THE DUTCH DISCOVER AUSTRALIA 225 



coasts of New Guinea, for about eight hundred and 

 eighty miles (220 Dutch miles), from 5 to I3f." 

 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 !3fS." 

 According to Flinders, who sailed that way in 1802, 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." x 



The Duyfhen was back at Banda in June 1606. So that Disappoint- 

 the "first authenticated discovery of any part of Australia" ment - 

 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, ja 

 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 



