[ vii ] 
PRIOR DISCOVERIES IN TERRA AUSTRALIA 
SECTION I. 
NORTH COAST. 
Preliminary Remarks: Discoveries of the Duyfhen; of Torres; Carstens ; 
fool; Pietersen; Tasman; and of three Butch Vessels. Of Cook; 
M c Cluer; Bligh; Edwards; Bligh and Port lock ; and Bampton 
and Alt. Conclusive Remarks. 
The late Hydrographer to the Admiralty, Alexander Dalrymple, P re ii mi „ ary 
**q.,-m his curious Collection cencerning Papua, published, with a Remarks - 
translation, a paper which furnishes more regular and authentic 
accounts of the early Dutch discoveries in the East, than any thing 
With which the public was before acquainted. This interesting; 
paper was procured by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks ; and is a 
copy of the instructions to commodore Abel Jansz Tasman, for his 
second voyage of discovery: It is dated January z 9 , l6 ^, from the 
Castle of Batavia, and signed by the governor-general Antonio Van 
•Diemen, and by Vander Lyn, Maatsuyker, Schouten, and Sweers, 
members of the council. The instructions are prefaced with a 
rental, m chronological order, of the previous discoveries of the 
Uutch, whether made from accident or design, in Nova Guinea 
and the Great South La ND ; and from this account, combined with 
a passage from Saris,* it appears, that— 
wardisnatch 1 !! f N ° Vember l6 °^ * e Dutch yacht, the Duyfhen, ^Du yfh en, 
was dispatched f rom Bantam to explore the islands of New Guinea ; 1606 - 
* Purchas, Vol. I. p. 385. 
