120 



AUSTRALASIA. 



Progress of 

 discovery. 



sist of water. Nevertheless, we may deem t lie views of 

 the older geographers as in some part fulfilled, by 

 including such extensive tracts ot land in Australasia. 

 Here we shall take a brief retrospect of the pro- 

 gress of discovery of the various countries comprised 

 under this general denomination ; treating, in the first 

 place, of what was known previous to the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century ; and then we shall 

 draw some general conclusions concerning the pro- 

 ducts of Australasia, and the maimers of the natives. 

 The different properties of the countries, and their 

 inhabitants, will be resumed, in greater detail, under 

 other articles of our work. 



The extent and importance of New Holland just- 

 ly claim priority of consideration, though we possess 



1500-1700. no ev i(J ence ; n favour of its being earlier known than 

 the rest ; which leads us to remark, that more of the 

 Australasian countries than one having been recog- 

 nised during the same voyage, we are precluded from 

 observing that strict chronological order which is so 

 desirable in historical inquiries. The discovery of 

 New Holland has commonly been ascribed to Dutch 

 navigators of the seventeenth century. M. de Brosses 

 refers it to an earlier period, judging it probable that 



Goimeville. it was discovered by Paulmyer de Gonnevillc in 1503, 

 who sailed from Honfleur in June of that year. Oft 

 the Cape of Good Hope he was assailed by a furious 

 storm, in which he lost his reckoning, and was driven 

 into an unknown sea. As he saw the birds flying 

 from the south, he sailed towards that quarter, and 

 reached an extensive country, which he called South- 

 ern India. There he spent six months, refitting his 

 vessel, and lived on friendly terms with the inhabi- 

 tants. On comparing the meagre accounts which he 

 gives of their manners, and those of any of the Aus- 

 tralasians according to the earliest narratives, we con- 

 clude that they are of a different race, and had made 

 much greater advancement in civilization. A set of 

 maps, constructed in the year 1542, or perhaps ear- 

 lier, has been lately found, wherein some part of 

 New Holland is supposed to be laid down. But we 

 are so little acquainted with these maps, that we can- 

 not venture to maintain an opinion concerning them : 

 at the same time we ought to remark, that repeated 

 instances occur, as will be seen in the course of this 

 article, where later navigators claim the merit of dis- 

 coveries which belong, so far as we can judge, to 

 those who have lived centuries before them. 



Early in the seventeenth century, the Spanish na- 

 vigator Quivos is conjectured to have seen the north, 

 r north-east coast of New Holland. In the year 

 1606 he traversed the Australasian seas, with a fleet 

 under his command ; and, on attending to his tract, 

 the fact is far from improbable. But the Dutch 

 were the first who became acquainted with any ex- 

 tent of coast, or the nature of the country. Soon 

 after Quivos left that region, they made several suc- 

 cessive voyages to it, and gave those names to the 

 north and western parts of New Holland which are 

 retained to the present day. Doubts were started, 

 whether any of them effected a landing previous to 

 Pelsart, in 1629. These have been removed by the 

 French finding a tin platter on an island called Dirk 



ljOO-1700. 



Hartighs. 



Hartigh's Island, close to NewHolland, in 1801, which Austral- 

 bore tiie following inscription rudely graven : " 1616, **'* 

 On the 25th of October, the ship Endraght of Am- 

 sterdam arrived here ; first merchant GiTlcs Miebais 

 Van Luck ; Captain Dirk Hartighs of Amsterdam. 

 She sailed on the 27th of the same month. Bantum 

 supercargo ; Janstins chief pilot ; Pieter Ecoores 



Van Bue year 1616." Hartighs'* vessel 



was on a voyage to India at the time of touching on 

 the coast, which in the Dutch charts is called LandP 

 D'Eendraght. As the inscription ascertains the 

 name of his vessel, what is called the Concord's Coast 

 probably received that appellation from some other 

 vessel in company, or from some future navigator, 

 contrary to general belief. In 1618, another Dutch- 

 man, Zeachen, ran along the north coast of New 

 Holland, which was then, or soon afterwards, called 

 Arnheim, or Van Diemen's Land ; and several of lug 

 countrymen, in the years immediately subsequent, 

 extended the knowledge of this great island. Edel's 

 Land was called after a navigator of that name in 

 1619 ; Leuwin's Land was discovered in 1622; and 

 Peter de Nuytz, in a vessel named the Golden Horse, 

 fixed the position of different points in 1627, which 

 the latest voyagers acknowledge to be uncommonly 

 correct. William de Wit, Vianen, and Carpenter, a 

 Dutch general, were on the south and west coasts in 

 1627 and 1628. In the subsequent year, Francis 

 Pelsart, commanding a ship, which was separated p e hart. 

 in a storm from ten others, approached the west 

 coast of Holland. There, in lat. 28 south, he was 

 cast away on Frederic Houtman's Shoals, which the 

 French affirm are about eight leagues from the 

 main land. The crew and passengers were saved by 

 the boats, and carried to a small island, about three 

 leagues distant, which we apprehend to be the island 

 Turtle Dove ; but finding no water there, Pelsart 

 examined a number of others, where he got some in 

 the cavities of the rocks, though unfit for use. A 

 few days afterwards, having put :i deck on his boat, 

 which was unable to stand the sea, and having ascer- 

 tained the position of the islands to be 28 l'S south, 

 he stood on for the land. Stormy weather and a 

 rocky shore prevented him from landing from the 

 9th of June to the 15th. In 22 17' south latitude, 

 he saw the savages at a distance, who fled whenever 

 he and his people approached ; and he found the re- 

 mains of their provisions beside fires on the beach. 

 Circumstances, which it is unnecessary now to reca- 

 pitulate, induced Pelsart to run for the coast ot Java, 

 which he saw on the 27th. Having obtained assist- 

 ance from Batavia, he returned to the island in Sep- 

 tember, and brought away the survivors of the ship- 

 wrecked persons. Most of those who had escaped 

 the shipwreck had been cruelly murdered by means . 

 of the supercargo. The chief discoveries which the 

 Dutch made in Australasia during the seventeenth 

 century, were those by Abel Jansan Tasman, in 

 1642; and the large island, or continent, of which 

 we speak, receiv. d the name of New Holland in 

 1644. Tasman sailed from Batavia in August 1642, 

 with two vessels under his command, the Heemskirk 

 and Zeehaan. On the 24th of November, when in 



Tasmau. 



* JVc are uualile t asceruin the resj orthography of this navigator's name, whether Hartig, Hartighs, Hertog, or Hertoge. 



