2 5 8 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Pilot 



Frans 



Visscher. 



Visscher's 

 Memoir, 

 Jan. 1642. 



He suggests 

 (i) a voyage 

 South of 

 Australia, 

 and back 

 by the 

 Solomons. 



mankind. It was the day of the Oceanic Gradgrind, and 

 the Pacific was a matter of fact. 1 



The man to whom the Governor-General chiefly looked 

 for technical advice was " the renowned Pilot, Frans 

 Visscher," a man who had good knowledge of all the regions 

 of the Eastern seas, and who was thought to have " greater 

 skill in the surveying of coasts and the mapping out of 

 lands than any of the steersmen present in these parts." 

 So valuable was his assistance considered, that Van Diemen, 

 impatiently chafing against " the unexampled delay in the 

 arrival of ships from Persia and Surat," was forced sorely 

 against his will " to detain him in this roadstead (Batavia) 

 for the space of nine months." 3 



Visscher spent the time well. In January 1642 he 

 wrote a " Memoir touching the discovery of the South- 

 land," 4 which laid down the lines on which the famous 

 voyage actually sailed, and which is, moreover, of singular 

 interest as indicating the vast schemes now breeding 

 in the minds of Dutch Pilots. The ships, he says, should 

 sail from Batavia about the middle of August, or the 1st 

 of September at latest. By so doing they would " use 

 the main part of the summer season and the long days 

 for making discoveries." It was desirable to call at 

 Mauritius to get water and firewood. This meant a voyage 

 of a month, and a stay of fifteen to twenty days. Then 

 they should " sail South with the sun " as far as 52 or 

 54. By that time it would be the beginning of November, 

 " when in those Southern regions the longest days are 

 approaching, together with the most favourable weather, 

 and Northerly winds from time to time." This would 

 give three or three and a half months to make the dis- 

 coveries with minute care. In 52 or 54, in case they 



1 " Thomas Gradgrind, Sir, a man of realities. A man of Facts 

 and Calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that 

 2 and 2 are 4, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing 

 for anything over ! With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplica- 

 tion table always in his pocket, Sir, ready to weigh and measure any 

 parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to " 

 (Dickens's Hard Times). 



2 Heeres' Tasman, p. 100. 3 Ib. p. 105. 



4 Ib. p. 141. See Tasman's map, p. 259. 



