_Instructions for Tasman, 1644 [*]._
[* The well-known chart of TASMAN, 1644 (see my Life of, Tasman, pp.
71-73) also has the name G. F. De Witt's Land.]
...Meanwhile in the year 1627 the ship t' Gulde
Zeepaert,...discovered...the south coast of the great Southland, and in
the following year 1628 the ship Viana, homeward bound from Batavia,
equally unexpectedly discovered the coast of the same land on the north
side in the Southern Latitude of 21 degrees, and sailed along it a
distance of about 50 miles; none of these discoveries, however, resulting
in the obtaining of any considerable information respecting the situation
and condition of this vast land, it only having been found that it has
barren and dangerous coasts, green, fertile fields and exceedingly
savage, black, barbarian inhabitants...
* * * * *