1 22 



AUSTRALASIA. 



Austral- 

 asia. 



l.'.(X)-1700. 

 Yillalobos, 



If Maire, 



Sdioutcn. 



part of the Papuan territories in 1,537 or 15:58, where, 

 it appears, they lost a vessel, and were made prisoners 

 by the natives. Some of them were carried thence 

 to the Moluccas, and there ransomed. Ruy Lopez 

 de Villalobos ranged along the same coasts in 1.11:;, 

 when, ignorant of its having before been visited by 

 Europeans, he conferred upon it the name of New 

 Guinea. The country had an inviting appearance ; 

 and he anchored in several ports, where he ob- 

 tained wood and water. Previous to reaching New 

 Guinea, he fell in with an archipelago of islands, 

 among which, it has been conjectured, the Spanish 

 vessel was lost ; we should consider it, however, to 

 have been farther to the east. In 1616, James le 

 Maire and William Schouten, both skilful navigators, 

 in a voyage from the east, approached the coast of 

 Papua. They anchored in a bay, where two villages 

 stood on the shore, and had different interviews with 

 the natives, from whom they obtained small quan- 

 tities of provisions. They were remarkably diseased, 

 not one being seen without lameness, blindness, or 

 some other personal defect, which Le Maire and 

 Schouten ascribed to the unhealthiness of the cli- 

 mate, as their houses stood eight or nine feet above 

 the ground on posts. " These people,", he observes, 

 " are the true Papoos, with black, short, and curled 

 hair, wearing rings in their ears and noses, and neck- 

 laces of hogs tusks : a wild, strange, and absurd 

 people, curious to see every thing, and active as 

 monkeys." Alvaro Mendana probably saw some of 

 the islands near Papua, in 1595 ; also Tasman in 

 16-12, and Dampier in 1699. Geographers have sup- 

 posed," that what is described by both these authors 

 as Papua, was in fact New Britain ; and that Dam- 

 pier, in particular, never landed on that island. 



New Britain was certainly discovered by this latter 

 navigator in 1699. Ranging along the coast to the 

 most eastern part of New Guinea, he found it inter- 

 rupted, and a lesser division, being an island, he call- 

 ed it New Britain. It may be productive of rich com- 

 modities, he says, and the natives might easily be 

 brought to commerce. ' Owing to inconveniences 

 which are specified by him, his voyage of discovery 

 was soon abandoned. If New Ireland was known in 

 the seventeenth century, it had then been very little 

 explored. Mr Dalrymplc, if we rightly understand 

 his arguments, conceived the New Britain of Dam- 

 pier to be the same as the Solomon Islands. 



No part of all the Australasian regions has been 

 the subject of greater doubt or controversy than the 

 Arsacides, or Solomon Islands. Even their exist- 

 ence was long denied after the original discovery, 

 whence their history afterwards became an interest- 

 ing topic of investigation. During the course of a 

 Mendana. voyage by Alvaro de Mendana, from Lima, in South 

 America, for the purpose of discoveries in the South 

 Sea, in the year 1567, he fell in with a great shoal 

 in Australasia. This he called Baxos de la Caiulc- 

 laria, or Candlemas Shoal, which name it yet retains : 

 it extended fifteen leagues, and the middle lay in 

 6 15' south latitude. Mendana next fell in with a 

 large island, and several smaller ones, where, finding- 

 good materials, he built a brigantine, which he sent 

 out on further discoveries. Other islands were dis- 

 covered and examined ; and he named the first where- 



Austral- 

 asia. 



lJOO-1700. 



on he had landed Ytla Isabel. In consequence of a 

 design entertained by the Spanish government in 

 South America, of establishing a settlement in Aus- 

 tralasia, Mendana sailed on another voyage with four 

 vessels in 159.5. His discoveries among the islands 

 had been considerable, owing to his residence there, 

 and the services of the brigantine. In the course of 

 again endeavouring to find them, he discovered an 

 island to the eastward, which he called Simla Cruz, 

 now known by the name of Egmont's Island. View- 

 ing it as a suitable place for a colony, he landed and 

 built a town, after slight rencounters with the na- 

 tives. Mendana found means, however, to conciliate 

 their friendship, and they (applied the colony with 

 provisions ; but an unlucky misunderstanding arose, 

 when the chief was killed, and many misfortune* 

 befell the Spaniards. Mendana soon afterwards 

 died, and was interred in the church of the town 

 which he had founded. The government devolved 

 on his wife, who, deeming it expedient to abandon 

 the settlement, sailed in quest of the Solomon Islands. 

 After making an unsuccessful search for two of the 

 principal islands, the people on board became impa- 

 tient, and, the vessels then altering their course, bore 

 away for Manilla ; and the governess thence sailed for 

 New Spain. The result of Mendana's second voy- 

 age produced much embarrassment, for it was justly- 

 thought very extraordinary, that a number of islands, 

 whose position had been specified with tolerable ac- 

 curacy, could not be found again. 



New Caledonia was not known at the period of which 

 we are now treating, as it belongs to the discoveries of 

 the eighteenth century ; but the New Hebrides were 

 known to Quivos in 1606. One of the islands was 

 then called Manicolo, or Mallicolo, by the natives of 

 the vicinity, as it is at the present time ; and it is evi- 

 dent that he not only landed on the largest, but visit- 

 ed others in the vicinity. 



New Zealand was discovered by Tasman, the naviga- 

 tor whom we have already named. On the 5th of De- 

 cember 1642, while searching for Solomon's Islands, 

 he was obliged to alter his course, and on the 13th 

 came in sight of a very high and mountainous coun- 

 try, which he believed the Terra Australis. He called 

 it Staaten Land, and anchored in a bay on the north- 

 cast, where he had an interview with the natives. 

 Supposing that a friendly intercourse could be car- 

 ried on with them, he prepared to land ; but a 

 treacherous attack was made on him, wherein he lost 

 several men, and thence called the place of his an- 

 chorage Murderer's Bay. He traversed some of the 

 coast, which was of a pleasing and fertile appearance, 

 and next stood to the northward, discovering some 

 small islands in his way. This portion of Austral- 

 asia is now called New Zealand. 



Although many islands, rocks, and shoals, were Progress of 

 noted by the old navigators, we see, in this cursory discovery. 

 retrospect, how very limited the knowledge of the i' 00-1810 - 

 Australasian regions was previous to the eighteenth 

 century. There is a possibility that New Holland 

 was discovered before the year 1600, but it is not 

 yet supported by unquestionable evidence. In the 

 subsequent century, various vessels had visited small 

 portions of its coasts ; and Van Diemen's Land, 

 which had been observed to the south, was judged 



