, in the course of which the great unknown Staten 
 and Van Diemen's Land were discovered, and a long-desired 
 passage into the South Sea was founds So Tasman 
 and Visscher were again to take command. And mean- 
 while, " in order to prevent their being idle in the interim," 
 it was decided to send them in February 1644 on a pre- 
 liminary voyage which should seek to clear up once for 
 all the great doubtful questions of the South-land, and 
 above all the question whether there was or was not a 
 passage through it, that would enable ships to take a short 
 cut for the new route to Chili. 
 
 The " Instructions " ^ directed Tasman to sail in command 
 of three ships — the yachts Limmen and Zeemeeuw, and 
 the galiot Bracq. He was to leave Banda at the close 
 of February with the Western monsoon, and was to follow 
 the coast of Nova Guinea to 9°. He was " cautiously 
 to cross the Shallow Bay situated there " [i.e. Torres 
 Strait), and to bring the yachts to anchor on the South 
 side. Here he was to " reconnoitre the situation of the 
 land, sending in the meantime the Bracq into the Bay 
 for two or three days to ascertain whether in this large 
 Bay there is any passage to the South Sea, a question 
 which may be in a short time investigated, either in this 
 way, or by the direction of the current." 
 
 Having settled this question, Tasman was to " skirt 
 the West coast of Nova Guinea " (i.e. Cape York Peninsula), 
 as far as the farthest point discovered in 17°, and then 
 to follow its line Westward or Southward, " that it may 
 be decided once for all whether this land is separated 
 from the unknown South-land ; a fact which might easily 
 be ascertained from the heavy and slow swell of the seas." 
 In case a channel was found, separating Nova Guinea (Cape 
 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 147. 
 
I 
 I 
 
 TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 287 
 
 York Peninsula) from the South-land (West AustraHa), 
 
 Tasman was to sail down it to the newly-discovered Van 
 
 Diemen's Land of the South ; and at the same time he 
 
 was to ascertain whether Van Diemen's Land was an island, (3) is Van 
 
 or was united to Nova Guinea or to Nuyts's Land. Then, P^^^en's 
 
 ■' , ' L,ana an 
 
 after a visit to the islands of St. Francis and St. Peter, island ? 
 
 he was to sail back Northward, skirting the Eastern coast 
 of the South-land. Emerging into the open sea at the 
 Northern end of the supposed channel, he was to follow 
 the coast Westward to Willem's River ; " after which 
 the whole of the known South-land would have been 
 circumnavigated, and found to be the largest island in 
 the world." 
 
 This was the voyage that was desired. A passage From the 
 between Nova Guinea and the South-land [i.e. between wniem's 
 East Australia and West Australia), with another passage River, 
 between Nova Guinea and Van Diemen's Land, would 
 provide a splendid short cut for ships making from Batavia 
 for the Northern end of Staten Land (New Zealand), with 
 a view to explore the " promising " route to Chili. The 
 " Instructions," however, admit that " it seems likely 
 enough that the land of Nova Guinea (East Australia) 
 joins the South-land (West Australia) without any channels, 
 and consequently forms a whole with it." The Gulf of 
 Carpentaria, it is feared, is a Gulf and is not the entrance 
 to a passage. If this should prove to be so, Tasman was 
 to trace the coastline to Willem's River, " and fully discover 
 the same." Then, if wind and weather were favour- 
 able, he was to sail on to Houtman's Abrolhos, and try 
 to fish up the chest of dollars which had been sunk with 
 the Batavia^ and which Pelsart had failed to get because 
 a heavy cannon had fallen on top of it. Then Tasman 
 was to look for the two delinquents, whom Pelsart had set 
 ashore. And, at the same time, he was to seek a convenient 
 place, about 26° or 28°, for obtaining water and refresh- 
 ments,^" which would be a thing highly desirable for ships 
 bound to India from the Netherlands." He was to take A colony in 
 possession of land by erecting a structure with an inscription XStralia 
 ^declaring " your fixed intention to send a body of men 
 
 I 
 
288 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Loss of 
 
 Tasman's 
 
 Journal. 
 
 The official 
 report. 
 
 The Gulf. 
 
 Naked 
 beach- 
 rovers. 
 
 A South- 
 land with an 
 8000-mile 
 coast. 
 
 thither by the first opportunity to secure this property 
 by founding a permanent colony there." 
 
 Tasman's Journal of the voyage has disappeared. 
 Careful research has only discovered the binding which 
 once contained it.^ There remain, however, two testi- 
 monies that give a fairly adequate report of the main 
 results of the voyage, though they leave us entirely ignorant 
 of the detail of discovery. 
 
 Firstly, we have a letter written by the Governor-General 
 and Council to the Seventeen Directors at Amsterdam, 
 which gives a short but plain account of the voyage and 
 of its worth. The yachts, they say, sailed in February, 
 but " found no open channel between the half -known Nova 
 Guinea, and the known land of D'Eendracht or Willem's 
 River ; they found, however, a large spacious Bay or 
 Gulf (the Gulf of Carpentaria), as shown in the annexed 
 Chart and Journal. Nor did they make any profit by 
 bartering transactions, having only met with naked beach- 
 roving wretches, destitute of rice, and not possessed of 
 any fruits worth mentioning, excessively poor, and in 
 many places of a very malignant nature, as your Worships 
 may in great detail gather from the Batavia minutes." 
 Tasman " continually sailed in shallow water along 
 the coast " to Willem's River, and thence returned to 
 Batavia in August. " What there is in this South-land, 
 whether above or under the earth, continues unknown, since 
 the men have done nothing beyond sailing along the coast ; 
 he who makes it his business to find out what the land 
 produces must walk over it, which these discoverers 
 pretend to have been out of their power, which may be 
 true to some extent. Meanwhile this vast and hitherto 
 unknown South-land has, by the said Tasman, been sailed 
 round in two voyages, and is computed to comprise eight 
 thousand miles of land (2000 Dutch miles), as shown by 
 the delineation of the coasts, which we subjoin for Your 
 Worships' inspection. Now it can hardly be supposed that 
 no profits of any kind should be obtainable in so vast a 
 country, situated under various zones, the South-Eastern 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 74. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 289 
 
 part extending between 43^° and 2j° S. Lat. . . . Such 
 things should not be done in a hurry, and we would request 
 Your Worships to rest assured that whenever opportunity 
 serves, we shall from time to time have everything diligently 
 and closely investigated by persons more vigilant and 
 courageous than those who have hitherto been employed 
 on this service."^ Thus, once more, the arm-chair 
 critics ! 
 
 Secondly, we have another very useful source of informa- Tasman's 
 tion. This is a chart made by Tasman in the same year ^^ ' 
 1644, which shows on a single sheet the geographic results 
 of the two voyages,^ and supplements in an interesting 
 way the meagre story of the official letter. Heeres says 
 that, when he wrote, the original of the map was possessed 
 by Prince Roland Bonaparte, who refused permission 
 to reproduce it. Heeres assures us, however, that the 
 copy which he gives is " sufficiently serviceable." ^ On 
 it we follow the tracks of the three ships down the Southern 
 coast of New Guinea, and across the "Shallow Bight " There is a 
 (Torres Strait), to the anchorage on its South side. The Bigh°and 
 Eastern coast of the " Shallow Bight " is drawn with a not a Strait, 
 firm hand. Tasman, if we take the map as complete 
 evidence, had satisfied himself that there was no strait. 
 If, however, the lost Journal were discovered, we might 
 possibly find that, as in the case of the similar question 
 in New Zealand,* Tasman knew that exploration had not 
 been completed, and that the problem was unsolved.^ 
 
 ^ Heeres' Tasman, p. 156. ^ lb. p. 72. See p. 259. 
 
 3 lb. p. 71. * See p. 279. 
 
 * Tasman's map has the inscription : " The Company's Nieuv Neder- 
 land. In the East the large country of Nova Guinea with the first 
 discovered South-land, forming all one continent together, as may be 
 seen from the dotted line near the yachts Limmen and Zeemeeuw and 
 the ' quel ' de Brak. a.d. 1644." [Heeres' Tasman, p. 73 : a some- 
 what different translation is given on the map which Heeres prints.] 
 But the " dotted Hne " near the track of the ships suggests, not con- 
 tinuous land, but continuous difficulty. The firm hne, representing 
 land, is drawn far away to the East, so far away that land which existed 
 there could not possibly have been seen from the ships. It is a line 
 which seems merely to express the opinion that exploration beyond 
 the " dotted hne " of difficulty was not worth while. Visscher's map 
 seems to have had the same meaning. It has been lost : but there i§ 
 
 W.A. T 
 
290 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Then we follow the track down the coast past Cape 
 
 Keerweer, past Carstenz's furthest South in 17°, and 
 
 further along to the coast now for the first time 
 
 explored. We note Tasman's vain gropings for a passage 
 
 that should lead through the too-solid Continent to Van 
 
 Diemen's Land, the South Sea, and the route to Chili. 
 
 Again and again a promising opening proves itself a Shallow 
 
 Bight and not a Strait. Then the voyage goes along the 
 
 The Gulf Western coast of what has been proved to be a great Gulf. 
 
 IS not a Arnhem's Land is rediscovered, and is proved to be the 
 passage. _ ' ^ 
 
 same land as the Van Diemen's Land of the North, part 
 
 of the island-continent now at last coming into visible 
 
 A connected and Connected being. Then the hitherto unknown coast- 
 
 coast-lme. y^^^ -^ ^^^^^^ fj.Qj^ y^j^ Diemen's Land of the North to 
 
 Willem's River ; and then, the time allotted having expired, 
 Tasman abandons thought of the dollars at the bottom 
 of the sea at the Abrolhos, and sails to Batavia, to be 
 reproached because he has not walked over the land, 
 and has not increased the Company's dividends by trading 
 with the " naked beach-roving wretches " who were its 
 only inhabitants. 
 The Known As we look, then, at this map of 1644, we see the outhnes 
 iTnlcnownin ^^ "the Company's New Netherlands" as conceived 
 1644. after Tasman's two voyages. From Cape York Peninsula 
 
 to the head of the Australian Bight, and a little beyond, 
 the outlines are rightly understood, though there are 
 inaccuracies in detail which, in view of the circumstances, 
 seem marvellously little. The South coast of Tasmania 
 is known, but what lies between it and the coast of the 
 Australian Bight is not known. There may be a strait 
 North of Tasmania, but the probability perhaps is that 
 Tasmania is part of the continent. New Guinea is also 
 part of the continent, though it is true that even Tasman's 
 
 a careless English copy of it, probably made in 1687, in the British 
 Museum. It has the inscription : — " This large land of New Guinea 
 was first discovered to joyne to ye south land by ye Yot Lemmen as by 
 this chart Francois Jacobus Vis. Pilot Major Anno 1643." But, here 
 again, it is the " dotted line " of difficulty which is near the dotted line 
 which marks the ship's course : the firm line is far away to the East, 
 and quite out of sight. See Major's Early Voyages, p. xcvi, and Heeres' 
 Tasman, p. 73. 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 291 
 
 definite verdict left men doubting whether after all the 
 Shallow Bight did not end in a practicable strait. The 
 South coast of New Guinea is well known, and also the 
 North coast as far Eastwards as New Britain and New 
 Ireland, which are supposed to be part of New Guinea. 
 But nothing whatever is known about the Eastern coast 
 of New Guinea, though it has a persistently bad reputation, 
 and seamen strike North of it with the greatest care. 
 Nor is anything known of the region between New Guinea 
 and Tasmania, which must contain the Eastern coast 
 of the continent. Tasman can only draw a shaded line 
 bulging widely towards the East, to indicate a coastline 
 which must exist somewhere to connect what he had 
 seen in the North with what he had discovered in the 
 South. 
 
 ^Tasman's voyages had been profitable to geographers, 
 but very unsatisfactory to shareholders. He had mapped 
 the outHne of a huge continent, but it seemed to be as 
 useless as it was huge. Van Diemen and the Councillors, Van 
 however, did not despair. On the contrary their schemes t)rniiaTt^ 
 grew larger. New trouble with the Portuguese and the schemes, 
 lack of fitting yachts compelled them to abandon the 
 voyage, that had been planned for September 1644, t^ - 
 make sure there was a clear way round Staten Land to 
 Chili. But they were " strongly inchned," they wrote 
 to the managers in December 1644, '* to further discovery 
 of Tartary, and the Northern parts of America, together 
 with the South-lands recently discovered in the East, 
 and the Solomon Islands " ; truly big enough projects ! 
 They were convinced that gold and silver would be found, 
 and convinced also that mines were necessary to the 
 Company's prosperity. They still hoped also, with God's 
 aid, " to attempt some good booty by taking the enemy 
 at unawares." As for Tasman's voyages, they had no 
 doubt been disappointing. But he had at all events outlined 
 an island of eight thousand miles, and it would be odd if 
 nothing good were found between 2|-° and 43|-° S. Lat. ! 
 " Thorough exploration of newly-discovered lands is no 
 work for the first comer. . . . God grant that in one or 
 
292 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Directors 
 pour cold 
 water. 
 
 Death of 
 Van Diemen 
 1645. 
 
 other part of the world some prohfic silver- or gold-mine 
 be hit upon, to the solace of the share-holders, and to the 
 signal honour of the discoverer." 
 
 But the Directors in Amsterdam were weary of Van 
 Diemen's brilliant policy. They had no interest in what 
 Sir Joseph Banks called " voyages of curiosity." Explora- 
 tion must lead to business, and Tasman had brought 
 home nothing save the cargoes with which he had sailed. 
 Why desire to reach beyond one's grasp } The Company 
 already knew far more countries than it could possibly 
 trade with. Discoveries further afield would probably 
 end in the advantage of other more populous nations, 
 who would burn Dutch inscriptions, and gain a footing 
 in the Eastern world fatal to Dutch monopoly.^ Directors 
 did not think Tasman's voyage worth comment ; and 
 they poured a deluge of cold water on the suggestion 
 of further exploration by more vigilant and courageous 
 men. " We cannot anticipate any great results from the 
 continuation of such discoveries, which entail further 
 expenditure from the Company, since they require more 
 yachts and sailors." Nor did the Managers think well 
 of the proposal to seek gold- and silver-mines. " Gold 
 and silver are not extracted from the earth without excessive 
 outlay, as some would seem to imagine. These plans 
 of Your Worships somewhat aim beyond our mark, the 
 gold- and silver-mines that will best serve the Company's 
 turn have already been found ; — which we deem to be 
 our trade over the whole of India, and especially in Formosa 
 and Japan, if only God be graciously pleased to continue 
 the same to us." The Directors thought they could make 
 more money North than South ; and they were right. 
 
 Van Diemen did not live to read this letter. He died 
 in April 1645. ^His schemes were never again undertaken. 
 
 1 Cf. Temple, quoted by Major in Early Voyages, p. vi. "I have 
 heard it said among the Dutch that their East India Company have 
 long since forbidden, and under the greatest penalties, any further 
 attempts of discovering that continent, having already more trade 
 in those parts that they can turn to account, and fearing some more 
 populous nation in Europe might make great establishments of trade 
 in some of those unknown regions, which might ruin or impair what 
 they have already in the Indies." 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 293 
 
 The Directors, who had hitherto urged a pohcy of explora- 
 tion, had changed their minds. The land of " Beach " 
 was not what Marco Polo had proclaimed. The dream 
 of Quiros had been proved to be vanity and vexation. 
 The Company's New Netherlands was no second Peru. 
 It was a land as useless as it was huge, providing not even 
 food and water, and its people were beach-roving wretches, 
 the poorest in the world, and among the most malignant. 
 The prospect of trade and booty in Chili ceased to attract ; 
 for the Dutch West India Company regarded these things 
 as covered by their Charter. In short, the shoemaker 
 must stick to his last. The Company's business was trade, 
 and trade in the East. They already traded with " the 
 whole of India." That sufficed, provided that they main- 
 tained their monopoly. 
 
 So Tasman's work in the South was finished. He Tasman's 
 was busy enough, however, in other directions. Governor- ^ ^^ ^ ®" 
 General and Council had damned his second voyage with even 
 fainter praise than that with which they had damned the 
 first. But, on further thought, they were willing to admit 
 that he had " given reasonable satisfaction," and possessed 
 " the courage required to do additional good service to the 
 Company." They raised his salary from eighty guilders a 
 month to one hundred. He was employed to devise 
 a better plan for the waylaying of Spanish ships at the 
 Ladrones. He was made a member of the Court of Justice, 
 with the duty of inspecting the ships' journals, and reporting 
 on them to the Council. He planned better courses 
 for ships sailing from Batavia to Ceylon, and to Manila. 
 He was sent to Djambi " to steal a march on our English 
 friends " by buying up pepper in enormous quantities 
 and at any price. In 1648 he was sent as "an intelligent, 
 experienced, and courageous leader," in command of 
 a fleet of warships, to " harass and injure our hereditary 
 enemy the Castilian " in the Phihppines, the Moluccas, 
 and the Malay Peninsula. He achieved some " notable 
 feats " ; — captured a Spanish fortress, intercepted a 
 silver-ship, and did considerable damage in the Spanish 
 islands. 
 
294 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Tasman's But, on his return from this voyage, he was accused 
 
 punishmeiit ^^^^^^ ^^^ Court of Justice of having committed a das- 
 1649. tardly crime. Returning to the ships one night, it was 
 
 said, after banqueting all day in a certain monastery, 
 he had seized hold of two young sailors, had accused them 
 of breaking a camp-order, and had been " bold enough 
 to appear as accuser, judge, and executioner all at once 
 and in the same person." He had made a halter with 
 " a piece of tow-match," had placed it with his own hands 
 round a sailor's neck, had made him stand on a bench, 
 had ordered a soldier to chmb a tree and hang him, had 
 taken the bench from beneath his feet, and had proceeded 
 to make a halter for the second sailor. But meanwhile 
 the soldier hangman, " becoming aware of the sufferer's 
 exceeding agony, and perceiving that the man had almost 
 passed from life to death," let go the rope so that the 
 victim fell to the ground, where he lay like a dead man 
 for a while, the wales caused by the halter remaining 
 visible for more than three weeks. Such was- the accusa- 
 tion. Tasman denied its truth, and told a story which 
 claimed to prove that he had punished a serious oJEfence 
 in a lenient way. But the Court refused to believe him. 
 He was condemned to pay a large sum to the plaintiff. 
 He was suspended from the exercise of his office and 
 functions, and from the enjoyment of his pay. And 
 he was ordered to declare with uncovered head in the 
 public court that he had " against all forms of law, and 
 of his own will, personally inflicted the said infamous 
 treatment on the aforesaid C. Jansen." On the same day 
 the Church Vestry gave notice that Tasman would be 
 removed from its membership. 
 
 The Council of Justice had " suspended " Tasman 
 " from the exercise of his office and functions," but had 
 refused, in its mercy, to pronounce him " incapable of 
 holding any public functions whatever." His reputation 
 Tasman still in morality was destroyed ; but he was too useful a man 
 useful. ^Q remain unemployed. In the following year (1650) 
 
 he was at work again, and calmly requested a rise in rank 
 and in salary. The Governor-General and Council, " having 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 295 
 
 taken into account his abilities and services rendered," 
 replied with equal calmness that these " do not as yet 
 leserve a higher reward." He must wait, they said, 
 '-* until such time as he shall be employed on more important 
 services." In January 1651, however, he was restored 
 to rank and pay " at his urgent request, and seeing that, 
 in divers parts of the world, he has rendered the Company 
 jood services, and may in time to come continue to do so." 
 
 Of further service to the Company, however, we have 
 10 news. In 1653 he was referred to as an " ex-commander." 
 [e was sailing a " private vessel " to trade on his own 
 account. He was, moreover, one of the largest land- 
 owners in Batavia. Here he died in October 1659, be- Tasman's 
 queathing a sum of money to the poor of his native jg^g 
 Dutch village, and dividing his estate between his wife, his 
 daughter, and his grandchildren. 
 
 Tasman's character, as illustrated by the records, seems 
 singularly unattractive. The crime on the island of 
 Baviauw disgusted even the tough-hearted Dutchmen 
 of Batavia. And there is not one hint that could suggest 
 a better side of his nature. Of his capacity as a navigator 
 there can be no question. His employers with curious 
 persistence disparaged the exploits that deservedly made 
 him famous. But their criticisms are unconvincing, 
 and they continued to employ him, even after he had 
 been convicted of brutality. i-T'he two voyages are of The 
 the first importance in the development of our story. oTTasman^s 
 The voyage of 1642 proved that Austraha existed, separated discoveries, 
 from any Southern Continent by a wide expanse of ocean. 
 The voyage of 1644 brought three sides of Australia into 
 accurate existence on the map. Eastern Australia from 
 Cape York to the Bight still remained unknown, save 
 for the unconnected strip of coast in the far South which 
 Tasman had discovered, and had named Van Diemen's 
 Land. Torres Strait remained unknown, the record of its 
 discovery growing dusty in some Spanish office. New 
 Zealand was thought to be some out-jutting Northern 
 promontory of the great Southern or Antarctic Continent 
 that still remained unknown. Tasman had made these 
 
296 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 great discoveries ; and he had no successor till Cook. When, 
 a century and a quarter later, Cook sailed into Australian 
 seas, he knew no more about them than was told by his 
 mutilated abstract from Tasman's Journal, save that 
 the reading of Arias's Memorial had led Alexander 
 Dalrymple to believe that the tangled region to the South 
 of New Guinea was not a Shallow Bay but a Strait. 
 Knowledge The surprising thing is that Cook knew what Tasman 
 discoveries ^ ^^^''^* ^^^ Dutch Empire was founded on the principle 
 of monopoly of trade ; and the best protection of monopoly 
 of trade was monopoly of knowledge. " It were to be 
 wished," wrote the Directors in 1645, ^^ hearing of some 
 fertile islands, " that the said land continued still unknown 
 and never explored, so as not to tell foreigners the way 
 to the Company's overthrow." In view of statements 
 like this, it seems surprising that foreigners were allowed 
 to know that Tasman had mapped the outlines of an island 
 eight thousand miles in circuit, that he had touched the 
 coast of what seemed a solid part of a great Southern 
 Continent which, he believed, stretched from Tierra del 
 Fuego to New Zealand, and that he had discovered rich 
 tropical islands inhabited by friendly people. But it 
 seems that the free atmosphere of the Netherlands was 
 unfavourable to the spirit of monopoly in the sphere of 
 knowledge. Linschoten's voyage, we remember, had 
 been quickly published, and had shown to English as 
 well as to Dutch the way to the Moluccas. Le Maire's 
 Voyage had also been quickly published, and several 
 other Dutch voyages that had taken Drake's way through 
 the Straits. And now again the same liberal policy was 
 used. Already in 1652 a map was published, which was 
 dedicated to a Director of the Amsterdam Chamber of 
 the East Indian Company, and which showed the results of 
 Tasman's two voyages. In 1648 the people of Amsterdam 
 began to build a new Town Hall, and inlaid its floor with 
 a map of the two hemispheres — in order, wrote a Dutch 
 poet-wit in 1656, to teach us to trample on the world 
 and to look up to heaven— and on this map the discoveries 
 of Tasman were depicted. In the following years they 
 
TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1644 297 
 
 were drawn in several maps, and became geographical 
 commonplaces. In 1 701 Dampier, sailing the North- West 
 coast of Australia in the Roebuck, had " Mr. Tasman's 
 draught on board," and thought " he came not so near 
 the shore as his line shows." In 1674 an abstract of 
 the Journal of 1642 was published, and in 1726 Valentijn 
 published the abstract which was so carefully studied 
 by Cook and Banks, as they solved the problem that had 
 baffled Tasman in New Zealand, and set forth Westward 
 on a voyage which sought to hit the Northern limit of 
 Tasman's discoveries in Van Diemen's Land. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE ENDING OF THE DUTCH PART 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Heeres' Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia. 
 Major's Early Voyages to Australia (Hakluyt Society). 
 
 With Tasman's voyage of 1644 the interest of the Dutch 
 story ceases. The Directors adopted a policy which regarded 
 discovery as a misfortune, hkely to attract the Serpent — 
 probably an English Serpent— into the Garden of Eden. 
 The rest must be told briefly. 
 The wreck of Dutch ships continued to sail from the Cape to Batavia 
 ^Dyack^i6^^6 ^^ ^^^ route that brought them near their dangerous 
 landmark in Eendrachtsland. From time to time, ships 
 were wrecked, and more ships were sent to rescue the crews, 
 recover the freight, and chart the dangerous coasts. In 
 1656, for example, the Ver guide Brack was wrecked " on 
 the coast of the South-land, on a reef stretching out to 
 sea about a mile and a half in Latitude 3o|°." Of one 
 hundred and ninety-three souls, only seventy-five reached 
 the shore. The news was brought to Batavia by one 
 of the boats, with a crew of seven sailors, after a month's 
 voyage. Governor-General and Council sent a quick- 
 sailing boat to rescue the sixty-eight shipwrecked men, 
 to explore the coast, and to put it down on a map with 
 its capes, inlets, bays, rocks, sands, and shoals. The 
 shipwrecked men were never found ; nor was anything 
 seen of the ship except wreckage. But exact charts 
 of the coast were made, which still exist, and have been 
 printed by modern students.^ The usual unfavourable 
 
 ^ Major, p. 81 ; Heeres' Part home by the Dutch, pp. 77, 78, 80. 
 
 298 
 
ENDING OF THE DUTCH PART 299 
 
 report was made on the character of the land. " The 
 South-land has on its coasts downs covered with grass 
 and sand so deep that, in walking, one's foot is buried 
 ankle-deep, and leaves great traces behind it. . . . Further 
 from the coast there is a raised ground tolerably level, 
 but of a dry and barren aspect."^ 
 
 In 1685 a Dutch ship, making the voyage from the 
 Cape to Batavia, failed to arrive, and there was no news 
 of her. In 1696, after an unexplained interval of eleven 
 years, Willem de Vlamingh was ordered, on his way to Vlamingh 
 Batavia, to search for news of the missing ship. His ^0^^° o? *^^ 
 search was fruitless, but in the course of it he made a West 
 minute examination of the coast from about the Swan j^^5^^ ^^' 
 River to North-West Cape, and drew a map which still 
 exists,^ showing with accuracy and detail Swan River, 
 Rottenest Island, Hartog's Road, Shark Bay, and North- 
 West Cape. He also left an account of his voyage that 
 should have interest, at all events, to West Australians. 
 He made a careful survey, he says, of Rottenest Island, 
 which chiefly consists of " white and rocky sand," with 
 no animals except " a kind of rat as big as a common cat." 
 They landed on the opposite coast, and, "after an hour's 
 march, came to a hut of a worse description than those of 
 the Hottentots." Then they came to " a large basin of 
 brackish water," which they found to be a river. They Swan River, 
 ate the nuts of a fruit-tree, and, three hours later, says 
 the record, " we began to vomit so violently that we 
 were as dead men." Then they rowed up the river, six 
 or seven leagues, though some thought they had rowed 
 ten, but " without discovering anything of importance." 
 The country was sandy, and the shrubs bore no fruit, 
 and were full of prickles and thorns. They saw plenty 
 of black swans and other birds, and they " heard the 
 song of the nightingale." And they saw, or thought 
 they saw, " a crowd of men." But " the men, the birds, 
 the swans, the rotganzen, the geese, the cockatoos, the 
 parroquets all fled at the sight of us." The best thing was 
 
 1 Major, p. 89. 
 
 2 Heeres' Part home by the Dutch, p. 86. See p. 300. 
 
 k 
 
300 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 that there were no vermin ; " but in the day-time one 
 is terribly tormented with the flies." Thus wrote one 
 
 y' 
 
 r 
 
 \ 
 
 .4 (Hooge Roede Sand hoeh 
 
 ^ DorEylandh 1* \ 
 Dirk Hartogh's*. ^ \ \ 
 
 Dirk Hartogh's £glan)\\y L 
 
 S^^^ 
 
 \ 
 
 Roode hoe)( 
 
 • : 
 
 \ 1 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 10 
 
 Wr langhs keen 
 
 ■! 
 
 \ 
 
 
 '■•i 
 > » ? 
 
 y 1 
 
 
 «,««..*, 
 
 Sketch of Vlamingh's Chart, 1696-97. 
 (From an engraving in Heeres' Part borne by the Dutch.) 
 
 of the first boatful of Europeans who rowed up the Swan 
 River, and visited the site of Perth. 
 
 Then Vlamingh sailed North, making careful surveys, 
 The badness and landing here and there. Everything he saw was 
 
 AuT^^^i ^^^^ ^^^ ' " ^^^ ^°^^ ^^^ ^"^ sandy, and but little adapted 
 for the habitation of animals, still less of men " ; "a 
 
||ftn 
 
 ENDING OF THE DUTCH PART 301 
 
 great plain very barren " ; " the country twice as barren 
 as what we had seen before." They saw mountains, 
 and walked to the top, greatly fatigued by the excessive 
 heat ; it was the 25th of January. There was no water, 
 
 d they nearly fainted from thirst. " We could see 
 our ships, and wished a thousand times over that we were 
 on board again." At last they found a great pool of water 
 " shghtly brackish " ; and made way back to the ships 
 with very sore eyes. 
 
 Then they sailed to Dirck Hartog's Road, and found that 
 what had been thought a peninsula was an island. On 
 the island, nailed to a half -rotten post, was the " common 
 pewter dish " with the inscription recording Dirck Hartog's Dirck 
 visit on the Eendracht eighty years before. Vlamingh Ro^d^^ ^ 
 took it away for a marvel, and erected a new pole with a 
 new pewter dish, which recorded both Hartog's visit 
 and his own, and which was found by the next visitors 
 over a hundred years later. Then Vlamingh explored 
 the great Bay behind Dirck Hartog's island. Here, if 
 anywhere, one would expect to find the long-sought place 
 of refreshment for ships sailing from the Cape to Batavia. 
 The Dutch caught " three great sharks." Dampier, 
 a few years later, had a similar experience in the same 
 place and named it Sharks Bay. The Dutch also caught Sharks 
 turtles, each big enough to provide a meal for twenty- ^^^' 
 four. But the coast was " rocky, dry, and forbidding." 
 They dug holes to get water, but it was so salt that it 
 could not be drunk without injury to health. Sharks Bay 
 was evidently not the place for a half-way settlement. 
 Vlamingh sailed on round North-West Cape to Willem's 
 River, where he " found ground but little suited for 
 anchoring." 
 
 From the business point of view, the voyage was West 
 
 the final condemnation of West Australia. It had been A^^^^aha 
 
 IS a barren, 
 minutely surveyed from Swan River to North-West bare. 
 
 Cape, and it was an utterly hopeless country from end ^l^^ ^ 
 
 to end. " Nothing has been discovered," report the 
 
 Governor-General and Council, " but a barren bare desolate 
 
 region. Neither have they met with any signs of habitation. 
 
302 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Exploration 
 of the 
 
 North-West 
 coast, 1705. 
 
 The search 
 for passages. 
 
 some fires excepted, and a few black naked men. Neither 
 were any remarkable animals or birds observed, except, 
 principally in the Swan River, a species of black swans, 
 three of which they brought to us alive, and they would 
 have been sent to your Nobilities had they not died one 
 by one shortly after their arrival here." And this was 
 Marco Polo's Beach ! 
 
 In 1705 ships were sent to explore the North-West 
 coast. In spite of Tasman's map, the idea persisted 
 that, somewhere between Cape Keerweer and Willem's 
 River, existed a passage leading Southward or Eastward 
 to the South Sea. In 1699 Dampier sailed along the North- 
 West coast in the Roebuck, and had " a strong suspicion " 
 that Tasman's solid coastline was in reahty " a kind of 
 archipelago of islands," and that somewhere behind 
 this screen there was perhaps " a passage to the South 
 of New Holland and New Guinea into the great Eastward." 
 Dampier sailed on to Timor, and perhaps explained 
 his views to the Dutch Governor there, whom he 
 describes as " a civil, genteel, and sensible man." But 
 it is also likely enough that the Dutch were already aware 
 of the inevitable imperfections of Tasman's survey. Indeed 
 one may reasonably guess that Tasman himself gave 
 information in his Journal of 1644, which is now lost, 
 that would indicate these imperfections, and the necessity 
 of further search on the long and difficult coast. 
 
 The Dutch, then, in 1 705 thought it worth while to go 
 over the North-West again. The " Instructions " were 
 to sail to " Van Diemen's Land in Hollandia Nova " 
 {i.e. the Van Diemen's Land not of the South-East, but 
 of the North-West), " which is said to consist altogether 
 of islands, a matter which will then be cleared up." They 
 were to sail thence Eastward, and to explore the whole 
 Gulf of Carpentaria. They were diligently to observe 
 whether there was any passage. But, in case such a passage 
 was found, they were to take special care not to run too 
 far into it, ''lest you should be carried away by currents." 
 
 The Dutch seamen returned with the report that they 
 had thoroughly explored the " North-West corner of 
 
ENDING OF THE DUTCH PART 303 
 
 Van Diemen's Land "—still the Van Diemen's Land of the The South- 
 North — and their Chart still exists to prove the excellence probably 
 of their work. It covers, however, only the stretch of consists of 
 coast from Bathurst Island to Coburg Peninsula. And, 
 though the survey is far more accurate than that of Tasman, 
 the main features of this very difficult coast are still mis- 
 understood. Bathurst Island and Melville Island are 
 still represented as promontories. And Van Diemen's 
 Gulf, which separates them from the mainland, is still 
 represented as a deep bay. Into this " bay " the Dutch 
 had sailed forty miles, without finding any diminution 
 in the saltness of the water. And it was " supposed 
 by our people that this inlet runs right through to the 
 South side of New Holland," and that there were other 
 passages, both to East and to West. " From this it seems 
 to follow that the South-land in a great measure consists 
 of islands, a supposition not at all improbable, considering 
 that on its South side, from the point called Leeuwin to 
 Nuytsland, it is entirely girt and surrounded by innumerable 
 islands." The theory seemed to be confirmed by " the peopled by 
 rude and barbarous character and malicious disposition " ^^^^^es. 
 of the natives ; for " such serious defects are much more 
 generally found among islanders than among the inhabi- 
 tants of continents." North-West, in short, was as bad 
 as West ; the best hope was that you might be able to 
 get through it to some better land.^ 
 
 To the Dutch the most interesting part of the South-land Shipwrecks 
 was the Abrolhos, and on those fearful rocks our study Abroihos 
 of their story shall end. Ships continued to be wrecked 
 on them. Dampier heard over and over again from several 
 able seamen that ships ran aground there, when they 
 thought themselves to be a great way off. He guessed that 
 the Dutch had given that part of the land the name of 
 " Indraught," to warn sailors that it magnetically drew 
 ships in too fast ; though, in his opinion, " it is the nearness 
 
 ^ King, vol. i. p. io6, writes of this voyage : They explored " the 
 great bay of Van Diemen, but did not reach its bottom, having been 
 very likely prevented by the strong tides, which in the entrance of 
 Dundas Strait are altogether uncommon." 
 
304 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of the land rather than any whirlpool or the like that sur- 
 prises them." ^ The Dutch charts, he beheved, made the 
 South Sea too wide, and the Indian Ocean too narrow. 
 Whatever the cause, the shipwrecks continued, and the 
 Abrolhos became a museum of Dutch antiquities. In 1 840 
 some Englishmen visited the islands.* They found remnants 
 of a ship, and near them a copper coin of the East India 
 Company dated 1620, which seemed to suggest the wreck 
 of Pelsart's Batavia in 1628. On another island were 
 relics of another ship, with a coin dated i/OO, which perhaps 
 had been lost by some passenger on the Zeeivyk in 1727. 
 " On this island we found a large number of small glass 
 bottles about the size and form of Dutch cheeses, very 
 A museum of orderly arranged in rows on the ground ; a few ver\^ large 
 antiqmties. j^Q^-i-igg Qf similar form ; some large brass buckles which 
 had been gilded, and much of the gilt still existed, also 
 numerous small clay pipes, which serv^ed to solace our 
 crew with the help of tobacco, as doubtless they had done 
 long ago for former owners, and one brass gun with vermilion 
 paint still on the muzzle." 
 
 1 Dampier, vol. i. p. 301. * Major's Early Voyages, p. 179. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 DAMPIER 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Dampier's Voyages, edited by Masefield. 
 Clark Russell's Dampier. 
 
 Again and again people had tried to find in the South Seas 
 something that was worth finding ; and again and again 
 they had failed. The golden continent of the imagination 
 had changed into the Nova Hollandia of fact, eight thousand 
 miles of sheer uselessness. By the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century all hope was abandoned by those who 
 entered Australia. 
 
 And yet it was just at this time that a motive was The new 
 stirring the mind which was destined to accomplish that fhrRova?^ 
 in which missionary zeal and commercial push had failed, Society, 
 the motive of scientific curiosity. It was, as Mr. J. R. 
 Green has explained, in the days of the English Restoration 
 that the appeal of Francis Bacon was first heard. With 
 apparent suddenness the reign of Theology ended, and the 
 reign of Science began. The Royal Society was founded, 
 and scientific work was for the first time organised and 
 endowed. And Science could take for its province no 
 region less extensive than the World. The early transac- 
 tions of the Royal Society show an ignorance that would 
 amaze the schoolboy ; but they show also the birth of 
 that determined curiosity which was to launch ships 
 to complete the work of Quiros and of Tasman. And 
 the first representative of this determined curiosity was 
 the pirate Dampier. 
 
 That Dampier was a pirate was an accident. The fact 
 w.A. 305 u 
 
306 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Why 
 Dampier 
 was a 
 pirate. 
 
 His 
 
 education. 
 
 Voyage to 
 Java. 
 
 was due not to his character but to his times. In character 
 he was akin, not to Morgan and Kidd, but to Sir Joseph 
 Banks and Charles Darwin. He was a born naturahst 
 of the most fervent class. The Somerset farmer's boy 
 came into the world in 1652 dowered with an everlasting 
 curiosity, an insatiable appetite for new experiences, the 
 thorough instincts of the scientific student, and an admir- 
 able capacity for describing what he called " observables " 
 in plain, accurate, vivid English. .He had it in his bones 
 to be a traveller. His joy would have been to travel 
 like Banks in the Endeavour^ or like Darwin in the Beagle. 
 But he was born a century too soon for " voyages of 
 curiosity." In another age his determination to travel 
 might have made him a missionary. He found as much 
 interest in missions as in other " observables," and his 
 views about " virtue " and " the fundamental truths of 
 Christianity " were as orthodox as those of a bishop. But, 
 in the late seventeenth century, missionary-voyages were 
 not in fashion. Travel somehow he must, and the best 
 people to travel wi-th in his days were pirates. Therefore 
 Dampier became a pirate. 
 
 He passed his boyhood on his father's farm, studying 
 the varieties of soil which it contained, and the natural 
 produce of each variety ; a fact which he mentions in 
 explanation of the scientific character of his description 
 of agriculture in Sumatra. At school he learnt Latin, 
 that stuck to him through life. Once in Tonquin he had 
 an interesting conversation with a French priest. The 
 priest told the pirate " what progress the gospel was like 
 to make in the Eastern nations" ; the pirate told the priest 
 how to make gunpowder ; and both priest and pirate 
 were highly interested in the conversation, though the 
 pirate knew no French, and the priest knew no English. 
 They talked in Spanish ; " and when," says Dampier, " I 
 was at a loss in my Spanish, I had recourse to Latin, having 
 still some smattering of what I learnt of it at school." ^ 
 
 When his parents died, his guardian placed him with 
 the master of a ship, "complying with the inclination 
 ^ Dampier, vol. ii. p. 21. 
 
DAMPIER 307 
 
 I had very early of seeing the world." In 1670 he went 
 a summer voyage to Newfoundland, but was so pinched 
 by the rigour of the climate, that he determined never 
 
 William Dampier. 
 (From the painting by Thomas Murray in the National Portrait Gallery.) 
 
 to go to that part of the world again. Then, receiving 
 " the offer of a warm voyage and a long one," he sailed 
 in an East-Indiaman for Java, where he stayed two months, 
 I gaining no doubt some knowledge of, and more interest 
 I in, the world in which Java was the centre, learning what 
 
308 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the Dutch knew about the Philippines, and the Moluccas, 
 and the great dim regions of the South. Returning to 
 England, he soon grew weary of staying ashore, enlisted 
 in the navy, and was present in battles against the Dutch 
 in 1673. 
 Jamaica and Then in 1 674 Dampier became sub-manager in a Jamaica 
 pirates. plantation. Soon, finding himself " clearly out of his 
 
 element," he went to sea again, and by coasting voyages 
 became acquainted with all the ports and bays about 
 Jamaica. And now his fate was certain. Jamaica was the 
 metropolis of the pirate-world. Every sensible Jamaican 
 seaman was a pirate, and Dampier went with the others. 
 But the pirate-trade was in a bad way. It had been born 
 in war against Spain. But the unforgivable Spaniards 
 had made peace, and the " privateers, who had hitherto 
 lived upon plundering them, were now put to their shifts." 
 The idler sort were content to continue in " the privateer 
 trade," which still went on in a meagre and unsatisfying 
 sort of way. The " more industrious sort " went to cut 
 logwood in the Bay of Campeachy ; but even these 
 " thought it a dry business to toil at cutting wood." In 
 The dryness fact the pirate wood-cutter was probably the driest 
 wood**^"^ person in history. One of them, named Mr. John Hooker, 
 was once invited into a cabin where a great bowl of punch 
 containing six" quarts had been brewed for the entertain- 
 ment of the company. " Mr. Hooker, being drunk to by 
 Captain Rawlings, lifted the bowl to his lips, and pausing 
 a moment to say that he was under an oath to drink 
 but three draughts of strong hquor a day, he swallowed 
 the whole without a breath, and so, making himself drunk, 
 disappointed us of our expectations, till we made another 
 bowl." 
 A naturalist Dampier sailed to Campeachy under a captain who 
 vainly sought to assuage this great dryness by deluges 
 of rum and punch. Dampier himself had no gift in the 
 way of drink, and, as he somewhere says, " abhorred 
 drunkenness." He was in fact an abstemious and meagre 
 student, hardly worth eating, as a fat pirate captain 
 afterwards told him, when there was talk of mutiny and 
 
 in the 
 tropics. 
 
DAMPIER 309 
 
 cannibalism. But the life in the tropical forest was exactly 
 the life he wanted. There was plenty of money to be 
 got, he says, " if men would be diligent and frugal " ; 
 a phrase which surely suffices to stamp him as the most 
 ridiculous pirate that ever sailed ship ! But, in truth, 
 Dampier cared no more for money than for drink. He 
 went to Campeachy for the same reason that took Wallace 
 to Borneo. He enjoyed the tropical forest as only a scientific 
 enthusiast enjoys one. Taking with him hatchets, axes, 
 knives, saws, wedges, a pavilion to sleep in, and a gun with 
 powder and shot, he studied the habits of monkeys, ant- 
 bears, sloths, armadillos, spiders, and other natives of 
 the fascinating jungle. 
 
 But the logwood-cutter was a pirate out of work. When in the 
 trade was bad, he cut wood and drank rum. When ^^^^^ ^^^s. 
 trade revived, he preferred to plunder and drink rum. 
 Dampier went, without enthusiasm, the way of his com- 
 panions. They sacked Portobello, getting thirty pounds 
 a man. Dampier does not mention the fact among his 
 " observables." No one ever hated more than he to 
 talk shop. He omits all professional details, not because 
 he is ashamed of them, but because he thinks them un- 
 interesting. If you wish to know these facts, he advises 
 you to read the professional work on piracy by . " my 
 ingenious friend Mr. Ringrose." Dampier gets rid of 
 uninteresting Portobello with a phrase : — " the first 
 expedition was to Portobel, which being accomplished " — 
 and he passes on to tell how his companions, disdaining 
 the dwindling and over-done trade on the Atlantic side, 
 " resolved to march by land over the isthmus of Darien 
 upon some new adventure in the South Seas." 
 
 They followed Drake's way over the isthmus, and 
 tried to follow Drake's way in raids on Spanish towns 
 on the Pacific. But here Dampier's narrative hurries 
 at prodigious pace. And indeed his ingenious friend 
 Mr. Ringrose has a poor story to tell. The attacks were 
 muddled, and failed. They got as far as the island of 
 Juan Fernandez ; the island which gave Defoe, who got 
 all that was worth getting from pirate-stories, the suggestion 
 
310 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Juan 
 
 Fernandez, 
 and 
 
 Robinson 
 Crusoe the 
 First and 
 the Seconal. 
 
 "My 
 curiosity." 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, though for some reason he chose 
 to shipwreck him, not on his proper home, but on an island 
 in the estuary of the Orinoco. The pirates were told that 
 many years ago a ship had been cast away on the island. 
 Only one man had survived, who had lived alone for 
 five years before a ship came : Robinson Crusoe the 
 First. And now the pirates themselves provided the 
 island with Robinson Crusoe the Second. Three Spanish 
 ships suddenly appeared. The pirates hurried away, 
 leaving, an Indian who happened to be on shore hunting 
 goats. They did not return. Trade went from bad to 
 worse. Failures led to quarrels, and Dampier joined a 
 party who marched back over the isthmus to the " North 
 side." Here they joined various gangs of ruffians, Dutch 
 and French as well as English, and sailed about the West 
 Indies in the ordinary dull and dirty routine of the trade, 
 while Dampier busily wrote notes in his precious Journal ; 
 four pages, for example, on the manatee or ^a-cow, and 
 two on the cocoa-tree. At last the gang broke up, and 
 Dampier went with his share to Virginia in 1682. 
 
 Dampier lived in Virginia for thirteen months. Then 
 came a ship under a captain who, says Dampier, " was 
 a sensible man and had been some years a privateer." 
 He and his friends had now " a ship of good force in which 
 they resolved to make a new expedition into the South 
 Seas." Dampier and his " fellow travellers " were easily 
 persuaded to travel with them. His motive was as plain 
 as could be. The "trade" he regarded as "lawful" 
 but uninteresting. But he came into these seas the second 
 time, he says in plain and honest language, " more to 
 indulge in my curiosity than to get wealth." One feels, 
 in fact, that Dampier was hardly treating his friends 
 fairly, and they also felt this. Piracy is a serious trade, 
 and a man who undertakes it should undertake it in a 
 piratical spirit. A man who has no particular objection 
 to the ten commandments, and cannot even raise a thirst 
 when in the Tropics, has no right to be a pirate. Dampier 
 was making use of an honourable trade to serve his personal 
 convenience. When he should have been thinking about 
 
DAMPIER 311 
 
 murder and loot, he was thinking about crocodiles and 
 beetles. No wonder his exasperated comrades talked of 
 eating him. And, looking at his portrait and remembering 
 his habits, no wonder they didn't. 
 
 The " travellers " sailed round Cape Horn, and made Business 
 for Juan Fernandez. The Indian, who had been left ^"^ «"^^c^- 
 behind on the earlier voyage, came down to the sea-side 
 to " congratulate our safe arrival." He had lived a 
 Robinson Crusoe hfe for three years, in such picturesque 
 detail that Defoe had little to do but describe and elaborate. 
 Then they got down to business on the coasts of Chili 
 and Peru. Dampier gives only enough trade detail to 
 make the story hang together. But he has several pages 
 about the varieties of turtles in the Gallapagos Islands. 
 Business was still bad. The wicked Spaniards, when 
 attacked, defended themselves. The pirates waited for 
 a treasure ship, and, when it came, had to run away from 
 it, glad to escape. 
 
 Then Dampier joined the Cygnet of London under The Cygnet. 
 Captain Swan. Swan had been sent by London merchants 
 to trade with Spaniards and Indians, but his men had 
 forced him to turn pirate. They suspected, however, 
 and with good reason, that Swan was on the look-out 
 for some opportunity to return to London as honest trader. 
 He was now persuading his pirates that a good plan would 
 be to sail North to Mexico, thence take the Spanish route 
 to the Philippines, and " cruise off Manila." Dampier 
 welcomed the new opportunity to indulge his curiosity. 
 
 In Mexico the Spaniards caught fifty pirates in an Voyage from 
 ambush, and killed every one ; but Dampier was happy, q^![J^° *° 
 and wrote page after page about Mexican indigo, cochineal, 
 and vinello. The discouraged pirates came to hke Swan's 
 idea of a cruise off Manila. But they were " almost 
 daunted " by the thought of the long unbroken voyage 
 from Mexico to Guam in the Ladrones, the half-way place 
 of call for Spanish ships. The Spaniards estimated the 
 distance, with fair accuracy, at two thousand three hundred 
 to two thousand four hundred leagues, and the length 
 of the voyage at sixty days. But the pirates had less 
 
312 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 than sixty days' provisions. Swan told them that the 
 Enghsh books made the distance less than two thousand 
 leagues, and that Drake and Cavendish, the last Englishmen 
 who had sailed that way, had done the distance in less 
 than fifty days.^ " His reasons," says Dampier, " were 
 many but weak." However, they prevailed, and the 
 voyage was made in fifty-one days. Dampier afterwards 
 learnt that the pirates had planned, in case provisions 
 failed, first to eat fat Captain vSwan, and then all those 
 who had promoted the voyage. " Ah, Dampier," said 
 the Captain, " you would have made them but a poor 
 meal." Dampier, indeed, had lived on a very short 
 allowance, and — even apart from the suggestion of canni- 
 balism — thought that his health had greatly benefited 
 by his abstinence. 
 Why not At Guam, Swan sought not booty but refreshment. 
 
 EngUsh^ Spanish Governor and pirate captain changed presents 
 factory and compliments. Then they jogged for Mindanao, 
 
 Philippines ? ^^^ ^^ ^^^ islands of the Philippines that had not been 
 subdued by the Spaniards. The idea was to get a commis- 
 sion from the prince of the island to plunder ships about 
 Manila, " for our men, it should seem, were very squeamish 
 of plundering without license." They were made welcome. 
 It was thought that they were a company sent by the 
 English East India merchants to settle a Factory ; and 
 there was disappointment when they explained that they 
 had merely called for provisions. This put great thoughts 
 into Dampier's head. Why not accept the suggestion, 
 and establish an English factory at once } The natives 
 had long " desired the English to settle among them, 
 and had offered them any convenient place to build a 
 fort in, giving this reason that they do not find the English 
 so encroaching as the Dutch or the Spaniards." Mindanao 
 was an excellent business site. Most, if not all, of the 
 Philippines were rich in gold. The Spaniards would trade 
 in spite of government restrictions ; for " Spaniards 
 can and will smuggle as well as any nation I know." Thus 
 the Enghsh would at last regain their lost foothold in the 
 1 In fact, Drake did the voyage in 68 days, Cavendish in 45. 
 
DAMPIER 313 
 
 Spice Islands. Their enemy would still be the Dutch, 
 who " being seated among the Spice islands, have mono- 
 polised all the trade into their own hands, they will not 
 suffer the spice to grow on the uninhabited islands, but 
 send soldiers to cut the trees down." Yet spice was still 
 to be found by those who knew, and might be had in spite 
 of " the little deceitful arts of the Dutch seamen in these 
 parts — I believe there are nowhere greater thieves." 
 
 The pirates, Dampier thought, would make excellent Pirates 
 merchants. There were men among them who understood ^^dient 
 every useful trade. " We had sawyers, carpenters, joiners, merchants, 
 brickmakers, bricklayers, shoemakers, and tailors ; we 
 only wanted a good smith for great work, whom we might 
 have had at Mindanao." " We had a great advantage 
 above raw men sent from England, who proceed usually 
 too cautiously, coldly and formally to compass any con- 
 siderable design, for we were all inured to hot climates, 
 hardened by many fatigues, and in general daring men, 
 and such as would not be easily baffled." 
 
 Dampier discusses his proposal in a thorough way Ships, on the 
 
 that enables him to explain his views about the whole ^jy^^.*^® 
 ^ Phihppines, 
 
 problem of the Pacific. Suppose you have an English should 
 factory in the Philippines ; how are English men to get A^tiSia 
 there, and how are they to get back } Not by the Cape 
 of Good Hope, for sailing that way you would have to 
 pass the Strait of Malacca, or the Strait of Sunda, or 
 some other Dutch-commanded Strait. To avoid the 
 Dutch, you must go round Cape Horn. Then you might 
 sail up the American coast as far as you chose, and th.ence 
 make for the Philippines. But there is a still better plan 
 in Dampier's mind. Why not take the opportunity, 
 as you go out or come home, to get some news of " Nova 
 Hollandia " and " Terra Australis " } The reason of 
 men's ignorance of these countries is that, after rounding 
 Cape Horn, they have " designed some business on the 
 Peruvian or Mexican coast," and have therefore sailed 
 North instead of sailing North-West. Dampier suggests 
 that, after rounding Cape Horn, you might " stretch 
 over towards Nova Hollandia." And again, " returning, 
 
314 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Is Davis's 
 island part 
 of the 
 continent ? 
 
 The pirates 
 leave the 
 Philippines. 
 
 you may probably touch somewhere on Nova Hollandia, 
 and so make some profitable discovery without going 
 out of your way." And, apart from Nova Hollandia, 
 as Tasman had shown, " all that vast tract of Terra 
 Australis which bounds the South Sea, is as yet undis- 
 covered." ^ And Dampier can himself add an interesting 
 bit of information about Terra Australis. For Captain 
 Davis, one of his pirate friends, had told him lately that, 
 sailing in Latitude 27° S., about five hundred leagues 
 from Chili, he saw a small sandy island, and that Westward 
 of it was " a long tract of pretty high land, tending away 
 towards the North-West out of sight." " This," comments 
 Dampier, " might probably be the coast of Terra Australis 
 Incognita." 
 
 Dampier thought that Captain Swan might easily have 
 managed this excellent design of a Factory, for at sea he 
 " had his men as much under command as if he had been 
 in a King's ship." But at the island they were getting 
 out of hand. Those who had money lived ashore with 
 their Delilahs, buying them a ring or a wristband or an 
 armlet with half an ounce of gold at a time. Those who 
 had no money lived on board, and sent ashore for " rack 
 and honey to make punch, wherewith they grew drunk 
 and quarrelsome." Then, by chance, some of them came 
 across the Captain's journal, in which he had " inveighed 
 bitterly against most of his men." Thereupon they sailed 
 away, leaving Swan and thirty-six men ashore. Dampier 
 chanced to be on board. 
 
 The plan now was " to cruise before Manila." They 
 took some ships, and Dampier wrote greatly about canes, 
 and tar-trees, and mangoes, and turtles, and bats as big 
 as ducks. He was weary of '^ business," and longed 
 *' to give them the slip." But they sailed to Tonquin 
 
 ^ Dampier writes very curiously about the relations of Nova Hollandia 
 and Terra Australis. His map shows knowledge of Tasman's voyage. 
 Yet he writes, " New Holland a part of Terra Australis " (vol. i. p. 450) ; 
 and also, " New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet 
 determined whether it is an island or a main continent ; but I am 
 certain that it joins neither Asia, Africa, nor America." (!) Sometimes 
 he uses Terra Australis as equivalent to Nova Hollandia. 
 
DAMPIER 315 
 
 and Cochin China — where " women sit in the streets 
 
 selhng dishes of tea hot and ready-made " — to Formosa, to 
 
 the Bashee islands, and Dampier makes us well acquainted 
 
 with all those seas. Then they determined to "go to Cape 
 
 Comorin, The direct way was the Strait of Malacca ; 
 
 but they feared islands and shoals, and, they feared still 
 
 more English and Dutch ships. So they decided to "go 
 
 round on the East side of all the Philippine islands, 
 
 and so, keeping South towards the Spice islands, to pass Voyage to 
 
 out into the East Indian Ocean about the island of Timor." Timor. 
 
 This was " a very tedious way," and there would be shoals 
 
 in plenty but there would be no English or Dutch ships 
 
 " which were their greatest fear." "I," writes Dampier, 
 
 *' was well satisfied enough, knowing that, the further 
 
 we went, the more knowledge and experience I should get, 
 
 which was the main thing I regarded, and should also have 
 
 the more variety of places to attempt an escape from them, 
 
 being fully resolved to take the first opportunity of giving 
 
 them the slip." 
 
 They sailed through the dangerous tangle of Spice 
 Islands, and came to Timor. " Being now clear of all 
 the islands, we stood off South, intending to touch at 
 New Holland, a part of Terra Australis Incognita, to see New 
 what the country would afford us." On the 4th of January, ■^?^^t"^' . 
 1688, they saw land in Latitude 16° 50', and came to " a 12th March, 
 point of land," about three leagues to the Eastward of ^^^^• 
 which was " a pretty deep bay with abundance of islands 
 in it, and a very good place to anchor in, or hale ashore." 
 In 1 82 1 Captain King, after making a careful survey 
 of the coast, decided that the " point of land " was Cape 
 Leveque, the Cape at the West side of the opening of 
 King's Sound. King called the pretty deep bay " Cygnet Cygnet Bay. 
 Bay," and the abundance of islands " Buccaneer's 
 Archipelago." 
 
 Dampier had seen many lands and many peoples, 
 but never had he seen land or people so unpleasing as 
 Austraha and Australians. The land was "a dry "Dry and 
 and dusty soil," that was " destitute of water except "^ ^" 
 you make wells," and that was entirely destitute of food. 
 
3i6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The only trees they could recognise were the " dragon 
 trees," which were " about the bigness of our large apple 
 trees, and about the same height. The rind is blackish 
 and somewhat rough ; the leaves are of a dark colour ; 
 the gum distils out of the knots or cracks that are in the 
 bodies of the trees." The other trees " were not known 
 to any of us," and none " bore fruit or berries." There 
 was nothing to eat except turtle and manatee, very little 
 to drink, and nothing whatever to carry away. 
 
 And the people were worthy of their land. They are, 
 writes Dampier, " the miserablest people in the world. 
 The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, 
 yet for wealth are as gentlemen to these ; who have no 
 houses and skin garments, sheep, poultry and fruits of the 
 earth, ostrich eggs, etc., as the Hodmadods have ; and 
 " The setting aside their human shape, they differ but little 
 
 people in ^ from brutes. They are tall, straitbodied, and thin, with 
 the world." small long limbs. They have great heads, round fore- 
 heads, and great brows. Their eyelids are always half- 
 closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes ; they being so 
 troublesome here, that no fanning will keep them from 
 coming to one's face ; and, without the assistance of both 
 hands to keep them off, they will creep into one's nostrils, 
 and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close. . . . They 
 have great bottle noses, pretty full lips, and wide mouths. 
 The two fore-teeth of their upper jaw are wanting in all 
 of them. . . . Neither have they any beards. They are 
 long visaged and of a very unpleasing aspect, having 
 not one graceful feature in their faces. Their hair is black 
 short and curled, like that of the negroes ; and not long 
 and lank like the common Indians. The colour of their 
 skins, both of their faces and the rest of their body, is 
 coal black, like that of the negroes of Guinea. Their 
 costume consisted of a piece of the rind of a tree, and a 
 handful of grass or bough." ^ 
 
 ^ Cf. picture of " natives of Western Australia " in Stokes's Discoveries 
 in Australia, 1846. Stokes describes, in vol. i. pp. 88, 89, the natives 
 of the districts visited by Dampier. Cf. Martin's " Journal of Explora- 
 tion in N.W. Australia " in Journal of Royal Geographical Society, 
 vol. 35, p. 284. When Banks examined the natives on the Eastern 
 
DAMPIER 317 
 
 i.. ,.„„...„..,„„„..,.„ 
 
 ^B be " only a fire with a few boughs before it " to keep customs. 
 ^Boff the wind. " They have no houses, but hve in the open 
 ^Bair, without any covering ; the earth being their bed, 
 and the heaven their canopy^. . . . Their only food is a 
 small sort of fish, which they get by making weirs of stone 
 across little coves or branches of the sea ; every tide 
 bringing in the small fish, and there leaving them a prey 
 to these people, who constantly attend there to search 
 for them at low-water. This small fry I take to be the 
 top of their fishery. . . . What Providence has bestowed 
 on them they broil on the coals and eat it in common. 
 Sometimes they get as many fish as makes them a plentiful 
 banquet ; and at other times they scarce get everyone 
 a taste. . . . When they have eaten, they lie down till 
 the next low-water, and then all that are able march out, 
 be it night or day, rain or sun, 'tis all one ; they must attend 
 the weirs, or else they must fast. For the earth affords 
 them no food at all. There is neither herb, root, pulse, 
 nor any sort of grain for them to eat that we saw ; nor 
 any sort of bird or beast that they can catch, having 
 no instruments wherewithal to do so." Their weapons 
 were wooden swords and a sort of lance. 
 
 Dampier illustrates the degree of their civihsation An 
 by an incident that happened in the course of a visit to illustration 
 a small island on which camped about forty of them. 
 There were some wells of water there, and the Englishmen 
 proposed to take some of it on board in small six-gallon 
 barrels. It occurred to them that it would be trouble- 
 some to carry the barrels, and that it would be a good 
 plan to bribe the natives to carry them by a present of 
 " finery." So they put on one " an old pair of breeches," 
 
 coast, he noted that they differed from Dampier's Westerners, especially 
 in two respects, (i) Their " absolute colour " seemed to be rather 
 chocolate than black, and (2) the hair " in some was as lank as a 
 European's, in others a little crisped, but in none resembling the wool 
 of the negroes." Banks thought that, for once, Dampier might have 
 been careless in his observations. The description of Stokes, and later 
 explorers, however, show that Dampier was substantially right. The 
 colour of the Westerners is black and their hair is often " curled " or 
 "frizzled," though not, we are told, woolly like a negro's. 
 
3i8 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 on another " a ragged shirt," and on a third " a jacket 
 that was scarce worth owning, which yet would have been 
 very acceptable at some places where we had been. Then 
 we brought these new servants to the wells, and put a 
 barrel on each of their shoulders for them to carry them 
 to the canoe. But all the signs we could make were to 
 no purpose, for they stood hke statues, without motion, but 
 grmned hke so many monkeys, staring one upon another ; for 
 these poor creatures seem not accustomed to carry burdens ; 
 and I believe that one of our shipboys of ten years old 
 would carry as much as one of them. So we were forced 
 to carry our water ourselves, and they very fairly put 
 the clothes off again, and laid them down, as if clothes 
 were only to work in. I did not perceive that they had 
 any great liking to them at first, neither did they seem 
 to admire anything that we had." 
 Dampier The pirates had touched at New Holland to see " what 
 s ips away, ^j^^ country would afford them." It had afforded them 
 exceedingly little ; though Dampier had satisfied his 
 desire, for " more knowledge and experience " by vision 
 and study of the miserablest and most ungentlemanly 
 people in the world. The pirates made a stay of nine weeks, 
 till the 1 2th of March, 1688 ; and it seems surprising 
 that they stayed so long. Dampier had been trying 
 to persuade them to go to some English factory, but " was 
 threatened to be turned ashore and left here for it." How- 
 ever, at the Nicobar Islands, he and two others managed 
 to make their slip away. They bought for an axe a canoe 
 " about the burden of one of our London wherries," and, 
 in company with four Malays and " a mongrel Portuguese," 
 sailed for Achin in Sumatra. They met a storm so fero- 
 cious that " our httle ark was in danger to be swallowed 
 by every wave ; and, what was worst of all, none of us 
 thought ourselves prepared for another world " ; and 
 Dampier describes his reflections in a passage that might 
 have been written by Robinson Crusoe. On the twentieth 
 day, however, they came to shore, in desperate condition. 
 A walking Jq recover his health he took a trip to Tonquin. Here, 
 Tonquin. having two dollars in pocket, he determined to have 
 
DAMPIER 319 
 
 a walking tour, giving one dollar to a Tonquinese guide, 
 and reserving the other for travelling expenses. In 
 spite of his guide, he very nearly got into serious trouble 
 in one place, by mistaking a funeral feast for a meat-market, 
 and offering to buy a pound or two. Later he had the 
 interesting Spanish-Latin conversation over " a glass or 
 two of wine " with the French priest, which gave him 
 opportunity in his Journal to describe his own religious 
 views. " The English and the Dutch in those parts 
 of the world," he says, " are too loose livers to gain reputa- 
 tion to their religion. The Romanists are the only men 
 who compass sea and land and gain proselytes." ■ On 
 the other hand while " the gross idolatry of the Papists " 
 gives them an advantage in their efforts to convert pagan 
 idolaters, such conversion from one idolatry to another 
 seems to him of little religious value. The first care of 
 missionaries, says the ex-pirate, " should be to bring 
 the people to be virtuous and considerate, and their next, 
 to give them a plain history and scheme of the fundamental 
 truths of Christianity, and show how agreeable they are 
 to natural light, and how worthy of God." However, 
 the Catholic converts were, he understood, falling off again 
 " as rice grew plentiful." 
 
 Commercial rambles in the Eastern seas passed the English 
 time for a year and a half. Dampier can tell you all ^o^^id^push 
 about Tonquin and Cambodia and Sumatra and Malacca, trade in the 
 and many less known places. Then he spent five months ^^^" 
 at Fort St. George by Madras — " as agreeable a land- 
 scape as I have anywhere seen " — and another five months 
 as gunner in the English factory of Bencouli, on the Western 
 coast of Sumatra. Everywhere he describes all things, 
 from Christian missions to Mangostan and Pumple Nose. 
 But his main note is the call to English merchants to wake 
 up, and claim their share of the rich Oriental trade, which 
 the Dutch have monopolised. " Though men ought not 
 to run inconsiderately into new discoveries or undertakings, 
 yet, when there is a prospect of profit, I think it not amiss 
 for merchants to try for a trade. If our ancestors had 
 been as dull as we have been of late, 'tis probable we had 
 
320 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 never known the way so much as to the East Indies. . . . 
 What care was formerly taken to get us a trade with the 
 East Indian and other countries ! . . . But now, as if cloyed 
 with trade, we sit still contented, saying with Cato, ' Non 
 minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri.' " Had, for 
 example, the chief of the English factory at Tonquin been 
 " a man of spirit," he might have got " a trade with 
 Japan ; and to China as much as they pleased." 
 Dampier At last Dampier began to long for his native land. He 
 England, ^^^ acquired a half-share in a " painted prince," whose 
 1691- tattooings he describes in enthusiastic detail. No small 
 
 advantage, he thought, would be gained by showing 
 him in England. Then, with bags of gate-money in pocket, 
 the showman would return to the prince's island, and 
 engage in lucrative trade, under the prince's patronage. 
 Dampier reached England in 1691. But he "fell among 
 rooks," and had to sell his share in the painted prince, 
 who was afterwards shown as a sight, and died of the 
 smallpox at Oxford. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK 
 
 The painted prince was dead; but, in spite of "rooks," Dampier's 
 one asset remained, the precious Journal so diligently ■^^•"^^j^ 
 written, and so carefully preserved through all adventure 1697. 
 and disaster. It was both a fascinating account of travel 
 in strange lands, and a scientific study of things seen. 
 Students of science were now organised in the Royal 
 Society, and were there debating, with plentiful and in- 
 genious ignorance, subjects concerning which the ex-pirate 
 had first-hand and exact knowledge. In 1 697 a large 
 part of the Journal was printed in a book dedicated to the 
 President of the Royal Society, Charles Montague, Earl 
 of Hahfax, one of the most important politicians of the 
 time. Dampier hopes that, as the scene of his travels 
 " is not only remote, but for the most part little frequented 
 also, so there may be some things in them new even to 
 you ; and some not altogether unuseful to the public." 
 He avows "a hearty zeal for the promoting of useful 
 knowledge, and of anything that may never so remotely 
 tend to my country's advantage." And he is " desirous 
 to bring in my gleanings here and there in remote regions 
 to that general magazine of the knowledge of foreign 
 parts, which the Royal Society thought you most worthy 
 the custody of, when they chose you for their president." 
 He trusts that Lord Hahfax will " judge him capable 
 of serving his country." 
 
 The President of the Royal Society judged Dampier A voyage 
 capable of serving his country. He introduced him to ^^^ °^^ 
 the First Lord of the Admiralty, who consented to Dampier's Holland. 
 w.A. 321 X 
 
322 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 proposal that he should be sent in command of a ship 
 to explore New Holland. One is at first thought some- 
 what surprised to find that Dampier's special wish was 
 to explore New Holland. But he justly refused to accept 
 the few leagues of miserable country he had seen as a fair 
 sample of " this large and hitherto almost unknown tract 
 of land, situated so very advantageously in the richest 
 climates of the world." To his sun-worshipping nature 
 it appeared that New Holland would have in it " all 
 the advantages of the torrid zone, as being known 
 to reach from the Equator itself (within a degree) to the 
 Tropic of Capricorn and beyond it." " In coasting round 
 it," he wrote in his Journal, "which I designed by this 
 Great . voyage, if possible, I could not but hope to meet with 
 expec a ions, g^j^g fruitful lands, continents or islands, or both, produc- 
 tive of any of the rich fruits, drugs or spices (perhaps 
 minerals also) that are in the other parts of the torrid 
 zone, upon equal parallels of Latitude ; at least a soil 
 and air capable of such upon transplanting them hither, 
 and cultivation. I meant also to make as dihgent a survey 
 as I could of the several smaller islands, shores, capes, 
 bays, creeks, and harbours, fit as well for shelter as defence, 
 upon fortifying them ; and of rocks, and shoals, the sound- 
 ings, tides and currents, winds and weather variation ; 
 whatever might be beneficial for navigation, trade, and 
 settlement ; . . . I intended especially to observe what 
 inhabitants I should meet with, and to try to win them 
 over to somewhat of traffic and useful intercourse, as there 
 might be commodities among them that might befit for trade 
 or manufacture. . . . Though, as to the New Hollanders 
 hereabouts, by the experience I had had of their neigh- 
 bours formerly, I expected no great matters from them." 
 An English The voyagc, then, was to be — to use Sir Joseph Bank's 
 
 Spice trade. r i u c< r • -i. >> tt • i >» 
 
 ^ useiul phrase — a voyage oi curiosity, a voyage mainly 
 
 aiming, as Dampier always " mainly " aimed, at " more 
 
 knowledge and experience." But there was also hope 
 
 that this increased knowledge and experience would 
 
 lead to increased trade. Tropical New Holland, including 
 
 under that name New Guinea and the adjacent islands, 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK 323 
 
 was fairly well in the Latitude of the Spice Islands. Why 
 should it not be made the centre of an English spice trade 
 that€hould eclipse that of the Dutch ? It was an argument 
 that persisted for a century, and was used by those who, 
 like Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Matra, urged the foundation 
 of a colony in New South Wales. ^ 
 
 Dampier was a man in some ways well qualified to con- Dampier's 
 duct a voyage of curiosity. He was probably the most ^^^^^ ^^' 
 curious adult Englishman then alive ; and his curiosity 
 was that of a scientific mind trained by ample experience. 
 He was, moreover, a learned and skilful navigator and 
 Pilot. He had made special study of winds and currents, 
 and was an acknowledged expert in all the arts needed 
 in the navigation of a ship. He had some part of the 
 equipment of a Captain Cook, as well as some part of the 
 equipment of a Sir Joseph Banks. On the other hand, 
 say our modern critics, he lacked the qualities that were 
 necessary to success, the qualities that make a leader 
 of men. And our modern critics are probably right. 
 
 And yet one feels that Dampier had been set a task Difficulties, 
 in which many a leader of men would have failed. The 
 ship that was given him for this voyage of exploration 
 in distant and unknown seas was the Roebuck of 290 tons. 
 On the return journey she "foundered through perfect The ship, 
 age," after an attempt to mend the leak had shown that 
 "the plank was so rotten that it broke away like dirt." 
 The crew that was to sail this aged and rotten ship to the end 
 of the earth and back were men whose morality was probably The crew, 
 as bad as that of Dampier's pirate comrades, and whose 
 ability was certainly very much less. The seaman of 
 Dampier's day, writes Mr. Clark Russell, after a compHment 
 to that seaman's intrepidity, had the characteristics of 
 the savage. He was " a rufiian in 'his behaviour ; he 
 was a brute in his tastes ; he conversed in a dialect that 
 
 ^ " Part of it (N.S.W.) lies in a climate parallel to the Spice Islands, 
 and is well fitted for the production of that valuable commodity, as 
 well as the sugar cane, tea, coffee, silk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and the 
 other articles of commerce that have been so advantageous to the 
 maritime powers of Europe," Matra's Proposal, 1783 ; Historical 
 Records of N.S.W. , vol. i. part 2, p. 2, 
 
324 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 was almost wholly formed of oaths, and he pursued his 
 calling in a skin soaked with liquor that was served out 
 to him by the gallon at a time." Dampier describes 
 his seamen with his usual scientific detail ; and he makes 
 me believe that they were, to write with becoming short- 
 ness, incompetent, dirty, smellful,^ rebellious, murderous,^ 
 and — worst of all — " heartless enough to the voyage at 
 best." Dampier, the ex-pirate, had undertaken to keep 
 in order this gang of brutal ruffians ; and, in dealing with 
 them, he had to bear the blame of the piratical reputation 
 unsupported by the strength of the piratical character. 
 " Anyone," he says very justly, " who is sensible of these 
 difficulties will be much more pleased at the discoveries 
 and observations I have been able to make than displeased 
 that I did not make more." ^ 
 The voyage Dampier's excellent plan had been to sail round Cape 
 Australia Horn, and begin his discoveries upon " the Eastern or 
 Jan.- July, less known side of the Terra Australis." Had he done 
 ^^' so, he might have left Cook little to do. But this plan 
 
 was thwarted, he says, by the time of the year. Sailing 
 on the 14th of January, 1699 — apparently he had to sail 
 then or not sail at all — he would have been obliged to 
 round Cape Horn in a very high latitude in the depth 
 of winter, and this was one of the few ways in which the 
 Sun- Worshipper was unwilling to add to his knowledge 
 and experience. He therefore had to go by the usual 
 Cape of Good Hope route. He spent a month in Brazil, 
 at Bahia de Todos Santas — the modern San Salvador — 
 and wrote a description of the place which occupies twenty- 
 six pages in the modern edition of the Journal. In order 
 to give his mutineers no chance — he was sleeping on 
 the quarter-deck with arms handy — he did not call at 
 the Cape, and jogged for New Holland. He followed 
 
 1 " They caused an ill-smell wherever they went and their hammocl s 
 would stink sufficiently." 
 
 2 He found it was not safe to sleep in his cabin, and was forced to 
 lie on the quarter-deck with such officers as he could trust, and " with 
 small arms handy." 
 
 3 Voyages, vol. ii. p. 343. 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK 325 
 
 the usual Dutch route, and on the 31st of July, like so 
 many Dutch skippers, he saw land in the neighbourhood 
 of Houtman's Abrolhos. 
 
 His plan had been to " coast round " New Holland. The plan 
 There were now two ways of doing so. He might sail navigate" 
 Southward and then Eastward, following the line of Australia, 
 the discovery of De Nuyts, connecting it with Tasman's 
 discovery of Van Diemen Land, and then connecting 
 this with Tasman's discoveries in New Guinea. Had 
 he taken this route he might have been first to sail through 
 Bass's Strait, first to coast Eastern Australia, second to 
 sail through Torres Strait. But it was midwinter, and 
 the voyage seemed too cold for one who believed that 
 wealth was " directly under the sun." " I confess," 
 he writes, " I was not for spending any time more than 
 was necessary in the higher Latitudes ; as knowing that 
 the land there could not be so well worth the discovering 
 as the parts that lay nearer the line, and more directly 
 under the sun." He decided therefore to coast round 
 New Holland the other way ; — " to coast along to the 
 Northward, and so to the East, arid so thought to come 
 round by the South of Terra Australis {i.e. New Holland) 
 in my return back, which should be in the summer time 
 there." 
 
 Dampier, therefore, sailed North, seeking "a Harbour Sharks Bay. 
 to refresh us after our tedious journey." He came to the 
 great bay behind Dirck Hartog's island, where Vlamingh 
 had caught sharks three years before. Dampier also 
 caught sharks, and called the place Sharks Bay. His 
 account of the place is similar to that which Vlamingh 
 gave three years before, and to that which Freycinet 
 gave one hundred and two years later. The sharks were 
 savoury, the raccoons (kangaroo rats }) were " very good 
 meat," and the turtles " indifferent sweet meat." The 
 bush flowers were beautiful and fragrant, and " for the 
 fnost part unlike any I had seen elsewhere " ; at last 
 one really good thing had been seen in Australia ! But 
 the country was waterless. They dug wells again and 
 again, but to no purpose. 
 
326 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Rosemary 
 Island. 
 
 Are there 
 passages 
 Southward 
 and 
 Eastward ? 
 
 Hence Dampier sailed northward along the coast, 
 keeping at a distance, however, and believing that what 
 he saw was more probably a screen of islands than a con- 
 tinuous coast. He came to the " range of islands " that 
 is now called " Dampier's Archipelago." They all looked 
 dry, rocky, and barren. Dampier despaired of getting 
 water, but thought he might find " some sort of rich 
 mineral or amber-greece." But he found nothing of 
 interest save beautiful wild-flowers, and he named the 
 island Rosemary Island after . one of the shrubs. But 
 the great multitude of islands, and the strong tides running 
 between them, were putting questions. Dampier was 
 sailing by Tasman's Chart, and was growing dissatisfied 
 with it. " The shore is laid down as all along joining 
 in one body or continent, with some openings like rivers ; 
 and not hke islands as they really are." He concluded 
 that Tasman " came not so near the shore as his Hne 
 shows," and that his hard outline of coast was founded 
 on ignorance and guess-work. It is unlucky that the 
 loss of Tasman's Journal for the voyage of 1644 makes 
 it impossible to know what his answer to this criticism 
 would have been. Dampier, at least, could only see islands. 
 There might be continent behind them, but Dampier 
 doubted. All he saw from about 27° to about 20° looked 
 like " nothing but ranges of pretty large islands against 
 the sea, whatever might be behind them to the Eastward, 
 whether sea or land, continent or islands." His own guess 
 was 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." It 
 was possible indeed, that " the high tides and great in- 
 draught " were ".occasioned by the mouth of some great 
 river." But it seemed more likely that there was " a 
 channel or strait." It was impossible to make further 
 exploration, for there was urgent need of water. But 
 he thought that on his way home he might be able to seek 
 the Eastern entrance of the supposed channel, which might 
 be in the region of New Guinea, and to sail through it 
 back to Rosemary Island. 
 
I VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK ■ • 327 
 
 Dampier's guess was wrong. But it seems, nevertheless, A good 
 to have been a good guess, and bears good testimony though 
 to Dampier's scientific seamanship. A century later wrong. 
 Flinders, summing up geographic knowledge before his 
 own voyage of 1 802, and the problems which he had hoped 
 to solve in that voyage, wrote that Dampier's guess was 
 supported by " a fair induction from facts." By that 
 time Cook's voyage had proved that the supposed passage 
 could not lead into the great ocean Eastward. But it 
 was thought "possible that it might communicate with 
 the Gulf of Carpentaria, and even probable that a passage 
 existed from thence to the unknown part of the South 
 coast beyond the Isles of St. Francis and St. Peter. But 
 whether the opening were the entrance to a strait, separating 
 Terra Australis' into one or more islands, or led into a 
 mediterranean sea, as some thought ; or whether it were 
 the entrance of a large river ; there was, in either case, a 
 great geographical question to be settled, relative to the 
 parts behind Rosemary Island." ^ Flinders' own voyages 
 proved that, if there were a passage behind Rosemary 
 Island, that passage communicated neither with the South 
 coast nor with the Gulf of Carpentaria. But the." geogra- 
 phical question relative to the parts behind Rosemary 
 Island," which Dampier had asked with so much good 
 judgment, remain unanswered till an even later date.^ 
 
 Dampier looked for an opening, but he looked far more Roebuck 
 eagerly for some water. In Latitude 18° 21', in the bay ^^' 
 now called Roebuck Bay, he went ashore with a few men, 
 armed with muskets and cutlasses, and carrying shovels 
 and pick-axes to dig wells. They dug eight or nine feet, 
 but there was no water. At last they found " a rundlet 
 . of brackish water," not fit to drink, but good enough 
 to boil their oatmeal porridge, whereby they might save 
 their other water for drinking. The country, was so 
 barricaded with a long chain of sandhills that they could 
 see nothing of what was further inland What they could 
 see were " Savannahs " bearing a sort of thin coarse grass, 
 
 ^ Flinders, vol. i. p. Ixvi. 
 
 2 Cf. the voyages of King, and of Stokes. 
 
328 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 and a poor scrub of woodland. Standing in the savannahs 
 were " several things like haycocks." They looked like 
 Hottentot's houses, but were found to be " so many rocks." 
 If Dampier had looked more closely he would probably 
 have found that they were so many ant-hills. Two or 
 three dingoes were seen " like hungry wolves, lean Hke 
 so many skeletons, being nothing but skin and bones." 
 There was a " rencounter " with the natives, who were even 
 worse to look at than the dingoes. They refused friend- 
 ship and ran away. Dampier with two men chased them, 
 hoping to learn Whence they got water. A nimble young 
 man overtook them, but they attacked him with wooden 
 lances, and Dampier had to shoot one of them. Their 
 chief was " a young brisk man painted with a circle of 
 white paste about his eyes, and a white streak down his 
 nose ; ... his painting adding very much to his natural 
 Unpleasant deformity ; for they all of them have the most unpleasant 
 savages. looks and the worst features of any people that ever I 
 saw, though I have seen great variety of savages." Appar- 
 ently they were even worse than " the miserablest people 
 in the world " whom, in the previous voyage, he had seen 
 forty or fifty leagues to the North-East. " These were 
 much the same blinking creatures (here beingalso abundance 
 of the same flesh-flies teasing them), and with the same 
 black skins, and hair frizzled, tall and thin, as those were." 
 Like them also they seemed to live chiefly on shell-fish 
 and small fry, caught in holes in the sand at low water. 
 "Almost Dampier had now "spent about five weeks in ranging 
 
 weary. ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^j^^ coast of New Holland, a length of about 
 
 three hundred leagues." He had landed at three several 
 places to see what there might be thereabouts worth 
 discovery, and especially to recruit his stock of fresh 
 water and provisions. He had found nothing worth dis- 
 covering, nothing to eat, nothing to drink. He now thought 
 to sail to the place where the Cygnet had anchored, that 
 happy place where you could get water by sufficient 
 digging. But everlasting " shoals " made it "a very 
 tedious thing to sail along the shore." He " edged further 
 off to sea," lost sight of land, and got North of the place 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK 329 
 
 he aimed at. He was " almost weary " of the shores 
 of New Holland. The shoals seemed endless ; the coast 
 was unknown, save for Tasman's unsatisfying chart, 
 and the tides were strong, high, and dangerous. He 
 decided that the best plan was to go forward to New 
 Guinea, and steered away for Timor. 
 
 In Timor both Portuguese and Dutch had forts. Dampier At Timor, 
 came first to the Dutch fort. The Governor took them 
 for plundering pirates, but Dampier explained that this 
 time he was in a King's ship, and only wanted water. 
 " The Governor replied that he had orders not to supply 
 any ships but their own East India Company ; neither must 
 they allow any Europeans to come the way that we came. 
 ' You are come to inspect into our trade and strength, 
 and I will have you therefore be gone with all speed.' " 
 On better acquaintance, however, the Governor proved 
 to be " a civil, genteel, and sensible man," asked Dampier 
 to dinner, and gave him, one of the best entertainments 
 he ever had while abroad. " Our liquor," he quaintly 
 writes, " was wine, beer, toddey, or water, which we liked 
 best after dinner." Later he called at the Portuguese 
 fort, where the Deputy gave him a handsome present 
 of animals and fruit. 
 
 Thoroughly refreshed, Dampier sailed for New Guinea New Guinea, 
 
 on the 1 2th of December, 160Q. He saw New Guinea '^* J^"- 
 
 ' -^-^ 1700. 
 
 on New Year's Day 1700, rounded the Western end, and 
 then sailed on an Eastern course, wide of the coast, till 
 he came to the point of the island of New Hanover. The 
 three islands of the modern map, — New Hanover, New 
 Ireland, and New Britain, — were drawn by Tasman as 
 one land, and as part of New Guinea. Dampier did not 
 notice the passages that separate New Ireland from New 
 Hanover and from New Britain. But, sailing down the 
 hitherto unknown Eastern coast of New Britain, he dis- Dampier 
 covered the passage that separates New Britain from New ^^^^^^' ^.^^. 
 Guinea. He sailed through this passage, Dampier Strait, 
 and, having proved that " this Eastland does not join 
 to New Guinea," he named it " Nova Britannia." He 
 wrote of the island, in a passage that attracted much 
 
330 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 attention, with very high praise. "The mountains and 
 lower lands were pleasantly mixed with wood-land and 
 savannahs. The trees appeared very green and flourishing ; 
 and the savannahs seemed to be very smooth and even ; 
 no meadow in England appears more green in the Spring 
 than these. ... It is also very well inhabited with strong 
 well-limbed negroes, whom we found very daring and 
 bold at several places. ... It is very probable the island 
 may afford as many rich commodities as any in the world ; 
 and the natives may be easily brought to commerce." 
 Dampier had been right. Wealth existed " directly under 
 the sun." Here was the English Spice-island.^ 
 The need to Dampier had meant to sail round New Holland, and; 
 according to this plan, should now have sought to round 
 the Eastern end of New Guinea, with a view to sailing 
 down the unknown Eastern coast of New Holland, and 
 then of coming round its South coast in the Summer. 
 Another plan had been to seek„ somewhere to the South 
 of New Guinea, the Eastern entrance of the Channel 
 which, he believed, reached its Western entrance between 
 Rosemary Island and Roebuck Bay. But these plans 
 had become impossible. " The many difficulties I at 
 this time met with, the want of convenience to clean 
 my ship, the fewness of my men, their desire to hasten 
 home, and the danger of continuing in these circumstances 
 in seas where the shoals and coasts were utterly unknown, 
 and must be searched out with much caution and length 
 of time ; hindered me from prosecuting any further my 
 intended search." He sailed back along the North coast 
 of New Guinea to Timor. 
 Shipwreck at He had intended to make for the coast of New Holland 
 Ascension, in about 20°, and to seek for the " Trial Rocks," for he 
 believed that the discovery of them would be of great 
 use to merchants trading to these parts. But he fell 
 ill ; his men were " very negligent " when he was not on 
 deck ; he could not trust them to navigate the ship ; 
 and he thought it wisest to make for Batavia. Here 
 he was allowed to buy provisions, and an attempt was 
 ^ See Dampier's map, p. 331. 
 
332 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 made to patch the rotten ship for the voyage home. By 
 miracle they got as far as the Island of Ascension, where 
 the ship sprang a leak. Attempts to mend it made it 
 worse, for " the plank was so rotten it broke away like 
 dirt." The^hip foundered, but the crew got safely to land, 
 though many of Dampier's precious books and paperS 
 were lost. The crew were rescued by British men-of-war 
 that chanced to come that way. 
 
 Dampier's welcome home was a court-martial. The 
 accuser was Lieutenant Fisher, whom Dampier had put 
 in irons, and had left in prison at Bahia in Brazil. Fisher 
 accused Dampier of being a bad navigator, cruel to trust- 
 worthy seamen, and over kind to pirate friends. Dampier 
 accused Fisher of calling him " Old Rogue, Old Dog, 
 Old Cheat," and so incensing the men against their captain. 
 The court-martial, which included Sir George Rooke 
 and Sir Cloudesley Shovel, gave the verdict " that Captain 
 William Dampier has been guilty of very hard and cruel 
 usage towards Lieutenant Fisher." He was " fined all 
 his pay to the Chest at Chatham." And, further, it was 
 the opinion of the Court that '' the said Captain Dampier 
 is not a fit person to be employed as commander of any 
 of Her Majesty's ships" (June 1702). 
 
 I bow with respect to the verdict of a court-martial. 
 But it seems to me that another court-martial should 
 have been held before Dampier's trial : a court-martial 
 to consider the character of the First Lord of the Admiralty, 
 who had deliberately appointed an ex-pirate to command 
 a ship whose planks were as rotten as dirt, manned 
 by a crew whose morality was in the same condition 
 as the planks. When the crime of the First Lord had been 
 suitably condemned, it might perhaps have sufficed to 
 say to the ex-pirate that he had failed to achieve the 
 impossible, and to congratulate him on his miraculous 
 survival. 
 
 It does not seem, however, that the verdict was taken 
 very seriously. Dampier still retained the reputation, 
 which he did not very well deserve, of being a first-rate 
 pirate chief with a speciality in the South Sea. When, 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK 335 
 
 in the same year (1702), war broke out against Spain and 
 
 France, a syndicate of London merchants was formed, 
 
 as syndicates had been formed in the days of EHzabeth, 
 
 to gain big dividends by " privateering " in the South 
 
 Sea ; and they chose Dampier to sail as captain in a ship 
 
 named the St. George, with a commission from the Lord 
 
 High Admiral, who was the Queen's own husband. The 
 
 story was a tenth-rate pirate story not worth the telling, 
 
 save for one incident. Dampier hunted the Spaniards 
 
 in consort, for a time, with a tiny ship called the Cinque 
 
 Ports, whose captain was a ruffian named Stradling, and 
 
 whose mate was named Alexander Selkirk. According Robinson 
 
 to our modern critic, Selkirk was "on the whole about $y.^^°^ *^® 
 
 ' Third, 
 
 as troublesome a seaman as ever stepped a deck " ; but 
 
 Dampier thought him " the best man in the ship " ; and 
 
 possibly both statements are true. After quarrelling with 
 
 Dampier, Stradling called at Juan Fernandez, the island 
 
 in which already in our story two men had played the ' - 
 
 part of Robinson Crusoe. Here Selkirk chose to land, 
 
 partly because he hated Stradling with good reason, and 
 
 partly because, again with good reason, he was convinced 
 
 that the Cinque Ports would shortly go to the bottom. 
 
 Here for four years he lived the life of Robinson Crusoe 
 
 the Third.i 
 
 Meanwhile Dampier was cruising in the St. George, 
 
 fighting French and Spanish ships, taking some small 
 
 prizes, but on the whole giving little satisfaction to his 
 
 greedy and quarrelsome crew. Two parties of malcontents, 
 
 one after the other, got possession of barks, and made the 
 
 perilous voyage to the East Indies. Dampier was left 
 
 in the St. George, with twenty-eight men and boys, " to 
 
 make war upon a whole nation." Moreover the St. George 
 
 was a ship whose bottom was like that of the Roebuck. 
 
 ^ It is likely that Defoe had read all these three Robinson Crusoe 
 stories. It is curious that he placed his hero, not in Juan Fernandez, 
 but in an island in the estuary of the Orinoco. He describes " the 
 great draft and reflux of the mighty river Oroonoko, in the mouth or 
 gulf of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay ; and this 
 land, which I perceived to the W. and N.W., was the great island 
 Trinidad." Friday was a Carib from Trinidad. 
 
334 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Dampier 
 
 returns 
 
 naked. 
 
 When examined, it was found to resemble a honey-comb ; 
 nowhere was the plank much thicker than an old sixpence ; 
 and you could easily thrust your thumb through it. The 
 carpenter stopped the holes with tallow and charcoal ; 
 but did not dare to drive a nail. At last Dampier took 
 a small Spanish bark, in which he also made the voyage 
 to the East Indies. The Dutch seized the ship, and 
 Dampier, says an Enghsh writer in 1744/ " returned 
 naked to his owners, with a melancholy relation 
 of his and their misfortunes, occasioned chiefly by his 
 own odd temper, which made him so self-sufficient and 
 overbearing that few or none of his officers could endure 
 him." Dampier may have had an "odd temper" as 
 ship- commander ; but, again, there were other reasons 
 for his nakedness. In spite of failure, he was " introduced 
 to the Queen, had the honour to kiss her hand, and to give 
 her some account of the danger he had run through." 
 
 It seems pretty clear that Dampier was a very good 
 Pilot and a very bad Captain. He could not handle 
 the seamen of his period, but he knew as much about 
 navigation as any man living. These facts were recognised 
 The voyage when, in 1708, a syndicate of Bristol merchants sent two 
 ships to wage war on the enemy, and at the same time 
 to earn big dividends for shareholders. The command 
 was given to Woodes Rogers, a friend of Dampier, and 
 an able captain. Dampier was Pilot. It was the business 
 of Rogers to quell the mutinies, and order the battle against 
 the great Spanish treasure-ship. It was the business 
 of Dampier to advise what courses should be taken in 
 the seas he knew so well. They called for refreshment 
 at Juan Fernandez, and " our pinnace returned from the 
 shore, and brought abundance of crayfish, and a man 
 clothed in goat-skins, who looked wilder than the first 
 owners of them." It was Alexander Selkirk, who gave 
 an account of his life more vivid, though less detailed, than 
 that which Defoe wrote in his famous book a few years 
 later. Selkirk, who had been Dampier's friend, joined 
 the ship as mate. The voyage was well-managed, and 
 1 Campbell, the editor of the 1744- 1748 edition of Harris's Voyages. 
 
 of 1708 
 1711 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ROEBUCK 335 
 
 was very profitable. We seem to be once more in the 
 spacious days of Drake. With astonishing ease Spanish 
 towns were sacked, and Spanish ships were captured. Then 
 they ran along Dampier's old route to Guam, and then 
 sailed among the islands off New Guinea ; and Rogers 
 agreed with Dampier's opinion that these islands should 
 be of special interest to commercial Englishmen. " It 
 is most certain these islands would all of them bear spice, 
 and afford immense riches to this nation if they were 
 settled." They came to Batavia, where the seamen 
 got arrack for eight pence a pound, and thought them- 
 selves in Paradise. They were home in September 1 71 1, 
 and the syndicate made a nett profit of £170,000. 
 
 Here ends knowledge of Dampier's life. "He 
 vanishes," says the modern biographer, " like a puff of 
 tobacco smoke." ^ He died in 1715. He is important 
 in our story, not as a discoverer, but as a student and as 
 a writer. He discovered nothing that had not been dis- The value of 
 covered before, save the Eastern coast of New Britain, ^^'JJng^'^ 
 and the strait between that island and New Guinea. But 
 his writings, immensely and deservedly popular, made 
 people understand the interest of the South Sea. EngHsh- 
 men had hitherto known nothing and thought nothing 
 of the South Sea. The learned might read old records 
 of the voyages of Quiros, Le Maire and Tasman ; but 
 they read them without interest and without . faith, as 
 one would read a rather dull fairy-tale. For the unlearned 
 there was nothing to read. To both learned and unlearned 
 Dampier's narratives revealed a new and a strange world, 
 crowded with things interesting to men of all sorts and 
 conditions. The young lady of Queen Anne's reign could 
 afford to leave the latest novel, even by Defoe, uncut 
 upon her table ; for the best things in the latest novel 
 were taken, without acknowledgment, from the pages 
 of Dampier and his " fellow travellers." Men of science 
 found a new world of deeper interest ; they could study 
 the only exact account of tropical plants and animals 
 in a book that was a vivid record of strange adventure. 
 1 Clark Russell, p. 182. 
 
336 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 It was from Dampier that Banks learnt of the strange 
 and beautiful bush-flowers that he sought at Botany Bay. 
 To the geographer he explained precisely that which was 
 known, and that which remained unknown, and he pointed 
 to the paths of practicable exploration. To the merchants 
 he suggested that voyages of curiosity might lead to 
 voyages of profit, that enormous possibilities of lucrative 
 trade awaited them in Southern and in Eastern seas. 
 With both hands Dampier had poured forth such wealth 
 of fascinating information, that for the first time English- 
 men felt at home in the South Sea, able to find their way 
 about, and beginning to think that it might be worth 
 while to contend with the Dutch for trade settlement 
 therein. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE PLANS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Jean Pierre Purry's Memoire sur le pais des Capes, et la terre 
 de Nuyts. 
 
 Purry's Second Memoire. 
 
 Harris's Voyages, ed. Campbell, 1744-1748. 
 
 Charles de Brosses's Histoire des Navigations aux Terres 
 Australes. 
 
 Callender's Terra Australis Cognita. 
 
 Dalrymple's Discoveries- made in the South Pacific Ocean 
 previous to 1764. 
 
 Dalrymple's Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and 
 Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Yet, half a century passed before another Enghshman The neglect 
 
 of New 
 Holland. 
 
 landed in New Holland. Dampier's books were good °^ ^^^ 
 
 reading, but his argument was not strong enough to induce 
 men to put their hands into their pockets. The power of 
 pure science was still too slight to launch ships on voyages 
 of curiosity. The main chance was the appeal to men 
 of commerce, who were powerful enough to do almost 
 anything they liked. But the men of commerce thought 
 there were more important things to attend to. As for 
 New Holland, the Dutch had known thousands of miles 
 of it for a century, and had not thought it worth while 
 to found a single factory, '-'^hat the Dutch could not 
 turn to profit must be pretty bad, and Dampier himself 
 had proved that it was very bad indeed. New Britain, 
 it was true, seemed to be in a fertile place. But New 
 Britain wag a long way off. Its exploitation would be 
 expensive, and money could be better spent in nearer 
 places. 
 
 w,a. 337 Y 
 
338 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 / 
 
 The reasons. Thus, SO far as action is concerned, the first half of the 
 eighteenth century was a period of singularly little interest 
 in our story. The Dutch had already discovered far 
 more than they could use, and thought that further ex- 
 ploration would be a mistake. " To reduce a continent 
 near three thousand miles broad," explains an English 
 writer in 1744, " is a prodigious undertaking, and to settle 
 •it by degrees would be to open to all the world the impor- 
 tance of that country." The day of the Dutch as a pro- 
 gressive world-power was waning. They stood nervously 
 in defence of a gigantic monopoly, that was wonderfully 
 out of proportion to their numbers and their strength. 
 The day that was coming was the day of the British and 
 the French. But, in the early eighteenth century, British 
 and French were fighting out their rivalry in the Atlantic. 
 When America's question was settled, they would have 
 spare time for Australasia. Meanwhile the Dutch were 
 allowed another century's lease of their monopoly. 
 The growth And yet this period has an interest of its own — an 
 of plans. interest that consists, not in voyages, but in the growth 
 
 of ideas which led to voyages. 
 
 Purry In 1717 and 1 7 18 Jean Pierre Purry, a servant of the 
 
 DuSf^^ ^ Dutch East India Company, wrote two Memorials, which 
 
 colony in urged the Company to found a colony in Nuytsland. 
 
 iTE^^^iTis' -^^ pointed to the enormous length of the country that 
 
 had been discovered in the South. There were five 
 
 or six hundred leagues from Edelsland to the islands of 
 
 St. Francis and St. Peter ; and who could say what lands 
 
 existed between these islands and New Zealand, another 
 
 six or seven hundred leagues away ? All this huge country 
 
 was in the best climate in the world. It must contain 
 
 many excellent lands, and the trouble would be to choose 
 
 the best. True, the country bore a bad reputation. But 
 
 all that was known about it was that the bare coast-line 
 
 was inhabited by ignorant savages. Of course, here as 
 
 elsewhere, must be deserts and mountains, but who could 
 
 reasonably say that the whole country was worthless } 
 
 Exploration would probably show that it contained mines 
 
 of gold and silver as rich as those of Mexico and Peru. 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 339 
 
 It was reasonable enough to guess that, within its vast 
 hmits, would be found " one of the best countries in the 
 world," a country able to produce grain, silk, tobacco, 
 wine, and oil. A colony founded here would be of the 
 greatest service, as a place of refreshment for the Company's 
 ships, and as a source of supply to all the Company's 
 settlements in the Indies. It could be easily formed by 
 labourers from Java, who would appreciate the change 
 of climate, or by slaves. Five hundred or six hundred 
 picked soldiers should be sent to reconnoitre ; for it was 
 possible that the natives were giants, and that they 
 possessed forts and " machines of war better than our 
 bombs and cannons." 
 
 And there was need of haste. If the Dutch did not Fear of 
 grasp the opportunity of using a land which contained p^ench 
 " perhaps more riches than any other part of the world," colonies, 
 the British or the French would certainly do so. Would 
 Hollanders be content to abandon " New Holland " to 
 strangers } The British were especially to be dreaded. 
 " One must confess there is no people in all the universe 
 so alive, so active, so enterprising." For they are colonists 
 as well as merchants ; — " they themselves go to live in 
 a good land." And, if ever British or French made a 
 settlement in Nuytsland, and formed there a basis for 
 warfare, with difficulty would the Dutch be able to main- 
 tain their position in the East Indies. 
 
 Purry argued with eloquence and with truth ; but he The Com- 
 did not convince. Colonisation and fortification, he ^^^ ^^^^ 
 admitted, cost much money. The Company, he said, 
 could get the money back by taking one-fifth of the wine, 
 oil, grain, and fruit produced. But the Company did 
 not believe him. It preferred to take the chance of a 
 British or French settlement. 
 
 In 1 72 1 there was a Dutch voyage that is interesting Roggeveen 
 not from what it did but from what it suggested. The ?5^1^® , 
 
 ^^ Quires s 
 
 voyage of Roggeveen ^ looks back to the earlier Spanish continent, 
 
 1721. 
 ^ " Two, if not three accounts of Roggeveen's expedition were 
 pubhshed soon after his return to Europe, from the pens of persons 
 
340 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 story, and looks forward to the British story to which we 
 shall come. Since the days of Le Maire (1615), the Dutch 
 had thought little about the great golden continent, Terra 
 Australis Incognita. Their concern had been with the 
 " Company's New Netherland," the huge island they 
 had cut out of Terra Australis, and found to be a land 
 of incredible badness. Tasman, indeed, thought that 
 " Staten Land " (New Zealand) was a promontory of Terra 
 Australis Incognita, but it seemed an even more murderous 
 place than the Company's New Netherland, and his only 
 thought was how to get through it or round it, in order 
 to find a way to Chili. But now the argument of Quiros 
 once more inspired a Dutch navigator. A gentleman 
 named Roggeveen, who had made a fortune in Batavia, 
 persuaded the Dutch West India Company to send him, 
 in command of three ships, to search for the unknown 
 continent, for which Quiros had searched in 1606 and 
 Le Maire in 1 61 6. 
 Falkland He touched at the Falkland Islands which he called 
 Islands. a ^Q\g[^ Austrahs," because its inhabitants would be 
 strictly antipodes to the inhabitants of the Low Countries. 
 The land looked beautiful and fertile, but Roggeveen 
 postponed examination till he should return from the 
 discovery of the Continent. To make sure that he would 
 get round Cape Horn he sailed as far South as 62° 50'. 
 Huge icebergs seemed to prove that the Southern Continent 
 extended to the Pole ; for it was held that such vast 
 hills of ice could not be produced in the sea, and therefore 
 • proved the existence of big rivers. The great number 
 of birds also seemed to prove that this continent could 
 not be far away. Then, sailing Northward, Roggeveen 
 Juan visited the island of Juan Fernandez, and appreciated 
 
 its advantages so highly that he thought of settling it, 
 
 who sailed with him." Two of these are translated in Campbell, de 
 Brosses, Callender and Dalrymple. " It was not until 1836, however, 
 that the official log of the commander himself came to light : it was 
 printed a couple of years later at Middleburg, in the original Dutch." 
 The part which tells the story of the discovery of Easter Island is 
 translated by Corney in The Voyage of Captain Don Felipe Gonzalez 
 (Hakluyt Society). 
 
 Fernandez. 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 341 
 
 as a place of shelter and refreshment to ships bound to 
 Southern lands. That plan, however, he also postponed 
 till his return. 
 
 Then he began the real business of the voyage, the search Search for 
 for that part of Terra Australis which must exist, as he ^ustmlis 
 believed, between the 30th and the 36th degree ; and 
 experience proved, he argued, that between these degrees, 
 both in the North and in the South, are the richest, pleas- 
 antest, and most fruitful countries in the world. 
 
 First, he sought for that part of Terra Australis which 
 the English privateer Captain Davis declared he had seen 
 in 28° in the year 1680. But Roggeveen could only find 
 there a little island, which he called Easter Island, because Easter 
 he discovered it on Easter Day. It is now agreed that ^ ^" * 
 this most interesting of Pacific islands is the same land 
 that Davis had seen. But Roggeveen sailed on puzzled 
 and disappointed. We cannot exactly make out his 
 course. So says Captain Cook, and so says Captain 
 Cook's modern editor. He sailed eight hundred leagues 
 without discovering land. Then, in about 15°, he discovered 
 exceedingly beautiful islands, which modern writers tell 
 us were the Samoan group. But Roggeveen despaired, Samoa, 
 and decided to sail to the East Indies, in spite of the protest 
 of officers who urged that he should winter in the land 
 of Quiros, which, they said, could not be above one hundred 
 and fifty leagues away. He found islands in about ii°, 
 which some thought were part of Terra Australis Incognita. 
 At last he reached Java, where, as in Le Maire's story, 
 his ships were confiscated by the East India Company,' 
 as the ships of an interloper. 
 
 Once more, the search for Terra Australis Incognita Disappoint- 
 had failed. But, once more, it had failed in a way that ^^^^ ^^^ 
 enabled the party of Quiros to argue that the existence 
 of the unknown continent had not been disproved ; that, 
 on the contrary, things had been observed that tended 
 to strengthen the belief that the continent would in the 
 end be found by those who sought in faith. Roggeveen's 
 voyage was inspired by Quiros. It gave strength to the 
 movement of ideas that sent forth Cook. 
 
342 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Campbell The story turns to notice British plans. In 1744- 1 748 a 
 
 urges writer named Campbell brought out a new edition of 
 
 commercial ^ ° 
 
 enterprise, the Collection of voyages that had been published by 
 
 ^744. Harris in 1 705. Campbell's plan was to tell the story 
 
 in such a way that it would point a moral. He printed 
 the original narratives, and he added prefaces, introduc- 
 tions, and remarks which explained the lessons which 
 Englishmen should learn from their reading. The chief 
 lesson was the importance of commerce. His work was 
 dedicated to the " Merchants of Great Britain," and he 
 sought to prove that " to commerce we owe our wealth." 
 It was to commerce also that we owe our strength ; for 
 " whoever is master at sea must be master at land likewise." 
 And it is in order to show one way by which commercial 
 wealth and strength may grow, that he prints and explains 
 especially in the narratives of travel in the South Sea. Very interesting 
 the South ^Q ^g g^j.g |-j^g geographical conclusions which he founds 
 upon them. " It is most evident from Tasman's voyages," 
 he writes " that New Guinea, Carpentaria {i.e. Cape York 
 peninsula). New Holland, Van Diemen Land, and the 
 country discovered by Quiros. make all one continent, 
 from which New Zealand seems to be separated by a straijt, 
 and perhaps is part of another continent." The outlines 
 of the continent which centres in New Holland are well 
 known. The only " Terra AustraHs " that now remains 
 " incognita " is the continent which, as we must assume, 
 lies between New Zealand and America : a continent 
 which probably includes New Zealand itself, and the 
 various promontories that had been seen by Quiros, Le 
 Maire, Davis, Roggeveen, and others. 
 Quires was Campbell was deeply interested in this Terra Australis 
 right. Incognita. He quoted with acceptance Roggeveen's argu- 
 
 ments, mainly taken from Quiros, to prove its existence 
 and its richness. British merchants were always grumbling 
 about the decay of the old trades. They should find 
 out new trades. The war gave an excellent opportunity 
 to exploit the South Sea. Anson had sailed on his famous 
 voyage in 1741, and returned in the year of the pubhcation 
 of Campbell's book. There was no reason either to be 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 343 
 
 complaisant to the Spaniard or to fear him. Nor need 
 British maritime power dread the wrath of the Dutch. 
 The British should adopt Roggeveen's excellent plan 
 for settlement at Belgia Australis (the Falkland Islands), 
 and at Juan Fernandez. " By the help of those two 
 colonies undoubtedly the Southern Indies had been by 
 this time effectively discovered." Whatever nation shall 
 revive and prosecute the plan will become in a few years 
 
 Part of Map in Harris's Voyages. (Ed. Campbell, 1744.) 
 
 " master of as rich and profitable a commerce as the 
 Spaniards have to Mexico and Peru, or the Portuguese 
 to Brazil." The Enghshman had dreamed the dream of 
 Quiros — with a difference. 
 
 The search for Terra Australis Incognita must, no doubt, The interest 
 be " left to the industry of future ages." For practical HoUand 
 men of business the interesting continent was Terra 
 Australis Cognita : " the great Southern Continent which 
 Tasman surrounded, and the bounds of which are tolerably 
 well known " ; tolerably well known, at least, to the 
 Dutch, though to other nations New Holland was still 
 a " chimera." The Dutch had discovered the continent, 
 but they had made no use of it, and never would make 
 
344 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 use of it " till either their trade declines in the East Indies, 
 
 or till they are obliged to exert themselves to exclude 
 
 other nations." And they have taken all possible pains 
 
 to prevent any relation being published that might invite 
 
 or encourage any other nation to make attempts that 
 
 way. True, Pelsart's voyage had been published. It 
 
 had^ been published because it had been thought likely 
 
 to frighten people away) Tasman's voyages had never 
 
 been published entire, and probably the Company had 
 
 never intended that they should be published at all. True, 
 
 again, a map showing his discoveries had been made on 
 
 the floor of the Amsterdam Town Hall. But no description 
 
 had been published. Strangers might gape at the map 
 
 as a curiosity. Wise Dutchmen would say : — " Behold 
 
 the wisdom of the East India Company ! A resource 
 
 for the benefit of posterity ! " 
 
 The British '^When the Dutch said that New Holland was a worthless 
 
 should country, there was no reason to believe them. It was 
 explore. . / 
 
 incredible that a land so huge was everywhere altogether 
 bad. No doubt in the Tropic of Capricorn the weather 
 would be very hot, and the country unwholesome and 
 disagreeable. But, both Northward and Southward, hfe 
 would be pleasant. The climate of the continent was, 
 on the whole, the happiest in the world. The climate 
 of Van Diemen's Land was like that of the South of France. 
 The Northern regions, under the sun, would be hot, but 
 they would also be exceedingly rich. The lands which 
 Quiros discovered (Espiritu Santo, the modern New 
 Hebrides) are part of this great island-continent, and 
 Quiros declared that they abounded in gold, silver, pearls, 
 and spices. Dampier's description of New Britain praised 
 its rich fertility. The narratives of Le Maire and Roggeveen 
 confirm faith in the existence of lands very attractive 
 to merchant and to settler. To make settlement in this 
 part of the world would, no doubt, be difficult to any 
 nation except the Dutch, who could easily have done 
 so from Batavia, from the Moluccas, or from the Cape. 
 But the British have no reason to fear the Dutch dog 
 in the manger. The British East India Company, helped 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 345 
 
 perhaps by Parliament, should send a small squadron to 
 sail in Tasman's tracks, and to get exact up-to-date informa- 
 tion, so that " we might know, as well and as certainly 
 as the Dutch, how far a colony settled there might answer 
 our expectations." " By this means all the back (East) 
 coast of New Holland and New Guinea might be thoroughly 
 examined." If the East India Company refused to do 
 its duty, this would give opportunity to the Royal African 
 Company, who might establish a colony in Madagascar, 
 and thence trade with New Guinea, or better still, with 
 New Britain, "the properest place for them to settle in," New Britain 
 and a convenient centre for trading with the East Indies "the proper- 
 
 ^^ CSX pio-GG LO 
 
 on the one side, and with Terra Australis on the other, settle in." 
 If the Royal African Company also refused, here would 
 be the chance for the South Sea Company to do something 
 to justify its name. The Company had not yet sent 
 a single ship on voyage of discovery in the South Sea. 
 Here they might gain some equivalent of the lost Assiento 
 Contract. They should first settle Juan Fernandez. 
 Sailing thence, they might take slaves from New Guinea 
 to Peru. Thence also they might sail, in a two months' 
 voyage, to Van Diemen's Land. They might make a 
 settlement on the South coast of Terra Australis (Nuyts- 
 land }), and get perchance a trade in gold and spices. 
 
 Meanwhile, the French enemy also was thinking of The story of 
 the Southern Continent, and the direction of his thought ^^^^^ (T50T) 
 was determined by a curious historical incident. In 1663 pubhshed 
 there was published in Paris a book with the title " Memoirs ^ ^' 
 concerning the establishment of a Christian Mission in 
 the Austral Land." The author signed himself " J.P.D.C. 
 Pretre Indien." He had a curious story to tell. In 
 1503 the Sieur de Gonneville sailed South, with the design 
 of sailing in the course of Vasco de Gama to the East 
 Indies. He was driven from this course by a furious 
 storm, and came to a large country which he called Southern 
 India, where he stayed six months. Then he sailed home, 
 accompanied by a native prince, whom he promised 
 to return to this country ''instructed in the European 
 
346 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 arts, and particularly the art of making war, which these 
 
 Austrahans desired with an incredible passion." But 
 
 the promise was not kept. The Indian prince remained in 
 
 France, was baptised, and married a relative of Gonneville. 
 
 His great-grandson was the " pretre indien," who told 
 
 the story in order to urge that he should be sent as 
 
 missionary to the land of his Australian ancestors. 
 
 Where was Unhappily he was unable to say where that land was. 
 
 ^Southern ^ Gonneville's ships had, on the return journey, been captured 
 
 India"? by an English privateer, who robbed him of his journal, 
 
 and everything he had. On landing, he had on the 19th 
 
 of July, 1505, made a judicial declaration, authenticated 
 
 by all the proper forms of law. In this declaration he 
 
 had given some description of the Austral land he had 
 
 discovered — it was a very fertile land, and the natives 
 
 were wondrously affable, and received the French as 
 
 " angels from heaven " — but by inexplicable mischance he 
 
 had said no word that could throw light on the question 
 
 of its locality, and no one had the least idea where this 
 
 Southern India was. No wonder that the longing of 
 
 the " Indian priest " of the seventeenth century to visit 
 
 the land of his great-grandfather did not avail to take 
 
 him there. 
 
 The Austral It was, howevcr, a story that interested his French 
 
 cTiscovered fellow-countrymen, and it was much talked of in France 
 
 by a in the early eighteenth century. Patriotic French geo- 
 
 renc man. gj-^^pj^gj-g j^gj^j ^j^a^t; Gonneville's voyage "secured without 
 
 difficulty to the French nation the honour of the first 
 
 discovery of the Austral lands sixteen years before the 
 
 departure of Magellan." ^ 
 
 Bouvet Frenchmen began to grow ashamed that they had so long 
 
 plans a delayed to make good the claim conferred by first discovery. 
 
 colony in The trouble, however, remained that, while the "Land 
 
 GoniTe^ilie °^ GonneviUe " certainly belonged to France, no one knew 
 
 1738. ' where the land of Gonneville was. Some thought it was 
 
 in the region of the " Cape of the Austral Lands," that 
 
 had been marked on the maps of the South Atlantic in 
 
 Latitude 42°, Longitude 7° (from Teneriffe), on the evidence 
 
 ^De Brosses, vol. i. p. 103. 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 347 
 
 perhaps of some unknown seaman who had seen Tristan 
 d'Acunha or Gough Island. Captain Lozier Bouvet 
 thought that it was in this Longitude but that the Latitude 
 was perhaps 48°.^ He persuaded the French East India 
 Company that this was the very place they needed for 
 the refreshment of their ships. It would also be a good 
 basis to trade with the Spaniards of La Plata and the 
 Portuguese of Brazil. The affable natives would again 
 receive the French " as angels from Heaven." There 
 would be lucrative commerce, and millions of infidels 
 would be converted to the Christian Faith. Lozier Bouvet 
 was of the school of Quiros. He dreamed a French dream 
 of prosperous discovery in Terra Australis Incognita. Only 
 the French dream was to come true in the South Atlantic. 
 
 In July 1738 he sailed with two ships, commissioned Bouvet 
 by the Company to discover "the Austral lands." ^^the^cT^eof 
 searched for " the Cape of the Austral lands," that was the Circum- 
 marked in the Charts in Latitude 42°. But he found '^'^'°''' '73^- 
 no cape, and thought that perhaps its discoverer had seen 
 an iceberg in the middle of a fog. But on New Year's 
 Day 1739, in Latitude 54°, and in Longitude slightly 
 Westward of the Cape of Good Hope, he saw land, or thought 
 he saw land, high and rugged, covered with snow and 
 almost hidden in fogs, which he called the Cape of the 
 Circumcision, in memory of the Festival of the day. For 
 several weeks he saw what looked like land, but fogs 
 and ice prevented approach. Some thought that " the 
 Cape " was, not the tip of a continent, but a small island ; 
 and apparently it was in fact the small island which now 
 bears the name of its discoverer. But Bouvet returned 
 to France convinced that he had actually " coasted the 
 Austral continent from Longitude 7° to 50° : — I say the 
 Austral continent, for I believe that the ice, the penguins, 
 the sea-wolves, amphibious animals, which we constantly 
 found for the space of 48° of Longitude, can make good 
 this opinion." He admits that this part of the continent 
 "will be of little use to Europeans, if all the years are like 
 the year we experienced." 
 
 ^ De Brosses, vol. i. p. 104 ; Rainaud, p. 396. 
 
348 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Let But he was in no way discouraged. He had found 
 
 explStThe ^^^ continent, and the continent was the continent that 
 Austral had been described by Quiros. From the Cape of Circum- 
 Continent ! ^.-g-^j^ ^^ wished to sail round the South of New Holland 
 to Espiritu Santo, and then to return by Cape Horn. 
 He was in love with Espiritu Santo, its spices, its gold, 
 its pearls, its silk. In the spice trade alone, the French 
 might undersell the Dutch, and make ten million a year. 
 The French would find, as Dutch and British had found, 
 that only a great trade can sustain a great navy. So 
 argued the enthusiastic Bouvet. But the French Company 
 was like other Companies, and said No. 
 Science But France was waking up. The new Renaissance 
 
 humanitv ^hich made the modern world was stirring French minds. 
 Old world-problems were being re-surveyed from the 
 points of view of Science and of Humanity. A new spirit 
 of active inquisitiveness was at work, insisting that more 
 knowledge must be gained in order that the world might 
 be put into order, and that human happiness might be 
 increased. 
 Maupertuis In this new spirit, Maupertuis wrote letters to Frederick 
 Sere^sTof^^ ^^ Prussia " on the progress of the Sciences," summing 
 the South up what had been learnt, and what remained to be learnt, 
 ^^' and recommending research in special directions as " useful 
 
 for the human race, and curious for scholars." He drew 
 attention to the peculiar interest of the problem of the 
 South. All the world knows that in the Southern Hemi- 
 sphere is "an unknown space in which may be situated 
 a new part of the world greater than any of the other 
 four." - Maupertuis is astonished that no prince has had 
 the curiosity to explore these immense solitudes, and to 
 ascertain if they are occupied by land or by sea. He is 
 convinced that huge lands will be found. All those who 
 have navigated the South Sea have seen " points and capes 
 and sure signs of a continent near at hand." Bouvet 
 had seen continual signs of land in the South Atlantic 
 for forty-eight degrees of Longitude, and the enterprise 
 had been abandoned too soon, for Science shows that 
 the visit was a month too early. But a better field of 
 
m PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 349 
 
 exploration exists in the South Pacific, where the Austral 
 lands approach much more nearly to the Equator, in 
 climates where the most precious products of nature are 
 found. 
 
 And Maupertuis pointed to the special interest which " A world 
 these Southern lands will possess both for the man of ^^^^ " 
 science and for the man of commerce. " They form 
 so-to-say a world apart, in which one cannot foresee that 
 which exists. The discovery of these lands, therefore, 
 may offer the greatest utilities for commerce, and the most 
 marvellous spectacles for Science." It is in isles of the 
 South Sea that travellers say that they have seen savage 
 hairy men with tails, " a kind of mean between the monkeys 
 and ourselves." And Maupertuis would rather have 
 an hour's conversation with the Missing Link than with 
 the greatest genius in Europe. 
 
 Maupertuis' Letters were read as a lecture to a learned 
 
 Society. When the lecture was over, one of the audience, 
 
 Charles de Brosses, President of the Parliament of Dijon, De Brosses' 
 
 made a speech of half an hour on discoveries in the South ^^^story of 
 
 TT- • , • -1 r TIT • ^avigahons, 
 
 Seas. His ideas were similar to those of Maupertuis. 1756. 
 
 He had long studied the subject, both " as citizen and as 
 
 geographer," and he knew a great deal about it. The 
 
 learned Society was so impressed by the curious and novel 
 
 character of what he said, that he was requested to write 
 
 a Memoir, and to read it at the next meeting. The Memoir 
 
 was highly appreciated, and he was persuaded to develop 
 
 his opinions in other memoirs. Finally, at the urgent 
 
 request of scientific friends, de, Brosses published in 
 
 1756 a book entitled " History of Navigations to the 
 
 Southern lands ; containing what is known of the manners 
 
 and the products of the countries discovered to the present 
 
 time ; treating also of the utility of making more ample 
 
 discoveries, and of the means of forming a settlement 
 
 there." In these volumes, much used by Cook and Banks 
 
 on the Endeavour^ de Brosses gave extracts from narratives 
 
 of forty-seven voyages in the South Sea. But the parts 
 
 that are of interest to us are Book I, in which he discusses 
 
 "the utilities of discovery," and Book V, in which he 
 
350 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 discusses " the means of forming a settlement in Southern 
 lands." 
 The glory of When the President of the Parliament of Dijon wrote 
 iscovery. ^£ ^^^ ,, utilities of discovery " he wrote not as a bagman 
 but as a gentleman of honour. The first thought must 
 be not of dividends but of glory ; — the glory that belongs 
 to the hero who has greatly benefited both his country 
 and humanity. The discovery of Terra Australis will 
 be, not only the most useful, but also the most noble enter- 
 prise whereby a sovereign may make glorious his name. 
 " To add to the Globe a new world, to enrich the old 
 world with all the natural products, and all the useful 
 usages of the new world, this would be the effect of such 
 a discovery." How compare the glory of war with the 
 glory of so splendid a service to mankind ? What modern 
 King can compare his glory to the glory of Columbus 
 and Vespucci } Are not the Phoenicians, who discovered 
 and civihsed Europe, more famous than the conquering 
 Assyrians and Egyptians } The princes of Portugal by 
 their studies, their constancy, their courage, their gener- 
 osity, made their tiny country great, and brought a renais- 
 sance to all Europe. And " it is not a paradox to say that 
 it is by geographical enterprises that a King may gain 
 the greatest glory, and that the most famous of modern 
 sovereigns will be he who will give his name to the Southern 
 World." 
 It should be For this is work that must be done by the Head of a 
 by the^State S^^^^- ^^ ^^ beyond the strength of an individual, and it is 
 beyond the spirit of a Commercial Company. For the 
 merchant has not the spirit of the gentleman. He seeks 
 immediate profit, and his only curiosity is curiosity for gain. 
 Hence the abandonment of Bouvet's enterprise. But a 
 State should take large and long views, and should pursue 
 its aims with persistency till they are achieved. It should 
 think in centuries, and should build for eternity.^ Thus 
 a State can see the wisdom of making foundations deep 
 and strong. It can undertake discovery in the spirit 
 of pure curiosity, though this spirit may rightly be fortified 
 ^ De Brosses, vol. ii. p. 368. 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 351 
 
 ^Hby the reflection that eventually the things discovered 
 will be of great service to mankind. It is wrong to expect 
 that a voyage of curiosity will pay a dividend. But it 
 is right to be sure that " advantages without number, 
 foreseen and unforeseen, will be draw^n from a vast unknown 
 continent, which extends from the Line to the Antarctic 
 Circle." 
 
 And if a State should undertake with ardour and with and by 
 constancy this glorious work, it should be France ! It ^^^"^^ ' 
 was the French Gonneville who " first discovered the 
 Austral world ! " Yet his countrymen, " forgetting next 
 day the happy chance of an enterprise so honourable, have 
 by their natural levity lost all advantage, and have allowed 
 themselves to be robbed by Spaniards and Portuguese 
 of all honour of the first discovery." ^ And now's the 
 day that the French should press their claim to this glory. 
 In a voyage of "curiosity, knowledge must be the first 
 thought ; but let it be remembered that knowledge will 
 give wealth and strength. Discovery means commerce, 
 and commerce means Sea Power. What time more 
 fitting to think of Sea Power than the year 1756, "when 
 a neighbouring Power (Great Britain) visibly affects the 
 universal monarchy of the Sea without respect or con- 
 sideration for any other nation ! " In such circumstances, 
 a voyage of curiosity is of interest to the citizen as well 
 as to the geographer. 
 
 And what, shortly, is the argument that proves the pro- One-third of 
 posal to be useful, as well as noble } Observe, first, the *^^ ^^°^^ ' 
 enormous extent of the region that is covered by our phrase 
 " the Southern Lands." It is a region that includes 
 everything South of the Cape of Good Hope, of the Moluccas, 
 and of the Straits of Magellan. It is a region of eight 
 or ten million square miles, and is more than one-third of 
 the Globe ! 
 
 Now the contents of this huge region are partly known, The known 
 partly unknown. The known Southern lands are the ^^? *^^ 
 
 L^ . ■' unknown. 
 
 Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, New 
 
 Holland, Carpentaria, and New Guinea. The unknown 
 
 1 De Brosses, vol. i. p. ii. 
 
352 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Southern land is the vast continent, that must exist further 
 South, though only "Capes" have hitherto been seen. 
 It pmst exist because it has to balance the land in the 
 North. The laws of physics show that, but for this unknown 
 Southern continent, the earth would rotate by the Poles, 
 instead of rotating by the Equator. It centres in the 
 South Pole, and its promontories project far northwards 
 in various places, and especially between New Zealand 
 and America. 
 Like And how inconceivably great must be the interest of 
 
 planet^'^ these Southern lands, known and unknown, which occupy 
 
 one-third of the Globe! How can one doubt that they 
 will furnish objects of curiosity, and oj)portunities of profit, 
 equal to all that has been furnished by America ? How 
 many peoples, differing amongst themselves, and greatly 
 differing from ourselves^ in figure, in manners, in usages, 
 in ideas, in religion 1 How many animals, insects, fishes, 
 plants, trees, fruits, drugs, precious stones, fossils, and 
 metals 1 And, no doubt, in all these genera there are 
 millions of species of which we have not even a notion, 
 since this world has never had communication with ours, 
 and is to us, so to say, almost as strange as would be 
 another planet. What branches of trade in skins, silks, 
 spices, medicines, dye-woods, gold and jewels ! And, again, 
 what a chance of selling our coloured glass-beads, our 
 brandy, our sixpenny mirrors, at a profit as enormous 
 as that gained in the first voyage to the East Indies ! 
 Business aiul And it will be a trade profitable to both sides. Tlic 
 natives want iron as much as we want gold. " The 
 
 philaii 
 
 lluupy 
 
 combined. Australian " will make profit by giving anything he has 
 for a pair of scissors ; and, in addition to the pair of scissors 
 he will gain French culture, and those, will become men 
 who have now nothing human but their figures. As 
 the Phoenicians discovered and civilized the Europeans, 
 so will the French discover and civilize the Australians, 
 who after all are not likely to be much more brutal than 
 were the Europeans. True, the coast-people seem ** com- 
 pletely barbarous," but this in no way proves that one 
 who penetrates this prodigious extent of country will 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 353 
 
 not: find civilized nations from whom we ourselves may 
 learn an infinity of things. Even America seemed bar- 
 barous enough till Mexico and Peru were discovered. 
 
 For convenience of discussion, let us divide this huge The three 
 Southern third of the world into three parts, corresponding ^®*^' 
 to the three seas. The South Atlantic may be called 
 " Magellanica," the South Pacific ** Polynesia," and the 
 South Indian Ocean " Australasia " — a word now first 
 coined. 
 
 In " Magellanica," Bouvet's discovery should be followed, (i) "Magel- 
 Ice no doubt is a difficulty, but ice means land ; the more ^^"^^•" 
 land the more ice, and the more ice the more land. The 
 best physicists hold that the open sea does not freeze 
 even near the poles. Ice-fields prove great rivers, and 
 great rivers prove a great continent. Bouvet should Bouvefs 
 have gone on. Away from the great rivers the coast ^»scovery. 
 ro\i\d have been accessible, and even the great rivers 
 rould be open in summer. Probably the soil in this 
 latitude is barren ; yet there may be the same opportunities 
 )f trade as in Hudson's Bay. And, apart from trade, 
 le discovery cannot fail to be of scientific interest. It 
 ^ill furnish to the observer phenomena that will throw 
 jht on the configuration of the earth, on astronomy, on 
 Navigation, on gravity, on the oscillations of the pendulum, 
 on magnetism. Here is the chance for an enthusiasm 
 of curiosity. More than two centuries have passed since 
 the world was first circumnavigated by sailing from 
 West to East. One day some one will undertake to make 
 the circuit by sailing from North to South, and will succeed 
 in spite of cold and winds ! 
 
 In *' Magellanica " also are the islands visited by Rogge- The 
 veen and others (the Falkland Islands), concerning which a^^ ^" ^ 
 " the English do not conceal their opinion that, if one Patagonia, 
 could find there a place of refreshment, one would draw 
 from it an inconceivable advantage, and that the master 
 of a place so advanced towards the South would, in time 
 of war, be master of the two seas." Moreover, in this 
 region are Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, with products 
 >f value, such as skins, wools, dyes, and whales. A settle- 
 
 W.A. Z 
 
354 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 (2) " Poly- 
 nesia." • 
 
 A colony- 
 should be 
 founded. 
 
 Scientific 
 problems 
 should be 
 studied, 
 
 and thorough 
 
 explorations 
 
 made. 
 
 ment here could make lucrative trade with China. It 
 could also at last determine the much debated question, 
 are the Patagonians of gigantic stature ? 
 
 The best way to pass from " Magellanica " to " Polynesia " 
 is not through the Straits but round Cape Horn. And 
 Polynesia is a very fascinating field for exploration. No 
 one has visited the Solomon Islands since Mendafia in 
 1567, and no one has visited Espiritu Santo since Quiros 
 in 1606. Later navigators have taken a Northerly course 
 across the Pacific, and have left unexplored the huge 
 region in the South which must contain a continent. Yet 
 they have already discovered innumerable islands, healthy, 
 fertile, charming, the happiest lands in the world. None 
 of these islands are occupied by Spain, except Guam in 
 the Ladrones, and thus Polynesia still offers a virgin 
 field. The natives of some islands are friendly, and in- 
 clined to trade, and it will be easy to found a colony 
 that would be very useful both to men of science and to 
 seamen. 
 
 The man of science would find himself in a new world, 
 in which everything would be singular — men, land and 
 sea. He would find interest in the problem presented 
 by chains of tiny islands, which seem to suggest a submerged 
 mountain ridge, showing its summits above water. He 
 would find interest also in studying the manners of peoples 
 isolated for so many centuries from the rest of mankind, 
 and still preserving, perhaps, the life of the primitive 
 man. Here, we find, says Le Maire, as in the first age 
 of which the poets write, man wholly simple, as produced 
 by nature. What an opportunity for French philosophers 
 of the age of Rousseau ! And, further, we would be able 
 to study not only man brutal and savage, like the natives 
 of New Holland, who live hke fierce animals in herds in 
 the woods, but also men who have made some advance 
 in civilization, by using " the portion of intelligence that 
 Heaven has given them." 
 
 Meanwhile, from such a colony the seamen might explore 
 the Southern Continent, find out what New Zealand is, 
 where no European has ever set foot, rediscover the land 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 355 
 
 where Drake had landed, and the country which Davis 
 had seen, and which Roggeveen had failed to find. Juan 
 Fernandez, one of the finest places in the universe, should 
 be settled and fortified. Spain would much prefer that 
 it should be in the hands of French friends rather than 
 remain a safe refuge for British pirates, who by pillage and 
 smuggling devastate the Spanish, coasts. 
 
 But " Australasia " has still greater attractions as a (3) "Austral- 
 place of settlement. Here are solid masses of land that ^^^^" 
 are known to exist, New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, 
 Carpentaria (Cape York Peninsula), New Guinea, New 
 Britain, New Zealand ; though these lands are probably 
 not one continent, but huge islands separated by unknown 
 straits. Here is the opportunity for France to do things France's 
 on a large scale, and in the grand style. " If Spain, Portugal, opportunity, 
 and Holland have immortalised their names by discoveries 
 and colonies, they have left to France a great and noble 
 task ; to France, to whom are due the earliest maritime 
 enterprise in the discovery of the Canaries and Guinea, 
 and of Australasia itself ; France, who now sees herself 
 able, by reason of the flourishing condition of her East 
 India Company, to make progress, soon if she wishes, 
 that will place her level with the three other nations, 
 and give her even in these distant regions the rank that 
 she holds in the European Republic ! " 
 
 Which of the Australasian lands shall have the honour Where is the 
 to be the scene of French enterprise } New Zealand and a^colony ?°^ 
 Van Diemen's Land are too distant, too Southerly, too 
 unknown. In New Holland landing seems to be every- 
 where difficult. Pelsart's voyage shows that the West 
 coast is beset by an infinite number of little islands. The 
 land near the sea is sterile and naked, like soil that the 
 ocean has only just left uncovered, before the action 
 of sun and rain, or accumulation of vegetable matter, 
 have had time to make a soil in which plants and trees 
 may grow and flourish. That on the coast looks still- 
 born. It offers no curiosity except a wood that can be 
 used for dyeing, gum trees, and shells of wonderful beauty 
 and size. The natives are brutal and stupid, unable to 
 
356 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 work, insensible of the advantages of commerce. Dampier 
 writes about a dangerous labyrinth of waterless islands. 
 Carpentaria also has a difficult and unattractive coast. 
 New Holland, then, is unsuitable for enterprise at present, 
 though later explorations in the interior may reveal rich 
 and civilized natives, the Mexicans and Peruvians of 
 Australasia. On the other hand, " the Austral Land 
 of tjie Holy Spirit " is, according to the report of Quiros, 
 exceedingly attractive ; but it has not been explored 
 for a century and a half, and is therefore not the place 
 for immediate settlement. There are agreeable descrip- 
 tions of New Guinea, but its coasts though beautiful are 
 very high and difficult. Fertile islands further West 
 are near Batavia, and the Dutch would certainly trouble 
 a new settlement. 
 New Britain. The conclusion is that the best site for a colony is New 
 Britain. The words of Dampier and Roggeveen suffice 
 as testimony to its fertility, and to its commercial advan- 
 tages. Situated in the Latitude of the Spice Islands, 
 it will produce spices as good as the spices of the Moluccas. 
 If spices do not grow there, they can be planted, and will 
 certainly flourish. Thus the French will share the lucrative 
 monopoly of the Dutch. New Britain has also an admir- 
 able geographical situation. It is near the Moluccas 
 and the Philippines, yet not too near. It is conveniently 
 placed for trade with China, with the Ladrones, with the 
 innumerable islands of the Pacific. It will form an excellent 
 " entrepot de commerce." It will be a suitable basis for 
 the exploration of Carpentaria, the Austral Land of the 
 Holy Spirit, New Holland, New Zealand, and Van Diemen's 
 Land, whether these lands are one continent, as some think, 
 or are separated by straits, as seems more probable. One 
 would learn what these lands are, and what are their 
 utilities. Discovery might gradually extend from the 
 Tropics to the South Polar Circle. A ship might be sent 
 to see if there is a strait behind Rosemary Island, as Dampier 
 suspected ; to see if some arm of the sea separates Carpen- 
 taria from New Holland ; to find if the land of Quiros 
 is as promising as he says ; to make the grand tour of 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 357 
 
 Australasia as Tasman made it. Thus the geography 
 of this great part of the world would be made clear ; an 
 exploit sufficient by itself to make men immortal. 
 
 The expedition should sail, not from France, but from An 
 Pondicherry, the French fort in India. Three ships j^^p^^^^i. 
 should be sent, and they should be well equipped. For cherry, 
 it is an enterprise truly royal, and glory must be preferred 
 to profit. It would be well to explore the West coast 
 of New Britain, hitherto unvisited ; — a suggestion that 
 might have brought the French to Rabaul. 
 
 Thus de Brosses sketched the outline of a scheme A French 
 which, he hoped, would make France mistress of the New ^h^^ou^^h 
 World of the South. Honour and glory were to be won, 
 not by conquest, but by discovery, by commerce, and by 
 settlement. And it is important to notice the stress that 
 was placed on settlement. Frenchmen were not merely 
 to discover, and to trade ; they were also to colonize, 
 to form permanent communities that were to be the 
 roots of further .enterprises, and to give political and 
 military power. It was a proposal to found a French 
 Empire in the South. 
 
 And de Brosses faced the great question that he had A nation 
 raised. Is it, or is it not, desirable that a European nation ^g°^g 
 should possess colonies that would make it a World Empire .f* colonies. 
 There were some who held that a State is weakened by 
 colonization. The Spanish Empire, it was argued, had 
 been fatal to the Spanish nation. Spain had been neglected, 
 in order that gold mines might be exploited. Is it not 
 better to be a healthy and prosperous Nation than a 
 diseased and decadent Empire } 
 
 De Brosses discusses this question in a passage that Mother 
 is very interesting. Colonization, rightly understood and cCion^i"^ ^"^ 
 rightly managed, should be, he argues, not the destruction should help 
 of the Nation, but its expansion. It should tend, not another 
 to diminish the population, but greatly to increase it. 
 A Frenchman who becomes a colonist does not cease to 
 be a Frenchman. He is a Frenchman living in favourable 
 circumstances, that enable him to render the French 
 State special services. Mother country and colony should 
 
358 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The future 
 belongs to a 
 World 
 Empire. 
 
 Convicts and 
 vagabonds 
 make good 
 colonists. 
 
 A French 
 colony- 
 should be 
 like a 
 Dutch 
 colony, but 
 better. 
 
 help each other to grow. The mother country founds 
 the colony and protects it. The colony enriches the 
 mother country with the products of the earth, and 
 provides work and wages for more artificers, manufac- 
 turers, fishermen, and seamen. Thus from its colonies 
 a European Nation' should gain increased wealth, increased 
 population, and increased Power of the Sea ; and one can- 
 not too often say in France, and in 1756, that " he who 
 is master of the Sea is master of the Land." In short 
 the future belongs not to the European Nation as it is, 
 but to the European nation expanded by colonization 
 into a World Empire. 
 
 And, to descend from high to low, there is one particular 
 way in which mother country and colony should be useful 
 to each other. A State, hke a house, requires a sewer. 
 There must be some arrangement for the discharge of 
 uncleanness, and the outlet should be placed at a reasonable 
 distance. If the matter is properly managed the unclean- 
 ness disappears, and nothing remains save the fecundity 
 it has given to the soil. A criminal is intolerable in a 
 civihsed community, but he may render good service 
 in a young colony, and may eventually become a respect- 
 able freeman. Rome herself was founded by a gang 
 of bandits. Criminal women would be especially useful 
 in this way ; for " a woman who bears a child each year 
 is a treasure to an infant colony." Common beggars and 
 vagabonds will also be useful colonists, and Foundling 
 Hospitals will be a " species of reservoir distributing 
 streams of population to the colonies." It would not 
 be wise to found a colony with this material. But, when 
 a colony has been established, the deportation of criminals 
 will greatly increase its prosperity. 
 
 As for the Spanish Empire, it is not a model to be copied, 
 but an example to be avoided. Frenchmen should take 
 their lessons not from the Spaniards but from the Dutch, 
 who have generally aimed, not at conquest, but at commerce 
 and cultivation, and who have made their colony at the 
 Cape one of the most agreeable and rich possessions in 
 the world. In the cantons of Terra Australis, Frenchmen 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 359 
 
 should found colonics which should exhibit the Dutch 
 virtues, and be exempt from the Dutch faults. " A 
 colony placed in a land analogous to that from which the 
 Dutch get their precious products, sustained by a strong 
 marine in the motherland, frequently visited by her 
 ships, often recruited both by young free citizens and by 
 criminal slaves, distributed gratuitously at first among 
 the colonists, who will not be able to buy the expensive 
 slaves of Africa, such a colony, I say, cannot fail to grow 
 and to bear fruit." For a commercial colony is far more 
 valuable than a gold colony. It produces a greater naviga- 
 tion, and a greater population ; more wealth, and more 
 strength. 
 
 De Brosses' discourses were written by a very patriotic The 
 French gentleman who regarded Great Britain as his nesf?f*d'e" 
 country's worst enemy. Yet they are now far more Brosses. 
 interesting to Englishmen than to Frenchmen. Reading 
 them, we find ourselves for the first time in touch with 
 the ideas which sent forth Cook and Banks to explore 
 the Pacific, which founded the convict colony in New South 
 Wales, and which have given the British race supremacy 
 in the Southern lands. 
 
 And British students saw at once the interest of de Callender's 
 Brosses' argument. In 1766 John Callender published J^J^^^^^.^ 
 the first volume of his Terra Australis Cognita — the Cognita, 
 second and third volumes were published in 1768 — a ^^ ' 
 work which is in the main a free translation of de Brosses, 
 with additions, omissions, and modifications, which are 
 made with the object of showing that the arguments 
 which the Frenchman addressed to his fellow-countrymen 
 have still greater force when addressed to the British. 
 
 Though it may be true, argues Callender, that French Callender 
 de Gonneville first discovered the Austral lands, it is also §^QggggP 
 true, as de Brosses' own volumes show, that " the best arguments, 
 and surest accounts of this Terra Australis are deduced 
 from our own navigators, Drake, Narborough, Cavendish, 
 Dampier, and others." And the British are far better 
 able to achieve the Empire of the South than are the 
 
36o THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 French. De Brosses, writing in 1756, had bitterly com- 
 plained that Great Britain was " visibly affecting the 
 monarchy of the sea." When Callender wrote ten years 
 later, Great Britain had won the war, and her possession 
 of Sea Power was indisputable. Insolent is the victors' 
 triumph ! " Vain," writes Callender, " are the repeated 
 exhortations of the French writer, addressed to a nation 
 which is so far from being able to prosecute new discoveries 
 that they have been stripped by the late war of the best 
 foreign settlements they possessed ; and by the ruin 
 of their marine seem totally disabled at present to attempt 
 anything of moment in this way. Far other is the case 
 of this happy island. United among ourselves, respected 
 by foreigners, with our marine force entire, and (humanly 
 speaking) invincible, aided by a set of Naval officers 
 superior in every respect to those of the nations around 
 us, with a Sovereign on the throne who is filled with the 
 most ardent and laudable desire of seeing his native country 
 great and flourishing. These, I say, are incitements 
 that seem to render everything possible to Great Britain. 
 The extensive countries of the Terra Australis, hitherto 
 untouched, open to us a field worthy of our attention 
 in every respect." And Callender proceeds, with amazing 
 coolness, to steal every one of de Brosses' arguments and 
 to address them to his British readers. He thinks — as 
 de Brosses had thought before him, and as Dampier 
 and Campbell had thought before de Brosses — that the 
 best place for a settlement is New Britain, the island 
 discovered, he reminds his readers, by " our celebrated 
 navigator, Dampier." De Brosses had said that the 
 flourishing condition of the French East India Company 
 would enable it to found the colony. Well, the French 
 East India Company had now ceased to flourish, while 
 on the other hand the English East India Company, 
 after the deeds of Clive, will find it " easy to extend them- 
 selves into Australasia." The expedition should start 
 not from Pondicherry, but from Madras. Australasia, 
 argues Callender, must fall to Great Britain because Great 
 Britain possesses the Sea Power. And Callender was right. 
 
■ PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 361 
 
 We have been studying in this chapter the growth Alexander 
 of the ideas which produced the South Sea voyages of Dalrympie. 
 those navigators among whom Cook stands pre-eminent. 
 It remains to mention a writer whose book, hke that of 
 de Brosses, was in the Library of the Endeavour, and which 
 was carefully considered by the voyagers. 
 
 Alexander Dalrymple was a servant of the British His voyages 
 
 East India Company. In his youth he had been fascinated ^"^^ studies. 
 
 by the stories of Columbus and Magellan, and had longed 
 
 himself to be the hero in some great voyage of discovery. 
 
 At Madras he studied the old records of the Company, 
 
 and was impressed by the great value of the commerce 
 
 in the Eastern islands from which the English had been 
 
 driven by the Dutch. In 1759 he refused a good position 
 
 at Madras, and took command of a small ship in which 
 
 he made voyages to " the Eastern parts." He obtained 
 
 exact knowledge of those parts, and won the reputation 
 
 of a highly skilled hydrographer. In 1 765 he returned 
 
 to England, and engaged in eager study of the forgotten 
 
 documents which told the story of the exploration of the 
 
 South Sea. He obtained possession of the Memorial 
 
 of Arias ; and, studying a sentence ^ in the light of He leams 
 
 recent discoveries, he saw that Torres must have sailed ^^? , „^^ 
 ' existence 
 
 through a Strait between New Guinea and New Holland of Torres 
 some thirty-eight years before Tasman had declared ^^^ " 
 in his map that there was no Strait but only a Shallow 
 Bight. 
 
 But the main result of Dalrymple's studies was that A disciple 
 he became a disciple of Quiros, a fervent believer in the °* Q^iros. 
 great rich unknown continent of the South. In the South 
 Seas still remained the opportunity for a new Columbus, 
 a more successful Quiros. And Dalrymple hoped that 
 he would himself be the hero of the last great story of 
 
 ^ Arias said that Torres sighted " a very extensive coast which he 
 took for that of New Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) ; from thence he 
 sailed Westwards, having constantly on the right hand the coast of 
 another very great land which he continued coasting, according to his 
 own reckoning, more than six hundred leagues, having it still on the 
 right hand." Dalrymple did not obtain Torres' own letter till a much 
 later date. His translation of it was first published in Burney's Voyages 
 in 1806, with a remark that it had " lately " been obtained. 
 
362 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the South 
 Pacific to 
 1764. 
 
 A Southern 
 continent 
 must exist. 
 
 discovery. He hoped to obtain command of a South Sea 
 expedition. And meanwhile he busied himself in preparing 
 for the press his Collection of Voyages to the South Seas, 
 a work which was published in 1770. But Dalrymple 
 wrote not primarily for the student of History. His main 
 purpose was to point out, not how much had been done, 
 but how much remained to do. And already in 1767 
 he had in print a tiny volume, not published till 1769, 
 Discoveries in entitled Discoveries in the South Pacific to iy6^, in which 
 he summed up once more the argument which claimed 
 to prove that the Southern Continent exists, and that 
 it is well worth finding. The volume, which was to play 
 an important part in the voyage of the Endeavour, had 
 a map which marked Torres' route through his Strait, 
 and which illustrated the argument of the text that a 
 continent must occupy the unknown South. ^ 
 
 Once more it is urged that the existence of the continent 
 is based on nothing less than physical necessity. Land 
 in the South must balance land in the North. Now, within 
 the Tropics, it is true, the lands to the South do fairly 
 balance those to the North. But in the temperate regions 
 there is nothing in the known South to balance the great 
 mass of land in the North. Therefore, in the unknown 
 South a continent must exist. Dalrymple's conclusion 
 is that " the space unknown from the Tropics to 50° S. 
 Lat. must be nearly all land."^ And, though this fact 
 has not been proved by " absolute experience," proof 
 has been given sufBciently convincing to the eye of faith. 
 Again and again land had been seen exactly where, according 
 to laws of physical necessity, land must be. In the late 
 sixteenth century, Juan Fernandez had found West of 
 Chili in 40° a very " fertile and agreeable continent, in- 
 habited by a white and well-proportioned people." 
 In 1599 Gerrards in 64° had seen mountains which seemed 
 to extend to the Solomons. In 1606 Quiros had seen 
 indications of land in 26°, and again in 17°. In 1 616 
 Le Maire had seen the same in 51°, in 1624 the crew of the 
 Orange Tree had seen the continent in 50°, and again in 41°. 
 ^ See map, p. 363. ^ P. 94. 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 363 
 
364 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 In 1685 Davis had seen it in 28°. It is true that in 1722 
 Roggeveen had failed to rediscover Davis Land ; but in 
 .the same locahty he had discovered Easter Island, an 
 island of singular interest in respect to the continent 
 which must lie near at hand. " It is from the descriptions 
 of that island that we are enabled to form some idea of 
 the continent adjoining; no voyage hitherto performed 
 points out so strongly the original of the Peruvian manners 
 and religion. That country whence Mango Capac intro- 
 duced arts, laws, manufactures, and all the comforts of 
 civilised life, cannot fail of amply rewarding the fortunate 
 people who shall bestow letters instead of quippus, and 
 iron in place of more awkward substitutes." Easter Island 
 is not the Southern Continent, but its archaeological relics 
 confirm the theory that this continent was the source 
 of the civilization of Peru.^ 
 Its great- What, then, is the geographical conclusion ? It is 
 weSt^ that the coast of the Southern Continent runs Northward 
 on a hne " but a very httle West of the common track 
 towards Juan Fernandez island," that it turns Westward 
 about 28°, and joins the land of which Quiros saw signs 
 in 26° and in 17°. Thence it probably runs South- West 
 to Tasman's Staten Land (New Zealand), which may, no 
 doubt, be islands, but which is more likely to be the Western 
 side of the continent. It appears, then, that in Latitude 
 40° the continent extends over one hundred degrees of 
 Longitude, that is to say it is larger than the whole of 
 Asia from Turkey to the extremity of China, and it has 
 the riches of the country from which the first Inca came 
 to Peru ! What a country, he added in the edition of 
 1770, for the British merchant now in trouble about de- 
 clining trade in America ! The American colonies have 
 a population of two million. The Southern Continent 
 probably has a population of fifty millions ! " The scraps 
 from this table would be sufficient to maintain the power, 
 dominion, and sovereignty of Britain by employing all its 
 manufacturers and ships." 
 
 ^ See elaborate description of these relics in Mrs. Routledge's Easter 
 Island. 
 
PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 365 
 
 Dalrymple had good hopes that he might be given Dalrymple's 
 the opportunity to be the Columbus of the South. In nientf °^^ " 
 1768 the British Government consented to the request 
 of the Royal Society that a ship should be sent to some 
 island in the South Seas to observe the transit of Venus. 
 It was understood that the opportunity would be taken 
 to explore the South Seas, and to endeavour to solve 
 their problems. Dalrymple had commended himself to 
 the Royal Society, and had apparently persuaded them 
 that his views deserved at least to be tested. They re- 
 commended him to the Government as " a proper person 
 to be sent to the South Seas, having a particular turn for 
 discovery, and being a naval navigator, and well-skilled 
 in observations." But now came a fatal hitch. The 
 Government was willing that Dalrymple should go as 
 a scientific observer ; but the commander of a King's 
 ship must be an officer of the King's Navy. Dalrymple, 
 in reply, would go as commander or he would not go at 
 all ! The end was that the man, who had spent his life 
 in navigation and in study of tropical seas, had to stay 
 at home, and the command was given to Lieutenant 
 Cook, who had never even crossed the Equator ! Dalrymple 
 never forgave the supplanter. But he gave a copy of He gives 
 his booklet, which had been printed but not yet published, pubHshed 
 to a young aristocrat, Mr. Joseph Banks, member of the booklet to 
 Royal Society, who also sailed on the Endeavour. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 
 
 The rivalry 
 of France 
 and Britain 
 in Atlantic 
 and Pacific. 
 
 The 
 
 chivalry of 
 Bougainville 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Bougainville's Voyage autour du Monde. 
 Hawkesworth's Voyages. 
 
 In the Seven Years' War (1756- 1763) Great Britain and 
 France fought their long fight in America to an end. But 
 the spirit of fight in them was stronger than ever, and 
 it seemed possible that the new battlefield would be Austra- 
 lasia. Neither country greatly desired supremacy in the 
 Pacific, but neither country was willing that the other 
 should attain it. There are curious personal links connect- 
 ing the fight that had ended in Canada and the fight 
 that seemed hkely to begin in the Pacific. Bougainville, 
 who nearly discovered Eastern Austraha in 1768, had been 
 the favoured and brilhant Aide-de-Camp of Montcalm. ^ 
 Cook, who actually discovered it in 1 770, had sounded 
 the St. Lawrence while Bougainville fought on its banks. 
 The war ended in 1763. In the same year the French 
 government determined to form that settlement on the 
 Falkland Islands which, according both to French and 
 English geographers, would give supremacy in the South 
 Sea. The chivalrous Bougainville, representative of quali- 
 ties that have made French soldiers loved even while 
 feared, offered to found the settlement at his own expense. 
 " He has talent," Montcalm had written to his wife, " a 
 warm head and a warm heart. He will ripen in time." 
 Bougainville had ripened. He had fought the Canadian 
 fight to an end ; a bitter end made sweet by brave sacrifice. 
 
 ^ See Parkman's Wolfe and Montcalm. 
 366 • 
 
THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 
 
 367 
 
 The field was lost, but all was not lost. French honour 
 remained, unstained and shining. The British had won 
 
 Louis Antoine de Bougainville. 
 (From Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada Franfais. Paris, 1881.) 
 
 the West. But the South remained a virgin field for the 
 chivalry of France. " The French nation," wrote Bougain- 
 ville, " is capable of conquering the greatest difficulties, 
 
368 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 He founds a 
 colony in 
 the Falk- 
 lands, 1763. 
 
 Byron's 
 voyage, 
 1764-1766. 
 
 Wallis's 
 voyage, 
 1766-1768. 
 
 and nothing is impossible to her efforts, as often as she 
 will think herself equal at least to any nation in the world." 
 
 Bougainville's offer was accepted. He chose for his 
 colonists " several Acadian families, a laborious intelligent 
 set of people, who ought to be dear to France on account 
 of the inviolable attachment they have shown, as honest 
 but unfortunate citizens " ; and with them he founded the 
 first French colony in the South. In the middle of the 
 fort he erected a small obelisk. " The King's effigy," 
 he wrote, " adorned one of its sides, and under its founda- 
 tions we buried some coins, together with a medal, on one 
 side of which was graved the date of the undertaking, 
 and on the other the figure of the King, with the words 
 ' Tibi serviat ultima Thule.' " 
 
 But the British Government also was thinking about 
 " ultima Thule." The Falklands, it was explained, had 
 been discovered by Englishmen in the days of Elizabeth, 
 and the claim was good though old. So in 1764 it sent 
 Byron with instructions to take possession, and then to 
 proceed on a voyage of discovery in the Pacific. Byron 
 came to the Falklands in January 1765, " touched to the 
 Westward of our settlement," says Bougainville, " and 
 took possession of these islands for the Crown of England, 
 without leaving a single inhabitant there ! " Then Byron, 
 promising his sailors double pay for a big and dangerous 
 venture, sailed through the straits in weather " dreadful 
 beyond all description." Taking a West-North- West 
 course he came to the Northern end of the Society Islands, 
 but missed Tahiti. Thence he sailed North-West for 
 the Ladrones. He discovered a few small islands, but, 
 writes Besant, " like Magellan, he seemed to avoid dis- 
 covering the archipelagos between which he passed by 
 a kind of miracle." He came home in 1766. 
 
 His ship, the Dolphin, was sent out again in the same year 
 under Walhs. With her sailed the Swallow under Carteret, 
 who in vain pointed to the fact that the ship was rotten. 
 They also took the route through the straits, and spent 
 four months in passing them ! The Swallow sailed so 
 badly, that Walhs in the Dolphin got far ahead, and never 
 
THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 369 
 
 saw her again. Wallis's chief discovery was Tahiti, which Tahiti. 
 
 he named " King George the Third's Island." Then, 
 
 hke Byron, he took the well-worn route to the Ladrones 
 
 and Java, and came home in 1768. It was a quick voyage, 
 
 only six hundred and thirty-seven days, but unsatisfying 
 
 to curiosity. 
 
 Meanwhile Carteret, in his rotten little ship, was making Carteret's 
 
 a brave voyage. He came to Pitcairn Island, touched 'voyage 
 
 . . 1766 1769. 
 
 the Southern groups of the Society Islands, and sailing 
 
 thence on a course Southward of that taken by Byron 
 and Wallis, he rediscovered Santa Cruz and the Solomon 
 Islands. Two hundred years had passed since Mendafia 
 had left these islands. No other European, so far as we 
 know, had visited them ; no one knew where they were, 
 and some doubted their existence. Tasman thought 
 he was among them when, in reality, he was among the 
 Fijis. Carteret rediscovered them, but did not recognise Solomons 
 them. Thence, compelled by extreme distress to abandon unrecog- 
 his desire to make discoveries in the unknown South, 
 he sailed for New Britain, discovered the strait between 
 that island and New Ireland, sailed through it, and dis- 
 covered the Admiralty Islands. Bougainville overtook 
 him as he neared home. " His ship," wrote the Frenchman, 
 " was very small, went very ill, and when we took leave 
 of him, he remained as it were at anchor. How much 
 he must have suffered, in so bad a vessel, may well be 
 conceived." Carteret came home in March 1769, nearly 
 a year after Wallis's return. 
 
 If Englishmen sailed the Pacific, Frenchmen must do Bougain- 
 
 the same, and must do it better. In November 1766 — lilies 
 
 ' ' voyage, 
 
 three months after Wallis and Carteret had sailed — 1 766-1 769. 
 
 Bougainville also sailed with two ships, the Boudeuse 
 and the Etoile. His orders were " to proceed to the East 
 Indies by crossing the South Seas between the Tropics." 
 On his way he was to give the Falklands to France's ally 
 Spain, who claimed them as belonging to South America. 
 This business delayed him ; it was not till December 
 1767 that he entered the straits, a year behind the English- 
 men, whose initials and names he found cut on Patagonian 
 
370 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 trees. He noted, for the benefit of scientific friends, that 
 the Patagonians are tall but not gigantic. 
 Scepticism. Then he began systematic search for Terra Australis. 
 He looked in vain for Davis Land, and " according: to 
 M. de Belhn's Chart," he writes, " I must have sailed over 
 it." Then he looked for the coast marked in the Charts in 
 about 1 8° to 20°, and described as " lands and islands seen 
 by Quiros." There were plenty of islands but no trace 
 of a continent, and Bougainville concluded that geogra- 
 phers had deceived themselves. " Upon the whole," 
 he writes with admirable sense, " I know not on what 
 grounds our geographers lay down, after these isles, a 
 beginning of land seen, as they say, by Quiros, to which 
 they give seventy leagues of extent. ... If any considerable 
 land existed hereabouts, we could not fail meeting with 
 it. . . . I agree that it is difficult to conceive such a number 
 of low islands, and almost drowned lands, without supposing 
 a continent near them. But geography is a science of 
 facts ; in studying it, authors must by no means give 
 way to any system formed in their studies, unless they 
 would run the risk of being subject to very great errors, 
 which can be rectified only at the expense of navigators." 
 New Bougainville found no continent, but he found that 
 
 Cythera, ^hich made amends. In April 1768 he came to the lovely 
 island which Wallis had visited ten months before. Wallis 
 had called it " King George the Third's Island." Bougain- 
 ville, for sufficient reasons, called it "New Cythera"; 
 but he found that the natives called it " Taiti " (Tahiti). 
 He described its charms with the words of a lover. Every 
 prospect pleased, and men and women — especially women 
 — pleased still more. Tahiti became the Paradise of the 
 sensual man, who has forgotten the Ten Commandments, 
 and desires to enjoy " the ease of the golden age." 
 A French Before sailing from Tahiti, Bougainville " buried an 
 possession^ act of taking possession, inscribed on an oak plank, and 
 a bottle well corked and glued, containing the names 
 of the officers of both ships." A native named Aotourou 
 begged that he might be allowed to sail with them, and 
 Bougainville assented, thinking that he would be of use 
 
THE -PRECURSORS OF COOK 371 
 
 on their island-voyage, and that his eventual return, 
 enriched by useful knowledge, would cement the French 
 alliance " with a powerful people living in the midst of the 
 finest countries in the world." In 1916 we saw in Sydney 
 Tahitian soldiers on their way to fight the battle of France. 
 
 Sailing from Paradise, after only a fortnight's stay, Samoa, 
 on a course more Southerly than that taken by the British, 
 Bougainville came in May 1768 to the group of islands 
 which he called " the Archipelago of the Navigators," 
 and which we call Samoa. Hence he took a very bold A bold 
 course, slightly South of West, precisely the course which ^o^^^®- 
 again and again in the course of one hundred and fifty 
 years had been deliberately declined by seaman after 
 seaman — by Schouten, Tasman, Roggeveen — as certain 
 to lead to great danger on the unknown coast South of 
 New Guinea. It was a course which had been taken only 
 once before, by Torres in 1606. 
 
 Sailing on this course, Bougainville came in May to New 
 a group of islands of singular interest in our story. He Hebrides, 
 named them " the Isle of Pentecost," " Aurora," " Pic 
 de I'Etoile," and " the Isle of Lepers." On the last of 
 these islands he landed, collected wood and fruit, and 
 " buried at the foot of a tree the Act, taking possession 
 of these isles, engraved on an oak plank." But the natives 
 seemed bad, and the fruit was not as good as in New 
 Cythera. But there were other lands to the South and 
 to the West ; in fact " we saw land in all parts of the 
 horizon ; we were, so to say, shut up in a great gulf." 
 It was hard to make out whether the lands were continuous, 
 or were divided by passages. Bougainville sailed along 
 the Western side of the " great gulf," by a fine shore 
 covered with trees, and with patches of land apparently 
 cultivated, and he came to a " great inlet " with an opening 
 five or six leagues wide. He sailed into it two or three 
 leagues, and came to a " fine bay." No bottom could 
 be found with a two hundred fathom line. Two boats 
 were landed to reconnoitre. The natives shot a couple 
 of arrows, which served the sailors as a pretext for a general 
 discharge of muskets. " The negroes howled excessively 
 
372 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 in the woods, where we could hear their drum beating. 
 I immediately made signal to the boat to come on board, 
 and I took my measures to prevent our being dishonoured 
 in the future by such an abuse of the superiority of our 
 power." 
 Espiritu Bougainville's words bring memories to the student's 
 
 Santo. mind, and these memories were in his own mind as he 
 
 wrote. He called the group of islands " the archipelago 
 of the Cyclades." But " as for ourselves," he writes, 
 '' everything conspired to persuade us that it was the 
 * Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo.' Appearances seemed 
 to conform to Quiros's account ; and what we daily 
 discovered encouraged our researches. It is singular 
 enough that, exactly in the same Latitude and Longitude 
 where Quiros places his bay of St. Phihp and St. James, 
 on a coast which at first sight seemed to be that of a con- 
 tinent, we should find a passage exactly of the same breadth 
 which he assigns to the entrance of his bay." 
 
 Bougainville was right when he beheved that he had 
 stumbled on Quiros's Espiritu Santo, unvisited since 
 1606. But he was, it seems, wrong when he believed 
 that he had entered the bay of St. Philip and St. James. 
 His chart seems to show that he did 7tot visit the North 
 side of Santo, where lies that bay. He sailed through 
 the passage between Santo and Malicolo, and apparently 
 the " great inlet " was somewhere in the passage. 
 Bougainville However, he was in Espiritu Santo where Quiros and 
 sai s est. Xorres had been. And the geographical problem before 
 him now was something like that which Torres had faced 
 when he sailed hence. But, whereas Torres had plunged 
 South-West in search of an unknown Terra Australis, 
 Bougainville knew that in that direction was the unknown 
 Eastern coast of New Holland. How far away was this 
 coast it was impossible to guess. Campbell had declared 
 in 1744 that Espiritu Santo was actually part of New 
 Holland. And de Brosses' book of 1756 had printed 
 a map which gave the same view. But de Brosses' text, 
 as Cook afterwards pointed out, in defiance of de Brosses' 
 map, declared that " all the vast interval lying between 
 
THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 373 
 
 Leeuwin and Quiros's discovery is so unknown that one 
 cannot tell what part of it is land, and what part is sea," 
 and had thought " more likely " the view that the unknown 
 was, not one continent, but " large islands, separated from 
 each other by canals or arms of the sea." Bougainville 
 had now proved that, in respect to Espiritu Santo, de 
 Brosses' map was wrong, and de Brosses' text was right. 
 The same fact, we remember, had been proved one hundred 
 and sixty years before by Torres ; but the route of Torres 
 was known, it seems, only by Dalrymple, and Dalrymple, 
 who told the fact to Mr. Banks, did not tell it to Bougain- 
 ville. All that Bougainville knew was that, somewhere 
 to the West, must be the East coast of New Holland, and 
 he bravely resolved to sail Westward for three hundred 
 and fifty leagues. " I resolved," he writes, " to do it, 
 though the condition and the quantity of our provisions 
 seemed to give us reason to make the best of our way 
 to some European settlement." 
 
 He therefore sailed West in Latitude 15°. Had he 
 persevered he would have come to the Australian coast 
 near Cooktown, and would, likely enough, have been 
 wrecked where Cook was wrecked two years later. But, 
 after a week's sail, he found himself in the midst of dangers. 
 He saw sandbanks and shoals, a low land to the South- 
 West, and breakers to the North-West that appeared 
 to stretch without end. " The sea broke with great 
 violence on the shoals, and some summits of rocks appeared 
 above water. This last discovery was the voice of God, "The voice 
 and we were obedient to it. . . . I gave orders to steer °^ God." 
 North-East by East, abandoning the scheme of proceeding 
 further Westward in the Latitude of 15°." He concluded 
 that the Eastern coast of New Holland was not much better 
 than the Western coast which Dampier had seen in the 
 same Latitude. " I should willingly believe, as he does, 
 that this land is a cluster of isles, the approach to which 
 is made difficult by a dangerous sea, full of shoals and 
 sandbanks. After such an explanation, it would be rashness 
 to risk running in with a coast from whence no advantage 
 could be expected, and which one could not clear but 
 
374 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 by beating against reigning winds. We had only bread 
 for two months, and pulse for forty days ; the salt meat 
 was in great quantities, but it was noxious, and we preferred 
 Bougainville the rats. Thus it was by all means time to go to the North- 
 North ward, and even to deviate a little to the Eastward of our 
 course." 
 
 He sailed three days, and then " a delicious smell 
 announced the vicinity of the land." Bougainville had 
 " seen but few lands which bore a finer aspect ; a low 
 ground, divided into plains and groves, lay along the sea- 
 shore, and from thence rose like an amphitheatre to the. 
 mountains whose summits were lost in clouds." He. 
 was on the South side of New Guinea near the Eastern 
 end, not far away from the point at which Torres in his 
 voyage from Espiritu Santo had made land. Torres, 
 greatly daring, had turned Westward, and had found 
 his Strait. But Bougainville had read no account of 
 Torres' route, and, though he thought it " probable " 
 that a strait existed, he dared not face the risk. Had he, 
 hke Cook, two years later, had on board Dalrymple's 
 Chart, showing the track of Torres, it seems likely enough 
 he would have turned Westward, and that a French 
 and not an English captain would have been second to 
 thread the Strait. 
 
 Not daring to sail West, Bougainville had to sail East, 
 and " to endeavour to get out of this gulf as soonaspossible." 
 He found himself in a position of extreme danger, caught 
 in a huge gulf, bristhng with shoals and reefs and islets, 
 while a South-Eastern swell was heaving him towards 
 the land. During a dreadful fortnight, he fought to keep 
 the ship off land, and gradually groped a way Eastward. 
 For days the fog was so thick that the two ships were 
 obliged to fire guns in order to keep company. " In 
 the dark, in the midst of a. sea strewn with shoals, we 
 were obliged to shut our eyes to all signs of danger." 
 Provisions were faihng. The allowance of bread and pulse 
 was lessened. The pet dog and the pet goat were eaten, 
 and it was found necessary for medical reasons to forbid 
 the eating of old leather. 
 
THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 375 
 
 Bougainville was trying to get round the immense Cape 
 chain of islets, reefs, and shoals that makes the Eastern deliverance, 
 tail of New Guinea. At last he succeeded. " The Cape 
 which we had so long wished for " he named " Cape 
 Deliverance," and the Gulf of which it formed the Eastern 
 point " Gulf of the Louisiade." " I think," he justly adds, 
 " we have well acquired the right of naming these parts." 
 Earlier navigators had " all followed the same track ; 
 we opened a new one and paid dear for the honour of 
 the first discovery." 
 
 
 / . 
 
 I noviqi 1: ni ( lii'nui>iixi-: 
 
 He r 
 
 I'ARi oi. Map in Bougainville's Voyage aiUour du Monde. (Paris, 1771.) 
 
 Bougainville's aim now was to round the North of New Solomons 
 Britain. A glance at the map shows that it was very ^|^^^ V^' 
 likely that he would come to the North-West Islands 
 of the Solomons. We remember that Carteret had seen 
 some islands of the group the year before, and had not 
 recognised them. Bougainville also had no thought 
 that he was even near them. In the map, which he con- 
 structed, on his return, he placed them in the Latitude 
 of the Equator, and in a Longitude slightly to the West 
 of the Navigator Islands (Samoa) ; and he wrote by them 
 the curious words, "Solomon Islands of which the existence 
 and position are doubtful." His doubtful guess of the 
 
376 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Solomon 
 Islanders 
 
 position of islands that might not even exist, placed them 
 five to ten degrees too far to the North, and about thirty 
 degrees too far to the East. Yet, when he drew this map, 
 he had just returned from a voyage in the course of which 
 he had visited, unknowingly, two of the largest islands 
 in the group. ^ 
 
 He came to the island which he named Choiseul in July 
 1768. As the French were anchoring in a fine bay, they 
 were suddenly attacked by ten war canoes, with one 
 hundred and fifty men on board, armed with bows, lances, 
 and shields. They fought with savage bravery, and a 
 second discharge was needed to put them to flight. The 
 French captured two war-canoes, on one of which was 
 carved the head of a man with eyes of mother-of-pearl 
 and ears of tortoise-shell, the whole figure resembling 
 a mask with a long beard. ^ The cargo included the jaws 
 of a man half-broiled. " These islanders," writes Bougain- 
 ville, " are black and have curled hair, which they dye 
 white, yellow, or red. Their audacity in attacking us, 
 their custom of bearing arms, and their dexterous manage- 
 ment of them, prove that they are almost constantly 
 at war." In short, though he did not suspect it, they were 
 Solomon Islanders, the artistic and murderous descendants 
 of the artistic and murderous enemies of Mendafia. 
 
 From Choiseul he sailed North-West, past the long 
 hilly coast of the island which is now called by his name. 
 Then he passed a smaller island which he named " Bonka," 
 after the cry of natives, who pretended to give cocoa-nuts, 
 and then shot arrows. And then he sailed away, still 
 doubting that the Solomons existed ! ^ 
 New Britain. And now where was New Guinea ? Quiros had guessed 
 that the Solomons were near New Guinea. Bougainville 
 thought that, if they existed at all, they existed about 
 • twenty-five degrees away from New Guinea. His voyage 
 was to prove that he was wildly wrong, and that Quiros 
 
 1 See map, p. 375. 
 
 2 The Solomon Islanders, says Lord Amherst, are " the artists of the 
 Pacific." 
 
 ^ See The Discovery of the Solomon Islands, p. Ixxiv, 
 
THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 377 
 
 was wonderfully right. Two days after losing sight of 
 the Solomons, Bougainville was at anchor in a bay of New 
 Britain. A sailor, looking for shells, found buried in the 
 sand a piece of lead with the remains of English words. 
 The plate had been nailed, but the savages had torn it 
 down, and had broken it in pieces. It was evidence 
 to the French that Carteret had been there before them, 
 and they found vestiges of the English camp. " This," 
 comments Bougainville, " in a very strange chance by which 
 we, among so many lands, came to the very spot where 
 the rival nation had left a monument to an enterprise 
 similar to ours." 
 
 The French had anchored in St. George's BayinDampier's 
 New Britain, the island which French and British geogra- 
 phers had agreed to recommend as the best site for a colony 
 in all Australasia. They were in urgent need of refreshment, 
 for they were in desperate health, suffering from scurvy 
 and " cruel famine." But their search was strangely 
 fruitless. To them New Britain was a land of snakes Disappoint- 
 and scorpions and earthquakes, strange insects, beautiful "^^"*- 
 shells, and tremendous cascades. They found little to 
 eat except a few thatch palms and cabbage trees, which 
 they must dispute with gigantic ants. Dampier's luck, 
 explains Bougainville, had taken him to Port Montague, 
 " an inhabited district, which promised him refreshments, 
 and whereof the productions gave him room to conceive 
 great hopes concerning the country ; and we, who were as 
 indigent as he was, fell in with a desert, which instead of 
 supplying all our wants, has only afforded us wood and 
 water." 
 
 Bougainville, unlike Carteret, did not discover that 
 St. George's Bay was the opening of a passage separating 
 New Britain and New Ireland. He sailed round the North North coast 
 coast of New Ireland, believing, as Dampier had believed, q^^^^ 
 that it was part of New Britain. Distress increased, 
 but not one Frenchman was downhearted. " The officers 
 set the example, and the seamen never ceased dancing 
 in the evenings, as well in the time of scarcity as in that 
 of the greatest plenty. Nor was it necessary to double 
 
378 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 their wages ! " So, with light hearts in sick bodies, 
 the French sailed the long coast of New Guinea, which 
 seemed " an everlasting chain of islands." In fact, Bou- 
 gainville formed the opinion that " all New Guinea itself 
 is a heap of great islands." At length he found a passage 
 which he called " the French passage," and made his way 
 to the httle Dutch factory at Boero, and obtained refresh- 
 ment. It was full time. Not a man was free from scurvy. 
 Half the crews were unable to do duty. "If we had 
 kept the sea another week, we should have lost great 
 numbers, and all would have fallen sick." 
 A square Boero was next best to Tahiti. The Dutch Governor's 
 
 meal at duty was to explain that he was expressly forbidden to 
 receive foreign ships into port. But he accepted Bougain- 
 ville's plea of urgent necessity, and invited him to a supper, 
 which was " one of the most delightful moments " of his 
 hfe. The Hollanders, he says, were so amazed by the French 
 hunger, that " none of them durst eat anything for fear 
 of wronging us. One must have been a sailor, and reduced 
 to the extremities which we had felt for several months 
 together, in order to form an idea of the sensations which 
 the sight of greens and a* good supper may produce." 
 At Batavia, The passage to Batavia was one of the most difficult 
 Sept. 1768. parts of the voyage. The Dutch refused information, 
 and " took the greatest precaution to keep their charts 
 secret," while the French charts were " more proper to 
 cause the loss of ships than to guide them." However, 
 the French arrived ; and Bougainville's opinion was that 
 the Dutch deliberately exaggerated the dangers of the 
 navigation. He anchored in Batavia in September, 1768. 
 The people of Batavia tried to make the Frenchmen's 
 stay agreeable. There were feasts in town and country, 
 concerts, and charming walks. Bougainville was not 
 ungrateful, but it was the duty of a French patriot to 
 say what advantages might be gained by his country. 
 The His hosts were very wealthy, and they were also very weak, 
 
 weakness of Exclusive commerce had made the Company "more hke 
 
 the Dutch. . r , 
 
 a powerful republic than a society of merchants ; but 
 
 " the time is nigh at hand when their monopoly will receive 
 
THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 379 
 
 a mortal stroke. To desire the destruction of this' exclusive 
 trade would be enough to effect it. The great safety 
 of the Dutch consists in the ignorance of the rest of Europe 
 concerning the true state of these isles, and in the myster- 
 ious clouds which wrap this Garden of the Hesperides 
 in darkness." The Dutch build forts, but they are destroyed 
 by earthquakes. They send soldiers, seamen, and work- 
 men ; but the malignant climate destroys two-thirds. 
 The water is so bad that the rich drink seltzer imported 
 at great cost. It is true that the Company destroys 
 the spices that it cannot sell ; but there are spice islands 
 that it does not know, and others that it cannot conquer. 
 The British frequent those parts, and not without design. 
 The voyages of Wallis and Carteret have meaning. And 
 so, though he does not say so, has the voyage of Bougain- 
 ville. " Our author," comments the English translator, 
 "endeavours to make it highly probable that the spice 
 trade will soon be divided among the English and the 
 French." From Batavia Bougainville sailed with a very sick 
 crew for the Isle of France. Then he called at the Cape, 
 where he admired the settlement of La Rochelle, formed 
 by Protestant Frenchmen who still loved France. Carteret, 
 whom he wished to overtake, was still eleven days ahead. 
 At Ascension Bougainville had gained six days, and between Bougainville 
 Ascension and the Azores he caught up. The two brave M^ch^iTeo' 
 captains had friendly conversation, and Carteret gave 
 Bougainville an arrow he had found on his voyage round 
 the world, " a voyage that he was far from suspecting 
 we had likewise made." Then Bougainville sailed, left 
 behind the rotten little English ship, which seemed " as 
 it were at anchor," and came home in March 1769. In 
 spite of distress and disease, he had lost only seven in a 
 voyage of two years and four months. And the gallant 
 soldier-seaman ends his admirable book with words from 
 his well-loved Virgil : — " Puppipus et laeti nautae im- 
 posuere coronas." 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 
 
 Logs. 
 
 Cook's lost 
 autograph 
 Journal. 
 
 Rough 
 notes. 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 1. The Logs, (a) One Log, which survives only in two 
 fragments (6th Nov., 1768 — 8th May, 1769, and 12th Feb. — 
 23rd Sept., 1770), is in Cook's own handwriting. The part of it 
 which deals with the Australian coast is printed, as Cook's 
 " Private Log," in the Historical Records of New South Wales, 
 vol. i. part i. p. i. {b) Bladen {Historical Records of New South 
 Wales, vol. i. part i. p. 289) says that the " Palliser Log " also is 
 " beyond any doubt in the handwriting of Cook himself." 
 Wharton, however, says that it is " not autograph." The 
 specimens which Bladen prints are not, in my opinion, in Cook's 
 handwriting, and suggest a clerk's copy of his " Private Log." 
 (c) Another Log, left to the British Museum by Sir Joseph Banks, 
 was written by the principal officer, for the time being, of the 
 ship. The Australian part is printed, as Cook's " Official Log," 
 in the Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. i. part i. p. 79. 
 {d) Several of the seamen also kept Logs which are of considerable 
 interest. The Australian parts are printed in the Historical 
 Records of Neiv South Wales,- vol. i. part i. 
 
 2. Cook's Journals. In addition to the daily " Log," Cook 
 wrote, during the leisure of the voyage, a fuller account in a 
 Journal. Banks refers to " the Captain's own journals, which 
 the clerk has copied." " The Captain's own journals " have 
 unhappily disappeared . ' ' No autograph j ournal, ' ' wrote Wharton 
 in 1893, " is, so far as is known, in existence." He had therefore 
 to print a copy. There survive, however, a few pages in Cook's 
 handwriting. 
 
 {a) In the Australian Museum, Sydney, there are a few pages 
 in Cook's handwriting, dealing with New Zealand. I can learn 
 nothing of their history, but I am confident that they are authentic. 
 There is a full account of experiences at Poverty Bay on the 9th, 
 loth and nth of October. Cook first wrote Endeavour Bay, and 
 then crossed out this name and wrote Poverty Bay. This 
 account is fairly similar to that in the copy of Cook's Journal, 
 though there are differences. One wonders whether this is a 
 
 380 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 381 
 
 fragment of the original Journal on which the copy was based. 
 But then comes a gap of thirteen days. Then very slight entries 
 for October 24th and 25th. Then a brief enumeration of the 
 characteristics of the Maoris. Then very slight entries from 
 October 30th to November 5th. Then a list of points to be 
 noticed in description of an unnamed Bay, and of the River 
 Thames. Then slight entries from November 25th to 27th. I 
 get the impression that these pages are a fragment of Cook's first 
 rough notes, afterwards worked into the lost Journal, which the 
 clerk copied. 
 
 [b) There are also in the Australian Museum Cook's autograph 
 observations of the Transit of Venus, the autograph " Rules " 
 to be observed at Tahiti, a scrap from an autograph Journal of the 
 second voyage, and several very important autograph letters. Fragments. 
 Though these documents have no history, I am confident that 
 thc}^ are authentic. There exists, somewhere in England, a page 
 in Cook's handwriting, which records the events of three days 
 (4th, 5th, and 6th May), at Botany Bay. The name Stingray 
 Bay is corrected to Botanist Bay. Mr. Kitson, in the 191 2 
 popular edition of his life of Cook (p, 149), describes this page 
 as " the only page known to exist of the Journal of the first 
 voyage written by Cook." I have not seen this page ; but the 
 facsimile shows that the record is very much shorter than that 
 of the copy. I again get the impression that, like the pages in 
 the Australian Museum, this is a, fragment, not of Cook's 
 Journal, but of rough notes that were afterwards expanded 
 into the Journal. It certainly seems curious that this one page 
 — a particularly interesting page — should alone survive. But it 
 seems to be authentic. 
 
 3. Copies of Cook's Journal. There are three copies of Copies. 
 Cook's Journal. 
 
 (a) There is a copy which was appropriated by Sir Philip Corner 
 Stephens, the Secretary of the Admiralty, and which eventually Journal. ^ 
 came by sale to Mr. Corner, who determined to print it. It 
 was edited by Admiral Wharton in 1893. It stops at the arrival 
 at Batavia. I have carefully examined it, and I have found no 
 reason to question the accepted opinion that it is the copy which 
 Cook sent to Stephens from that port. It is in the handwriting 
 of a clerk. But there are corrections in Cook's hand. Under 
 14th June, 1770, there is a curious marginal note in Cook's hand 
 (see photo, p. 383). A good many corrections of names of places 
 have been made ; sometimes, in my opinion, in the hand of the 
 clerk who wrote the Journal, and sometimes in other hands. Mr. 
 Bonwick's criticisms of this Journal in his booklet. Cook in New 
 South Wales, do not seem to me to be well-founded. The change of 
 geographical names, e.g. the change of " Stingray " to " Botany," 
 does not affect the historical value of the Journal. On the 
 contrary, the erased Stingray would suffice to prove, if proof 
 
382 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 were necessary, the early date of the Journal. It was bought by 
 
 Mr. Dangar, and presented to the Australian Museum, Sydney. 
 
 It is generally quoted as the " Corner " Journal. 
 
 Admiralty {b) There is a copy possessed by the Admiralty, and now in the 
 
 Journal. Public Record Office, which tells the story of the whole voyage. 
 
 It is, says Wharton, in the handwriting of the same clerk. The 
 
 part which tells the story of the voyage from Batavia to London 
 
 is printed by Wharton. It is generally quoted as the "Admiralty " 
 
 Journal. There is evidence that it was written later than the 
 
 " Corner " Journal. 
 
 Windsor {c) A third copy is at Windsor Castle, and " from its appear- 
 
 Journal. ance," says Wharton, " was kept for and probably presented to 
 
 George III." "It has been written with especial care and by 
 
 several hands. It was evidently the last in point of time." In 
 
 that case it seems curious that it should " terminate a few days 
 
 before reaching Batavia." No doubt it was because at that 
 
 point the voyage of discovery ended. 
 
 " The three copies," writes Wharton, " are practically identical, 
 except for the period August 13th to 19th, 1770, during which 
 the wording is often different, though the events are the same." 
 For that period Cook's clerk seems, in the two later copies, to 
 have had the use of Banks's Journal. 
 
 I regret that I have been unable to consult copies {b) and (c). 
 A comparison of the three copies would be interesting ; though 
 it is unlikely that it would lead to any important change of 
 view. 
 Banks's Banks's Manuscript Journals. In the Preface to his edition. 
 
 Journal. gir Joseph Hooker traced the history of the Journal to the auction 
 sale of Banksian MSS. at Sotheby's on the 14th April, 1886. 
 At that sale " Banks's Journal of a Voyage to the Sandwich 
 Islands (!) and New Zealand, from March 1769 to July 1771, in 
 the autograph of Banks," was sold a^ lot 176 to an autograph 
 dealer named Waller for £j 2s. 6d. In 1893 Waller, when 
 questioned, " did not specially remember the purchase, and he 
 does not believe that he has got the manuscript." " So that 
 where it is now," wrote Mr. Carruthers, late Keeper of the 
 Botanical Collections at the British Museum, " no one knows." 
 To this statement. Sir Joseph Hooker added in 1896 the following 
 note : — " I have since ascertained that the Journal came into 
 the possession of J. Henniker Heaton, Esq., M.P., who informs 
 me that he disposed of it to a gentleman in Sydney, New South 
 Wales." Being unable to get the use of the Journal, Hooker 
 printed part — about one half — of a copy which had been made 
 by direction of his grandfather, Mr. Turner, a friend of Banks. 
 
 The " gentleman in Sydney " was Mr. Alfred Lee, who sold the 
 Journal to Mr. Mitchell, and it is now the treasure of the Mitchell 
 Library, Sydney. It is a complete Journal, in Banks's hand- 
 writing, of the whole voyage from the first day (25th August, 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 
 
 383 
 
 <^ ^"%l^-^ 
 
 '.il> X.^ 
 ^^^ 
 
 ^ -^^ ^ v.. 
 
 
 
384 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 In the 
 
 Mitchell 
 
 Library. 
 
 Banksian 
 MS. at 
 Auckland. 
 
 1768) to the last (12th July, 1771). That is to say, this Mitchell 
 Journal — the Journal which " came into the possession " of Mr. 
 Henniker Heaton — is not the fragment of a Journal that was sold 
 at Sotheby's for £7 2S. 6d. That f;;agment went elsewhere. 
 Where it went we will notice a little later. 
 
 That the Journal in the Mitchell Library is the Journal written 
 by Banks on the Endeavour is, in my opinion, certain. It is 
 written in Banks's handwriting in its youthful vigour. It shows 
 the changes of form that one would expect in a Journal written, 
 sometimes from day to day, sometimes after an interval of a few 
 days, sometimes — as in the long descriptions of the South Sea 
 Islands, of New Zealand, and of New Holland— in the leisure of 
 the voyage. Banks frequently refers to the writing of the 
 Journal. He jots down the joyful days at Tahiti with such haste 
 that he fears he will be unable to read his own writing. He wishes 
 his London friends could see him sitting " journalising " at his 
 table in mid-ocean, while Solander botanises at the other side. 
 
 A close examination shows that Banks wrote in loose sections 
 of four unstitched folded sheets — each section, that is to say, 
 making sixteen pages. Before writing, he folded each page at 
 the top and on both sides, in order to mark space for headlines 
 and for marginal notes. When he got home, he bound these 
 sections in two volumes. The binding was so done that some 
 part of the marginal notes is hidden from view ; a fact which 
 proves that they were written before the volume was bound. 
 In the middle of these sections. Banks bound an account of 
 various electrical experiments written, at various dates in the 
 course of the voyage, on " separate papers," i.e. in another 
 section of four folded sheets ; another proof that the binding 
 was done after the return. 
 
 On reaching the end of a p^rt of the Journal, Banks sometimes 
 left a blank space. On the blank space at the end of the de- 
 scription of New Zealand, he added at a later date — this is indicated 
 by the handwriting — a note that he had learnt at the Cape that 
 ships, sailing a second voyage, could easily take in good provisions 
 there. Banks frequently added to and corrected the Journal. 
 He twice corrected " Stingray " to " Botany," and changed 
 " New Holland " into " that part of New Holland now called 
 New South Wales " (see p. 443). In one place — MS. Journal, 
 vol. i. p. 342 — he added a marginal note dated 21st January, 
 1772, i.e. six months after his return to England. 
 
 It is highly desirable that this Journal should be printed and 
 edited. 
 
 What became of the fragment of a Journal in Banks's hand- 
 writing dated — according to Sotheby's Catalogue — March 1769 
 to July 1 771 ? In the Free Public Library, Auckland, New 
 Zealand, are three documents in Banks's handwriting. I have not 
 seen them, but their nature has been described by Mr. H. Shaw 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 385 
 
 in his " Guide to the principal manuscripts in the Auckland 
 Free Public Library " ; and photographs of some pages have 
 been sent to the Mitchell Library. The three documents are : — 
 (i) an account of the islands in the South Seas, including a separate 
 account of Tahiti, which is dated March 1769 ; (ii) a Journal 
 dated from October 1769 to October 1770, which seems to be a 
 digest of Cook's Journal ; (iii) a Log of the voyage from Batavia 
 to England, which ends on 9th July, 1771. It seems to me 
 certain that these three documents formed the one item described, 
 very inaccurately, in Sotheby's Catalogue, as the " Journal," 
 and sold as lot 176, for £j 2s. 6d. They are still in " quarto 
 sheets in folds unbound " ; save the description of Tahiti, which 
 is on a foolscap folio sheet. One may guess that, during the 
 tedious voyage. Banks passed the time in writing these docu- 
 ments, but, when he came home, did not think it worth while 
 to bind them. 
 
 4. The Journal of Parkinson, Banks's botanical draughts- Parkinson, 
 man, has interesting illustrations, but adds little information of 
 
 value. 
 
 5. On the 28th September, 1771, a publisher named Becket Magra. 
 published a Journal of a Voyage Round the World, written by one 
 
 of the voyagers, who, Becket was convinced, was " a gentleman 
 and a scholar." My guess is that the anonymous author was 
 James Magra, the American midshipman who, twelve years 
 later, with name changed to Matra, brought forward, after 
 consultation with Banlcs, a noteworthy proposal for the foundation 
 of a colony in New South Wales. This Journal, however, is of 
 very little historical importance. The most noteworthy facts 
 are that, to the writer. Botany Bay is " Stingray Harbour," and 
 that he does not write " New South Wales." 
 
 6. Hawkesworth's Voyages of Cook. As the Journals of Hawkes- 
 Cook and Banks were not considered to be sufficiently literary worth, 
 for print, and as neither had time to prepare them for the press, 
 
 they were handed to Hawkesworth to be used as the basis of a 
 narrative which he put into the mouth of Cook. It has no use 
 to those who have read the Journals. 
 
 7. The only valuable early Life of Cook is that by Dr. George Young. 
 Young (1835), a former Vicar of Whitby, who resided for thirty 
 years " near the spot where Cook was born, and amidst the 
 scenes where he passed his childhood and youth " ; and who had 
 
 " intercourse with his relations, friends and acquaintances, 
 including one or two surviving school companions." 
 
 8. Brougham's Life of Sir Joseph Banks (in Lives of Men of Brougham. 
 Letters and Science who Flourished in the Time of George IIL) 
 
 gets value from the fact that Brougham's father was a school 
 chum of Banks, and that " in consequence of this old connexion " 
 Brougham had interesting conversations with Banks in his old 
 age. 
 
 W.A. 2 B 
 
386 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Recent. 9. Recent Books : Besant's Cook, Kitson's Cook, Maiden's 
 
 Banks, Smith's Banks. 
 
 The transit 
 of Venus. 
 
 The failure 
 of 1761. 
 
 The Royal 
 Society 
 appeals to 
 George III. 
 1768. 
 
 On the 24th of November, 1639, an Englishman, the 
 ingenious Mr. Horrocks, first observed the transit of Venus 
 across the sun.^ Towards the end of the seventeenth 
 century, another Enghshman, Mr. Halley, the Astronomer 
 Royal, foretold that the event would occur again in 1 761 
 and in 1769, and he implored the English astronomers 
 of those dates not to neglect their duty.^ In 1760 the 
 Royal Society, mindful of these things, wrote to the Lords 
 of the Treasury, urging that expeditions should be sent 
 to St. Helena, and to Bencoolen in Sumatra, to observe 
 an event that had been " predicted in the last century 
 by an Enghshman, and never observed but once since 
 the world began, and then by another Englishman." 
 Englishmen in 1 760 were reading of new victories by land 
 and sea in each day's paper. Were they at the same 
 time to be defeated in the Heavens by some French scientist ! 
 
 The request was granted, and the astronomers sailed. 
 The Rev. Nevil Maskelyne went to St. Helena. He 
 estimated that his food would cost six shillings a day, 
 his liquors five shillings, and his washing ninepence. His 
 report was that his observations had been spoilt by " very 
 cloudy weather." The ship of the astronomers for Ben- 
 coolen was attacked by a French frigate. They were so 
 discouraged, that they concluded that they could not get 
 to Bencoolen in time, and that it would be best to make 
 the observations from the Cape. 
 
 The failures of 1 761 made the Royal Society the 
 more anxious to make good arrangements for the obser- 
 vations of the Transit of the 3rd of June, 1769. In 
 February 1768 they wrote to the King. They praised 
 his " remarkable love of science," and they explained 
 to the royal enthusiast the urgency of the occasion : — 
 " the like appearance will not. happen for more than a 
 hundred years." Moreover, it was a matter that would 
 
 ^ Welde's History of the Royal Society, vol. ii. p. 33. Grant's History 
 of Physical Astronomy, p. 419, Dictionary of National Biography. 
 2 Welde's History of the Royal Society, vol. ii. p. 7. 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 387 
 
 appeal to the feelings of a King who gloried in the name 
 of Briton. French, Danes, Swedes, and Russians were 
 planning to intrude their observations on a celestial 
 phenomenon, which the British nation had discovered 
 and had annexed : — " the British nation justly celebrated 
 in the learned world for their knowledge of astronomy, 
 in which they are inferior to no nation in the world, ancient 
 or modern." British astronomers should be sent to 
 Spitzbergen or the North Cape, to Hudson's Bay, and 
 to some place in the South Seas, not exceeding 30° S. Lat., 
 and between 140° and 180° Long. W. The expense would 
 be four thousand pounds.^ 
 
 This request was also granted. It remained to choose Cook 
 the commanders and the observers. The Society had ^^^k ^^^^l*° 
 ready its list of men well qualified to observe. Among 
 them was Dalrymple, the British apostle of the Southern 
 Continent, who had printed his booklet in the previous 
 year. But Dalrymple would not go as observer, unless 
 he was also appointed commander, and the Admiralty 
 replied that the appointment, as commander, of a seaman 
 who was not in the Royal Navy would be " entirely repug- 
 nant to its regulations." It became necessary, therefore, 
 to look for an officer of the Royal Navy, who was also a 
 man of science. The two qualifications seldom went 
 together.^ But it happened that there was a man, well » 
 
 known both to the Admiralty and to the Royal Society, 
 who combined them in a very remarkable way : — James 
 Cook, late " Master " of H.M.S. Northumberland, now 
 engaged in surveying the coasts of Newfoundland, who 
 had just written a learned paper, founded on his own 
 observation of the eclipse of the sun. 
 
 James Cook, like William Dampier, was a farmer's James Cook, 
 boy. In a time when " property was power," he won 
 the highest distinction, and even earned, at the age of 
 
 ^ Welde, vol. ii. p. 33. 
 
 2 The writer of Anson's Voyage complains that naval officers regarded 
 scientific study as " effeminate." It is a mistake, he argues, to suppose 
 that " the perfection of sea-officers consists in a turn of mind and 
 temper resembling the boisterous element they have to deal with." 
 
388 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A day- 
 labourer's 
 boy. 
 
 Whitby 
 coal -boats. 
 
 The Royal 
 Navy, 1755. 
 
 thirty-nine, so much as five shillings a day, without 
 the smallest help from birth, education, or influence. 
 These facts show that, in the navy of the late eighteenth 
 century, the career was not wholly closed to talent. But 
 they show, far more distinctly, how extraordinary was 
 the talent which opened the career. 
 
 As one might, perhaps, have inferred from his 
 works, James Cook was Yorkshire by birth and 
 Scotch by ancestry. His grandfather was a Kirk-elder, 
 and the kirk-elder's son migrated to Yorkshire. " God 
 send you Grace," said his mother, and God sent 
 him a wife of that name. In a tiny two-roomed cot- 
 tage in the tiny village of Marton, James was born 
 in October 1728. The Register of Baptism described 
 him as " James, the son of a day-labourer." Later, 
 the day-labourer rose to be a " hind " or bailiff ; and, 
 later still, he was a builder, so well-lettered that he 
 was able to carve his and his wife's initials on a house he 
 built in 1755. He died in 1778, ending hfe as he began, for 
 the Register of Deaths described him as a " day-labourer." 
 
 As for son James, he went to school and learned 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic ; I doubt that he ever 
 got Dampier's power in Latin. Local tradition afterwards 
 told that, as a birds'-nester, he had shown " a resolute 
 adherence to his own plans " ; which we easily believe. 
 Then he helped his father in farm work, was perhaps 
 a stable-boy for a short time, served customers in a grocer's 
 shop in a fishing village for eighteen months, and in 1746 
 became " prentice " in a big coal-shipping business at 
 Whitby. For nine years he made voyages in coal-boats, 
 getting loving acquaintance with the type of ship which, 
 he afterwards said, was by far the best fitted for the business 
 of exploration. His advance was rapid, and in 1755 he 
 was offered the position of " Master." He decHned. 
 In that year the first shot was fired in the war that made 
 Canada and India parts of the Empire. Experienced 
 seamen were scarce in the Royal Navy. Cook saw the 
 tide in his affairs, and volunteered, " having a mind to 
 try his fortune that way." 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 389 
 
 From 1755 to 1758, Cook served on ships which cruised 
 the Channel, and fought what fights they could get. Un- 
 happily he told no stories of his fights, and it is the exas- 
 peration of biographers that others told no stories about 
 him. Imagination has to make the best of baldest state- 
 ments, like this account of a sea-fight : — " We killed her 
 fifty men, and wounded her thirty ; she killed us ten men 
 and wounded us eighty." Then, in 1758, Cook sailed for 
 Canada in the British fleet under " Wry-necked Dick " 
 Boscawen, and took his modest part in the famous deeds 
 at Louisburg and Quebec. Did Cook, during the endless Louisburg 
 monotony of voyage, ever tell stories of Wolfe } Probably ^" ^"^ ^^' 
 not. Cook was a very matter-of-fact man. To him a 
 brave deed was a brave deed ; it was your duty to do it, 
 to describe it in plain prose words, and then to do another. 
 Doubtless Cook fought what fights came his way with 
 courage and ability, but of them we know nothing. 
 
 What we do know is that he now first gave proof of that 
 extraordinary skill in the charting of unknown coasts. The charting 
 which, says Admiral Wharton, " enabled him to originate, coa"ts^^°^^ 
 as it may truly be said he did, the art of modern marine 
 surveying." How he acquired the considerable know- 
 ledge of trigonometry, that was needed for this work, 
 is beyond the powers of explanation possessed by a person 
 of my degree of mathematical ignorance. His school 
 education had been elementary. In the winter evenings 
 at Whitby, a kindly house-keeper had " allowed him a table 
 and a candle, that he might read and write by himself, while 
 the other apprentices were engaged in idle talk " ; and, 
 no doubt, he read and wrote with terrible industry. Yet, 
 we are told by our best authority,^ that, when he began 
 to survey the St. Lawrence, he " had never been taught 
 drawing, and was not known to have ever used a pencil 
 before." However we may explain miracles, Cook won 
 a solid and well-deserved reputation by his surveys 
 of " the Pilotage of the St. Lawrence," and later of the 
 coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, his charts of which, 
 writes Admiral Wharton, are " not yet wholly superseded," 
 ^ Young, p. II. 
 
390 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Observa- 
 tions of an 
 eclipse of the 
 sun. 
 
 and " their accuracy is truly astonishing." Meanwhile, 
 he was diligently studying mathematics and astronomy, 
 " without other assistance than what a few books and 
 his own industry afforded him." In August 1766 he made 
 observations of an eclipse of the sun, which, in April 1767, 
 were communicated to the Royal Society, whose Trans- 
 actions described him as "a good mathematician, and 
 very expert in his business." In April 1768 a new sur- 
 veyor was appointed " in the absence of Mr. Cook who 
 is to be employed elsewhere." In May, a Council of the 
 Royal Society was held, and " Mr. Cook," says the record, 
 " was called in." 
 
 Mr. Cook was now a man of thirty-nine. His appear- 
 ance may be easily imagined from the description written, 
 when all was over, by one who had sailed in the last voyage. 
 " His person was above six feet high, and, though a good- 
 looking man, he was plain both in address and appearance. 
 His head was small ; his hair, which was dark brown, 
 he wore tied behind. His face was full of expression, 
 his nose exceedingly well-shaped, his eyes, which were 
 small and of a brown cast, were quick and piercing ; his 
 eyebrows prominent, which gave his countenance altogether 
 an air of austerity." These things the Councillors saw. 
 And probably they guessed something good concerning 
 the quahties of spirit and of mind in the man who stood 
 before then. " Nature," says the same witness in words 
 which our whole story will illustrate, " Nature had 
 endowed him with a mind vigorous and comprehensive, 
 with a clear judgment, strong mascuhne sense, and the 
 most determined resolution ; with a genius pecuHarly 
 turned for enterprise, he pursued his object with unshaken 
 perseverance ; vigilant and active in an eminent degree ; 
 cool and intrepid among dangers ; patient and firm among 
 difficulties and distress ; fertile in expedients ; great 
 and original in all his designs, active and resolved in 
 
 carrying them into execution He was a modest 
 
 man, and rather bashful ; of an agreeable lively conversa- 
 tion, sensible and intelligent. In his temper he was 
 somewhat hasty, but of a disposition the most friendly, 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 391 
 
 benevolent, and humane." In short, Cook's temper was 
 Scotch — " good but short." 
 
 The Council saw, heard, and guessed enough to cause Cook takes 
 them to agree with the Admiralty's proposal. They offered command. 
 Cook a gratuity of one hundred guineas for taking the 
 observation. He and his fellow-observer, Mr. Green, 
 were to have £120 a year between them for victuals. He 
 was to be raised to the rank of First-Lieutenant, and he 
 was to have a wage of five shillings a day. Cook accepted 
 the offer, and accepted it with pride. ^ 
 
 Meanwhile the Navy Board, acting probably with Cook's 
 advice, had bought " a cat-built bark in burden 368 tons, 
 and of the age of three years and nine months." A " cat- 
 built bark" — the word comes from Norwegian ' kati,' a 
 ship — is a bark that has "round bluff bows, a wide deep 
 waist, and tapering towards the stern." ^ It was the type 
 of ship which Cook, writing after the voyage was ended, The 
 described as by far the most useful for a voyage of discovery. ^ ^^^^wr. 
 The danger was that the ship would run aground on an 
 unknown savage coast. She must therefore be able to 
 sail in shallow waters ; she must bear to take the ground, 
 and to be safely laid on shore for repairs ; and yet, on the 
 other hand, she must be big enough to carry great quantities 
 of provisions. These qualities, says Cook, are only to 
 be found in " North Country built ships, or such as are 
 built for the Coal-trade." A ship of this sort had been 
 chosen. She had been built in Whitby, and was hke 
 the ships which Cook had sailed for many years in the coal 
 trade. Her name was "the Earl of Pembroke," but she was 
 now re-named "the Endeavour Bark." Her price was 
 £2,800, and £2,294 was .spent on sheathing and fitting 
 her for the voyage. 
 
 With Cook sailed a young gentleman, whose voyage was Mr. Joseph 
 destined to be of great consequence. Mr. Joseph Banks ^^ ^' 
 of Revesby was representative of a wealthy Lincolnshire 
 family. Father and grandfather had been men of special 
 
 ^ " His pride must have been great when he found he was to receive 
 a commission as Lieutenant " (Wharton, p. xxv). 
 2 Kitson, p. 88. 
 
392 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 culture, keenly interested in local history and anti- 
 quities. Born in 1743, Banks went to school at Harrow, and 
 later at Eton. An old schoolfellow, who became the father 
 of Lord Brougham, afterwards described him as "a 
 remarkably fine-looking strong and active boy, whom 
 no fatigue could subdue, and no peril daunt ; and his 
 whole time out of school was given up to hunting after 
 plants and insects." Banks himself told how, strolling 
 one day down a lane, he exclaimed, " How beautiful ! 
 Would it not be far more reasonable to make me learn 
 the nature of those plants than the Greek and Latin I 
 am confined to ! " ^ At Oxford he continued his botanical 
 studies. The fame of the Professor of the subject rests 
 secure on the fact that, " during his thirty-six years' 
 occupancy of the Chair, he is said to have delivered only 
 one lecture, and that not a successful one." ^ Why he 
 ' gave one lecture I do not know. Banks searched Cam- 
 bridge, found a botanist, and brought him to Oxford. 
 Lord Leaving Oxford in 1763, he hved on the great estate 
 
 and the^ ^^ Revesby, studied natural history, and angled days and 
 Royal nights. His neighbour, Lord Sandwich, also liked fishing. 
 
 Society 
 
 and a friendship grew that perhaps had consequences, for 
 Lord Sandwich was a member of the Government when 
 the Endeavour sailed. The two enthusiasts formed a plan, 
 which failed, for suddenly draining the Serpentine in the 
 hope that this would " throw much light on the state and 
 habits of the fish." Meanwhile Banks was forming friend- 
 ships in London among more serious students of science. 
 In 1766 he was elected member of the Royal Society. 
 In the same year he voyaged to Newfoundland, and made 
 careful study of people, birds, fish, and plants. Then came 
 tours in- England, examination of barrows and ancient 
 monuments, and everlasting " botanising." 
 
 1 " My father," writes Brougham, " always said that his friend Joe 
 cared mighty little for his book, and could not understand any one 
 taking to Greek and Latin." 
 
 ^ Diet, of Nat. Biog. " In the University of Oxford," wrote Adam 
 Smith, late scholar of Balliol, " the greater part of the public professors 
 have for these many years given up altogether even the pretence of 
 teaching." Cf. Gibbon's illustrations of " the silence of the Oxford 
 professors " in his Autobiography, pp. 32-43. 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 393 
 
 Then came the chance of a voyage in the South Seas. A " grand 
 Friends advised him to prefer the usual "grand tour " ^5^"^^^^^^}^" 
 
 Joseph Banks. 
 (From an engraving of the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.) 
 
 of Europe. " Every blockhead," he replied, " does that ! 
 My grand tour should be one round the world." He 
 
394 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Science in 
 the grand 
 style. 
 
 Cook's 
 Instructions, 
 
 never found reason to regret his choice. Nearly half 
 a century later, he wrote a letter to a young scientist whose 
 friends were seeking to dissuade him from a voyage to 
 Java, on the ground that the climate was unhealthy. 
 " They seek," wrote he, " to force you to adopt the advice 
 of Sardanapalus, to eat, drink, and propagate ; — a serene, 
 quiet, calm, sober way of slumbering away life ! . . . I was 
 about twenty-three when I began my peregrinations . . . 
 you may be assured that if I had hstened to a multitude 
 of voices, that were raised to dissuade me from my enter- 
 prise, I should have been now a quiet country gentleman, 
 quite ignorant of a number of matters 1 am now acquainted 
 with, and probably have attained to no higher rank in 
 life than that of country Justice of the Peace." ^ So 
 wrote, with just self-esteem, the friend of the King, the 
 adviser of statesmen, the President of the Royal Society, 
 and the Father of New South Wales ! 
 
 It is pleasant to think of him as he started on his " grand 
 tour " of the world, radiant in youth, health, and strength, 
 brimming with joy of life, eager to see, to know, and to 
 achieve. His wealth enabled him to do things in the 
 grand style. His " suite " included Dr. Solander, the 
 friend and pupil of Linnaeus, and also three artists, 
 an assistant draughtsman, and four servants, two of 
 whom were negroes ; — a very different affair from poor 
 Dampier's voyages. " No people," wrote Mr. John Ellis, 
 F.R.S., to Linnaeus, who showed the keenest interest 
 in the voyage, " no people ever went to sea better fitted 
 out for the purpose of Natural History, nor more elegantly." 
 And he gave a list of scientific apparatus that makes one 
 realize how far Science had travelled since the days of 
 Dampier. " In short," he concludes, " Solander assured 
 me the expedition would cost Mr. Banks £ 1 0,000." 
 
 Unhappily, Cook's " Instructions " have disappeared. 
 We learn their nature from a short description in his 
 Journal, and from what he did. " I was ordered," he 
 writes, " to proceed directly to Otaheite " — the gorgeous 
 island which Wallis had discovered and annexed, — " and, 
 
 ^ Smith, p. 297. 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 395 
 
 after the astronomical observations should be completed, 
 to prosecute the design of making discoveries in the South observa- 
 Pacific Ocean by proceeding to the South as far as the ^°"?j..^* 
 Latitude 40° ; then, if I found no land, to proceed to the 
 West, between 40° and 35°, till I fell in with New Zealand, 
 which I was to explore, and then to return to England 
 by such route as I should think proper." That is to say, 
 Cook was to explore the South Pacific, with a view especially 
 to testing the theory of the geographers that the space 
 between America and New Zealand was mainly occupied Search for 
 by a gigantic continent. It should be carefully observed southern 
 that Cook and Banks were continually referring to the Continent, 
 volumes of de Brosses and the booklet of Dalrymple. 
 Dalrymple, as we have noticed, had hoped that he would 
 himself command the ship, and would make the last great 
 discovery — the discovery of a Southern Continent as 
 big as Asia ! He had been treated, so he believed, with 
 cruel injustice. But this should not prevent him from 
 placing at the disposal of the supplanter the precious 
 information which he alone possessed. " In spite of the 
 injury done me," he afterwards wrote, " I gave Mr. Joseph 
 Banks all the information I could, and accordingly he carried 
 with him the Octavo " Account of the Discoveries made 
 in the South Pacific Ocean," with the Chart, which I printed 
 several months before, though I did not publish it till 
 after Bougainville's return." ^ One main purpose of the 
 voyage was to see whether Dalrymple's Southern Continent 
 existed. 
 
 They sailed on the 26th of August, 1768, " all in excellent The 
 health and spirits," says Banks, "perfectly prepared ^^^^^''^^^j^ 
 (in mind at least) to undergo with cheerfulness any fatigues Aug. 1768. 
 or dangers that may occur." On the loth of September 
 they " dined in Africa, and took leave of Europe for Heaven 
 knows how long, perhaps for ever " ; and the memory 
 of friends made Banks sigh once, but not twice ! Five 
 precious days he botanised in Madeira. One of them 
 had to be sacrificed to the " unsought honour of an official 
 visit from the Governor" ; but Banks revenged himself 
 ^ Dalrymple's Letter to Dr. Hawkesworth. 
 
396 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 on his Excellency by sending ashore an electrical machine 
 which " shocked him fully as much as he chose." At 
 the Equator, all who had not crossed before must be ducked, 
 from Cook and Banks to dogs and cats, or must buy off 
 in brandy. At Rio there was trouble, for the Governor 
 declared that Cook was the usual English pirate, and locked 
 up his sailors in loathsome dungeon on the ground that 
 they were smuggling. Cook's suspicion was that they 
 were " smuggling " the clothes off their own backs for 
 rum. His Scotch temper rose, and he and the Governor 
 bombarded one another with " memorials." On Christmas 
 « Day they were at sea, and, says Banks, " all good Chris- 
 tians, i.e. all good hands got abominably drunk, so that 
 all through the night there was scarce a sober man in 
 the ship. Weather, thank God, moderate, or the Lord 
 knows what would have become of us." They took 
 the route round Cape Horn, and, on the East coast of 
 Tierra del Fuego, Banks led a botanical expedition to some 
 distant hills. They were surprised by a snow-blizzard, 
 and had to camp for the night. Two seamen and a negro 
 got the rum-bottle ; the negro and one seaman died ; 
 and the other seaman was unable to walk. Buchan the 
 artist fell in a fit, and fat unhappy Solander lay down 
 on the snow, and said he must sleep. But the weather 
 cleared next day ; the survivors reached the ship ; and the 
 botanists were soon supremely happy, collecting shells 
 and plants. 
 Cook sails They sailed from Tierra del Fuego on the 2 1st of January, 
 continent. ^7^9' Their task now was to look for the continent 
 which, according to Dalrymple, ran " but a very httle 
 West of the common track towards Juan Fernandez." 
 Cook and Banks were unbelievers, and their unbelief 
 grew. On the 1st of March they were in Latitude 38 J 
 and five hundred and sixty leagues West of Chili. They 
 were, in fact, s'aihng through the thick of Dalrymple's 
 continent ! Yet Cook noted that there were not even 
 any currents : — " a great sign that we have been near 
 no land of any extent, because near land are generally 
 found currents." Banks's unbelief was outspoken and 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 397 
 
 contemptuous. It is some pleasure," he wrote on 
 the 20th of March, " to disprove that which only exists 
 in the opinions of theoretical writers. . . . They have 
 generally supposed that every foot of sea over which 
 they believed no ship to have passed to be land, although 
 they have little or nothing to support that opinion except 
 vague reports, many of them mentioned only as such 
 by those authors who first published them." He points 
 to the flimsy character of the historical evidence. And 
 he even writes with disrespect of the argument of physical 
 necessity. " Till we know how this globe is fixed in that 
 place, which has been since its creation assigned to it 
 in the general system, we need not be anxious to give 
 reasons how any one part of it counterbalances the rest." 
 
 On the 13th of April, 1769, they came to anchor at the Tahiti. April 
 island where they were to observe the transit on the 3rd ^^^l^^^' 
 of June. Walhs had discovered it, and had called it King 
 George HI.'s Island. Bougainville had called it Cythera, 
 but had understood the natives to say that they called 
 it Taiti. Cook understood them to say Otaheite. The 
 modern geographer spells it Tahiti. The observation was 
 made with complete success on a " day perfectly clear 
 without so much as a cloud intervening " ; the only 
 trouble was that the sailors took advantage of the observers' 
 absence to purloin a great part of the nails for sinful traffic 
 with native women. 
 
 But astronomy fills few of the glowing pages in which Kings in 
 Banks paints Otaheite. Like Bougainville he loves the A^^^^^^- 
 island, and all things in it ; and tremendous boyish enjoy- 
 ment combines with keenest scientific curiosity to give 
 fascination to the nightly jottings in his journal, written 
 so hastily that he feared he would scarcely understand 
 his own language when he read it again ! The island 
 was " an Arcadia of which we were going to be Kings." 
 It was not only the " very pretty girl with a fire in her 
 eyes." The men were only less delightful than the women. 
 . Banks gave them classical nick-names : — Lycurgus, Her- 
 cules, and Epicurus, who " ate most monstrously." They 
 in return pronounced Enghsh as they pleased. Cook 
 
398 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 An enthusi- 
 astic 
 sociologist. 
 
 became "Toote," Solander "Torana," Banks "Tapane", 
 and they drank the health of King George under the name 
 of " Kilnargo." With their new friends the English 
 kept perpetual holiday. Even their one fault added 
 to gaiety. They were thieves, but they were thieves 
 of a genius that turned thieving into miracle. If ever 
 a man slept with one eye open, that man was Cook ; yet 
 they stole his stockings, he says, " from under my head, 
 and yet I am certain I was not asleep the whole time." 
 Banks was chief thief-catcher ; and very seriously and 
 very happily he played the game ; — " away we set at 
 full cry, much like a pack of fox-hounds ; we ran and walked 
 and walked and ran for, I believe, six miles " ; — to find 
 that, very early in the chase, the criminal had turned aside 
 to take a quiet bath in a brook. 
 
 But Banks was a man of science as well as a man of 
 pleasure. His special interest was Botany. But nothing 
 done by men, animals, fishes, or plants was alien to his 
 mind. With infinite vigour and with infinite happiness 
 he studied Nature in all its forms. In company with 
 Monkhouse — fat Solander this time wisely left behind — 
 he had a long day's walk inland, past the hill slopes planted 
 with bread-fruit trees, past the last of the houses, whose 
 owners refreshed them with cocoa-nuts, up among steep 
 rocks and cascades, where long strips of bark served as 
 ropes by which to scramble from ledge to ledge, though, 
 even on the ledges, none but goats or Indians could stand. 
 For minerals Banks looked in vain. But he observed 
 that " the stones everywhere showed manifest signs of 
 having been at some time or other burnt." His conjecture 
 was that the island owed its origin to a volcano now extinct. 
 And, for the comfort of the " theoretic writers," whose 
 theories Cook had already in part demolished. Banks 
 suggests that their " necessary continent may have been 
 sunk by dreadful earthquakes and volcanoes two or three 
 thousand fathoms under the sea, the tops of the mountains 
 only remaining above the water in the shape of islands." 
 
 As a sociologist, his methods of study were equally 
 thorough. The only way to get understanding of native 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 399 
 
 customs was " to act a character," and he was very willing. 
 " I was prepared by stripping off my European clothes, 
 and putting on a small strip of cloth round my waist, 
 the only garment I was allowed to have. They then began 
 to smut me and themselves with charcoal and water, 
 the Indian boy was completely black, the women and 
 myself as low as our shoulders ; we then set out." He 
 gives a lively account of the ceremony, and of " the surprise 
 of our friends " at the Fort. The end was " we went 
 into the river, and scrubbed one another until it was dark 
 before the blacking came off." Better fun and better 
 science than the blockhead's " grand tour " in weary 
 old Europe ! 
 
 Both Cook and Banks wrote elaborate descriptions that " The 
 show how modern science had at last come to vigorous "^ystenes of 
 
 ° _ religion. 
 
 being. It may be doubted that, even now, more intelligent 
 and accurate accounts of primitive society are often 
 written than those recorded by the radiant young aris- 
 tocrat, and the son of the Yorkshire labourer. Cook's 
 formal businesslike style naturally lacks the vivacity 
 that gives special charm to the joyful writings of Banks. 
 But one is amazed — when one thinks of early days in 
 farm and stable, behind grocer's counter, and in collier- 
 ship — to notice the breadth and strength of mind, the 
 appreciation of the points of special scientific interest, the 
 exactness of observation, and the careful detail of style. 
 Nor are touches lacking that reveal the man. The decay 
 of the great " Marai " or Temple shows, he says, that 
 " this island hath been in a more flourishing state than 
 it is at present, and that religious customs are (like most 
 other nations) by these people less observed. . . . The 
 mysteries of religion are very dark, and not easily understood 
 even by those who profess them." We have travelled 
 far from the days of Quiros. We are in the days of 
 Benjamin Franklin, and Cook has come to sweep the 
 cobwebs of the South Sea with the dust-broom of victorious 
 common sense. 
 
 On the 13th of July, 1769, they sailed from Otaheite. Tupia's 
 With them sailed a native named Tupia, " a most proper P'^^y^^^- 
 
400 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 man, well-born, chief Tahowa or priest of this island." 
 Banks had added him to his "suite." "Thank Heaven," 
 he says, " I have a sufficiency, and I do not know why 
 I may not keep him as a curiosity as my neighbours do 
 Hons and tigers." The pious priest often prayed for 
 a wind, and boasted of the success of his prayers, which, 
 adds Banks, he " never began till he perceived a breeze 
 so near the ship that it generally reached him before 
 his prayer was finished." Under the guidance of Tupia 
 and his winds. Cook visited the neighbouring islands, 
 and named the group " the Society Isles," because " they 
 lay contiguous to one another." Then, on the 9th of 
 August, 1769, they " launched out into the Ocean in search 
 of what chance or Tupia might direct us to." 
 Cook seeks Cook's " Instructions" were that from this point he should 
 ?^ ^nent '^ prosecute the design of making discoveries in the South 
 Pacific Ocean by proceeding to the South as far as the 
 Latitude 40°. Then, if he found no land, he was to proceed 
 t© the West between 40° and 35° till he fell in with New 
 Zealand, which he was to explore. His business was to 
 test the confident statement of the geographers, and 
 especially of Dalrymple, that the unknown South must 
 be nearly all land, that in Latitude 40° a continent stretched 
 from the coast said to have been seen on the East by Juan 
 Fernandez to the coast that had been seen on the West 
 by Tasman, a continent as rich as Peru, and as large as 
 the whole of Asia from Turkey to China. Cook had 
 already sailed in deep water over much of the Eastern 
 part of this " theoretic " continent. He had now to explore 
 its Northern coast, and then the Western. 
 
 The geographers represented its Northerr^ coast by a 
 line drawn in the neighbourhood of Tahiti, with the in- 
 scription " Lands and islands seen by Quiros." Bougain- 
 ville had looked for this coasthne in vain, and had been 
 puzzled to know on what authority the geographers had 
 drawn it. Cook made a much more thorough search. 
 He^ sails to He Sailed Southward to 40° 22', a point at which, according 
 finds no to Dalrymple, he should have been in the middle of a con- 
 
 land, tinent as big as Asia. Cook could see " not the least 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 401 
 
 visible signs of land," and the most that Banks could see 
 were some seaweed and a seal, which he thought might 
 signify something. Cook had intended to sail even further 
 Southward, but the weather grew so tempestuous that 
 he thought it wise to abandon the plan, and to sail North- 
 ward into better climate. He admits that his search 
 for " the land seen by Quiros " was not exhaustive. It 
 might conceivably exist in the angle to the South-East 
 of Tahiti that was still unexplored. But Cook knew 
 of no better argument for its existence there than the fact 
 that it did not exist elsewhere. He agreed with Bougain- 
 ville's criticism of the historical evidence on which the 
 geographers had built their huge structure. Dalrymple 
 said that Quiros saw to the Southward very large hanging 
 clouds, and a very thick horizon, with other known signs 
 of a continent. " Other accounts of their voyage," writes 
 Cook, " say not a word about this ; but, supposing this 
 to be true, hanging clouds and a thick horizon are certainly 
 no sign of a continent. ... I have had many proofs to the 
 contrary in the course of this voyage." 
 
 It remained to explore New Zealand,^ with a view Were 
 especially to testing the theory that had been suggested by ^hre?^" ^ 
 Tasman, and was believed by Dalrymple and " most guesses 
 thoughtful people " (says Banks), that it was the Western Zealand ^ 
 coast of the Unknown Continent. They had in their library correct ? 
 " a short extract of Tasman's Journal," and they heartily 
 wished that they had the whole Journal. They knew that 
 Tasman had raised three questions, which still remained 
 unsolved. Firstly, he had called the land which he had 
 discovered Staten Land, believing that it was continuous 
 with the Staten Land which Le Maire had seen Eastward 
 of Tierra del Fuego. Long ago it had been proved that 
 Le Maire's Staten Land was a small island. But it still 
 remained possible that Tasman's Staten Land was part of 
 a continent. Secondly, cruising in the neighbourhood 
 of " Murderers' Bay," he had noticed currents which had 
 
 ^ Cook, p. 214, wrongly says that the name New Zealand was given 
 by Tasman. The name given by Tasman was Staten Land. It was 
 changed to Nova Zeelandia, however, before 1657. See p. 278, note. 
 W.A. 2 C 
 
402 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 New 
 
 Zealand, 
 Oct. 1769 
 to March 
 1770. 
 
 caused him to think it hkely that there existed a passage. 
 Thirdly, " when he came the length of Cape Maria van 
 Diemen, he observed hollow waves to come from the 
 North-East, from whence he concluded it to be the 
 northernmost part of the land." Cook was to test 
 Tasman's three guesses. He found that the first was 
 wrong, and that the second and the third — which 
 had been much distrusted, we remember, by Tasman's 
 employers — were quite right, and very much to the credit 
 of his seamanship. 
 
 On the 7th of October land was seen.^ Cook named 
 the point Young Nick's Head, after the boy who first saw 
 it. He sailed into a Bay which he named Poverty Bay, 
 " because it afforded us no one thing we wanted." ^ Natives 
 appeared in canoes, and Cook, wishing to capture them 
 and gain their friendship, fired over their heads. He 
 expected them, it seems, to jump overboard and surrender. 
 It was a primitive method of seeking friendship, but might 
 possibly have succeeded in Tahiti. Instead of surrendering, 
 the Maoris took their arms, and attacked with such ferocity 
 that the Englishmen had to kill two or three to save their 
 own lives. Cook admits that he had made a bad mistake ; 
 but one cannot consent, he adds, to be knocked on the 
 head. Then he sailed South, past the Great Bay which 
 he called Hawke Bay after the First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 He followed the coast to Latitude 40° 34' ; and then, 
 " seeing no likelihood of meeting with a harbour, and 
 the face of the country visibly altering for the worse," 
 he decided that his^time would be better spent by exarnin- 
 ing the coast to the Northward. He gave Cape Turnagain 
 its name " because here we returned." Sailing North, 
 he rounded East Cape, visited " the Bay of Plenty," 
 observed the transit of Mercury in Mercury Bay, explored 
 " a very fine river " which he named the Thames, because 
 it was " as broad as the Thames at Greenwich," anchored 
 
 ^ See map at the end of this volume. 
 
 2 He first wrote " Endeavour Bay," then struck out that name, 
 and wrote " Poverty Bay " (see above, p. 380), a singularly inappro- 
 priate name, say New Zealanders (M'Nab's Historical Records of New 
 Zealand, vol. ii. p. 5). 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 403 
 
 in the Bay of Islands, and, rounding Cape Maria van 
 
 Diemen and the Three Kings, proved that Tasman had Tasman's 
 
 been right when he had claimed the discovery of a sea-way ^j^^™- *o 
 
 =" •' ■' discovery of 
 
 to Chili. Off the Three Kings the sailors celebrated a sea-way 
 
 their second Christmas "in the old-fashioned way," ate ^^^ ^°^'^^^*' 
 
 goose-pie, and " in the evening all hands were as drunk 
 
 as our forefathers used to be upon like occasions." Then 
 
 Cook sailed down the West coast, charting its features 
 
 with " a mingled audacity and caution " that are greatly 
 
 admired by the modern hydrographer. He passed the 
 
 islands which screen Auckland with the remark that they 
 
 probably " formed some good harbours." He noted the 
 
 noblest hill he had ever seen, and named it Mount Egmont. 
 
 Then he came to a " very broad and deep Bay or Inlet, the 
 
 Southern side of which seemed to form several Bays." 
 
 Into one of these Bays he determined to go, in order 
 
 to careen the ship and to obtain refreshment. He sailed 
 
 up an inlet which he named Queen Charlotte Sound, and 
 
 anchored in "a very snug cove," which he named Ship 
 
 Cove. He calculated that Tasman's Murderers' Bay was 
 
 fifteen miles away ; ' in reality it was seventy miles away. 
 
 The natives heaved a few stones, but became friendly after 
 
 conversation with Tupia. They had no tradition of 
 
 Tasman's visit; and, in fact, the tribe which had murdered 
 
 the Dutchmen in 1642 had itself been murdered long before 
 
 1770. 
 
 The business now was to determine whether Tasman and also his 
 had been right when he had inferred from the currents ^P^fl^Ll^^* 
 that the great Bay was in reality the entrance to a passage, existed. 
 Cook made the same inference and proved that it was right. 
 While Banks and Solander were botanising, he "climbed 
 to the top of a hill, and in about an hour returned in high 
 spirits, having seen the Eastern Sea and satisfied himself 
 of the existence of a strait communicating with it." An 
 old native further told him that the land South of the 
 passage was not a continent, but consisted of two islands 
 that might be circumnavigated in a few days. On the 7th 
 of February, 1770, he sailed through " our new straits " 
 — which, says Banks, " are to be called Cook's Straits " — 
 
404 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 But New 
 Zealand 
 was not 
 part of the 
 continent. 
 
 " Continent- 
 mongers." 
 
 The islands 
 circum- 
 navigated. 
 
 feeling " the force of the tide which roared like a mill- 
 stream, and ran at four knots at least when it flowed fastest." 
 Some of the officers still thought it possible that the land 
 they had now three-quarters circumnavigated might never- 
 theless be united to a continent by an isthmus somewhere 
 between Cook's Straits and Cape Turnagain. To determine 
 this question in a final way, Cook sailed North till Cape 
 Turnagain was seen from the South. " I then," says Cook, 
 " called the officers upon the deck, and asked them if 
 they were now satisfied that this land was an island, 
 to which they answered in the affirmative, and we hauled 
 our wind to the Eastward." 
 
 It remained to be seen whether the land to the South 
 was also, as the old man had told them, no part of a con- 
 tinent but two islands that might be circumnavigated 
 in a few days. They sailed Southward, and Banks, who, 
 in spite of sceptical tendencies, was an enthusiastic " con- 
 tinent-monger," noted with regret that " the land inclined 
 a good deal to the West." " We on board," he writes, 
 " were of two parties, one who wisHed that the land in 
 sight might, the other that it might* not, be a continent. 
 I myself have always been most firm in the former wish, 
 though sorry I am that my party is so small, that I firmly 
 believe that there are none more heartily desirous of it 
 than myself and one poor midshipman ; the rest begin 
 to sigh for roast beef " ; an accusation marvellously unjust 
 to Cook, to whom discovery was meat and drink, and who 
 would have preferred a continent, and indeed something 
 very much smaller, to all the roast beef of Old England. 
 
 By the 1 0th of March, it had become evident, " much 
 to the regret of us continent-mongers," that the coast 
 was falling away to an end. They supposed Stewart 
 Island to be a peninsula, and were carried round the point, 
 " to the total destruction of our aerial fabric called Con- 
 tinent." They coasted Northward, noting " steep hills 
 covered with prodigious fine woods," a beautiful and fertile 
 country, yet without the smallest sign of inhabitants. On 
 the 25th of March, they were once more in the Western 
 entrance of Cook's Straits, and two days later anchored in a 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 405 
 
 Bay which was called Admiralty Bay. Cook noticed another 
 
 Bay to- his Westward which he did not explore. He called 
 
 it Blind Bay, and believecj that it was Tasman's Murderers' 
 
 Bay. And he was nearly right. Murderers' Bay is a 
 
 small Bay in the North-West of Cook's Blind Bay. 
 
 The search for Dalrymple's continent had come to an Cook plans 
 
 end. Cook had sailed over it East, North, and West, another 
 
 ' ' voyage to 
 
 He had met with no land, and " no visible signs of land." complete 
 
 He had seen flocks of birds and plenty of seaweed. But *^® search. 
 
 the birds were of the sort that fly far. And who knows 
 
 how far seaweed may drive to sea } Beans, that grow 
 
 nowhere save in the West Indies, are yearly thrown on the 
 
 coasts of Ireland and Scotland, twelve thousand leagues 
 
 away. Had such things been found floating in the South 
 
 Sea, geographers would have concluded that land was 
 
 hardly out of sight, " so apt are we to catch at everything 
 
 that may point out to us the favourite object we are in 
 
 pursuit of." Cook believed he had proved that " there 
 
 is left but a small space to the Northward of 40° where 
 
 the grand object can lay," i.e. the triangle to the South- 
 
 East of the Society Islands. South of 40°, however, there 
 
 remained plenty of space still unexplored, and Cook 
 
 was very eager to explore it. " To return by the way 
 
 of Cape Horn was what I most wished, because by this 
 
 route we should have been able to prove the existence 
 
 or non-existence of a Southern continent, which yet remains 
 
 doubtful ; but, in order to ascertain this, we must have 
 
 kept in a higher Latitude, in the very depth of winter, 
 
 but the condition of the ship was not thought sufficient 
 
 for such an undertaking." He suggests that one more 
 
 Voyage might now suffice to clear up " this thing which 
 
 has been the object of many ages and nations." The 
 
 best plan would be that the ship should call at the Cape, 
 
 thence proceed to Queen Charlotte Sound, leave that 
 
 place by the end of September, " when you will have 
 
 all the summer before you," and run to the Eastward 
 
 in as high a latitude as you please, and then either return 
 
 home by Cape Horn, or haul to the Northward, visit 
 
 the lands already known, or seek to rediscover those 
 
4o6 
 
 thp: discovery of Australia 
 
 Banks 
 
 doubts 
 
 " the reason 
 
 about the 
 
 balancing of 
 
 the two 
 
 poles," 
 
 but also 
 wants 
 
 another 
 voyage. 
 
 named in the old voyages. " Thus the discoveries in the 
 South Sea would be complete." Cook had sketched the 
 outhne of his second voyage. 
 
 Banks, in more free and easy style, reached the same 
 conclusion. The Endeavour had, he claimed, sailed over 
 three-quarters of the continent of " the theoretical 
 continent-makers." " As for the reason about the balanc- 
 ing of the two poles, which always seemed to me a most 
 childish argument, we have already shorn off so much 
 of the supposed counter-balance in land, that, by their 
 own account, the South Pole would already be too light, 
 unless what we have left should be made of very ponderous 
 materials." Had the despised "continent-makers" read 
 the records of recent Antarctic exploration, they would 
 have been able to make, if not a good, at least a plausible 
 reply to Banks's taunt. " A gigantic table-land, as 
 extensive as Europe and Australia put together, and 
 with an average height of 6,000 feet, is surely," they might 
 have urged, " a pretty ponderous makeweight. Our 
 only mistake was that we built our continent too flat, and 
 therefore too extensive. Exploration has proved, as we 
 always said it would, the soundness of our theory that 
 there must be a weighty continent in the South." Thus 
 the continent-makers might plausibly have argued ; and 
 yet, it seems, their argument would have been ill-based. 
 A continent, and even a mountainous continent, say our 
 modern geologists, is not a particularly weighty affair. 
 The Himalayas rise to heaven, not because they are heavy 
 but because they are light — mere handfuls of dust when 
 compared with the metal stuffs which drag down the 
 ocean-bed. There is due weight in the South, but it lies 
 under water.^ 
 
 Banks, however, was still " continent-monger " enough 
 to believe firmly in the existence of a Southern continent, 
 though much smaller than that imagined by the theorists. 
 There was the ice South of Cape Horn, and ice means 
 
 ^ These statements are based on information kindly given me by my 
 friends, Professor T. W. E, David and Professor L. A. Cotton. See 
 note, p. 95. 
 
VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAV.OUR 407 
 
 fresh water, and fresh water means land. And he had 
 seen seaweed and a seal South of Tahiti. He confesses 
 that his " reasons were weak," and no doubt Cook told 
 him so. But he eagerly agreed with Cook that another 
 voyage was well worth while. As "a voyage of mere 
 curiosity," it should be promoted by the Royal Society, 
 helped by His Majesty. 
 
 "Cook." writes Mr. Reeves, "found New Zealand New Zealand 
 a line on the map, and he left it an archipelago." He^^j^^^°^ 
 had proved that it was not part of a golden continent ; colony, 
 but he had proved also that it consisted of two large 
 islands, fertile, beautiful, fascinating, in all ways fit to 
 be a home of Enghshmen. As one reads the journals, 
 one becomes aware that the writers are not merely men 
 of science eager to know ; they are also British patriots, 
 thinking of colonization. Banks notes that the coast 
 abounds in good harbours. " The Bay of Islands and 
 Queen Charlotte Sound are as good as any which seamen 
 need desire to come into." The soil is generally good. 
 " The outer ridge of land which is open to the sea is (as 
 I believe is the case in most countries) generally barren, 
 especially to the Southward, but, within that, the hills 
 are covered with thick woods quite to the top, and every 
 valley produces a rivulet of water." The South and West 
 sides seemed the most barren, but on the North and the 
 East were seen very large tracts of land which "promised 
 great returns to the people who would take the trouble 
 of cultivating them." From the botanist's point of view 
 the vegetation seemed monotonous ; but " the entire 
 novelty of the greater part of what we found recompensed 
 us as natural historians for the want of variety." The rich- 
 ness of the soil was shown by gigantic trees, the straightest, 
 cleanest, and largest Banks had ever seen. The timber 
 appeared " fit for any kind of buildings, and thick enough 
 to make masts for vessels of any size." Banks also has 
 high praise for " the plant which serves them instead 
 of hemp or flax," and believes that it would be " a great 
 acquisition to England." 
 
 In fact, New Zealand is an excellent place for a British 
 
4o8 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 especially 
 the River 
 Thames or 
 the Bay of 
 Islands. 
 
 Character 
 of the 
 Maoris. 
 
 colony. " It was the opinion of everyone on board," 
 writes Cook, " that all sorts of European grain, fruit, 
 plants, etc., would thrive here ; in short, was this country 
 settled by an industrious people, they would very soon 
 be supplied not only with necessaries, but many of the 
 luxuries of life. . . . Should it ever become an object of 
 settling this country, the best place for the first fixing 
 of a colony would be either in the River Thames or the 
 Bay of Islands." Both these places have good harbours. 
 In the River Thames ships might be built and settlements 
 might easily extend inland. Banks also votes for the 
 River Thames, as "in every respect the most proper place 
 we have yet seen for establishing a colony," Both jour- 
 nalists believe that a colony might subsist in spite of the 
 warhke character of the natives. " So far," writes Cook, 
 " as I have been able to judge of the genius of these people, 
 it does not appear to me at all difficult for strangers to 
 form a settlement in this country ; they seem to be too 
 much divided amongst themselves to unite in opposition ; by 
 which means, and kind and gentle usage, the colonists would 
 be able to form strong parties among them." And he 
 writes an admirable account of the noble barbarian, 
 stout, clean-limbed, active, cruel, ferocious, given to 
 unpleasing customs like cannibalism, yet living by a 
 standard of moral excellence, capable of patriotic discipline, 
 possessing high intelligence and artistic skill, and showing 
 characteristics that promised capacity for living peace- 
 ably with a civilized race, and gradually accepting its 
 civihzation. 
 
 Reading these accounts of New Zealand, our wonder 
 is that its colonization was so long delayed. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 
 
 Cook had first seen New Zealand on the 7th of October, q^q]^ s^iis 
 
 1769. He sailed from Cape Farewell on the 1st of April, for New 
 , . . . , . /- 1 1 Holland. 
 
 1770, having spent nearly six months in a most profitable 
 
 way. His " Instructions " ordered that, after exploration 
 of New Zealand, he should return to England by such route 
 as he should think proper. He wished to return by way 
 of Cape Horn in order to settle the business of the Southern 
 Continent. " But," writes Banks, " our sails and rigging, 
 with which, the former especially, we were at first but 
 ill-provided, were rendered so bad by the blowing weather 
 we had met with off New Zealand, that we were by no 
 means in condition to weather the hard gales which must 
 be expected in a winter passage through high latitudes." 
 The suggestion that they should sail directly to the Cape 
 of Good Hope was laid aside on the ground that no discovery 
 of any moment could be hoped for on that route. They 
 had still six months' provisions at two-thirds allowance, 
 much more than enough to carry them to any port in the 
 East Indies, and on this route there was hope of discoveries 
 of great importance both to geographer and to merchant. 
 " It was therefore resolved upon leaving this coast to steer 
 to the Westward until we fall in with the East coast of 
 New Holland, and then to follow the direction of that 
 coast to the Northward, and what other direction it 
 might take us, until we arrive at its Northern extremity ; 
 and, if this should be found impracticable, then to 
 endeavour to fall in with the land or islands discovered 
 by Quiros." 
 
 409 
 
410 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Is it a 
 
 continent or 
 an archi- 
 pelago of 
 islands ? 
 
 Campbell's 
 view. 
 
 De Brosses' 
 view. 
 
 What was Cook's conception of New Holland as he, 
 first of Europeans, sailed towards its Eastern coast } 
 All the maps — founded mainly on Tasman's — showed a 
 continuous coastline on the North, on the West, and on the 
 South as far as the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis. 
 The huge vacancy Eastward of those islands and of Cape 
 York was broken only by Quiros's Espiritu Santo, and 
 Tasman's Van Diemen's Land. To the North was New 
 Guinea, known Eastward only as far as New Britain 
 on the one side and Cape York on the other. What were 
 the relations of these coasts to one another } There were 
 two ways of thinking, one "dry" and the other "wet." 
 These various lands were either one continent, or they 
 were an archipelago of islands. " It is most evident," 
 Campbell, representing the dry school, had written in 1744, 
 " that New Guinea, Carpentaria, New Holland, Van 
 Diemen's Land, and the countries discovered by Quiros 
 make all one continent." " In this immense stretch of 
 land," de Brosses, representative of the wet school, had 
 written in 1756, "we are acquainted only with some parts 
 of the coast lying separated from each other, without being 
 able to affirm whether they compose one continent or 
 (as is more likely) they are large islands, separated from 
 each other by canals or arms of the sea, the narrowest 
 of which have been supposed by navigators to be the 
 mouths of rivers. . . . Neither are we yet assured if New 
 Holland joins New Guinea on the North, or Van Diemen's 
 Land on the South. ... In running along the Eastern 
 coast of the country towards the Equator, we find the 
 Austral land of the Holy Ghost, discovered by Quiros. 
 But all this vast interval lying between Leeuwin and 
 Quiros's discovery is so little known that we cannot tell 
 what part of it is land, and what part is sea." De Brosses 
 is an agnostic ; he does not know ; but he inclines to 
 the wet theory . rather than to the dry theory. But, 
 as Cook points out, the maps which were pubhshed in 
 de Brosses' volumes are not agnostic at all ; they are dog- 
 matic, and dogmatic in a curiously irrational way. Van 
 Diemen's Land and the Austral Land of the Holy Ghost 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 411 
 
 are drawn as parts of New Holland. On the other hand 
 
 New Holland and New Guinea are drawn as separate 
 
 lands with a well-defined strait between them, though 
 
 de Brosses had said in his text, " we are not yet well assured 
 
 if New Holland joins New Guinea"! On this point 
 
 Dalrymple's chart gave the strongest support to the view 
 
 expressed in de Brosses' map. And Dalrymple's view, as Dalrymple's 
 
 we have seen, was based on the knowledge that Torres had ^^^'^• 
 
 actually sailed through a strait between New Holland 
 
 and New Guinea ; and he had marked Torres' track 
 
 on the chart included in his booklet, an advance copy 
 
 of which he had given to Banks. He had not, however, 
 
 printed his evidence for the opinion that Torres had sailed 
 
 on this route, viz. the Memorial of Arias ; though he had 
 
 apparently explained his knowledge of the matter to Banks. 
 
 Thus there must have been three geographical questions 
 in Cook's mind as he sailed West : (i) Was New Holland Three 
 one land with Van Diemen's Land } (2) Was it one land questions, 
 with Espiritu Santo } (3) Was it one land with New 
 Guinea } On the first question, Cook had, for the present, 
 no material for even forming a guess. On the second 
 question, he agreed with Dalrymple's view that New 
 Holland and Espiritu Santo were not connected ; he did 
 not know that Bougainville had just proved tliis fact. 
 As to the third question, Cook had always understood 
 that New Holland and New Guinea were one land ; but 
 he seems to have been impressed by the map of de Brosses 
 (in spite of the contradiction of de Brosses' text), and still 
 more by the map of Dalrymple, as explained by Banks. 
 He expected to find a passage between New Holland and 
 New Guinea ; but he considered that the evidence on the 
 subject was so conflicting and so ancient that it would 
 remain a " doubtful point with geographers " till the 
 passage was sailed. 
 
 Cook's aim was to " fall in with Van Diemen's Land as Cook fails to 
 near as possible at the place where Tasman left it." In ^^^gg^JQ^^ 
 this way he would be able to prove that Van Diemen's whether Van 
 Land was, or was not, one land with New Holland. Land^s'an 
 Unluckily, he got a little too far to the North. Banks island. 
 
412 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 suspected that the ship was drawn that way by the distant 
 scent of roast beef. " The compass," he says, " showed 
 that the hearts of our people hanging that way caused 
 a considerable Northern variation, which was sensibly 
 felt by our navigators, who called it a current, as they 
 do everything which makes their reckonings and observa- 
 tions disagree." But Banks's suspicions were again 
 ill-founded. Cook's Journal shows that he was aiming 
 at the point of Tasman's departure, and with good chance 
 of hitting it. On the 1 8th of April, he was on a course 
 which, says Wharton, " would have made the Northern 
 end of the Foveaux Group, and probably have discovered 
 Bass's Strait." But on that day Cook records, " Winds 
 Southerly, a hard gale with heavy squalls attended with 
 showers of rain, and a great sea from the same quarter." 
 Before the Southerly gale he ran, with the result that 
 Bass's Strait remained undiscovered till 1798. At 6 a.m. 
 on the 20th of April Lieutenant Hicks saw land, " sloping 
 hills covered in part with trees and bushes, but interspersed 
 with large tracts of sand." Cook named the land Point 
 Hicks. ^ They could see no land to the South. Van 
 Diemen's Land ought to be there, and " the soon falling 
 of the sea after the wind abated " seemed to prove that 
 it was there. But the coast " trended South-West, or 
 rather more to the Westward," and this made Cook " doubt- 
 ful whether they are one land or no. However," he adds, 
 " every one who compares this journal with that of 
 Tasman's will be as good judge as I am." 
 
 Point Hicks From Point Hicks Cook sailed North looking for a harbour. 
 
 Bay.° ^^^ On the 22nd of April, he noted Bateman's Bay as a place 
 " very little sheltered, and yet the only hkely anchoring 
 place I have yet seen on the coast." Next day he vainly 
 sought an anchorage in the neighbourhood of " the Pigeon 
 House." On the 26th he noted that Jervis Bay appeared 
 to be sheltered from the North-East wind ; but the appear- 
 
 ^ It seems that Point Hicks is the Cape which Stokes in 1843 un- 
 fortunately named Cape Everard. See elaborate discussion of Cook's 
 landfall in a paper by Scott in the Victorian Historical Magazine, 
 December 19 12. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 413 
 
 ance was not favourable enough to induce him to *' lose 
 time in beating up to it." On the same day Banks com- 
 pared the country to "the back, of a lean cow, covered 
 in general with long hairs, but, nevertheless, where her 
 scraggy hip bones have stuck out further than they ought, 
 accidental rubs and knocks have entirely bared them 
 of their share of covering." On the 28th they tried to 
 land in the yawl at some place near Wollongong,^ but 
 they were prevented by " the great surf which beat every- 
 where upon the shore." Banks had to be content to 
 " gaze upon the products of nature " in one of the most 
 lovely and fertile regions in Australia. 
 
 Next morning, the 29th of April,^ " the land appeared In Botany 
 different, barren, without wood." But "at daylight," writes ^^' 
 
 ^ Cf. Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. i. part i. p. 214. Pickersgill 
 writes : " The shore appeared very pleasant, with tall trees, having 
 little or no underwood, and some very fine plains in the woods ; they 
 saw some trees like cabbage-trees, a hut, and two small boats, ill-made." 
 
 2 Dr. Frederick Watson writes in the Sydney Morning Herald, 15th 
 September, 1920 : 
 
 " The accepted date for the landing of Captain Cook at Botany 
 Bay appears in official publications and most histories as April 28, 1770. 
 This is erroneous, the correct date being April 29. The mistake origi- 
 nated with John Hawkesworth, LL.D., when he edited Cook's voyage 
 in the Endeavour for the British Government (published in 1773), and 
 the mistake has continued ever since. The error has arisen in the 
 following way : 
 
 " In all the log books or journals except one, which were kept on the 
 Endeavour, the landing is described as taking place in the p.m. of 
 Sunday, April 29. These log books and journals, with the one exception, 
 were kept in nautical time, and the p.m. of April 29 in such reckoning 
 corresponded to the afternoon of April 28 civil time. In the one 
 exception, a log book attributed to Charles Green, the astronomer, 
 the landing is described as taking place in the p.m. of April 28. This 
 log is presumably kept in astronomical time, and the p.m. of the 28th 
 would correspond to the afternoon of April 28 civil time. 
 
 "But Captain Cook, before touching on the coast of Australia, had 
 sailed from England, via Cape Horn. In the logs and journals, no 
 allowance was made for the day lost in sailing west across the i8oth 
 meridian of longitude until he arrived at Batavia, when Thursday, 
 October 11, 1770, was eliminated from the ship's calendar. 
 
 "The corrected reading of the logs and journals, kept in nautical 
 time, for the day of the landing at Botany Bay should be therefore 
 in the p.m. of Monday, April 30, instead of " Sunday, April 29," and, 
 in the log kept in astronomical time, April 29, instead of April 28, 
 These dates correspond to the afternoon of April 29, 1770, according to 
 the civil method of reckoning time. 
 
 ' ' Similar corrections must be made for most of the accepted dates 
 
414 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Cook," we discovered a Bay which appeared to be tolerably 
 well sheltered from, all winds, into which I resolved to go 
 with the ship." As they approached the South Head, 
 a small smoke rose from a very barren and rocky place, 
 and, directing their glasses that way, they saw ten ' ' Indians, ' ' 
 who soon left the fire, and " retired to a little eminence, 
 
 «;f . ' li () T AN Y Y, AY, '^j} . ^ 
 
 A "' {/% ^K 
 
 
 Cook's Map of Botany Bay. (From Hawkesworth's Cook's Voyages.) 
 
 whence they could conveniently see the ships." Cook 
 sent the master in the pinnace to sound the entrance. 
 Some of the Indians followed, and, coming down to a cove 
 a little within the harbour, " invited our people to land 
 by many signs and words." It was observed, however, 
 that they were " armed with long pikes and a wooden 
 weapon made like a short scimitar " — a throwing-stick 
 for the pike. Meanwhile other Indians remained on the 
 
 relating to the visit of Captain James Cook to the eastern coast of 
 Austraha." 
 
 Dr. Watson has very kindly corrected the dates throughout this 
 chapter. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 415 
 
 rocks opposite the ship. The bodies of some were painted 
 with broad white strokes, resembHng a. cross-belt, garters, 
 and bracelets. By noon the Endeavour was " within 
 the mouth of the inlet." Natives were seen on both 
 heads of the Bay. Under the South head were four small 
 canoes, " the worst canoes," says Cook, " I ever saw, 
 made of one piece of bark, drawn or tied up at one end, 
 with the middle kept open by a stick." In each canoe was 
 one man " who held in his hand a long pole, with which 
 he struck fish, venturing with his little embarkation 
 almost into the surf. These people seemed to be totally 
 engaged in what they were about ; the ship passed within 
 a quarter of a mile of them, and yet they scarcely lifted 
 their eyes." At 2 p.m. the Endeavour anchored under 
 the South shore, abreast of a small village of six or eight 
 houses. An old woman came in from the bush with some 
 sticks. She looked at the ship, but expressed neither 
 surprise nor concern, and lit a fire. The fishermen landed 
 and dressed their dinner, totally unmoved by the sight 
 of the ship about half a mile away. The Englishmen 
 also dined, and then manned the boats. " But, as soon 
 as we approached the rocks, two of the men came down, 
 each armed with a lance about ten feet long, and a short 
 stick, which he seemed to handle as if it was a machine 
 to throw the lance." They showed themselves " resolved 
 to dispute our landing to their utmost, though they were 
 but two, and we thirty or forty." A parley of a quarter 
 of an hour was fruitless. The Indians " remained resolute." 
 Muskets with small shot were fired, lances were throwa, 
 and the two defenders of Australia ran away. The English- 
 men went to the " houses," threw beads and ribbons 
 to the children, and took away some forty or fifty 
 lances. 
 
 Cook's chief wish was for water. He dug in the sand, Water, 
 and found a Httle. He crossed to the North side, -and found 
 some pools on the rocks. He returned to bis diggings 
 in the South, " by which means, and a smah stream they 
 found fresh water sufficient to water the ship." " A 
 very fine stream " was afterwards found on the North 
 
4i6 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A walk on 
 the South 
 side. 
 
 " As fine 
 meadow 
 as ever was 
 seen." 
 
 Shore, " in the first sandy cove within the island, before 
 which the ship might lay almost land-locked, and wood for 
 fuel may be got everywhere." 
 
 On the 2nd of May a party of ten explored the South 
 Shore, and " walked," says Banks, " till we completely 
 tired ourselves." The country, he notes, " consists of 
 either swamps or hght sandy soil," and its products are 
 gum trees, and " vast quantities of grass." Cook's im- 
 pression was more favourable. The country, he says, 
 was " diversified with woods, lawns, and marshes. . . . The 
 woods are free from underwood of every kind, and the trees 
 are at such a distance from one another, that the whole 
 country, or at least great part of it, might be cultivated 
 without being obliged to cut down a single tree.^ We 
 found the soil everywhere, except in the marshes, to be 
 of a light white sand, and produceth a quantity of good 
 grass, which grows in little tufts about as big as one can 
 hold in one's hand, and pretty close to one another ; in 
 this manner the surface of the ground is coated." One 
 hesitates to criticise the agricultural notions of a farmer's 
 son, especially when the farmer's son is James Cook. 
 But may one ask is " light white sand " particularly 
 suitable for " cultivation " } In fact, no cultivators 
 have yet tried the experiment, and the "light white sand" 
 still remains unfurrowed and undug a few miles away from 
 a population of three quarters of a million. I understand, 
 however, that there are horses in the bush who agree with 
 Cook that the grass which it produceth is " good." 
 
 On the 4th of May, while Banks devoted the day to 
 drying his " collections of plants, now grown immensely 
 large,'" Cook went in the pinnace " almost to the head 
 of the inlet." Here he landed, and travelled some distance 
 inland. The country was as before, but "much richer," 
 for " instead of sand," writes Cook, " I found in many 
 places a deep black soil, which we thought was capable of 
 producing any kind of grain. At present it produceth. 
 
 ^ Parkinson, Bajiks's botanical draughtsman, wrote that the country 
 was " very level ajid fertile." Pickersgill also says that the soil was 
 " fertile." 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 417 
 
 W.A. 
 
 2D 
 
4i8 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A walk on 
 the North 
 side. 
 
 Stingrays 
 and botany. 
 
 besides timber, as fine meadow as ever was seen ; ^ however, 
 we found it not all like this, some places were very rocky, 
 but this I believe to be uncommon. The stone is sandy, 
 and very proper for building." 
 
 On the afternoon of the 5th, Cook crossed to the North 
 Shore, and walked three or four miles towards the future 
 site of Sydney. " We met," he says, " with nothing 
 remarkable ; great part of the country, for some distance 
 inland from the sea coast, is mostly a barren heath diver- 
 sified with marshes and morasses." One may to-day 
 take Cook's afternoon walk, and still find " a barren 
 heath diversified with marshes and morasses," though 
 a suburb is now at last on its fringe. It is a lovely bush 
 walk, on the side of still lovelier coastal scenery. But 
 Cook was thinking, not of scenery, but of commerce 
 and colonies ; and the Sydney side showed " nothing 
 remarkable." 
 
 What name shall we give to this Bay, so " spacious, 
 safe, and commodious " } Two things had seemed specially 
 remarkable, the fish and the wild-flowers. Shall we 
 name it after its stingrays or after its botany } The 
 
 1 Where were Cook's meadows ? The question was asked with 
 bitterness by the first colonists, and is still discussed by Sydney his- 
 torians. " The pinnace," wrote Cook, " went to the head of the 
 Bay. . . . After which we took water, and went almost to the head 
 of the inlet." Was " the inlet " George's River ? Cook's map (p. 414) 
 marks its estuary up to Tom Ugly's Point and a little beyond. In 
 1788 Lieut. King saw, apparently near Sans Souci, " an exceedingly 
 fine black mould, with some excellent timber trees, and very rich 
 grass." And Tench, after going up George's River, wrote that " the 
 country around far exceeded in richness of soil that about Cape Banks 
 and Cape Solander." Or was " the inlet " Cook's River ? It is 
 marked on Cook's map to a point near Tempe railway station. Tench's 
 opinion was that " Cook's meadows " were the swamps about the 
 estuary of Cook's River, in which he plunged knee deep, in his hunt 
 after Indian murderers. " We had passed," he wrote, " through the 
 country which the discoverers of Botany Bay extol as ' some of the 
 finest meadows in the world.' These meadows, instead of grass, are 
 covered with high coarse rushes growing in a rotten spongy bog, into 
 which we were plunged knee-deep at every step." Tench's Complete 
 Account, p. 102. " Inland," wrote Banks in his description of New 
 Holland, " you sometimes meet with a bog, upon which the grass 
 grows rank and thick, so that no doubt the soil is sufficiently fertile." 
 Did Cook omit to notice that the " deep black soil," which produced the 
 " fine meadows " was a bog ? This seems the most probable opinion. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 419 
 
 stingrays seemed likely to prevail. The seamen's journals 
 are full of praises of their number and of their size. But, 
 though Banks ate stingrays with reasonable appetite — 
 a stingray, he says, "was not quite so good as a skate nor 
 was it much inferior " — his mind centred in his collection 
 of plants, now grown so immensely large that it had become 
 necessary to take extraordinary care lest they should spoil 
 in the books. One day, he says, he " carried ashore 
 all the drying paper, nearly two hundred quires, of which 
 the greater part was full, and spreading them upon a sail 
 in the sun, kept them in this manner exposed the whole 
 day, and sometimes turning the quires in which there 
 were plants inside out. By this means they came on 
 board at night in very good condition." They are still 
 in very good condition, in spite of a bad soaking in 
 the Endeavour River, and some of them are now in 
 the Mitchell Library in Sydney, a few miles from the spot 
 where they were gathered a century and a half ago. No 
 wonder if Banks began to think them more worthy than 
 a 336 lbs. stingray to give name to the Bay. 
 
 It was a doubtful 'matter. Should the Bay be named " Stingray 
 after a delight of the body, or after a delight of the mind } harbour." 
 Eighteenth-century seamen were carnal men, and the sting- 
 ray won. The Logs, which Cook and several other seamen 
 wrote from day to day, all tell that on the evening of the 
 6th of May the Bay was named Stingray Harbour. Both 
 Cook and Banks also wrote the same name in their farewell 
 notice of the coast of New Holland. An officer named 
 Pickersgill made a map, and wrote on it Stingray Harbour. 
 The plan at the Admiralty has the same name.^ The 
 author of the Journal of a Voyage Round the World, published 
 September, 1771, wrote : — " We sailed from the bay 
 which we named Stingray Bay." 
 
 Yet, when we look at the copy of Cook's Journal that " Botany 
 was sent home from Batavia, we read the following curious ^^' 
 passage. " In the evening the yawl returned from fishing, 
 having caught two stingrays, weighing near six hundred 
 pounds. The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and 
 ^ Wharton, p. 247. 
 
420 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving 
 it the name of Botany Bay." The passage is curious 
 because the second sentence is not what the first sentence 
 would lead us to expect. It was time to name the Bay, 
 and the first sentence suggests that the catch of gigantic 
 stingrays occasioned Cook to give it the name of Stingray 
 Bay. And, when we look at the passage which Cook 
 wrote in his Log on the evening of the 6th of May, we 
 find that this was the case. He wrote down the sentence 
 about the catching of stingrays, which was afterwards 
 copied into the Journal ; and then in the next sentence 
 he wrote, exactly as we would expect a logical Scotchman 
 to write, — "The great quantity of these sort of fishes 
 found in this place occasioned my giving it the name 
 of Stingray Harbour." And when we look at the manu- 
 script copy of Cook's Journal — written in the handwriting 
 of a clerk, but signed by Cook's hand — we find that 
 here also the name first written was Stingray Harbour. 
 But we observe that the clerk has re-written his 
 sentence, and has changed " fishes " into " plants," 
 and " Stingray " into " Bottany." ^ It seems clear that, 
 before this copy of the Journal was sent home from Batavia, 
 Banks had persuaded Cook that the fame of the Bay 
 was not in its perished Stingrays but in its immortal 
 Botany.^ So the clerk was told to turn over the pages 
 
 ^ " These sort of fishes " and " Stingray " are erased, and " plants 
 Mr. Banks " and " Bottany " are written in their places. " And Dr. 
 Solander " is written above the line. See photo, p. 421. 
 
 2 Mr. Kitson, in the 1912 popular edition of his Lije of Cook, p. 149, 
 says that " the only page known to exist of the Journal of the first 
 voyage written by Cook " has, under 6th May, 1770, the following 
 sentence : " The great number of New Plants etc. our Gentlemen 
 Botanists have collected in this place occasioned my giving in {sic) the 
 name of Botanist Bay." 
 
 It is unlucky that Mr. Kitson omitted to mention that this sentence 
 was written over another sentence which had been partially erased. 
 What Cook first wrote was as follows : " Sunday 6th. In the evening 
 the yawl returned with two stingrays one of them weighed and 
 
 the other exclusive of the tails and entrails. The great 
 
 number (erasure) fish found at this place occasioned my naming it 
 Sting Ray^Bay." The passage seems to show that the first change 
 was to Botanist. Banks, in the Journal now at Auckland, which seems 
 to be mainly a digest of Cook's Journal, wrote Botanists Bay. Later 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 421 
 
 of the Journal, and to write 
 "Botany" for "Stingray"; and 
 when Cook drew his final map 
 of the Bay he entitled it "A 
 Sketch of Botany Bay." Banks 
 also, somewhat carelessly, turned 
 over the pages of his own journal, 
 in which in several places he had 
 written " Stingray Bay." In two 
 places ^ he corrected " Stingray " 
 to " Botany " ; but in two 
 places " Stingray " escaped his 
 eye, and still stands to prove 
 that it held its own to the 
 departure from New Holland. ^ 
 And on the vacant top of the 
 pages on which he had written 
 the story of the visit, he wrote 
 the headline " Botany Bay." 
 When we look through the 
 manuscript copy of Cook's 
 Journal, we observe several 
 other similar corrections. Port 
 
 the name was changed to Botany. The 
 unfortunate clerk, when told to make 
 the correction, spelt the word as he 
 pleased. Under 23rd May he wrote 
 " Bottonist " and " Botany " on the 
 same page. 
 
 ^MS. Journal, vol. ii. pp. 204, 218. 
 When numbering his pages, at a later 
 date. Banks made a mistake which 
 may cause confusion. He numbered 
 p. 301, and then, turning over, numbered 
 the other side 202, and went through 
 the 20o's again. Hence, e.g. there are 
 two pages numbered 204. The reference 
 is to the second of these pages. 
 
 2 MS. Journal, vol. ii. pp. 283 and 
 288. It is curious that the name was 
 written in the passage entitled " Some 
 account of New Holland," a passage 
 which Banks must have written after 
 leaving Cape York. 
 
 
422 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Stephens, Cape Hawke, and Rockingham Bay, for 
 example, are written in places where earlier names 
 have been erased. One can imagine the enthusiastic 
 word of Banks that, in this instance, convinced Cook 
 of his mistake. Banks had spent his last day in the 
 Bay in " collecting specimens of as many things as we 
 possibly could, to be examined at sea.'' As day by day 
 this examination proceeded, as it was realised that their 
 treasure would revolutionise the realm of Botany, how 
 would the stingray be forgot ! ^ 
 Banks The week's visit to Botany Bay fixed the site of the 
 
 Botany Bay ^^^^ British colony in the Pacific. In 1779 Banks was 
 as the site of examined by a committee of the House of Commons, that 
 colony, 1779. had been appointed to consider the question, what shall 
 we do with our convicts } If it was thought expedient 
 to establish a colony of convicted felons in a distant part 
 whence escape would be difficult, and where from the 
 fertility of the soil they might be enabled to maintain 
 themselves after the first year with little or no help from 
 England, what place did Mr. Banks think best ? His 
 answer was — Botany Bay ! The seven months' voyage, 
 he said, would make escape very difficult. The natives 
 were few and cowardly. The climate was like that of 
 the South of France. " The proportion of rich soil was 
 small in comparison to the barren, but was sufficient 
 to support a very large number of people." There were 
 no beasts of prey, and sheep and oxen would thrive. There 
 was fish in plenty. The grass was long and luxuriant. 
 There were eatable vegetables. The country was well 
 supphed with water. There was abundant timber for 
 fuel and for buildings. The convicts would need one year's 
 
 ^ The "Admiralty " Journal has " Botany Bay," which proves that 
 this part of it must have been written later than the " Corner " Journal. 
 Parkinson wrote : " From the number of curious plants we met with 
 on shore we called the Bay Botany Bay." As Parkinson died on the 
 voyage from Batavia to the Cape, this passage confirms the statement 
 that the name was changed before the Cape was reached. The author 
 of the Journal of a Voyage round the World, published September, 1771, 
 says rightly that the Bay was named " Stingray Bay " ; and, some- 
 what curiously, omits to mention that the name was changed to 
 Botany Bay. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 423 
 
 provisions, but " afterwards with a moderate portion 
 of industry might undoubtedly maintain themselves 
 without assistance from England." If they formed 
 a civil government they would increase, would provide 
 a market for European commodities, and it was not to 
 be doubted that New Holland, a country larger than 
 Europe, would furnish matter of advantageous return 
 to the mother country. Banks's testimony was the main 
 cause of the choice of Botany Bay as the site of the colony. 
 And when the colony was founded, and after a prolonged 
 period of desperate misery, began to prosper, he said that 
 he had always known that this must happen. " The 
 climate and soil," he wrote in 1797, " are in my own opinion 
 superior to most that have been settled by Europeans. 
 I have always maintained that assertion grounded on 
 my own experienced 
 
 After reading these words, we turn with interest to Banks's Banks's 
 account of his week at Botany Bay, and expect to find Pf°Bo'tany°" 
 some glowing picture of the place which impressed his Bay soil in 
 mind so favourably. We are disappointed, and even ^'^^^' 
 amazed ! Not one word is there to suggest that, as he 
 walked himself tired over the light sandy soil of the South 
 Shore, tramped the sandy moors of the North, ^ or looked 
 for shells on Bare Island, he was dreaming of a British 
 colony on " soil superior to most that have been settled 
 by Europeans." He had described Tahiti as " an Arcadia." 
 He had recommended the River Thames in New Zealand 
 as " the most proper place we have yet seen for establishing 
 a colony." But we have no such winged word of suggestion 
 for Botany Bay. Reading his Journal we get the impression 
 that he thought Botany Bay to be a very good place 
 for botanists, and a very bad place for colonists. And, 
 if he thought that, he thought right. 
 
 The curious thing is that, while Banks, the enthusiast, Cook's 
 has no word of praise for anything in Botany Bay except op^nion^^^ 
 its botany. Cook, the cautious, has praise for nearly every- 
 thing. It is Cook who describes the Bay as " spacious, 
 
 ^ He describes the soil as " very sandy and resembles somewhat 
 oar moors in England." 
 
424 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 safe, and commodious," and who points to " the very- 
 fine stream " on the North Shore, in a place where " a 
 ship might lay almost land-locked." It is Cook who 
 makes the suggestive and misleading remark that the 
 country might be cultivated without the cutting down 
 of a single tree. It is Cook who found at the head of 
 the inlet " a deep black soil capable of producing any 
 kind of grain," and that did produce "as fine meadow 
 as ever was seen." It is Cook again who notes that " the 
 stone is sandy, and very proper for building." In short 
 it is Cook who thought that Botany Bay would be a good 
 place for a settlement. We do not know that he ever 
 had the opportunity to testify publicly to this effect. 
 But one must guess that his conversation impressed 
 his friends, and among them Banks. Banks's recom- 
 mendation of Botany Bay as a place of settlement leaves 
 me puzzled. But we may note, in partial explanation, 
 that, while it receives no support from his own Journal, 
 it receives fairly good support from Cook's. 
 Cook's And Cook was entirely wrong. Botany Bay is " spacious " 
 
 enough, but it is neither " safe " nor " commodious." 
 When, eighteen years later, Governor Phillip sailed into the 
 Bay with his seven hundred convict colonists, he found that 
 there was no shelter from the East winds, and that the 
 greater part was so shoal that ships of even a moderate 
 draught of water were obliged to anchor with the entrance 
 of the Bay open, and were " exposed to a heavy sea that 
 rolls in when it blows hard from the Eastward." ^ "I 
 did not see any site," he wrote, " to which there was not 
 strong objection." The " very fine stream " on the North 
 Shore was observed,^ and Laperouse must have used 
 it when he anchored by that shore a week later. But to 
 Phillip it seemed that the least bad of all bad places was 
 near Point Sutherland, where there was a small run of 
 
 ^ " It will easily be perceived by looking at the draft of this Bay," 
 wrote Hunter, after a careful ten days' survey in 1789, " that it is 
 not possible to lie land locked with a ship in any part of it ; you will 
 always be exposed to the large sea which tumbles in here with an easterly 
 wind " (Hunter, p. 162, and Chart, p. 160). 
 
 2 Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. ii. p. 589. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 425 
 
 good water, though in very insufficient quantity,^ and in 
 a place which the ships could not approach. The " light 
 sandy soil " that might so easily be cultivated still remains 
 uncultivated. Exasperated colonists searched in vain 
 for " the fine meadows talked of in Cook's voyage." " I 
 could never see them," writes Surgeon White, " though 
 I took some pains to find them out ; nor have I ever 
 heard of a person that has seen any part resembling them." ^ 
 In George's River, at the head of the Bay, " several good 
 situations offered," wrote Phillip, " for a small number 
 of people, but none that appeared calculated for our 
 numbers," and " the swamps rendered the most eligible 
 situation unhealthy." It was true that there was 
 plenty of good stone, but the colonists were asking for 
 bread. Botany Bay proved to be, as a London writer^ 
 summed up the news, " picturesque and pleasing to philo- 
 sophers." In fact Cook's description seems inexpHcably 
 optimistic ; though it is fair to remember that he was 
 not thinking of convict colonists, and that^he was in no 
 way responsible for Banks's preposterous promise that 
 they would be able to maintain themselves after one 
 year without help from England. We seem to be led 
 to the conclusion that Sydney owes its foundation to the 
 fact that Cook, one of the most exact observers who have 
 ever observed, once in his life made a singular series of 
 mistakes.* 
 
 ^ Tench writes : " Close to us was the spring at which Mr. Cook 
 watered, but we did not think the water yery excellent, nor did it run 
 freely." 
 
 2 King, however, climbing a hill, apparently near San Souci, found 
 " an exceedingly fine black mould, with some excellent timber trees, 
 and very rich grass " {Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. ii. p. 541). 
 
 ' Phillip's Voyages. 
 
 * The opinions of early visitors were universally bad. " The whole 
 country, as far as we saw," wrote Ross, " appeared to us to be either 
 sand, rock or swamp, and unfit for any kind of cultivation." " A 
 country and place so forbidding and so hateful as only to merit execra- 
 tion and curses," wrote White under date 17th April,. 1790. Peron 
 wrote in 1802 : " Botany Bay is a humid, marshy, rather sterile 
 place, and the anchorage for vessels is neither good nor sure." 
 Tench admits that the country round George's River " far exceeds 
 in richness the soil about Cape Banks or Point Solander, though it is 
 
426 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Port Cook sailed from Botany Bay at daylight on the 7th 
 
 Jackson. ^^ jy^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ were two or three miles from land, 
 
 and " abreast of a Bay wherein there appeared to be safe 
 anchorage." Cook called the Bay Port Jackson, in honour 
 of a Secretary of the Admiralty whose name had already 
 been given to a Bay in New Zealand. Banks does not 
 mention a Bay, but remarks that the coast " appeared 
 broken and hkely for harbours." ^ Eighteen years later 
 Governor Philhp, exploring the coast for some harbour 
 less bad than Botany Bay, came to Port Jackson, saw 
 in a flash of the eye that it was " the finest harbour in 
 the world," and dumped his convicts down on the banks 
 of Sydney Cove, five miles from the heads. Cook, who 
 sailed two or three miles from land, could see only a little 
 way into the harbour, but his chart, says Wharton, " gives 
 the shape of what he could see very accurately." 
 "Broken Next day he saw "some broken land" that appeared 
 Port ^" to form a Bay, which he named " Broken Bay." Cook's 
 Stephens. " Broken Bay " was in the neighbourhood of Narrabeen. 
 The Broken Bay of the modern map, that splendid entrance 
 to a river which Anthony Trollope thought more beautiful 
 than the Rhine, was a few miles to the North, and was 
 not seen from the Endeavour. On the nth Cook saw 
 ** a small round rock or island, laying close under the land," 
 which has been identified with Nobby Head at the entrance 
 of Newcastle Harbour. But Cook suspected the existence 
 neither of this fine harbour, nor of the river which flows 
 into it, draining a fertile valley, which would have been 
 
 just as dry " {Narrative, p. 52). But after a nine days' survey of the 
 Bay in Sept. 1789, he wrote : " We were unanimously of opinion 
 that, had not the nautical part of Cook's description been so accurate, 
 there would exist the utmost reason to believe that those who have 
 described the contiguous country had never seen it. On the sides 
 of the harbour, a line of sea-coast more than 30 miles long, we did 
 not find 200 acres that could be cultivated " (Tench's Settlement at 
 Port Jackson, p. 30). 
 
 ^ In the Journal now at Auckland, however, Banks wrote : "A Bay 
 or Harbour in which appeared to be good anchorage, this was called 
 Port Jackson. Then he crossed out " good," and wrote " safe " — Cook's 
 word. The correction seems interesting and almost conclusive evidence 
 that in this Auckland Journal Banks made a digest of Cook's Journal. 
 See above, pp. 384-385. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 427 
 
 an incomparably better site for an infant colony than 
 Botany Bay or even Port Jackson. Next day he noted an 
 inlet which he named Port Stephens, which appeared to 
 him, as he looked from the mast-head, to be sheltered from 
 all winds. He described the land Northward of Botany 
 Bay as " diversified with an agreeable variety of hills, 
 ridges, and valleys, and large plains all clothed with woods." 
 
 On the 17th he saw a "wide open Bay," which he Morton Bay 
 named Moreton Bay. Banks thought there must be a g"^, , -g 
 river at the back of it, because the sea looked paler than 
 usual ; but Cook thought this appearance was explained 
 by the fine white sandy bottom. " Be this as it may," 
 he writes, " it was a point which could not be cleared 
 up, as we had the wind ; but, should anyone be desirous 
 of doing it that may come after me, this place may always 
 be found by three hills which lay to the Northward of 
 it " ; — he named them the Glass Houses. The land was 
 sandy, and had no signs of fertility. With these words 
 Cook passed the Bay into which flows the river on which 
 Brisbane stands. On the 23rd he anchored in " a large 
 open Bay," where he found " room for a few ships to lay 
 very secure, and a small stream of fresh water." They 
 killed a bustard, and named the place " Bustard Bay." 
 The country was visibly worse than at Botany Bay. Banks 
 noticed some tropical plants, " sure mark that we were 
 on the point of leaving the Southern temperate Zone." 
 Some ants noticed him, and bit more sharply than any 
 he had felt in Europe. 
 
 Northward from Bustard Bay, "the coast is encumbered 
 
 with shoals," and Cook kept outside them.^ Hence he 
 
 passed Port Curtis without observation. Among islands 
 
 and reefs he groped into " Thirsty Sound," so named " by " Thirsty 
 
 reason we could find no fresh water." The land was again ^o"^"^- 
 
 bad ; "no sign of fertility was to be seen." After two days' 
 
 stay, Cook sailed through a sea so " strewe-d with dangers" 
 
 that our modern hydrographer is amazed that he " managed 
 
 to keep his ship off the ground." He had sailed so close 
 
 to the land that he was not aware of the Great Barrier The Barrier 
 
 Reef. 
 ^ Wharton, p. 261. 
 
428 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Reef, which now began to near the coast. At sunset 
 on the nth of June, he saw the first coral shoal. He 
 decided " to stretch off all night, as well to avoid the 
 dangers we saw ahead, as to see if any islands lay in the 
 offing, especially as we now began to draw near the Latitude 
 of those discovered by Quiros, which some geographers, for 
 what reason I know not, have thought proper to tack to this 
 land." It was conceivable that he might see Espiritu Santo ! 
 
 Spiked ! It was a clear moonlight night, and he sailed with a fine 
 
 breeze of wind. The water deepened from twelve fathoms 
 to twenty-one, and then suddenly fell to twelve, ten, eight. 
 Cook ordered all to their stations, and prepared to anchor. 
 But again they had twenty and twenty-one fathoms, and 
 continued in that depth until a few minutes before ii p.m., 
 when they had seventeen ; — and, before the man at the head 
 could heave another cast, the ship struck. Banks, thinking 
 the danger past, had gone to bed in perfect security ; 
 "but," he writes, "scarcely were we warm in our beds 
 . when we were called up with the alarming news of the 
 ship being fast upon a rock, of which she in a few minutes 
 convinced us by beating very violently against it. . . . We 
 were upon sunken coral rocks, the most dreadful of all 
 on account of their sharp points and grinding quality, , 
 which cut through a ship's bottom almost immediately." 
 
 Extreme Cook " was upon deck in his drawers as the second 
 
 anger. blow was struck, and gave his orders with his wonted 
 coolness and precision." ^ The ship had struck " about 
 the top of high water" at ii p.m. The hope was 
 to get off at the next high tide. They threw over- 
 board forty or fifty tons, but the ship was not afloat 
 by a foot or more.^ The tide again ebbed, and 
 
 ^ So writes Brougham, giving the gist of a conversation with Banks. 
 " I have heard Sir Joseph Banks describe his (Cook's) habit of nightly- 
 making all the arrangements, and giving all the orders which he deemed 
 necessary when running along an unknown coast, and having a lee-shore 
 under his bow. After the usual direction to call him if anything 
 occurred, he would then calmly undress and go to bed, and he was 
 immediately asleep. Upon that trying occasion he was upon deck 
 in his drawers as the second blow was struck." 
 
 2 " It is now known that on this coast it is only every alternate tide 
 that rises to a full height " (Wharton, p. 276). 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 429 
 
 again rose, and the leak gained upon the pumps. 
 " It was," writes Cook in careful language, " an alarming 
 and terrible circumstance, and threatened immediate 
 destruction." Banks despaired of the ship, packed what 
 might possibly be saved, and prepared for the worst. The 
 only hope now was to haul at the anchors. Yet, if the 
 ship were got off the rocks, the leak would be still bigger, 
 and the end would come at once. The land could be 
 seen six or seven leagues away. But " we well knew," 
 writes Banks, " that our boats were not capable of carry- 
 ing us all ashore, so that some, probably most of us, must 
 be drowned ; a better fate, may be, than those would have 
 who should get ashore without arms to defend themselves 
 from the Indians, or provide themselves with food, in 
 a country where we had not the least reason to hope 
 for subsistence, so barren had we always found it ; and, 
 had they even met with good usage from the natives 
 and food to support them, debarred from the hope of ever 
 seeing again their native country, or conversing with 
 any but savages, perhaps the most uncivilised in the 
 world." 
 
 But the danger had to be faced. The capstan and Escape, 
 windlass were manned, and they began to heave. At 
 10 p.m. she floated, and was hauled into deep water. 
 To their delight and amazement she leaked no worse than 
 before. By some miracle the desperate peril had passed. 
 The miracle was explained a little later. But for the • 
 present we should note that the escape was due not merely 
 to miracle, but also to skill, and still more to character. 
 Cook seldom praised people, and, when he praised, he 
 praised in measured words. His sailors got more floggings 
 than compliments, and there are hints that he regarded 
 " gentlemen " as a nuisance.^ Yet he now allowed 
 
 ^ Cf. Cook's Journal under date 23rd May, 1770: "he' (Magra) 
 being one of those gentlemen frequently found on board King's ships 
 that can very well be spared," and the original manuscript has another 
 phrase which has been crossed out. With difficulty I have read the 
 deleted words. They are : " to speak more plain, good for nothing." 
 The note which Cook afterwards wrote with his own hand on the 
 margin of the copy of his Journal — see p. 383 — shows that he was led 
 to take a less unfavourable view of Magra's conduct. 
 
430 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 himself to write : — " In justice to the ship's company 
 I must say that no men ever behaved better than they 
 had done on this occasion ; animated by the behaviour 
 of every gentleman on board, every man seemed to have 
 a just sense of the danger we were in, and exerted himself 
 to the utmost." Banks, who had worked with the rest 
 for twenty-four hours till he was " much fatigued," writes 
 in livelier language : — " The seamen worked with sur- 
 prising cheerfulness and alacrity ; no grumbling or growling 
 was to be heard throughout the ship, not even an oath, 
 though the ship was in general as well furnished with 
 them as most in His Majesty's service." Their cotiduct 
 seemed to Banks not only admirable but also somewhat 
 surprising, for, " as soon as a ship is in desperate situation," 
 the seamen, so he had always heard, " commonly begin 
 to • plunder and refuse all command." He attributed 
 their virtue on this occasion to " the cool and steady 
 conduct of the officers, who, during the whole time, never 
 gave an order that did not show them to be perfectly 
 composed and unmoved by the circumstances, however 
 dreadful they might appear." Both officers and gentlemen 
 proved themselves heroes. But let us not miss this oppor- 
 tunity to do justice to the seamen of the -En^^az^^wr. They 
 were not wholly heroes. They got drunk whenever 
 they could get drink. They had " tapped " every cask 
 of wine on board, says Banks. They grumbled, and 
 • growled, and swore. Yet they were at least able to see 
 something heroic in the man who ruled them, and to 
 strive bravely and faithfully for their ship in face of 
 appalhng danger. 
 Pothering. jj^g \q^\^^ though less, still gave anxiety, and it was decided 
 to " fother " the ship. Cook gave the job to Midshipman 
 Monkhouse, who had seen the process in use. Banks 
 describes it in detail. A large quantity of finely chopped 
 oakum and wool .was loosely stitched to a sail, which was 
 sunk under the ship. The expectation was that the oakum 
 and wool would be sucked into the leak, and would 
 close it. The experiment was entirely successful. " In 
 about a quarter of an hour to our great surprise the ship 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 431 
 
 was pumped dry, and, upon letting the pumps stand, 
 she was found to make very httle water." 
 
 The boats were sent to look for a harbour, and returned The 
 with good news. They had found the mouth of a river, the Ri^^eT^^"'^ 
 entrance of which " was, to be sure, narrow enough and 
 shallow, but, when once in, the ship might be moved 
 afloat so near the shore that, by a stage from her to it, all 
 the cargo mi^ht be got out and in again in a short time." 
 Entangled among shoals, Cook cautiously groped towards 
 the opening. Twice in the narrow channel the ship ran 
 ashore. But, " by the evening, she was moored within 
 twenty feet of the shore, and before night much lumber 
 was taken out of her." 
 
 On the 22nd of June, at the place where Cooktown Repairs, 
 now stands, the Endeavour was beached and examined. 
 It was found that the hole was large enough " to have sunk 
 a ship with twice our pumps. . . . The coral rock had cut 
 through the plank, and deep into one of the timbers, 
 smoothing the gashes before it, so that the whole might 
 easily be imagined to have been cut with an axe." Then 
 the rock had broken off, and had plugged the hole with 
 a stone as big as a man's fist. Hence the miracle that 
 the ship when hauled off had not sunk. The sheathing 
 had been torn off, which. Cook feared, would " let the 
 worm into her bottom, and be of bad consequence." But 
 no thorough repair, no thorough examination even, could 
 now be made. Cook did his best to believe the assurances 
 of the " master " and the carpenter that no very serious 
 damage had been done. He had to sail the ship to Batavia 
 " through an unknown and perhaps dangerous sea," 
 and he could only hope that she would get there. What 
 repairs were possible were finished by the 26th. of June. 
 But they failed to get the ship afloat till the 4th of July. 
 Cook was ready to put to sea on the 2 1st. But persistent 
 South-East winds prevented sailing till the 6th of August. A winged 
 
 It was a happy month for Banks. He and Solander ^^^ " 
 were already ashore " plant-gathering," while the Endeavour 
 was blundering up the Channel, and they enjoyed every 
 hour. It was a time of zoological romance. A seaman 
 
432 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Kangaroos. 
 
 Espiritu 
 Santo is not 
 part of New 
 Holland. 
 
 told Banks that he had seen " an animal about the size 
 of, and much like, a one gallon cagg. It was, says he, 
 as black as the devil, and had wings ; indeed I took it 
 for the devil, or I might easily have catched it, for it 
 crawled through the grass." In the end Banks concluded 
 that the crawling devil was a large bat ; the modern 
 historian (Kitson) says it was a flying fox. 
 
 But greatest excitement was caused by news of "an 
 animal as large as a greyhound, of a mouse colour, and 
 very swift." Banks himself got an imperfect view of the 
 strange monster ; — " he was not only like a greyhound in 
 size and running, but had a tail as long as any greyhound's ; 
 what to liken him to I could not tell ; nothing that I 
 have seen at all resembles him." Later, the monsters 
 were chased by Banks's dog : " but they beat him owing 
 to the length and thickness of the grass, which prevented 
 him from running, while they at every bound leapt over 
 the tops of it. We observed, much to our surprise, that, 
 instead of going on all fours, the animal went only upon 
 two legs, making vast bounds, just as the jerboa does." 
 At last the Second Lieutenant " had the good fortune 
 to kill the animal which had so long been the subject 
 of our speculation. To compare it to any European 
 animal would be impossible, as it had not the least re- 
 semblance to any one I have seen." Next day they ate 
 it for dinner, and it " proved excellent meat." Later, 
 they spent a day " hunting the wild animal," and killed 
 " a very large one, weighing eighty-four pounds." 
 
 Banks saw many other remarkable things. The nests 
 of white ants reminded him of Druidical monuments. 
 The pinnace brought back cockles so large that one of 
 them contained twenty pounds of meat, more than two 
 men could eat. The coxswain, who was a little man, 
 said that he had seen a shell so large that he had been able 
 to get inside it. Cocoa-nuts were picked up crested 
 with barnacles ; — " a sure sign that they have come 
 by sea," probably from the land discovered by Quiros. 
 How far that land lay to Eastward Cook thought it hard 
 to say. But at all events he had, so he claimed, made 
 
434 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A walk up 
 the river. 
 
 " Indians. 
 
 it " morally certain " that Quiros " never was upon any 
 part of this coast." He did not know that, the year before, 
 Bougainville had made the same thing absolutely certain 
 by sailing from the land of Quiros to the reefs off New 
 Holland. 
 
 One day Banks and the Second Lieutenant walked 
 a good way up the river, and Banks made the most favour- 
 able remark that he ever made about any part of Australia. 
 The country, he said, was " generally low, thickly covered 
 with long grass, and seemed to promise great fertility 
 were the people to plant and improve it." They camped 
 for the night on the banks of the river, and made a fire ; 
 but the mosquitoes " followed us into the very smoke, 
 nay almost into the fire, which, hot as the climate was, 
 we could better bear the heat of than their intolerable 
 stings." Next day they hunted " the animal," and camped 
 at night on a broad sand-bank, lying on plaintain leaves 
 under the shade of a bush. The mosquitoes did not 
 trouble, and the weary were at rest ; — " all of us slept 
 almost without intermission." They returned to the ship 
 next day, shooting some ducks, and observing a seven-foot 
 alligator crawl from the mangroves into the water. 
 
 It was in the Endeavour River that the Englishmen 
 made their only successful attempt to become acquainted 
 with the natives. At Botany Bay these had remained 
 sullenly hostile. At Bustard Bay and Thirsty Sound 
 none had been seen. But at Endeavour River a very 
 precarious friendship was established. For though the 
 natives showed no interest in the Englishmen's toys, 
 they showed a very deep interest in the turtles which 
 the Englishmen caught on the reef. They came on board 
 ship and asked for one, and, when their request was refused, 
 — it was their reef, and therefore it was their turtle — 
 they began to haul it away. And, when the unjust 
 Enghshmen took it from them, they started a bush- 
 fire, which all but consumed Banks's tent. " I had little 
 idea," he writes, " of the fury with which the grass burnt 
 in this hot climate, nor of the difficulty of extinguishing 
 it when once alighted." 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 435 
 
 The men of science were anxious to see if the natives Unlike 
 of the East resembled the natives of the West, who had pompier's 
 
 ' Indians. 
 
 been described by Dampier, in general a " faithful relater." 
 " They are," Dampier had written, " of a very unpleasing 
 aspect, having no one graceful feature in their faces. Their 
 hair is short and curled like that of the negroes, and not 
 long and lank like the common Indians. The colour 
 of their skins is coal-black like that of the negroes of 
 Guinea." And he had mentioned that " the two fore- 
 teeth of their upper jaw are wanting in all of them." Banks 
 noticed that the appearance of the Eastern natives was 
 different. They did not want front teeth. Their hair 
 was lank, and neither woolly nor frizzled. Their outside 
 appeared the colour of wood-soot ; but, as they were 
 covered with eternal filth, the native colour of the sub- 
 terranean skin was hard to telh Banks, with his usual 
 scientific thoroughness, spat on his finger, and tried to 
 penetrate the crust. As he worked deeper, the colour 
 altered very little, but perhaps was nearer chocolate 
 than coal-black. They had holes through their noses, 
 with " sprit-sail yards rigged across," said the sailors. 
 Still they were very much pleasanter to look at than had 
 been the inhuman creatures whom Dampier had seen on 
 the West. Cook thought their features " far from being 
 disagreeable," and their voices " soft and tunable." 
 
 They lived, however, like Dampier's Westerners. " They The simple 
 seem," writes Cook, " to have no fixed habitation, but ^ ®" 
 move about from place to place, like wild beasts in search 
 of food. . . . We never saw one inch of cultivated ground 
 in the whole country. Their houses are mean small 
 hovels, not much bigger than an oven. . . . They have not 
 the least knowledge of iron or any other metal ; their work- 
 ing tools must be of stone, bone, and shell." Their darts, 
 however, could be hurled by throwing-sticks to a distance 
 of forty or fifty yards with almost, if not quite, as good 
 an aim as an English musket. It was Cook's duty, as 
 an eighteenth-century philosopher, to add that, though • 
 the natives of New Holland were apparently the most 
 wretched people on the earth, they were " in reahty far 
 
436 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 A night- 
 mare in 
 navigation. 
 
 Cook sails 
 through the 
 Barrier Reef 
 
 more happier than we Europeans, being wholly unac- 
 quainted with the necessary conveniences so much sought 
 after in Europe ; they are happy in not knowing the use 
 of them." Banks expressed the same opinion ; but, 
 as we have seen, he had no wish to stay in New Holland 
 to learn the happiness of the simple life. 
 
 Meanwhile Cook had been tied to the ship, anxiously 
 supervising repairs, and sending out boats to seek a channel 
 among baffling shoals and reefs. He never found time 
 even to go to the head of the harbour. He climbed the 
 hills, however, and saw " a melancholy prospect of the 
 difficulties we are to encounter, for, in whatever direction 
 we looked, it was covered with shoals as far as the eye 
 could see." At last, on the 6th of August, he put to sea 
 to face one of the most dangerous tasks that has ever been 
 faced by seaman. He knew that the ship was in a bad 
 state, though happily he did not know how very bad its 
 state was. He had provisions only for three months, 
 at short allowance. He had to race against time through 
 a sea of which he had no knowledge save that, in the very 
 face of him, it bristled with difficulties and dangers. If 
 ever Cook in later years had bad dreams — though I do 
 not believe he had — they were probably founded on his 
 experiences between Endeavour River and Cape York. 
 The voyage was a nightmare in navigation. Probably 
 Cook did not dream about it; but he described it, in words 
 as true as they were simple, as " the most dangerous 
 navigation that perhaps ever ship was in." 
 
 Sending the pinnace ahead to sound, Cook kept a look- 
 out from the mast-head. He could see no passage ; 
 — nothing but breakers extending endlessly to sea. He 
 made a little way Northward, but his hopes were dis- 
 appointed by more reefs and breakers, " in a manner all 
 round us " ; and in hot bad temper he called one deceiving 
 headland " Cape Flattery." Landing on an island, he 
 climbed a high hill, whence he saw a reef of rocks, two 
 or three miles away, extending out of sight, on which the 
 sea broke very high. It was the outer edge of the Great 
 Barrier Reef. He saw several breaks in the reef, and he 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 437 
 
 determined to sail through one of them into the open sea. 
 "By keeping in with the main land we should be in contin- 
 ual danger, besides the risk we should 'run in being locked 
 in with reefs and shoals." So he sailed through the passage 
 in the Barrier Reef that is now known by his name, and 
 " found a large sea rolling in from the South-East," which 
 gave him " no small joy." Ever since the 26th of May 
 he had been " entangled among islands and shoals." 
 He had " sailed above three hundred and sixty leagues 
 by the lead, without ever having a leadsman out of the 
 chains when the ship was under sail ; a circumstance 
 that perhaps never happened to any ship before, and yet 
 it was here absolutely necessary." 
 
 Cook now sailed outside the Barrier Reef. But the course is nearly 
 was unsatisfactory. He was missing the chance of surveying wrecked 
 an unknown coast. He was also afraid of " overshooting 
 the passage (between New Holland and New Guinea) 
 supposing there to be one " ; and he " firmly believed " 
 there was one. And he now found that the dangers 
 of the outside course were even greater than those of 
 the inside. The " large hollow sea " proved that the ship 
 had been damaged more than had been thought, and one 
 pump had to be kept constantly at work. The trade wind 
 blew them towards the reef, and they studied its formation 
 with an interest that was keener than that of simple 
 curiosity, and inspired an admirable description. " A 
 reef such as one speaks of is scarcely known in Europe. 
 It is a wall of coral rock, rising almost perpendicularly 
 out of the unfathomable ocean, always overflown at high 
 water, generally seven or eight feet, and dry in places 
 at low water. The large waves of the vast ocean, meeting 
 with so sudden a resistance, make a terrible surf breaking 
 mountains high, especially in one case, where the general 
 trade wind blows directly upon it." ^ The tide dragged 
 them within eighty or a hundred yards of the breakers. 
 
 1 Banks, p. 294. The passage also appears in the " Admiralty " 
 copy of Cook's Journal, which was written later than the " Corner " 
 copy, and in this part is much fuller (Wharton, p. 303). It seems that 
 the clerk in writing the Admiralty copy had the use of Banks's Journal. 
 
438 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Sails 
 
 through it 
 again. 
 
 Cook 
 
 apologizes 
 
 for 
 
 " temerity. 
 
 " The same sea that washed the side of the ship rose in 
 a breaker prodigiously high the very next time it did 
 rise ; so that between us and destruction was only a 
 dismal valley, the breadth of one wave, and even now 
 no bottom could be felt with one hundred and twenty 
 fathoms." Shipwreck seemed inevitable. Land was ten 
 leagues away, and the boats could not possibly carry the 
 crew. "All the dangers we had escaped were little in com- 
 parison of being thrown upon this reef, where the ship 
 must be dashed to pieces in a moment." 
 
 Cook made for a small opening in the reef, not wider 
 than the length of the ship. They reached it — just too 
 late, " the tide of ebb rushing out like a mill-stream, 
 so that it was impossible to get in." The boats, with the 
 help of the tide, pulled them one and a half miles away ; 
 but the returning tide would certainly bear them back 
 on the reef. . Cook made for another opening, a quarter 
 of a mile broad. " Narrow and dangerous as it was, 
 it seemed to be the only means of saving her as well as 
 ourselves. A light breeze soon sprang up at East-North- 
 East, with which, the help of our boats, and a flood tide, 
 we soon entered the opening, and were hurried through 
 in a short time by a rapid tide like a mill-race." Once 
 more the faulty men of the Endeavour had shown ability 
 to grasp fortune. " In this truly terrible situation," 
 says Cook, " not one man ceased to do his utmost, and 
 that with as much calmness as if no danger had been 
 near." They could not have been calmer than the men 
 of science. When the danger was at its extreme height, 
 they were taking a Lunar to obtain the Latitude. " These 
 observations," records Mr. Green," were very good. . . . 
 We were about a hundred yards from the reef, where 
 we expected the ship to strike every minute, it being 
 calm, no soundings, and the swell heaving us right 
 on." 
 
 Only a few days had passed since Cook had felt " no 
 small joy " in his escape from the perils inside the reef. 
 He had now by miracle escaped the far greater perils 
 outside. His Journal betrays an unusual fatigue of mind 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 439 
 
 and spirit in a passage of unusual frankness. " Such," 
 he comments, " are the vicissitudes attending this kind 
 of service, and must always attend an unknown navigation, 
 where one steers wholly in the dark, without any manner 
 of guide whatever. Was it not from the pleasure which 
 naturally results to a man from his being the first discoverer, 
 even was it nothing more than land or shoals, this kind 
 of service would be insupportable." The explorer will 
 certainly be accused, either of " timorousness and want 
 of perseverance," or of " temerity, and perhaps want 
 of conduct." Cook was certain that the first of these 
 charges would never be brought against him. But he 
 owns that he has engaged more among the islands and 
 shoals upon this coast than perhaps in prudence he ought 
 to have done with a single ship. But, had he not done 
 so, he would have remained ignorant of its produce ; in 
 short, " it would have been far more satisfactory to me 
 never to have discovered it." Thus Cook apologizes ! 
 
 Cook had leapt from the frying-pan into the fire, and Is there a 
 was now glad that a second leap had brought him back ^*^^^* ^ 
 into nothing hotter than the frying-pan. He was again 
 encompassed on every side by islands and shoals, " but 
 so much does a great danger swallow lesser ones that those 
 once dreaded spots were now lookeduponwithlessconcern." 
 Moreover, he was determined to clear up once for all the 
 ancient uncertainty whether or not a strait existed between 
 New Holland and New Guinea. In this determination 
 he was facing a great risk. If there proved to be not a 
 strait but a bay, he would have to fight out, as Bougain- 
 ville had fought out, against the trade wind, and in most 
 dangerous seas. But he had been convinced, by Dal- 
 rymple's Chart, and by Banks's explanations, that it 
 was very probable that there was a strait, and he had 
 come "to the fixed resolution" to bring home exact 
 news of it. 
 
 It is hard to trace his slow progress among shoals and Cape York, 
 islands, " by a route that no one has again followed," ^ 
 with boat all the time ahead signalling shallow water.^ 
 
 ^ Wharton, p. xxxi. * Wharton, p. 309. 
 
440 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 On the 2 1 St of August they observed that " the main 
 looked very narrow, so we began," says Banks, " to look 
 out for the passage we expected to find between New 
 Holland and New Guinea. At noon one was seen very 
 narrow, but appearing to widen." Cook named the 
 Northern Promontory York Cape " in honour of his late 
 Royal Highness." 
 Endeavour Ahead they saw islands, detached by narrow channels 
 from the mainland. Cook sent the boats to sound the 
 Channel next to the main. Shoals and rocks were dis- 
 covered, and he signalled the boats to lead through the 
 next channel to the Northw^ard. The ship followed, and 
 Cook satisfied himself that he " had at last found out a 
 passage into the Indian Seas." He had now completed his 
 survey of the Eastern coast of New Holland from Latitude 
 38°, a coast which he was confident had " never been 
 seen or visited by any European before us." ^ He landed 
 on an island (Possession Island) and, " a little before 
 
 ^ In 1786 Dalrymple, moved by immortal hatred of a supplanter, 
 wrote a statement which meant that the Portuguese-French maps 
 of the sixteenth century proved that the Eastern coast had been 
 seen and visited by Europeans 200 years before Cook's voyage ; that 
 Cook had known this fact perfectly well ; and that he had sought 
 to pose as first discoverer by stealing the old names (Major. 
 p. xxxi.). The accusation was as ridiculous as it was malicious. If 
 Cook had, in the circumstances imagined, wished to conceal the old 
 discovery, he would carefully have avoided the old names. But it 
 seems perfectly certain that in 1770 Cook had no acquaintance with 
 these old maps. Even Dalrymple had no acquaintance with them 
 in 1770 ; for in his Voyages, published that year, he does not mention 
 them. It seems that Banks heard of one of these old maps after his 
 return, bought it — at what date is not known — and gave it to the 
 British Museum in 1790, Unluckily we do not know what he thought 
 about the map. 7/ the name Botany Bay had been given after the 
 return to England, a possible though improbable view would be that it 
 was suggested by the Coste des Herbaiges of the old map. But I am sure 
 that the name Botany Bay was given in the course of the voyage, and 
 that the sufficient suggestion came from Banks's collection of plants. 
 In his second voyage. Cook named an island off New Caledonia Botany 
 Island, " because it contained in so small a space a flora of thirty 
 species " (Forster, vol. ii. p. 439). If Cook and Banks thought that the 
 old map showed a previous discovery of the East coast, I have no doubt 
 they said so, and without sense of diminished glory. Cook would have 
 been as much pleased by identifying a Portuguese Botany Bay as he was 
 pleased by identifying Quiros's Bay of St. Philip and St. James. See 
 able discussions by Major, pp. xxxi. et seq., and by Bladen in Historical 
 Records of N.S.W., vol. i. part i. pp. xxiii. and p. 161. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 441 
 
 sunset, took possession of the country in his Majesty's 
 name, and fired 3 volleys of small arms on the occasion, 
 which was answered from the ship."^ With the pinnace 
 feeling the way before her, the Endeavour sailed through 
 the straits to which Cook gave the ship's name, passing 
 safely over the great bank which nearly bars its Western 
 end, and which has caused it to be disused in favour of 
 the " deep though narrow channel " ^ North of Prince 
 of Wales Island. He landed on Booby Island, " now the 
 great landmark for ships making Torres Strait from the 
 West." ^ A swell from the South- West," together with 
 other concurring circumstances," writes Cook, " left me 
 no room to doubt but we had got to the Westward of 
 Carpentaria, or the Northern extremity of New Holland, 
 and had now^ an open sea to the Westward ; which gave 
 me no small satisfaction, not only because the dangers 
 and fatigues of the voyage were drawing to an end, but 
 by being able to prove that New Holland and New Guinea 
 are two separate lands or islands, which until this day 
 hath been a doubtful point with geographers. As I be- 
 lieve it was known before, I claim no other merit than the 
 clearing up of a doubtful point." That is to say. Cook 
 had been told by Banks, on the authority of Dalrymple, 
 that Torres, according to a statement of Dr. Arias, 
 had sailed through the strait in 1606. But he held 
 that the truth of this statement needed to be proved 
 by modern experience ; and this proof he had now 
 established. He had sailed through one channel, and 
 he believed that a better channel would some day be dis- 
 covered among the islands he could see to the North, 
 " if ever it became an object to be looked for." 
 
 In his Log, written from day to day, Cook said that " pos- ' New 
 session was taken of the country " ; no name is mentioned, ^^j^g . 
 Banks, in his Journal, described the country he was leaving 
 under the headline " Some account of New Holland " ; 
 — evidence again that no new name had been given. 
 In the copy of Cook's Journal which he sent home from 
 
 * Cook's Private Log. ' Wharton, p. 313. 
 
 • Wharton, p. 314. 
 
442 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Batavia the country is named New Wales ;^ which seems 
 to show that the name was given in the course of the 
 voyage from Cape York to Batavia. In the two copies 
 of Cook's Journal, which were written apparently on the 
 voyage from Batavia to England,^ the name is " New 
 South Wales." -And Banks, perhaps at the same date, 
 corrected his headline as follows : — " Some account of 
 that part of New Holland now called New South Wales." ^ 
 When Dr. Hawkesworth, using the Journals of Cook 
 and Banks, wrote his account of the voyage, he generally 
 called the country " New Holland " ; but he wrote " New 
 Wales " once (vol. iii. p. 649), and New South Wales twice 
 (vol. iii. pp. 616 and 622).* There seems to be no evidence 
 as to Cook's reason for giving the name of New Wales, 
 and for changing that name to New South Wales. ^ 
 
 ^ " New Wales " is written on a space from which other words had 
 been erased. I thought that patient study of the erased words might 
 throw Ught on this curious problem. But, as far as I can make out, 
 what the clerk wrote first was " New Whales " ! The pages of this 
 part of the Journal are headed : " New Wales, or East Coast of New 
 Holland." 
 
 2 Cf. Banks's reference to " the Captain's own journals which the 
 clerk has copied." 
 
 ^ See photo, p. 443. 
 
 * Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. i. part i. p. 170. 
 
 ^ In an interesting letter in the Sydney Morning Herald, 29th Jan., 
 192 1, Captain James H. Watson, a very thorough and helpful student 
 of early Australian history, points to the curious fact that a territory in 
 Hudson's Bay was called New Wales, South Wales, and New South 
 Wales. If Cook, on his homeward voyage, turned over the multi- 
 tudinous leaves of Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. (i 744-1 748 edition) — I do 
 not remember evidence that it was in the Endeavour's library, but 
 surely it was — he would have read (p. 245) that in 161 1 Thomas Button, 
 a Welshman, discovered " a great continent called by him New Wales." 
 On p. 413 he would have read that in 1621 Thomas James named the 
 land " the Principality of South Wales." On p. 284 he would have read 
 " all that country goes by the name of New South Wales ; and on p. 404 
 that Button " discovered another country to which he gave the name 
 of New South Wales." If he had turned to the atlas of Robert de 
 Vaugondy, geographer of Louis XV., dated 1751 — surely it also was in 
 the Endeavour's library — he would have found that the author, after 
 describing James's discovery, wrote " all the entrance of this bay was 
 called New South Wales." 
 
 " This New South Wales," writes Captain Watson, " must have been 
 known to Cook, as, being on the charts of the period, it must have come 
 under his notice during the time he was engaged on survey work on the 
 coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River." It would seem 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 443 
 
444 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Both Cook and Banks wrote systematic descriptions 
 of the land which they had coasted for two thousand 
 miles. 
 Banks's Banks's description of the country of which he was to 
 
 Australia. become the Patron Saint was in the highest degree un- 
 favourable. Patriotic Australians cannot resent his des- 
 scription, for it is a very accurate description of what he 
 , saw. But we may regret that our candid friend enjoyed 
 no opportunity to see some of the more pleasing aspects 
 of the country which he was to recommend nine years later 
 as the best possible locality for a British settlement. One 
 would imagine, as one reads his Journal, that his main 
 purpose was to make quite sure that no Englishman would 
 ever think of settling in New Holland. 
 
 " Doomed to " j^ the whole length of the coast which we sailed 
 everlasting , , , , , , 
 
 barrenness." along, there was a very unusual sameness to be observed 
 in the face of the country. Barren it may justly be called, 
 and in a very high degree, at least as far as we saw. The 
 soil in general is sandy and very light ; on it grows grass 
 tall enough, but thin set, and trees of a tolerable size, 
 never however near together, being in general forty, 
 fifty or sixty feet apart. This, and spots of loose sand, 
 sometimes very large, constitute the general face of the 
 
 unlikely that Cook would have in mind this New South Wales of Hudson's 
 Bay when he beat his brains for a name for the Eastern coast of New Hol- 
 land. But the coincidence of the change from New Wales to New South 
 Wales is certainly curious ; and it is also noteworthy that, as Captain 
 Watson has remarked, the " General Chart " of the world in the 1784 
 edition of Cook's Voyages has New South Wales not only in New Holland 
 but also in Hudson's Bay. Cook had a way of naming places without 
 giving his reasons ; and, when his reasons are given by another, they 
 are not always reasons that would have occurred to everybody. He 
 gave the name New Hebrides, Forster explains, because " the Hebrides 
 are the westernmost islands of Great Britain " ; and the name of New 
 Caledonia because it " suited not only the good disposition of the 
 people, but also with the nature of the country." The natives, Cook 
 wrote, " had little else than good nature to bestow, in which they 
 exceed all the nations we have yet met with " ; but he considered it 
 unnecessary and superfluous to explain that it was for this reason that 
 he called their country New Caledonia (see below, p. 470). He may 
 have had an equally good reason for giving the name of New Wales 
 and New South Wales, but it remains unexplained. The best guess — 
 in fact the only guess — is that there came into mind Thomas Button's 
 discovery of " a great continent, called by him New Wales." 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 445 
 
 country, as you sail along it, and, indeed, the greater part 
 even after penetrating inland as far as our situation would 
 allow us to do. The banks of the bays were generally 
 clothed with thick mangroves, sometimes for a mile or more 
 in breadth. The soil under these is rank, and always 
 overflowed every spring tide. Inland, you sometimes 
 meet with a bog, upon which the grass grows rank and 
 thick, so that no doubt the soil is sufficiently fertile.^ 
 The valleys also between the hills, where runs of water 
 come down, are thickly clothed with underwood ; but they 
 are generally very steep and narrow, so that, upon the 
 whole, the fertile soil bears no kind of proportion to that 
 which seems by nature doomed to everlasting barrenness. 
 Water is a scarce article, or at least was so when we were 
 there (April to August), which I beheve to have been the 
 very height of the dry season. At some places we saw 
 not a drop, and at the two places where we filled for the 
 ship's use (Botany Bay and Bustard Bay) it was done 
 from pools not brooks.^ This drought is probably owing 
 to the di-yness of a soil entirely composed of sand in which 
 high hills are scarce. 
 
 " A soil so barren, and at the same time entirely void No fruit, 
 of the help derived from cultivation, could not be supposed 
 to yield much to the support of man. We had been 
 so long at sea, with but a scanty supply of fresh provisions, 
 that we had long been used to eat everything we co.uld 
 lay our hands upon, fish, flesh, or vegetables, if only they 
 were not poisonous, yet we could only now and then 
 procure a dish of bad greens for our own table, and never, 
 except in the place where tlie ship was careened, did 
 we meet with a sufficient quantity to supply the ship " ; 
 and Banks gives a list of the " bad greens " they had 
 managed to eat. They had found no eatable fruits, 
 
 ^ See note, p. 418. 
 
 2 This statement does not seem consistent with the previous statement 
 about " the hills where runs of water come down." But the hills and 
 runs of water must have been at the Endeavour River, where Cook 
 says there were " several fine rivulets." The " two places where we 
 filled for the ship's use " must be Botany Bay and Bustard Bay. But 
 Cook writes of " a small stream " at both those places. 
 
446 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 save in the South a cherry with nothing but a sHghtly 
 acid taste to recommend it, and in the North " a very 
 indifferent fig." They tried some palm nuts, but were 
 " deterred from a second experiment by a hearty fit of 
 vomiting." The hogs ate the nuts with good appetite, 
 and the men envied the hogs their powers of digestion ; 
 but two hogs died, and the rest were saved only by careful 
 nursing. The only useful plants were the gum tree, 
 and a bulrush which gave a resin of a bright yellow. In 
 view of the barrenness of the soil, the variety of plants 
 seemed wonderful, but they were as useless as they were 
 various. Even the timber was so hard that the carpenter 
 who cut firewood complained that his tools were damaged, 
 nor meat. As to fish, flesh, and fowl, voyagers sick of sea-fare 
 
 could eat with joy anything that was not salt and 
 that was not poisonous. " A hawk or a crow was to 
 us as delicate, and perhaps a better relished meal than 
 a partridge or a pheasant to those who had plenty of 
 dainties." But " Kangooroos " were scarce, and birds were 
 shy. "A crow in England, though in general sufficiently 
 wary, is, I must say, a fool to a New Holland crow, and the 
 same may be said of almost all, if not all, the birds of the 
 country." And, making an effort to say all that could be 
 said for the country, he concludes as follows : — " Upon the 
 whole, New Holland, though in every respect the most 
 barren country I have seen, is not so bad but that, between 
 the production of sea and land, a company who had the 
 misfortune to be shipwrecked upon it might support 
 themselves even by the resources that we have seen ; 
 undoubtedly a longer stay and a visit to different parts 
 would discover many more." 
 No . That was the best that our Patron Saint could say in 
 
 a colony. favour of our country. We cannot complain of his 
 criticism, for it was just criticism of what he saw. But 
 we may, perhaps, be permitted to wonder at the contrast 
 between this criticism of 1 770 and the praise of 1 779 
 and of later dates. In 1797 he wrote that the soil of New 
 Holland was in his opinion superior to most that have been 
 settled by Europeans, and that this opinion was grounded 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 447 
 
 on his own experience. Yet, immediately after he had 
 gained this experience, he summed up New Holland as in 
 every respect the most barren country he had seen. He 
 wrote no words of suggestion that colonists would do well 
 to settle there ; and the nearest he got to that suggestion 
 was in the remark that, " were any man to settle here," 
 he would find the study of ants uncommonly interesting 
 — " industrious as they are, their courage, if possible, 
 excels their industry." One can only explain the contrast 
 by some theory of the growing optimism of old age. 
 
 On the other hand. Cook's description shows that he Cook thinks 
 had in mind the idea of colonization, and that he regarded Australia 
 New South Wales with favour. He states plainly, it is could be 
 true, that " the land naturally produces hardly anything industrious^ 
 fit for man to eat," that "the natives know nothing of settlers, 
 agriculture," and that " the country itself, so far as we 
 know, doth not produce any one thing that can become 
 an article in trade to invite Englishmen to fix a settlement 
 upon it. However," he continues, " this Eastern side 
 is not that barren and undesirable country that Dampier 
 and others have described the Western side to be. We 
 are to consider that we see this country in the pure state 
 of nature ; the industry of man has had nothing to do 
 with any part of it, and yet we find all such things as 
 nature" had bestowed upon it in a flourishing state. In 
 this extensive country, it can never be doubted but what 
 most sorts of grain, fruit, roots, etc., of every kind would 
 flourish here were they once brought hither, planted and 
 cultivated by the hands of industry, and here are provender 
 for more cattle at all seasons of the year than ever can be 
 brought into the country." It is "indifferently well watered, 
 even in the dry seasons, with small brooks and springs, 
 but no great rivers unless it be the wet season." The soil, 
 though sandy, is " indifferently fertile, and clothed with 
 woods, long grass, shrubs, plants, etc." The coast North 
 of 25° "abounds with a great number of fine bays and 
 harbours, sheltered from all winds." 
 
 It was not Cook's way to write with enthusiasm. He 
 said enough to show that he thought the soil of New South 
 
448 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Wales would probably do "indifferently well " if " planted 
 and cultivated by the hands of industry." But, as Adam 
 Smith's political economy was based on the assumption 
 that all men are Scotchmen, so, I am inclined to say, 
 Cook's commendation of New South Wales as a place 
 for settlement was based on the assumption that settlers 
 are Ironside farmers from Scotland or Yorkshire. He 
 certainly did not think of them as shiploads of convicts. 
 The coast of The voyage of discovery was finished. " On the West 
 New uinea. gj^jg^" ^fote Cook, " I can make no new discovery, the 
 honour of which belongs to the Dutch navigators." He 
 was henceforth in seas that had been charted by pre- 
 decessors. He was using the charts published in the 
 volumes of de Brosses, and found them " tolerable good." 
 He tried the coast of New Guinea, but, like Torres, was 
 driven off by everlasting shoals, after " one of the most 
 fortunate escapes we have ever had from shipwreck." 
 They managed, however, to land on a part of the coast 
 that is " scarcely known to this day." ^ They tried 
 to climb some cocoa-nut trees, but failed to do so. Cook, 
 with remarkable humanity, refused to cut down the trees, 
 because that would certainly have led to an attack by the 
 natives, and to undeserved slaughter. 
 Home- He determined to leave the New Guinea coast, and 
 
 to keep on the South side of Java ; for, as to the North 
 side, " we were all utter strangers." The ever-suspicious 
 Banks hints that their departure was due to growing 
 home-sickness. No one in the ship, he declares, was 
 free from this contemptible disease, except the Captain, 
 Dr. Solander and himself; "and we three," he explains, 
 " have ample employment for our minds." 
 
 Cook intended to land on Timor Laut, an island which, 
 he beheved, had not been settled by the Dutch. But he 
 missed Timor Laut, and came to Timor, where, as in 
 Dampier's days, was a strong Dutch Fort. The sailors 
 wished to call for roast beef, but Cook refused, fearing 
 the " jealous eye " of the Dutch. More by chance than 
 by design, he came to the little Dutch island of Savu, 
 ^ Wharton, p. 333. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 44g 
 
 and, when they actually saw before them " a flock of cattle Roast beef 
 grazing," the demand for roast beef became irresistible, ^* ^^^"' 
 and even the austere captain had to consent. The Dutch 
 Factor allowed him to buy buffaloes — at an extortionate 
 price. But he complained that the Enghsh were far 
 too inquisitive about spices. And, indeed, Parkinson 
 the draughtsman afterwards boasted that he had taken 
 nutmegs and cloves ashore, and had ascertained that 
 the people were acquainted with them. 
 
 Then Cook groped the way to the Straits of Sunda. Batavia, 
 He complained that either his Longitude was wrong, ^g^' *° 
 or that the Straits were faultily placed in all the charts. 
 The fact was that his Longitude was wrong by three 
 degrees ; a fact that shows how impossible it was to 
 determine Longitude even by the highest seamanship of the 
 day, and makes one marvel once more that so many ships 
 came home. On the 4th of October he was off Java, 
 and got the news of the day, or rather of the year, from 
 a Dutch ship. It was that "the Government in England 
 was in the utmost disorder, the people crying up and 
 down the streets ' Down with King George ! King Wilkes 
 for ever ! ' ", that " the Americans had refused to pay taxes 
 of any kind, and an English army had been sent to deal 
 with the rebellion." He anchored at Batavia on the nth 
 of October.^ He declared, with an economy of truth, 
 that he came " from Europe." 
 
 It was evident that the Endeavour could not proceed Repairs, 
 without thorough examination and thorough repair. 
 Cook found, to his great annoyance, that it would be 
 necessary to place her in the hands of the Dutch ship- 
 wrights. The ship was shown to be in a condition far 
 worse than had been supposed. " In one place two and 
 a half planks near six feet long were within \ inch of being 
 cut through ; and here the worms had made their way 
 
 1 " Wednesday, loth, according to our reckoning, but by the people 
 here Thursday, nth." He dated the next day Friday, 12th. See 
 above, p. 413, note 2. 
 
 The red ink with which the dates are marked gradually grows paler. 
 From 6th October a brilliant dark red ink appears, drawn, no doubt, 
 from a bottle bought in Batavia, 
 
 w.A. 2 F 
 
450 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 quite through the timbers, so that it was a matter of surprise, 
 to everyone who saw her bottom, how we had kept her 
 above water, and yet in this condition we had sailed 
 some hundreds of leagues in as dangerous a navigation 
 as in any part of the world, happy in being ignorant of 
 the continual danger we were in." In the end Cook 
 gave the Dutch shipwrights a very handsome testimony ; 
 — " I do not believe there is a marine yard in the world 
 where work is done with more alertness than here, and 
 where there are better conveniences for heaving ships 
 down in point of safety and despatch." The Dutch 
 methods were different from the English, and better. 
 Journal sent In view of the delay. Cook forwarded to the Admiralty 
 by a Dutch ship copies of his Journal and Charts. He also 
 wrote a letter to Secretary Stephens that is of singular 
 interest, as giving his own immediate impression of one 
 of the most famous, most dangerous, and most fruitful 
 voyages of British History. " Although," he wrote, 
 " the discoveries made in the voyage are not great, yet 
 I flatter myself they are such as may merit the attention 
 of their lordships, and although I have failed in discovering 
 the so much talked of Southern Continent (which perhaps 
 do not exist), and which I myself had much at heart, 
 yet I am confident that no part of the failure of such 
 discovery can be laid to my charge. Had we been so 
 fortunate not to have run ashore, much more would have 
 been done in the latter part of the voyage than what was, 
 but, as it is, I presume this voyage will be found as com- 
 plete as any before made to the South Seas on the same 
 account." ^ 
 "The Cook stayed in Batavia from the nth of October to 
 
 place upon ^^e 26th of December. It was a dreadful time. When 
 the globe." the Englishmen arrived, they were, thanks to Cook's system 
 of anti-scorbutics and bathing, in insolent good health. 
 Not one man had been lost by sickness during the whole 
 voyage. There was not one sick man on board. The 
 
 ^ ^ See photograph, p. 451. Note that Cook first wrote: — "as great 
 and as compleat, if not more so, than . . .," and then made modest 
 corrections. 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 451 
 
 sailors, rosy and plump, " jeered and flaunted much " 
 at the white-faced Dutch who came alongside. They were 
 warned of the extreme unwholesomeness of the place. 
 
 
 i- <- ,/ 
 
 
 M^-^. r^,..:.A AvocQ y-^-/^--.^^^^/.^^^ 
 
 ;^ x.'/ L^ .^)^-* ^^<rx.i^>^^^ ;^^9^/A^r ^e^y^C <^- ^-'^«^ ^ 
 
 > V- 
 
 /^- y'c^.-^ ^^.^i^-J^^^ 
 
 '■■—Mi£. 
 
 \ 
 
 Extract from Cook's Letter from Batavia to the Secretary of the Admiralty, 
 DATED 23RD Oct., 1770. 
 
 But they laughed, thinking themselves well-seasoned 
 to any climate, and " trusting more than all," writes Cook, 
 "to an invariable temperance in everything, which we 
 had as yet unalteredly kept during our whole residence 
 in the warm latitudes " ; — a statement which is, no doubt, 
 true in some sense, but which nevertheless surprises readers 
 
452 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 who remember the events of Christmas days, and of other 
 days. But in Batavia trust in " invariable temperance " 
 was misplaced. Everyone fell sick. The only exception 
 was the sailmaker, an old man of seventy or eighty — ages 
 were vague in those days— who had been invariably 
 mtemperate ; — " generally more or less drunk every day." 
 Surgeon Monkhouse died. Tupia died ; — ' ' a shrewd, sensible, 
 ingenious man," says Cook, " but proud and obstinate, 
 which often made his situation on board both disagreeable 
 to himself and to those about him." Banks was " seized 
 with a tertian, the fits of which," he says, " were so violent 
 as to deprive me entirely of my senses, and leave me 
 so weak as scarcely to be able to crawl downstairs." His 
 servants were as bad as himself, and Solander became 
 ill for the first time in his life. The two sick botanists 
 bought a Malay woman apiece, " hoping that the tender- 
 ness of the sex would prevail even here, which, indeed, 
 we found it to do." In charge of their nurses they went 
 to a country-house, and gradually recovered strength. 
 But, when the ship sailed, seven had died, forty or more 
 were sick, and the rest were weakly. Cook said that 
 Batavia was the unhealthiest place upon the globe. ^ 
 " We came in here with as healthy a ship's crew as need 
 go to sea, and, after a stay of not quite three months, 
 left it in the condition of a hospital ship ; and yet all the 
 Dutch captains said we have been very lucky." 
 Britain Banks had not been too ill to use his eyes, and to take 
 
 spice islamfs i^^tes. The Country reminded him of the flatness of his 
 native Lincolnshire. The canals made carriage incon- 
 ceivably cheap, but also made the air inconceivably 
 unwholesome. He writes enthusiastic praise of the fertility 
 and wealth of Java. He describes the elaborate organiza- 
 tion of the spice business. Nutmegs, for example, have 
 been extirpated in all the islands except Banda, "which 
 easily supplies the world, and would easily supply another, 
 if the Dutch had another to supply." He understood, 
 however, that there were spices in islands away to the East, 
 
 ^ " The unwholesome air of Batavia is the death of more Europeans 
 than any other place upon the globe of the same extent." 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 453 
 
 which the Dutch had not examined. In a curious and not 
 very pleasing passage, he discusses the chance of capturing 
 Batavia, and decides that it is a very good one. The 
 defences are weak ; and, of every hundred soldiers who 
 arrive, at the end of the year fifty are dead, twenty-five 
 in the hospital, and not ten in perfect health. Banks 
 evidently thought, as Bougainville had thought two years 
 before, that it would be well to claim a share in the spice 
 trade, in the teeth, which were not very sound teeth, 
 of the Dutch dog in the manger. 
 
 The Endeavour sailed from Batavia on the 26th of " A hospital 
 December in good repair, though " in the condition of ^^^P- ' 
 a hospital ship." But they were out at sea again, and 
 there was no expectation of tragedy. But the disease 
 was in them, and broken health grew worse. Disasters 
 came fast, and Cook's Journal for this passage is mainly 
 a collection of conscientious obituary notices. Corporal 
 Trusslove died, " a man much esteemed by everybody 
 on board " ; then Mr. Sporing, " a gentleman belonging 
 to Mr. Banks's retinue " ; Mr. Sydney Parkinson, Natural 
 History painter to Mr. Banks, who left, in addition to 
 his pictures, an interesting Journal ; Mr. Green, the very 
 skilful, industrious, and courageous observer, who had 
 taken a successful Lunar when a hundred yards distant 
 from almost inevitable destruction on the Coral Reef, 
 but w^ho had " lived in such a manner as greatly promoted 
 the disorders he had had long upon him " ; Midshipman 
 Monkhouse who had " fothered " the ship ; John Raven- 
 hill, the aged and much-drinking sailmaker, who perhaps 
 had not been permitted to be so invariably intemperate 
 on board as he had been on land. Twenty-three in all 
 died ; and those who did not die were hardly able to 
 tend the sails, and to nurse the sick. Banks, who had 
 himself " endured the pains of the damned almost," was 
 the only stricken man who recovered. 
 
 At last the South-East trade-wind brought relief. They The barren- 
 came to Capetown in March 1 771, and stayed a month, g^^^^ 
 The AustraHan, whose feelings have been a little hurt Africa, 
 by Banks's statement that his country is in every respect 
 
454 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 St. Helena. 
 
 England 
 again, 
 July 177] 
 
 the most barren country he had ever seen, is pleased 
 to find that he thought South Africa more barren still. 
 " The infinite and, to an European, almost inconceivable 
 barrenness of the country," he wrote, " makes it necessary 
 that people should spread themselves very widely " ; 
 and Cook wrote exphcitly that no country seen this voyage 
 — not even New Holland ! — " afforded so barren a prospect 
 as this, and not only so in appearance but in reality." 
 The true importance of the Cape, it was rightly observed, 
 was as the half-way house between Europe and Asia ; 
 — " the whole town may be considered as one great Inn 
 fitted up for the reception of all comers and goers." Banks, 
 as always, has interesting things to say about the ladies. 
 " In general," he wrote, " they are handsome, . . . and 
 when married, (no reflection upon my countrywomen), are 
 the best housekeepers imaginable, and great child-bearers. 
 Had I been inclined for a wife, I think this is the place 
 of all others I have seen where I could have best suited 
 myself." The fact, however, is that, when Banks was 
 inclined for a wife, he suited himself in England. 
 
 They reached St. Helena on the ist of May, and stayed 
 until the 5th. Banks got an unfavourable impression, 
 and he has a very hard saying about the English and Dutch 
 as colony-makers : — " Were the Cape now in the hands 
 of the English it would be a desert, as St. Helena in the 
 hands of the Dutch would infalhbly become a paradise." 
 And he declared that the cruelties of the Enghsh to their 
 slaves are both more frequent and more wanton " than 
 ever their neighbours the Dutch, famed for inhumanity, 
 are guilty of." 
 
 Cook was nearing home. On the 1 8th of June he got 
 late political news from New England schooners cruising 
 for whales. King George had behaved very ill for some 
 time, but the colonists had brought him to terms at last. 
 Disputes were at an end ; " and, to confirm this, the Master 
 said that the coat on his back was made in Old England." 
 On the 13th of July Cook anchored in the Downs. " I 
 flatter myself," he wrote to the Admiralty, " that the dis- 
 coveries we have made, though not great, will apologize 
 
DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 455 
 
 for the length of the voyage." Their Lordships rephed 
 that they extremely well approved of the whole of Cook's 
 proceedings. Cook had an hour's talk with the King, 
 who was also pleased to express his approbation. The 
 Royal Society also was gratified. Cook had been well 
 worth his five shillings a day, and the grant of four thousand 
 pounds had proved more than was needed. The Society 
 generously voted that the balance which Cook had saved 
 should be expended on a bust ; — a bust not, of course, 
 of Cook, but of George. 
 
 " I have made no very great discoveries," Cook repeats Cook's 
 in a letter to his old employer, Mr. Walker of Whitby, apologies. 
 " yet I have explored more of the South Sea than all 
 that have gone before me ; in so much that little remains 
 now to be done to have a thorough knowledge of that 
 part of the globe." There is a curiously apologetic tone in 
 all Cook's estimates of the value of his discoveries. He 
 had to meet the accusation of geographers like Dalrymple 
 that he had not discovered their Southern Continent. 
 And he can only modestly suggest in self-defence that 
 one reason of his failure is that that continent does not 
 exist. But Banks, at all events, had no need to apologize. 
 Geographical discoveries might not be satisfactory to 
 geographers. Long fed on boundless hopes of Golden 
 Continents, how angrily they spurned the scanty fare 
 of New Zealand and New Holland ! But botanical dis- Botanists 
 coveries had far surpassed even the great expectations triumphant, 
 of the botanists. Mr. John Ellis, F.R.S., who had written 
 to Linnaeus the great news that Banks and Solander 
 were setting forth, now wrote to him the still greater news 
 that they had returned; — returned "laden with the 
 greatest treasure of natural history that ever was brought 
 into any country at one time by two persons." ^ Linnaeus 
 implored his correspondent to persuade Solander to send 
 him " some specimens of plants from Banksia in Terra 
 Austrahs" ; for, he added, " the new-found country ought 
 to be named Banksia from its discoverer, as America from 
 Americus." The great botanist will see these specimens 
 . 1 Maiden's Banks, p. 8i. 
 
^56 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 as Moses saw Canaan. He has been distressed, and even 
 deprived of sleep, by the report that Solander intends 
 to set out on a new voyage before cataloguing what he 
 has brought home : — this matchless and truly astonishing 
 collection, such as has never been seen before, nor 
 may ever be seen again. There were good reasons in 
 those days to approve the change of name of Stingray 
 to Botany ! The week spent on its sandy shores was 
 to make an epoch in botanical studies as well as in political 
 geography. It led to the foundation of Sydney and to 
 the British colonization of Australia. And it also, wrote 
 a famous botanist of later date, " proved the example 
 and spur of all that has been done for natural science 
 during h'alf a century, in Britain, perhaps in every quarter 
 of the world." \ 
 
 ^ Maiden, p. 94. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Cook's Voyage towards the South Pole. 
 Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 
 Forster's Voyage Round The World. 
 
 I regret that in Australia we have not the material 
 for a thorough study of Cook's second and third voyages. 
 It seems that, after his return from the second voyage, 
 Cook himself wrote a narrative, based on his own Logs 
 and Journals, and on those of Furneaux, of the scientists, 
 and of other officers. These documents exist in London, 
 and have been used by Mr. Kitson, but they have never 
 been printed. What was printed was an edition of 
 Cook's narrative by the Rev. John Douglas, Canon of 
 Windsor, and afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. I gather 
 that this deceitful clergyman also edited the narrative 
 of the third voyage, using the Logs and Journals as he 
 pleased. " Though," writes Mr. Kitson, " he does not 
 approach the absurdities of Hawkesworth, he has ' im- 
 proved ' Cook's manuscript to such an extent in many 
 places that passages are quite irreconcilable with the 
 original." I regret that I have had to use this un- 
 trustworthy edition. 
 
 Cook had not discovered the Southern Continent, but Another 
 he had not proved that the Southern Continent did not curiosftv 
 exist. Somewhere in the huge vacancy of the Endeavour's 
 zigzag a continent might lie hidden, rich and large, though 
 not so large as Quiros and Dalrymple had imagined. 
 Both Cook and Banks had urged another " voyage of 
 curiosity," to complete the discovery of the South Sea : 
 — a voyage which should prove once for all whether a 
 continent did or did not exist, which should rediscover 
 
 457 
 
458 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 the forgotten discoveries of early voyages, connect things 
 new and old, and get material for a full and exact map 
 of the Pacific. 
 The rivalry And there was another motive in mind, about which 
 and Britain. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^' ^^^ which was perhaps even more compelling 
 than the "curiosity" of the Royal Society. French 
 men of science were as curious about the Pacific as British 
 men of science. Bougainville had successors. Surville 
 rediscovered New Zealand two months after Cook, and 
 French and British navigators were on the New Zealand 
 coast at the same time, though neither, it seems, was 
 aware of the other's voyage.^ Bougainville, after enter- 
 taining Aotanrou at Paris for eleven months, put him on 
 board a ship for the Isle of France, with instructions 
 that he was to be sent to Tahiti in a ship towards the 
 equipment of which the chivalrous Frenchman had con- 
 tributed one third of his whole fortune. The ship was 
 to take tools, seed, and cattle ; and the plan evidently 
 was to form a French settlement in the beautiful island 
 — an island discovered and annexed by Wallis ! The 
 French would probably take Tasman's route, make for 
 New Zealand, and annex also those islands. Meanwhile 
 in 1 77 1 the French Captain Marion had sailed to the 
 Pacific to search for the Southern Continent, still identified 
 with the land of Gonneville. And, in the same year, another 
 French Captain, Kerguelen, also sailed on the same quest. 
 The British Government had no hot desire to annex 
 the Pacific, but was determined that the French should 
 not do S0.2 
 
 1 The subject has been studied in the most complete and exact way 
 by M'Nab, who comes to the conclusion that " during the next few 
 days Cook and De Surville were within a few miles of one another, 
 but neither was aware of the other's presence " (M'Nab's From Tasman 
 to Marsden, pp. 46, 47. Cf. Forster, vol. i. p. 235, Historical Records 
 of New Zealand, vol. ii. p. 266, and Kitson, p. 155). 
 
 2 The Spaniards also regarded the British intrusion in the Pacific 
 Ocean — their Ocean ! — with bitter jealousy. Their feelings are illu- 
 strated in a very curious way in documents which have been edited 
 for the Hakluyt Society by Mr. C. Corney in The Voyage of Captain 
 Felipe Gonzalez, and The Quest and Occupation of Tahiti by Missionaries 
 of Spain, during the years iyy2-iyy6. The Spaniards were thrown into 
 panic by the news of Byron's voyage. They suspected that the British 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 459 
 
 The head of the Admiralty was Banks's old angling Banks's 
 friend, Lord Sandwich, who had plotted with him to drain Preparations, 
 the Serpentine in the interests of scientific knowledge. 
 He easily consented to join in this larger plot, and — let 
 us carefully remember what is perhaps the only good 
 deed that has ever been ascribed to him — greatly astonished 
 Cook by coming on board several times to inspect the 
 ship : — " a laudable though rare thing in a First Lord 
 of the Admiralty." It was resolved to send 122^0 ships, 
 — Cook remembered his experiences among coral reefs 
 too vividly to be content to sail again with only one — and 
 the purpose of the voyage was " to settle whether the 
 unexplored part of the Southern Hemisphere be only 
 an immense mass of water, or contain a continent as 
 speculative geography seemed to suggest." Cook was 
 to command, and Banks was to have passage again at 
 the head of a scientific " suite." He made preparations 
 with his usual energy and generosity, and bought five 
 thousand pounds' worth of goods for use on the voyage. 
 Many of the receipts can still be seen in a volume of manu- 
 scripts, now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, in which Banks 
 bound the documents which tell the story of his indus- 
 trious preparations. So busy was he in these prepara- 
 tions, that he was unable to find time to write an account 
 
 were planning settlements in the Falkland Islands, in the Straits, in 
 Patagonia, in Easter Island, in Tahiti ; — in defiance of " our exclusive 
 rights of navigation in the Seas of the Indies ! " The British minister 
 replied to the enquiries of the Spanish ambassador " in a bantering 
 tone." The voyagers, he said, " had been out looking for giants." 
 " I answered him that, if they had enquired of me for information 
 concerning these folk, I would have given it them, and spared them 
 the voyage . . . He asked me if the whole world was Spain's : and I 
 replied that, as to that portion, yes." " Statesmen of Madrfd," writes 
 Mr. Corney, " believed that the alleged scheme of ' el famoso Capitan 
 Santiago Cok,' as they were wont to call him, for observing at Tahiti 
 the transit of Venus, was merely a pretext for penetrating, in the 
 interests of political aggrandisement, seas and latitudes over which 
 His Majesty of Spain claimed exclusive sovereignty." The Spaniards 
 took the matter in great seriousness ; sent ships to scour the seas for 
 British settlements ; rediscovered Easter Island in 1770, named it 
 Carlos Island, and annexed it : and visited Tahiti in 1772. It was a 
 bitter story to a patriotic Spaniard : — " the" islands the aforesaid 
 Wallace (Wallis) claims to have discovered are the same that were seen 
 in the year 1605 by Quiros." 
 
refuses to go. 
 
 460 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of his voyage in the Endeavour, and therefore, like Cook, 
 placed his Journal at the disposal of Dr. Hawkesworth. 
 
 The But unhappily Banks did not sail. He and Cook 
 
 and\he ^^^ different opinions in respect to the choice of ships. 
 
 Adventure. Cook was a modest man, but he was also a sensible sea 
 captain, and could stand no criticism of his ship. If 
 one might believe him, the whole credit of his discoveries 
 was due to the excellences of the Endeavour,^ and he 
 insisted that the new voyage must be sailed in a ship 
 of the same type. The Endeavour happened to be away 
 from England ; but the Navy Board, taking Cook's advice, 
 bought two ships built on the same lines by the same 
 Whitby builder. The Resolution was of 462 tons, the 
 Adventure of 336. They were fourteen or fifteen months 
 old, and as well adapted to the intended service, says 
 Cook, as if built for the purpose. 
 
 Banks But Banks took a different view. While Cook's first 
 
 thought was of navigation, Banks's first thought was of 
 Science. About matters of personal comfort he was 
 indifferent. Six feet square was enough for himself, 
 and, whether the Sources of the Nile or the South Pole 
 were to be visited, he was equally ready to embark.^ But 
 the ship on which he sailed must have accommodation 
 for the needs of his men of science — even on the Endeavour, 
 he complained, "my business was imperfectly done" — 
 and he had recommended the use of a large East Indiaman. 
 Finding Cook's ship " very improper for our purpose," 
 he made protest to his friend Lord Sandwich, who accord- 
 ingly ordered drastic changes. The result of the well- 
 meaning attempt to please both Cook and Banks was 
 that the ship, in the judgment of the former, was made 
 so " crank " that " she could not put to sea." And Cook 
 
 ^ " It was the Endeavour that enabled us to prosecute discoveries 
 in those seas so much longer than any ship ever did or could do, ... to 
 traverse a far greater space of sea till then unnavigated, to discover 
 greater tracks of country in high and low South Latitudes, and to 
 persevere longer in exploring and surveying more correctly the extensive 
 coasts of those new discovered countries than any former navigator had 
 done during one voyage." 
 
 ^ Manuscript letter in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 461 
 
 got his own way, even when matched against Banks and 
 Sandwich. The new structures were removed, and Cook 
 again declared that the ship was the most proper ship 
 for the service he had ever seen. Towards the close 
 of his life Banks told the story of his defeat in words 
 which showed that the injury still rankled. He was, 
 he says, " again offered the alternative to go or let it alone, 
 with a good deal of coolness." He had inadvertently 
 allowed the Navy Board to see his Journal ; and, knowing 
 his ideas, they thought that they could do without his 
 assistance. " As the alternative they had made rendered 
 it impossible for my people to be lodged, or to do their 
 respective duties, I resolved to refuse to go." ^ 
 
 One must regret that Banks did not sail in this famous Cook and 
 voyage. The two Forsters, who took his place, were Banks, 
 competent men of science, and the younger Forster wrote 
 a book which Besant calls " a very good book indeed." 
 But they were doleful and querulous comrades. In the 
 story of the second voyage one misses the radiancy of 
 the human boy, and no doubt Cook missed it too. And 
 still more must one regret the " coolness " between old 
 comrades in adventure and in research. Fortunately, the 
 letter which gives evidence of the " coolness " gives 
 evidence also that warmth soon returned. " Dear Sir," 
 wrote Cook to Banks from Capetown in November 1772, 
 " some cross circumstances which happened at the latter 
 part of the equipment of the Resolution created, I have 
 reason to think, a coolness between you and me. But 
 I can by no means think it was sufficient to me to break 
 off a correspondence with a man I am under many obhga- 
 tions to." And he wrote a simple newsy letter, admirably 
 calculated to restore an easy and friendly intercourse. 
 When he returned from the voyage, he visited Solander, 
 and sent his curiosities to him at the British Museum. 
 " Captain Cook," wrote Solander to Banks, " desires 
 his best compliments to you ; he expressed himself in 
 the most friendly manner towards you that could be ; 
 he said ' Nothing could have added to the satisfaction he 
 ^ Smith's Banks, p. 26 note. 
 
462 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Cook and 
 Furneaux 
 sail, June 
 
 1772. 
 
 Antarctic 
 exploration 
 
 has had in making this tour, but having had your com- 
 pany.' " 1 The hot-tempered generous Banks knew Cook 
 too well to make a "coolness" into a quarrel. When Cook 
 returned, the Royal Society awarded him the Prize Medal 
 of the year. " I am obliged," he wrote to Banks, " to 
 you and my other good friends for this unmerited honour." 
 In 1784 Banks himself was President of the Royal Society, 
 and he wrote a letter to Mrs. Cook requesting her to accept 
 from the Fellows of the Society " a medal in gold struck 
 in honour of your late husband." " As his friend, I 
 rejoin to yours my sincere regret for the loss this nation 
 has suffered in the death of so valuable a man, and that 
 which the Royal Society feels in so valuable a member." 
 The words were formal, but they would have satisfied 
 Cook, and he would have liked the word " friend." 
 The two ships sailed in June 1772. Cook commanded 
 the Resolution. The Captain of the Adventure was Fur- 
 neaux, who had sailed under Walhs in the Dolphin. In 
 November they left the Cape, and plunged South in search 
 of the land which Bouvet had believed to be a promontory 
 of the Southern Continent, and had called Cape Circum- 
 cision. There followed the first chapter in the story of 
 Antarctic exploration. Hilly islands of ice two miles 
 in circuit came into sight, and were sometimes mistaken 
 for land ; "a view that for a few minutes was pleasing 
 to the eye, but, when we reflected on the danger, the mind 
 was filled with horror ; were a ship to get against the 
 weather side of one of those islands when the sea runs 
 high, she would be dashed to pieces in a moment." The 
 ice-islands threatened to close in upon them, and " pack 
 them " ; and a man who had been in the Greenland trade 
 told how they had been " packed " for six or nine weeks. 
 Then there appeared " an immense field of low ice," to 
 which they could see no end. They tried to round it, 
 but again and again found themselves " quite embayed." 
 They sailed through broken ice that reminded Cook of 
 the Coral Islands of the Tropical Pacific. With admirable 
 persistence he fought his way South to 6^°. Enderby 
 
 ^ Hooker, p. xxviii. 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 463 
 
 Land lay a little to the East, but Cook could see nothing 
 but the ice-barrier, which stretched without the least 
 appearance of an opening. He grew sceptical as to the 
 argument that ice means land, and, as to birds, they were 
 deceivers ever. He concluded that Bouvet had seen 
 mountains of ice. 
 
 Sailing North, Cook looked in vain for the islands that No 
 had recently been discovered by the French navigators ^o'^^^'^^'^*- 
 Marion and Kerguelen, and reported by them to be either 
 near to or a part of the Southern Continent. He lost 
 sight of the Adventure, and rightly supposed that Furneaux 
 would visit Van Diemen's Land on the way to New Zealand. 
 Again Cook went South. He saw deceitful birds and more 
 deceitful clouds, and icebergs of appearance so " romantic " 
 that they " could only be described by the hand of an 
 able painter." Icebergs were handy when you wanted 
 water, 1 but Cook was dismayed by the awful danger of 
 being surrounded by them at night. Long hollow swells 
 proved that, if there was land to the South, it must be at 
 a great distance. They were in Latitude 58°, and the cold 
 was far more intense that the cold in the same Latitude 
 of the North. Winter was approaching, and in March 
 1773 Cook resolved to sail for the rendezvous in New 
 Zealand, in order to seek the Adventure, and to obtain refresh- 
 ment. He had "some thoughts, and even a desire, to visit 
 the East coast of Van Diemen's Land," in order to satisfy 
 himself if it joined the coast of New South Wales. But 
 the winds were unfavourable, and he made straight for 
 New Zealand. 
 
 At the end of March 1773 he came to Dusky Bay in Dusky Bay, 
 the South-West corner of the South island. He had ^^^ ^ 
 observed and named the Bay on his first voyage. He March 1773. 
 found, as he had expected, good anchorage, and resolved 
 to examine the Southern end of the island. To-day one 
 may see the stumps of the great rimu-trees which Cook's 
 men cut down, covered with creepers and surrounded 
 
 ^ According to Forster, they discovered the fact " that nature forms 
 great masses of ice in the midst of the wide ocean, which are destitute 
 of any sahne particles, but have all the useful and salubrious qualities 
 of the pure element." 
 
464 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 by the new jungle. They used the trees to brew a beer 
 which Cook praised highly; but he was thinking of medicine 
 rather than of drink, and his taste in liquor was probably 
 utilitarian. They explored the neighbouring coves, " every 
 place affording something, especially to us to whom nothing 
 came amiss." Some chmbed the mountains, but could 
 see nothing inland but more " barren mountains with huge 
 craggy precipices frightful to behold." They shot ducks 
 in Duck Creek, landed geese in Geese Cove, and lunched 
 in Luncheon Cove. For half an hour they had "chit-chat" 
 with two native women, and the sailors made the laborious 
 joke that " women did not want tongue in any part of 
 the world." " Her volubiHty of tongue," says Cook 
 of one of them, " exceeded every thing I have ever met 
 with." Nevertheless, he summed up strongly in favour 
 of Dusky Bay, not only as a place of refreshment, but 
 also as a possible centre of British commerce ; and 
 " although," he wrote, " this country be far remote 
 from the present trading parts of the world, we can by 
 on means tell what use future ages may make of the 
 discovery." He praised especially the magnificent timber, 
 which was " large enough to make mainmast for a 
 fifty-gun ship." 
 Furneaux Thence Cook sailed to the rendezvous in Queen Charlotte 
 explores Sound, where, on the nth of May, he found the Adventure, 
 Diemen's Furncaux had anchored there six weeks before. After 
 losing sight of the Resolution on the 7th of February, 
 he had sailed for Van Diemen's Land. He had seen land 
 on the 9th of March, and had found the soil " very rich." 
 He thought he was on Tasman's South Cape. In reality 
 he was on the South-West Cape. He sailed Eastward 
 identifying the headlands with those named by Tasman, 
 and identifying them all wrongly. ^ Owing to his initial 
 mistake he always imagined that he was further to the 
 East than was the case. He anchored in Adventure 
 Bay in Bruny Island and thought that he was in Tasman's 
 Frederick Henry Bay on the East coast. Later he realised 
 that Frederick Henry Bay was further North, but he never 
 ^ Cf. Walker's Early Tasmania, p. 137. See maps, pp. 272, 273. 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 465 
 
 realised that it was also further East. That is the reason 
 
 why on the modern map that Bay is on the West side 
 
 of Tasman's peninsula, and not, where Tasman put it, 
 
 on the East. When he rounded Cape Pillar he thought 
 
 he was rounding Maria Island. He intended to sail North 
 
 till he came to Point Hicks, the first point seen by Cook 
 
 on the East coast of New Holland. By so doing, he would 
 
 finally settle the question, left undetermined by Cook, 
 
 whether New Holland and Van Diemen's Land were or 
 
 were not one land. He sailed as far North as the islands 
 
 now called Furneaux Islands, but the wind was unfavour- Fumeaux 
 
 able to further progress. So he sailed for New Zealand, islands. 
 
 recording his opinion that " there is no strait between 
 
 New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, but a very deep 
 
 bay." Bayley the astronomer, however, thought it very 
 
 " evident that this is the mouth of a strait which separates 
 
 New Holland from Van Diemen's Land." ^ 
 
 Cook himself had wished to visit Van Diemen's Land No 
 to determine this question. But he considered that between^ 
 Furneaux had " in great measure cleared up that point," America 
 and that he had no business there. On the 7th of June zealamL 
 he sailed Eastward to see whether a continent was to be 
 found between 40° and 46°. He calls attention to the 
 date, and claims that this voyage will show that " it is 
 practicable to go on discoveries even in the depth of winter." 
 The search was fruitless, and Cook became confirmed 
 in the opinion that "there is no Southern Continent between 
 America and New Zealand." The "large hollow swell" 
 proved that no land was near. If a Southern Continent 
 existed, it existed in a very high Latitude, and could 
 only be discovered in a midsummer voyage. 
 
 So Cook sailed North to Tahiti, and arrived there in Tahiti, 
 August. He was welcomed in that loving island with "^* ^''^3" 
 a warmth of affection that touched emotion. A venerable 
 old lady could not look upon him without tears, and Cook 
 found it almost impossible to refrain " mingling my tears 
 with hers." When they sailed, Furneaux took with him a 
 native named Omai as a present for Banks, who " kept 
 
 1 M'Nab's Historical Records of New Zealand, vol. ii. p. 200. 
 w.A. 2 G 
 
466 TPIE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 him as an object of curiosity, to observe the workings 
 of an untutored mind." ^ Lord Sandwich introduced 
 him to the King, and the workings of the untutored mind 
 led him to exclaim, " How do, King Tosh ? " 
 Tonga In September Cook sailed West, discovered the Harvey 
 
 Islands, and rediscovered the islands of Amsterdam and 
 Middleburg, which Tasman had discovered one hundred 
 and thirty years before. Cook called them the " Friendly 
 New Zealand Islands." In November he was again in Queen Char- 
 ^o^'iyjo lotte's Sound, but the Adventure did not arrive, and her 
 story henceforth is apart from that of the Resolution. 
 Cook renewed his study of the Maori character, which 
 greatly interested him. The Maoris brought a broiled 
 head aboard, and ate it in the presence of the Englishmen. 
 Cook was horrified, but " curiosity got the better of indigna- 
 tion," and he ordered a piece of flesh to be broiled. His 
 estimate of the Maori character shows how science was 
 teaching men to understand rather than to condemn. 
 Maori He sees clearly that the Maoris, in spite of ancient and 
 
 unpleasing habits, had reached " some state of civilisation." 
 " Few," he writes, " consider what a savage man is in 
 his natural state. . . . The New Zealanders are certainly 
 in some state of civilisation ; their behaviour to us was 
 manly and mild ; they have some arts ; are less addicted 
 to theft than other islanders ; are honest among them- 
 selves ; their cannibalism is an ancient custom ; they eat 
 their enemies as their enemies would eat them." They 
 are, in short, not wicked heathen, but old-fashioned and 
 slow-learning Tories. 
 The Southern In November Cook buried a bottle containing information 
 under ice. ^or Furneaux, and sailed to make thorough exploration 
 of the huge region of the South-East Pacific, where, if 
 anywhere, the unknown continent must exist. He plunged 
 South-East, and touched the Arctic circle ; then back 
 North, till he approached his earher tracks ; then South 
 once more to a point even further South than those reached 
 before. The cold became so intense that it could hardly 
 be endured. The ice-barrier seemed impassable. Cook 
 * Smith's Banks, p. 42. 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 467 
 
 counted " 97 ice-hills within the field, looking hke a ridge 
 of mountains rising one above another till they were lost 
 in the clouds." " Such mountains of ice," he thought, 
 " never were seen in the Greenland seas." Petrels seemed 
 to show there must be land further South, but it was 
 impossible to sail further, and Cook thought that question 
 would perhaps never be determined. " I will not say," 
 he wrote with his usual carefulness, " it was impossible to 
 get further South ; but the attempting it would have been 
 a dangerous and rash enterprise. It was my opinion 
 that this ice extended quite to the Pole, and perhaps 
 joined to some land to which it had been fixed from earliest 
 time. I think there must be some land behind this ice 
 .... Yet I, who had ambition not only to go further 
 than anyone had been before, but as far as it was possible 
 for man to go, was not sorry at meeting this interruption." 
 He was certain that " no continent was to be found 
 in this ocean but what must lie so far to the South as 
 to be wholly inaccessible on account of the ice." 
 
 Cook had now accomplished the main task. He had Cook's lack 
 finally destroyed the theory that a Southern Continent ^hJ^So^th ^^ 
 extended into warm and temperate regions. The problem Pole, 
 for the future was not the search for " Terra Australis," 
 but " the siege of the South Pole," and that problem 
 Cook willingly bequeathed to those who might think 
 the game worth the candle. 
 
 But, though Cook felt no interest in the South- Pole, He solves 
 he felt deep interest in the Pacific. Here much remained problems of 
 unknown that was knowable, and well worth knowing, the Pacific. 
 " There remained room for very large islands in places 
 wholly unexamined." And there also remained fascinating 
 problems bequeathed by old navigators ; islands which 
 they had discovered, and whichno one had seen for centuries, 
 must now be rediscovered, and must be explained in relation 
 to things known. A true map of the Pacific must be 
 constructed, that would enable men to understand the 
 story of two hundred years of exploration. 
 
 Cook therefore sailed North. He sought for the con- Juan 
 tinent that had been seen by Juan Fernandez in the late ^™^" ^^* 
 
468 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 sixteenth century, and he concluded that it could be 
 " nothing but a small island." He saw plenty of birds ; 
 " but I do not believe," he wrote, with something like 
 temper, " there is one in the whole tribe that can be relied 
 on in pointing out the vicinity of land." In March 1774 
 Easter he rediscovered Roggeveen's " Easter Island,"^ and wrote 
 
 March 1774. ^^ account of the big statues which seem to suggest a 
 clue, not yet fully understood, to the problem of Pacific 
 civilisation. 2 For the present. Cook pointed to the extra- 
 ordinary fact that " the same nations have spread them- 
 selves over all the isles in this vast Ocean from New 
 Zealand to this island, one quarter the circumference of 
 the globe." 
 
 In the same month, March 1774, Cook rediscovered 
 
 the Marquesas, islands unvisited since Mendana and 
 
 Quiros discovered them in 1595. He determined their 
 
 exact situation, and thus obtained a clue to the geography 
 
 Th® of Mendafia's voyage. The change of civilisation was 
 
 Marquesas. .,, , , , , r rT>, t-. n/r i 
 
 illustrated by the change 01 name. Ihe rort Madre 
 de Dios of Quiros became Cook's Resolution Bay. The 
 natives of the Marquesas, he wrote, are " without exception 
 the finest race of people in this sea " ; a statement which 
 makes the more sad R. L. Stevenson's sad description 
 in 1888. 
 Tahiti again, In April he was in Tahiti again, where he witnessed 
 P" T774- ^ grand naval review of one hundred and fifty large double 
 canoes, each containing forty men. Once more he was 
 plagued by the one fault of his friends; and he discusses, 
 with admirable understanding and charity, the question 
 how one may best deal with good-natured and even 
 affectionate, kleptomaniacs. He called at his old haunts 
 in the Society Islands, and was everywhere received with 
 affection, which he returned in a way so warm that one 
 gets an insight into a sometimes unsuspected element 
 in his austere and reticent character. He describes one 
 chieftain as " a good man in the utmost sense of the word." 
 
 ^ The Spaniards had rediscovered it before him in 1770, and had 
 annexed it. See p. 458, note. 2. 
 
 2 See Mrs. Routledge's Easter Island, 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 469 
 
 Another friend asked him to come back again ; and, when 
 he found this could not be, " he asked," says Cook, " the 
 name of my Marai or burying place. I told him Stepney, 
 the parish in which I live when in London, and they shouted 
 ' Stepney Marai no Toote.' " 
 
 Then he sailed again to the Friendly Islands, and thence The New 
 sailed on to learn the truth about Quiros's Austrialia del H6t)rides. 
 Espiritu Santo. Bougainville, we remember, had redis- 
 covered the land of Quiros in 1768, and had proved that it 
 was no continent, but a group of Islands, which he named 
 the Great Cyclades. Cook now explored them with far 
 greater thoroughness, and thought himself justified in giving 
 them a Scotch name, — " the New Hebrides." ^ He noticed 
 how easily Quiros had misunderstood the geography of 
 the discovery. " It was not without reason," he wrote, 
 that Quiros thought the land to be " part of the Southern 
 Continent, which at that time, and till very lately, was 
 supposed to exist." Cook himself, like Quiros, saw " land 
 further than the eye could reach." 
 
 In interesting detail. Cook traced the geography of the The Bay of 
 story of 1606. He visited a Bay which, he was perfectly g^^^"^ 3^^ ^P 
 sure, was the Bay of St. Philip and St. James ; — the Bay James, 
 in which Quiros had founded the City of New Jerusalem "^' ^''^'^' 
 which was never built. " I found the general points to 
 agree so well with Quiros's description, that I had not 
 the least doubt about it." He recognised the long deep 
 harbour, and the passage up it gave him almost as much 
 trouble as it had given Quiros that stormy night when 
 he sought in vain to anchor. The whole topography 
 of the place fitted the story which Quiros had told ; the 
 very deep water two cables from the beach, the fresh- 
 water stream so large and deep that boats could enter 
 it at high tide, the luxuriant vegetation, the sides of 
 the hills chequered with plantations, and every valley 
 watered by a stream. Even the poisonous fish were 
 there, and they poisoned Cook's men as one hundred and 
 sixty years before their ancestors had poisoned the men 
 
 ^ " The Hebrides," explains Forster (vol. ii. p. 366), " are the western- 
 most islands of Great Britain." 
 
470 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 New 
 
 Caledonia, 
 Sept. 1774. 
 
 Norfolk 
 Island. 
 
 New 
 Zealand 
 again, 
 Oct. 1774. 
 
 of Quiros.^ Cook thought the evidence sufficient, and 
 he called the Eastern point of the Bay, Cape Quiros. 
 (August 1774.) 
 
 Saihng Southward, he discovered (4th September) a 
 large island which he called New Caledonia ; he was in 
 Scotch mood during this period of the voyage. He does 
 not explain why he gave the name to this island, but 
 we are to gather a hint from his statement that the inhabi- 
 tants " had little else than good nature to bestow, in which 
 they exceed all the nations we have yet met with."^ The 
 country seemed to be barren, and to resemble New Holland 
 in the same Latitude. In fact he thought it possible 
 that New Caledonia might be connected with New Holland 
 by isles and sand-banks ; but he heard later that the 
 Frenchman Surville had proved that this was not the 
 case. In spite of the barrenness of the island, it grew 
 good timber ; — a noteworthy fact, for Cook knew no 
 island in the South Pacific, except New Zealand, where a 
 ship could supply herself with masts and yards. 
 
 Still sailing South, Cook discovered the tiny island 
 which he named "Norfolk Island," "in honour of the 
 noble house of Howard " ; and he wrote a description 
 which had the result of linking its history in sinister way 
 with the convict colony in New South Wales. " If it had 
 been of a greater size," wrote Forster, "it would have 
 been unexceptionable for a European settlement." 
 
 In October he was once more in Queen Charlotte Sound. 
 He gathered from the natives, who welcomed him by 
 " jumping and skipping about like madmen," that the 
 Adventure had come in soon after the departure of the 
 Resolution. He also heard a story about the massacre 
 of a boatful of Enghshmen, but could make httle of it. 
 
 ^ Cook's men were poisoned by fish eaten in the island of Ambrym ; 
 but Forster recognised them as "of the same species " as those which 
 had poisoned the Spaniards in the Bay of St. Phihp and St. James. 
 The Spanish pagrus is the red sea-bream {sparus erythrinus). Forster, 
 vol. ii. pp. 237 and 244. 
 
 * Forster (vol. ii. p. 378) explains : " The whole land, appearing to be 
 very extensive, was honoured with the appellation of Nova Caledonia." 
 He adds (p. 406) that the name " suited not only the good disposition 
 of the people, but also with the nature of the country," 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 471 
 
 He retained his kindly view of the Maori character ; Humane 
 " notwithstanding they are cannibals," he remarks quaintly ^^^^^°^^s. 
 and truthfully, " they are naturally of a good disposition, 
 and have not a little humanity." Even later, when news 
 of the massacre of the Adventure's men had been followed 
 by news of the massacre of Captain Marion and his French- 
 men, Cook, after mentioning the facts, could add : — 
 " nevertheless I think them a good sort of people ; at least 
 I have always found good treatment from them." Surely 
 never was man better able than Cook to distinguish between 
 essential and irremediable bad nature and a troublesome 
 but passing phase of Toryism in a noble character. 
 
 He left New Zealand in November 1774, and now made Cape Horn, 
 the voyage thence to Cape Horn, which he had desired 
 to make in the Endeavour in 1770. " I have now done 
 with the South Pacific," he wrote, " and flatter myself 
 that no one will think I have left it unexplored, or that 
 more could have been done." Passing Cape Horn, he 
 sought to explore the " extensive coast " laid down by 
 Dalrymple in the South Atlantic. He discovered only 
 an island — which had been discovered two and a half 
 centuries before by Amerigo Vespucci ^ — and named 
 it South Georgia. It was midsummer, and the island South 
 was no further South than 54° or 55°, yet it was wholly ^^^'^^^^^ 
 covered with snow ; — a fact that made Cook reflect that 
 perhaps after all he had been mistaken about Bouvet's 
 Cape of Circumcision. Cook's thought, when he failed 
 to discover that cape, had been that Bouvet had seen 
 an iceberg, and had imagined it to be an island. In view 
 of snow-covered South Georgia, Cook now thought that 
 perhaps Bouvet had discovered an island, and that he 
 (Cook) had imagined the island to be an iceberg. If one 
 looks at a modern photograph of Bouvet Island, one realizes 
 that Cook's second thought was likely enough to be true ; 
 the island, even at photographic distance, looks more like 
 an iceberg.^ Cook, therefore, would have liked to search 
 once more for " Cape Circumscission " ; but the ship 
 
 1 See Fiske's Discovery of America, vol. ii. p. 104. 
 
 2 Mills' Siege of the South Pole, p. 404. 
 
472 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 England, 
 July 1775. 
 
 The end of 
 the search 
 after a 
 Southern 
 Continent. 
 
 The South 
 Pole is of 
 no use. 
 
 A fruitful 
 voyage. 
 
 needed repair, and the men needed refreshment ; so he 
 at last consented to steer for the Cape, where he arrived 
 in March 1775. He found that Eurneaux had brought 
 the Adventure to the Cape twelve months before, and had 
 given an account of the massacre of a boat's crew, which 
 explained the story Cook had heard in New Zealand. 
 He anchored at Spithead on the 30th of July, 1775, after 
 an absence of three years and eighteen days. 
 
 The main object of the voyage had been to determine 
 whether there was or was not a Southern Continent that 
 extended from the South Pole into temperate and tropical 
 regions. Cook had proved that such a continent did 
 not exist. " A final end had been put," thus justly he 
 summed things up, " to the searching after a Southern 
 Continent, for near two centuries a favourite theory among 
 the geographers of all ages." He beheved, nevertheless, 
 that a Southern Continent existed, and he thought it 
 probable that he had actually seen it. Its neighbourhood 
 seemed to be indicated by the excessive cold, and by the 
 ice-islands. But the Southern lands that had actually 
 been discovered — he refers apparently to South Georgia — 
 were " lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness, . . . 
 whose horrible and savage aspect," he wrote, " I have 
 not words to describe." How much more horrible and 
 savage must be the unknown continent of the still further 
 South ! " If any one should have resolution and per- 
 severance to clear up this point by proceeding further 
 than I have done, I shall not envy him the honour of the 
 discovery ; but I will be bold to say that the world will 
 not be benefited by it." 
 
 Cook has a somewhat chilly way of insisting on the 
 negative importance of his voyage. In the history of 
 exploration, he is the apostle of the victorious common 
 sense of his period, more anxious to brush away cob- 
 webs than to stir men to new enthusiasms. He seems 
 to take greater pleasure in the destruction of mistakes 
 than in the discovery of truth. Yet it was a voyage 
 of amazing fruitfulness. He had proved that the Southern 
 Continent of the theorists did not exist ; but he had also 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 473 
 
 made it very probable that an Antarctic Continent did 
 exist. He was the last seeker of the continent, which 
 Mercator had drawn, and which Quiros had described. 
 But he was also the first scientific explorer of the South 
 Polar Regions, the precursor of Weddell and Ross, of 
 Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott. And, moreover, the 
 work he had done by the way, the work of exploration 
 in the temperate and tropical regions of the South Pacific, 
 was of very great value. North, South, East, and West, 
 Cook had voyaged through the immense ocean, with search- 
 light and measuring-rod, discovering islands, rediscovering 
 the discoveries of earlier days, bringing into existence a 
 map of the Pacific which, while much remained to be filled 
 in, was at least correct in its outlines and conceptions. 
 When the polite French navigator Laperouse complained 
 that Cook had left nothing for his successors to do but 
 to praise him, the compliment was sincere, and, in the 
 sense in which the words were spoken, it was true. 
 
 "Cook," wrote Laperouse, "will always appear to me Good health 
 the greatest of navigators, the true Columbus of this ^^ "^^^lu 
 country." 1 Cook made no such claim, and probably Southern 
 he would have willingly consented to the claim which Continent. 
 Quiros had made to that title. His claim was only that 
 he had done his " duty." He made, however, one modest 
 boast. In a voyage of over three years only four men 
 had died. Of the four only one had died of sickness, 
 and his sickness had not been scurvy. Cook had not 
 discovered the Southern Continent, but he had dis- 
 covered something far more valuable. He had discovered 
 that by the use of anti-scorbutics, by careful airing of the 
 ship, by scrupulous attention to cleanliness, a very long 
 voyage might be made through all variations of climates 
 without injury to health. And he beheved that this dis- 
 covery would " make the voyage remarkable when disputes 
 about a Southern Continent shall have ceased to engage 
 attention." And the men of science agreed with him. 
 In February 1776 Cook was elected member of the Royal 
 Society, and he wrote a paper in explanation of the means 
 ^ Laperouse was writing especially of the Sandwich Islands. 
 
474 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 he had used for the prevention and cure of scurvy. The 
 Society awarded to him the Copley gold medal for the best 
 paper contributed during the year. " If Rome," said 
 the President, " decreed the Civic Crown to him who 
 saved the life of a single citizen, what wreaths are due to 
 that man, who, having himself saved many, perpetuates 
 in your Transactions the means by which Britain may 
 now, on the most distant voyages, preserve numbers 
 of her intrepid sons, her mariners? " 
 "A pretty In August 1775 Cook, now at the height of fame, was 
 income." appointed Fourth Captain of His Majesty's Royal Hospital 
 for Seamen at Greenwich. His salary was £200 a year, 
 with a residence, fire and light, and one shilhng and two- 
 pence a day table-money. And yet, with all this mass 
 of wealth, he was not happy! "The Resolution,'" he wrote 
 to his old friend, Mr. Walker of Whitby, " was found 
 to answer even beyond my expectation, and is so little 
 injured by the voyage that she will be soon sent out again. 
 But I shall not command her. My fate drives me from 
 one extreme to another ; a few months ago the whole 
 Southern Hemisphere was hardly big enough for me, 
 and now I am going to be confined within the limits of 
 Greenwich Hospital, which are far too small for an active 
 mind like mine. I must confess it is a fine retreat, and 
 a pretty income, but whether I can bring myself to like 
 ease and retirement, time will show." 
 The third Time soon showed. In February 1776 he offered to 
 Tuf^^^' 6 command the old ship, and his offer was accepted. He was 
 happy as a lover. " I have quitted," he wrote to Mr. Walker, 
 " an easy retirement, for an active, perhaps dangerous, 
 voyage ... I embark on as fair a prospect as I can wish." 
 The second ship, the Discovery, sailed under Clerke, most 
 charming of Cook's men, who had served him both in the 
 Endeavour and in the Resolution. 
 Mainly in Cook's third voyage is in the main off the track of our 
 the North, g^ory. It was a voyage in the North Pacific. Its object 
 was to find a Northern passage from the Pacific to the 
 Atlantic ; and the chief work accomplished was the dis- 
 covery of the Sandwich Islands — a discovery which Cook 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 475 
 
 regarded as " the most important that had hitherto been 
 made by Europeans throughout the extent of the Pacific 
 Ocean " — and the exploration of the West Coast of North 
 America from Oregon to the extreme North-West point 
 of the continent. Only the introductory part of the voyage 
 comes within our view. 
 
 Cook sailed in July 1776. He called at the Cape, and Cook visits 
 when the Resolution left, " she was so stocked with animals ^fg^en's 
 that she resembled Noah's Ark." Compared as a sea-craft Land, Jan. 
 with Noah's Ark, however, she was in a bad way. " If I ^^^''* 
 return in th.Q Resolution,'" wrote Cook to Banks, "the 
 next trip I may venture in a ship built of gingerbread." 
 He passed the barren islands discovered by his French 
 rival, Marion, and called at the barren island discovered 
 by his other French rival, Kerguelen. In January 1777 
 he came to Adventure Bay in Van Diemen's Land, and 
 repeated Furneaux's mistakes in his endeavours to identify 
 Tasman's landmarks. He described Tasmanian timber 
 as " tough, straight, suitable for spars, or even masts, 
 if any means could be found to lighten it." The natives, 
 he thought, had " less genius than even the half animated 
 inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego." Unluckily, he did 
 not think it worth while to sail Northward to Point Hicks 
 to test Furneaux's opinion that Van Diemen's Land and 
 New Holland are one land. 
 
 In February he was once more in Queen Charlotte New 
 Sound. The Maoris gave an account of the massacre pg^ 1777 
 of Furneaux's men, and he concluded that it would be 
 neither just nor wise to seek vengeance. With all their 
 Tory faults he loved them still. Yet he saw the faults 
 clearly enough. The people of each hamlet by turn 
 applied to him to destroy the others. " They must live," 
 he explains, " under a perpetual apprehension of being 
 destroyed by each other ; the desire of a good meal may 
 be no small incitement ; war is their principal occupation." 
 Their articles of commerce, he adds, are "curiosities, 
 fish, and women." 
 
 He left New Zealand in the same month, visited the Tonga 
 Hervey or Scott Islands, and spent two or three months ^s^^"^^- 
 
476 THE DISC0VP:RY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 in the Friendly Islands ; — " future navigators," he writes, 
 " may behold these meadows stocked with cattle brought 
 by the ships of England." Once more he discusses with 
 understanding and with charity the psychology of the 
 innocent kleptomaniac ; " great allowance should be 
 made for the foibles of these poor natives of the Pacific, 
 whose minds are overpowered with the glare of objects 
 equally new and captivating." A flogging made no 
 more impression on them .than it would have made on 
 the mainmast. But Gierke thought of a punishment 
 that proved wonderfully effective ; he shaved their heads. 
 In August they came to Tahiti, and Omai, the native 
 whom Furneaux had taken to England, was restored to 
 his fatherland. In November Cook sailed Northward, 
 and passed out of our story of the South Pacific. 
 Cook's The sense of Cook's greatness grows in the student's 
 
 character. ^[^^^^ f^g ^q^^ ^q^ storm our admiration as, for example, 
 does Drake or Wolfe. There is a certain quietness and 
 reticence in his life, as in his conversation, and as in his 
 writings. He was, we are told, a good talker, yet none 
 of his talk has lived. He wrote accounts of his own 
 voyages in admirable English, but his object was to get 
 the story told, and, as we read, we think rather of the story 
 than of the man. In no one moment does Cook shine 
 forth the evident hero. His character in some way reminds 
 one of that of his greatest contemporary, George Washing- 
 ton — he who won a great war without winning a battle. 
 His greatness appears as we think, not of one moment, 
 Heroism, but of the whole life. Heroism was so wrought into 
 the texture of character, that he tells a heroic story in 
 a way that makes one imagine it a matter-of-course affair. 
 We think that the story lacks interest, when the fact 
 is that it lacks egotism. Cook solves the riddle of the 
 Pacific, and he tells you that he has done his duty, and 
 has made " a complete voyage." We have to find for 
 ourselves that none but Cook could have done this 
 duty, or could have completed this voyage ; that the 
 reason of victory was greatness of mind, of will, and of 
 spirit. 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 477 
 
 Cook possessed a marvellous combination of qualities. Activity of 
 His physique was splendid ; he could do anything, endure "^^'^^• 
 anything, eat anything, and digest almost anything ; ^ 
 he was only once seriously ill, and was then cured by eating 
 the ship's dog in the way of soup. His activity of mind, 
 both in speculation and in affairs was amazing. He had 
 the full scientific temperament, alike enthusiastic— though 
 he would have hated the word — and sceptical ; eager 
 to know, and to know nought save the truth. And he 
 had wonderful judgment in the drawing of inferences, 
 and in the balancing of argument. His eye for scientific 
 problems was as keen as that of a professional student. 
 He observed, for example, the curious problem of the 
 precise relation of the peoples of New Holland and of New 
 Guinea, and he discussed, a century before Darwin, the 
 probable origin and growth of the coral islands. 
 
 And he applied the same vigour of mind to the solution Practical 
 of practical questions. In the story of exploration he ^^^^^^y- 
 is the great organiser of victories. His was the policy 
 of thorough. He first thought out in full and exact 
 ways all the matters of necessary detail : — the choice 
 of ships, the instruments of navigation, the methods 
 of coastal survey, and, above all, the means of preserving 
 health. And, having thought things out, he got things 
 done. He not only did things himself, he persuaded others 
 to do them. He was a Scotchman's son, and therefore 
 a philosopher. Very remarkable are his quiet studies 
 of psychology : — the psychology, for example, of affec- 
 tionate South Sea island thieves, and of drinking, cursing, 
 courageous, faithful British seamen. He- understood" them, 
 and he knew how to persuade them to do what he wanted 
 them to do, or as much of it as it was in any way possible 
 
 ^ His only failure was with poisonous fish in New Caledonia, which 
 made him exceedingly ill, and exceedingly angry. Next time one was 
 caught, " he ordered it to be cleaned and boiled, in spite of the earnest 
 representations of all his messmates, who warned him against its 
 pernicious effects. It was at last set before him, by his positive orders, 
 and his friends found no other means to save him than to ridicule his 
 mad design. Their humorous and satirical remarks had a better effect 
 than friendly admonitions, and he desisted from the attempt " (Forster, 
 ii. pp. 403 and 439). 
 
478 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 that they should do ; for, like Burke, he believed that 
 a large part of wisdom is to know how much of the corrup- 
 tion of human nature it is wise to tolerate. 
 
 Passion and And dominant in the centre of things was character. 
 
 self-control. jj^Qge ^j^q sailed with him said that his nature was very 
 passionate. There are facts that illustrate this judgment ; 
 and on his last voyage he was guilty of actions which 
 one would like to forget. But the witness who records 
 these actions was himself amazed by them ; — amazed, 
 because they stood in inexphcable contrast to his usual 
 conduct. In general, he ruled his passions with such 
 apparent ease that one is tempted to wish that he had 
 been a trifle less virtuous. British seamen in those days 
 were still famous for what Mr. Forster, one of the scientific 
 gentlemen on the Resolution, called the dreadful " energy 
 of their language." Yet I do not remember that Cook 
 ever used a phrase above the average. And he had 
 his opportunities. What, for example, did he say when 
 he found that the islanders had stolen his stockings 
 from under his head while he was wide awake } The 
 carnal man would like to know, but there is silence. We 
 look eagerly into his virtuous life for some small redeem- 
 ing vice. " Temperance in him," wrote Captain King, 
 who sailed in the last voyage, " was scarcely a virtue ; 
 so great was the indifference with which he submitted 
 to every kind of self-denial." Surgeon Samwell quarrels 
 with this statement. Cook, he says " had no repugnance 
 to good living ; he always kept a good table, though he 
 could bear the reverse without murmuring " ; a statement 
 Vv^hich makes his virtue exceed the measure attributed 
 by King. His "austerity " was due, not to lack of capacity 
 for pleasure, but to perfection of moral self-control. 
 
 A peasant Cook, to use Cromwell's phrase, was a man of a spirit, 
 
 gentleman. ^^^ ^^^ Spirit was the spirit of the gentleman. In his 
 intercourse with men of high rank and great wealth, he 
 was always courteous, always dignified, not claiming 
 equality but assuming it. He was their equal and more 
 than their equal, not because he was a great British navi- 
 gator, but because he was a British gentleman. And he 
 
 I 
 
END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 479 
 
 was a farmer's son, self-educated and self-made, and 
 his pay when he named Port Jackson was five shilhngs 
 a day. As a child cannot be too careful in choosing his 
 grandfather, so a country cannot be too careful in choosing 
 its discoverer ; and a country with the ideals of New South 
 Wales could have made no more happy choice. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 
 
 Authorities : 
 
 Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis. 
 Historical Records of New South Wales. 
 Grant's Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery. 
 Peron and Freycinet's Voyage de Decouverte aux Terres 
 Australes. 
 
 The Voyage of Laperouse. 
 
 Scott's Terre Napoleon. 
 
 Scott's Flinders. 
 
 Scott's Laperouse. 
 
 Lee's Log Books of the Lady Nelson. 
 
 Successors The voyages of Cook are the triumph of our story. The 
 of Cook, ^^^^ j^^g arrived, has done his work, and has ta'en 
 his wages.^ We expect the interest of discovery to 
 dwindle. The big facts have been determined. The ex- 
 ploration of detail is a smaller business, and affords 
 smaller scope for heroic venture. So we think as we close 
 the last volume of Cook's Voyages. Yet many great 
 things remained to be done, and the doing of these things 
 called forth the energies of men of charming character and 
 of heroic build. In fact there is no chapter in our story 
 more rich in personality than the chapter which tells of 
 the successors of Cook, 
 in Cook was the destroyer of the Southern continent. 
 
 New^^*^^^' -^^^ while he destroyed he also discovered : — he discovered, 
 Zealand, and in addition to small islands, the three great lands of the 
 Australia. 
 
 ^ " He strives as an athlete all his life long, and then, when he has 
 come to the end of his striving, he has what is meet." Plutarch, quoted 
 in Gladstone's Diary. Morley, vol. iii. p. 87. 
 
 480 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 481 
 
 South. He first reconnoitred and roughly defined the out- 
 hne of the Antarctic Continent, destined, in spite of Cook's 
 discouraging remarks, to be besieged and stormed by 
 heroes " dear to God and famous to all ages." He first 
 called New Zealand into existence, with strong recommenda- 
 tion of its merits to those who thought of settlement. 
 He first surveyed the Eastern coast of Australia, and 
 he first believed that Australia would grow grain if " culti- 
 vated by the hands of industry." Cook himself placed 
 no very high value on these three lands ; he thought, 
 apparently, that the Sandwich Islands were worth all 
 three of them put together. Still, as we mark these things, 
 we understand that our story has not lost interest, though 
 the nature of the interest has changed. One does not 
 like to compare Cook to a star, for he would have bitterly 
 resented the comparison. But, if one were permitted 
 to do so, one would be tempted to say that Cook was 
 evening star of the old story, and morning star of a new 
 story, not less heroic and far more fruitful. 
 
 For the present, we follow this new story only in one Problems in 
 direction. The siege of the South Pole, its most heroic geography, 
 chapter, cannot now be told. The map of the Pacific 
 Islands had been drawn by Cook with so much accuracy 
 that little remained to be added, or to be corrected, save 
 in the way of detail. New Zealand's geographic business 
 had also been settled by Cook with thoroughness. But 
 in Australia much remained to be learned. Even here 
 Cook had " reaped the harvest of discovery," but, as 
 Cook's greatest successor said, " the gleanings of the field 
 remained to be gathered,"^ and they were gleanings of 
 very considerable value. In the introduction to the 
 volumes in which Flinders told the story of his voyages, 
 he showed in careful way the problems which Cook had 
 bequeathed to his successors, and it is well that we should 
 observe what those problems were.^ 
 
 Cook had surveyed the Eastern coast from Point Hicks The East 
 to Cape York, and he had accomplished this task with ^°^^^- 
 
 ^ Flinders, p. Ixxxiii. 
 
 2 See map, p. 514, and the map at the end of the volume, 
 w.A. 2 H 
 
482 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 a success, which, in view of its difficulties, was one of the 
 greatest exploits in the history of navigation. But his 
 map was a first sketch made with very imperfect instru- 
 ments — for in 1768, says Fhnders, " time-keepers were 
 in their infancy, and he was not furnished with them " ^ — 
 and made also, generally, from a distance, without oppor- 
 Torres tunity to examine even the most important features 
 Strait. ^1^^^ were noticed. He had won his way to Torres Strait 
 by a route of such incessant and prodigious dangers that 
 the only service he had rendered to his successors was 
 the knowledge that there was one route which no sensible 
 seaman would ever again sail.^ He had got through 
 Torres Strait by a passage difficult and dangerous ; but, 
 apart from this one passage, the huge chaos of the Strait 
 remained unexplored. The next British ships that sailed 
 the Strait, under Bhgh and Portlock in 1792, took' 
 nineteen days to get through f and the next, under Bampton 
 and Alt in 1793, took seventy- two days ; facts which 
 " deterred all other commanders from following them." 
 " Perhaps," wrote Flinders, " no space of three and a 
 half degrees in length presents more dangers." Yet, 
 if a passage "moderately free from danger" were found, 
 ships might save " five or six weeks of their usual route 
 The Gulf, by the North of New Guinea, or the more Eastern Islands." 
 Westward from Cape York, geography rested entirely 
 on very old Dutch authority. There was good evidence 
 that, in the early seventeenth century, the Dutch 
 had carefully explored the Eastern side of the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria to 17° Lat. ; but " it was certain," wrote 
 Flinders, " that those early navigators did not possess 
 the means of fixing the positions and forms of lands with 
 anything like the accuracy of modern science." And 
 the geography of the South and West coasts of the Gulf, 
 of Arnhem Land, and of the Northern Van Diemen's Land, 
 
 ^ Flinders, Preface, p. vii. 
 
 2 Wharton, p. xxxi : " a route which no one has ever again followed." 
 
 ^ See Ida Lee's Captain Bligh's Second Voyage to the South Sea. 
 
 The writer also tells the story of Bligh's 3,600 mile row from Tahiti to 
 
 Timor in the 23-feet long boat of the Bounty, in the course of which he 
 
 passed through another channel in Torres Strait. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 483 
 
 rested on authority that was far less satisfactory. The 
 maps, it was true, gave the outhne with a firm hand. But 
 there was no information whatever about the voyage 
 which had produced the map. The " general opinion " 
 was — and the general opinion was right — that the voyage 
 was Tasman's voyage of 1644. But though Tasman's 
 " Instructions " were extant — Flinders says that they 
 had been "procured" by Banks, and had been printed 
 by Dalrymple — no record survived of the voyage itself ; 
 and the map itself, thus unsupported, " was considered 
 as little better than a representation of fairy land." A 
 voyager might find the coast as it was drawn on the map ; 
 or he might find that there was no coast at all ; — that 
 the " Gulf," was not a Gulf, but was, as some early Dutch 
 navigators had suspected, the opening of a passage which 
 ran to the South, and divided the continent into two parts. " The parts 
 
 The North-West coast had also, it was understood, Ro^^^arv 
 been mapped by Tasman. But Dampier, while using Island." 
 Tasman's map, had concluded that it was a superficial 
 piece of work, and that it expressed a radical misconception, 
 Dampier believed that what Tasman had drawn as a con- 
 tinuous coastline was in reality a collection of islands, 
 and he believed, in particular, that somewhere behind 
 Rosemary Island was the opening of a great channel 
 that communicated with the Eastern and Southern coasts. 
 Now Cook had proved that there was no channel with 
 outlet on the Eastern coast. But it remained at least 
 possible that there was a channel behind Rosemary Island 
 with outlets in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the Australian 
 Bight, or in some great mediterranean sea in the unknown 
 heart of the continent. Or, again, instead of a channel there 
 might be the mouth of a mighty river, the Amazon of 
 New Holland. There was certainly " a great geographical 
 question to be settled relative to the parts behind Rosemary 
 Island." 
 
 The Chart of the Western coast seemed to be founded 
 on good information as far South as Rottenest Island ; 
 " but, for its formation from thence to Cape Leeuwin, 
 there were no good documents." And knowledge of the 
 
484 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Unknown 
 coast " in 
 the South- 
 East. 
 
 Is Van 
 Diemen's 
 Land an 
 island ? 
 
 Is there a 
 river, or a 
 channel ? 
 
 South, from Cape Leeuwin to the Island of St. Francis 
 and St. Peter, rested on one voyage, that of the Gulden 
 Zeepaart in 1627, a voyage of which no record remained, 
 save the bare statement on the map that it had been made.^ 
 And Eastward of the Islands of St. Francis and St. Peter, 
 all the way to Point Hicks was sheer vacancy, broken 
 only by the fragmentary outline of Van Diemen's Land, 
 as discovered by Tasman in 1642, with a slight extension 
 to the North East that represented the small discoveries 
 of Furneaux in 1773. It was this almost unbroken vacancy 
 between the Eastern edge of Nuytsland and Point Hicks 
 that offered the chief attraction to explorers. " Its 
 investigation," wrote Flinders, " had formed a part of 
 the instruction of the unfortunate French navigator 
 Laperouse, and afterwards of those of his countryman 
 Dentrecasteaux ; and it was, not without some reason, 
 attributed to England as a reproach, that an imaginary 
 line of more than two hundred and fifty leagues' extent in 
 the vicinity of one of her colonies should have been so 
 long suffered to remain traced upon the charts under 
 the title of Unknown Coast." 
 
 The "unknown coast" presented problems of peculiar 
 interest, both scientific and practical. Was Van Diemen's 
 Land continuous with New Holland, or was it separated 
 by a strait that would give a very useful passage to ships } 
 Furneaux, the seaman who had best opportunity of know- 
 ing, had thought that they were one land, and that the 
 region between Point Hicks and Furneaux Island was 
 not a Strait but a Bay ; and Cook had accepted Furneaux's 
 opinion. On the other hand Governor Hunter, sailing 
 across this region in 1789, had argued from the appearance 
 of the sea, and from the set of the current, that there 
 was " either a very deep gulf or a strait." 
 
 Still more fascinating was the problem offered by the 
 gap between De Nuytsland and Van Diemen's Land 
 or Point Hicks. It was a gap which, in terms of modern 
 
 ^ In 1791, however, Vancouver had sailed from King George III.'s 
 Sound to Termination Island, and in 1792 Dentrecasteaux had sailed 
 nearly as far as the Dutch turning-point. See pp. 246-247, 508. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 485 
 
 geography, contained the whole coast of South AustraHa, 
 very nearly the whole coast of Victoria, and the North coast 
 and most of the West coast of Tasmania. Such coasts 
 were one possibility in the mind of the explorer. But 
 there were other possibilities of a peculiarly exciting 
 character. Here in this " unknown coast," if anywhere, 
 would be found the clue to the inexplicable riddle of 
 the continent ; — the fact that apparently it had no rivers ! 
 It was " scarcely credible," writes Flinders, " that, if this 
 vast country were one connected mass of land, it should 
 not contain some large rivers, and, if any, this unknown 
 part was one of the two remaining places ^ where they 
 were expected to discharge themselves into the sea." 
 If, on the other hand, as the apparent want of rivers seemed 
 to suggest, New Holland was in reality no continent, 
 but a group of islands, then one outlet of the separating 
 channels would most likely be found in " this unexplored 
 part of the South coast." If, once again, the true explana- 
 tion of the lack of rivers was that the interior was " princi- 
 pally occupied by a mediterranean sea," then the entrance 
 to this sea, if there was an entrance, might reasonably 
 be looked for in the same "unknown coast." 
 
 Thus, when Cook had done his work, and ta'en his wages, Matthew 
 much interest still remained in the study of Australian F^^^ders, 
 
 ^ b. 1774. 
 
 geography. It was an interest that touched not only 
 men of science, but also merchants, and also statesmen ; 
 and not only the countrymen of Cook, but also the country- 
 men of de Brosses and Bougainville. It launched voyages 
 of discovery, both British and French, whose records 
 are among the most fascinating in the whole history of 
 exploration. But, for us, it is only possible to note the 
 facts which are of essential importance in the story of 
 exploration that we have followed ; and we will note 
 them mainly in connection with the central figure of this 
 last chapter, the boy of twxnty-one, short, slight, alert, 
 with noble brow, almost black hair, and eyes dark, bright, 
 commanding, who sailed for Sydney on the Reliance 
 in 1795. 
 ^ The second, apparently, being the region behind Rosemary Island. 
 
486 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 With Bligh Matthew Flinders, like Banks, was a Lincolnshire man, 
 
 through g^g students of his maps have reason to know. He was 
 
 Torres 
 
 Strait. induced, he says, "to go to sea against the wishes of his 
 
 1791. friends from reading Robinson Crusoe." A fortnight 
 
 Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N. 
 (From an engraving, published 30th Sept. 1814, by Joyce Gold, Naval Chronicle Office.) 
 
 before his death, in time of desperate illness and hard 
 poverty, he subscribed to a new edition of that work. 
 We note this clue to a character adventurous, patient, 
 determined. At the age of fifteen he was midshipman 
 on the Bellerophon, the famous ship on which, sixteen 
 years later, Napoleon surrendered. Two years later 
 he entered the school of Cook. He sailed under Bligh 
 
r 
 
 THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 487 
 
 — who had sailed under Cook- — in the voyage which brought 
 the bread-fruit from Tahiti to the West Indies. The ships 
 passed through Torres Strait by a passage Northward 
 of that taken by the Endeavour, and FHnders had the chance 
 of observing under a captain, who was as able in seamanship 
 as he was incompetent in politics, the greatest difficulties 
 in the way of navigation, and how to overcome them. 
 
 In 1794 Fhnders, back again in the Bellerophon, was To Sydney 
 present at the battle of the 1st of June, and is said to have ^^^^^ ^795^'' 
 fired off a lot of guns without waiting orders, and to have 
 explained that " he thought it a fair chance to have a 
 shot at 'em." But " the passion for exploring new coun- 
 tries " grew strong ; and in 1795 he gladly sailed on the 
 Reliance with Governor Hunter, the second Governor 
 of New South Wales, to the half-known land of the South. 
 The ship-surgeon was George Bass, also a Lincolnshire 
 man, now aged thirty-two, six feet high, of dark com- 
 plexion, and of "a very penetrating countenance"; — 
 " a man," says FHnders, " whose ardour for discovery was 
 not to be suppressed by any obstacles, nor deterred by 
 danger ; and with this friend a determination was formed 
 of completing the examination of the East coast of New 
 South Wales by all such opportunities as the duty of the 
 ship, and procurable means, could admit." In order to 
 make quite sure that the " means " would not be entirely 
 wanting, the man with the " very penetrating countenance " 
 had put on board " a little boat of eight feet keel and 
 five feet beam," which he named Tom Thumb. He would 
 penetrate at least as far as Tom Thumb could be made to go. 
 
 And in fact it turned out that Tom Thumb was the only Down the 
 *'' means procurable." Ships were scarce and small at f^^^^*^^^^ 
 Sydney in 1795, and many uses for them seemed more Thumb. 
 urgent than exploration. The plans of the young fellows 
 were called "romantic" by officials who were wondering 
 how they should get something to eat ; and, " so far from 
 any good being anticipated, even prudence and friendship 
 joined in discouraging if not in opposing them." But 
 the "penetrating Bass," though anxious to get state aid, 
 believed that the best way to get state aid was the way 
 
488 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of energetic private enterprise. Tom Thumb was not 
 the sort of vessel one would choose for exploration of 
 an unknown and dangerous coast. Eight feet length 
 and five feet beam provided cramped accommodation 
 at night off a stormy and rocky coast for two men of whom 
 one was six feet tall, though the other luckily was only 
 five feet six. But Tom Thumb would have been good 
 enough for Robinson Crusoe, and it was good enough for 
 Bass and Flinders. In it, in October 1795, they went to 
 Botany Bay and explored the " winding course " of 
 George's River. In January 1796 they went a second 
 cruise in " another boat of nearly the same size," that 
 had been built at Port Jackson. In it they explored the 
 coast South of Botany Bay, entered beautiful Port Hacking, 
 coasted fertile Illawarra, and met brave adventures by 
 sea and land, dear to the heart of Robinson Crusoes. 
 
 The plans of the two adventurers were " romantic," 
 but they now seemed likely also to be useful. SoHd 
 and kindly Governor Hunter, striving manfully against 
 fearful odds for the good of his disreputable subjects, 
 felt now that he was justified in granting state aid to those 
 who had shown they could do so much without it. Mid- 
 shipman Flinders, unhappily, was busy in duties connected 
 with the repair of the Reliance, a ship so rotten that the 
 Captain thought the safe voyage from London proved that 
 he was "intended to be hung in room of being drowned." 
 Bass's But Surgeon Bass was " less confined in his duty," and 
 
 whatf-boat^ had been busy penetrating in all directions. In June 
 3rd Dec. ' 1796 he had tried to penetrate the Blue Mountains; 
 Feb^ j°g3^^^ but "his success," his friend has to admit, "was not 
 commensurate to the perseverance and labour employed ; 
 the mountains were impassable." In August 1797 he 
 had again explored the South coast, and had discovered 
 the seam of coal that is worked to this day. Next month 
 he had walked across unknown country from the Cow- 
 pastures to the South Coast. And now, at the end of 
 1797, he had asked Governor Hunter to allow him " the 
 use of a good boat," and permission to " recruit her with 
 volunteers from the King's ships." To the sober-minded 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 489 
 
 Governor, Mr. Bass seemed " a young man of a well-informed 
 mind, and an active disposition " ; and he " accordingly 
 furnished him with an excellent whale-boat, well-fitted, 
 victualled, and manned to his wish, for the purpose of 
 examining the coast to the Southward, and as far as he 
 could with safety and convenience go." 
 
 The excellent whale-boat was twenty-eight feet seven is Van 
 inches long, and was fitted to row eight oars. She was Lan^Tn^ 
 manned by a crew of six British seamen, and she carried island ? 
 provisions for six weeks. Bass's proposal was to re-survey 
 in detail the coast from Port Jackson to Point Hicks, 
 which Cook had surveyed in outline twenty-eight years 
 before. But the main interest of the voyage would begin 
 at Point Hicks, for at that point the charted coastline 
 broke. There was nothing on the map Southward of it 
 till you came to Furneaux's Islands and Van Diemen's 
 Land. And there was nothing Westward of it till you 
 came to De Nuytsland. It remained to chart the inter- 
 vening regions, and the first business was to determine 
 whether the water to the South of Point Hicks was a 
 Bay or a Strait, i.e. whether Van Diemen's Land was 
 an island or a part of New South Wales. It was a question 
 in which Governor Hunter, himself a capable surveyor, 
 felt a special interest. In 1789, sailing from Furneaux 
 Island to Point Hicks, he had argued from the appearance 
 of the sea, and from the set of the current, that " there 
 is reason to believe that there is in that space either a 
 very deep gulf or a strait which may separate Van Diemen's 
 Land from New Holland." No doubt he was very willing 
 that the young man of well-informed mind and active 
 disposition should have his chance to determine a question 
 that was not only interesting to geographers, but also 
 of great importance to navigators. 
 
 Bass, with his six, sailed on this famous voyage on the From 
 3rd of December, 1797.^ The three hundred miles of coast lof^t^^ ^° 
 between Port Jackson and Point Hicks had been surveyed Hicks, 
 by Cook ; but Bass — thus Flinders sums things up — 
 
 ^ Bass's Journal is printed in Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. iii. 
 p. 312 et seq. 
 
490 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 " added a number of particulars which had escaped Captain 
 Cook, and will always escape any navigator in a first 
 discovery unless he have the time and means of joining 
 a close examination by boats to what may be seen from 
 the ship." He noticed the famous Kiama " blow-hole," 
 — " a deep ragged hole of about twenty-five or thirty 
 feet in diameter, and on one side of it the sea washed in 
 through a subterranean passage with a most tremendous 
 noise." He discovered the lovely Shoalhaven valley, 
 with " many thousand acres of open ground, whose soil 
 is a rich vegetable mould " ; but he thought, unwisely, 
 that " the difficulties of shipping off the produce must 
 ever remain a bar to its colonization." He entered Jervis 
 Bay, and described it as " a wide open bay of a very 
 unpromising appearance upon first entering it " ; but 
 he found an anchoring place where, he thought, ships 
 " might at most or all times ride in safety." Bateman's 
 Bay he thought ill of ; " there is," he writes, " no shelter 
 except merely from Northerly winds." " Barmouth 
 Creek" (Bega River) he described as "the prettiest little 
 model of a harbour we had ever seen," but the shallow 
 bar made entrance almost impossible. He discovered 
 Twofold Bay, which, he says " may be known by a red 
 point on the South side, of the peculiar bluish hue on a 
 drunkard's nose." " The nautical advantages of the Bay, 
 notwithstanding the anchorage is but small, seem to be 
 superior to any we have been in " ; but, he has to add, 
 " we had the mortification to find that the same sterility 
 we had almost everywhere witnessed upon the coast 
 still attended it." i 
 
 At Point Hicks — where he failed to distinguish the 
 " Point " — he passed the Southernmost limit of Cook's 
 survey, and began the exploration of unknown coast. 
 Here, comments Flinders, "began the harvest in which 
 Mr. Bass was ambitious to place the first reaping-hook." 
 
 1 Flinders wrote later : " Twofold Bay is not of itself worthy of 
 particular interest ; but as nothing larger than boats can find shelter 
 in any other part of this coast, from Jervis Bay round to Inlet Corner 
 (near Wilson's Promontory) or to Furneaux's Isles, it thereby becomes 
 of importance to whalers and to other ships passing along the coast." 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 491 
 
 He rounded the great Southern promontory, which seemed 
 " well worthy of being the boundary point of a large strait, 
 and a corner stone of this great island New Holland." 
 He named it Furneaux's Land, thinking that Furneaux 
 had seen it in 1773. But Flinders afterwards showed 
 that this was a mistake, and the name was changed to 
 Wilson's Promontory, " in compHment," says Flinders, 
 " to my friend Thomas Wilson, Esq., of London." 
 
 Bass intended now " to make the North coast of Van Bass fails 
 Diemen's Land." But Governor Hunter's " excellent \? ^^^^^ 
 
 Van 
 
 whale-boat " was showing that some of its parts were not Diemen's 
 so excellent as others. " The water was observed to gush Land, 
 in through the boat's side pretty plentifully," and Bass 
 thought it wisest to return to the promontory, and to coast 
 Westward ; " for the state of the boat," he writes, " did 
 not seem to allow of our quitting the shore with propriety." 
 They were in fact, comments Flinders — who has a useful 
 way of saying things which his friend omits to mention — 
 in " the greatest danger ; but the good qualities of his 
 little bark, with careful steerage, carried him through 
 this perilous night." On a tiny island near the promontory, 
 he discovered with amazement a party of seven convicts, 
 mostly Irish, who had escaped from Sydney, and had been 
 deserted by their companions. Bass reheved their extreme 
 distress, and promised to call at the island on his return. 
 
 Then, coasting North-Westward, he discovered the But 
 " very extensive harbour," which, " from its relative wSem^ 
 position to every other known harbour on the coast," Port, 
 he named " Western Port." Here he stayed twelve 
 days, receiving impressions that were only moderately 
 favourable. " He had the satisfaction, however," com- 
 ments Flinders — always afraid lest his friend's modesty 
 should lead to an undervaluation of his work — " of placing, 
 at the end of his new coast, an extensive and useful harbour, 
 surrounded with a country superior to any other known 
 parts of New South Wales." 
 
 Had Bass been able to sail round the Western Promontory And has to 
 of Western Port, he would have been the discoverer of ^^^^ ^^^^• 
 Port PhiUip, and would perhaps have been the first to 
 
492 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 observe the site of Melbourne. But he had perforce 
 to turn for home. He had been given provisions for six 
 weeks, and he had already been away for nearly seven. 
 In his return voyage he noticed seals upon the island 
 near the Promontory, and made the remark, which proved 
 profitable to others, that " a speculation upon a small 
 scale might be carried on with advantage." He took 
 on board two of the distressed convicts, and, giving the 
 other five a musket, fishing lines and a compass, he landed 
 them on the continent, and advised them to walk 
 to Sydney, five hundred miles away. He had done all 
 that he could do for them, but they were never seen again. 
 He shows When near the Promontory, Bass noticed the rapidity 
 
 is extremely ^^ ^^^ ^^^^' ^^^ Hiade an interesting remark. " Whenever 
 probable. it shall be decided," he wrote, " that the opening between 
 this and Van Diemen's Land is a strait, this rapidity 
 of tide, and that long swell upon the coast to the Westward 
 will be accounted for." The phrase is comically cautious. 
 It reminds one of the saying of the Oxford classical student 
 who, when asked, after an examination in geometry, whether 
 he had proved a certain proposition to be true, replied 
 that, though he had not exactly proved it to be true, he 
 believed he had shown it to be on the whole extremely 
 probable. The fact was, however, as Flinders tells, that 
 " Mr. Bass himself entertained no doubt of the existence 
 of a wide strait separating Van Diemen's Land from New 
 South Wales, and he yielded with the greatest reluctance 
 to the necessity of returning before it was so fully ascer- 
 tained as to admit of no doubt in the minds of others." 
 But there was very little doubt in the minds of others. 
 Governor Hunter wrote home that " we have much reason 
 to conclude that there is an open strait " ; and Flinders 
 thought that no other proof of its existence was needed 
 than that of sailing through it. Bass's odd phrase is 
 interesting, as a singular illustration of the modesty of 
 the man, and of the cautious language of the new scientific 
 period. In earlier days, a seaman who saw a mile of land, 
 or even a good-sized cloud, in the Pacific was prepared to 
 swear that he had seen a continent which extended from 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 493 
 
 Tierra del Fuego to the Solomons. Now Bass saw facts which 
 proved that he had discovered the Strait, and he was 
 content to say, in effect, that when someone else had 
 discovered the Strait, the facts which he, Bass, had noticed 
 would be accounted for. It is satisfactory that, in spite 
 of all that Bass managed to leave unsaid, the Strait, 
 thanks to friend Flinders, bears the name of the man who 
 discovered it. 
 
 Bass reached Sydney on the 25th of February after The fame of 
 an absence of eighty-four days. With " the assistance ^oy^ee 
 of occasional supplies of petrels, fish, seal's flesh, and a 
 few geese and black swans, and by abstinence," he had 
 made six weeks' provision serve for twelve. Flinders 
 would have given many a week's wage to have had a 
 share in the splendid venture and exploit. But, to the 
 student, his absence was perhaps an advantage, for he 
 was the better able to praise. Bass's own diary is modest, 
 cautious, reticent, almost colourless : — the one touch of 
 colour is the artistic description of the drunkard's nose 
 by which you may recognize Twofold Bay, and that touch 
 was no doubt forced upon him by irresistible reminiscence 
 of things seen in Sydney ; a city in which, as Dr. Lang said, 
 nearly everyone at this time was either selling rum or drink- 
 ing it. But when, sixteen years later. Flinders told the 
 story he could tell the whole truth. " A voyage," he 
 wrote, " expressly undertaken for discovery in an open 
 boat, and in which six hundred miles of coast, mostly 
 in a boisterous climate, were explored, has not perhaps 
 its equal in the annals of maritime history. The public 
 will award to its high-spirited and noble conductor, alas ! 
 now no more, an honourable place in the list of those 
 whose ardour stands most conspicuous for the promotion 
 of useful knowledge." And, in fact, the generally/ irreve- 
 rent public of Sydney had already awarded that honourable 
 place. In 1802, two French ships, of which we shall hear 
 more, sailed into Port Jackson, and a very able French 
 man of science, named Peron, wrote a description of Sydney 
 that has great historical value and interest. He told 
 of the discovery of the Strait " by a simple whale-boat, 
 
494 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 • commanded by Mr. Bass, surgeon of the ship Reliance,'' 
 and he continued : — " Consecrated, as I may say, by this 
 grand discovery, this bold navigation, Mr. Bass's boat 
 is preserved in this port with a kind of rehgious respect. 
 Snuff-boxes made of its keel are relics, of which the posses- 
 sors are as proud as they are careful, and the Governor 
 himself (Governor King) imagined he could not make 
 a more respectful present to our chief than a piece of 
 wood from the boat, set in a large silver etui, round which 
 were engraven the particulars of the discovery of Bass's 
 Strait." 
 Flinders' When Bass returned to Sydney, Flinders was away 
 trip to Qj^ ^ vovae^e. Duties on the Reliance had prevented 
 
 Furneaux -?.. . . ^ . . 111 -n 
 
 Islands, him from jommg his iriend on the whale-boat. But 
 luck came to him three weeks before Bass returned. 
 Governor Hunter was sending the Francis to the Furneaux 
 Islands to bring back the cargo of a ship which had been 
 wrecked on one of them ; and he gave Flinders permission 
 to sail in her, in order " to make such observations, service- 
 able to geography and navigation, as circumstances might 
 afford." Flinders made his surveys with his usual care 
 and ability, and he wrote some interesting remarks about 
 seals and sooty petrels or mutton birds. The seals, he 
 said, reminded him of " a farmyard well stocked with pigs," 
 while petrels could be had in any quantity by thrusting 
 your arm into their holes, if you dared face the risk that 
 at the end of the hole there might be a snake instead of 
 a petrel. But Fhnders' mind was chiefly concerned 
 with the problem of the unexplored sea to the West, 
 which Furneaux had thought to be a Bay. Flinders, 
 Hke Bass, reached the conclusion that Furneaux had been 
 satisfied with insufficient evidence. He observed from 
 Furneaux Islands the same significant currents which 
 Bass had just observed from Wilson's Promontory ; and 
 he came to the conclusion, by this independent observation, 
 that " the great strength of the tides setting Westward 
 past the islands could only be caused by some exceedingly 
 deep inlet, or by a passage through to the Southern Indian 
 Ocean." 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 495 
 
 Flinders arrived at Sydney on the 9th of March 1798. Flinders and 
 Bass had arrived a fortnight before. The friends exchanged navigate vTn 
 notes, aorreed that a Strait existed, and determined Diemen's 
 to sail through it. Flinders had first to make a trip to q^^ ' ^ g 
 Norfolk Island. But, in September 1798, he was free, to nth Jan. 
 and he had his desire. Governor Hunter gave him the ^^^^' 
 use for twelve weeks of the Norfolk, a sloop of twenty-five 
 tons, which had been built in Norfolk Island of the famous 
 pines. She was a bad boat in all respects, but she could 
 float, and that sufficed. Saihng in her, Flinders was to 
 prove that there was a Strait by sailing through it ; and 
 then to prove that Van Diemen's Land was an island 
 by sailing round it. His special business would be to 
 make observations serviceable to geography and navigation. 
 " My friend Bass " was to accompany him, with special 
 duty to make observations on the lands that would 
 be visited. The crew were eight volunteers from the 
 King's ships. Twelve weeks were allowed, and twelve 
 weeks' provisions were put on board. 
 
 Flinders sailed from Sydney on the 7th of October 
 1798, and from Furneaux's Islands on the 1st of November.^ 
 He made for the North coast of Van Diemen's Land, 
 and on the 3rd of November he observed an inlet with 
 shores " covered with grass and wood to the water's edge," 
 a remarkable contrast to " the rocky, sterile banks observed 
 in sailing up Port Jackson." Entering, he discovered a 
 harbour which he named Port Dalrymple, and it proved Port 
 to be " an excellent place of refreshment." Into it flowed dalrymple. 
 a beautiful river, whose shores " presented an appearance 
 of fertility that astonished an eye used to those of the 
 rocky harbours of New South Wales." Here they spent 
 sixteen happy days, Flinders surveying harbour and river, 
 while Bass tramped the country with his dogs. He was 
 especially impressed by sight of enormous flocks of black 
 swans — he once counted three hundred of them swimming 
 within a square quarter-mile. He heard the dying song 
 
 1 Flinders' Journal is printed in Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. iii. 
 p. 769. He also described the voyage in Terra Australis, vol. i. pp. 
 cxxxviii. to cxciii. Bass's Journal is printed in Collins, vol. ii. pp. 143 
 to 194. 
 
496 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of some scores of them, and he says that it " exactly 
 resembled the creaking of a rusty ale-house sign on a windy 
 day." Not more than two-thirds of the flock could fly ; 
 a fact which no doubt helped to form the opinion that 
 Port Dalrymple was " an excellent place for refreshment." 
 In fact, all things suggested a settlement ; and six years 
 later a settlement was formed forty miles up the river, 
 
 Launceston, which was named the Tamar, at a beautiful place which 
 
 ^^°4- -^as named Launceston.^ 
 
 Bass's Strait. Westward from Port Dalrymple, the coast was found 
 to trend towards the North- West, and the water appeared 
 to be discoloured ; — facts which seemed to indicate that 
 " we were approaching the head of a bay rather than 
 the issue of a strait." But on the 7th of December, they 
 observed a tide from the West which they considered 
 " a strong proof not only of the real existence of a passage 
 between this land and New South Wales, but also that 
 the entrance into the Southern Indian Sea could not be 
 far distant." On the 9th they could see no main land 
 to the West, and " a long swell was perceived to come 
 from the South- West." The long swell " was likely to 
 prove troublesome and perhaps dangerous"; but, writes 
 Fhnders, " Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and 
 mutual congratulation, as announcing the completion 
 of our long-wished-for discovery of a passage into the 
 Southern Indian Ocean." 
 
 The West Van Diemen's Land, then, was an island, and Flinders 
 
 sailed along its Western coast, observing mountains — 
 so writes the man from flat and fertile Lincolnshire — 
 which seemed " amongst the most stupendous works 
 of nature I ever beheld, and . . . the most dismal and 
 barren that can be imagined. The eye ranges over these 
 peaks and variously formed lumps of adamantine rock 
 with astonishment and horror." On the nth of December 
 he identified Tasman's landfall, and named Mount Heems- 
 kirk and Mount Zeehan in memory of the Dutch ships. 
 Then he sailed along the shores which Tasman had charted 
 one hundred and fifty years before, recognizing the main 
 ^Walker's Early Tasmania, p. no. 
 
 coast. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 497 
 
 landmarks and correcting the detail. Rounding " the 
 rugged and determined front " which the extremity 
 of Van Diemen's Land presents to the icy regions of 
 the South Pole," he came on the 14th of December to 
 Storm Bay. 
 
 He was now in a region that had been visited by several storm Bay. 
 navigators. Tasman had surveyed the coast, and had 
 given names to its prominent features. Furneaux and 
 Cook had mistaken Tasman's landmarks in a way that 
 produced permanent geographic confusion. In 1792 and 
 1793 the French navigator Dentrecasteaux had twice 
 made long visits to the Channel which still bears his name ; 
 had explored with enthusiastic praise its fertile and beautiful 
 shores ; had explored — to use terms of modern geography 
 — Norfolk Bay and Frederick Henry Bay ; and had sailed 
 twenty miles up the river Derwent, which he called the 
 River of the North, — an unhappy name, comments Flinders, 
 for a river in the far South. The hydrographer, Beaupre, 
 had made charts which, wrote Flinders at a later date, 
 " contain some of the finest specimens of marine surveying 
 perhaps ever made in a new country " ; ^ but those charts 
 were unknown to Flinders when he sailed into Storm 
 Bay. He had, however, a rough chart which had been 
 made by Hayes, a seaman who had been sent in 1794 
 by the East Indian Company to explore the Australasian- 
 part of the huge domain subject to their monopoly, and 
 who, in ignorance of the French discoveries, had made 
 these discoveries again, and had given them English names. 
 
 Thus in the lovely region of Hobart there were no big Van 
 things left for Flinders to discover. His main business l^^^'^" iggg 
 was to make exact geographic reports, and to endeavour poor than 
 to get the confusion of geographic names into intelligible ^^^^ °" 
 order ; the latter task proved impracticable, and confusion 
 became permanent.^ Bass, meanwhile, explored with his 
 
 ^ Flinders, p. xciii. ; Walker, p. 8. 
 
 2 E.g. " As I apprehend this is the place that Tasman called Frederick 
 Henry Bay more than a century ago, I have prefixed that name to it 
 in the chart " {Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. iii. p. 805) — a mistake 
 which confirmed once more Furneaux 's mistake, and placed on the West 
 side of Tasman's peninsula a Bay which Tasman had placed on the East. 
 W.A, 2 J 
 
498 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 dogs both sides of the river, and, first of EngHshmen, 
 enjoyed the dehght — if a mountain ever can be a dehght 
 to a Lincolnshire man — of chmbing Mount WelHngton. 
 His report was generally favourable, though his words 
 sound faint praise to those who justly regard Hobart as 
 one of the most perfectly situated cities in the world. To 
 Bass the Derwent is a " dull and lifeless stream," with 
 " a sleepy course." If it has " any claim to respectability, 
 it is indebted for it more to the paucity of inlets into 
 Van Diemen's Land than to any intrinsic merit of its own." 
 The soil is, on the average, better than the soil of New 
 South Wales, though the best in New South Wales is 
 better than the best in Van Diemen's Land. Both these 
 countries are " poor countries " ; but, at all events, Van 
 Diemen's Land " seldom sickens the hearts of its travellers 
 with those extensive tracts which at once disarm industry, 
 and leave the warmest imagination without one beguiling 
 prospect." However, from the practical point of view, 
 it sufficed that Van Diemen's Land, though poor, was 
 less poor than New South Wales. " Many large tracts 
 '' of land," Bass was able to say, "appear cultivateable 
 
 both for maize and wheat, but which, as pasture-land, 
 would be excellent." The extensive valleys, he further 
 admits, " contain an indeterminate depth of rich soil, 
 'capable of supporting the most exhausting vegetation." 
 After all, there have been many countries, besides New 
 South Wales, poorer than this. Bass especially recom- 
 mended the land at the head of Risdon Creek, and his 
 recommendation prevailed. In 1803 a settlement was 
 Hobart, made in this " fertile valley of great beauty." The site, 
 ^ ^'^' however, proved unsuitable for a large town, and the 
 little settlement moved next year to the neighbouring 
 vSullivan Cove.^ 
 A fruitful Flinders sailed from the Derwent, after a fortnight's 
 ^°^^ ■ stay, on the 30th of December, and he reached Sydney 
 on the nth of January, 1799. He had lengthened the 
 permitted twelve weeks to fourteen. The fruits of the 
 voyage were of great value. It led to the colonization of 
 ^ See Walker's Early Tasmania, p. 59. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 499 
 
 Van Diemen's Land, and it determined the sites of its two 
 chief cities. But its great distinction was the definite proof 
 of the existence of a Strait between New South Wales and 
 Van Diemen's Land. This was a discovery, FHnders 
 claimed, which shortened the passage from the Cape 
 to Port Jackson by at least a week ; and it also made 
 easier the passage from the South Cape of Van Diemen's 
 Land to the Cape of Good Hope or to India by removing 
 " the fear of the great unknown bight between the South 
 Cape and the South-West Cape of Leeuwen's Land." 
 Ships sailing from South Cape could now safely make a " 
 West-North- West course, or call at King George the 
 Third's Sound, that had been discovered by Vancouver ; 
 and "it is to be hoped," concluded Fhnders, already 
 thinking of the future rather than of the past, " that 
 a few years will disclose to us many others {i.e. other 
 Sounds) on the coast, as well as the verification or futility 
 of the conjecture that a still larger than Bass's Strait 
 dismembers New Holland." All these good things followed 
 from the discovery of Bass's Strait, and " Bass's Strait," "Bass's 
 Flinders told Governor Hunter, the name must be. "This," ^^^ ' 
 he wrote at a later date, "was no more than a just tribute 
 to my worthy friend and companion, for the extreme 
 dangers and fatigues he had undergone in first entering 
 it in the whale-boat, and to the correct judgment he had 
 formed." 
 
 And this is our reverent and affectionate farewell to 
 George Bass, that clear, bright, brave and loving spirit. 
 His day of knightly venture was done, and the end no 
 man knows. We follow the story of the equal friend, 
 still determined to carry the common scheme to completion. 
 
 For to Flinders it still seemed morning. The rich Flinders' 
 gleanings of Cook's harvest remained on the field, and he ^"^ ^ ^^^' 
 was so to gather them that no straw would remain for 
 his successors. "My greatest ambition," he wrote, "is 
 to make such a minute investigation that no person 
 shall have occasion to come after me to make further 
 discoveries." All the problems of the Australian map 
 crowded his mind, and, dominant among them, the problem 
 
500 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of the still " unknown coast " between De Nuyts's discovery 
 of the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, and Bass's 
 discovery of Western Port. Did this unknown coast 
 contain, as was generally believed,^ " a still larger than 
 Bass's Strait," which " dismembered New Holland " 
 by running Northward till it opened into the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria } That was the question in Flinders' mind 
 as he sailed back to Sydney, and the one thing certain 
 was that, if he did not answer it, the fault would not 
 be his. 
 Flinders in Luck went with him. In spite of repairs, the Reliance 
 fscS^^^' ^^^ ^° rotten that, in March 1 8oo, Governor Hunter thought 
 well to send her home, while there was still a chance that 
 " she may be capable of performing the voyage." She 
 performed the voyage, though with difficulty, and Flinders, 
 sailing upon her, came to England in October i8oo. He 
 printed his " Observations " on the coasts he had discovered, 
 and he dedicated the pamphlet to Sir Joseph Banks. 
 Sir Joseph For Banks, whom we left at the end of his voyage a 
 ^" ^" joyful boy of twenty-eight, was in i8oo a man of fifty- 
 seven, still boylike in enthusiasms and energies, but with 
 full powers to get those things done which his strong 
 will and hot temper decided ought to be done. For 
 twenty-three years he had been President of the Royal 
 Society, and for twenty years 4onger he was to remain 
 in that position. And, through all those years, he used 
 character, influence, and money to organize scientific 
 research as no one man ever organized scientific research 
 either before him or after him. He was, as one of his 
 political friends truly said, " His Majesty's Ministre des 
 Affaires Philosophiques," ^ and His Majesty was far more 
 open to advice in affairs of philosophy than in affairs of 
 politics ; though, as Banks knew, he could muddle an affair 
 of sheep as ignorantly and as obstinately as he muddled 
 an affair of America. And, while the whole world was the 
 
 ^ In September 1800, Governor King wrote that " a sea or strait 
 running from the Gulf of Carpentaria into the Southern Ocean " was 
 " a very favourite idea in this country." 
 
 2 Smith's Banks, p. 207. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 
 
 501 
 
 province of Banks's studies, the country which he had 
 made his own was the country which, when he was leaving 
 
 Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., P.O., K.B., F.R.S. 
 (From a painting by Thomas Phillips in the National Portrait Gallery.) 
 
 it, he had described as in every respect the barrenest 
 country he had ever seen. It was mainly his recommenda- 
 tion that had caused the Government to found the colonv 
 
502 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 of New South Wales in 1788, and by March 1797 the 
 enthusiasm of age had so grown in him that he was wishing 
 that he could himself go to settle on the Hawkesbury, and 
 was asking the question whether England might not revive 
 in New South Wales when it had sunk in Europe. ^ It 
 was to Banks, then, that British secretaries turned when 
 they needed instruction about what seemed to them the 
 indispensable nuisance of a convict colony, and Banks 
 gave instructions that were vehement and minute. He 
 recommended officials from Governors to Gardeners, 
 and both Governors and Gardeners were his obedient 
 servants and correspondents. It was certain that what 
 things he thought should be done in New South Wales 
 would at least be attempted. Wherefore it was to vSir 
 Joseph Banks that Fhnders dedicated his " Observations," 
 and explained the need of a voyage that should make 
 a full and exact exploration of all the coasts of Australia, 
 *' as well those which were imperfectly known as those 
 entirely unknown." 
 The Investi- Sir Joseph thought well of Flinders and of his proposals, 
 ^^^^^* and he easily persuaded his friend Earl Spencer, the 
 
 First Lord of the Admiralty, to give Flinders command 
 of the best of the bad ships that could be spared from the 
 present war. The Investigator was a sloop of three hundred 
 and thirty-four tons, and " nearly resembled the description 
 of the vessel recommended by Captain Cook." She was 
 in a very weak and leaky condition-^she began " to leak 
 as soon as the channel was cleared" — but Flinders was 
 told that " no better ship could be spared from the service," 
 and " my anxiety," he explains, " to complete the inves- 
 tigation of the coasts of Terra Australis did not admit 
 of refusing the one offered." In all matters of equipment 
 the generosity of the Government was boundless. The 
 Secretary told Banks that any proposal he made would 
 be approved, and that the whole was left entirely to his 
 decision. Banks told Fhnders to fit out the ship as he 
 
 ^ Smith, p. 219. "I see the future prospect of empires and dominions 
 which cannot be disappointed. W^ho knows but that England may 
 revive in New South Wales when it has sunk in Europe ? " 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 503 
 
 should judge necessary, and Flinders' judgment was 
 probably the best in England. Among the men of science 
 whom Banks sent with him was the very famous botanist 
 Robert Brown — Banks described him as " a Scotchman, 
 fitted to pursue an object with constancy and a cold mind " 
 — and among the midshipmen was John Franklin, one 
 more famous Lincolnshire man, who was now first to learn 
 the business of discovery. 
 
 Flinders' ambition was to explore with perfect and The " un- 
 final exactness all the Australian coasts, " as well those co^sT" 
 which were imperfectly known as those entirely unknown." discovered 
 But the problem that dominated his mind was the problem j^rray^ ' 
 of the " unknown coast " between De Nuytsland and Baudin, and 
 Western Port, and especially the question whether it 
 contained the entrance of a channel which " dismembered 
 New Holland " by running to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 
 And it was the exploration of this " unknown coast " 
 which, in fact, was the most interesting part of the 
 Investigator' s voyage. The end of the story was that 
 this " unknown coast " was discovered in four parts 
 by four explorers. Of these four explorers Flinders was 
 one. Two others were Grant and Murray in the Lady 
 Nelson. And the fourth was the French navigator Baudin 
 in Le Geographe. And, in order to follow Flinders' story 
 with intelligence, we must know something of the stories 
 of the other three explorers. 
 
 In 1799 Philip Gidley King, who perhaps knew as Grant 
 much about New South Wales as anyone, was in England fj-o^^ape 
 and was preparing to sail back to Sydney as successor Banks to 
 to Governor Hunter. He explained to Banks that a small De^iSoT^' 
 boat was much needed in order to explore the shallow 
 waters of rivers and bays ; and it was finally agreed 
 that the perfect boat for the purpose was a sixty ton boat, 
 named the Lady Nelson, that had been built by Captain 
 Schanck of the Admiralty with a sliding keel, the effects 
 of which were vastly admired. In January 1800 this 
 tiny boat — generally called, says Lieutenant Grant her 
 proud commander. His Majesty's Tinder Box — sailed on 
 her long voyage. When Grant reached the Cape, he received 
 
504 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 a letter, written after his departure by the Duke of Portland, 
 which informed him of the discovery of Bass's Strait, 
 and instructed him to sail through the Strait on his way 
 to Sydney. In obeying this instruction, Grant made 
 the first discovery of part of the unknown coast. On 
 the 3rd of December he saw two capes which he named 
 Cape Banks and Cape Northumberland. On the modern 
 map they stand at the extreme South-Eastern corner 
 of South Australia, on the border of Victoria. Sailing 
 Eastward, he named Cape Bridgewater and Cape Nelson, 
 sailed across an opening which he named Portland Bay, 
 named Cape Otway, and thence sailed to Wilson's Pro- 
 montory across an opening which he named King's Bay ; ^ 
 a Bay which, as he knew, contained Western Port, and 
 which also contained, though he did not know it, Port 
 Phillip. Grant's discovery, then, had been the coast from 
 Cape Banks to Cape Otway, that is the Western half 
 of the coastline of the State of Victoria; and, further, the 
 map of his track ^ invited exploration of the great opening 
 between Cape Otway and Wilson's Promontory, which 
 included Port Phillip and the site of Melbourne. Grant 
 described King's Bay as being one hundred miles wide, 
 and so " deep " that he " could not see the bottom of it 
 from the mast-head " ; and he wondered whether this 
 "very deep bay" was the entrance of a channel which 
 led to the Gulf of Carpentaria and " insulated New South 
 Wales." Bringing this news with him. Grant passed the 
 Strait, the first seaman who passed it from West to East, 
 and reached Sydney on the i6th of December, 1800, 
 declaring that the Lady Nelson was equal to any vessel 
 as a sea-boat" — a statement which had afterwards to be 
 
 ^ He wrote to Governor King, " One of the most extensive (Bays) 
 I named after yourself, as it is the largest I met with, and is, by tolerable 
 estimation from the ship's run on the log, one hundred and odd miles 
 nearly due East and West from Cape to Cape " {Historical Records 
 of N.S.W., vol. iv. p. 269), 
 
 2 Grant's book (p. 69) gives his track. See map, p. 505. King made 
 a " rough eye copy " which is printed in Historical Records of N.S.W., 
 vol. iv. p. 311 ; and also an " eye-sketch," which is printed in Ida Lee's 
 Lady Nelson. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 
 
 505 
 
 qualified by the admission of " the utter impossibihty of 
 
 her ever being able to beat off a lee-shore." 
 
 In October 1 801 the Lady Nelson was sent, under com- Murray and 
 
 mand of Lieutenant Murray, to make further exploration Jowen 
 
 •^ \ ^ discover 
 
 in Bass's Straits, and especially to explore the big gap Port 
 
 of one hundred miles which Grant had noticed between S^k^^^a J^^' 
 
 Feb. 1802. 
 
 Wilson's Promontory and Cape Otway. Sailing out 
 of Western Port on the 5th of January 1802, Murray saw 
 
 Part of Map in Grant's Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 in the afternoon " an opening in the land that had the 
 appearance of a harbour," and, approaching nearer, he saw 
 across a reef " a fine sheet of smooth water of great extent." 
 The entrance, however, looked dangerous, the wind " blowed 
 as much as our vessel likes," so Murray sailed on, and 
 by the end of January returned to Western Port. Hence, 
 on the 1st of February, he sent the launch under Mr. Bowen 
 to seek a channel. " Mr, Bowen reported," writes 
 Murray, " that a good Channel was found into this new 
 harbour, . . . and according to his account it is a most 
 noble sheet of water, larger even than Western Port, 
 
506 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 with many fine Coves and entrances in it." On the 15th 
 of February 1802, Murray managed, with much suspicion 
 and carefulness, to sail the Lady Nelson through what 
 seemed the dangerous entrance into the harbour. " The 
 young man," wrote Governor King to Banks, " did very 
 well. . . . He discovered a spacious harbour about six 
 miles to the Westward of Western Port which I named 
 Port Phillip, after my worthy and dear friend the Admiral, 
 who, until now, had not had his name bestowed on either 
 stick or stone in the colony." 
 Grant and Thus, before Flinders reached the "unknown coast," 
 Murray ^-^^ parts of it had been discovered. Grant had discovered 
 Flinders, the coast from Cape Banks to Cape Otway in December 
 1800 ; and Murray and Bowen had discovered Port Phillip 
 in January and February 1802. Flinders did not hear of 
 these discoveries till he came to Sydney.^ 
 Baudin's There is no reason to think that Flinders gave himself 
 authorised trouble about the rivalry of British seamen, but there 
 May i8co. was a foreign rival whose voyage was much in his mind. 
 In May 1800 Napoleon authorised the despatch of two 
 ships, Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste, under Baudin, 
 with instructions to explore the Australian coasts, and 
 in October 1800 the ships sailed. It was a voyage the 
 meaning of which must be interpreted in the light of 
 previous French plans and enterprises. Since the days 
 when de Brosses had studied the problems of the Pacific, 
 " both as geographer and as citizen," interest in those 
 French and problems had burnt as steady and as keen in France 
 as in Britain. As rivalry in the Atlantic ended, rivalry 
 in the Pacific began. It took the form of " voyages 
 of curiosity," but the voyagers were curious not only about 
 affairs of philosophy, but also about affairs of politics. Their 
 desire was knowledge, but their talk was also of commerce 
 and of settlement. And they talked a good deal also of 
 one another, and they followed one another in a way that 
 reminds us of the old school game of Chevy Chase. Bougain- 
 ville followed Wallis, and Cook followed Bougainville, and 
 Marion and Kerguelen and Laperouse followed Cook. 
 ^ Voyage, vol. i. p. 200. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 507 
 
 Then the plot hardened. In 1756 de Brosses had Laperouse 
 proposed a French convict colony in New Britain, and Bay°\an'to 
 in 1788 Philhp, after a few days in Botany Bay, founded March 1788. 
 a British convict colony in Port Jackson. Eight days 
 after Phillip had arrived in Botany Bay, two French ships 
 sailed into the Bay under Laperouse, and excellent books 
 still make the comment that England only won Australia 
 by those few days.^ The comment is entirely wrong. 
 There is not the smallest reason to suppose that Laperouse 
 had designs on New South Wales.^ His voyage, as both 
 
 * Phillip arrived on January i8th. Laperouse got sight of land on 
 January 24th, but was unable to enter the bay till January 26th. 
 Phillip left Botany Bay to explore Port Jackson on January 21st ; and 
 the British ships sailed to Port Jackson on January 25th and 26th, 
 leaving the French, as Laperouse wrote, " alone and masters of the 
 Bay." He sailed on March loth. 
 
 2 Laperouse's very elaborate " Instructions " had been drawn up 
 in 1785 by the Comte de Fleurieu, who had probably more complete 
 knowledge of the geographical problems of the Pacific than any other 
 living man. The object of the voyage was to clear up these geographic 
 problems. There was no suggestion of French settlement. It was 
 declared that " the distance of the Pacific islands " seems likely to 
 prohibit nations of Europe from forming establishments there." In 
 Australasia, Laperouse was to sail through " Endeavour Strait," to 
 survey the Gulf of Carpentaria and the West coast, and " inspect 
 more particularly the Southern coast, of which the greatest part has 
 never been explored." Then he was to call at Van Diemen's Land, 
 and to sail thence to Queen Charlotte Sound, where he was to discover 
 if the British have made a settlement. No reference was made to 
 Botany Bay, or to British plans of settlement there. Laperouse's 
 correspondence shows that, so late as the 7th of September, 1787, his 
 intention was to sail from Avatscha, not to Botany Bay, but, in accord- 
 ance with his Instructions, to New Zealand. On the 28th of September, 
 however, he wrote to the French minister that, in consequence of orders 
 just received from him, he will touch at Botany Bay. The French 
 minister's letter has not, I think, been printed. It seems clear that 
 it contained information about the proposed English settlement at 
 Botany Bay, and that it ordered Laperouse to call there. But it is 
 impossible to believe that it contained instructions to annex New 
 South Wales. New South Wales had been formally annexed by Cook 
 in 1770. If Laperouse had arrived at Botany Bay before Phillip, 
 and had fronted him with a French annexation, the act would have 
 been equivalent to declaration of war on Great Britain, for a locality 
 which the French had shown no desire to possess. It seems certain 
 that Laperouse was told to visit Botany Bay in the spirit in which, in the 
 original instructions, he had been told to visit New Zealand. It was 
 to be a visit of curiosity, though the facts learned would be interesting 
 to French politicians as well as to French philosophers. A Sydney 
 soldier (Paterson) says that Laperouse expected to find a town built 
 and a market established. 
 
5o8 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 Governmental Instructions and his own conduct show, 
 was a voyage of curiosity ; and, when he called at Botany 
 Bay, he had three objects only in mind— knowledge, 
 refreshment, and opportunity to put together a new long 
 boat.^ He obtained what he sought, and sailed away ; and, 
 thirty-eight years afterwards, the relics of his ships were found 
 at the bottom of the sea near an island in the Santa Cruz 
 group. Laperouse has no place in the story of Australian 
 discovery, yet we would not willingly forget the radiant 
 figure, true knight of Humanity, that stands so bright 
 against the drab circumstances of our beginning. 
 Dentre- Laperouse was a hero to all Frenchmen, to the men 
 
 cas eaux. ^£ ^-^^ Revolution as to the men of the old regime ; and 
 the romance of his name strengthened the determination 
 that Frenchmen should take large share in the exploration 
 of the Pacific. In 1 791 the National Assembly decreed 
 that two ships should be sent under Dentrecasteaux, to 
 search for tidings of Laperouse, and, while searching, 
 to complete his work. The voyage was a failure. No 
 trace of Laperouse was found. No explanation of unknown 
 Australia was made. In two places, however, noteworthy 
 work was done. Dentrecasteaux surveyed that part 
 of the South Coast which had been surveyed by the Gulden 
 Zeepaart in 1627, and which had never been visited 
 since that date. He did not, however, sail quite so far 
 On the Eastward as the Dutch seaman had sailed, and the unknown 
 
 out coast, coast remained unknown. The French hydrographer, 
 Beaupre, gave high praise to the old Dutch chart, and 
 himself made a chart of which Fhnders says " no chart 
 of a coast so little known as this was will bear a comparison 
 with its original better." The voyage left on the map 
 the names of Esperance Bay and Recherche Archipelago. 
 The other place — a far more pleasant place — in which 
 Dentrecasteaux did noteworthy work, was, as we have 
 and in Van already seen, the lovely channel in Van Diemen's Land, 
 Land. ^ ^ which Still bears his name. Here at last a thoroughly 
 attractive region had been discovered, and it had been 
 discovered by Frenchmen. Why not a French colony 
 
 ^ Cf. Scott in Victorian Historical Magazine, Dec. 19 12. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 509 
 
 in fertile Dentrecasteaux Channel, to match the British 
 colony in barren Port Jackson ? True, the British had 
 formally annexed the whole Eastern coast from Cape York 
 to the South Cape of Van Diemen's Land. But it was 
 certain that a British Government, which was willing to make 
 peace by the cession of conquests like Cape Colony, would 
 not prolong the war in order to keep Van Diemen's Land. 
 These thoughts are not recorded, but it would be strange 
 if French voyagers did not think them. It was a country, 
 wrote Baudin in 1802, " which ought not to be neglected, 
 and which a nation that does not love us does not look 
 upon with indifference." 
 
 With these facts in mind, we can understand the meaning The motives 
 of the expedition which sailed under Baudin in October °^ Baudm's 
 
 ^ . voyage were 
 
 1 801. The plan of it was formed by French men of science, scientific, 
 who were organized in the " Institute of France " some- 
 what as British men of science were organized in the 
 Royal Society. It was, in its avowed purpose, solely 
 a voyage of curiosity, just as the voyages of Cook and of 
 Flinders, of Bougainville, Laperouse and Dentrecasteaux 
 had been solely voyages of curiosity. But, as with all 
 these other voyages, the curiosity was a national curiosity, 
 and was closely connected with national ambitions. Among 
 the members of the Institute was Bougainville, the aide- 
 de-camp of Montcalm, and the predecessor of Cook. And 
 among them too was the Comte de Fleurieu, who had written 
 the '' Instructions" both of Laperouse and Dentrecasteaux, 
 who knew the problems of Pacific geography as well as 
 Flinders knew them, and who was almost as eager as he 
 that the prize of discovery should fall to his own country-, 
 men. And it was as a voyage of national curiosity that 
 Fhnders thought of it, when he heard, in October 1 800, 
 that Baudin had actually sailed, with instructions to do 
 precisely those things which Flinders had for years treasured • 
 in mind as dearest objects of British quest. Baudin 
 • was to make full and minute examination of the Australian 
 coasts, and especially he was to explore the Southern 
 coast, "where there is supposed to be a strait communi- 
 cating with the Gulf of Carpentaria, and which consequently 
 
510 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 would divide New Holland into two large and almost 
 equal islands." What danger that Flinders' discoveries 
 would be discovered before Flinders arrived — and dis- 
 covered by the French enemy ! 
 and And, though the confidential instructions of the Minister 
 
 patriotic. ^^ Marine to Baudin declared that " the sole object " of 
 the voyage was " the perfecting of scientific knowledge," 
 it was very possible that it would also have other results. 
 For French men of science were French patriots, and, 
 anxious as they were to enlarge scientific knowledge, 
 they were far more anxious to enlarge French dominions. 
 When Peron, the brilliant man of science who sailed with 
 Baudin, was being courteously entertained at Sydney, 
 he made scientific studies that were careful and interesting ; 
 but, if we would know what he thought about with keenest 
 interest during those Sydney days, we should read, not 
 his scientific studies, but the explanation in his " Report 
 on Port Jackson " of " the project of destroying this 
 freshly-set trap of a great Power." ^ And though, as 
 Professor Scott has abundantly proved, it was not Napoleon 
 but the Institute of France who proposed Baudin's voyage, 
 it was to Napoleon that the proposal was made, and it 
 was Napoleon who approved it ; Napoleon, who was be- 
 coming " weary of this old Europe," whose thoughts 
 were growing less continental and more Oceanic, who 
 
 ^ Scott's Flinders, p. 464. Peron writes : " My opinion, and that of all 
 those among us who have been particularly occupied with the organization 
 of that colony, would be that we should destroy it as soon as possible. To-day 
 we can do that easily ; we shall not be able to do it in a few years to come." 
 He adds that Lieutenant de Freycinet " has particularly occupied 
 himself with examining at all points in the coast in the neighbourhood 
 of Port Jackson that are favourable for the debarkation of troops." 
 Freycinet's conclusion was that " the conquest of Port Jackson would 
 be very easy to accomplish, since the English have neglected every 
 species of means of defence." Napoleon, no doubt, had Freycinet's 
 statements in mind when in 18 10 he ordered the equipment of a squadron 
 to " take the English colony of Port Jackson where considerable 
 resources will be found." Baudin himself warned the French Minister 
 of Marine " that the Colony of Port Jackson ought to engage the atten- 
 tion of this government. ... It seems to me that policy demands that 
 by some means the preparations they are making for the future., which 
 foreshadows great projects, ought to be balanced." See v6ry interesting 
 documents in Scott's Flinders. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 511 
 
 was dreaming that France's future was on the sea,^ 
 and who was planning Empires in America, and in India, 
 and why not beyond ? There is no reason to think that, 
 when Napoleon sanctioned the plan of the scientific 
 gentlemen of the Institute, he expected Baudin to make 
 straight the way for a Napoleonic Empire in Australia. 
 He was, in 1800, far too busy in Europe, and far too weak 
 on the sea, to be inclined to formulate concrete plans 
 of annexation in Australia. But British statesmen in 
 London, and British officials in Sydney, were convinced 
 that a Napoleonic victory in Europe would be followed 
 by a challenge to British sea power, that the ultimate 
 aim would be to make the Napoleonic Empire not merely 
 European but world-wide, and that there was reason to 
 fear plans for a Terre Napoleon in New Holland. There- 
 fore they regarded Baudin's search for "scientific know- 
 ledge " with suspicion, and their suspicion was just.^ 
 
 Such suspicions must have been in the minds of British British 
 ministers when, in June 1 800, they granted passports ^"^P^^^°"^' 
 to the two French ships as ships of discovery. And they 
 were in the minds of the Directors of the East India 
 Company when they voted £600 for the table-money 
 of Flinders and his officers — " this voyage being within 
 the limits of the Company's Charter." " I hope the French 
 ships will not station themselves on the North-West 
 coast of Australia," wrote one of the Company's Directors. 
 And yet, in spite of these fears, there were intolerable 
 delays. Baudin was away in October 1800. The Investi- Baudin sails, 
 gator was not ready till April 1802, and in May Flinders ^^*' ^^°°* 
 wrote to Banks to express his excessive anxiety to be 
 off, for " the French are gaining time on us." It was not 
 
 ^ Cf. his instructions to De Caen in 1805. He intends some day 
 to strike a blow for " that glory which perpetuates the memory of 
 men throughout the centuries, and it is first necessary that we should 
 become masters of the sea " (Scott's Flinders, p. 316). 
 
 2 Peron told De Caen : "It would be easy to demonstrate to 
 you that all our natural history researches, extolled with so much 
 ostentation by the government, were merely the pretext of the enter- . 
 prise." Scott shows that scientific research was not merely a pretext. 
 But Peron's words illustrate the fact that scientists were politicians, and 
 were more interested in politics than in science. 
 
512 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 till July that he was permitted to sail. It was a race, and 
 Baudin had nine months' start. If Flinders had enjoyed 
 half that start there would have been nothing for Baudin 
 to discover in the unknown coast. 
 
 But Baudin was a bad racer ; in fact he did not race 
 at all. He made very slow passage to Mauritius, stayed 
 there forty days, and only reached Cape Leeuwin in May 
 i8oi, two hundred and twenty days after he had sailed 
 from France. Then, as winter was coming, he thought 
 it best to go North, so he sailed up the Western coast, 
 making no important discoveries — the most interesting 
 discovery was Vlamingh's " flattened pewter dish " ^ — and 
 then made for Timor. Here he stayed for fifty-six days 
 between the i8th of August and the 13th of November, and 
 then sailed for Dentrecasteaux Channel in South Tasmania. 
 Here he stayed — " picking up shells and catching butter- 
 flies," one of his officers complained — from January to March 
 1802, when he made for Bass's Strait, and at last began 
 the exploration of the unknown coast, or rather the coast 
 which had been unknown before Grant had discovered 
 part of it in December 1800 and Murray another part 
 of it in January 1802. What remained undiscovered, 
 when Baudin entered the Eastern side of Bass's Strait 
 Baudin in March 1802, was the region between the Dutch discovery 
 
 ""unknown^" ^^ ^^^7 ^^*^ Grant's discovery of 1 800. Baudin, however, 
 coast, ^ had not heard of the discoveries of Grant and Murray, 
 and his belief was that he still had opportunity to be 
 discoverer of the whole region from Western Port to 
 Nuytsland. He commenced his discoveries, then, from 
 Western Port, passed Port PhiUip without seeing it,^ 
 followed the coast already discovered by Grant from 
 Cape Otway to Cape Banks, sailed further Westward 
 along fifty leagues of a particularly desolate shore, which, 
 he said, scarcely deserved to be visited,^ and then, on the 
 
 ^ Peron, p. 194. See above, pp. 228, 229. 
 
 2 See Scott's elaborate and convincing discussion of this question, 
 Scott's Terre NapoUon, p. 48 et seq. 
 
 ^ Cf. Baudin's letter in Scott's article in the Victorian Historical 
 Magazine, Dec. 19 12, p. i7i, 
 
 March 1802. 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 513 
 
 8th of April, met a ship which came from the West, and He meets the 
 
 which had made very careful survey of the Westward ^^^'^.J^^^^^or, 
 
 part of the unknown coast. It was the Investigator under 
 
 Flinders, who had sailed nine months after Baudin, but 
 
 who had nevertheless discovered nearly the whole of 
 
 the " unknown coast " that remained unknown, and 
 
 who would have discovered the whole but for an unlucky 
 
 Easterly wind which had kept him back, while it blew 
 
 Baudin forward to discover the fifty leagues of sterile 
 
 coast, which were the French portion.^ 
 
 Flinders had sailed from London in July 1801, when Flinders 
 
 Baudin was sailing the West coast of New Holland. He I^Pjof^s the 
 '^ South coast, 
 
 saw Cape Leeuwin in December, having made the voyage Dec. 1801. 
 
 in one hundred and forty-one days. Thence he sailed 
 
 along the utterly barren Southern coast which had been 
 
 charted by the Dutch in 1627, and by the French in 1792. 
 
 He reached the limit of the Dutch discovery at the Bay 
 
 which he called Fowler's Bay, and the neighbouring 
 
 islands of St. Peter and St. Francis. All the region between 
 
 these points and Western Port was, so far as Flinders 
 
 then knew, unknown coast ; and, as we have noticed, 
 
 its unknownness was made singularly attractive by 
 
 a problem which had puzzled geographers for more 
 
 than a century and a half. Flinders knew no better 
 
 than Tasman had known whether the coast he was 
 
 following would run South-Eastward for Bass's Strait, 
 
 or Northward for the Gulf of Carpentaria. He was on 
 
 the verge of solving what was probably the last great 
 
 question of Australian coast geography, and the inclination 
 
 was to expect that the solution would come in the form 
 
 of a channel or channels that would either halve Australia, 
 
 or cut her to pieces. 
 
 On the 20th of February, 1802, Flinders seemed on the Spencer's 
 
 edge of this solution. A strong tide was noticed f rom ^"^^^^^^^^^^ ^ 
 
 the North-Eastward, and the land ran to the North. Feb. 1802. 
 
 1 When Fhnders and Baudin met in Sydney a chart of the South 
 coast was shown to Baudin, which defined the limits of his discovery. 
 " Ah, Captain," remarked Freycinet, "if we had not been kept so 
 long picking up shells and catching butterflies at Van Diemen's Land, 
 you would not have discovered the South coast before us." 
 w.A. 2 K 
 
514 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 515 
 
 There was talk that evening about " large rivers, deep 
 inlets, island seas and passages into the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
 and the prospect of making an interesting discovery 
 seemed to have infused new life and vigour into every 
 man in the ship." Flinders named a beautiful harbour 
 Port Lincoln, " in honour of my native province," and 
 sailed away to the North on a passage that might end 
 in the Gulf of Carpentaria. But it soon became clear 
 that they were sailing, not in a strait, but in a gulf — 
 a gulf that proved to be one hundred and eighty-five 
 miles long, and forty-eight miles in width at the mouth. 
 The trip had to be finished in a rowing boat, which they 
 rowed till their oars stuck in the mud. They had reached 
 the head of the Gulf — which Flinders called Spencer's 
 Gulf — "then a region of mangrove swamps and flat water, 
 but now covered by the wharves of Port Augusta, and within 
 view of the starting point of the trans-continental railway." ^ 
 Then FHnders discovered Kangaroo Island, discovered 
 and explored the Gulf of St. Vincent, and was proceeding 
 Eastward when, on the 8th of April, the man at the mast- 
 head said he saw a white rock, which proved to be the 
 sail of the Geographe under Baudin. After friendly and 
 interesting conversations with Baudin, he went on his 
 way, discovered on the 27th of April Port Phillip, which 
 had been missed by Baudin, but had been discovered 
 by Murray ten weeks before — and reached Sydney on the 
 8th of May, "in better health than on the day we sailed 
 from Spithead, and not in less good spirits." The home- 
 sick Sydney people said that they had never been so 
 strongly reminded of England as by the fresh colour of 
 the seamen. 
 
 Thus the facts which completed the discovery of Australia Discoverers 
 are quite clear, and they were quite clearly expressed j^^q^ j.^ 
 in Flinders' maps. Cook discovered the coast Northward 
 from Point Hicks. Bass discovered the coast from Point 
 Hicks to Western Port. Grant discovered the coast 
 from Cape Banks to Western Port, save Port Phillip which 
 was discovered by Murray, and rediscovered ten weeks 
 1 Scott's Flinders, p. 215. 
 
5i6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 later by Flinders. Baudin discovered the fifty leagues of 
 " sterile waste " between Cape Banks and Encounter Bay, 
 where he encountered Flinders.^ And Flinders discovered 
 the coast from Fowler's Bay to Encounter Bay. These 
 facts were correctly and fully given in Fhnders' maps, 
 save that he omitted to mark Murray's discovery of Port 
 Phillip. 
 Terre This is the end of our story of discovery, though one 
 
 Napoleon, j-ggj-gts to end it in full view of events so full of interest. 
 One would have liked to follow the rest of Baudin's unhappy 
 voyage, and especially to notice the long holiday spent 
 in Sydney, which gave Peron, the patriotic scientist, 
 opportunity to write the most interesting description 
 of the colony in its early days, and also to consider plans 
 by which, when due time came, the French might " destroy 
 it as soon as possible " — an exploit, reported Lieutenant 
 Freycinet, which would be " very easy to accomplish 
 since the Enghsh have neglected every species of means 
 of defence." And one would have hked also — had not 
 Professor Scott already done this with full equipment 
 of learning and argument — to discuss the maps which 
 the French men of science constructed, when they were 
 safe in France, and when Flinders was safe in Mauritius ! — 
 maps which, ignoring all discoveries by Grant, Murray 
 and Fhnders, described the " unknown coast " from 
 Western Port to the hmit of the old Dutch discovery 
 as " Terre Napoleon." ^ 
 
 ^ " The Terre Napoleon," writes Flinders, " is therefore comprised 
 between Latitude 37° 36' and 35° 40' South, and the Longitudes 
 140° 10', and 138° 58' East of Greenwich ; making with the windings, 
 about fifty leagues of coast, in which, as Captain Baudin truly observed, 
 there is neither river, inlet, nor place of shelter ; nor does even the worst 
 part of Nuytsland exceed it in sterility " {Voyage, vol. i. p. 201). 
 
 2 Flinders notes that Grant's Voyage in the Lady Nelson to New South 
 Wales was published in 1803, " five years previously to M. Peron's 
 book ; but no more attention was paid at Paris to Captain Grant's 
 rights than to mine ; his discoveries, though known to M. Peron and 
 the French expedition in 1802, being equally claimed and named by 
 them " {Voyages, vol. i. p. 201). 
 
 Professor Scott has shown that the accusation against the French 
 geographers that they used Flinders' maps is untrue. Their excellent 
 maps were generally founded on their own surveys. The only thing 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 517 
 
 Still more one would have liked to follow the story of Flinders 
 Flinders' life in its bravery and its patience, its tragedy ^^Pg^^rom^ 
 and its triumph. And, indeed, one is tempted to say Sydney to 
 that his circumnavigation falls in some sense within the g^/aft! 
 limits of our scheme. His voyage from Sydney worked 
 Cook's outhne into detail in the North, somewhat as 
 Bass in his whale-boat had done in the South. Port 
 Curtis and Port Bowen were discovered. The Barrier 
 Reef was threaded at Flinders' Passage, though Flinders 
 adds the warning that, if a captain " do not feel his nerves 
 strong enough to thread the needle, as it is called, amongst 
 the reefs, while he directs the steerage from the mast-head, 
 I would strongly recommend him not to approach this 
 part of the coast." He passed Torres Strait by an entrance 
 previously discovered, and proved that " this most direct 
 passage may be accomplished in three days," though he 
 hoped to find a still more direct passage in the following 
 year.i He remarks, however, that a passage in the opposite 
 direction " has not to my knowledge, been attempted ; 
 and I have some doubt of its practicability. . . . The 
 experiment is too hazardous for any except a ship on 
 discovery." ^ 
 
 Then he began the careful survey of the Gulf coasts, and the 
 But the rottenness of the ship became evident. In Torres ^^^^• 
 Strait she had leaked ten to fourteen inches an hour, 
 and the carpenter now reported that in twelve months 
 " there would scarcely be a sound timber in her." The 
 
 they stole was a survey of Port Phillip, which they apparently obtained 
 during their stay in Sydney (Scott's Terre Napoleon, p. 105 et seq.). 
 Apart from this falsehood, the charge against them is, not they stole 
 information gained by the British voyagers, but that they ignored their 
 discoveries, and thus falsely claimed priority. See Scott's Terre 
 NapoUon and Life of Flinders. 
 
 ^ On the 28th of August, 1791, Capt. Edwards of the Pandora, 
 seeking passage through Torres Strait, sent a boat to examine an 
 opening in the reef. The boat made signal for a passage being found, 
 but, before the Pandora could sail it, she drifted upon the reef, and sank. 
 The crew sailed in four boats to Timor (Flinders, vol. i. p. xvi). Flinders 
 sailed through the Pandora's Entrance (vol. ii. p. 107) at 6 a.m., 29th 
 October, and could have cleared Torres Strait before dusk on the 
 31st (vol. ii. p. 126). 
 
 2 Voyage, vol. ii. p. 294. 
 
51 8 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 best he could say was that, if the weather was always 
 line, and no accident happened, she might run six months 
 longer. To Flinders it was bitter disappointment. His 
 • ■ " leading object " had been to make so accurate an in- 
 vestigation of the shores of Terra Australis that no further 
 voyage to this country should be necessary. And now 
 already he had to plan a return. However, there was 
 a chance that the rotten ship might float six months, 
 if, in an almost unknown sea, the weather were always 
 fine, and accidents never happened. So Flinders sailed, 
 with studious carefulness, all round the Gulf ; proved that 
 in the North of Terra Australis, as in the South, there was 
 no big channel, that Tasman's map of 1644 was no fairy 
 tale, but roughly the truth ; corrected important details, 
 discovered important islands, sailed to Timor, where 
 he once more met Baudin, and thence made for Port 
 Jackson, with ship so " decayed both in skin and bone," 
 that a severe gale would have crushed her like an egg. 
 Prisoner in At Sydney the Investigator was examined, and Flinders 
 Mauritius, noticed thirteen timbers close together, " through any 
 one of which a cane might have been thrust." Even 
 he had to admit that the ship was " incapable of further 
 service," save as " a store-house hulk." No other ship 
 could be found that could even pretend ability to explore. 
 So he sailed for England, was wrecked a week later on 
 Wreck-Reef Bank, and, leaving eighty seamen on that 
 desolate sand-bank, he, with fourteen comrades, rowed 
 the seven hundred miles to Sydney in an open boat of 
 thirty-two feet. Then he sailed for England in the Cum- 
 berland, a schooner that was " something less than a 
 Gravesend passage boat, being only of twenty-nine tons 
 burden " ; and her small size was not her worst defect. 
 But he wished to get home quickly " to commence the 
 outfit of another ship " ; and he also felt " some ambition 
 of being the first to undertake so long a journey in such 
 a small vessel." But the Cumberland could not run 
 the journey. He was forced to call at the Mauritius 
 for inevitable repairs — for the ship grew so leaky that 
 the pump had to be worked almost continually, day and 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 519 
 
 night. And there he was prisoned for six and a half Voyage to 
 years, while French scientists made the false maps which j^^^^^n^ 
 labehed his discoveries " Terre Napoleon." Then he was and death, 
 released, and returned to England in 1 810, with mind un- ^ ^'^' 
 changed, but sick in body and poor in purse. " Morning, 
 noon, and night," he sat close at his writings and at his 
 charts, and his wife laid the first copy of the book on his 
 bed the day before he died. " But he never understood, 
 he was fast wrapped in the deep slumber that preceded 
 the end." 1 
 
 1 Scott's Flinders, p. 396. Scott has made very good and interesting 
 use of the Flinders Papers, now in the Melbourne Public Library. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abrolhos : discovered by Hout- 
 man, 230 ; described by King, 
 232 ; wreck of the Batavia, 
 249, of the Ver guide Brack, 
 298 ; a Dutch Museum, 304. 
 
 Adventure, the : voyage under 
 Furneaux, 462. 
 
 Albert the Great : his knowledge 
 of Arabic literature, 16 : his 
 belief in the Antipodeans, 17 : 
 his view of the world, 59. 
 
 Albuquerque, Francisco de : his 
 conquest of Malacca, 67. 
 
 Alexander the Great : his founda- 
 tion of Fatal a, 3 : referred to 
 by de Conti, 50. 
 
 Amboyna, massacre of, 218. 
 
 Amherst, Lord : his Voyage of 
 Mendana to the Solomon 
 Islands, 130 : his translation 
 used, 131-139. 
 
 Andaman Islands : described by 
 Marco Polo under name of 
 Angamanain, 43, 46 : by Friar 
 Odoric, 50. 
 
 Angamanain: see Andaman Is- 
 lands. 
 
 Antipodes, Antipodeans, Antich- 
 thones : see Terra A ustralis 
 Incognita. 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas : compared to 
 Socrates, 8. 
 
 Arabs, Saracens, Moors : their 
 knowledge of Ptolemy, 16, 26 : 
 their voyages, 25 : to Java, 26 : 
 map showing their knowledge, 
 27 : described by Marco Polo, 
 36 : defeated by the Portu- 
 guese, 67, 68. 
 
 Arias, Don Juan Luis : his know- 
 ledge that Torres had sailed 
 through Torres Strait, 106 and 
 note I ; his doubt as to the 
 
 reason of Quiros's return, 186 : 
 his statement that Torres saw 
 New Guadalcanal, 194 : his 
 treatise urging missionary work 
 in the South Seas, 205-207 : his 
 story that Juan Fernandez dis- 
 covered a continent, 205, 206 
 note : his statement that Quiros 
 saw signs of land in 26°, 205, 
 206 note : Dalrymple learns 
 existence of Torres Strait from 
 Arias, 361 and note, 363 (map), 
 411. 441- 
 
 Aristotle : misinterpreted by 
 Roger Bacon, 17 : quoted by 
 Roger Bacon, 31. 
 
 Arnhem, the : voyage of, 238- 
 241 ; 243-244. 
 
 Arnhem's Land : discovered, 243- 
 244: rediscovered, 243-244, 256. 
 
 Augustine, Saint: his views about 
 Antipodes and Antipodeans, 12 : 
 his views about pagan know- 
 ledge, 15. 
 
 Australasia : name used, 353, 355. 
 
 Australia, Australian : name used, 
 ^74' i75i 221 and note i, 346, 
 352. 
 
 Austraha : its isolation and un- 
 attractiveness, 20-21 : pro- 
 bably visited by Malays, 22 : 
 Malays may have passed on 
 their knowledge, 23 : Marco 
 Polo was misunderstood, 44-46 : 
 he had no knowledge of Aus- 
 tralia, 45-46 : was Australia 
 known in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ? 82-129 : Mendana might 
 have discovered Australia, 
 130. 133. 138 : Torres pro- 
 bably saw Australia, 196-197 : 
 the voyage of the Buy f hen, 
 224-225 : the Eendracht dis- 
 covers West Australia, 226 : 
 Gerritz's map, 227 : the Zee- 
 
 520 
 
D TH^ 
 
 TT^bt r 
 
 ileiv fs. 
 
 i-^/i 
 
 
 '^\ 
 
 ^-i^'^f 
 
 Ta sn 
 
 an Diemen 
 
J 
 
INDEX 
 
 521 
 
 wnlf's discoveries, 229-230 : 
 Houtman's discoveries, 230 : 
 Goos-Visscher's map, 233 : the 
 Leeuwin's discoveries, 233 : the 
 Trial Rocks, 234 : Coen plans 
 circumnavigation, 236 : voyage 
 of the Arnhem and the Peva, 
 238-244 : Carstenz's descrip- 
 tion of Cape York Peninsula, 
 241-243 : Arnhem's Land, 243- 
 244 : Keppler's map, 245 : 
 voyage of the Gulden Seepaari, 
 245-248 : discovery of Wits- 
 land, 248 : the wreck of the 
 Batavia, 249-252 : Van Die- 
 men's plans, 254, 256-258 : 
 Instructions for Pool, 254 : 
 Pool's voyage, 256 : Van 
 Diemen's Land of the North, 
 256': Visscher's Memoir, 258, 
 260-261 : Tasman's Map of his 
 Voyages, 259, 289 : Instruc- 
 tions for Tasman's Voyage of 
 1642, 265-267 : Tasman dis- 
 covers Van Diemen's Land, 270 ; 
 Tasman's Map of Van Diemen's 
 Land, 273 : Instructions for 
 Tasman's Voyage of 1644, 286- 
 288 : the Voyage, 288-290 : 
 Tasman's views about Torres 
 Strait, 289 and note 5 : impor- 
 tance of Tasman's discoveries, 
 295 : knowledge of them, 296 : 
 the wreck of the Vergulde 
 Drack, 298 : Vlamingh's ex- 
 plorations, 299-302 : Vla- 
 mingh's Chart, 300 : explora- 
 tion of the North-West in 1705, 
 302 : shipwrecks on the 
 Abrolhos, 303-304 : Dampier's 
 plan for exploration of Aus- 
 tralia, 313 : Dampier at Cygnet 
 Bay, 315 : his description of 
 land and people, 315-318 : his 
 great expectations, 322 : voyage 
 of the Roebuck, 323 : visits 
 West Australia, 325 : problem 
 of Rosemary Island, 326 : 
 Dampier's Map of New Guinea 
 and New Britain, 331 : Purry 
 proposes colonisation of Nuyts 
 Land, 338-339 : Campbell's 
 view of AustraUa, 343-344 : de 
 Brosses's view, 355-356 : Cal- 
 lender's view, 359-360 : Dai- 
 ry mple's view, 361, 363 (map) : 
 Bougainville nearly discovers 
 Queensland, 373 : Cook ex- 
 plores East Australia, 409-448 : 
 Furneaux explores Van Die- 
 
 men's Land, 464-465 : Cook 
 in Van Diemen's Land, 475 : 
 problems in Australian geo- 
 graphy after Cook, 481-485 : 
 Flinders and Bass in the Tom 
 Thumb, 487 : Bass's voyage, 
 488-494 : Flinders and Bass 
 circumnavigate Tasmania, 495- 
 499 : Flinders's plans, 499 : 
 Grant's discoveries, 503-505 : 
 Murray and Bowen discover 
 Port PhilHp, 505-506 : Philhp 
 and Laperouse in Botany 
 Bay, 507 and notes : Dentre- 
 casteaux's voyage, 246, 484, 
 497, 508 : Baudin's voyage, 
 509-513 : he explores " the 
 unknown coast," 512 : Flinders 
 explores the South Coast, 513 '. 
 Terre Napoleon, 516 : Flinders 
 circumnavigates Australia, 517- 
 
 Austrialia del Espiritu Santo : 
 name given by Quiros to New 
 Hebrides, 174 : name discussed, 
 174 note. 
 
 Bacon, Francis : his influence, 
 
 305- 
 Bacon, Roger : his modernism, 
 
 16 : his knowledge of Arabian 
 literature, 16 : says that 
 Pathalis runs towards the 
 Tropic of Capricorn, 17 and 
 note, 103 : his view of the 
 world, 16-18, 59-60 : thinks 
 that Paradise is in the South, 
 
 17 : meets William de Rubru- 
 quis, 18-19, 31 : his influence 
 on Finaeus, 103. 
 
 Balboa, Vasco Nunez de : dis- 
 covers the Sea of the South, 73. 
 
 Bampton, William : sails through 
 Torres Strait, 482. 
 
 Banks, Sir Joseph : his manu- 
 script Journals, 382, 384-385 : 
 his early life, 392-394 : portrait 
 by Reynolds, 393 : sails on the 
 Endeavour, 395 : at Madeira, 
 395 : at Tierra del Fuego, 396 : 
 his views about Terra Aus- 
 tralis, 395, 396-397. 404. 406 : 
 at Tahiti, 397-399 : his descrip- 
 tion of New Zealand, 407-408 : 
 of the coast of New South 
 Wales, 413 : at Botany Bay, 
 416-423 : he recommends 
 convict colony at Botany Bay, 
 422 : at Endeavour River, 430- 
 
522 
 
 INDEX 
 
 436 : describes Great Barrier 
 Reef, 437 : extract from manu- 
 script journal, 443 : his opinion 
 of Australia, 444-447 : at 
 Batavia, 452-453 : at the Cape, 
 454 : returns to England, 455 : 
 prepares for another voyage, 
 459, but does not sail, 460 : 
 Cook and Banks, 461-462 : 
 President of the Royal Society, 
 500 : Banks and Flinders, 500- 
 503 : portrait by Phillips, 501. 
 
 Barrier Reef : Cook meets it, 
 428 : is spiked, 428 : sails 
 through, 436 : is nearly 
 wrecked on, 437 : Banks's 
 description, 437 : Cook sails 
 through again, 438 : threaded 
 by Flinders, 517. 
 
 Barros, Juan de : on ignorance of 
 the South of Java, 83 : on the 
 strong current in the Strait of 
 
 . Lombok, 115. 
 
 Bass, George : to Sydney in the 
 Reliance, 487 : explores South 
 coast in Tom Thumb, 487-488 : 
 voyage in the whale-boat, 488- 
 
 494 : discovers Western Port, 
 
 491 : shows a strait probable, 
 
 492 : circumnavigates Van 
 Diemen's Land with Flinders, 
 495-499 : at Port Dalrymple, 
 
 495 : Strait, 496 : Storm Bay, 
 
 497- 
 
 Bass's Strait : Cook misses it, 
 411 : Furneaux thinks there is 
 no strait, but Bayley thinks 
 there is, 465 : Hunter thinks 
 there is, 484, 489 : Bass shows 
 a strait is extremely probable, 
 492 : Flinders and Bass sail 
 through it, 496. 
 
 Batavia, capital of Java : its 
 foundation, 215 : Dampier at, 
 307. 330. 335 : Bougainville at, 
 378 : Cook and Banks at, 449- 
 453- 
 
 Batavia, the : Pelsart wrecked in, 
 249. 
 
 Baudin, Nicholas : his voyage 
 authorised, 506 : its motives, 
 509 : he sails, 511 : coasts 
 West Australia, 512 : visits 
 Tasmania, 512 : explores the 
 " unknown coast," 512 : meets 
 Flinders, 513, 515 : Terre 
 Napoleon, 516. 
 
 Beach : see Locac. 
 
 Beazley, Professor C. R. : his 
 Dawn of Modern Geography, x : 
 
 pictures showing the concep- 
 tions of Cosmas, 10- 11 : 
 describes the medieval views 
 of Antipodes, 14-15 : describes 
 Arabian voyages, 26-28 : map 
 showing geographical know- 
 ledge of Arabians, 27 : describes 
 Chinese voyages, 29 : describes 
 Christian missions in Asia, 47- 
 48 : praises Friar Odoric, 48-49. 
 
 Beck^t, Thomas : pubhshes a 
 journal of Cook's first voyage, 
 385. 
 
 Bede : on the right use of pagan 
 knowledge, 15. 
 
 Behaim, Martin : misunderstands 
 Marco Polo and other travellers, 
 44-45. 57-58 : his globe, 55 
 (map) . 
 
 Bermudez, Luis de Belmonte : 
 Quiros's secretary, 145-146 : his 
 poem, 178 : his explanation of 
 Quiros's failure to anchor, 183- 
 184 : his criticism of Quiros's 
 over-kindness, 187. 
 
 Bligh, William : rows from Tahiti 
 to Timor, 482 note : sails 
 through Torres Strait, 482, 486. 
 
 Botany Bay : discovered iDy Cook, 
 413 : Cook's map, 414 : ex- 
 plored and described, 413-425 : 
 Banks's opinion of, 423 : Cook's, 
 423-424 ; Hunter's, 424 note 1 : 
 Phillip's, 425 ; White's, 425 
 and note 4 ; Tench's, 425 notes 
 I and 4 ; Ross's, 425 note 4 ; 
 Peron's, 425 note 4 ; King's, 
 425 note 2 : at first called 
 Stingray Harbour, 418-422 : 
 Banks recommends convict 
 colonisation at, 422 : Phillip 
 and Laperouse at, 507 and 
 notes. 
 
 Bougainville, Louis Antoine, 
 Comte de : Aide-de-Camp of 
 Montcalm, 366 : colonises Falk- 
 land Islands, 368 : his voyage 
 round the world, 369-379 : vain 
 search for Terra Australis, 370 : 
 Tahiti, 370 : Samoa, 371 : New 
 Hebrides, 371 : Cape Deliver- 
 ance, 375 : the Solomons, 375 : 
 New Britain, 376 : Batavia, 
 378 : his later plans, 458, 509. 
 
 Bouvet, Lozier : seeks the land of 
 Gonneville, 346 : discovers the 
 Cape of the Circumcision, 347 : 
 influenced by Quiros, 348. 
 
 Bowen, John : sails into Port 
 Phillip. 505-506. 
 
INDEX 
 
 523 
 
 Bracciolini, Poggio : his inter- 
 view with Nicolo de Conti, 
 50-52. 
 
 Brasilia Regio, Brasielie Regio : 
 see Brazil. 
 
 Brazil : coasted by Vespucci, 
 96-97 : geographers think it 
 the last coast of Cattigara-land, 
 97 : Portuguese find dye-wood 
 brazil, 99: Terra Australis 
 named Brasilie Regio in 
 Schoner's map, 98-99 ; and 
 Brasielie Regio in Finseus's 
 map, loi, 104. 
 
 Brosses, Charles de : his Histoire 
 des Navigations, 349, his plea 
 that France should explore and 
 colonise the South, 350-351 : 
 discusses Magellanica, 353, 
 Polynesia, 354, Australasia, 
 355 : recommends colony in 
 New Britain, 356 : explains the 
 advantages of colonisation, 357- 
 359 : proposes use of convicts, 
 358. 
 
 Brougham, Henry Lord : his 
 Life of Banks, 385 : reports 
 Banks's description of Cook's 
 habits on board ship, 428 and 
 note. 
 
 Brouwer, Hendrik : discovers a 
 new route to Java, 225 : proves 
 that Staten Land is an island, 
 221, 278 note. 
 
 Brown, Macmillan : compares 
 Java to Clapham Junction, 24. 
 
 Brown, Robert : botanist in the 
 Investigator, 503, 
 
 Buddhists : their voyage from 
 India to Java, 24-25 : Chinese 
 Buddhists visit Java, 29. 
 
 Byron, John : his voyage round 
 the world, 368. 
 
 Cabot, John : his voyage in 
 search of Spice Islands, 208. 
 
 Cabot, Sebastian : his view of the 
 South Pacific, 86 (map), 88. 
 
 Callender, John : his Terra Aus- 
 tralis Cognita, 359-360 : he 
 recommends colonisation of 
 New Britain, 360. 
 
 Campbell, John : editor of Har- 
 ris's Voyages (1744-8), 342 : 
 urges commercial enterprise in 
 the South Sea, 342 : his view of 
 Terra Australis Incognita, 342- 
 343, and of Terra Australis 
 
 Cognita, 343-345 : view of New 
 Holland, 343-344 : recommen- 
 dation of New Britain, 345. 
 
 Cano, Sebastian del : reaches the 
 Moluccas in the Victoria, 74 : 
 circumnavigates the world, 75 : 
 second passage through the 
 Straits of Magellan, 77. 
 
 Cape Horn : rounded and named 
 by Le Maire and Schouten, 221 : 
 rounded by Dampier, 311, by 
 Roggeveen, 340 : route com- 
 mended by de Brosses, 354 : 
 rounded by Cook, 396, 471. 
 
 Cape Keerweer : discovered 1606, 
 225 : described by Flinders, 
 225. 
 
 Cape of the Circumcision : dis- 
 covered by Bouvet, 347 : Cook 
 fails to find it, 462, 471. 
 
 Carstenz, Jan : voyage in the 
 Per a (1623), 238-243 : descrip- 
 tion of Cape York, land and 
 people, 241-243. 
 
 Carteret, Philip : voyage in the 
 Swallow, 368-369 : rediscovers 
 Santa Cruz and the Solomons, 
 and discovers strait between 
 New Britain and New Ireland, 
 369 : overtaken by Bougain- 
 ville, 369, 379. 
 
 Cathay : see China. 
 
 Cattigara : on Ptolemy's map, 7 : 
 on map of 1489, 56, 57 : del 
 Cano fails to find it, 74 : belief 
 that Vespucci had discovered 
 eastern coast of Cattigara-land, 
 97 : Finaeus puts Cattigara in 
 Peru, 100, loi (map). 
 
 Cavendish, Thomas : praise of the 
 Javans, 22 : voyage of 1586, 
 143-145 : suggests English con- 
 quest of Spice Islands, 144 : at 
 Java, 144. 
 
 Ceylon, sometimes spelt Seilan, 
 Seylan, Sillan, Zeilan, Cayln : 
 called Taprobane, 4 : visited by 
 a Roman freedman, 4 : thought 
 by Mela to be the tip of Alter 
 Orbis, 4 : Ptolemy's conception, 
 6-7 : known by Cosmas, 8 : 
 described by Marco Polo, 36, 
 44, by Friar Odoric, 50, by de 
 Conti, 51 : its position in 
 Behaim's map, 55 ; on the map 
 of 1489, 57 ; on Fra Mauro's 
 map, 59 : Portuguese in Ceylon, 
 67 : conquered by Portuguese, 
 67 : conquered by the Dutch, 
 216. 
 
524 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Chancellor, Richard : discovers 
 Russia, 208. 
 
 Chili : Tasman to seek route to, 
 265 note, 279 : claims he has 
 found it, 280 : plan of a voyage 
 to, 285-286 ; plan abandoned, 
 291. 
 
 China, or Cathay : known to 
 Ptolemy, 6, 7, and to Cosmas, 
 8 : Chinese voyages to Java, 
 28-29 : William de Rubruquis 
 gets news of a sea on the East, 
 
 31 : Nicolo and Matteo Polo in, 
 
 32 : Marco Polo in, 33 : his 
 description of Chinese com- 
 merce and voyages, 38-46 : 
 John de Monte Corvino in, 47 : 
 Friar Odoric in, 49 : foreigners 
 expelled from, 62 : the Dutch 
 in, 216 : Dampier in, 318-319. 
 
 Cicero, Marcus Tullius : makes use 
 of the Antipodes, 5 note i. 
 
 Cinque Port : Alexander Selkirk 
 in. 333- 
 
 Cipango : see Japan. 
 
 Coen, Jan Pietszoon : founds 
 Batavia, 215 : enmity to the 
 English, 218 : confiscates Le 
 Maire's ship, 222 : reports the 
 wreck of the Trial, 234 : plans 
 the circumnavigation of Aus- 
 tralia, 236 : nearly wrecked on 
 the Abrolhos, 249. 
 
 Collingridge, George : his Dis- 
 covery of Australia, x : inter- 
 pretation of Behaim's map, 58 : 
 of Wytfliet's map, 113 ; of the 
 Portuguese-French maps, 115 
 note, 118, 124-129 : prints maps 
 of Torres's voyage, 193 note, 
 195 note : articles on Hartog's 
 pewter-dish, 229 note i. 
 
 Columbus, Christopher : his Jour- 
 nal and Letters, 61 : his great 
 expectations, 69-70 : his inter- 
 pretation of his discoveries, 
 71-72 : South America is Terra 
 Australis, 72 : looks for the 
 Straits of Malacca at Panama, 
 73- 
 
 Conti, Nicolo de : interview with 
 Bracciolini, 50 : journeys, 
 50-52 : mistakes caused by 
 his statements, 50-52 : calls 
 Sumatra " Taprobane," 51 : his 
 news of the Spice Islands, 52 : 
 influence on the map of 1489, 
 56, 57 (map), on Behaim's map, 
 55 (map), 57-58; on Fra 
 Mauro's map, 54, 56, 59 (map). 
 
 Conversion de San Pablo : island 
 discovered by Quiros, 163. 
 
 Cook, James : autograph Log on 
 the Endeavour, 380 : Cook 
 Manuscripts, 380-381 : copies 
 of Journal, 381-382 : extract 
 from "Corner" copy, 383 : early 
 Hfe, 387-388 ; at Quebec, 389 : 
 charting of unknown coasts, 
 389-390 : before the- Royal 
 Society, 390 : commands the 
 Endeavour, 391 : Instructions 
 for, 394-395 : sails, 395 ; at 
 Rio, 396 ; sails over the con- 
 tinent, 396 : at Tahiti, 397-400, 
 sails South to 40°, 400 : pro- 
 blems to solve in New Zealand, 
 401 : explores New Zealand, 
 401-405 : discovers Cook's 
 Straits, 403 : proves New Zea- 
 land not part of Terra A ustralis, 
 
 404 : plans another voyage, 
 
 405 : describes New Zealand, 
 407, and the Maoris, 408 : sails 
 for New Holland, 409 ; pro- 
 blems to solve, 410-41 1 : misses 
 Bass's Strait, 411-412 : in 
 Botany Bay, 413-425 : map of 
 Botany Bay, 414 : " Cook's 
 meadows," 418 note : gives 
 name of Stingray Harbour, 419 : 
 name changed to Botany Bay, 
 419-421 : Cook's favourable 
 opinion, 423-425 : sees Port 
 Jackson and " Broken Bay," 
 426, Morton Bay, Bustard Bay 
 and Thirsty Sound, 427 : spiked 
 on the Barrier Reef, 428 : at 
 the Endeavour River, 431-436 : 
 through the Barrier Reef, 436, 
 and back again, 438 : Cape 
 York, 440 : claim to be first 
 discoverer of Eastern coast, 440 
 and note : through Endeavour 
 Strait, 440 : gives names of 
 New Wales, and New South 
 Wales, 441-442 : describes 
 Aiistralia, 447-448 : at New 
 Guinea, 448 : at Savu, 448 : 
 at Batavia, 449-453 : sends 
 Journal home, 450 : autograph 
 letter, 451 : from Batavia to 
 the Cape, 453 : describes South 
 Africa, 453-454 : returns to 
 England, 454 : Logs and 
 Journals of the second voyage, 
 457 : objects of the voyage, 
 457-458 '• the Resolution and 
 the Adventure, 460 : " cool- 
 ness " between Cook and Banks, 
 
INDEX 
 
 525 
 
 460 : renewed friendship, 461 : 
 Antarctic exploration, 462-463 : 
 at Dusky Bay, New Zealand, 
 463-464 : no continent between 
 America and New Zealand, 465 : 
 at Tahiti, 465, and Tonga, 466 : 
 concludes Southern Continent 
 is under ice, 466-467 : low 
 opinion of the South Pole, 467, 
 472 : at Juan Fernandez, 467 : 
 Easter Island, the Marquesas 
 and Tahiti, 468 : at the New 
 Hebrides, 469 : New Caledonia 
 and Norfolk Island, 470 : 
 describes Maori cannibals, 471 : 
 rounds Cape Horn and visits 
 Southern Georgia, 471 : returns 
 to England, 472 : results of 
 voyage, 472-473 : how to keep 
 well on board ship, 473 : "a 
 pretty income " at Greenwich, 
 474 : the third voyage, 474- 
 476 : at Van Diemen's Land, 
 New Zealand, Tonga and Tahiti, 
 475-476 : sails North, 476 : 
 Cook's character, 476-479 : his 
 work summed up, 480-481. 
 
 Cornells, Jerome : piracy at the 
 Abrolhos, 251-252. 
 
 Cortes, Hernando : conqueror of 
 Mexico, 76 : plans a Spanish 
 Empire in the Pacific, 76-77 : 
 sends Saavedra to the Moluccas, 
 
 77- 
 Cosmas Indicopleustes : his view 
 
 of the world, 8-12. 
 Cotton, Professor L. A. : criticises 
 
 argument that Terra Australis 
 
 exists by physical necessity, 
 
 95 note 2. 
 Couto, Diego do : on ignorance of 
 
 the South coast of Java, 84. 
 Cyclades : Bougainville's name 
 
 for the New Hebrides, 372. 
 Cygnet, the : Dampier in, 311-318. 
 
 D 
 
 Dalrymple, Alexander : identifies 
 Java la Grande with Australia, 
 129 note, 440 note : voyages in 
 Eastern parts, 361 : gets 
 Arias's Memorial, and learns 
 existence of Torres Strait, 361 : 
 a disciple of Quiros, 361 : his 
 Discoveries in the South Pacific, 
 and Collection of Voyages, 362 : 
 he argues that a Southern 
 Continent must exist, 362-364 : 
 his map, 363 : he is supplanted 
 
 by Cook, 365, 387 : gives his 
 booklet to Banks, 365 : Cook 
 searches for Dalrymple's con- 
 tinent, 396, 400 : Cook im- 
 pressed by Dalrymple's map of 
 Torres Strait, 411, 441 : Dal- 
 rymple accuses Cook of dis- 
 honesty, 440 note. 
 Dampier, William : uses Tas- 
 man's map, 297, 326 : early 
 life, 306-308 : portrait, 307 : 
 a pirate, 306, 308 : wood- 
 cutting and rum-drinking, 308 : 
 in a tropical forest, 309 : in the 
 South Seas, 309 : at Juan 
 Fernandez, 310 : his curiosity, 
 310 : in the Cygnet, 311 : from 
 Mexico to Guam, 311 : pro- 
 poses a factory in the Philip- 
 pines, 312 : and the exploration 
 of Australia, 313 : his use of the 
 phrase Terra Australis, 314 and 
 note : in Cygnet Bay, 315-318 : 
 in Tonquin, 318-319 ; urges 
 commercial enterprise, 319-320 : 
 returns to England, 320 : Jour- 
 nal printed, 321 : great expecta- 
 tions of Australia, 322 : voyage 
 in the Roebuck, 323 : difficulties 
 of the voyage, 323-324 : Sharks 
 Bay, 325 : Rosemary Island, 
 
 326 : are there passages ?, 326- 
 
 327 : Roebuck Bay, 327 : at 
 Timor, 329 : Dampier Strait 
 and New Britain, 329-331 : 
 shipwreck at Ascension, 330 : 
 condemned by court-martial, 
 332 : voyage in the St. George, 
 332 : Dampier and Selkirk, 333, 
 334 : the voyage of 1708-1711, 
 334-335 : value of Dampier's 
 writings, 335-336. 
 
 Dante : believes that Paradise is 
 in the Southern Continent, 18, 
 72, 73 : on the Southern Cross, 
 18. 
 
 " Dauphin " Map, the : 11^ etseq., 
 map, 114. 
 
 Davis Island : see Easter Island. 
 
 Dedel, Jacob : his name given to 
 d'Edelslandt, 233. 
 
 Dentrecasteaux, Joseph Antoine 
 Bruni : explorations in the 
 Australian Bight, 246-247, 484, 
 508 : and in Van Diemen's 
 Land, 497, 508. 
 
 Desceliers' Map: 116, 117 (map), 
 127. 
 
 Deslien's Map : Portuguese flags 
 on Jave la Grande, 125 note. 
 
526 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Diaz, Bartholomew : rounds the 
 Cape, 66. 
 
 Diemen, Anthony Van : early- 
 life, 253-254 : influenced by 
 Quiros, 254, 256-257: Instruc- 
 tions to Pool, 254-256 : gets 
 advice of Visscher, 258 : Instruc- 
 tions to Tasman, 1642, 265- 
 267 : Instructions to Tasman, 
 1644, 286-288 : more brilliant 
 schemes, 291 : death, 292. 
 
 Dolphin, the : voyage under 
 Byron, 368; and Wallis, 368-369. 
 
 Douglas, Rev. John : his edition 
 of the Journals of Cook's 
 second voyage, 457. 
 
 Drake, Francis : his voj'^age round 
 the world, 141-143 : proves that 
 Tierra del Fuego is not part of 
 Terra Australia, 141 : at the 
 Moluccas, 142 : at Java, 143. 
 
 Dutch, the : foundation of the 
 Dutch Republic, 212 : liberty 
 and wealth, 212 : Dutch Dread- 
 noughts, 213 : Linschoten 
 reveals the East, 209 : three 
 Dutch routes to the East, 213 : 
 Dutch East India Company, 
 214 : Spanish fears, 201, 206 : 
 Dutch Eastern Empire, 215- 
 219 : Dutch drive the English 
 from the Islands, 216-219 : 
 Dutch discover Australia, 220 
 et seq. : Dutch business spirit, 
 223-224 : Dutch religion, 212, 
 223, 257 : Dutch inquisitive- 
 ness, 237 : Dutch power waning 
 338 : Bougainville describes 
 Dutch weakness, 378-379 : 
 Banks on the same, 452-453. 
 
 Duyfhen, the : voyage of, 224, 
 225. 
 
 East India Company, the Dutch : 
 its foundation, 214 : its pros- 
 perity, 215 : Dutch Eastern 
 Empire, 216 : quarrels with the 
 English, 216-219 : drives the 
 English from the Islands, 219 : 
 encourages exploration, 235, 
 253 : its calmness, 285 : it 
 pours cold water, 292. 
 
 East India Company, the English: 
 its Charter, 210 : its weakness, 
 210 : yet breaks the Portu- 
 guese fence, 2 10-2 11 : its fac- 
 tories, 211 : quarrels with the 
 Dutch, 216-219 : is driven from 
 the Islands, 219. 
 
 Easter Island : discovered by 
 Davis and named Davis Island, 
 314 : visited by Roggeveen, 
 341 : sought by Bougainville, 
 370 : Dalrymple's argument, 
 364 : visited by Gonzalez, 458 
 note 2 ; by Cook, 468. 
 
 Edrisi : expresses Arabic fear of 
 the Ocean, 28. 
 
 Eendracht, the : discovers West 
 Australia, 226. 
 
 Eendrachtsland : Dutch think it 
 is Beach, 45, 230 : discovered, 
 226 : on Gerritz's map, 227 : 
 Dampier guesses the meaning 
 of the name, 303. 
 
 Ellis, John : describes Banks's 
 preparations, 394, and return, 
 
 455- 
 
 Endeavour , the : Logs and Jour- 
 nals, 380 : choice of the ship, 
 391 : spiked on the coral reef, 
 428 : in Endeavour River, 433 
 (picture) : repaired at Batavia, 
 449 : Cook's praise of, 460 and 
 note. 
 
 English, the : English interest 
 in the East, 207 : Bristol 
 merchants explore, 207 : dis- 
 coveries of John Cabot, 208 : 
 North-West Passage ?, 208 : 
 North-East Passage ?, 208 : 
 Muscovy Company, 208 : Jen- 
 kinson trades in India, 208 : 
 Levant Company, 208 : John 
 Hawkins in Mexico, 138, 140 : 
 Drake's circumnavigation, 141- 
 143 ; in the Spice Islands and 
 Java, 142-143 ; his return, 143, 
 209 : Cavendish's circum- 
 navigation, 143-145 : he 
 suggests conquest of Spice 
 Islands, 144 : Spanish fears, 
 145, 152, 201, 206 : English 
 translation of Linschoten, 209 : 
 Lancaster's voyage, 210 : the 
 East India Company, 210, 
 breaks the Portuguese fence, 
 211 : rivalry with the Dutch, 
 216-219: massacre of Amboyna, 
 218 : Dutch drive English out 
 of Spice Islands, 219 : Dampier 
 in the South Seas, 309-320 : 
 recommends English factory in 
 the Philippines, 312 ; and ex- 
 ploration of Australia, 313 : 
 Dampier in Cygnet Bay, 315- 
 318 : urges vigorous trade in 
 the East, 319 : Dampier's great 
 expectations of Australia, 322 : 
 
I 
 
 INDEX 
 
 527 
 
 his exploration of the Austrahan 
 coast, 324-329 : Campbell's 
 views, 342-345 : Callender's, 
 359-360 ; Dalrymple's, 361-365: 
 voyages of Byron, Wallis and 
 Carteret, 368-369 : Cook's first 
 voyage, 395-456 : Cook's second 
 voyage, 457-474 : Cook's third 
 voyage, 474-476 : Flinders on 
 the problems of Australian 
 geography, 481-485 : explora- 
 tions of Flinders and Bass, 487- 
 499 : of Flinders, 513-519 ; of 
 Grant, 503-505 ; of Murray and 
 Bowen, 505-506. 
 Espiritu Santo : discovered by 
 Quiros, 168 : named, 174 : re- 
 discovered by Bougainville, 371- 
 372 ; by Cook, 469. 
 
 Falkland Islands : visited by 
 Roggeveen, 340 : Campbell 
 proposes a settlement, 343 ; 
 also de Brosses, 353 : Bougain- 
 ville forms a colony, 366-368 : 
 Byron annexes the Falklands, 
 368 : Bougainville gives them 
 to Spain, 369. 
 
 Fernandez, Juan : Arias's state- 
 ment that he discovered a 
 continent, 205, 206 note : quoted 
 by Dalrymple, 362 : Cook 
 proves it a mistake, 467. 
 
 Fiji Islands: discovered by Tas- 
 man, 282. 
 
 Finseus, Orontius : his map, 100- 
 104 : his view of the position of 
 Cattigara, 100 ; of Patala, 102- 
 104 ; of Brazil, 104. 
 
 Fiske, John : his Discovery of 
 America, x : on the influence of 
 Marco Polo, 52 note : on 
 Columbus's use of Marco Polo, 
 70 note I : on blood-and- 
 thunder tragedies in Peru, 130. 
 
 Fitch, Ralph: his Asiatic tour, 209. 
 
 Fleurieu, Comte de : writes in- 
 structions for Laperouse and 
 Dentrecasteaux, 509 : member 
 of the Institute of France, 509 : 
 interest in Baudin's voyage, 509. 
 
 Flinders, Matthew : portrait, 486 : 
 with Bligh through Torres 
 Strait, 486 : to Sydney in the 
 Reliance, 487 : down the South 
 coast in the Tom Thumb, 487- 
 488 : describes Bass's voyage 
 in the whale-boat, 489-493 : 
 
 trip to the Furneaux Islands, 
 494 : thinks there is a strait, 
 494 : circumnavigates Tas- 
 mania, 495-499 : Port Dal- 
 rymple, 495 : Bass's Strait, 
 496 : Western coast, 496 : 
 identifies Tasman's landfall, 
 270, 496 : Storm Bay, 497 : 
 his high ambition, 499 : his 
 description of problems of Aus- 
 tralian geography, 481-485 : 
 dedicates Observations to Banks, 
 500 : is given the Investigator, 
 502 : explores the South coast, 
 247-248, 513 : Spencer's Gulf, 
 513 : meets Baudin, 515 : 
 describes Terre Napoleon, 516 
 note I : complains that French 
 geographers ignore English dis- 
 coveries, 516 note 2 : circum- 
 navigates Australia, 517-518 : 
 Torres Strait, 517 and notes : 
 describes Cape Keerweer, 225 : 
 the Gulf, 518 : search for Trial 
 Rocks, 235 : misunderstands 
 Carstenz's discoveries, 240 note : 
 his opinion of the French- 
 Portuguese maps, 127 : in 
 Mauritius, 518 : Voyage to 
 Terra Ausiralis, and death, 519 : 
 his suggestion of the name 
 Australia, 174 note : his map, 
 
 514- 
 
 Forster, Johann Georg Adam : 
 scientist in Cook's second 
 voyage, 461 : his Voyage round 
 the World, 457, 461 : discovers 
 that sea-ice is not salt, 463 
 note : describes Cook's deter- 
 mination to digest poisonous 
 fish, 477 note ; describes the 
 language of seamen, 478. 
 
 Fra Mauro : see Mauro. 
 
 Franciscans : William de Rubru- 
 quis' mission to the Tartars, 18 : 
 his talk with Roger Bacon, 18, 
 31 ; brings news of a sea East 
 of China, 31 : Franciscan mis- 
 sions in Asia, 47-50 : the 
 Journal of Friar Odoric, 48-50 : 
 de Morga's account of Fran- 
 ciscan missions, 80 : Fran- 
 ciscans with Mendaiia in the 
 voyage of 1567, 132, 135 ; in 
 the voyage of 1595, 150, 151 ; 
 with Quiros in 1605, 157-158, 
 174, 190-191 : Quiros's Fran- 
 ciscan Gospel (1641), 188 : 
 Franciscans urge further mis- 
 sions, 205-207. 
 
528 
 
 INDEX 
 
 French, the : the story of de 
 Gonneville, 345-346 : Bouvet 
 plans a French colony in the 
 land of Gonneville, 346-347 ; 
 his voyage, 347 : the ideas 
 of Mauperturs, 348-349 : de 
 Brosses urges French explora- 
 tion and settlement, 349-359 : 
 Bougainville's voyage, 369-379 : 
 Bougainville's later plans, 458, 
 509 : Surville's voyage, 458 
 and note i : Marion's voyage, 
 458, 471 : Kerguelen's voyage, 
 458 : Laperouse's voyage, 507 
 and notes, 508 : Dentrecas- 
 teaux's voyage, 246-247, 484, 
 508-509 : Baudin's voyage, 509- 
 513, 516 : French plans for the 
 conquest of Sydney, 510 and 
 note : Terre Napoleon, 516. 
 
 Friar Odoric : see OdoHc. 
 
 Friendly Islands : see Tonga 
 Islands. 
 
 Furneaux, Tobias : commands the 
 Adventure in Cook's second 
 voyage, 462 : geographical mis- 
 takes in Storm Bay, 271, 464- 
 465 : discovers Furneaux Is- 
 lands, 465 : thinks there is no 
 strait between Australia and 
 Tasmania, 465 : the massacre 
 in New Zealand, 470-471. 
 
 Gallego, Hernando : Pilot on 
 Mendafia's voyage of 1567, 132 : 
 a believer in the Southern 
 Continent, 132, 134 note : claims 
 control of navigation, 133 : the 
 mistake in his calculation of 
 longitude, 148. 
 
 Galvano, Antonio : his Discoveries 
 of the World, 61 : his account 
 of Malaysian islands, 22 : his 
 account of the island voyage of 
 1 5 12, 68-69 : says islands were 
 seen from the Victoria under 
 the Tropic of Capricorn, 75, 83, 
 92 : wages war in the Moluccas, 
 76 : mentions discovery of 
 Japan, 76 • describes Saa- 
 vedra's voyage, 78 : has no 
 knowledge of Australia, 88 
 note I. 
 
 Gama, Vasco de : reaches India, 
 66. 
 
 Garden of Eden : see Paradise. 
 
 George III. : his " remarkable 
 love of science," 386 : Tahitians 
 
 drink his health, 398 : his talk 
 with Cook, 455 : the Royal 
 Society votes him a bust, 455 : 
 saluted by Omai, 466. 
 
 Gerritz, Hessel : his map of 1627, 
 226, 227 (map), 232, 233, 245 : 
 his map of 1618-1628, 245-246, 
 248. 
 
 Gonneville, Sieur de : the story of 
 his voyage, 345-346 ; its in- 
 fluence on Bouvet, 346 ; and 
 on de Brosses, 351. 
 
 Grant, James : his Narrative of a 
 Voyage of Discovery, 480, 505 
 (map) : his voyage in the Lady 
 Nelson, 503-505 : his discoveries 
 
 504-505- 
 
 Great Kaan, the : visited by 
 Rubruquis, 31 ; by Nicolo and 
 Matteo Polo, 32 ; by Marco 
 Polo, 33 : Yule's note on the 
 word Kaan, 32 note : China 
 under the Great Kaan, 38-39 : 
 the Great Kaan and Java, 41 ; 
 and Locac, 42 ; and Java the 
 Less, 43 : Columbus hears of 
 the ships of the Gran Can, 71. 
 
 Greek geographers : their views 
 and influence, 2. 
 
 Green, J. R. : on the influence of 
 Francis Bacon, 305. 
 
 Gulden Seepaart, the : discovers 
 Nuyts Land, 245-248. 
 
 H 
 
 Hakluyt, Richard : map pub- 
 lished in his second edition, 90, 
 and note 4, 92 and map. 
 
 Halifax, the Earl of : President 
 of the Royal Society, 321 : 
 Dampier dedicates his Journal 
 to him, 321. 
 
 Halley, Edmund : foretells the 
 transit of Venus, 386. 
 
 Hanno : his voyage to Sierra 
 Leone, 2. 
 
 Hartog, Dirck : discovers the 
 land of Eendracht, 226 : dis- 
 covery marked on Gerritz 's 
 map, 226, 227 (map) : his 
 pewter dish found by Vlamingh, 
 228, and by Verster, 228-229 : 
 the pewter dish, 231. 
 
 Hawkesworth, John : his edition 
 of Cook's first Voyage, 385 ; its 
 absurdities, 457 ; Dr. Watson 
 corrects his dates, 413 note 2. 
 
 Hawkins, John : in Mexico, 138, 
 140. 
 
INDEX 
 
 529 
 
 Heemskerk, the : Tasman's ship, 
 268, 277 (picture). 
 
 Heeres, J. L. : value of his Part 
 borne by the Dutch, and Tasman, 
 X : on Dutch Christianity, 224 : 
 on the character of Tasman, 
 262 : his facsimile of Tasman's 
 Journal, 268 : on the name of 
 New Zealand, 278 note : prints 
 Visscher's Chart, 279 : on Tas- 
 man's Chart of 1644, 289. 
 
 Henry the Navigator • Crusader 
 and Searcher, 63-64 : his scien- 
 tific study of navigation, 64-65 : 
 his ships seek a way round 
 Africa, 65-66 : his death, 66. 
 
 Herodotus : his story of a voyage 
 round Africa, 2. 
 
 Hondius, Judicus : his map, 241. 
 
 Hooker, John : his great drink, 
 308. 
 
 Hooker, Sir Joseph : editor of 
 Banks's Journal, 382. 
 
 Horrocks, Jeremiah : observes 
 the transit of Venus, 386. 
 
 Houtman, Frederick de : dis- 
 covers part of the coast of West 
 Australia, 230 : thinks it is 
 Marco Polo's Beach, 45, 230 : 
 discovers Houtman's Abrolhos, 
 230 : discoveries marked on 
 Gerritz's map, 227 (map), 232. 
 
 Hunter, Sir William : the Indian 
 Ocean " an outlying domain of 
 Islam," 26 : on the Portuguese 
 Empire, 66-67 : on the English 
 East India Company, 210-21 1 : 
 on the Dutch Republic, 212 : 
 on the Dutch East India Com- 
 pany, 214-217 ; on quarrels of 
 the Dutch and Enghsh, 217- 
 
 218. 
 
 India : Alexander's expedition to, 
 3 : ancient conception of, 3-4 : 
 Cosmas's knowledge of, 8-g : 
 Roger Bacon's conception of, 
 17 : Mookerji's description of 
 Indian voyages and colonies, 
 24-25 : Indian Buddhists 
 colonise Java, 24-25 : Marco 
 Polo's knowledge of India, 33, 
 36 : Franciscan missions in 
 India, 47 : Nicolo de Conti's 
 statements, 50-51 : Ludovico di 
 Varthema in India, 53, 68 : 
 India in the map of 1489, 56- 
 57 ; in Behaim's map, 55, 58 ; 
 in Era Mauro's map, 54-55, 59 • 
 
 Henry the Navigator seeks an 
 ocean-way to India, 65 : Vasco 
 de Gama reaches India, 66 : 
 the Portuguese Empire in India, 
 66-67. 
 Investigator , the : ship given to 
 Flinders, 502 : sails, 513 : ex- 
 plores coast of Australian Bight, 
 513 : meets Baudin, 515 : cir- 
 cumnavigates Australia, 517- 
 
 519. 
 Isidore : his views about the 
 fabulous Antipodes, 14. 
 
 J 
 
 Japan, Cipango, Zipango : de- 
 scribed by Marco Polo, 40 : 
 sought by Columbus, 70 : he 
 thinks Hayti is Japan, 71 : 
 discovered by the Portuguese, 
 76 : Franciscan martyrs in, 80 : 
 English in, 211 and note 2 : 
 Dutch trade, 216, 223 : Jap- 
 anese suspect Dutch are 
 Christians, 223. 
 
 Java, Javans : had Ptolemy 
 heard of islands ?, 6 : character 
 of Javans, 22 : their voyages, 
 22-23 : did they visit Australia?, 
 23 : Java the " Clapham Junc- 
 tion," 24 : Indian Buddhists 
 in, 24-25 : Arab traders in, 26 : 
 Chinese traders in, 29, 41 : 
 geographic importance of, 29- 
 30 : Marco Polo's description 
 of, 41 : he is understood to 
 describe lands SoutK of, 42 : 
 misunderstandings, 45-46 : a 
 Franciscan description of, 48 : 
 Friar Odoric's description of, 
 48, 50 : Nicolo de Conti's 
 description of, 51-52 : Ludo- 
 vico di Varthema's description 
 of, 53 : Java in the maps of 
 Behaim, 55 ; and Era Mauro, 
 59 : conception of Java, and 
 the beyond, 59-60 : d'Abreu 
 sails by Java, 69 : ignorance of 
 the South of Java, 83 : Barros's 
 statement, 83 ; do Couto's, 
 84 ; Linschoten's, 84, 85 (map) : 
 Java on maps, of Cabot, 86, 
 of Ribero and Reinel, 87, of 
 Rodriguez, 89, of Mercator, 
 91, of Hakluyt, 92, of 
 Schoner, 98, of Finaeus, loi, 
 of Plancius, 107, of Ortelius, 
 III, of Wytfliet, 112, on the 
 "Dauphin" Map, 114, on 
 
530 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Rotz's map, 115, on Des- 
 celiers' map, 117.: Java and the 
 Southern Continent, 1 21-122 : 
 Drake on the South coast of 
 Java, 143 : Cavendish under 
 the South- West, 144 : Enghsh 
 in Java, 211 : Dutch in Java, 
 215-216 : Duyfhen sails from 
 Java, 224 : Brouwer finds new- 
 route to, 225 : " South lands 
 behind Java," 234 : Dampier 
 visits, 307, 330, 335 ; Bougain- 
 ville, 378 ; Cook and Banks, 
 449-452. 
 
 Java Minor ; Marco Polo's name 
 for Sumatra, 43, 46 : de Conti's 
 name for Sumbava, 52. 
 
 Jenkinson, Anthony : opens trade 
 with India, 208. 
 
 Jose, A. W. : on Flinders' mis- 
 interpretation of Carstenz's dis- 
 coveries, 240 note. 
 
 Juan Fernandez, island of : pro- 
 bably discovered by Juan 
 Fernandez, 206 note : Dampier 
 at, 309-310, 311 : Robinson 
 Crusoe I. at, 310 : Robinson 
 Crusoe II. at, 310-31 1 : Robin- 
 son Crusoe III. (Alexander 
 Selkirk) at, 333 and note, 334 : 
 Roggeveen at, 340 : Campbell 
 on value of, 343 ; de Brosses, 
 355 : Cook at, 467-468. 
 
 K 
 
 Kangaroos : unknown to Sinbad, 
 28 : first reported, 252 : de- 
 scribed by Banks, 432. 
 
 Kerguelen-Tremarec, Yves Joseph 
 de : his voyage and discoveries, 
 458, 463, 506. 
 
 King George III. Island : see 
 Tahiti. 
 
 King, Philip Gidley, Governor of 
 New South Wales : on a pos- 
 sible strait between the Gulf 
 and the Southern Ocean, 500 
 note : gets Lady Nelson sent to 
 New South Wales, 503 : Grant 
 names Governor King's Bay, 
 504 note, 505 (map). 
 
 King, Phillip Parker : describes 
 Dirck Hartog's Road, 228 note : 
 describes Abrolhos, 232 : search 
 for Trial Rocks, 235 : identifies 
 Dampier's landing-place, 315 : 
 on Dutch exploration of the 
 Bay of Van Diemen, 303 
 note. 
 
 Kitson, Arthur : value of his 
 Life of Cook, X : on a " cat- 
 built " bark, 391 : the " only 
 autograph page " of Cook's 
 Journal, 420 note 2 : says the 
 crawling devil was a flying-fox, 
 432 : on the untrustworthiness 
 of Hawkesworth's and Douglas's 
 editions of Cook's Journals, 457. 
 
 Lactantius : his view of the 
 Antipodes, 12. 
 
 Lady Nelson, the : her voyage 
 under Grant, 503-505 : under 
 Murray, 505-506. 
 
 Lancaster, James : his voyage to 
 the Spice Islands, 210. 
 
 Laperouse, Jean Fran9ois de 
 Galaup, Comte de : compares 
 Javans to Phoenicians, 22 : his 
 compliment to Cook, 473 : in 
 Botany Bay, 507 and notes, 
 508 : the search for, 508. 
 
 Leeuwin, Landt van de : dis- 
 covered, 245-248. 
 
 Le Maire, Isaac : his belief in a 
 rich Southern Continent, 220. 
 
 Le Maire, James: his voyage in 
 search of Southern Continent, 
 220-222: discovers Staten Land, 
 221 : wishes to sail westward, 
 but overruled, 222 : Tasman 
 seeks Le Maire's Islands, 281. 
 
 Levant Company, the : formed to 
 trade with India, 208 : grows 
 into the East India Company, 
 210. 
 
 Leza, Caspar Gonzalez de : Pilot 
 with Quiros, 158 : describes 
 Franciscan dresses, 158: praised 
 by Quiros, 180, 183 : his explana- 
 tion of the failure to anchor, 1 80- 
 
 182 : criticised by Bermudez, 
 
 183 : publication of his narra- 
 tive, 203-204. 
 
 Linnaeus, Carl : his interest in the 
 voyage of the Endeavour, 394, 
 455-456. 
 
 Linschoten, John Huyghen van : 
 on ignorance of the South of 
 Java, 84-85 : his map of Java, 
 85 : his travels in the East, 
 209 : publications of his Voy- 
 ages, 209, 296 ; their influence, 
 209. 
 
 Locac, Locach, Lucach, Beach : 
 Marco Polo's description of, 
 42 : thought to be South of 
 
INDEX 
 
 531 
 
 Java, 44-45 : really Siam, 46 : 
 Beach a misprint, 45, 108 note 
 2 : on Linschoten's map, 85 : 
 on Mercator's map, 91, 108 : 
 on Plancius's map, 107 : on 
 Ortelius's map, iii : on Goos- 
 Visscher's map, 233 : on 
 Houdius's map, 241 : Houtman 
 discovers Beach, 45, 230 : Vis- 
 scher urges a search for Beach, 
 260. 
 Lucach : see Locac. 
 
 M 
 
 M'Nab, Robert : on Tasman's 
 place of anchorage, 276 note 2 : 
 on the name Poverty Bay, 402 
 note I : on the contiguity of 
 Cook and Surville, 458 note i. 
 
 Madagascar : J a van voyages to, 
 22 : Arabian voyages to, 26 
 Sinbad's flight from, 26, 38 
 Marco Polo's description, 37 
 the rue, 37. 
 
 Magellan, Ferdinand : his friend- 
 ship with Serrano, 68 : Serrano 
 tells him of " another new 
 world " in the Moluccas, 69 : 
 he passes through the Straits of 
 Magellan, 74, 99 : killed in the 
 Philippines, 74 : his voyage 
 excites new ambitions in Cortes, 
 76 : geographers believe that 
 Magellan has discovered a 
 "bashful" continent, 105, 109- 
 III, 113. 
 
 Magellan, Straits of : passed by 
 Magellan, 74 ; by Loaysa and 
 del Cano, 77, 82 : route aban- 
 doned, 86, 1 1 2-1 13 : passed by 
 Drake, 141 ; by Byron, Wallis 
 and Carteret, 368 ; by Bougain- 
 ville, 369. 
 
 Magellanica : used by de Brosses 
 of the South Atlantic, 353. 
 
 Magellanican Continent : name 
 given to Terra Australis by 
 Mercator, 93, 105 ; and Orte- 
 lius, 109, no. III. 
 
 Major, Richard Henry : his Early 
 Voyages' to Australia, x : on 
 the misprint of Beach for 
 Locach, 108 note 2 : his inter- 
 pretation of the Portuguese- 
 French maps, 117-118, 122, 124, 
 126. 
 
 Malacca ; described by Varthema, 
 53 : conquered by Albu- 
 querque, 67 : Columbus seeks 
 
 it, 71, 73 ; Cortes, 73 ; Ves- 
 pucci, 73 : Schoner's views, 73, 
 98 (map) : Schoner thinks 
 Terra A ustralis approaches 
 Malacca, 99 and note : con- 
 quered by the Dutch, 216. 
 
 Malays : their character, 22 : 
 probably visited Austraha, 22- 
 23 : traded with Indians, 
 Arabians, Chinese, 23-24 ; who 
 also visited Malay Islands, 24- 
 29 : described by Varthema, 
 53 : did Malays give Portu- 
 guese information about Aus- 
 tralia ?, 127. 
 
 Malepur, S. Thome, St. Thomas : 
 its position described by de 
 Conti, 51 : on map of 1489, 56, 
 57 (map) ; on map of Behaim, 
 55 (map), 56. 
 
 Maletur ; position in Mercator's 
 map, 91 (map), 108. 
 
 Maoris : described by Tasman, 
 276-278, 280 ; by Cook, 402, 
 403, 408, 464, 466, 470-471, 
 47.5- 
 
 Maria, wife of Van Diemen, 262 : 
 Tasman gives her name to 
 Maria Island, 275, Cape Maria, 
 280, Maria Bay, 282. 
 
 Marion du Fresne, Nicolas Thomas: 
 his search for the Southern 
 Continent, 458, 463, 506 : mur- 
 dered in New Zealand, 471. 
 
 Markham, Sir Clement : his 
 edition of Quiros's Voyages, 
 140, 155 : his translation used, 
 140-207 : his translation of 
 Bermudez' poem, 178. 
 
 Marquesas, the : discovered by 
 Mendaiia, 147 : visited by 
 Cook, 468 ; by R. L. Stevenson, 
 147, 468. 
 
 Martyr, Peter : rejoices in know- 
 ledge of Antipodes, 73. 
 
 Matra, James Mario : sails as 
 James Magra on the Endeavour, 
 429 note 2 : Cook's opinion of 
 him, 429 note 2 : Cook's auto- 
 graph note about him in margin 
 of Journal, 383, 429 note 2 : 
 was he the author of Journal of 
 a Voyage Round the World ?, 
 385 : his belief that New South 
 Wales will produce spices, 323 
 note. 
 
 Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau 
 de : letter to Frederick the 
 Great on the interest of the 
 South Sea, 348-349. 
 
532 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mauritius : occupied by the 
 Dutch, 216 : Tasman at, 268 ; 
 FHnders at, 518-519. 
 
 Mauro, Fra : his map, 54, 56, 55 
 (map) : describes strong cur- 
 rents near Dim Islands, 49 
 note 2, 83. 
 
 Mela, Pomponius : states that the 
 Nile rises in the Southern Con- 
 tinent, 3 ; that Ceylon is its 
 tip, 4 ; that a burning zone 
 prevents access to it, 4 : map 
 representing his views of geo- 
 graphy, 5 : is Mela or Ptolemy 
 right about Africa ? , 66 ; and 
 about South-East Asia ?, 73-74 : 
 Mela's good guess, 95. 
 
 Mendafia de Negra, Alvaro de : 
 his voyage in search of the 
 continent, 132-139 : discovery 
 of the Solomons, 134 : his 
 missionary spirit, 135 : returns 
 to Mexico, 138 : obtains a 
 Royal Decree, 140 : is arrested, 
 140 : sails for the Solomons, 
 145 : discovers the Marquesas, 
 147 ; and Santa Cruz, 148 : 
 fails, 149 : dies, 150. 
 
 Meneses : discovers New Guinea, 
 
 77- 
 
 Mercator, Gerard : his map, 91 
 (map), 93-94, 104-109 : in- 
 fluenced by Ptolemy and Mela, 
 94-95 ; by belief that a Terra 
 Aiis.tr alis was physically neces- 
 sary, 95 ; by misunderstood 
 statements of Marco Polo and 
 Varthema, 96 : believed that 
 Tierra del Fuego was part of 
 the Southern Continent, 105 : 
 uncertainty about New Guinea, 
 105-106 : his use of Marco 
 Polo names, 106-109 '• his guess 
 at truth, 109. 
 
 Mexico : Cortes in, 76 : sends 
 voyages of exploration in 
 Pacific, 76-78 : service of ships 
 from Mexico to Manila, and 
 back, 79 : Drake takes this 
 course, 142 ; Cavendish, 143 ; 
 Swan and Dampier, 311-312 : 
 Mendana's return to, 138 : John 
 Hawkins in, 138, 140 : Quiros 
 in, 190-191. 
 
 Mitchell, David : Founder of the 
 Mitchell Library, Sydney, ix. 
 
 Moabar : its position in Behaim's 
 map, 55 (map), 58. 
 
 Moluccas, the, the Spice Islands : 
 their attractiveness, 23 : Marco 
 
 Polo describes Chinese voyages 
 to, 40-41 : described by Friar 
 Odoric, 48 ; and by de Conti, 
 52 ; by Varthema, 53, 68 : 
 Portuguese in, 69 : visited by 
 the Victoria, 74 : Spain sells her 
 claim to Portugal, 76 : the rule 
 of Galvano, 76 : visited by Saa- 
 vedra, 77-78 : Portuguese not 
 likely to explore Australia from, 
 86 : visited by Drake, 142-143 ; 
 and Cavendish, 144 ; Lan- 
 caster, 210 : East India Com- 
 pany's Spice trade, 211-212 : 
 Dutch East India Company 
 claims monopoly, 217 ; and 
 expels the English, 219. 
 
 Mongols, Tartars : their con- 
 quests, 31 ; their liberalism, 31 : 
 visited by Rubruquis, 18, 31 ; 
 by Nicolo and Matteo Polo, 32 ; 
 by Marco Polo, 33 : his descrip- 
 tion of China under the Great 
 Kaan, 38 : Mongols welcome 
 Christian missionaries to China, 
 47, 49 : Mongol dynasty over- 
 thrown, 62. 
 
 Monte Corvino, John de : arch- 
 bishop of Pekin (1292-1328), 47. 
 
 Mookerji, Radhakumud : his de- 
 scription of Indian colonisation, 
 24-25 : Buddhist colony in Java, 
 24-25. 
 
 Moors : see Arabs. 
 
 Morga, Antonio de : describes the 
 Spanish rule in the Phihppines, 
 79-80 : the Empire on which 
 the sun never sets, 80 : de 
 Morga and Quiros meet at 
 Manila, 81, 152 : fears the 
 Dutch, 214. 
 
 Miinster, Sebastian : disbelief in 
 Terra Australis, 90. 
 
 Murray, John : with Bowen, 
 discovers Port Phillip, 505-506. 
 
 Muscovy Company : its trade 
 with Russia, Persia and India, 
 208. 
 
 N 
 
 Napoleon I. : approves Baudin's 
 voyage, 510 : orders squadron 
 to take Sydney, 510 note. 
 
 Necuveran : see Nicobar Islands. 
 
 Neucuram : see Nicobar Islands. 
 
 New Britain : discovered and 
 praised by Dampier, 329-330 : 
 Dampier's map of, 331 : praised 
 by Woodes Rogers, 335 ; by 
 Campbell, 345 ; by de Brosses, 
 
INDEX 
 
 533 
 
 356 ; by Callender, 360 : Car- 
 teret discovers straits between 
 New Britain and New Ireland, 
 369 : Bougainville's bad luck, 
 
 377- 
 
 New Caledonia : discovered by 
 Cook, 470 : reason of name, 
 444 note, 470. 
 
 New Cythera : see Tahiti. 
 
 New Guinea, Papua : discovered 
 by Meneses, 77 ; and by Saa- 
 vedra, 77, 78 : called Papua, 78, 
 79 ; and New Guinea, 79 : 
 called " a large island," 82 : 
 on Mercator's map, 91 (map), 
 93, 105-106 : on Plancius's 
 map, 107 (map) : on Ortelius's 
 map. III : on Wytfliet's map, 
 112 : various views as to the 
 strait, 105-106 : Quiros fears 
 " the Southern side," 189 : 
 Torres coasts the Southern side, 
 194-197 : Arias's statement, 
 106, 361 note ; read by Dal- 
 rymple, 361, 363 (map), 411, 
 441 : Schouten fears Southern 
 coast, and sails Northern coast, 
 222 ; Tasman does the same, 
 283-284 : Dampier on Northern 
 coast, 329-330 ; discovers New 
 Britain, and Dampier Strait, 
 329-330, 331 (map) : Woodes 
 Rogers and Dampier off New 
 Guinea, 335 : Campbell's map, 
 343 ; he suggests exploration, 
 345 : de Brosses' views, 356 : 
 Dalrymple's map, 363 : Boug- 
 ainville's danger at the South- 
 East, 374 ; he sails the North 
 coast, 377 : Cook on the South 
 coast, 448. 
 
 New Hebrides : discovered by 
 Quiros, 168 ; named by him 
 Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, 
 174 : visited by Bougainville, 
 371-372 : named by him Cycla- 
 des, 372 : Cook proves not part 
 of New Holland, 432 : visited by 
 Cook, 469-470. 
 
 New Holland : Tasman's inscrip- 
 tion The Company's Nieuv 
 Nederland, 289 note 5, 290 : 
 "Dampier writes Nova Hollandia, 
 and New Holland, 314 and note. 
 
 New Jerusalem : founded by 
 Quiros, 171. 
 
 New South Wales : why did Cook 
 give the name ?, 442 and note 5. 
 
 New Zealand : discovered by 
 Tasman, 275 : named Staten 
 
 Land, 278 : later named New 
 Zealand, 278 note : explored 
 by Tasman, 275-280 : explored 
 by Cook, 401-408 : visited by 
 Surville, 458 and note i ; and 
 by Cook, 463-464, 466, 470-471, 
 475 ; visited by Marion, 471. 
 
 Nicobar Islands : described by 
 Marco Polo under name Necu- 
 veran, 43, 46 : by Odoric under 
 name of Nicoveran, 49, 50 : 
 on Behaim's map as Neucuram, 
 55 (map), 58 ; visited by 
 Dampier, 318. 
 
 Nicoveran : see Nicobar Islands. 
 
 Nuestra Seflora del Socorro, or 
 Taumaco : discovered by Quiros, 
 165. 
 
 Nuyts, Hon. Peter : on board 
 Gulden Seepaart at discovery of 
 Nuyts Land, 245. 
 
 Nuyts Land : discovered, 245- 
 248 : Purry proposes colonisa- 
 tion, 338-339 : Dentrecasteaux 
 explores, 246-247, 484, 508 : 
 Flinders explores, 247-248, 513. 
 
 O 
 
 Ochoa, Juan : Quiros's Chief 
 Pilot, 162 : causes trouble, and 
 is handed to Torres, 164. 
 
 Odoric, Friar : his Journal, 48 : 
 describes Sumatra and Java, 
 48 ; Panten, Mare Mortuum, 
 Campa, Nicobars, Ceylon and 
 China, 49 : his truthfulness, 
 50 : influence on map-makers, 
 
 5658- 
 
 Ortelius, Abraham : his views 
 about the Magellanican Con- 
 tinent, 109-111, (map) III. 
 
 Otaheite : see Tahiti. 
 
 Panten : see Pent am. 
 
 Papua : see New Guinea. 
 
 Paradise, terrestrial, Garden of 
 Eden : its position according 
 to Cosmas, 9 : map of the 
 twelfth century, 13 : Dante, 
 18, 72 : Roger Bacon, 18 : 
 Columbus, 72 : Vespucci, 73 : 
 map of 1522, 103 (map), 104. 
 
 Parkinson, Sydney : his Journal, 
 385, 453 : his opinion of land 
 at Botany Bay, 416 note : uses 
 the name Botany Bay, 422 
 note : his death, 453. 
 
534 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Patala, Patalis, Pathalis : founded 
 by Alexander, 3 : placed by- 
 Roger Bacon in Tropic of 
 Capricorn, 17, 103 ; position in 
 Behaim's map, 55 (map), 104 ; 
 in Finaeus's map, loi (map), 
 102-104 ; in map of 1522, 103 
 (map), 104, 
 
 Pelsart, Fran9ois : wrecked on 
 the Abrolhos, 249 : his boat- 
 voyage to Java, 250-251 : return 
 to the Abrolhos, 251-252. 
 
 Pentam, Pentan, Panten, Singa- 
 pore Island : mentioned by 
 Marco Polo, 43 : position on 
 Mercator's map, 45, 91 (map), 
 106, 107 : on Behaim's map, 
 55 (map). 58. 
 
 Pera, the : voyage of, under 
 Carstenz, 238-243. 
 
 Peregrino : island discovered by 
 Quiros, 163. 
 
 Peron, Fran9ois : on the fame of 
 Bass's voyage, 493-494 : his 
 scientific and military studies 
 
 . at Sydney, 510 and note, 516 : 
 his statement to de Caen, 511 
 note : the finding of Vlamingh's 
 pewter dish, 512 : opinion of 
 Botany Bay, 425 note 4. 
 
 Philippine Islands : Spaniards 
 found colony in, 79 : Urdaneta 
 establishes service of ships from 
 Manila to Mexico, 79 : de 
 Morga describes Spanish rule 
 in, 79-80 : Drake at the Philip- 
 pines, 142 ; Cavendish at, 143- 
 144 : Quiros at Manila, 152 : 
 Dutch at the Phihppines, 214 : 
 Dampier at, 312 ; recommends 
 an English factory at, 313. 
 
 Philhp, Governor Arthur: his 
 opinion of Botany Bay, 424- 
 425 ; and Port Jackson, 426 : 
 his arrival at. Botany Bay, 507 
 and note i. 
 
 Physical necessity of a Southern 
 Continent : argument of Mer- 
 cator, 95 ; criticised by Cotton, 
 95 note 2 : argument of de 
 Brosses, 352 ; of Dalrymple, 
 362 ; criticised by Banks, 397, 
 406. 
 
 Pigafetta, Antoine : describes the 
 voyage of the Victoria, 74-75 : 
 mentions " islands under the 
 Tropic of Capricorn," 75, 83, 92. 
 
 Plancius, Petrus : thinks New 
 Guinea part of continent, 106 : 
 his map, 107. 
 
 Pliny, the elder : his Historia 
 Naturalis, 4 : story of a visit to 
 Ceylon, 4 : view of a cremated 
 Tropic zone, 4 : influence in the 
 Middle Ages, 15 : used by 
 Roger Bacon, 17, 18 : quoted 
 by de Conti, 51 : used by 
 Behaim, 57. 
 
 Polo, Marco : his life in China, 
 33 : Book of Ser Marco 
 Polo, 34 : revelation of Eastern 
 world, 34-38 : Chinese com- 
 merce, 38, and voyages, 39 '• 
 Japan and Spice Islands, 40-41 : 
 Java, 41-42 : is understood to 
 describe lands South of Java, 
 42-44 : Locac, 42 : Pentam, 
 
 43 : Sumatra, 43 : Nicobars 
 and Andamans, 43 : Ceylon, 
 
 44 : is misunderstood, 44-46 : 
 influence on Odoric, 50 : his 
 information only gradually un- 
 derstood, 52 and note : in- 
 fluence on Behaim, 57 ; on 
 Columbus, 69-72 : on map- 
 "makers of the sixteenth century, 
 96 : in Mercator's map, 91 
 (map), 106-109 : in Plancius' s 
 map, 107 (map), in Ortelius's 
 map, III (map) : in Des- 
 celiers' map, 116, 117 (map). 
 
 Polo, Nicolo and Matteo : their 
 journey to China, 32-33. 
 
 Polynesia : de Brosses explains 
 the interest of, 354-355- 
 
 Pool, Gerrit Thomasz : Van Die- 
 men's Instructions for his voy- 
 age, 254-256 : his voyage and 
 murder, 256. 
 
 Portuguese, the : seek an ocean- 
 way to India, 63 : voyages sent 
 by Henry the Navigator, 63- 
 66 : Portuguese reach India, 
 66 : Portuguese Empire, 66-67: 
 conquest of Malacca, 67 : Var- 
 thema tells of the Spice Islands, 
 53, 68 : island voyage of 15 12, 
 68-69 : settlement in the Spice 
 Islands, 69 : Portugal buys 
 Spain's claims, 76-77 : Portu- 
 guese steal Spanish charts, 77 : 
 discover New Guinea, 77 : ex- 
 tent of Portuguese discoveries, 
 82-83 : Portuguese chroniclers 
 ignorant of everything South of 
 Java, 83-84 : Portuguese un- 
 likely to explore Australia, 86 : 
 several Portuguese map-makers 
 ignorant of everything South of 
 Java, 88 : do the Portuguese- 
 
INDEX 
 
 535 
 
 French maps show knowledge 
 of AustraHa ? , 1 13-129 : Dampier 
 visits Portuguese fort at Timor, 
 329- 
 
 Prado, Diego de : his opinion of 
 Quiros, and of his failure, 185- 
 186. 
 
 Ptolemy, Claudius : his view of 
 the world, 5-6 : his map, 7 : his 
 geography denounced by Chris- 
 tian Fathers, 12 ; and forgotten 
 in Europe in the Middle Ages, 
 15 ; but known to the Arabs, 
 16, 26 : first translation, 56 
 note 2 : his authority with map- 
 makers, 56-58, 66, 72, 94-95, 
 97 : influence in Behaim's map, 
 55> 57 I in map of 1489, 56-57 ; 
 in Mauro's map, 59 ; in Mer- 
 cator's, 91 ; in Schoner's, 98 ; 
 in Finaeus's, loi ; in map of 
 1522, 103 ; in Plancius's, 107 ; 
 in Ortelius's, 11 1 ; in Wytfiiet's, 
 112 ; in Desceliers', 117. 
 
 Purchas, Samuel : his use of 
 words, A ustrialia and A ustralia, 
 174 note. 
 
 Purry, Jean Pierre : proposes 
 Dutch colony in Nuyts Land, 
 338-339. 
 
 Q 
 Quiros, Pedro Fernandez de : 
 Chief Pilot with Mendafia (1595), 
 145 : Quiros-Bermudez nar- 
 ratives, 145-146 : missionary 
 fervour, 146 : praises natives 
 of Marquesas, 147 : reproaches 
 sinners, 147 : explains the diffi- 
 culties of a Pilot, 148 : at Santa 
 Cruz, 148 : preaches persever- 
 ance, 149-150 : at Manila, 152 : 
 letter to de Morga, 152 : thinks 
 New Guinea, Solomons and 
 Santa Cruz are near each other, 
 153 : a pilgrim at Rome, 154 : 
 approved by mathematicians. 
 Pope and King, 155 : a Fran- 
 ciscan mission, 156 : prepara- 
 tion at Lima, 157 : sails, 158 : 
 Instructions to Torres, 158-160 : 
 opposition, 161 : course changed, 
 162 : islands discovered, 163 : 
 the rebellious Pilot, 164 : Tau- 
 maco, 165 : land to the South- 
 East, 166 : New Hebrides 
 discovered, 168 : Bay of St. 
 Philip and St. James, ^68-169 : 
 New Jerusalem, 171 : Knights 
 of the Holy Ghost, 172 : official 
 
 landing, 173 : Austrialia del 
 Espiritu Santo, 174 : muni- 
 cipality of New Jerusalem, 176 : 
 Corpus Christi, 177-178 : Quiros 
 sails South, and returns, 179 ; 
 fails to anchor, 180 : explana- 
 tion to de Leza, 180-182 ; of 
 the Quiros-Bermudez narrative, 
 182-184 ; of Torres, 184-185 ; 
 of Diego de Prado, 185-186 ; 
 of Arias, 186 ; the probable 
 truth, 186-187 • Quiros dis- 
 cusses causes of failure, 187 : 
 explains the Franciscan gospel, 
 and the grounds of hope, 188 : 
 map showing his conception of 
 his discoveries, 189 : voyage to 
 Mexico, 190 : arrives at Madrid, 
 191 : writes Memorials, 198- 
 
 202 : territorial argument, 199- 
 
 200 ; religious argument, 200- 
 
 201 ; the Devil's argument, 
 201-202 : Quiros starts for 
 Peru, 202 : his timely death, 
 
 203 : Don Quixote of the Holy 
 Ghost, 203 : original sources of 
 information, 203-204 : influence 
 of Quiros on Arias, 205-206 ; 
 on Le Maire, 220-223 ; on Van 
 Diemen, 254 ; in instructions 
 to Tasman, 256-257 ; on Purry, 
 338 ; on Roggeveen, 339-341 > 
 on Campbell, 342, 344 ; on 
 Bouvet, 347-348; onde Brosses, 
 354. 356 ; on Dalrymple, 361- 
 364 ; on Bougainville, 370-373 ; 
 on Cook, 400-401, 405, 432, 469- 
 470. 
 
 R 
 
 Rainaud, Armand : his Le Con- 
 tinent Austral, x ; used, 5 
 (chart), 17 (chart), 95, 99, 
 221. 
 
 Rawlinson, Hugh George : his 
 India and the Western World, 
 used, 6. 
 
 Reinel, Pedro : his map, 87 (map), 
 88, 114. 
 
 Renaissance, the : it increases 
 desire of discovery, 62-63. 
 
 Resolution, the : Cook's ship in 
 the second voyage, 460, 462. 
 
 Ribero, Diego : his map, 87 (map), 
 88. 
 
 Ringrose, Basil : writes the pro- 
 fessional history of piracy, 309. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe : the First, 310 ; 
 the Second, 310-31 1; the Third 
 (Alexander Selkirk), 333, 334. 
 
53^ 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Rodriguez, Francisco : his map, 
 88, 89 (map), 114. 
 
 Roebuck, the : Dampier explores 
 Australia in, 323-332 : its age 
 and rottenness, 323, 332 : Roe- 
 buck Bay, 327. 
 
 Roggeveen, Jacob : his voyage, 
 339-341 • influenced by Quiros, 
 340 : at Falkland and Juan 
 Fernandez, 340 : Easter Island 
 and Samoa, 341 : Quiros, Rog- 
 geveen and Cook, 341. 
 
 Rosemary Island: Dampier's guess 
 that there are passages behind, 
 
 326, 483 : Flinders's discussion, 
 
 327. 483- 
 
 Rotz, Jean : his map, 115 (map), 
 123 (map), 116, 127. 
 
 Royal Society, the : founded, 
 305 : Dampier dedicates his 
 Journal to President of, 321, 
 who gets him command of the 
 Roebuck, 321 : Royal Society 
 urges observation of Venus, 
 386 : recommends Cook, 387, 
 390-391 : Banks, Fellow of, 
 392 ; interest in his voyage, 
 394 ; and discoveries, 455 : 
 Royal Society praises Cook, and 
 votes a bust to George III., 
 455 : Cook elected Fellow of, 
 473 : Royal Society awards 
 Prize Medal to Cook, 462, 474 : 
 the President's praise, 474 : 
 Banks the President of, 500 ; 
 gets the Investigator for Flinders, 
 502 : Royal Society compared 
 to the Institute of France, 
 509- 
 
 Rubruquis, William de : tells 
 Roger Bacon of his visit to the 
 Great Kaan, 18-19, 31 
 
 Rue, the : Marco Polo's informa- 
 tion about, 37 ; carries Sinbad 
 from Madagascar to India, 38. 
 
 Russell, Clark : describes the sea- 
 men of Dampier's time, 323-324. 
 
 Saavedra, Alvaro de : plans a 
 Panama Canal, 77 : sent by 
 Cortes to explore the South 
 Seas, 77 : explores New Guinea, 
 77-78 : death, 78. 
 
 St. George, the : Dampier's voyage 
 in. 333 ; its rottenness, 334. 
 
 St. Philip and St. James, Bay of : 
 Quiros in, 169-187 : map of, 
 170 : Bougainville thinks he 
 
 has rediscovered, 372 : Cook 
 rediscovers, 469. 
 
 Samoa: Roggeveen at, 341 ; Bou- 
 gainville at, 371. 
 
 S. Thome, S. Thomas : see 
 Malepur. 
 
 Sandwich, Lord : Banks's angling 
 friend, 392 : member of Govern- 
 ment in 1768, 392 : First Lord 
 of the Admiralty in 1772, 459 : 
 helps Cook in second voyage, 
 459 : tries to please both Cook 
 and Banks, but fails, 460-461. 
 
 Sandwich Islands : discovered by 
 Cook, 474: his high praise, 475. 
 
 Santa Cruz : discovered by Men- 
 daiia, 148 : Lope de Vega 
 vanishes, 148 : colony fails, 
 149-151 : sought by Quiros, 162- 
 165 : wreck of Laperouse, 508. 
 
 Saracens, the : see Arabs. 
 
 Sarmiento, Pedro : a representa- 
 tive " Conqueror," 131 : belief 
 in an Eldorado in the West, 132 : 
 sails with Mendana, 132 : com- 
 plains that Mendafia " missed 
 the discovery," 133 : describes 
 the Solomons, 135 ; explores 
 them, 135 : his cruelty, 136 : 
 says he saw gold, 136 : urges 
 search for continent " opposite 
 Chili," 137 : his narrative, 132, 
 139 : uses name Isles of Solo- 
 mon, 139. 
 
 Schoner, Johann : his globe, 98 
 (map) : his straits, 97 : his 
 " region of Brazil," 98. 
 
 Schouten, the Hon. Justus : drafts 
 Instructions to Tasman, 265. 
 
 Schouten, Willem Corneliszoon : 
 his voyage with Le Maire (161 5), 
 220-222 : names Cape Horn, 
 221 : fears voyage to South of 
 New Guinea, 222. 
 
 Scott, Professor Ernest : his 
 Terre Napoleon, Flinders, Lape- 
 rouse, X, 480 : on Cape Hicks, 
 412 note : on reasons of Lape- 
 rouse's visit to Botany Bay, 
 508 : discusses French proposal 
 to conquer Sydney, 510-51 1 : 
 proves Baudin did not see Port 
 Phillip, 512 : on Flinders's 
 exploration of Spencer's Gulf, 
 515 : on injustice of French 
 geographers to Flinders, 516 
 and note 2. 
 
 Selkirk, Alexander : lands at Juan 
 Fernandez, 333 : joins Dampier 
 and Woodes Rogers, 334. 
 
INDEX 
 
 537 
 
 Serrano, Francisco : in the island 
 voyage of 15 12, 68-69 '• settles 
 in the Moluccas, and writes 
 to Magellan of " another new- 
 world," 69, 74. 
 
 Seylan : see Ceylon. 
 
 Shakspere, William : observes the 
 "lines" on Hakluyt's new map 
 of the Indies, 90 and note 4. 
 
 Sharks Bay : discovered by Dirck 
 Hartog, 228: described by King, 
 228 note : visited by Vlamingh, 
 300 (map), 301 : by Dampier, 
 325: described by Freycinet, 325. 
 
 Sinbad the Sailor : his voyages 
 in romance and fact, 26-27, 38. 
 
 Solander, Daniel Carl : with 
 Banks on the Endeavour, 394 : 
 a walk in Tierra del Fuego, 396 : 
 " botanising " on ship-board, 
 384 : Linnaeus ana Solander, 
 435 : Cook visits Solander, and 
 sends compliments to Banks, 
 461. 
 
 Solomon Islands : discovered by 
 Mendafta (1567), 134 : explored, 
 134 138 : on Ortclius's map of 
 1387, 137 (map) : on map of 
 1 60 1, 136 (map) : Mendatia fails 
 to find them (1595), 147 : un- 
 visited for 200 years, 152 : 
 Quiros thought them near New 
 Guinea and Santa Cruz, 153 : 
 on Quiros's map, 189 (map) : 
 did Torres see them?, 194: 
 Visscher suggests visit to them, 
 260 : Tasmin instructed to 
 explore them, 266 ; he fails to 
 find them, 283 : on Campbell's 
 map, 343 (map) ; on Dal- 
 rymple's map, 363 (map) : seen 
 by Carteret, and not recognised, 
 369 : seen by Bougainville, but 
 not recognised, 375-376 : on 
 Bougainville's map, 375. 
 
 South Georgia : visited by Ves- 
 pucci, and by Cook, 471. 
 
 South Pole : Schoner's picture of, 
 98 (map) : Finaeus's, 10 1 (map) : 
 Wytfliet's, 112 (map) : de Bros- 
 ses' view of, 352 : Cook's bad 
 opinion of, 467, 472. 
 
 Southern Continent : see Terra 
 Australis. 
 
 Spaniards, the : Spain under 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, 70 : 
 send Columbus, 70-71 ; and 
 Magellan, 74 ; sell claims to 
 the Moluccas to Portugal, 76 : 
 Cortes dreams of a Spanish 
 
 Empire in the South Sea, 76 : 
 sends Saavedra to explore, 77 : 
 exploration of New Guinea, 
 78 ; Spanish colony in the 
 Philippines, 79 : de Morga 
 describes Spanish exploits, and 
 ambitions, 79-80 : did Spaniards 
 discover Australia ?, ?>2 et seq. : 
 no evidence of knowledge, 83 : 
 unlikely that they would ex- 
 plore, 86, 130 : Spaniards under 
 Mendaiia discover the Solomons, 
 130-134 ; and might have dis- 
 covered Australia, 133, 138 : 
 Spaniards under Mendaiia fail 
 to find the Solomons, try to 
 colonise Santa Cruz, 145-148 ; 
 and fail, 149 : Spaniards under 
 Quiros discover New Hebrides, 
 157-168 ; and fail, 169-189 : 
 Spaniards under Torres sail 
 through Torres Strait, 192-197 : 
 Spanish story ends, 198-203 : 
 Arias's last word, 205-207 : 
 Spaniards alarmed by voyages 
 of Byron and Cook, 458 note 2 : 
 annex Easter Island and visit 
 Tahiti, 458 note 2. 
 
 Spencer, Professor Baldwin : his 
 Native Tribes of North A ustralia, 
 21 and note 1. 
 
 Spencer's Gulf : explored by 
 Flinders, 513-515. 
 
 Speult, Herman van : Governor 
 of Amboyna, 218 : responsible 
 for the massacre, 218 : sends 
 the Arnhem and Per a on voyage 
 of discovery, 238 : Speultland, 
 probably Groote Eylandt, 244. 
 
 Spice Islands : see Moluccas. 
 
 Staten Land : island East of 
 Tierra del Fuego discovered by 
 Le Maire and Schouten, 221 : 
 they think it part of Terra 
 Australis. 221 : Tasman names 
 New Zealand Staten Land, as 
 possibly part of Terra Australis, 
 278 : Brouwer discovers Le 
 Maire's Staten Land is an 
 island, 221, 278 and note. 
 
 Stevenson, R. L. : on the natives 
 of the Marquesas, 147, 468. 
 
 Stingray Harbour : see Botany 
 Bay. 
 
 Stokes, John Lort : describes 
 natives of North- West Aus- 
 tralia, 316 note : explorations 
 behind Rosemary Island, 327. 
 
 Storm Bay : discovered by Tas- 
 man, 271 : on modern map 
 
538 
 
 INDEX 
 
 272 ; on Tasman's map, 273 
 (map) : Furneaux's mistakes, 
 464-465 ; repeated by Cook, 
 475 ; and Flinders, 497. 
 
 Sumatra : probably Ptolemy's 
 Lahadii Insula, 105 note : des- 
 cribed by Marco Polo as Java 
 Minor, 43, 46 : Odoric the first 
 to use name Sumatra, 48 : de 
 Conti calls Sumatra Taprobane, 
 50 : also Fra Mauro, 59 (map) : 
 position on Behaim's map, 55 
 (map), 58 ; on Mercator's map, 
 91 (map), 107 : Plancius cor- 
 rects mistake, 107, and map : 
 Dampier at Sumatra, 306, 
 319. 
 
 Sumbava : described by de Conti 
 as Java Minor, 52 : North coast 
 seen by Portuguese, and called 
 Simbiba, 69 : on Linschoten's 
 Chart as Java Menor, 85 : on 
 Cabot's map as Simbava, 86 
 (map), 88, 90 : Ribero's, 87 
 (map) ; Reinel's, 87 (map) ; 
 Rodriguez', 89 ; Mercator's, 91 
 (map) ; Hakluyt's, 92 (map) ; 
 Portuguese-French maps, 114 
 (map), 115, 115 (map), 117 
 (map) . 
 
 Surville, Jean Frangois de : in 
 New Zealand at same time as 
 Cook, 458 and note i. 
 
 Swallow, the : Carteret's voyage 
 in, 368-369. 
 
 Swan, Captain : in command of 
 the Cygnet, 311 ; joined by 
 Dampier, 311 : voyage from 
 Mexico to Philippines, 311-312 : 
 left at the Philippines, 314. 
 
 Tahiti, or Otaheite, or King 
 George ITI.'s Island, or New 
 Cythera : discovered by Wallis, 
 
 369 : visited by Bougainville, 
 
 370 ; by Cook and Banks, 397- 
 400 ; by Cook on second voyage, 
 465, 468 ; on third voyage, 476. 
 
 Taprobane : see Ceylon, and 
 Sumatra. 
 
 Tasman, Hon. Abel Janssen : the 
 map of his voyages, 259 : birth 
 and early life, 262-263 : ex- 
 plores North Pacific, 263-264 : 
 his Instructions for voyage of 
 1642, 265-267 : his Journal, 
 268 : at Mauritius, ^68 : his 
 furthest South, 269 : discovers 
 
 Van Diemen's Land, 270-275 : 
 the landing-place, 271 : his map 
 of Van Diemen's Land, 273 : 
 discovers New Zealand, 275- 
 280 : description and picture of 
 Maoris, 276-277 : Murderers' 
 Bay, 278 : names country 
 Staten Land, as possibly part of 
 Terra Australis, 278 : thinks a 
 strait probable, 279 : claims to 
 have discovered a passage 
 to Chili, 280 : fails to find 
 the Solomons, 281 : discovers 
 Tonga Islands, and the Fijis, 
 282 : fears South-East coast of 
 New Guinea, 283 : sails along 
 North coast, 284 : returns to 
 Batavia, 284 : Instructions for 
 voyage of 1644, 286 : report of 
 the voyage, 288 : the Chart, 
 259 (map), 289 : the Shallow 
 Bight, 289 and note : his ex- 
 plorations summed up, 290-291: 
 disappointment of Directors, 
 291-292 : later life, 293-295 : 
 the crime at Baviaiiw, 294 : 
 death, 295 : importance of his 
 discoveries, 295-296 : know- 
 ledge of them, 296-297 ; by 
 Dampier, 297, 326 ; by Cook 
 and Banks, 297, 401-404, 410- 
 412, 448 ; by Flinders, 483-484, 
 496-497, 518. 
 
 Tartars : see Mongols. 
 
 Taumaco : see Nuestra Se/lora del 
 Socorro. 
 
 Taylor, Professor Griffith : on the 
 geographic isolation of Aus- 
 tralia, 20 note. 
 
 Temple, Sir William : statement 
 that the Dutch forbid further 
 discovery of New Holland, 292 
 note. 
 
 Tench, Watkin : criticises Cook's 
 meadows, 418 note ; Cook's 
 spring, 425 note i ; and Cook's 
 description of Botany Bay, 426 
 note. 
 
 Terra AustruUs : name used, loi 
 (map), 112 and map, 117 (map), 
 141, 174 note, 175 note, 189 
 (map), 314 and note, 324, 342, 
 343. 480, 519. 
 
 Terra Australis Incognita, the 
 Unknown Southern Continent, 
 the land of the Antipodes, the 
 land of the Antichthones : views 
 of Theopompus, i ; of Greek 
 geographers, 2 ; of Mela, 3, 4, 
 94, 95 ; of Cicero, 5 note i ; of 
 
INDEX 
 
 539 
 
 Ptolemy, 5, 6, 7 (map), 12, 16, 
 26, 56. 57, 58, 72, 94. 95, 97, 
 100, 102 ; of Cosmas, 8-12 ; of 
 Augustine, 12 ; of Lactantius, 
 12 ; of Isidore, 14 ; of Roger 
 Bacon, 16, 17, 59, 60, 103 ; of 
 Albert the Great, 16, 17, 18, 59, 
 60 ; of Dante, 18, 71, 72 ; sup- 
 posed views of Marco Polo, 42- 
 46, 56, 57, 58, 91 (map), 96, 106- 
 109, 107 (map). III (map), 116, 
 117 (map) : views of Varthema, 
 53-54. 96; of Behaim, 55 (map), 
 57-58 ; of map of 1489, 56-57 ; 
 of Fra Mauro, 54, 56, 59 (map) ; 
 of Columbus, 71-72 ; of Ves- 
 pucci, 72-73 ; of Peter Martyr, 
 73 : of Linschoten, 84, 85 ; of 
 Sebastian Cabot, 86 (map), 88 ; 
 of Ribero, 87 (map), 88 ; of 
 Reinel, 87 (map), 88 ; of Rodri- 
 guez, 88, 89 (map) ; of Miinster, 
 90 ; of Hakluyt, 90, 92 (map) ; 
 of Mercator, 91 (map), 93-94, 
 104-109 ; of Schoner, 97-100 ; 
 of Finaeus, 100-104 ; of map of 
 1522, 103 ; of Ortelius, 109- 
 III ; of Wytfliet, 112 ; of the 
 " Dauphin " Map, 114; of Rotz, 
 115, 123; of Desceliers, 117; 
 of Vallard, 119 ; of Sarmiento, 
 131, 133. 137 ; of Quiros, 154- 
 191 passim, 198-203 passim ; of 
 Arias, 205-207 ; of Le Maire, 
 220-222 ; of Goos-Visscher, 233 
 (map) ; of Hondius, 241 (map) ; 
 of Van Diemen, 256-257 ; of 
 Dampier. 313-314, 321-322 ; of 
 Roggeveen, 339-341 ; of Camp- 
 bell, 342-343 ; of Bouvet, 346- 
 348 ; of Maupertuis, 348-349 ; 
 of de Brosses, 350-357 ; of 
 Callender, 359-360 ; of Dal- 
 rymple. 361-365 ; of Bougain- 
 ville, 370 ; of Cook, 396-397, 
 400-401, 405, 450, 457, 462-463, 
 465, 466-467, 472-473 ; of Banks, 
 395, 396-397. 404, 406. 
 
 Terre NapoUon : Scott's book on, 
 480, 512 note 2, 516, and note 2 : 
 Baudin discovers, 512, 516 : 
 Flinders's description of, 516 
 note I : on the French maps, 
 516, and note 2. 
 
 Theopompus : his Utopia in the 
 South, I. 
 
 Tierra del Fuego : discovered by 
 Magellan, 74, 99 ; his seamen 
 thought it an island, 100 : 
 Finaeus thought it a tip of the 
 
 Southern Continent, 100, loi 
 (map) ; also Mercator, 93, 105 ; 
 also Ortelius, 109-111 ; also 
 Wytfliet, 112-113 ; also Quiros, 
 189 (map) : Drake proves it an 
 island, 141-142 : Le Maire and 
 Schouten round its South coast, 
 220-221 ; also Dampier, 311 ; 
 and Roggeveen, 340 : de Brosses 
 points to possible value of, 353 ; 
 says best way is round Cape 
 Horn, 354 : Straits passed by 
 Byron and Wallis, 368 ; Car- 
 teret and Bougainville, 369 : 
 visited by Cook, who sails round 
 Cape Horn, 396 : Banks's bo- 
 tanical expedition, 396. 
 
 Timor : Victoria at, 74 : Dampier 
 at, 315, 329 : Cook at, 448 : 
 Baudin at, 512, 518 : Flinders 
 at, 518. 
 
 Tonga Islands, or Friendly Is- 
 lands : discovered by Tasman, 
 and named Amsterdam and 
 Rotterdam, 282 : visited by 
 Cook, and named Friendly 
 Islands, 466, 475-476. 
 
 Torres, Luiz Vaez de : Admiral 
 under Quiros, 158 : Quiros's 
 Instructions to, 158-160 ; pro- 
 tests against change of course, 
 162 : takes charge of rebellious 
 Pilot, 164 : urges Southward 
 course, 185 : finds anchorage 
 in Bay of St. Philip and St. 
 James, 169 : Master of the 
 Camp in New Jerusalem, 172 : 
 gets back to anchorage on nth 
 June, 180 : his explanation of 
 Quiros's failure, 184-185 : sails 
 through Torres Strait, 192-197 : 
 news of his discoveries, 191, 
 192, 199. 
 
 Torres Strait : the uncertainty of 
 Mercator, 91 (map), 93, 105- 
 106; and of Ortelius, iio-iii, 
 and map : the view of Plancius, 
 106, 107 (map) ; of Wytfliet, 
 106, 112 (map) ; of Quiros, 189 
 (map) : Torres sails through, 
 195-197 • dangers described by 
 Moresby, 195 note i ; and by 
 Flinders, 482 : Arias's state- 
 ment that Torres sailed through, 
 106, and note i, 361, 411, 441 : 
 Duyfhen apparently thought 
 there was a passage, 225, 239 : 
 Tasman instructed to explore, 
 286 ; his map reports " a 
 shallow bight," 289 : problem; 
 
540 
 
 INDEX 
 
 perhaps regarded as unsolved, 
 289 note 5 : Dalrymple learns 
 from Arias existence of Torres 
 Strait, and tells Banks, 361, 
 363 (map), 411, 441 : Cook had 
 understood New Holland and 
 New Guinea were one, but was 
 impressed by Dalrymple' s state- 
 ment, 411, 437, 439 ; sails 
 through Endeavour Strait, 440- 
 441 : Flinders describes dangers 
 of Torres Strait, 482 ; he sails 
 through under Bligh, 485 ; in 
 the Investigator, 514 (map), 
 517 ; in the Cumberland, 514 
 (map) : passages by Bligh, 482 
 and note ; Bampton, 482 ; 
 Edwards, 517 note 1. 
 Trial, the : wreck on Trial Rocks, 
 
 234- 
 
 Trial Rocks : the Trial wrecked 
 on, 234: where were they?, 
 235 : Coen directs search for 
 them, 236 : Flinders and King 
 look for them, 235. 
 
 Tupia, chief Tahowa of Tahiti : 
 sails on the Endeavour, 399- 
 400 : his successful prayers, 
 400 : death at Batavia, 452 : 
 Cook on his character, 452. 
 
 Turks : their conquests cut off 
 Asia from Europe, 62. 
 
 U 
 
 Unknown coast, the : the coast 
 between Nuyts Land and the 
 discoveries of Tasman and Cook, 
 484 : Laperouse and Dentre- 
 casteaux instructed to explore, 
 484 : Flinders considers ignor- 
 ance a reproach to England, 484 : 
 its especial interest, 484-485 : 
 Bass explores from Point Hicks 
 to Western Port, 490-491 : Flin- 
 ders and Bass sail through Bass's 
 Strait, 495-496: Flinders's ambi- 
 tion to complete discovery, 499- 
 500 : Grant discovers from Cape 
 Banks to Cape Otway, 503-505 : 
 Murray and Bowen discover 
 Port Phillip, 505-506 : Baudin 
 discovers from Cape Banks to 
 Encounter Bay, 512-513, 516 
 and notes : Flinders discovers 
 from Nuyts Land to Encounter 
 Bay, 513-516. 
 
 Urdaneta, Andres de : first makes 
 the return voyage from Manila 
 to Acapulco, 79. 
 
 V 
 
 Vallard, Jean : his map, 119. 
 
 Van Diemen's Land (of the 
 North) : discovered by the Arn- 
 hem, 243-244 : rediscovered by 
 Pietersen, 256 : explored by the 
 Dutch, 302-303 ; by King, 303 
 note. 
 
 Van Diemen's Land (of the 
 South) : discovered by Tasman, 
 270-275 : visited by Furneaux, 
 464 ; by Cook, 475 ; by Dentre- 
 casteaux, 497, 508 ; by Hayes, 
 497 : circumnavigated by Flin- 
 ders and Bass, 495-499 : visited 
 by Baudin, 512. 
 
 Varthema, Ludovico di : his tra- 
 vels, 52-54 ; in India, Malacca, 
 Java, Moluccas, 53 : the cap- 
 tain's story of inhabited lands 
 far South, 53-54 : influence of 
 the story on map-makers, 54, 
 91 (map), 96, 109, III (map) : 
 he tells the Portuguese about 
 the Spice Islands, 53, 68. 
 
 Vega, Lope de : Admiral under 
 Mendafia (1595), 146: he vanishes 
 at Santa Cruz, 148, and note 3. 
 Ver guide Brack, the: wreck of, 298. 
 
 Vespucci, Amerigo: explores coast 
 of Brazil, 72 : claims that 
 he has discovered Terra Aus- 
 tralis, 72-73 ; and the East 
 coast of Ptolemy's Cattigara- 
 land, 97 : looks for the strait 
 of Malacca, 73. 
 
 Visscher, Frans : his Memoir 
 touching the discovery of the 
 South Land, 2^^-161 : Tasman's 
 Pilot in 1642, 262 ; his time- 
 table, 269 ; his advice, 269, 
 283 : his chart shows Cook's 
 Strait probable, 279-280 : he 
 fears South of New Guinea, 
 283 : Tasman's Pilot in 1644, 
 286 : his map lost, but a bad 
 copy exists, 289 note 5. 
 
 Vlamingh, Willem de : finds Har- 
 tog's " pewter dish," 228 : erects 
 another pewter dish, 229 ; which 
 is discovered by the French, 
 229 : explores coast of West 
 Australia, 229-302 : his map, 
 300 : Swan River, 299 : Dirck 
 Hartog's Road and Sharks 
 Bay, 301 : describes the bad- 
 ness of West Australia, 300-302. 
 Vyanen, the : discovers Witsland, 
 248. 
 
INDEX 
 
 541 
 
 w 
 
 Wallace, Alfred Russel : describes 
 the Malay Archipelago, 21, and 
 note 2 : meets descendant of 
 Sinbad's " old man of the sea," 
 28 : describes strong currents in 
 the straits of Lombok, 83-84. 
 
 Wallis, Samuel : his voyage, 368- 
 369 : discovers Tahiti, 369. 
 
 Walker, James Backhouse : on 
 the topography of Tasman's 
 discoveries in Van Diemen's 
 Land, 269-275. 
 
 Walker, John : Cook's letters to, 
 
 455, 474- 
 
 Watson, Dr. Frederick : on the 
 use of the word Australia, 174 
 note : on the dates in Cook's 
 voyage in the Endeavour, 413 
 note 2. 
 
 Watson, Captain James H. : on 
 the origin of the name New 
 South Wales, 442 note 5. 
 
 West India Company, the Dutch : 
 its rivalry with the East India 
 Company, 293 : sends Rogge- 
 veen to seek Terra Australis, 
 340 ; East India Company con- 
 fiscates his ship, 341, 
 
 Wharton, John Lewis : says Pal- 
 liser Log is not autograph, 380 : 
 says no autograph Journal of 
 Cook is known, 380 : his edition 
 of the Corner copy of Cook's 
 Journal, x, 380, 381, with a 
 passage from the Admiralty 
 copy, 382 : his opinion of the 
 Windsor copy, 382 : compares 
 the three copies, 382 : admira- 
 tion of Cook's charting of un- 
 known coasts in Canada, 389 : 
 on Cook's commission as Lieu- 
 tenant, 391 note I : admiration 
 
 of Cook's Chart of New Zealand, 
 403 : says plan at Admiralty 
 has Stingray Harbour, 419 : on 
 the tides at Endeavour River, 
 429 note I : on Cook's naviga- 
 tion near the Barrier Reef, 429, 
 439 : comparison of Corner and 
 Admiralty copies of Journal, 
 437 note : on Endeavour Strait, 
 441. 
 
 Woodes Rogers : Dampier's voy- 
 age with, 334-335 • praises 
 islands off New Guinea, 335. 
 
 Wytfliet, Cornille : his map, 112 : 
 thinks New Guinea an island, 
 106 ; his conception of Terra 
 Australis, 11 2- 113. 
 
 Young, George : value of his Life 
 of Cook, 385 ; quoted, 389. 
 
 Yule, Henry : his description of 
 the Kosmos of Kosmas, 9 note : 
 his Marco Polo, and Cathay and 
 the Way Thither, 31 : note on 
 the word Kaan, 32 note : his 
 map giving " Probable View of 
 Marco Polo's Own Geography," 
 35 : translation of Marco Polo 
 used, 39-44 and passim : dis- 
 cussion of Friar Odoric's life, 
 48 note 2 ; on Odoric's descrip- 
 tion of Javan palaces, 50 note 
 2 : on contemporary recogni- 
 tion of Polo and his book, 52 
 note. 
 
 Zeehaen, the : one of Tasman's 
 
 ships, 268. 
 Zeewulf, the : its discoveries, 229- 
 
 230. 
 Zeilan : see Ceylon. 
 
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