250 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



he 



nstructions 

 f August, 

 642. 



request you to bring them hither." He is also to look 

 in the coast between 26 and 28 degrees for some " fitting 

 place for obtaining refreshments and fresh water, seeing 

 that mainly about that Latitude scorbut and other 

 diseases begin to show themselves, at times carrying off 

 numbers of men." The natives are to be treated with 

 " great kindness, wary caution, and skilful judgement. 

 Whoever endeavours to discover unknown lands and 

 tribes, had need to he patient and long-suffering, 

 noways quick to fly out, but always keen on ingratiating 

 himself." 



This grand scheme was not accomplished. In April 

 1636 Pool sailed for New Guinea, but was " murdered 

 by the barbarous inhabitants at the same place where 

 the skipper of the Arnhem was killed in 1623." The voyage 

 was continued under Pietersen. But winds blew him 

 to "a new land," which he called Van Diemen's Land, 

 and afterwards identified with Arnhem Land. He came 

 home with the report that he had seen "many fires and 

 frequent clouds of smoke, but no natives, houses, prows, 

 or fruit-trees, though he had paddled close along the shore 

 with an orangebay, and gone ashore in places, finding 

 the shore wild and barren." The addition made to Dutch 

 knowledge was that Arnhem Land or Van Diemen's 

 Land was as " wild and barren " as all the other parts 

 of- the South-land hitherto explored. 



But Van Diemen did not abandon his high hopes. On 

 the contrary they rose higher. To complete discovery 

 of the South-land was an obvious scheme. But the South- 

 land itself was but one part that was being cut out of 

 the unknown Southern world. In 1642 he and his Coun- 

 cillors devised the plan of a general survey of the whole 

 of the South Pacific. They had been busily reading 

 Quiros ; and the prologue to the " Instructions " which 

 they issued on the I3th of August, 1642, sounds like a 

 curious Dutch echo of a 'Quiros Memorial. It mentions 

 " the highly renowned naval heroes, Christopher Columbus 

 and Americus Vesputius " ; likewise " the famous Vasco 

 Da Gama, and other Portuguese captains." " With what 



