31 



arid G-reatJava ; and a hundred and fifty years after Flinders 

 did not think a strait or, at least, a great river from a central 

 sea quite improbable. 



The alternative instruction to be followed in the case that 

 no passage to the eastward was found at the great cove in 

 9 deg. south latitude is thus given :—" But if (as we presume) 

 the land of Nova Guinea is joined to the southland, and in 

 consequence is one continent, you will be enabled by the S.E. 

 trade wind to run along the north coast from 7 deg. to 

 22_deg. south, and thus entirely to discover this land." It is 

 evident from this that Van Diemen and his Council at Batavia 

 thought that Arnhem's Land was an island, and that thewestera 

 part of the northern shore of Australia trended westward from 

 the southern end of the Gulf of Carpentaria to about North- 

 West Cape in De Witt's Land and north of Endraght Land. 

 On arriving at Endraght Land, Tasman was— time and 

 weather permitting— to go on southwards to Houtman's 

 Abrolhos and try to recover the treasure lost there in 1629 

 by the wreck of the Batavia. He was also to inquire after 

 two of the mutineers of the crew of that ship, who had been 

 marooned instead of being executed with their companions. 

 It seems from the chart that Tasman did not go south of 

 Endraght Land to fulfil these latter instructions. Probably 

 the time he had taken to get round the gulf and then follow the 

 coast of Arnhem's Land and De Witt's Land to his turning 

 point at about 23 deg. south had pretty well exhausted his 

 provisions and water. I cannot help thinking that the 

 question of victualling his ships had something to do with 

 the non-fulfilment of the instruction as to finding a passage 

 through Torres Straits. The voyage that the fulfilment of 

 that instruction would have entailed would have been one of 

 at least 13,000 miles, and mostly in unknown waters, and 

 Without much sea room if coast charts were to be made. 

 Judging from his previous voyage, this would have taken at 

 least 13 months, and he had only eight months' provisions. 



To revert_ to the chart, the sailing instructions given fully 

 bear out with regard to what Tasman was to do what I 

 called your attention to in connection with what had been 

 previously done, namely, that the chart refers to only 

 -tasman' s expedition — that all the information given upon the 

 chart is _ given in connection with or in consequence of the 

 instructions. As this is so, I do not see how we can resist 

 the conclusion that the Dutch original from which it was 

 taken and translated was the work of Eranz Jacobsz, 

 lasman's chief pilot on both of his expeditions, and that the 

 inscription in the middle of the chart is a translation of 

 Jacobsz's own writing. The material information upon which 

 the chart is constructed was all in Jacobsz's possession, and 

 m no other person's except Tasman's, That information was 



