340 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



story, and looks forward to the British story to which we 

 shall come. Since the days of Le Maire (1615), the Dutch 

 had thought little about the great golden continent, Terra 

 Australis Incognita. Their concern had been with the 

 " Company's New Netherland," the Huge island they 

 had cut out of Terra Australis, and found to be a land 

 of incredible badness. Tasman, indeed, thought that 

 " Staten Land " (New Zealand) was a promontory of Terra 

 Australis Incognita, but it seemed an even more murderous 

 place than the Company's New Netherland, and his only 

 thought was how to get through it or round it, in order 

 to find a way to Chili. But now the argument of Quiros 

 once more inspired a Dutch navigator. A gentleman 

 named Roggeveen, who had made a fortune in Batavia, 

 persuaded the Dutch West India Company to send him, 

 in command of three ships, to search for the unknown 

 continent, for which Quiros had searched in 1606 and 

 Le Maire in 1616. 



Falkland He touched at the Falkland Islands which he called 



Islands. .. Belgia Australis," because its inhabitants would be 



strictly antipodes to the inhabitants of the Low Countries. 



The land looked beautiful and fertile, but Roggeveen 



postponed examination till he should return from the 



discovery of the Continent. To make sure that he would 



get round Cape Horn he sailed as far South as 62 50'. 



Huge icebergs seemed to prove that the Southern Continent 



extended to the Pole ; for it was held that such vast 



hills of ice could not be produced in the sea, and therefore 



proved the existence of big rivers. The great number 



of birds also seemed to "prove that this continent could 



not be far away. Then, sailing Northward, Roggeveen 



Juan visited the island of Juan Fernandez, and appreciated 



Fernandez. -^ ac j v antages so highly that he thought of settling it, 



who sailed with him." Two of these are translated in Campbell, de 

 Brosses, Callender and Dalrymple. " It was not until 1836, however, 

 that the official log of the commander himself came to light : it was 

 printed a couple of years later at Middleburg, in the original Dutch." 

 The part which tells the story of the discovery of Easter Island is 

 translated by Corney in The Voyage of Captain Don Felipe Gonzalez 

 (Hakluyt Society). 



