INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries. 
Tasman. This is all that appears to have been known of the North Coast, 
when Abel Jansz Tasman sailed upon his second voyage, in 164,4, ; 
for the instructions to him say, that after quitting " Point Tare, or 
" False Cape, situate in 8° on the south coast of New Guinea, you 
" are to continue eastward, along the coast, to 9 0 south latitude ; 
" crossing prudently the Cove at that place. Looking about the 
" high islands or Speult's Rive?; with the yachts, for a harbour : 
" despatching the tender De Braak, for two or three days into the 
" Cove, in order to discover whether, within the Great Inlet, there 
" be not to be found an entrance into the South Sea.* From this 
" place you are to coast along the west coast of New Guinea, 
" (Carpentaria,) to the furthest discoveries in 17 0 south latitude; 
" following the coast further, as it may run, west or southward. 
" But it is to be feared you will meet, in these parts, with the 
" south-east trade winds ; from which it will be difficult to keep the 
" coast on board, if stretching to the south-east; but, notwith- 
" standing this, endeavour by all means to proceed ; that we may 
" be sure whether this land is divided from the Great Known South 
" Continent, or not." 
The Dutch had, by this time, acquired some knowledge of a part 
of the south coast of Terra Australis ; of the west coast ; and of a 
part of the north-we3t ; and these are the lands meant by " the 
" Great Known South Continent." Arnhem's, and the northern 
Van Diemen's Lands, on the North Coast, are not included in the 
expression ; for Tasman was directed " from De Witt's Land ( on 
* The Great Inlet or Cove, where the passage was to be sought, is the north-west part 
of Torres' Strait. It is evident, that a suspicion was entertained, in 1644, of such a 
strait; but that the Dutch were ignorant of its having been passed. The " high islands" 
are those which lie in latitude 10°, on the west side of the strait. Sneult's River appears 
to be the opening betwixt the Prince of Wales' Islands and Cape York ; through which 
captain Cook afterwards passed, and named it Endeavour's Strait : This Speult's River 
cannot, I conceive, be the same with what was before mentioned under the name of The 
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