In the year 1616 the Dutch ship Eendracht, commanded by Dirk Hartogs on
her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia unexpectedly touched at
"divers islands, but uninhabited" and thus for the first time surveyed
part of the west-coas of Australia[*]. As early as 1619 this coast, thus
accidentally discovered, was known by the name of Eendrachtsland or Land
van de Eendracht. The vaguenes of the knowledge respecting the coast-line
then discovered, and its extent, is not unaptly illustrated in a small
map of the world reproduced as below, and found in {Page x} GERARDI
MERCATORIS _Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica mundi et
fabricati figura. De novo...auctus studio_ JUDOCI HONDIJ (Amsterodami;
Sumptibus Johannis Cloppenburgij. Anno 1632) [**]. If, however, we
compare this map of the world with KEPPLER'S map of 1630 [***], we become
aware that Hondius has not recorded all that was then known in Europe
respecting the light which since 1616 European explorers had thrown on
the question of the western coast-line of Australia. In Keppler's map,
namely, besides the English discovery of the Trial rocks (1622) [****],
and the name "'T Landt van Eendracht" in fat characters, passing from the
north to the south, we meet with the following names, which the smaller
letters show to have been intended to indicate subordinate parts of
Eendrachtsland: Jac. Rommer Revier [*****], Dirck Hartogs ree, F.
Houtmans aebrooleus and Dedells lant. What is more, Keppler's map also
exhibits the south-west coast of Australia.
[* See on this point the Documents sub No. VII (pp. 8f.).--It will hardly
be denied that these pieces of evidence may justly be called "documents
immediately describing" Hartogs's dicsovery.]
[** For my knowledge of this remarkable atlas I am indebted to Mr. ANTON
MENSING, member of the firm of Messrs. Frederik Muller and Co., of
Amsterdam. These gentlemen kindly enabled me to reproduce this chart for
the present work. I received it too late to allow of its being placed
among the charts accompanying the various documents.]
[*** See Chart No. 6 on p. 10 below.]
[**** See under No. XIII (p. 17) below.]
[***** See on this point p. 54 _infra_ (No. XXII A and note 3).]
[Map No. 18. Typus orbis terrarum uit GERARDI MERCATORIS Atlas...De
Novo...emendatus...studio JUDOCI HONDIJ, 1632.]
Whence all those names? The answer to this question, and at the same time
various other new features, are furnished by the chart of Hessel
Gerritsz. of 1627 [*] and by the one dated 1618 [**], in which
corrections have been introduced after date. The 1627 chart is specially
interesting. Gerritsz., at the time cartographer in ordinary to the
E.I.C., has "put together this chart of the Landt van d'Eendracht from
the journals and drawings of the Steersmen", which means that he availed
himself of authentic data [***]. He acquitted himself of the task to
admiration, and has given a very lucid survey of the (accidental)
discoveries made by the Dutch on the west-coast of Australia. In this
chart of 1627 the Land of d'Eendracht takes up a good deal of space. To
the north it is found bounded by the "Willemsrivier", discovered in July
1618 by the ship Mauritius, commanded by Willem Janszoon [****].
According to the chart this "river" is in about 21° 45' S. Lat., but
there are no reliable data concerning this point. If we compare Hessel
Gerritsz's chart with those on which about 1700 the results of Willem De
Vlamingh's expedition of 1696-7 were recorded [*****] we readily come to
the conclusion that the ship Mauritius must have been in the vicinity of
Vlaming Head (N.W. Cape) on the Exmouth Gulf. From Willem Janszoon's
statements it also appears that on this occasion in 22° an "island (was)
discovered, and a landing effected." The island extended N.N.E. and
S.S.W. on the west-side. The land-spit west of Exmouth Gulf may very
possibly have been mistaken for an island. From this point then the
Eendrachtsland of the old Dutch navigators begins to extend southward. To
the question, how far it was held to extend, I answer that in the widest
sense of the term ('t Land van Eendracht or the South-land, it reached as
far as the South-coast, at all events past the Perth of our day) [******].
In a more restricted sense it extended to about 25° S.' Lat. In
the latter sense it included the entrance to Shark Bay, afterwards
entered by Dampier, and Dirk Hartogs island, likewise discovered by Dirk
Hartogs.
[* No. 4 on p. 9 _infra_.]
[** No. 5 (folding map).]
[*** It is evident that he did not use all the data then available. Thus,
for instance, he left unused those furnished by the Zeewolf (No. VIII,
pp. 10 ff. below), and those of the ship Leiden (No. XV, p. 49).]
[**** See the Documents under No IX (pp. 12f.).]
[***** Nos. 13 and 14]
[****** Chart No. 14]
{Page xi}
More to southward we find in the chart of 1627 I. d'Edels landt, made in
July 1619 by the ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam, commanded by Frederik De
Houtman and Jacob Dedel [*]. To the north of Dedelsland the coast is
rendered difficult of access by reefs, the so-called (Frederik De)
Houtmans-Abrolhos (now known as the Houtman Rocks), also discovered on
this occasion [**]. To the south, in about 32° S. Lat. [***] Dedelsland
is bounded by the Landt van de Leeuwin, surveyed in 1622 [****]. Looking
at the coast more closely still, we find in about 29° 30, S. Lat. the
name Tortelduyff (Turtle Dove Island), to the south of Houtmans Abrolhos,
an addition to the chart dating from about 1624 [*****].
[* See the documents sub No. XI (pp. 14 ff.). If NORDENSKI÷LD had known
these documents, he would have withheld the second alinea on p. 199 of
his interesting _Periplus_.--The doubts, also, concerning Frederik De
Houtman's share in the discoveries on the west-coast of Australia,
expressed by COLLINGRIDGE (_Discovery_ p. 304), CALVERT (_Discovery_, p.
25), and others, are now likely to be set at rest.]
[** They were then held to lie in 28° 46'. On this point see also the
documents of PELSAERT'S shipwreck (No. XXIII, pp. 55 ff).]
[*** About this latitude, between 32° and 33° S. Lat., also De Houtman
and Dedel estimated themselves to be, when they first came upon land.
They afterwards ran on on a northerly course.]
[**** See the documents sub No. XII (p. 17).]
[***** See No. XVI (p. 50) below, and the highly curious charts Nos. Nos.
16 and 17.]
So much for the highly interesting chart of Hessel Gerritsz of the year
1627. If we compare with it the revised edition of the 1618 chart, we are
struck by the increase of our forefathers' knowledge of the south-west
coast. This revised edition gives the entire coast-line down to the
islands of St. François and St. Pieter (133° 30' E. Long. Greenwich),
still figuring in the maps of our day: the Land of Pieter Nuyts,
discovered by the ship het Gulden Zeepaard in 1627 [*].
[* See No. XVIII (p. 51) below.]
North of Willemsrivier, this so-called 1618 chart has still another
addition, _viz_. G. F. De Witsland, discovered in 1628 by the ship Vianen
commanded by G. F. De Witt [*]. In this case, too, it is difficult to
determine exactly the longitudes between which the coast-line thus
designated is situated. [**] But with great distinctness the chart
exhibits the chain of islands of which the Monte Bello and tha Barrow
islands are the principal, and besides, certain islands of the Dampier
Archipelago, afterwards so called after the celebrated English navigator.
I would have these observations looked upon as hints towards the more
accurate determination of the site of this De Wit's land, and they may be
of the more value since the small scale of the chart renders an exact
determination of it exceedingly difficult.
[* See No. XXI (p. 54) below.]
[** See, however, No. XXI., C. _infra_.]
In Gerritsz's chart of 1627, as well as in the so-called 1618 one, we are
struck by the fact, that on the west-coast the coast-line shows breaks in
various places: De Witt's land is not connected with the coast of
Willems-rivier; the coast-line of Eendrachtsland does not run on; there
is uncertainty as regards what is now called Shark-bay; the coast facing
Houtmans Abrolhos is a conjectural one only; the coast-line facing
Tortelduyf is even altogether wanting; Dedelsland and 't Land van de
Leeuwin are not marked by unbroken lines. This fragmentary knowledge
sufficiently accounts for the fact, that about the middle of the
seventeenth century navigators were constantly faced by the problem of
the real character of the South-land: was it one vast continent or a
complex of islands? And the question would not have been so repeatedly
asked, if the line of the west-coast had been more accurately known.
{Page xii}
Tasman and Visscher [*] did a great deal towards the solution of this
problem, since in their voyage of 1644 they also skirted and mapped out
the entire line of the West-coast of what since 1644 has borne the name
of Nieuw-Nederland, Nova Hollandia, or New Holland, from Bathurst Island
to a point south of the Tropic of Capricorn. In this case also certain
mistakes were committed: they failed, for instance, to recognise the real
character of Bathurst Island, which, like Melville Island, they looked
upon as forming part of the mainland; but if we make due allowance for
the imperfection of their means of observation, we are bound to say that
the coast-line has by them been mapped out with remarkable accuracy [**].
[* I pass by certain other exploratory voyages on the westcoast (see e.g.
No. XXIV. _infra_, etc.).]
[** Cf. Tasman's chart of 1644 in the Tasman Folio.]
About fifteen years after the west-coast was more accurately mapped out
also, to the south of the tropic of Capricorn. In the year 1658 Samuel
Volekersen with the ship de Wakende Boei [Floating Buoy], and Aucke
Pieters Jonck with the ship Emeloord surveyed a portion of the
west-coast, and the charts then made have been preserved [*]. The
coast-line from a point near the Tortelduyf down to past Rottenest (the
large island on which Volkertsen did not confer a name, preferring to
"leave the naming to the pleasure of the Hon. Lord Governor-General") and
the present Perth, were surveyed with special care. In the same year the
ship Elburg, commanded by Jacob Peereboom, brought in further reports
about the Land van de Leeuwin, where she had been at anchor "in Lat. 33°
14' South, under a projecting point" (in Geographe Bay?).
[* See _infra_ No. XXIX., pp. 75 ff., and the charts sub No. XXIX. E, F
and I.]
The surveying of the lines of the west-coast was finally brought to a
close by the exploratory voyage of Willem De Vlamingh in 1696-7 with the
ships Geelvink, Nijptang, and het Wezeltje. A remarkable chart referring
to this voyage, here reproduced [*], as well as the ISAAC DE GRAAFF chart
[**] of _circa_ 1700, give an excellent survey of the expedition. The
whole coast-line from the so-called Willemsrivier (N.W. Cape) to a point
south of Rottenest, Garden-island and Perth, was now mapped out. And
that, too, with great accuracy. Thus, for instance, the true situation of
the belt of islands enclosing Shark Bay was this time observed with
unerring exactitude, and Shark Bay itself actually discovered, though its
discovery is usually credited to Dampier (August, 1699).
[* No. 13.]
[* No. 14.]