CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE DUTCH DISCOVERIES ON THE MAINLAND COAST OF
AUSTRALIA.
If one would distribute over chronological periods the voyages of
discovery, both accidental and of set purpose, made by the Netherlanders
on the mainland coast of Australia, it might be desirable so to adjust
these periods, that each of them was closed by the appearance in this
field of discovery and exploration, of ships belonging to other European
nations.
The first period, extending from 1595 to 1606, would in that case open
with the years 1595-6, when JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN, in his highly
remarkable book entitled _Itinerario_, imparted to his countrymen what he
knew about the Far East; and it would conclude with the discovery of
Torres Strait by the Spaniards in 1606, a few months after Willem Jansz.
in the ship Duifken had discovered the east-coast of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, the latter discovery forming the main interest of this
period.
The second period may be made to extend from 1606 to 1622, i.e. from the
appearance of the Spaniards on the extreme north-coast of the fifth part
of the world, to the year in which the English ship Trial was dashed to
pieces on a rock to westward of the west-coast of Australia; the
discovery of this west-coast by the Dutch in and after 1616, and of the
south-western extremity of the continent in 1622, constituting the main
facts of the period.
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We next come to the palmiest period of Dutch activity in the discovery of
Australia (1622-1688), terminating with the first exploratory voyage of
importance undertaken by the English, when in 1688 William Dampier
touched at the north-west coast of Australia. This period embraces the
very famous, at all events remarkable, voyages of Jan Carstensz (1623),
of Pool and Pieterszoon (1636), of Tasman (1642-1644), of Van der Wall
(1678), etc.
The last period with which we wish to deal, lies between Dampier's
arrival and Cook's first visit to these regions (1688-1769), and is of
secondary importance so far as Dutch discoveries are concerned. We may
just mention Willem de Vlamingh's voyage of 1696-1697, and Maerten van
Delft's of 1705; Gonzal's expedition (1756) is not quite without
significance, but the results obtained in these voyages will not bear
comparison with those achieved by the expeditions of the preceding
period. Besides this, the English navigator Dampier and afterwards
Captain Cook now began to inscribe their names on the rolls of history,
and those names quite legitimately outshine those of the Dutch navigators
of _the eighteenth century_. The palmy days of Dutch discovery fell in
_the seventeenth century_.
In some such fashion the history of the Dutch wanderings and explorations
on the coasts of Australia might be divided into chronological periods.
The desire of being clear has, however, led me to adopt another mode of
treatment in this Introduction: I shall one after another discuss the
different coast-regions discovered and touched at by the Netherlanders.