AUSTRALIA, OR NEW HOLLAND. 93 



CHAPTER VIII. 



AUSTRALIA, OR NEW HOLLAND, OR THE LAND OF ANOMALIES. 



While the Portuguese and the Spaniards, early in the 

 sixteenth century, were extending their enterprise through the 

 seas of the further east, rumors reached Europe of a new con- 

 tinent on the south. The navigator, driven by contrary winds 

 and currents beyond the bounds of his ordinary enterprise, 

 discovered different points of land, which, for a long period, 

 none endeavored to examine. The Spaniards had been navi- 

 gating the Indian Archipelago for more than eighty, and the 

 Portuguese for nearly a hundred years, before the name of 

 any mariner became connected with the discovery of Australia. 

 The unknown southern land, (Terra Australis incognito,) and 

 the southern land of the Holy Spirit, (Australia del Spiritu 

 Santo,) were indefinitely mentioned in their records, yet no ex- 

 plorer ventured to approach the mysterious coast, dimly seen 

 by the chance-voyager in those remote seas. 



In 1605, however, the Dutch, eager to obtain a maratime 

 superiority in those distant regions, equipped the yatch - ■ Duy- 

 fen," which sailed from the port of Bantam, in Java, to 

 explore the coast of New Guinea. Returning from this expe- 

 dition, the little vessel entered the waters of the shores of 

 Australia, and sailed into the great Gulf of Carpentaria. To 

 these early voyagers all seemed desolate and barren, for, since 

 the discovery of America, the voyage of Vasco di Gama, and 

 the exploration of the Indian Archipelago, the navigator con- 

 tinually thirsted for some new Chersonese, where gold was to 



