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WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society.
EARLY VOYAGES TO TERRA AUSTRALIS, NOW CALLED AUSTRALIA.
M DCCC.LIX.
EARLY VOYAGES
TO
TERRA AUSTRALIS,
NOW CALLED
AUSTRALIA:
_A COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS, AND EXTRACTS FROM EARLY MANUSCRIPT MAPS,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF DISCOVERY ON THE COASTS OF THAT VAST
ISLAND_, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE TIME OF
CAPTAIN COOK.
Edited, with an Introduction, by
R. H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.S.A.
“Austrinis pars est habitabilis oris,
Sub pedibusque jacet nostris.”
MANILIUS, _Astronomicon_, lib. i, lin. 237–8.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
M.DCCC.LIX.
LONDON:
T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET.
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S., F.R.S., D.C.L., Corr. Mem.
Inst. F., Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, &c., &c., PRESIDENT.
THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. }
} VICE-PRESIDENTS.
REAR-ADMIRAL C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. }
JOHN BARROW, ESQ.
RT. HON. LORD BROUGHTON.
THE LORD ALFRED SPENCER CHURCHILL.
CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, ESQ., F.S.A.
RT. HON. SIR DAVID DUNDAS.
SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.
JOHN FORSTER, ESQ.
LIEUT.-GEN. CHARLES RICHARD FOX.
R. W. GREY, ESQ., M.P.
EGERTON HARCOURT, ESQ.
JOHN WINTER JONES, ESQ., F.S.A.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE COUNT DE LAVRADIO.
R. H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.S.A.
THE EARL OF SHEFFIELD.
RT. HON. LORD TAUNTON.
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, ESQ., HONORARY SECRETARY.
TO
SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON,
G.C.ST.S., D.C.L., F.R.S.,
ETC., ETC., ETC.
DEAR SIR RODERICK,
You have kindly permitted me to dedicate to you
this result of my investigations respecting the early explorations of
Australia. To none can a book on such a subject be more appropriately
offered than to yourself. To you geographers are pre-eminently indebted
for the promotion of Australian exploration in recent times, while your
ever-memorable scientific anticipation of the discovery of the
Australian gold fields must connect your name inseparably with the
history of a country, whose future greatness can be foreseen, but cannot
be estimated.
I remain,
Dear SIR RODERICK,
With much respect,
Yours very faithfully,
R. H. MAJOR.
British Museum,
August, 1859.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS.
A MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY PHILIP THE THIRD, KING
OF SPAIN, by Dr. Juan Luis Arias, respecting the exploration,
colonization, and conversion of the Southern Land, translated
from the Spanish original 1
RELATION OF LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES, concerning the discoveries of
QUIROS, as his Almirante. Dated Manila, July 12, 1607. A
translation, nearly literal, by Alexander Dalrymple, Esq., from a
Spanish manuscript copy in his possession, reprinted from App. to
vol. ii of Burney’s “Discoveries in the South Sea” 31
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK OF DISPATCHES FROM BATAVIA; commencing
January the 15th, 1644, and ending November the 29th following,
reprinted from Dalrymple’s “Collections Concerning Papua” 43
THE VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS PELSART, in the
“Batavia,” on the coast of New Holland, and his succeeding
adventures, translated from Thevenot’s “Recueil de Voyages
Curieux” 59
VOYAGE OF GERRIT THOMASZ POOL TO THE SOUTH LAND. Translated from
Valentyn’s “Beschryvingh van Banda” 75
ACCOUNT OF THE WRECK OF THE SHIP “DE VERGULDE DRAECK” ON THE SOUTH
LAND, and the expeditions undertaken, both from Batavia and the
Cape of Good Hope, in search of the survivors and money and goods
which might be found on the wreck, and of the small success which
attended them. Extracted from MS. documents at the Hague, and
translated from the Dutch 77
DESCRIPTION OF THE WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH LAND, by Captain Samuel
Volkersen, of the pink “Waeckende Boey,” which sailed from
Batavia on the 1st of January 1658, and returned on the 19th of
April of the same year. Extracted from MS. Documents at the Hague
and translated from the Dutch 89
EXTRACT TRANSLATED FROM BURGOMASTER WITSEN’S “Noord en Oost
Tartarye” 91
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER on the coast
of New Holland, in 1687–88, being an extract from his “New Voyage
round the World” 99
EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS., 3236, entitled “The Adventures of William
Dampier, with others [1686–87], who left Captain Sherpe in the
South Seas, and travaled back over land through the country of
Darien” 108
SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH to
New Holland in 1696. Extracted from MS. Documents at the Hague
and translated from the Dutch 112
EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE MADE TO THE UNEXPLORED SOUTH
LAND, by order of the Dutch East India Company, in the years 1696
and 1697, by the hooker “De Nyptang,” the ship “De Geelvink,” and
the galiot “De Wesel,” and the return to Batavia. From MS.
Documents at the Hague: translated from the Dutch 120
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER on the coast
of New Holland, in 1699, being an extract from “a Voyage to New
Holland, etc., in the year 1699” 134
A WRITTEN DETAIL OF THE DISCOVERIES AND NOTICEABLE OCCURRENCES in
the voyage of the fluyt “Vossenbosch,” the sloop “D’Waijer,” and
the patsjallang “Nova Hollandia,” despatched by the government of
India, anno 1705, from Batavia by way of Timor to New Holland.
From MS. Documents at the Hague: translated from the Dutch 165
THE HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS in 1727, translated from a publication
entitled “De Houtman’s Abrolhos,” by Captain P. A. Leupe, of the
Dutch Navy 176
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BINDER.
The Maps to be placed in the following order.
Jave la Grande _to face_ page xxvii.
The Londe of Java _to face_ page xxix.
Tasman’s Track _to face_ page xcvii.
Coast visited by the Waeckende Boey and Emeloort,
two maps _to face_ page 81.
Terra Australis _to face_ page 200.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION.
When, at a period comparatively recent in the world’s history, the
discovery was made that, on the face of the as yet unmeasured ocean,
there existed a western continent which rivalled in extent the world
already known, it became a subject of natural enquiry whether a fact of
such momentous importance could for so many thousands of years have
remained a secret. Nor was the enquiry entirely without response. Amid
the obscurity of the past some faint foreshadowings of the great reality
appeared to be traceable. The poet with his prophecy, the sage with his
mythic lore, and the unlettered seaman who, with curious eye, had peered
into the mysteries of the far-stretching Atlantic, had each, as it now
appeared, enunciated a problem which at length had met with its
solution.[1]
In these later days, when the enquiry has assumed gigantic proportions,
and the facilities of investigation have been simultaneously increased,
much has been done towards bringing to light the evidence of various
ascertained or possible visitations from the Old World to the New, which
had previously remained unknown. A summary of them has already been laid
before the members of the Hakluyt Society by the editor of the present
volume, in his introduction to the “Select Letters of Columbus”, and
requires no repetition here.
Of the future results of that momentous discovery, what human
intelligence can foresee the climax? Already the northern half of that
vast portion of the globe is mainly occupied by a section of the
Anglo-Saxon family, earnest and active in the development of its native
energies; and among these, again, are many who look back with eager
curiosity to every yet minuter particular respecting the early history
of their adopted country.
A new field of colonization, second only to that of America, and
constituting, as far as is at present known, the largest island in our
globe, has in far more recent times been opened up by a slow and gradual
progress to a branch of the same expansive family. A future but little
inferior in importance may, without much imaginative speculation, be
assigned to them, and from them likewise may be reasonably expected the
most curious inquiry as to the earliest discoveries by their
predecessors of a land so vast in its dimensions, so important in its
characteristics, and yet so little known or reasoned upon by the
numerous generations of mankind that had passed away before them.
In endeavouring to meet this demand it must be premised, that while the
main object proposed in this volume is to treat of the early indications
of the island now recognized as Australia, anterior to the time of
Captain Cook, it is impossible to deal with the real or supposed
discoveries which may have taken place prior to that date, without
referring at the same time to the discovery of the adjacent island of
New Guinea and of the great southern continent, of both of which what we
now call Australia was in those times regarded as forming a part. The
investigation is one of the most interesting character in all its
stages, but beset with doubts and difficulties arising from a variety of
causes.
The entire period up to the time of Dampier, ranging over two centuries,
presents these two phases of obscurity; that in the sixteenth century
(the period of the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries) there are
_indications_ on maps of the great probability of Australia having been
already discovered, but with no written documents to confirm them; while
in the seventeenth century there is documentary evidence that its coasts
were touched upon or explored by a considerable number of Dutch
voyagers, but the documents _immediately_ describing these voyages have
not been found.
That, in so far as regards the Portuguese, this obscurity is mainly due
to a jealous apprehension lest lands of large extent and great
importance in the southern seas might fall into the hands of rival
powers to their own displacement or prejudice, may not only be
suspected, but seems to be affirmable from historical evidence.
It is stated by Humboldt (_Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau
Continent_, tom. iv, p. 70), upon the authority of the letters of Angelo
Trevigiano, secretary to Domenico Pisani, ambassador from Venice to
Spain, that the kings of Portugal forbad upon pain of death the
exportation of any marine chart which showed the course to Calicut. We
find also in Ramusio (_Discorso sopra el libro di Odoardo Barbosa_, and
the _Sommario delle Indie Orientali_, tom. i, p. 287.b) a similar
prohibition implied. He says that these books “were for many years
concealed and not allowed to be published, for convenient reasons that I
must not now describe.” He also speaks of the great difficulty he
himself had in procuring a copy, and even that an imperfect one, from
Lisbon. “Tanto possono,” he says, “gli interessi del principe.” Again,
in tom. iii of the same collection, in the account of the “Discorso d’un
gran Capitano del Mare Francese del luogo di Dieppa,” etc., now known to
be the voyage of Jean Parmentier to Sumatra in 1529, and in all
probability written by his companion and eulogist the poet Pierre
Crignon, the covetousness and exclusiveness of the Portuguese are
inveighed against. “They seem,” he says, “to have drunk of the dust of
the heart of king Alexander, for that they seem to think that God made
the sea and the land only for them, and that if they could have locked
up the sea from Finisterre to Ireland it would have been done long ago,”
etc.
Imputations of a similar nature are thrown on the Dutch East India
Company by so well informed a man as Sir William Temple, ambassador at
the Hague in the reign of Charles II, and who is a very high authority
on all matters concerning the republic of the United Provinces. In his
“Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning,” he makes the following curious
statement, which we give _in extenso_ as otherwise bearing upon the
subject of which we treat. See vol. iii of Sir William Temple’s _Works_,
p. 457.
“But the defect or negligence [in the progress of discovery since the
invention of the compass] seems yet to have been greater towards the
south, where we know little beyond thirty-five degrees, and that only by
the necessity of doubling the Cape of Good Hope in our East India
voyages: yet a continent has been long since found out within fifteen
degrees to the south, about the length of Java, which is marked by the
name of New Holland in the maps, and to what extent none knows, either
to the south, the east, or the west; yet the learned have been of
opinion, that there must be a balance of earth on that side of the line
in some proportion to what there is on the other; and that it cannot be
all sea from thirty degrees to the south pole, since we have found land
to above sixty-five degrees towards the north. But our navigators that
way have been confined to the roads of trade, and our discoveries
bounded by what we can manage to a certain degree of gain. _And I have
heard it said among the Dutch_, that their East India Company have long
since forbidden, and under the greatest penalties, any further attempts
of discovering that continent, having already more trade in those parts
than they can turn to account, and fearing some more populous nation of
Europe might make great establishments of trade in some of those unknown
regions, which might ruin or impair what they have already in the
Indies.”
Although the statement of so well informed and so impartial a man as Sir
William might almost be considered as conclusive, the Dutch have very
naturally been unwilling to abide by this severe judgment. An indignant
remonstrance against the imputation that they secreted and suppressed
the accounts of their early voyages, was published in August 1824, in
vol. ii of the _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, by Mr. J. van Wijck
Roelandszoon, who attributed the origin of this charge to ignorance of
the Dutch language on the part of those who made it. In vindication of
his assertions he referred to the publication, in 1618, of Linschoten’s
voyages both to the North and to the East Indies, also of Schouten and
Lemaire’s Circumnavigation of the Globe in 1615–18, which was published
in 1646. He referred to the fact that the voyages of Van Noort,
l’Hermite, and Spilbergen had also been published, and stated that,
generally speaking, such had been the case with all the voyages of the
Dutch as early as the year 1646, and that their discoveries were exactly
laid down in the 1660 edition of the maps of P. Goos.
He furthermore announced (in reply to an invitation which had been given
to the learned men of Holland, to fill up the gaps in their history
which had been complained of), that one of the learned societies of
Holland had offered a prize for a careful essay on the discoveries of
the Dutch mariners.[2]
In publishing this remonstrance, the editor of the _Nouvelles Annales
des Voyages_ judiciously observed, that if the reproach of jealousy
which applied to the Portuguese, did not apply to the Dutch, it was at
least true that some sort of carelessness had prevented either the
preservation or the publication of a great number of Dutch narratives,
amongst which he quoted those of De Nuyts, Van Vlaming, etc., to the
coasts of New Holland. We must not, however, lose sight of the fact,
that Sir William Temple’s charge of want of liberality is directed, not
against the Dutch in general, but only against the East India Company;
and further, that it contains two different imputations; first, that the
Company forbade exploration; and secondly, that they prohibited the
publication of those already made.
As to the first of these two charges it may have been just. The
commercial spirit of the seventeenth century had a general character of
narrowness, from which the East India Company was not exempt. The
conduct here imputed to them was in accordance with the regular and
wholesale destruction of spices, by which they tried to keep up the
value of this commodity. Too much importance, however, ought not to be
attached even to Sir William’s testimony, when, as in the present case,
it stands entirely alone. Every hostile statement with regard to the
East India Company made in Sir William’s time, may be regarded as at
least likely to have been dictated by party spirit. The directors of the
East India Company were so closely connected with the ruling but
unpopular party presided over by the De Witts, that the enemies of the
one were also the enemies of the others, and among these enemies there
were a number of the most eminent men, many of them distinguished
geographers.
As to the second charge, it must be allowed in justice to the Company
that such secrecy as is here imputed to them is not to be traced in
their general conduct. Commelyn, the compiler of the celebrated _Begin
ende Voortgangh_, published in 1646, had undoubtedly access to the
Company’s archives, and he discloses many facts which the Company would
seem much more interested to hide than what meagre knowledge they
possessed of Australia; Godfried, Udemans, Dr. O. Dapper, Witsen,
Valentyn, and besides these a host of map-makers and geographers, were
largely indebted to the Company for geographical materials. If we may
form any judgment from the dedications we find in books of the period,
we must consider their encouragement of the study of their dominions as
almost on a par with that afforded at the present day by the English
East India Company.
The fact that many accounts of Australian voyages which the Company
possessed were never published, may be accounted for in a much simpler
and more honourable manner. The Dutch voyages and travels that were
published were plainly intended for a large circle of readers, and were
got up as cheaply as possible. Thus, though thousands and thousands of
copies were sold, they have all now become scarce. A voyage which did
not contain strange adventures or striking scenes, had no chance of
popularity and remained unpublished. Thus, among other instances, a
picturesque account of Japan was published in the _Begin ende
Voortgangh_, whilst the extremely important account of De Vries’s voyage
to the same part of the world, which is far richer in geographical
materials than in interesting incidents, has remained in manuscript till
recently edited by Captain Leupe, of the Dutch navy.
It is with pleasure that we indulge the hope that the veil which has
thus hung over these valuable materials is likely, before very long, to
be entirely removed. The archives of the Dutch East India Company, a yet
unsifted mass of thousands of volumes, and myriads of loose papers, have
a short time since been handed over to the State Archives at the Hague,
where the greatest liberality is shown in allowing access to the
treasures they possess. Meanwhile the editor of the present volume need
hardly plead any excuse for not having attempted what no foreigner, be
his stay in Holland ever so long, could possibly accomplish; and he must
leave to those who will take up this matter after him, the satisfaction
of availing themselves of materials the importance of which he knows,
and the want of which he deeply deplores.
As has been already stated, in the earlier and more indistinct periods
of Australian discovery, even when some portions of the vast island had
been already lighted on, it remained a doubt whether New Guinea and the
newly seen lands did not form part of a great southern continent, in
which tradition in the first place, and subsequent discoveries, had
already established a belief.
The very existence of the belief in an extensive southern continent at
those early periods presents a twofold cause of doubt. It engendered _at
the time_ the supposition that every island to the south of what was
previously known, and of which the north part only had been seen, formed
a portion of that continent; while _to us_ who, from this distance of
time, look back for evidence, the inaccurate representation of such
discoveries on maps, especially in or near the longitude of Australia
(for longitude could be but laxly noticed in those days) leaves the
doubt whether that continent may not have been visited at the period
thus represented. Hence, manifestly, it will be requisite to bear well
in mind this broadly accepted belief in the existence of a great
southern continent, if we would form a right judgment respecting those
supposed indications of Australia which are presented on maps of the
sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries.
Among the very early writers, the most striking quotation that the
editor has lighted upon in connection with the southern continent, is
that which occurs in the _Astronomicon_ of Manilius, lib. i, lin. 234
_et seq._, where, after a lengthy dissertation, he says:
“Ex quo colligitur terrarum forma rotunda:
Hanc circum variæ gentes hominum atque ferarum,
Aeriæque colunt volucres. Pars ejus ad arctos
Eminet, _Austrinis pars est habitabilis oris,
Sub pedibusque jacet nostris_.”
The latter clause of this sentence, so strikingly applying to the lands
in question, has been quoted as a motto for the title-page of this
volume. The date at which Manilius wrote, though not exactly
ascertained, is supposed, upon the best conclusions to be drawn from the
internal evidence supplied by his poem, to be of the time of Tiberius.
Aristotle also, in his _Meteorologica_, lib. ii, cap. 5, has a passage
which, though by no means so distinct as the preceding, speaks of two
segments of the _habitable_ globe, one towards the north, the other
towards the south pole, and which have the form of a drum. Aratus,
Strabo, and Geminus have also handed down a similar opinion, that the
torrid zone was occupied throughout its length by the ocean, and that
the band of sea divided our continent from another, situated, as they
suppose, in the southern hemisphere.[3]
To come down, however, to a later period, the editor is enabled, through
the researches of his lamented friend, the late learned and laborious
Vicomte de Santarem, to show from early manuscript maps and other
geographical monuments, how this belief in the existence of a great
southern continent was entertained anterior to the discoveries of the
Portuguese in the Pacific Ocean. In his _Essai sur l’Histoire de la
Cosmographie et de la Cartographie du Moyen Age_, vol. i, p. 229, the
Vicomte informs us that “Certain cartographers of the middle ages, still
continue to represent the _Antichthone_ in their maps of the world in
accordance with their belief that, beyond the ocean of Homer, there was
an inhabited country, another temperate region, called the “opposite
earth,” which it was impossible to reach, principally on account of the
torrid zone.
“The following are the maps of the world which represent this theory:—
“1. The map of the world in a manuscript of Macrobius, of the tenth
century; 2. The map of the world, in a manuscript of the eighth century
in the Turin library; 3. That of Cecco d’Ascoli, of the thirteenth
century; 4. The small map of the world, in one of the manuscripts of the
thirteenth century, of _l’Image du Monde_, by Gauthier de Metz, MS. No.
7791, Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris; 5. That of an Icelandic manuscript
of the thirteenth century, taken from the _Antiquitates Americanæ_; 6.
That in a manuscript of Marco Polo, of the fourteenth century (1350), in
the Royal Library of Stockholm; 7. That on the reverse of a medal of the
fifteenth century, in the Cabinet of M. Crignon de Montigny.
“The cartographers of the middle ages have admitted that as a reality
which, even to the geographers of antiquity, was merely a theory.”
The earliest _assertion_ of the discovery of a land bearing a position
on early maps analogous to that of Australia has been made in favour of
the Chinese, who have been supposed to have been acquainted with its
coasts long before the period of European navigation to the east.
Thevenot, in his _Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux_, part i, Preface:
Paris, 1663, says: “The southern land, which now forms a fifth part of
the world, has been discovered at different periods. The Chinese had
knowledge of it long ago, for we see that Marco Polo marks two great
islands to the south-east of Java, which it is probable that he learned
from the Chinese.” The statements of Marco Polo, which we quote from
Marsden’s translation, run thus:—
“Upon leaving the island of Java, and steering a course between
south and south-west seven hundred miles, you fall in with two
islands, the larger of which is named Sondur, and the other Kondur.
Both being uninhabited, it is unnecessary to say more respecting
them. Having run the distance of fifty miles from these islands, in
a south-easterly direction, you reach an extensive and rich
province, that forms a part of the main land, and is named Lochac.
Its inhabitants are idolaters. They have a language peculiar to
themselves, and are governed by their own king, who pays no tribute
to any other, the situation of the country being such as to protect
it from any hostile attack. Were it assailable, the Grand Khan would
not have delayed to bring it under his dominion. In this country
sappan or brazil wood is produced in large quantities. Gold is
abundant to a degree scarcely credible; elephants are found there;
and the objects of the chase, either with dogs or birds, are in
plenty. From hence are exported all those porcelain shells, which,
being carried to other countries, are there circulated for money, as
has been already noticed. Here they cultivate a species of fruit
called berchi, in size about that of a lemon, and having a delicious
flavour. Besides these circumstances there is nothing further that
requires mention, unless it be that the country is wild and
mountainous, and is little frequented by strangers, whose visits the
king discourages, in order that his treasures and other secret
matters of his realm may be as little known to the rest of the world
as possible.
“Departing from Lochac and keeping a southerly course for five
hundred miles, you reach an island named Pentam, the coast of which
is wild and uncultivated, but the woods abound with sweet scented
trees. Between the province of Lochac and this island of Pentam, the
sea, for the space of sixty miles, is not more than four fathoms in
depth, which obliges those who navigate it to lift the rudders of
their ships, in order that they may not touch the bottom. After
sailing these sixty miles in a south-easterly direction, and then
proceeding thirty miles further, you arrive at an island, in itself
a kingdom, named Malaiur, which is likewise the name of its city.
The people are governed by a king, and have their own peculiar
language. The town is large and well built. A considerable trade is
there carried on in spices and drugs, with which the place abounds.
Nothing else that requires notice presents itself. Proceeding
onwards from thence, we shall now speak of Java Minor.”
That this description does not apply to Australia the reader of the
present day may readily conclude. It has received its explanation in the
judicious notes of Marsden, who shows how, from the circumstances, it is
highly probablye that Lochac is intended for some part of the country of
Cambodia, the capital of which was named Loech, according to the
authority of Gaspar de Cruz, who visited it during the reign of
Sebastian, king of Portugal. See Purchas, vol. iii, p. 169. The country
of Cambodia, moreover, produces the gold, the spices, and the elephants
which Marco Polo attributes to Lochac. Pentam is reasonably supposed by
Marsden to be Bintam, and the island and kingdom of Malaiur (Maletur, in
the Basle edition of 1532, included in the Novus Orbis of Grynæus) to be
the kingdom of the Malays.
In the early _engraved_ maps of the sixteenth century, however, we see
the effects of this description exhibited in a form calculated to
startle the inquirer respecting the early indications of Australia. On
these maps we find laid down an extensive development of the great Terra
Australis Incognita trending northward to New Guinea; with which, on
some of these maps, it is made to be continuous, while on others it is
divided from it; and on the northernmost portion of this remarkably
delineated land occur the legends: “Beach provincia aurifera.” “Lucach
regnum.” “Maletur regnum scatens aromatibus.” “Vastissimas hic esse
regiones ex M. Pauli Veneti et Ludovici Vartomanni scriptis
peregrinationibus liquido constat.”
We have already explained from Marsden’s notes the reasonable rendering
of the name of Lucach or Lochac. The name of Beach, or rather Boeach, is
another form of the same name, which crept into the Basle edition of
Marco Polo of 1532, and was blunderingly repeated by the cartographers;
while for Maletur we have the suggestion of the Burgomaster Witsen, in
his _Noord en Oost Tartarye_, fol. 169, that it is taken from Maleto, on
the north side of the island of Timor, a suggestion rendered null by the
fact, apparently unknown to Witsen, that Maletur, as already stated, was
but a misspelling in the Basle edition for Malaiur. The sea in which, on
these early maps, this remarkable land is made to lie, is called Mare
Lantchidol, another perplexing piece of misspelling upon which all the
cartographers have likewise stumbled, and which finds its explanation in
the Malay words Laut Kìdol, or Chìdol, “_the South Sea_.” As, however,
this striking protrusion to the northward of a portion of the Great
Terra Australis Incognita on the early maps in a position so nearly
corresponding with that of Australia, may not have emanated solely from
the description of Marco Polo, the editor proposes to defer further
allusion to these maps until they present themselves in their due
chronological order among the documents and data of which he will have
to speak.
The earliest discovery of Australia to which _claim_ has been laid by
any nation is that of a Frenchman, a native of Honfleur, named Binot
Paulmier de Gonneville, who sailed from that port in June 1503, on a
voyage to the South Seas. After doubling the Cape of Good Hope, he was
assailed by a tempest which drove him on an unknown land, in which he
received the most hospitable reception, and whence, after a stay of six
months, he returned to France, bringing with him the son of the king of
the country. The narrative is given in a judicial declaration made by
him before the French Admiralty, dated the 19th of June, 1505, and first
published in the _Mémoires touchant l’Etablissement d’une Mission
Chrétienne dans la Terre Australe_, printed at Paris by Cramoisy, 1663,
and dedicated to Pope Alexander VII, by an “ecclésiastique originaire de
cette mesme terre.” The author gives his name in no other way than by
these initials, “J. P. D. C., Prêtre Indien.” This priest, as well as
his father and grandfather, was born in France; but his great
grand-father was one of the Australians, or natives of the southern
world, whom Gonneville had brought into France at his return from that
country, and whom he afterwards married to one of his own relations
there, he having embraced Christianity. The author of the account
himself being animated by a strong desire of preaching the gospel in the
country of his ancestors, spent his whole life in endeavouring to
prevail on those who had the care of foreign missions to send him there,
and to fulfil the promise the first French navigator had made, that he
should visit that country again. Unfortunately Gonneville’s journals, on
his return, fell into the hands of the English, and were lost. The
author, however, collected his materials from the traditions and loose
papers of his own family, and the judicial declaration above mentioned.
This account was to have been presented to the Pope, but it never was
printed till it fell into the hands of the bookseller Cramoisy. The
narrative is to the effect that some French merchants, being tempted by
the success of the Portuguese under Vasco de Gama, determined upon
sending a ship to the Indies by the same route which he had sailed. The
ship was equipped at Honfleur. “The Sieur de Gonneville, who commanded
her, weighed anchor in the month of June, 1503, and doubled the Cape of
Good Hope, where he was assailed by a furious tempest, which made him
lose his route, and abandoned him to the wearisome calm of an unknown
sea.” “Not knowing what course to steer, the sight of some birds coming
from the south determined them to sail in that direction in the hope of
finding land. They found what they desired, that is to say, a great
country, which, in their relations, was named the Southern India,
according to the custom, at that time, of applying indifferently the
names of the Indies to every country newly discovered.” They remained
six months at this land; after which the crew of the ship refused to
proceed further, and Gonneville was obliged to return to France. When
near home, he was attacked by an English corsair, and plundered of every
thing; so that his journals and descriptions were entirely lost. On
arriving in port, he made a declaration of all that had happened in the
voyage to the Admiralty, which declaration was dated July the 19th,
1505, and was signed by the principal officers of the ship.
In one part of the relation, this great southern land is said to be not
far out of the direct route to the East Indies. The land of Gonneville
has been supposed by some to be in a high southern latitude, and nearly
on the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope; and Duval and Nolin placed it
on their charts to the south-west from the Cape, in forty-eight degrees
south. The President De Brosses, author of _Histoire des Navigations aux
Terres Australes_, Paris, 1756, 2 vols. conjectured that it was south
from the Moluccas, and that it was, in fact, the first discovery of the
Terra Australis, since named New Holland.
Gonneville, however, is represented as carrying on during his stay a
friendly intercourse with the natives, whom he mentions as having made
some advances in civilization. This account is quite incompatible with
the character for treachery and barbarous cruelty, which we have
received of the natives of North Australia from all the more recent
voyagers.
Let the whole account, says Burney, be reconsidered without
prepossession, and the idea that will immediately and most naturally
occur is, that the Southern India discovered by Gonneville was
Madagascar. De Gonneville having doubled (passed round) the Cape, was by
tempests driven into calm latitudes, and so near to this land, that he
was directed thither by the flight of birds. The refusal of the crew to
proceed to the Eastern India, would scarcely have happened if they had
been so far advanced to the east as New Holland.
A more reasonable claim than the preceding to the discovery of Australia
in the early part of the sixteenth century, may be advanced by the
Portuguese from the evidence of various MS. maps still extant, although
the attempt made recently to attach the credit of this discovery to
Magalhaens in the famous voyage of the _Victoria_ round the world in
1520, is, as we shall endeavour to show, perfectly untenable. The claim
of this honour for Spain is thus asserted in the “Compendio Geografico
Estadistico de Portugal y sus posesiones ultramarinas,” by Aldama Ayala,
8vo, Madrid, 1855, p. 482. “The Dutch lay claim to the discovery of the
continent of Australia in the seventeenth century, although it was
discovered by Fernando Magalhaens, a Portuguese, by order of the Emperor
Charles V, in the year 1520, as is proved by authentic documents, such
as the atlas of Fernando Vaz Dourado, made in Goa in 1570, on one of the
maps in which is laid down the coast of Australia. The said magnificent
atlas, illuminated to perfection, was formerly preserved in the
Carthusian Library at Evora.”
A similar claim was also made for their distinguished countryman, though
the voyage was made in the service of Spain, in an almanack published at
Angra, in the island of Terceira, by the government press, anno 1832,
and composed, it is supposed, by the Viscount Sa’ de Bandeira, the
present minister of marine at Lisbon. In the examination of this
subject, the editor has had the advantage of the assistance of a friend
in Lisbon, who, in his researches among the remaining literary wealth of
that city, has exhibited an earnestness and an amount of care and
thought but too rarely witnessed in delegated investigations. The reader
will not wonder that the zeal of a true lover of literature has been
thrown into these researches, when he learns that they have been made by
Dr. John Martin, the well-known author (for it would be wrong to call
him the editor) in days now long gone by, of that most interesting and
important work, “Mariner’s Tonga Islands.” As will be presently seen,
the whole question of the possibility of the discovery of Australia
having been made by the Portuguese, in the first half of the sixteenth
century, is sufficiently enigmatical to call for a great extent of
inquiry, and the editor’s venerable and honoured friend, though now
grown old in the service of science and literature, has entered into the
subject with a cordiality and ardour, commensurate with the puzzling
nature of the subject.
But first with respect to the claim on behalf of Magalhaéns, as based
upon the map of Vaz Dourado. The following are extracts from Dr.
Martin’s reports upon the map.
“On inspecting the map and examining the more southern regions, I
found that the island of Timor was the most southern land laid down
in lat. 10° S., which is its true situation; while further to the
south all was blank, excepting certain ornamental devices as far as
about latitude 17° or 18°, which was the lowest margin of the map.
To the west and east the map was bordered by a scale of latitude, in
single degrees; but this map did not occupy the whole sheet of
vellum, for to the right of the eastern scale of latitude something
else was laid down, viz., a line of coast running with a little
southing from west to east, with many rivers and names of places
upon it, and this notice underneath, ‘Esta Costa Descubrió Fernaō de
Magalhāes naturall portuges pormandado do emperador Carllos o anno
1520.’
“If the whole sheet is meant to constitute one map and referable to
the same scale of latitude, then the coast in question is not where
New Holland ought to be, being north of Timor and much too far to
the eastward. On turning over to the next sheet (in the atlas) there
is a similar line of coast laid down with precisely the same notice
(above quoted) at the bottom, and evidently a _continuation_ of the
same coast and upon the same scale. I send a list of the names,
which I have made out as well as I could, for they are very small
and several letters are not very clear.
“The reasons why I cannot consider this coast as part of New
Holland, are, 1st. It is at least one thousand five hundred miles in
length, and nearly straight as a whole, though indented in its
parts; 2ndly. That it is represented to have numerous rivers, which
are very rare in New Holland (on the coast); 3rdly. That it is
considerably distant from its true place to the south of Timor,
which in the atlas is laid down correctly as to latitude, although,
4thly. There is plenty of room for it on the map. I have thought it
might be part of the coast of South America, where Magelhaens was
long detained, and that it is put down as a sort of memorandum of
the great extent of coast which he discovered in the first
circumnavigation of the globe. With indomitable perseverance he
pushed his way through the straits that bear his name into the
Pacific, and in this vast ocean he sailed about for three months and
twenty days (says Pigafetta, who accompanied him and wrote an
account of the voyage) without discovering anything excepting two
small desert islands, until he arrived at the Phillippines. Had he
really discovered so much of the coast of a great southern
continent, Spain, in whose service he was, might well have boasted
of the feat, and Portugal, whose native he was, might have defended
the claims of the man who performed it, and not let so bold and
noble a discovery (for those times) remain so long in doubt.
* * * * *
“Now with respect to America: if we examine carefully the list of
names upon this line of coast, we shall find some that have a
resemblance to those on the coast of America, along which Magelhaens
pursued his course. One of these, C. de las Virgines, is found in
some maps just at the entrance of the Straits of Magellan, on the
eastern side. I do not see any name like Fromose,[4] but there is
the name Gaia Fromosa, in or near the Straits of Magellan (in the
same atlas). In the enclosed list of names we have also Terra de
Gigätes or Terra de Gigantes, and may not this be the Patagonians?
* * * * *
“On a closer and more minute examination of Dourado’s map, and
others, I think it may now be made evident that the coast said to
have been discovered by Magalhaéns, in 1520, and mistaken by Sa de
Bandeira and others, for part of the coast of New Holland, is no
other than the northern coast of New Guinea.
“Now New Guinea, or part of it, as laid down by Dourado, appears
under the name of Os Papuos, and extends to the eastward as far as
the scale of latitude is marked, but beyond that scale there is
about half an inch of space, and there the coast in question
commences, and runs a long way towards the east, with a little
southing, and has many islands bordering upon it; whether this be
either a continuation or a repetition more extended of Papua, it is
much in the same latitude, and runs in the same direction. Again, on
referring to an old map of Mercator, I found some names upon New
Guinea, similar to those on the coast in question; there I found C.
de las Virgines; I. de los Cresbos; R. de Bolcados; Buen Puerto,
answering to C. de las Virgines; I. de los Crespos: Bullcones Puerto
Bueno, as found among the names on the coast in question; but what
places the matter still more beyond a doubt is, that the names in
both run in the same consecutive order from west to east, upon
several of the islands which border the main land.
Names of Islands as laid down in Names of Islands as laid down in
Dourado’s map along the coast said Mercator’s map on the coast of New
to be New Holland, in consecutive Guinea, in consecutive order from
order from W. to E. W. to E.
I. de los Martiles Y. de los Martyres
I. dellos Crespos Y. de Crespos
I. Duarati Y. Dearti
I. de Armo No such name
I. de Malagrate Y. de Malagente
I. Dombres brancos Y. de Hombres brancos
Llabasbuda La barbade
Llacuimana No such name
Bullcones (is laid down on the main Los Bulcones.
land)
“Seeing then that the coast in question, and that of New Guinea are
in the same latitude, that they greatly resemble each other in
position, that several names upon them are similar, and that the
similar names follow each other in both cases in the like
consecutive order, and the same direction from west to east, I think
we may safely come to the conclusion that the coast in question is
identically that of New Guinea, and that the assumption of Viscount
Sa de Bandeira and others following him, or whom he has followed, is
an error.”
From these observations of Dr. Martin, the editor forms the following
conclusions; that the tract laid down on Vaz Dourado’s map as discovered
by Magalhaens, is in fact a memorandum or cartographical side-note of
the real discovery by Magalhaens of Terra del Fuego, and that from its
adopted false position on the vellum it was subsequently applied
erroneously to New Guinea by Mercator. But even if this surmise be
incorrect, the only alternative that remains is that the tract laid down
is New Guinea, and clearly not Australia, as assumed by the claimants to
whom we have referred. The editor submits that this claim is alike
untenable from the account of Magalhaens’ voyage and from the evidence
of the map itself on which that claim is founded.
[Illustration: IAVE LA GRANDE]
But we now pass to a more plausible indication of a discovery of
Australia by the Portuguese in the early part of the sixteenth century,
which ranges between the years of 1512 and 1542. It occurs in similar
form on six maps, four of them in England and two in France, on which,
immediately below Java, and separated from that island only by a narrow
strait, is drawn a large country stretching southward to the verge of
the several maps. The earliest in all probability, and the most fully
detailed of these maps, is the one from which we give the annexed
reduction of that portion immediately under consideration. It is a large
chart of the world, on a plane scale, on vellum, 8 ft. 2 in. by 3 ft. 10
in., highly ornamented, with figures, etc., and with the names in
French. At the upper corner, on the left hand, is a shield of the arms
of France, with the collar of St. Michael; and on the right, another
shield of France and Dauphiny, quarterly. It was probably executed in
the time of Francis I. of France, for his son the Dauphin, afterwards
Henry II. This chart formerly belonged to Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford,
after whose death it was taken away by one of his servants. It was
subsequently purchased by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., and presented by him
to the British Museum in 1790.
The second, in all probability, of these, is contained in an atlas drawn
at Dieppe in 1547, at present in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps,
Bart., of Middle Hill, Worcestershire. It contains the name of Nicholas
Vallard, of Dieppe. The editor has been unsuccessful in his efforts to
gain a sight of this atlas, or even of a fac-simile lithograph made by
Sir Thomas Phillipps of the map supposed to contain the representation
of Australia. Hence he has been compelled to rely upon the memory of Sir
Frederick Madden, who had an opportunity of examining the atlas some
years since, and who recollects that though it bore the name of Vallard
and the date of 1547, it was not made by him, and that its date, though
probably earlier than 1547, could be shown from internal evidence to be
not earlier than 1539. A coat of arms appears in the margin of the
volume, _argent_, on a saltire, _gules_, five besants, a mullet,
_sable_, in the fess point. This may lead a future investigator to the
discovery of an earlier possessor of the map than Vallard, although it
should be remarked that the borders on the margin appear to be of a
later date than the maps themselves. It fell into the possession of
Prince Talleyrand at the beginning of this century, and attracting the
attention of the celebrated geographer M. Barbié du Bocage, drew from
him a notice in the _Magasin Encyclopédique_, _douzième année_, tom. iv,
107, which, though lengthy, bears so directly upon the subject of the
present work, that it is proposed in simple justice both to the writer
and the reader, presently to give it in full.
[Illustration: The Londe of Java]