HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 



11 



ica and tlie islands of the Pacific. It may be proper to 

 state, however, that within a few years, a vast amount of 

 accurate information has been gained, in jegard to coun- 

 tries in Africa, before unknown, or but partially explor- 

 ed. Blany doubts iiave been solved whicli have puz- 

 zled tbe learned world for ages. In regard to Europe, 

 almost every portion lias now been examined, and its de- 

 scriptive geography may be considered as accurately ascer- 

 tained and defined. 



More than half the surface of the globe, including long 

 groups of islands and vast expanses of ocean, remained 

 unexplored, even alter regular naval routes had been form- 

 ed round the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Horn ; yet 

 there soon arose the belief of an Austral continent, as ex- 

 tensive, and as abounding in wealth, as that which liad 

 been discovered by Columbus. 



The Portuguese, so long the most skilful and intrepid 

 navigators of the ocean, appear to have been tlie first who 

 threw any light upon this fifth and most remote portion of 

 the earth ; in less than twenty years after their passoije of 

 the Cape, they had reached tbe most extreme islands of 

 the Oriental Archi|)elago, including Java and the Moluc- 

 cas, and appear even to have observed some parts of the 

 coast of New Guinea. 



The Spaniards, during their early and adventurous 

 career, made strenuous efforts to explore the southern seas ; 

 Magellan, as already observed, by his first circumnaviga- 

 tion of the globe, effected a grand step in geographical dis- 

 covery. Alvaro Mendana, in 1.5(i8, sailed from Lima, and, 

 after crossing the breadth of the Pacific, discovered a 

 group of large maritime lands, to which, from a chimerical 

 reference to Ophir, he gave the name of " Islands of Sol- 

 omon : " they appear to be part of that great group 

 which forjns the outer range of Australasia. Mendana 

 set out on a second voyage, and reached the same quarter, 

 but, by some fatality, could not again find the islands for- 

 merly discovered. Quiros made a still more important 

 expedition ; he passed through the Polynesian group ; and 

 Sagitaria, one of the islands discovered by him, appears 

 clearly identified with Otaheite ; he terminated his voyage, 

 like Mendana, among the exterior islands of Australasia ; 

 and with him expired the spirit of Spanish enterprise. 



The Dutch, when they had expelled the Portuguese 

 from Java and the Spice Islands, and had established in 

 them the centre of their Indian dominion, were placed in 

 such close proximity with New Holland, that it was 

 scarcely possible for a great maritime nation to avoid ex- 

 tending their search to that region. Van Diemen, the 

 Dutch governor of India about the middle of the 17th cen- 

 tury, greatly promoted this object, and sent successive ves- 

 sels to explore the coast of New Holland. Hertog, Car- 

 penter, Nuytz, and Ulaming, made very extensive obser- 

 vations on the northern and western shores, but found 

 them so dreary and unpromising, that no settlement of 

 any description was ever attempted. Abel Tusman, how- 

 ever, went beyond his predecessors ; he reached the south- 

 ern extremity of this great mass of land, to which he gave 

 the name of Van Diemen, without discovering it to be an 

 island ; he then sailed across, surveyed the western coast 

 of New Zealand, and returned home by the Friendly Isl- 

 ands. This important range of discovery was not follow- 

 ed up ; it refuted, however, the delineation by which New 

 Holland had been made part of the imagined Austral con- 

 tinent. In the newly arranged charts, that continent still 

 remained, but with its position shifted further to the south, 

 and New Zealand probably contributing to form part of its 

 fancied outline. 



The English nation, bv the voyages of several naviga- 

 tors, and particularly of Cook, secured the glory of fully 

 exploring the depths of the great Pacific. The previous 

 voyages of Byron, VVallis, and Carteret, had already made 

 known some of the interesting groups of islands with 

 which its vast surface is studded. Cook fully traced the 

 great chains of the Society Islands, and of the Friendly 

 Islands ; he discovered and surveyed the eastern coasts of 

 New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. He settled the form 

 and relations of New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the 

 other great Australasian lands and islands This side he 

 passed thrice the Antarctic circle, and, ranging along the 

 yet unvisited borders of the southern pole solved, by re- 



futing, the famous modern h3'pothesia of an Austral conti- 

 nent. He navigated also through the northern Pacific, ob- 

 served carefully the group of the Sandwich Islands, and 

 established, in the manner before pointed out, tbe relation 

 between the continents of Asia and America. Many em- 

 inent navigators, among the French, La Pcrouse, Mar- 

 chand, D'Entrecasleaux ; among the Russians, Kotzebue, 

 and Krusenstern ; among the English, Vancouver and 

 lieecliy, followed ; and, though the grand prizes of discov- 

 ery had been carried oft", found still some gleanings in so 

 vast a fiehl. The circumnavigation of the globe has end- 

 ed in becoming a mere trading voyage, whicli conveys 

 neither name nor glory to him by whom it is achieved. 

 Captain Weddell, however, has lately, in New South Shet- 

 land, found a tract of land situated nearer to the Antarctic 

 pole than any previously supposed to e.xist. 



New Holland, much the most extensive of the lands 

 belonging to the southern hemisphere, and rendered doubly 

 interesting by its recent relations with Europe, has iijrmed 

 the theatre of late southern discoveries. Bass, in an o[icn 

 boat, found the strait which bears his name, separating 

 New Holland from Van Diemen's Land, and making the 

 latter a separate island. Baudin and Flinders, contempo- 

 raneously employed by the French and English nations, 

 made a continuous survey of the vast circuit of its coasts, 

 which had been before touched only at partial points. At 

 a later period, Fre3'cinet made some additional observa 

 tions ; and King found still a great extent of north and 

 northwestern coast to survey for the first time. More re- 

 cently, the discovery of Swan River and its shores, prom- 

 ises to redeem tbe reproach of sterility, which had been 

 attached to the whole western coast of this cimtinent ; tlie 

 interior on the eastern side also, though guarded by steep 

 and lofty barriers, has been penetrated to a considerable 

 depth, and found to contain extensive plains traversed by 

 large rivers. Still the explored tracts form only a small 

 proportion of the vast surface of this southern continent." 



The idea, that America, at the north, tapered to a point, 

 like South America, had prevailed for a long time after the 

 discovery of the continent; and to discover the supposed 

 passage at the north, became tbe object of European en- 

 terprise. 



The English took the lead in this important career. 

 Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Frobisher and Davis 

 made each three successive voyages. One discovered the 

 entrance into Hudson's Bay, the other found the entrance 

 into the great sea whicli bears the name of Baffin's Bay ; 

 but, partly arrested by the well-known obstructions to 

 which these seas are liable, partly diverted by a chimerical 

 seaich after gold, they could not penetrate beyond the nu- 

 merous islands and inlets by which these entiaiices are be- 

 set. Hudson, in KilO, steered a bolder course, and entered 

 the vast bay, which has received its appellation from that 

 great navigator, who there unfortunately terminated his 

 adventurous career. The treachery of a ferocious and 

 mutinous crew exposed him on these frozen and desolate 

 shores, where he miserably periiihed. Si.' Thomas Button 

 followed in 161'2, and finding himself in the middle of this 

 capacious basin, imagined himself already in the Pacific, 

 and stood full sail to the westward. To hi,s utter dismay he 

 came to the long, continuous line of shore which forms th" 

 western boundar}' of Hudson's Bay. He expressed nis 

 disappointment by giving to the coast the name of ' Hopp 

 checked.' Bylot and Baffin, who followed three years at 

 ter, were stopped by the ice at Southampton Island. Bat 

 fin, however, made afterwards a more important voyage, in 

 which he completely rounded the shores of that o-reat sea 

 which bears his name, and which, appearing to him to be in- 

 closed on all sides by land, has been denominatea Baffin's 

 Bay. The error involved in this appellation deterred sub- 

 sequent navigators from any further attempt - for Baffin, 

 in passing the great opening of Lancaster sound, had con- 

 cluded it to be merely a gulf. From that period the Eno'. 

 lish navigators, though tliey ceased not lu ;iew this object 

 with ardor, hoped to fulfil it only by the channel of Hud- 

 son's Bay. In 1631 , two vessels were sent thither under Fox 

 and James. The latter, entangled in some of the south- 

 ern bays, returned after dreadful sufferings from the cold 

 of the winter ; but the former, quaintly calling himself 

 Northwest Fox, explored a part of that great opening call- 



