29(5 AUSTRALASIA. 



mariners, such as William Jansz, who, in 1606, reached the Aru Archipelago and 

 the south-west side of New Guinea. Ten years later. Le Maire and Schouten 

 discovered the Schouten Islands, north of Geelvink Bay, and in 1623 Carstensz 

 advanced as far as Valsche Kaap at the extremity of the island of Frederik 

 Hendrik. Other seafarers, amongst whom Tasman, also visited the north and 

 south coasts : yet, at the close of the seventeenth century, Papuasia was still so 

 little known that its western end was quite wrongly described by Rumphius, who 

 even extends it to the north of the equator. 



Attention was again attracted to the great island by the fear that the English 

 might succeed in founding settlements on the seaboard and deprive the Dutch 

 Company of their monopoly of the spice trade. Dumpier had, in fact, already 

 coasted the north side, and determined the independent insular character of the 

 New Britain and New Ireland Archipelagoes. Hence Wijland was despatched to 

 the same waters, and the northern seaboard was traced to its eastern extremity, 

 and even beyond it to the Massim or Louisiade Archipelago, which was at that 

 time supposed to form part of the mainland. Yet old Spanish charts studied by 

 E. T. Hamy and carefully compared with the Dutch documents, show that Torres 

 and his precursors in the sixteenth centurj^ had already determined, in a general 

 way, the form of the eastern section of New Guinea. 



The era of modern exploration in tliese regions begins with Cook's expedition. 

 Before the close of the eighteenth century, Forrest, MacCluer, and d'Entrecas- 

 teaux surveyed long stretches of the seaboard But the Napoleonic wars inter- 

 rupted these peaceful operations, which were not resumed till the general pacifica- 

 tion. Duperrey, Dumont d'Urville, and Belcher were amongst the first navigators 

 who then found their way to the New Guinea waters. Koliï sailed through the 

 strait between the island of Frederik Hendrik supposing it to be a river, and in 

 1828, this explorer founded on Triton Bay, over against the Aru Archipelago, the 

 first military station occupied by Europeans on the Papuan seaboard. Fort Bus, 

 afterwards abandoned owing to the insalubrity of the district, was thus the com- 

 mencement of the work of annexation, which has since been prosecuted slowly but 

 irresistibly. In the same year, 1828, the Dutch Government officially announced 

 the formal possession of the great island as far as 141*^ east longitude, substituting 

 throughout that region the sovereignty of Holland for that of her vassal, the 

 sultan of Tidor. 



Meanwhile the greater part of the interior remains still unexplored. Learned 

 naturalists, such as J ukes, Wallace, Cerruti, Beccari, d' Albertis, Bernstein, Meyer, 

 RafEray, and Forbes, have already penetrated at different points considerable dis- 

 tances inland. But despite these isolated efforts, the physical features of the land, 

 with its populations, products, and natural resources, still remain almost less 

 known than those of any other region of the globe. Long journeys are rendered 

 extremely difficult, and often impossible by the malarious climate of the coastlands, 

 the total absence of stations on the breezy plateaux of the interior, and the often 

 too well grounded hostility of the natives, who justly distrust the white strangers 

 coming with a revolver in one hand and a bottle of brandy in the other. To complete 



