THE
NAVAL PIONEERS
OF
AUSTRALIA
BY LOUIS BECKE
AND WALTER JEFFERY
AUTHORS OF "A FIRST FLEET FAMILY"; "THE MUTINEER," ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1899
PREFACE
This book does not pretend to be a history of Australia; it merely gathers
into one volume that which has hitherto been dispersed through many. Our
story ends where Australian history, as it is generally written, begins;
but the work of the forgotten naval pioneers of the country made that
beginning possible. Four sea-captains in succession had charge of the
penal settlement of New South Wales, and these four men, in laying the
foundation of Australia, surmounted greater difficulties than have ever
been encountered elsewhere in the history of British colonization. Under
them, and by their personal exertions, it was made possible to live upon
the land; it was made easy to sail upon the Austral seas. After them came
military and civil governors and constitutional government, finding all
things ready to build a Greater Britain. Histories there are in plenty, of
so many hundred pages, devoted to describing the "blessings of
constitutional government," of the stoppage of transportation, of the
discovery of gold, and all the other milestones on the road to nationhood;
but there is given in them no room to describe the work of the sailors--a
chapter or two is the most historians afford the naval pioneers.
The printing by the New South Wales Government of the Historical Records
of New South Wales has given bookmakers access to much valuable material
(dispatches chiefly) hitherto unavailable; and to the volumes of these
Records, to the contemporary historians of "The First Fleet" of Captain
Phillip, to the many South Sea "voyages," and other works acknowledged in
the text, these writers are indebted. Their endeavour has been to collect
together the scattered material that was worth collecting relating to what
might be called the naval period of Australia. This involved some years'
study and the reading of scores of books, and we mention the fact in
extenuation of such faults of commission and omission as may be discerned
in the work by the careful student of Australian history.
The authors are very sensible of their obligations to Mr. Emery Walker,
not only for the time and trouble which he has bestowed upon the finding
of illustrations, but also for many valuable suggestions in connection
with the volume.
LOUIS BECKE.
WALTER JEFFERY.
_London_, 1899.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY--THE EARLIEST AUSTRALIAN VOYAGERS: THE PORTUGUESE,
SPANISH, AND DUTCH
CHAPTER II. DAMPIER: THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER III. COOK, THE DISCOVERER
CHAPTER IV. ARTHUR PHILLIP: FOUNDER AND FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES
CHAPTER V. GOVERNOR HUNTER
CHAPTER VI. THE MARINES AND THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS
CHAPTER VII. GOVERNOR KING CHAPTER VIII. BASS AND FLINDERS
CHAPTER IX. THE CAPTIVITY OF FLINDERS
CHAPTER X. BLIGH AND THE MUTINY OF THE "BOUNTY"
CHAPTER XI. BLIGH AS GOVERNOR
CHAPTER XII. OTHER NAVAL PIONEERS--THE PRESENT MARITIME STATE OF
AUSTRALIA--CONCLUSION
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MARTIN FROBISHER
FROBISHER'S MAP
A DUTCH SHIP OF WAR
SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS
A SIXTH RATE, 1684
DAMPIER
COOK
GOVERNOR PHILLIP
VIEW OF BOTANY BAY
SYDNEY COVE
CAPTAIN JOHN HUNTER
ATTACK ON THE WAAKSAMHEYD
GOVERNOR KING
LA PÉROUSE
SIR JOSEPH BANKS
GEORGE BASS
MATTHEW FLINDERS
VIEW OF WRECK REEF
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY, IN 1802
VIEW OF SYDNEY
GOVERNOR BLIGH
"Whenever I want a thing well done in a distant part of the world;
when I want a man with a good head, a good heart, lots of pluck,
and plenty of common sense, I always send for a Captain of the
Navy."--LORD PALMERSTON.
THE NAVAL PIONEERS
OF
AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY--THE EARLIEST AUSTRALIAN VOYAGERS: THE PORTUGUESE, SPANISH,
AND DUTCH.
Learned geographers have gone back to very remote times, even to the
Middle Ages, and, by the aid of old maps, have set up ingenious theories
showing that the Australian continent was then known to explorers. Some
evidence has been adduced of a French voyage in which the continent was
discovered in the youth of the sixteenth century, and, of course, it has
been asserted that the Chinese were acquainted with the land long before
Europeans ventured to go so far afloat. There is strong evidence that the
west coast of Australia was touched by the Spaniards and the Portuguese
during the first half of the sixteenth century, and proof of its discovery
early in the seventeenth century. At the time of these very early South
Sea voyages the search, it should always be remembered, was for a great
Antarctic continent. The discovery of islands in the Pacific was, to the
explorers, a matter of minor importance; New Guinea, although visited by
the Portuguese in 1526, up to the time of Captain Cook was supposed by
Englishmen to be a part of the mainland, and the eastern coast of
Australia, though touched upon earlier and roughly outlined upon maps,
remained unknown to them until Cook explored it.
[Illustration: MARTIN FROBISHER. From the portrait in Holland's
"Herolowologia Anglica" [London, 1620]. _To face p_. 2.]
_Early Voyages to Australia_, by R.H. Major, printed by the Hakluyt
Society in 1859, is still the best collection of facts and contains the
soundest deductions from them on the subject, and although ably-written
books have since been published, the industrious authors have added little
or nothing in the way of indisputable evidence to that collected by Major.
The belief in the existence of the Australian continent grew gradually and
naturally out of the belief in a great southern land. Mr. G.B. Barton, in
an introduction to his valuable Australian [Sidenote: 1578]
history, traces this from 1578, when Frobisher wrote:--
"Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firme land, lying under
and aboute the south pole, being in many places a fruitefull
soyle, and is not yet thorowly discovered, but only seen and
touched on the north edge thereof by the travaile of the
Portingales and Spaniards in their voyages to their East and West
Indies. It is included almost by a paralell, passing at 40 degrees
in south latitude, yet in some places it reacheth into the sea
with great promontories, even into the tropicke Capricornus. Onely
these partes are best known, as over against Capo d' buona
Speranza (where the Portingales see popingayes commonly of a
wonderful greatnesse), and againe it is knowen at the south side
of the straight of Magellanies, and is called Terra del Fuego. It
is thoughte this south lande, about the pole Antartike, is farre
bigger than the north land about the pole Artike; but whether it
be so or not, we have no certaine knowledge, for we have no
particular description thereof, as we have of the land under and
aboute the north pole."
Then Purchas, in 1678, says:--
"This land about the Straits is not perfectly discovered, whether
it be Continent or Islands. Some take it for Continent, and extend
it more in their imagination than any man's experience towards
those Islands of Saloman and New Guinea, esteeming (of which there
is great probability) that Terra Australis, or the Southerne
Continent, may for the largeness thereof take a first place in
order and the first in greatnesse in the division and parting of
the Whole World."
[Illustration: FROBISHER'S MAP. From "A true Discourse of the late Voyages
of Discoverie for the finding of a passage to Cathaya by the Northweast
under the conduct of _Martin Frobisher_, Generall:" [London, 1578]. _To
face p_. 4.]
The most important of the Spanish voyages was that made by De Quiros, who
left Callao in December, 1605, in charge of an expedition of three ships.
One of these vessels was commanded by Luis Vaez de Torres. De Quiros, who
is believed to have been by birth a Portuguese, discovered several island
groups and many isolated islands, among the former being the New Hebrides,
which he, believing he had found the continent, named Tierra Australis
del Espiritu Santo. Soon after the ships commanded by De Quiros became
separated from the other vessels, and Torres took charge. He subsequently
found that the land seen was an island group, and so determined to sail
westward in pursuance of the scheme of exploration. In about the month of
August he fell in with a chain of islands (now called the Louisiade
Archipelago and included in the British Possession of New Guinea) which he
thought, reasonably enough, was the beginning of New Guinea, but which
really lies a little to the southeast of that great island. As he could
not weather the group, he bore away to the southward, [Sidenote: 1605]
and his subsequent proceedings are here quoted from Burney's _Voyages_:--
"We went along three hundred leagues of coast, as I have
mentioned, and diminished the latitude 2-1/2 degrees, which
brought us into 9 degrees. From thence we fell in with a bank of
from three to nine fathoms, which extends along the coast to 7-1/2
south latitude; and the end of it is in 5 degrees. We could go no
further on for the many shoals and great currents, so we were
obliged to sail south-west in that depth to 11 degrees south
latitude. There is all over it an archipelago of islands without
number, by which we passed; and at the end of the eleventh degree
the bank became shoaler. Here were very large islands, and they
appeared more to the southward. They were inhabited by black
people, very corpulent and naked. Their arms were lances, arrows,
and clubs of stone ill-fashioned. We could not get any of their
arms. We caught in all this land twenty persons of different
nations, that with them we might be able to give a better account
to your Majesty. They give [us] much notice of other people,
although as yet they do not make themselves well understood. We
were upon this bank two months, at the end of which time we found
ourselves in twenty-five fathoms and 5 degrees south latitude and
ten leagues from the coast; and having gone 480 leagues here, the
coast goes to the north-east. I did not search it, for the bank
became very shallow. So we stood to the north."
The "very large islands" seen by Torres were no doubt the hills of Cape
York, the northernmost point of Australia, and so he, all unconsciously,
had passed within sight of the continent for which he was searching. A
copy of the report by Torres was lodged in the archives of Manila, and
when the English took that city in 1762, Dalrymple, the celebrated
geographer, discovered it, and gave the name of Torres Straits to what
is now well known as the dangerous passage dividing New Guinea from
Australia. De Quiros, in his ship, made no further discovery; he arrived
on the Mexican coast in October, 1606, and did all he could to induce
Philip III. of Spain to sanction further exploration, but without success.
Of the voyages of the Dutch in Australian waters much interesting matter
is available. Major sums up the case in these words:--
"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 already been 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."
The period of known Dutch discovery begins with the [Sidenote: 1644]
establishment of the Dutch East India Company, and a knowledge of the west
coast of Australia grew with the growth of the Dutch colonies, but grew
slowly, for the Dutchmen were too busy trading to risk ships and spend
time and money upon scientific voyages.
In January, 1644, Commodore Abel Janszoon Tasman was despatched upon his
second voyage of discovery to the South Seas, and his instructions, signed
by the Governor-General of Batavia, Antonio Van Diemen, begin with a
recital of all previous Dutch voyages of a similar character. From this
document an interesting summary of Dutch exploration can be made. Tasman,
in his first voyage, had discovered the island of Van Diemen, which he
named after the then Governor of Batavia, but which has since been named
Tasmania, after its discoverer. During this first voyage the navigator
also discovered New Zealand, passed round the east side of Australia
without seeing the land, and on his way home sailed along the northern
shore of New Guinea.
But to come back to the summary of Dutch voyages found in Tasman's
instructions: During 1605 and 1606 the Dutch yacht _Duyphen_ made two
exploring voyages to New Guinea. On one trip the commander, after
coasting New Guinea, steered southward along the islands on the west side
of Torres Straits to that part of Australia, a little to the west and
south of Cape York, marked on modern maps as Duyphen Point, thus
unconsciously--for he thought himself still on the west coast of New
Guinea--making the first authenticated discovery of the continent.
Dirk Hartog, in command of the _Endragt_, while on his way from Holland to
the East Indies, put into what Dampier afterwards called Sharks' Bay, and
on an island, which now bears his name, deposited a tin plate with an
inscription recording his arrival, and dated October 25th, 1616. The plate
was afterwards found by a Dutch navigator in 1697, and replaced by
another, which in its turn was discovered in July, 1801, by Captain
Hamelin, of the _Naturaliste_, on the well-known French voyage in search
of the ill-fated La Pérouse. The Frenchman copied the inscription, and
nailed the plate to a post with another recording his own voyage. These
inscriptions were a few years later removed by De Freycinet, and deposited
in the museum of the Institute of Paris. Hartog ran along the coast a few
degrees, naming the land after his ship, and was followed by many other
voyagers at frequent intervals down to the year [Sidenote: 1623-1627]
1727, from which time Dutch exploration has no more a place in Australian
discovery.
During the 122 years of which we have records of their voyages, although
the Dutch navigators' work, compared with that done by Cook and his
successors, was of small account; yet, considering the state of nautical
science, and that the ships were for the most part Dutch East Indiamen,
the Dutch names which still sprinkle the north and the west coasts of the
continent show that from Cape York in the extreme north, westward of the
Great Australian Bight in the south, the Dutchmen had touched at intervals
the whole coast-line.
But before leaving the Dutch period there are one or two voyages that,
either on account of their interesting or important character, deserve
brief mention.
In 1623 Arnhem's Land, now the northern district of the Northern Territory
of South Australia, was discovered by the Dutch yachts _Pesa_ and
_Arnhem_. This voyage is also noteworthy on account of the massacre of the
master of the _Arnhem_ and eight of his crew by the natives while they
were exploring the coast of New Guinea. In 1627 the first discovery of the
south coast was made by the _Gulde Zeepard_, and the land then explored,
extending from Cape Leeuwin to the Nuyts Archipelago, on the South
Australian coast, was named after Peter Nuyts, then on board the ship on
his way to Batavia, whence he was sent to Japan as ambassador from
Holland.
In the year 1628 a colonizing expedition of eleven vessels left Holland
for the Dutch East Indies. Among these ships was the _Batavia_, commanded
by Francis Pelsart. A terrible storm destroyed ten of the fleet, and on
June 4th, 1629, the _Batavia_ was driven ashore on the reef still known as
Houtman's Abrolhos, which had been discovered and named by a Dutch East
Indiaman some years earlier--probably by the commander of the _Leeuwin_,
who discovered and named after his ship the cape at the south-west point
of the continent. The _Batavia_, which carried a number of chests of
silver money, went to pieces on the reef. The crew of the ship managed to
land upon the rocks, and saved some food from the wreck, but they were
without water. Pelsart, in one of the ship's boats, spent a couple of
weeks exploring the inhospitable coast in the neighbourhood in the hope of
discovering water, but found so little that he ultimately determined to
attempt to make Batavia and from there bring [Sidenote: 1629]
succour to his ship's company. On July 3rd he fell in with a Dutch ship
off Java and was taken on to Batavia. From there he obtained help and
returned to the wreck, arriving at the Abrolhos in the middle of
September; but during the absence of the commander the castaways had gone
through a terrible experience, which is related in Therenot's _Recueil de
Voyages Curieux,_ and translated into English in Major's book, from which
the following is extracted:--
"Whilst Pelsart is soliciting assistance, I will return to those
of the crew who remained on the island; but I should first inform
you that the supercargo, named Jerome Cornelis, formerly an
apothecary at Haarlem, had conspired with the pilot and some
others, when off the coast of Africa, to obtain possession of the
ship and take her to Dunkirk, or to avail themselves of her for
the purpose of piracy. This supercargo remained upon the wreck ten
days after the vessel had struck, having discovered no means of
reaching the shore. He even passed two days upon the mainmast,
which floated, and having from thence got upon a yard, at length
gained the land. In the absence of Pelsart, he became commander,
and deemed this a suitable occasion for putting his original
design into execution, concluding that it would not be difficult
to become master of that which remained of the wreck, and to
surprise Pelsart when he should arrive with the assistance which
he had gone to Batavia to seek, and afterwards to cruise in these
seas with his vessel. To accomplish this it was necessary to get
rid of those of the crew who were not of his party; but before
imbruing his hands with blood he caused his accomplices to sign a
species of compact, by which they promised fidelity one to
another. The entire crew was divided [living upon] between three
islands; upon that of Cornelis, which they had named the graveyard
of Batavia, was the greatest number of men. One of them, by name
Weybehays, a lieutenant, had been despatched to another island to
seek for water, and having discovered some after a search of
twenty days, he made the preconcerted signal by lighting three
fires, but in vain, for they were not noticed by the people of
Cornelis' company, the conspirators having during that time
murdered those who were not of their party. Of these they killed
thirty or forty. Some few saved themselves upon pieces of wood,
which they joined together, and going in search of Weybehays,
informed him of the horrible massacre that had taken place. Having
with him forty-five men, he resolved to keep upon his guard, and
to defend himself from these assassins if they should make an
attack upon his company, which in effect they designed to do, and
to treat the other party in the same manner; for they feared lest
their company, or that which remained upon the third island,
should inform the commander upon his arrival, and thus prevent the
execution of their design. They succeeded easily with the party
last mentioned, which was the weakest, killing the whole of them,
excepting seven children and some women. They hoped to succeed as
easily with Weybehays' company, and in the meanwhile broke open
the chests of merchandise which had been saved from the vessel.
Jerome Cornelis caused clothing to be made [Sidenote: 1629]
for his company out of the rich stuffs which he found therein,
choosing to himself a bodyguard, each of whom he clothed in scarlet,
embroidered with gold and silver. Regarding the women as part of
the spoil, he took one for himself, and gave one of the daughters
of the minister to a principal member of his party, abandoning
the other three for public use. He drew up also certain rules for
the future conduct of his men.
[Illustration: A DUTCH MAN-OF-WAR OF THE END OF THE 17th CENTURY. From a
print after Vandervelde.]
"After these horrible proceedings he caused himself to be elected
captain-general by a document which he compelled all his
companions to sign. He afterwards sent twenty-two men in two
shallops to destroy the company of Weybehays, but they met with a
repulse. Taking with him thirty-seven men, he went himself against
Weybehays, who received him at the water's edge as he disembarked,
and forced him to retire, although the lieutenant and his men had
no weapons but clubs, the ends of which were armed with spikes.
Finding force unavailing, the mutineer had recourse to other
means. He proposed a treaty of peace, the chaplain, who remained
with Weybehays, drawing up the conditions. It was agreed to with
this proviso, that Weybehays' company should remain unmolested,
and they, upon their part, agreed to deliver up a little boat in
which one of the sailors had escaped from the island where
Cornelis was located to that of Weybehays, receiving in return
some stuffs for clothing his people. During his negotiations
Cornelis wrote to certain French soldiers who belonged to the
lieutenant's company offering to each a sum of money to corrupt
them, with the hope that with this assistance he might easily
compass his design. His letters, which were without effect, were
shown to Weybehays, and Cornelis, who was ignorant of their
disclosure, having arrived the next day with three or four others
to find Weybehays and bring him the apparel, the latter caused him
to be attacked, killed two or three of the company, and took
Cornelis himself prisoner. One of them, by name Wouterlos, who
escaped from this rout, returned the following day to renew the
attack, but with little success.
"Pelsart arrived during these occurrences in the frigate _Sardam_.
As he approached the wreck he observed smoke from a distance, a
circumstance that afforded him great consolation, since he
perceived by it that his people were not all dead. He cast anchor,
and threw himself immediately into a skiff with bread and wine,
and proceeded to land on one of the islands. Nearly at the same
time a boat came alongside with four armed men. Weybehays, who was
one of the four, ... informed him of the massacre, and advised him
to return as speedily as possible to his vessel, for that the
conspirators designed to surprise him, having already murdered
twenty-five persons, and to attack him with two shallops, adding
that he himself had that morning been at close quarters with them.
Pelsart perceived at the same time the two shallops coming towards
him, and had scarcely got on board his own vessel before they came
alongside. He was surprised to see the people covered with
embroidery of gold and silver and weapons in their hands, and
demanded of them why they approached the vessel armed. They
replied that they would inform him when they came on board. He
commanded them to cast their arms into the sea, or otherwise he
would sink them. Finding themselves compelled [Sidenote: 1629]
to submit, they threw away their weapons, and being ordered on
board, were immediately placed in irons. One of them, named Jan
de Bremen, confessed that he had put to death or assisted in the
assassination of twenty-seven persons. The same evening Weybehays
brought his prisoner on board.
"On the 18th day of September the captain and the master-pilot,
taking with them ten men of Weybehays' company, passed over in
boats to the island of Cornelis. Those who still remained thereon
lost all courage as soon as they saw them, and allowed themselves
to be placed in irons."
Pelsart remained another week at the Abrolhos, endeavouring to recover
some of the _Batavia's_ treasure, and succeeded in finding all but one
chest. The mutineers were tried by the officers of the _Sardam_, and all
but two were executed before the ship left the scene of their awful crime.
The two men who were not hanged were put on shore on the mainland, and
were probably the first Europeans to end their lives upon the continent.
Dutch vessels for many years afterwards sought for traces of the marooned
seamen, but none were ever discovered.
The 1644 voyage of Tasman was made expressly for the purpose of exploring
the north and north-western shores of the continent, and to prove the
existence or otherwise of straits separating it from New Guinea. Tasman's
instructions show this, and prove that while the existence of the straits
was suspected, and although Torres had unconsciously passed through them,
they were not known. Tasman explored a long length of coast-line,
establishing its continuity from the extreme north-western point (Arnhem
Land) as far as the twenty-second degree of south latitude (Exmouth Gulf).
He failed to prove the existence of Torres Straits, but to him, it is
generally agreed, is due the discovery and naming of the Gulf of
Carpentaria (Carpenter in Tasman's time being President at Amsterdam of
the Dutch East India Company) and the naming of a part of North Australia,
as he had previously named the island to the south, after Van Diemen. From
this voyage dates the name New Holland: the great stretch of coast-line
embracing his discoveries became known to his countrymen as Hollandia
Nova, a name which in its English form was adopted for the whole
continent, and remained until it was succeeded by the more euphonious name
of Australia. Tasman continued doing good service for the Dutch East India
Company until his death at Batavia about 1659.
The last Dutch voyage which space permits us to mention [Sidenote: 1727]
briefly is that of the _Zeewigk_, which ship was wrecked on the Abrolhos
in 1727, with a quantity of treasure on board. Some of the crew built a
sloop out of the wreck and made their way to Batavia, taking with them
the bulk of the treasure; but from time to time, even down to the present
century, relics of the wreck, including several coins, have been
recovered, and are now to be seen in the museum of the West Australian
capital. But before the Dutch had given up exploring the coast of New
Holland, Dampier, the first Englishman to set foot upon its shores, had
twice visited the continent, and with his two voyages the English naval
story of Australia may properly begin.