AUSTRALASIA. 



123 



Auslral- 

 asia. 



1700-1810. 



General 

 conduct of 

 the older 

 navigators. 



Object of 



modern na- 

 vigators. 



Rogers. 



Roggewein 



part of the same immense tract or continent. New 

 Britain and New Ireland were almost totally un- 

 known ; the New Hebrides had been visited by one 

 navigator ; and New Caledonia was undiscovered. 

 The position of New Zealand was hardly fixed, and 

 only the general appearances of the country indica- 

 ted. If there be any exception to these general re- 

 marks, it applies to the lands of the Arsacides ; for 

 few, if any, late navigators have left observations on 

 them equally a :curate with those of him by whom 

 they were discovered. But a vast field of discove- 

 ry opened in Australasia at the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century ; nor should this appear so re- 

 markable, on considering the disposition and objects 

 of the older navigators. Almost the whole com- 

 merce in the more genial climates of the new world 

 was absorbed by the Spaniards, Dutch, and Portu- 

 guese. The purpose of the first and last, added to 

 the acquisition of gain, and the desire of conquest, 

 was the propagation of the Roman Catholic religion ; 

 that of the second was chiefly restricted to some 

 mercantile establishment ; and, if opportunities oc- 

 curred, their scruples of making themselves masters 

 of the territory were easily overcome. Unfortunate- 

 ly their first intercourse with newly discovered na- 

 tions tended little to conciliation ; they were guilty 

 of acts and aggressions the most effectual to alienate 

 regard. The savages, as they called them, were sub- 

 jected to treatment more inhuman than would have 

 been inflicted on brutes ; they were despoiled of their 

 scanty property, or forcibly made slaves. The gra- 

 dual extension of commerce in the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, and its partition among the other 

 European kingdoms, enlarged their views. The 

 French and English learnt that it was one great 

 source of wealth and prosperity, and having beheld 

 what rival powers had done, many adventurers were 

 attracted towards the Southern Ocean, in hopes of 

 Spanish treasure. After their return, the advantage of 

 settling in warmer and more fertile regions was delibe- 

 rately canvassed, and then the expediency of exploring 

 the wide extent of the globe hitherto undiscovered. 



A few years after Dampier's return to Britain in 

 1700, two vessels were sent to the South seas, com- 

 manded by Woodes Rogers, an Englishman. Their 

 design was the capture of some of the Spanish 

 towns and ihipping in South America, in which 

 they fully succeeded. During 1710, the vessels, in 

 one of which Dampier himself was pilot, passed 

 through the straits of New Guinea, where he had 

 been twice before : and from the observations made 

 by Rogers among the islands, he was impressed with 

 a high opinion of the benefit that would accrue from 

 their products. Though many of the Dutch, and, 

 perhaps, also the Spanish voyages towards Austral- 

 asia, were cautiously withheld from public notice, 

 there is one with which we are acquainted that was 

 intentionally planned for the sole purpose of discovery. 

 Roggewein, a Dutch commander, in consequence of 

 pursuing ideas originally suggested by his father, was 

 sent out with a small 6quadron in 1721, to make dis- 

 coveries in Australasia. He had himself presented a 

 memorial on that subject to the East India Company, 

 or the government of his country, and was amply pro- 

 vided with whatever might be conducive to the suc- 



1700- It* 10. 



cess of his voyage. Roggewein unfortunately lost one Austral- 

 of his ships just about the eastern limits of Austral- 

 asia, and immediately afterwards discovered Aurora 

 island, so named from coming in view of it as morn- 

 ing dawned. His particular design was to rediscover 

 Solomon's islands, and the lands described by Qui- 

 vos, from which particular incidents obliged him to 

 desist, and steer a different course from the lands near 

 Aurora island. He landed in New Britain in 1722, 

 where he was attacked by the inhabitants with arrows, 

 spears, and a shower of stones : and he concluded, 

 from the address displayed by them in the use of arms, 

 that they were inured to war. These people wert 

 of a yellow colour, tall in stature, slender, and with 

 black hair hanging down to the girdle. The coun- 

 try appeared to him mountainous and well wooded, 

 beautiful, fertile, and full of minerals, and other pre- 

 cious treasures. He next trafficked with the inha- 

 bitants of Moa and Arrimoa, two islands not far from 

 the Papuan coasts, so named by Schouten : all the 

 inhabitants, men, women, and children, were armed 

 with bows and arrows. They shewed extreme agi- 

 lity in their motions, and came without the small- 

 est indications of fear to barter their commodities. 

 Yet hostilities ensued from the Dutch going ashore, 

 and indiscreetly cutting down the cocoa nut trees : 

 though, when about to sail, traffic was renewed 

 with mutual confidence. Roggewein thus continued 

 his navigation in a region of innumerable islands, 

 which on that account he called the Thousand Islands. 

 These were inhabited by people black and hairy, and 

 of a treacherous and malevolent aspect. They were , 

 entirely naked, except in wearing a girdle about two 

 inches broad, with hogs teeth interlaced : and they 

 had strings of the same teeth around their legs and 

 arms. On the head they wore a hat of rushes, orna- 

 mented with bird of paradise feathers. 



Approaching nearer to our own times, we find that Carteret, 

 several discoveries by the former navigators of Aus- 

 tralasia have been confirmed. The groupe of islands 

 containing Santa Cruz, where Mendana landed in 

 1595, was visited by Captain Carteret in 1767, while 

 on a voyage of discovery from England. Falling in 

 with a cluster of seven islands, he anchored on the 

 largest, but his people committing indiscretions simi- 

 lar to those of the former navigators, hostilities com- 

 menced with the natives, and from constant warfare- 

 ensuing, Captain Carteret was obliged to depart with- 

 out supplies. He named the whole groupe Queen 

 Charlotte's islands, and changed the name of Santa 

 Cruz to Egmont island. Captain Carteret also found 

 a strait, dividing New Britain from New Ireland, and 

 sailed through it. 



M. de Bougainville, a French officer, having gone Bougain- 

 out on a similar voyage of discovery, found himself ville. 

 within the limits of Australasia in May 1768. After 

 giving names to some islands in his way, he landed on 

 Lepers island, on which he was induced ,to bestow 

 that name, from the natives in general being overrun 

 with leprosy. They were either black or mulatto 

 coloured, ill made, with thick lips, frizzled hair, and 

 small eyes. On the neck they wore plates of tor- 

 toise shell by way of ornament, and rings of a sub- 

 stance resembling ivory as bracelets on the arms. Few 

 women were seen, but they were equally disgusting 



