226 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



The 



Eendracht 

 discovers 

 West 

 Australia 

 from 21 f 

 to 28. 



Gerritz's 

 map, 1627, 



islands. But in 1611 Commander Brouwer tried another 

 way. After leaving the Cape, he sailed Eastward for four 

 thousand miles before turning Northward. It was found 

 that the new way was twice as fast as the old way. In 

 1614 three ships sailed from Holland. Two took the old 

 way, and arrived in sixteen and eighteen months. One 

 took the new way, and arrived in six. The Company 

 ordered its commanders henceforth to take the new way, 

 and offered rewards for quick passages. 1 



The change made the discovery of the Western coast 

 inevitable. In October 1616, says an official letter, the 

 ship Eendracht " sailed so far Southward as to come upon 

 various islands, which were, however, found un-inhabited." 

 Our knowledge of this famous voyage is sadly deficient 

 as far as journals are concerned. No one who sailed on 

 the Eendracht wrote an account of the discovery that 

 has had luck enough to survive. We have, however, 

 two very satisfactory pieces of evidence of a different 

 character. 



Firstly, we have the map 2 drawn in 1627 by Hessel 

 Gerritz, who was cartographer to the Company from 

 1619 to 1629. It is a map that stands in striking contrast 

 to other maps of that period which are copied from Mercator 

 and Ortelius, and give the huge wavy outline of Terra 

 Australis, marked with Marco Polo names. When we 

 look at Gerritz we pass at last from the geography of the 

 imagination to the geography of discovery. He gives 

 us very little information, but the little that he gives 

 is a precise scientific record of things seen and measured. 

 From about 2i| to about 28 he draws a coastline that 

 is definite though broken ; and behind it he writes : - 

 " Tlandt van de Eendracht opghedaen by Dirck Hartogs 

 met 't Schip d'Eendracht in October A 1616." In about 

 26 there is shown what appears to be a peninsula sheltering 

 an inlet or bay ; and on the peninsula is written " Dirck 

 Hartogs ree (road)." Now this is very satisfactory. Dirck 

 Hartog's Road is evidently the water sheltered by the 

 long thin island, still called Dirck Hartog's island, which 

 1 Walker's Early Tasmania, pp. 192-3. z See p. 227. 



