64 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



have fallen in with any potentates with whom it was worth his 

 while to conclude alliances. 



Before leaving Batavia, Tasman was supplied with a SPECIALLY 

 PREPARED CHART, which, no doubt, showed all that was known of the 

 south coast of New Guinea (as we know the island to-day) and the 

 north, west and south coasts of Australia. There is reason to 

 believe that, as regards previous exploration of the coast of the 

 Cape York Peninsula, this chart was very imperfect. 



In a report under date 23rd December, 1644, signed by Van 

 Dieman, Van der Lijn, Sweers, Crooq and Van Alpen (President), 

 representing the Governor and Council of the Dutch East India 

 Company, and addressed to " The Noble, Worshipful, Provident 

 and Very Discreet Gentlemen " (The Directors of the Company in 

 Holland), it is stated that Tasman's expedition, after leaving 

 Bantam on 29th February, 1644, " followed the coast-line, but 

 found NO OPEN CHANNEL between the half-known Nova Guinea 

 and the known land of Eendracht or Willem's River in 22i S. 

 latitude and 119 longitude. 1 They, however, found a large, 

 spacious BAY OR GULF, as shown in the annexed CHART AND JOURNALS. 

 Nor did they make any profit by bartering, having only met with 

 naked, beach-roaming 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, in which are recorded the 

 courses kept and the incidents of the voyage, under date 4th, 5th 

 and loth August last, at which time the said Tasman returned to 

 our port through Sunda Strait, from the latitude and longitude 

 aforesaid of the South Land (having continually sailed in shallow 

 water along the coast). . . . This vast and hitherto unknown South 

 Land has by the said Tasman been sailed round in two voyages 

 and is computed to comprise 2,000 miles of land, as shown by the 

 delineation of the Charts, which we subjoin for Your Worships' 

 inspection." 



Whatever became of Tasman's journal, it has not come down to 

 us. There is, however, a CHART, on the scale of I cm. to a degree 

 of longitude, showing Tasman's routes in 1642-3 and 1644, entitled 

 " Company's New Netherlands. To the east the large Land of 

 Nova Guinea forming one land with the first-known South Land, 

 and all of it joined together, as may be seen from the dotted course- 

 line of the Yachts ' Limmen ' and ' Zeemeeuw ' and the Galiot 

 6 Bracq* anno 1644." A further inscription says: "This Work 

 has been put together out of divers Writings, together with 

 Personal Observations by Abel Janszoon Tasman anno Domini 

 1644." The chart shows a continuous New Guinea and Cape 

 York Peninsula, with a shallow bight between. PROFESSOR HEERES, 



1 Actually 1 13 E. The Dutch of this period reckoned longitude from the meridian 

 of the Peak of Teneriffe, which is 16 46' W. of Greenwich. 



