CHAPTER XIV.

The exploration of the Continent by land almost completed--Minor

expeditions--The Macarthur and other rivers running into Carpentaria

traced--Good country discovered and opened up--Sir Edward Pellew Group

revisited--Lindsay sent out by the S.A. Government to explore Arnheim's

Land--Rough country and great loss of horses--O'Donnell makes an

expedition to the Kimberley district--Sturt and Mitchell's different

experiences with the blacks--Difference in the East and West Coasts--Use

of camels--Opinions about them--The future of the water supply--

Adaptability of the country for irrigation--The great springs of

the Continent--Some peculiarities of them--Hot springs and mound springs.

The whole of the continent being now known, and the mystery of the

interior solved, there remained little more for the explorers of later

years to do, but follow up the course of some tributary, stream or river,

the origin of which, though, perhaps, guessed at, had never been finally

settled, nor had the country drained by them been mapped or defined.

These explorations, useful though they have been in opening up fresh

tracts of country for the pastoralist, have not the same amount of

interest attaching to them possessed by the earlier travels. Much of the

exploration of the past few years naturally centres round the northern

portion of Australia; there, as the pioneer pushed out, the unknown parts

had to yield up their secret, and the tracks of Macdowall Stuart were

gradually elaborated. The South Australian Government had made many

attempts to reach the Queensland border from their overland line, but

without success. In 1778, they had dispatched two surveyors--Messrs.

Barclay and Weinnecke--to proceed in that direction, starting from the

neighbourhood of Alice Springs. Barclay had much dry country to contend

with, and managed to reach close to Scarr's furthest point when he was

making west in the same year, but failed to connect with the settlements

of Queensland. He made no important discoveries, being amongst the

country common to the central districts of Australia--alternate desert,

and pastoral land, with few and insignificant watercourses. It being a

matter of moment to settle the position of the border line between the

two colonies, surveyor Weinnecke was again dispatched in 1880 to make

another attempt. By following Scarr's route, via Buchanan's Creek, he

succeeded in reaching the border. He travelled entirely over the country

explored by Queensland parties. In 1883 Favenc traced the heads of the

rivers running into the Gulf of Carpentaria, near the Queensland border,

and in the following year undertook a more lengthened expedition from the

tableland across the coast range to the mouth of the Macarthur River. The

party left the Queensland border and crossed to the overland telegraph

line, traversing mostly open downs country the whole of the way.

From the northern end of Newcastle Waters a fresh departure was as made,

and the watercourse that supplies these lagoons followed up for some

fifty miles. From there an easterly course was kept, and after some

privation from want of water, reached a creek, which was christened

Relief Creek, and which proved to be one of the head waters of the

Macarthur. A large extent of valuable pastoral country was found in the

basin drained by this river, and many fine permanent springs discovered.

The party followed the river down to salt water, and returned by another

route to Daly Waters telegraph station.

The South Australian Government soon after sent a survey steamer to the

group called Sir Edward Pellew's Islands, which had not been visited

since the days of Flinders. The mouth of the Macarthur was found and

sounded, and shortly afterwards a township was formed at the head of

navigation. The explorations conducted on this river led to a good road

being formed from the interior tableland to the coast and the settlement

of much new country.

The whole of the territory east of the overland line was now rapidly

becoming settled, and the explorations made by Mr. Macphee east of Daly

Waters may be said to have concluded the list of expeditions between the

overland line and the Queensland border.

In 1883 the South Australian Government determined to complete the

exploration of Arnheim's Land, and Mr. David Lindsay was dispatched on

the mission. He left Palmerston on the 4th June, and proceeded, by way of

the Katherine, to the country north of the Roper River. From there they

proceeded to Blue Mud Bay, and, on the way, had a narrow escape from

being massacred by the natives, who speared four horses, and made an

attempt to surprise the camp. Lindsay got entangled in the broken

tableland that caused such trouble to Leichhardt, and, with one

misfortune and another, lost a great number of his horses-in fact, at one

time, he anticipated having to abandon them all, and make his way into

the telegraph station on foot. On the whole, the country passed over was

favourable for settlement; in fact, the flats on some portions of his

course were first-class sugar country.

Another journey was undertaken about this time by Messrs. O'Donnell and

Carr Boyd into Western Australia, starting from the same place as

Lindsay, namely, the Katherine telegraph station. The expedition

succeeded in finding a large amount of pastoral country, but no new

geographical discoveries of any importance were made.

Meantime, the discovery of gold in the Kimberley district of Western

Australia led to that province being searched by small prospecting

parties, and every creek and watercourse becoming known. This has left

but little of the coastal lands still unexplored in Australia, and there

is scant chance of anything noticeable being found in the interior beyond

what we can fairly conjecture. The utmost an explorer can now hope to

find there is some permanent lagoon or spring, affording a stand-by for

the pastoralist. No such streams as the Murray or Darling will ever again

gladden the eyes of the traveller in the interior,

The greater part of the territory still left to explore is situated in

one colony--that of Western Australia, and, although the interior has

been successively crossed by so many different men, there yet remains a

large area which may be called unknown. Of what the end will be it is

hard to say. Shall we find it bear out the gloomy predictions of

Warburton and Giles? or the more hopeful one of Forest? One thing we do

know--that, year after year, use is being found for the most repellent

country. When we look back at the verdict pronounced against the interior

of Australia by the early explorers, and how it has been falsified by

time there is ground for hoping that even the most despised portions of

our continent will yet be found available for something.

That, in spite of the monotony of the Great Plain, it is strange to note

the fascination it has had for many of the most renowned explorers.

Sturt, after being reduced to semi-blindness, found himself compelled to

struggle with the desert once more. Eyre, left alone in the wilderness,

after his awful experience at the head of the Great Bight, still longed

to venture again, and accompanied his friend Sturt as far as ever his

duties permitted him. Leichhardt died in harness somewhere in Australia,

and Kennedy lost his life in his desire to emulate his former chief,

Mitchell. Even the very sterility of the great solitude seems to have

been, in its way, a lure to drag men back to encounter it once more.

Knowing now as much as we do of the interior, we can hardly help being

amused at the theories propounded in the old days by some of the earlier

travellers. Oxley was, we know, wedded to the idea of an inland sea.

Sturt, too, when he looked on the stony desert, saw in it but the dry

channel of some old ocean current; and Eyre was convinced that the

interior was nothing but a parched and and desert. One after another,

these fallacies were exploded, and now we find that human and animal life

can as easily be adapted to the central plain as elsewhere.

But the want of knowledge displayed by the natives of anything beyond

their immediate surroundings, was one great difficulty in the way of the

explorers. The blackfellow of Australia seemed to partake largely of the

country he lived in. His whole life was one fight for existence, and not

even the sudden advent of a strange race could do more than stir him to a

languid curiosity. Bounded, as he always had been, by his surroundings,

and never venturing beyond tribal limits, what information he was able to

impart was, as a rule, meagre and misleading, and without any good result

in the way of assistance to the explorer. True, we find exceptions to

this amongst them; two instances may be quoted as exemplifying two

different phases of the native character. One is a picture from Sturt's

journal, the other from Mitchell.

Sturt and his companions were returning to the depôt from one of their

northern efforts. Suddenly they came across a party of worn and thirsty

natives. What little water the whites had with them they gave them, but

it was only a mouthful a-piece, and the natives indicating by signs that

they were bound for some distant waterhole, disappeared at a smart trot

across the sandhills. They apparently expressed no surprise at the sudden

meeting in the desert, although they could not have had the slightest

conception of white men before. They seem to have accepted their presence

and the friendly drink of water as only a part of their strange

existence.

Far different was the conduct of the Darling River blacks, who so

resented Mitchell's appearance, that they travelled over some hundreds of

miles to attack him on his second visit. The ingenuity with which they

planned an attack on the party was a rather remarkable thing in the

annals of exploration. Thinking that the clothing of the whites rendered

them secure against spears, two men were told off for each member of the

party, one to hold the victim whilst the other clubbed him. Fortunately

the scheme was fathomed by one of the lubras with the party; but it

showed very deep-seated animosity and dislike.

The intercourse, then, that the travellers could expect from the natives

was either passive ignorance or violent hostility. On the few occasions

when their services were made use of it amounted only to finding some

scanty well. Again, the nature of the country was so persistently opposed

to all the pre conceived notions that the first arrivals brought to the

country. It would seem but rational to suppose that a river or creek

would ultimately lead to somewhere, a larger channel, or the sea; but the

rivers of the plain lived and died without any defined end, and to follow

their courses only resulted in disappointment. Add to all this a dry and

hot climate, and we cannot wonder at the slow progress made in the

advance of the first half of the century.

There is little doubt that had fortune turned the prows of the Dutch

vessels on to the north-east coast, instead of the rough and rugged

shores of the west, Australia would have seen settlement long before the

date of Phillip's landing. But the Dutch found no inducements whatever on

the west; their ships were wrecked, their crews attacked by the natives,

and they had great difficulty in finding fresh water; so that it was

little wonder that even their energy and adventurous spirit recognised

but nothing in TERRA AUSTRALIS to repay them for the trouble of taking

possession. The French, too, saw little in the unclaimed portion of the

country they visited to do more than threaten an occupation, which never

took place, and it is doubtful if the uninviting shores of Botany Bay

would have held out any hope to a body of free immigrants.

In all these halts on the way to colonization, Australia seems to have

borne but the aspect of her interior plains: formidable and repellent to

the intruder. Starting from the south, the first travellers had to face

all the loneliness and sterility of Lake Torrens and the other salt

lakes, and it was many years before it was found out that beyond existed

good habitable country. Eyre and Sturt both failed in their efforts to

penetrate north, and it was astonishing how easily it was afterwards

accomplished by two such comparatively inexperienced men as Burke and

Wills. From the west, nature was all against the explorer, and it was

only after the discovery of the Ashburton that Forest managed to reach

the overland line, that river having helped him well into the centre of

the colony. From the north, the penetration of the Great Plain was only

attempted once by A. C. Gregory, and then he was repulsed. From the

eastern shore, the steady progress, although not destined to finally

succeed, gradually brought nearly half the continent under the sway of

settlement, and the advance was mainly checked by the disappointment

resulting from Kennedy's examination of the Barcoo, and its final course

into a dreary desert. Of the many magnificent preparations made, it has

not always been the lot of the best equipped parties to attain the

greatest success, few men started with less outfit than did Macdowall

Stuart, when he reached to and beyond central Mount Stuart; no men ever

left better provided than did Burke and Wills, and their unfortunate

death by starvation is too well known. The equipment of the explorer,

especially as regards the use of camels, has been a matter of much

dispute. M'Kinlay speaks highly in praise of them, Warburton and Giles

both ascribe their safety to having them with them. But although they

have been the means of achieving long stages over dry country, they are

treacherous and dangerous animals to deal with. And should they make

their escape, it would be impossible to recover them with only horses at

command. Then, too, the possession of camels leads to hasty and hurried

examination of country, and the mere fact of being in command of such

means of locomotion entices a man to push on regardless of caution.

M'Kinlay reports that the camels seem to thrive well on everything, but

Warburton appeared to have great difficulty in obtaining feed for them in

the sandhill country. Be this as it may, they have done good service in

Australia, but it is not evident that they are always of equal good.

But the time will, without doubt, soon come when camels will no longer be

required, and the scenes of the forced and painful marches of some of our

explorers be watered by the springs now imprisoned hundreds of feet below

the surface. Since these pages were commenced, one of the strongest

outflows in the world has been struck near the foot of the range in

Queensland, some hundreds of miles back from the central coast, in a

place which witnessed the last expedition of Major Mitchell. This

discovery, added to the many that have preceded it, leads to much thought

as to the probability of future discoveries, and the wonderful springs

that are already known to exist.

"Water! water! everywhere, and not a drop to drink." Although not

absolutely true, in fact, or rather on the surface, this quotation might

be uttered with a strong measure of truth by many a poor wretch perishing

from thirst on a drought-blasted inland plain, whilst underneath him, at

a greater or less distance, run sunless seas.

Of the magnitude of our great subterranean reservoir who shall tell?

What craft will ever float on its dark surface, under domes of pendant

stalactites, rippling for the first time the ice-cold waters, and

disturbing the eyeless fish in their shadowy haunts? Only when here and

there we tap it, and the mighty pressure sends up a thin column of water

hundreds of feet in answer. Or when we notice the strong, constant

springs that at intervals break through the surface crust to gladden us;

or when the deeper internal fires burst forth, and hurl up its waters in

scathing steam and boiling mud, can we guess of the great hidden sea

beneath.

We have a problem given into our hands to solve; it is our heritage, and

we have only just commenced to try and find the answer. In our fair

continent there are thousands upon thousands of square miles of fertile

country that Nature herself has planned and mapped out into wide fields,

with gentle declivities and slopes, fit for the reception of the modest

channel that shall convey the living water over the great pasture lands;

and now we want the magician to come, and, with the wand of human skill,

bring the interior waters to the surface, and make the desert blossom.

Of the great supply that lies awaiting us deep down in the earth's

caverns we have incontestible proofs, and of the force latent in it to

lift it to the surface, to be our willing slave and bondsman, we, too,

have some dawning notion. Will years of study and observation give us the

power to wield the wand at will? We cannot but believe it. Our vast and

fertile downs were never destined to be idle and unproductive for months

and months, dependent only on the niggard clouds o'erhead.

To make Australia the richest and most self-supporting country that sun

ever shone upon, wherein every man could follow out the old saying of

sitting under his own vine and fig tree, what is wanted? The answer to

this problem is to bring to our rich alluvial surface the waters under

the earth.

On the great inland plateau that occupies two-thirds of the entire

continent, we find the soil teeming with elements of surpassing

fertility. Even the grudging rainfall that comes so seldom has developed

a wealth of indigenous herbage, grasses, and fodder plants unequalled in

any other part of the globe. The earth seems to have put forth every

inherent vitalising power it possesses to render its creatures

independent of cruel seasons.

What traveller but has noticed the magical effect of rain upon the deep

friable soil, formed by the denuded limestone rock. Almost

instantaneously fresh life springs up. Within but a short time the dry

and withered stalks of grass assume a deep rich green, the soft broad

leaves and joints are replete with moisture. The bare ground is quickly

coated with trailing vines and creepers, bearing succulent seed pods,

grateful and moist. The rough-coated, staggering beast that could scarce

drag its feeble legs out of the muddy waterhole, becomes in a few weeks

strong and vigorous. What would not such a land be with a constant

fertilizing stream of water through, and about it?

In approaching the subject of our subterranean water supply, the peculiar

physical formation of Australia must be borne in mind. The great flat

tableland that stretches in almost unvarying monotony from shore to

shore, fringed round with its strip of coastal land, resembles--to use a

homely simile--nothing so much as a narrow brimmed, flat crowned hat. The

moisture-laden clouds that visit us, break on the sides of this hat,

giving the brim, or coast, the full benefit of their precipitation;

drifting over the plateau, or crown, with rapidly decreasing bulk. Thus,

the great plain, in size the greatest, and in soil the richest part of

us, is always labouring under the curse of irregular and inefficient

rainfall; and whatever good we may do in the way of water storage and we

may do so much-we have always the threat of many years of drought hanging

over, during which our treasury of water will be drained, and not

replenished.

Welling from the sides of the tableland we find large permanent springs,

in many cases the sources of fine strong-flowing rivers, the component

parts of whose waters now first see the light again after countless ages.

Storms and floods may come and go unheeded, their steady flow

is-maintained unchecked by summer or winter weather; for their birth is

deep down in the earth, where meteorological disturbances are unknown.

Like an old and battered tank, through whose cracked and leaky sides the

water it contains is escaping, so these springs find vent through

fissures in the mighty tableland, to flow down to the sea.

Up in the northern provinces where, perhaps, if anything, the contrast of

these flowing streams beneath the parched surroundings is more striking

than in the more temperate southern clime, there are some mighty leaks in

the sides of the tableland. The Gregory River, in the Burke district of

Queensland has one unvarying flow; a strong running stream, never

lessened by the longest drought, but gliding beneath cool masses of

tropical foliage and gurgling over rocky bars when all around is dry.

What a great heritage here runs to waste unheeded.

In the northern territory, from out another vent, springs the Flora

River, whose waters ripple over limestone bars in miniature cascades,

from pool to pool, like pigmy reproductions of the lost terraces of New

Zealand. Follow the edge of the great tableland around, and amongst the

deep seams and fissures of its abrupt descent coastward, we suddenly

come, midst rugged barreness and gloomy grandeur, upon these messengers

from the inner earth. Some enjoying the sunlight, but for a brief span,

disappearing again for ever as, suddenly as they were up-borne; others

finding their way down to the habitable lowlands and to the sea. But,

unfortunately, all these springs, some of great volume, find issue on the

outer edge of the range; the gradual descent that marks the inner slope

is not the scene of these outbursts. Here, and throughout the interior,

the waters from below rise in a way that seems to best befit the weird

solitude of the great plain.

At times, on a bare, baked mound elevated above the surface, there is a

dwarf crater filled with water that never overflows, and when tapped and

exhausted, rises once more to its former level. Again, canopied by giant

ti-trees amid the shrill shrieking of thousands of noisy parrots, the

traveller can pick his way along the treacherous paths that wind amongst

the hot springs. Or at the foot of a low range a scanty trickle fills a

rocky pool, and thence is lost.

In the bed of some far inland creek, the water rises in the sand in

shallow pools, during the dark hours of night, to vanish once more

beneath the sun. And in low caverns in the limestone hills, down some

deep fissure, can be seen the waters of a stream, whose rise and course

no man has ever traced. Again a solitary lagoon is found whereon no lily

grows, and wherein no fish swims. Where the belated bushman camping for

the night, finds the next morning that the water has sunk many feet, or

perhaps has risen, when no rain has fallen far or near for months. All

these signs and tokens from the great sea beneath us may serve as guides

to the end.

When one comes to know the real value of water in a thirsty land, it

almost seems like a crime on the part of Nature, that a spring should

rise and flow for a comparatively short distance, to be lost in the sea.

When by placing the source some fifteen or twenty miles away the course

would run for hundreds of miles through a dry country. Can human

ingenuity improve on nature?

In this case nature seems to have laid the ground work of a great

comprehensive continental plain; to have put the lever ready for man to

start it, and though the scheme is one of such magnitude that it may at

first glance seem widely impossible, there is no reason, backed as it

would be by natural forces, that it may not be an accomplishment of the

future.

To fully understand the great problem of the water supply of Australia,

it is necessary to comprehend and carry in mind the wonderfully unique

river system of the continent. In an average area of 1,800 miles east and

west, by 900 miles north and south, the whole drainage runs from north to

south; that is to say, all that finds vent in the ocean. This, of

course, is the surface formation carrying off the rainfall, and has no

bearing on the outbreak of subterranean springs. But, as showing the

upheaval of the land to the northward, it points out that naturally the

flow of irrigation on a large scale will be from north to south.

It may be said that from the 18th parallel there is a steady slope

southward, broken only by the subordinate natural features of the

country, which necessarily form the irregularities of the smaller

tributaries. In this great block of more than a million and a quarter of

square miles there are then all the defined channels requisite for the

carriage of water throughout the heart of the continent, but with the

important fact wanting that they are destitute of a constant and steady

supply from the doubtful rainfall. The tilt of the northern edge of the

plateau puts their sources above the level of the great springs, and

causes them to be dependent on these intermittent and often scanty rains.

And we know that these rains have failed in producing any comprehendable

system of drainage over one third of our continent, at, least, at present

with our limited knowledge, the water system appears wasteful and

purposeless throughout that region.

If then the underground sea that exists beneath could be, tapped as far

north as possible, the water would rise to the surface at a much higher

level, than would be possible elsewhere, and much greater use could be

made of it, inasmuch as a larger area would lay below it for

fertilization. Now, the question of the existence of this water supply at

a uniform depth beneath the earth's surface can be proved by noting the

existence of the springs that we know of, that have found their way

without artificial aid to the light of day. Only those can be brought in

evidence that are unmistakeably outside of local influence, and are

unaffected by wet weather, or dry.

In the north, on the edge of the tableland, they are most numerous. On

the east coast, at the head of the Burdekin River, there are

unmistakeable signs of an upward effort of the imprisoned waters to free

themselves. One main tributary, a creek called Fletcher's Creek, takes

its rise in a labyrinth of basaltic rocks, that for years defied the

efforts of the whites to penetrate. This stream rising from its cradle in

the dead lava, winds in and out of the encompassing stretches of rocks,

until it emerges on the outer country, where it feeds and maintains two

large lakes, ere it is lost in the sandy bed of one of the anabranches

of the Burdekin. It is one of the strongest and most consistent outbreaks

in the north, and its volume and continuance show the strength of the

source from which it emerges.

The head of the Burdekin itself is amongst lava beds, wherein there are

many similar springs; most of these take the form of permanent lagoons.

To the westward we find ourselves on a more arid surface, the formation

of the ranges not being so favourable to the development of springs; and

where they do occur, they are evidently the product of rainfall. On the

watershed we are on a corner, as it were, of the inland plain, and our

ascent has put us above the spring level. Lower down, if we follow the

well-known Flinders River, we find in the hot springs at Mount Brown

another upshoot from below that has evidently come from the neighbourhood

of the internal fires themselves. From this point right away west,

skirting the edge of the tableland, great rushes of water are

comparatively common. Some find their way between basaltic columns, and

after feeding the flow of some large river for many miles, die suddenly,

leaving the lower part of the watercourse a barren, sandy channel. The

heads of the Leichhardt and Gregory Rivers are particularly prolific in

springs; the latter river, as I have already noticed, being one of the

steadiest flowing rivers in Australia. Westward still, the heads of all

the rivers, no matter what their lower course is like, abound in springs

at the break of the descent from the tableland, and, as nearly as can be

computed, all these occur at nearly about an identical altitude.

To travel west, through to the western shore of Australia, only gives us

the same phenomena: everywhere the belt of springs is to be found about

half-way between the edge of the tableland and the coast level, just

where the abrupt descent terminates and a gentler slope is entered on. It

would be wearisome to enumerate them all, the fact of their existence is

so well-known in these days.

To fairly see what would be the result of bringing a little of the great

sea of hidden waters to the surface, let us take an instance of one of

the tributaries of that great artery of Australia, the Darling. The head

waters of the Warrego rise in latitude 24 deg., and at its very head,

within almost a stone's throw, are large springs, that find their way

down the range into the lowest river. Thence, through coastal lands, to

the eastern sea board. Now had these springs broken out on the higher

level of the Warrego watershed, their waters would have benefited

hundreds of miles of some of the fairest country in Australia, that now

suffers under constant drought.

The preserving and regulating of their waters, after guiding them into

the channels prepared by Nature, would be an after-work greatly assisted

by the varied formation of the country through which their courses would

run.

PART II.

MARITIME DISCOVERIES.

CHAPTER XV

To exhaustively deal with the early maritime discoveries of this

continent would require from the historian a vast power of research, and

especially of caution, in deciding or allotting to any one country the

priority of position as the "first-finders;" and while we know of few

studies affording more intellectual pleasure and enjoyment, we doubt if

the result would even then set at rest the mystery which still enshrouds

those narratives.

Since the commencement of this work, however, the following original

paper has been considered worthy of attention, as it presents the most

reasonable and logical theory yet put forward for the right to consider

the French as the original discoverers, and readers will have pleasure in

following out the various deductions as made by one of our

fellow-colonists, E. Marin La Meslée, Member of the Société de Géographie

Commerciale de Paris, who has, by great research, compiled, in the

following interesting article, the evidence relating to the voyage of the

old Norman navigator, Paulmier de Gonneville, in 1503.

Without endorsing what is here put forward, there is much in its favour,

and it shows a considerable degree of keen argument and cogent reasoning

that, in any case, is a valuable contribution to this department of

literature. Moreover, it may be the incentive for further exploration of

the locality mentioned at some future time, with the view of solving the

secrets of the strange carving and wonderful cave drawings, to which so

much interest has been attracted.

* * * * *

Most of the modern histories of Australia contain, with regard to the

voyage of De Gonneville, the same stereotyped remarks:--

"A claim has been set forth on behalf of a certain French sailor named De

Gonneville, who is stated to have landed on the coast of Australia in

1503, but this claim can easily be dismissed, as there is little doubt

that the country he describes is no other than the island of Madagascar."

This opinion, so generally entertained by modern writers is probably

based on the authority of Admiral Burney, and the eminent

English geographer, Mr. Major, who, in referring to Burney's remarks with

regard to this voyage in his paper on "Early Voyages to Terra Australis,"

printed in 1861, merely endorses this statement without attempting to

discuss it. The voyage of Jean Binot Paulmier de Gonneville is

authenticated, however, beyond the possibility of a doubt, but the

mystery to be cleared up as to what part of the Austral world the old

Norman navigator landed upon requires careful handling and very close

discussion.

De Gonneville left Honfleur in the month of June of the year 1503, in the

good ship L'ESPOIR, and after having rounded the Cape of Good Hope he was

assailed by tempestuous weather and driven into calm latitudes. After a

tedious spell of calm weather, want of water forced him to make for the

first land he could sight. The flight of some birds coming from the south

decided him to run a course to the southward, and after a few days' sail

he landed on the coast of a large territory, at the mouth of a fine

river, which he compares to the river Orne, at Caen. There he remained

for six months repairing his vessel, and making exploring excursions in

the neighbourhood, holding meanwhile amicable intercourse with the

inhabitants. He left this great Austral Land, to which he gave the name

of "Southern Indies," as being situated, in his estimation, "not far

from the true course to the East Indies," on the 3rd of July of the year

1504, taking with him two of the natives, one of whom was the son of the

chief of the people among whom he had resided. On the return voyage no

land was seen until the day after the Feast of St. Denis, I.E., the 10th

of October of the same year; but on nearing the coast of France the ship

was attacked off tile islands of Guernsey and jersey by an English

privateer, who robbed the navigators of all they brought from the land

they had visited, the most important loss being the journal of the

expedition. On his arrival at Honfleur, De Gonneville immediately entered

a plaint before the Admiralty Court of Normandy, and wrote a report of

his voyage, which was signed by the principal officers of his vessel.

The following is a translation of the title of this document

"Judicial declaration made before the Admiralty Court of Normandy by

Sieur de Gonneville, at the request of the King's procurator, respecting

the voyage of the good ship L'ESPOIR, of the port of Honfleur, to the

'Southern Indies.'"

Extracts from this judicial declaration were published for the first time

in 1663 by the bookseller Cramoisy, who had received them from a priest

named J. B. Paulmier, then Canon of the Cathedral Church of St. Pierre de

Lizieux. The document was addressed to Pope Alexander VII., and bears the

title of:--

"Memorial for the establishment of a Christian mission in the third part

of the world, or 'Terre Australe.' Dedicated to His Holiness Pope

Alexander VII., by a priest originating from that country."

This priest was the direct descendant of one of the "Australians" (a term

used for the first time by De Gonneville himself in referring to the

inhabitants of "Terre Australe"), whom the Norman captain had brought to

France, and to whom at his death he gave his name and fortune, in his

desire to make some atonement for the wrong which the worthy sailor

considered he had inflicted upon the native by taking him away from his

country under a promise to return, which he was never able to redeem. De

Gonneville married him to one of his relatives, and the priest in

question was the grandson of the "Australian," whose native name was

"Essomeric." Canon Paulmier appears to have been a man of mark in his

time, since he was resident in France as representative of the King of

Denmark. He was also a man of great learning, and Des Brosses informs us

that he had made a particular study of geography and the history of

voyages of discovery, with which he was perfectly acquainted.

The documents published by Des Brosses were translated and appeared for

the first time in English in a work entitled "Terra Australis Cognita,"

by the Scotch geographer, Callender, who, like Des Brosses, was fully

convinced that De Gonneville had landed somewhere on what is now known as

the Australian Continent. This territory was named by Des Brosses

AUSTRALASIA as far back as 1761, and was placed to the southward of the

Little Moluccas, where our maps now show the north-western portion of the

Australian Continent. Some English geographers, however, such as Admiral

Burney and Flinders, differ from the conclusions arrived at by both Des

Brosses and Callender. Burney inclines to the belief that the land

visited by De Gonneville could be no other than Madagascar. After him,

Major, than whom no higher or more respected authority exists in

geographical matters of this kind, seems to have too readily accepted

Burney's opinion. Perhaps they each considered the claim set up on behalf

of De Gonneville as based on insufficient grounds, and were disposed to

doubt, in the face of later knowledge of the natives of Australia, that

De Gonneville could possibly have induced one of his relatives to marry a

representative of these wretched races: and it must be admitted that

herein lies the great stumbling block in the way of fixing the position

of the territory upon which De Gonneville actually landed. It is also

probable that Burney was led to the conclusion that Madagascar was the

point visited by some inaccuracies in Callender's translation with regard

to the kind of head-dress described as worn by the women, which would

certainly appear to refer more to the inhabitants of the great African

island than to the Australians. The mystery is a difficult one to clear

up, but subsequent discoveries, and a closer scrutiny of the Norman

captain's narrative, prove, we think, clearly that De Gonneville's

"Southern Indies" could be no other than the Australian Continent, and

that he landed in reality at the mouth of some of the rivers on the

north-western coast.

In the first place, the judicial declaration cited above, which had been

for more than three centuries and a half mislaid among the records of the

Admiralty of Normandy, was discovered in the year 1873 by the French

geographer, Benoit D'Avezac, who published it in a pamphlet in which he

discusses this question, and concludes that the land visited by De

Gonneville must have been some part of South America. But this official

document, which is similar in almost all points to the memoirs of the

priest, Paulmier, and establishes at once the fidelity of his extracts

and the absolute truth of the voyage of the French captain, does not

contain any additional information which could lead to such conclusion,

based only on his description of the natives of the "Southern Indies."

D'Avezac's contention cannot be sustained, and must give way before the

evidence of other facts; but as the same arguments against his theory

apply also to that of Burney and Major, we need not discuss it here for

the present.

It is, however, necessary, in order that the reader may form a clear idea

of the subject, to quote at length the original memoirs as published by

the worthy priest. As the translation of Callender is, on the whole, a

fairly good one--although it may be inferred that the Scotch geographer,

who wrote in 1761, was better acquainted with the pure French of the

eighteenth century than with the quaint terms of the old Norman dialect,

in which De Gonneville's narrative is written--we shall transcribe here

that portion which bears on the subject, reserving to ourselves the duty

of pointing out the few inaccuracies which may have led Burney and others

to erroneous conclusions.

EXTRACT FROM THE MEMOIRS OF J. B. PAULMIER.

It were to be wished that some better hand than mine were employed to

give an account of these southern regions of the world; but I cannot,

without being wanting to my character, to my birth, and to my profession,

omit doing this duty to the natives of the Southern World. Soon after

the Portuguese had discovered the way to the East Indies, some French

merchants, invited by a prospect of sharing the gains of this trade,

fitted out a ship, which, in its route to the Indies, being driven from

the straight course by a tempest, was thrown upon this great southern

land. The natives of this region received the French with the most

cordial hospitality, and, during an abode of six months, did them every

good office in their power. The French, willing to bring some of the

natives home with them, prevailed upon the easy credulity of the chief of

that nation to give them one of his sons, promising that they would

return him to his country fully instructed in the European arts,

particularly that of making war, which these Australians desired above

all things. Thus was the Indian brought into France, where he lived long

enough to converse with many who are yet living, and, being baptised, he

received the name and surname of the captain who brought him over. His

godfather, in order to acquit himself in some degree of what he owed to

the Australians, procured him a small establishment in France, and

married him to one of his own relations. One of the sons of this marriage

was my grandfather. The solemn promise the French had given to the

inhabitants to return him among them, and what I owe to my original

country, induces me to give the following short account of the voyage,

compiled from the memoirs of my own family:--

"The French having formed the design of following the steps of Vasco de

Gama in the East Indies, equipped a vessel at Honfleur for that voyage,

which, being commanded by the Sieur de Gonneville, weighed anchor in

June, 1503, and, having doubled the Cape of Good Hope, was attacked by a

furious storm, which, driving them far from their intended course, left

them uncertain in what part of the world they were. Being in want of

water, and their ship having suffered much by storm, the sight of some

birds from the south induced them to hold their course that way, where

they soon discovered a large country, to which they gave the name of

Southern India, according to the usage of those days, when it was

customary to give the name of India to every new discovered country. They

cast anchor in a river, which they say was of the bigness of the Orne,

near Caen. Here they spent six months refitting their ship, but the crew,

being intimidated, obliged Gonneville to return to France. During his

stay in this country he had time to form a most curious account of the

country and the manners of its inhabitants, which he inserted in his

journal; but, unfortunately, being just off the coast of France, he was

taken near the isle of Guernsey by an English privateer, who robbed him

of his journal and everything he had. On his landing he complained to the

Admiralty, and, having emitted the following judicial declaration, at the

request of the procurator of the King, he inserted it in a short relation

of the discoveries he had made. This public act, authenticated by all the

proper forms, is dated 19th July, 1505, and signed by the principal

officers of the ship. From this the following are extracts:--

"ITEM. They say that during their stay in that country they conversed in

all freedom with the natives, having gained their goodwill by some

trifling presents. That the said Indians were simple people, leading a

careless, easy life, subsisting by hunting and fishing, and on some roots

and herbs which the soil furnishes spontaneously. Some wear mantles

either of skins or of woven mats, and some of them are made of feathers,

like those of the gypsies in our country, only they are shorter, with a

kind of apron girt above the haunches, which the men wear down to the

knee, and the women to the calf of the leg. The women wear collars made

of bones and small shells. The men have no ornament of this sort, but

carry a bow, and arrows pointed with sharp bones. They have also a sword,

made of very hard wood, burned and sharpened at the end; and these are

all their weapons. The women and girls go bare-headed, with their hair

neatly tied up in tresses mixed with flowers of most beautiful colours.

The men let their hair hang down, but they wear crowns of feathers,

richly coloured.

"They say further, that having gone two days' journey into the country

and along the coasts both to right and left, they found it very fertile,

and full of many birds, beasts, and fish utterly unknown in Christendom.

The late Nicole Le Fevre, of Honfleur, a volunteer in this voyage, had

taken exact draughts of all these things. But everything was lost,

together with the journals of the voyage when the ship was taken: and

this makes their account very imperfect.

"ITEM. They say, further, that the country is not very populous, the

natives living dispersed in villages consisting of thirty, forty, or

eighty huts. Those huts are made of stakes drove into the ground, the

intervals being filled up with herbs and leaves, and a hole at top to let

out the smoke. The doors are formed of sticks neatly tied together, and

are shut with wooden keepers like those of the stables in Normandy. The

beds are made of soft mats, skins, or feathers. Their household utensils

are formed of wood, even the pots with which they boil water but, to

preserve them from burning, they are laid over with a kind of clay an

inch thick.

"ITEM. They say that the country is divided into many cantons, each of

which has its king, or chief. These kings are highly honoured and feared

by their subjects, though no better dressed or lodged than they. They

have power of life and death over the subjects, of which some of the crew

saw a memorable example in the person of a young man of twenty years of

age, who, in a fit of passion, had struck his mother. Though no complaint

was made, yet the king sent for him and ordered him to be thrown into the

river with a large stone tied to his neck, having previously called

together the young men of that and the neighbouring villages to witness

his punishment.

"The name of this king, to whose territory the ship came, was Arosca. His

canton extended a day's journey within land, having about a dozen

villages in it, each of which had its particular chief, but under Arosca.

The said Arosca was, to appearance, about sixty, then a widower, but had

six sons--from thirty to fifteen years of age--who came often to the

ship. Arosca was of middle stature, thick set, of grave but pleasant

countenance. He was then at peace with the neighbouring kings, but they

and he were at war with the people in the inland country, against whom he

marched twice, during the ship's stay there. Each time he had a body of

500 or 600 men with him, and when he returned the last time, there were

great rejoicings made on account of a victory he had gained. There was

nothing but excursions for a few days, in which they begged the French to

march with them, in hopes of being assisted by their firearms, but the

commander excused himself.

"ITEM. They say that there came five of their kings to see the ship, but

they wore nothing to distinguish them but their plumes of feathers,

which, contrary to those of their subjects, was of one colour. The

principal inhabitants wore some feathers of the colour of the king's

mixed with the others. Arosca had his of green.

"ITEM. They say that these friendly Indians received them as angels from

Heaven, and were infinitely surprised at the bulk of the ship, the

artillery, mirrors, and other things they saw on board. Above all, they

were astonished at our method of communicating our thoughts to each other

by letters from the ship to those on shore, not being able to divine how

the letter could speak. For these reasons they greatly feared the French.

At the same time they were so much beloved by them, on account of some

axes, mirrors and knives they gave them, that they were always ready to

do anything in their power to serve the strangers, bringing them great

quantities of flesh and fish, fruits, and other provisions. Besides

which, they brought them large quantities of skins, feathers, and roots,

of dying in different colours, in exchange for which they received

different kinds of hardware of small price, and thus the French got

together above one hundred quintals of their goods.

"ITEM. They say that, intending to leave there some memorial that this

country had been visited by Christians, they erected a large wooden

cross, thirty-five feet high, and painted over, placed on an eminence in

view of the sea. This they did with much ceremony on the Day of

Pentecost, 504, the cross being carried by the captain and his officers,

all barefooted, accompanied by the King Arosca and the principal Indians,

after whom followed the crew, under arms, singing the Litany. These were

accompanied by a crowd of Indians, to whom they gave to understand the

meaning of this ceremony as well as they could. Having set up the cross,

they fired volleys of their cannon and small arms, charging the Indians

to keep carefully and honour the monument they had set up, and endeavoured

to gain them to this by presenting them with a number of baubles, which,

though of small value, were highly prized by them. On one side of this

cross were engraved the name of the Pope and that of our Sovereign, the

name of the Admiral of France, and those of the captain and all his crew.

On the other side appeared the Latin verses following, made by the above

Nicole Le Fevre, signifying the date of this transaction--

"HIC sacra paLMarIUs, post UIt gonIVILLabInotUs,

"GreX, foCIUs parIterqUe UtraqUe progenles.

"ITEM. They say that, having refitted their ship in the best way they

could, they prepared to return to France, and being willing, after the

manner of those who discover strange lands, to carry some of the natives

with them, they persuaded the king, Arosca, to let them have one of his

sons, promising to the father that they would bring him back in twenty

moons at farthest, with others who should teach them the use of firearms,

and how to make mirrors, axes, knives, and whatever else they admired

among the Christians. These promises determined Arosca to let his son,

called Essomeric, go along with them, to whom he gave for a companion an

Indian of thirty-five years of age, called Namoa. He and his people

convoyed them to the ship, giving them provisions, besides many beautiful

feathers and other rarities, in order to present to the King of France.

At parting, Arosca obliged them to swear that they would return in twenty

moons, and when the ship got under way the whole people gave a great cry,

and, forming the sign of the Cross with their fingers, gave them to

understand that they would carefully preserve the one set up among them.

"ITEM. They say that they left this southern country July 3rd, 1504, and

saw no land until the day after the Feast of St. Denis, during which time

they were much distressed by a malignant fever, of which their surgeon

and three more died, among whom was the Indian, Namoa. The young son of

Arosca also falling sick, they baptised him by the name of Binot, after

their captain, who stood godfather to him. This was done September 14th,

after which the young Indian grew better and arrived in France."

Callender further remarks:--

"Thus far the judicial declaration emitted by De Gonneville before the

Admiralty. The rest of the author's memoir is filled with exhortations to

the French to profit by this lucky discovery, and send the writer back to

the country of his ancestors; but this appears never to have been done.

The author seems to have begun this extract from De Gonneville's

declaration in that place where he talks of the manners of the

inhabitants, omitting what went before, though it is highly probable that

the navigator must have said something of the voyage outwards and the

portion of the country where he landed, which would have been of great

importance for us to know at this day. The French writer from whom we

have translated the above account informs us that the Count de Maurepas

caused search lately through all the records of the Admiralty in

Normandy, in order to find the original of this declaration, but an

interval of two centuries and a half, and the confusions occasioned by

the civil wars, had dispersed all the old papers, and all the information

that M. de Maurepas could obtain was that a tradition still subsisted

there that such a piece was once among the records, but they could give

no account of what was become of it. Thus the full account of an attempt

which Magellan some years after finished with success is entirely lost,

except the very lame extract we have been able to lay before the reader.

Our French author tells us he has seen another copy of this memorial at

the end of the dedication to Pope Alexander VII. The author signs his

name thus, at full length, 'Paulmier, Prêtre Indien Chanoine de l'Eglise

Cathédrale de Lizieux.' The proprietor of this copy has added a note,

testifying that this copy was given him by the author himself in 1664. He

commends him as a person of universal knowledge, and one who had

travelled all over Europe. He had made the history of navigation his

principal study, and was perfectly acquainted with it. In another note we

are told that Essomeric, the son of Arosca, lived to the year 1583, and

left posterity under the name of Binot. One of his grand-children, J. B.

Binot, was President of the Treasury of Provence, and left an only

daughter, who was m married to the Marquis de la Barbent, May 4th, 1725.

Our readers will not be surprised that we have entered into a detail of

facts in order to elucidate and confirm the truth of this first discovery

of the Terra Australis, especially as this account was never seen in our

language till now, and is therefore little known even to those who are

otherwise well acquainted with voyages made to this part of the world."

Callender, however, has omitted to translate the remainder of Des

Brosses' account, in which, among other facts, the important statement is

made that the priest Paulmier had become personally known to M. Flaconet,

who met him for the first time at the residence of the Lord Bishops of

Heliopolis and Beryte, where he often met him in company with M. de

Flacourt, who had commanded in Madagascar, and AI. Fernamel, father of

the Superior of the Foreign Missions. The good abbe was doing all in his

power to persuade these gentlemen to assist in sending a mission to these

Australians, and it also appears that he had communicated his views on

the subject to St. Vincent de Paul, who would have presented his memorial

to the Pope had he not been prevented by death.

Before attempting to fix the position of the country visited by De

Gonneville, it is necessary to refute here the various opinions expressed

on the subject which refer to countries other than the Australian

Continent. The most ancient is that brought forward by tile geographers,

Duval and Nolin, and the navigator, Bouvet, who place those lands almost

immediately to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. As there are no lands

thereabout, this opinion is hardly worth quoting but, considering the

very limited knowledge of the geography of that part of the world in

those days, the error may be readily understood. Others, basing their

opinion on the length of De Gonneville's voyage, have surmised that he

might have landed on some part of the coast of Tasmania or of New

Zealand, but this conclusion is equally untenable, as these islands are

not situated within calm latitudes, and are not near or even in the

direction of the "true course to the East Indies," which the French

sailor was satisfied he was not far off, as, under this belief, he, on

leaving the "Southern Indies" endeavoured to induce his crew to

continue their voyage. Besides, the description given of the inhabitants

and their manners, applies more to natives of a tropical or semi-tropical

climate than to those of such cold regions as New Zealand and Tasmania.

We are, therefore, confronted with only one more opinion, which is held

by most English geographers on the high authority of Admiral Burney.

"Let the whole account," says Burney, "be reconsidered without

prepossession, and the idea that will immediately and most naturally

occur is that Southern India, discovered by De 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 Eastern India would scarcely have happened if they had been so

far advanced to the east as New Holland."

It is difficult to conceive how Burney could have expressed such an

opinion, unless he was led to that conclusion by some errors in

Callender's translations. There is, in fact, a passage having reference

to the descriptions of the head-dress worn by the native women, in which

the Scotch geographer has given the following version of Des Brosses'

original:--

"The women and girls go bareheaded, with their hair neatly tied up in

tresses, mixed with flowers of most beautiful colours."?

The original narrative reads thus:--

"Et vont les femmes et filles tête nue, ayant les cheveux gentiment

teurchés de petits cordons d'herbes teintes de couleurs vives et

luisantes."

Which means:--

"The women and girls go bare headed, having their hair ornamented with

little strings of grass dyed in bright colours."

This, as will be seen, is a very different version. Callender evidently

did not understand the old Norman expression--GENITMENT TEURCHÉS, which

means "nicely ornamented," and translated it by the word that appeared to

him more akin in form, TRESSES, hence, "the hair neatly tied up in

tresses", which is a characteristic custom of the native women of the

island of Madagascar.

But this is a small matter. It is, however, more difficult to dispose of

another fact as telling against the Madagascar theory, which apparently

did not strike Burney. Gonneville states that he was driven into calm

latitudes, and after tedious navigation, was directed southward by the

flight of birds. It is only necessary here to compare dates in order to

show how misapplied would be this description to the latitudes within

which Madagascar is situated.

De Gonneville left Honfleur in June, 1503, and quilted Southern India on

the 3rd of July of the following year. As he stayed six months in that

country, his outward voyage had, therefore, lasted about seven months,

and he must have been in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope about

December, 1503, or January, 1504. As it is a well-known fact that

tempestuous weather is generally met with from the SOUTH-WEST and,

moreover, that the prevailing wind during that season of the year is from

the north-west, De Gonneville, whose true course lay to the north-east,

was probably driven much more toward the east than he expected, for he

expressly states that he was convinced he was not far from the true

course to the East Indies. Had the tempests blown from the SOUTH-EAST,

there would never, in all probability, have been any need discussing his

account, for he would have had none to render, as his ship would have

been driven very quickly against the East African coast, or the

south-east coast of Madagascar and wrecked.

It must be assumed that De Gonneville was, for his time, a man of great

ability, well versed in nautical matters, and the use of the primitive

instruments which were then known, and his opinion as, to the position of

his ship, and his desire to proceed to the East Indies, being inwardly

satisfied that he was not far from the object of his voyage, is certainly

entitled to some consideration, although, unfortunately, he has not left

any indication of the latitude or longitude of the country he visited. If

to this be added the facts that it is precisely in the season extending

from December to March, that the Madagascar latitudes are constantly

visited by hurricanes, and that the cyclones which originate in the

Indian Ocean burst over the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, and

generally travel towards these coasts, it will be apparent that the term

"calm latitudes" must necessarily apply to some other part of the Indian

Ocean. It is equally well-known that the belt which extends round the

globe between 10 deg. of latitude, north, and 10 deg. of latitude, south,

is in all parts of the ocean, and at all times, subject to very tedious

calms, though the waters may occasionally be ruffled by very heavy

hurricanes and storms. These facts force us to seek for the land visited

in the neighbourhood of these latitudes. The objection raised by the

sailors to proceed to the East Indies means nothing, as they had no idea

of their position, while as ignorant and superstitious men, tired of a

long and dangerous voyage, they had little reason to share in their

chief's confidence in his estimate of the locality they had reached, and

had no thought but that of returning homewards without facing again the

dangers of unknown seas.

Further arguments are not wanting to refute the Madagascar theory. In the

first place, the Portuguese, who discovered that island in 1506, and

explored its coasts in the following years, could not have Ion. remained

in ignorance of De Gonneville's voyage. The cross erected by his

companion was, perhaps, not destroyed; but, so short a period having

c-lapsed between their discoveries and the Norman captain's voyage, the

natives could scarcely have forgotten so important an event. The only

alternative theory would be that, in their explorations along the coast

of the island, the Portuguese were so unfortunate as to land everywhere

but near the spot where De Gonneville may be supposed to have resided. It

is stated, moreover, that the priest Paulmier wrote his memorial to the

Pope with the object of obtaining a Christian mission to the home of his

ancestors; but the Portuguese missionaries were preaching the Gospel in

Madagascar almost since the first visits of their countrymen to that

island, and it is self-evident that the Abbe, who was often in the

company of the priests who in Paris administered the foreign missions in

non-Christian countries, must have been aware of this fact; while M. de

Villermon positively states that he often met Paulmier in company with M.

de Flacourt who had been Governor of Madagascar where France had

established itself as far back as 1642. What would have been the

necessity, it may be asked, of praying that a Christian mission should be

sent to a country where missions had flourished for over a century, or of

founding a French colony in an island which was already occupied by

France, and had received resident governors ten years before the good

priest wrote?

But there is one last point which is sufficient in itself to remove all

doubts on the subject. Here, again, we must compare dates, and we find

that:--

"They left that country on the 3rd of July, 15o4, and did not see land

until the day after the Feast of St. Denis, i.e., 10th October, 1504."

De Gonneville's report to the Admiralty is dated 15th June, 1505, and

admitting that there was some delay between his landing at Honfleur and

the date of his report, which was signed by the principal officers of his

vessel, he could hardly have reached France before March or April of that

year. As he was, moreover, convinced that the country to which he had

given the name of Southern India lay to the south of the East Indies, it

is evident that on his return home his course must have been SOUTH-WEST,

which, had he started from the east coast of Madagascar, or, as D'Avezac

thinks, from that of South America, would have landed him on his starting

point. It is evident that the land he sighted after three months'

navigation could be no other than the Cape of Good Hope.

This is sufficient, we venture to think, to dispose of the Madagascar

theory, as it does also of the South American one, which, it may be

added, can hardly be admitted as possible, when the length of the return

voyage of De Gonneville (about twelve months) is taken into

consideration, together with the fact that the whole of the South

American coast within the region where De Gonneville might have landed

was explored and settled about the same time, and some record of his

voyage would certainly have been found.

Where, then, shall we look for this Southern India, for that fine river,

at the mouth of which De Gonneville remained six months, and for that

fine country which his companions explored in their journeys with the

natives?

A river of the size described pre-supposes a country of considerable

extent, and therefore De Gonneville could not have landed on any of the

islands lying between Madagascar and the Sunda Islands. It could not have

been either of the latter named, as they lie to the north, and not the

south of the calm latitudes referred to by De Gonneville. We are perforce

obliged to admit that, as it was not and cannot have been Madagascar, it

must have been Australia, and in all probability the north-west coast of

the continent, about the Prince Regent and Glenelg rivers, where the

explorers King and Grey found fine rivers and a rich country fairly

populated with a race of warlike natives. It is certainly difficult when

reading the description given of the "Australians," by De Gonneville, to

imagine that they could possibly have had any resemblance to the races we

are accustomed to meet with in almost all parts of Australia. Still less

could they have resembled the wretched creatures which Dampier found

inhabiting the west coast, between Cape Le veque and the North-west Cape,

and we must, therefore, look further north for a country and a race of

men answering better to the description of the Norman captain.

De Gonneville found a fine district, watered by a large river, and

inhabited by men who possessed a kind of rudimentary civilization, a

tribal organization, and obeyed some established individual authority. He

further tells us that they lived in villages, or agglomerations of huts

of the shape of the covered markets in the Normandy villages--that is to

say, oval or round, made of stakes driven into the ground, and the

intervals filled up with herbs and the leaves of trees; and that the

speech of these people is soft and melodious. He also speaks of the

birds, beasts, fishes, and other curious animals unknown in Christendom,

of which Master Nicole le Fevre, of Honfleur, who was a volunteer in the

voyage, had taken exact draughts. And, last of all, we are told that De

Gonneville induced the chief or king of the country to allow him to take

home his son and another Indian as a companion, promising to return with

them in twenty "moons" at furthest, and owing to the impossibility of

fulfilling that promise, he procured the young Australian an

establishment in France, and married him to one of his relatives, from

whom he had posterity. This last portion of the narrative would appear

the most incredible of all, if we had not official and documentary

evidence of its absolute truth, as it must certainly be presumed that the

Australian could not possibly have belonged to the wretched races with

whom we are familiar.

But, however difficult it may seem to reconcile the account of De

Gonneville with our general knowledge of the natives of Australia, the

task is not so hopeless as at first sight may appear; and we shall crave

the attention of the reader to the following description of the country

and the inhabitants of that part of North-west Australia which surrounds

the Glenelg. and Prince Regent and other rivers in their neighbourhood,

discovered and visited for the first time by Captain King and Lieutenant,

now Sir George, Grey, the latter exploring it to some distance inland in

the year 1838.

Referring to that part of the country, Lieut. Grey says in his "Expedition

in North-Western and Western Australia," p. 179:--

"The peak we ascended afforded us a very beautiful view: to the north lay

Prince Regent's River, and the good country we were now upon extended as

far as the inlets which communicated with this great navigable stream; to

the south and south-westward lay the Glenelg, meandering through as

verdant and fertile a district as the eye of man ever rested on. The

luxuriance of tropical vegetation was now seen to great advantage in the

height of the rainy season. The smoke of native fires rose in every

direction from the country which lay like a map at our feet; and when I

recollected that all those natural riches of soil and climate lay between

two navigable rivers, and that its sea coast frontage, not much exceeding

fifty miles in latitude, contained three of the finest harbours in the

world in which the tide rose thirty-seven and a half feet, I could not

but feel we were in a land singularly blessed by nature."

Could any description more closely adapt itself to the fine country,

fairly peopled (PEUPLÉE ENTRE DEUX) of which De Gonneville speaks.

Further, on page 195 g S of the same work, Grey says:--

"We at length reached a watershed connecting the country we had left with

that we were entering upon. . . This watershed consisted principally of a

range of elevated hills, from which streams were thrown off to the

Glenelg and to Prince Regent's River. The scenery here was fine, but I

have so often before described the same character of landscape that it

will be sufficient to say, we again looked down from high land on a very

fertile country, covered with a tropical vegetation, and lying between

two navigable rivers. I CAN COMPARE THIS TO NO OTHER AUSTRALIAN SCENERY,

FOR I HAVE MET WITH NOTHING IN THE OTHER PORTIONS OF THE CONTINENT WHICH

AT ALL RESEMBLE IT."

Referring to the fauna, the same authority says:--

"North Western Australia seems to be peculiarly prolific in birds,

reptiles, and insects, who dwell here unmolested. . . ."

After mentioning several kinds of kangaroos, opossums, native dogs, etc.,

the former of which animals are constantly hunted down by the natives,

Grey, speaking of the birds, says:--

"To describe the birds common to these parts requires more time than to

detail the names of the few quadrupeds to be found. Indeed, in no other

country that I have ever visited do birds so abound. Even the virgin

forests of America cannot, in my belief, boast of such numerous feathered

denizens. . . . The birds of this country possess, in many instances, an

excessively beautiful plumage, and he alone who has traversed these wild

and romantic regions, who has beheld a flock of many-coloured parrakeets

sweeping like a moving rainbow through the air, can form any adequate

idea of the scenes that then burst on the eye of the wondering

naturalist. As to fish, the rivers abound in many species of excellent

fish."

Could there be a more fitting description of that country which De

Gonneville and his companions explored along the coast and in the

interior to a distance of two days' journey, which "they found very

fertile and full of many birds, beasts, and fish hitherto unknown in

Christendom?" To what does this latter qualification apply? Certainly not

to birds, beasts, or fish of either South America or Madagascar, as the

American fauna was, to a certain extent, already known in Christendom,

and that of Madagascar, which resembles that of the east coast of Africa,

apart from a few species not particularly remarkable or numerous, was

also well-known to Europeans. These beasts, of which, to use the old

Norman phrase of "Master Nicole Le Fevre, avait pourtrayé les façons,"

must have struck him as very peculiar indeed when he refers to them as

"utterly unknown in Christendom," and we know well that no other country

can boast of a fauna so essentially different to that of any other part

of the world as the Australian Continent.

And now as to the natives of this part of Australia, i.e., the

neighbourhood of the Glenelg and Prince Regent's River. Grey, in page 251

of the above cited work, says:--

"My knowledge of the natives is chiefly drawn from what I have observed

of their haunts, their painted caves, and drawings. I have, moreover,

become acquainted with several of their weapons, some of their

implements, and took pains to study their disposition and habits as far

as I could.

"In their manner of life, their weapons, and mode of hunting, they

closely resemble the other Australian tribes with which I have since

become pretty intimately acquainted, WHILST IN THEIR FORM AND APPEARANCE

THERE IS A STRIKING DIFFERENCE. They are, in general, very tall and

robust, and exhibit in their legs and arms a fine, full development of

muscle which is unknown to southern races. They wear no clothes, and

their bodies are marked by scars and wales. They seem to have no regular

mode of dressing their hair, this appearing to depend entirely on

individual taste or caprice.

"THEY APPEAR TO LIVE IN TRIBES, SUBJECT, PERHAPS, TO SOME INDIVIDUAL

AUTHORITY, AND EACH TRIBE HAS A SORT OF CAPITAL OR HEAD-QUARTERS, WHERE

THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN REMAIN, WHILST THE MEN, DIVIDED INTO SMALL

PARTIES, HUNT AND SHOOT IN EVERY DIRECTION. The largest number we saw

together, including women and children, amounted to nearly two hundred.

"Their arms consist of stone-headed spears, of throwing-sticks, of

boomerangs or kileys, clubs, and stone hatchets.

"These natives manufacture their water buckets and weapons very neatly,

and make from the bark of a tree a light but strong cord.

"THEIR HUTS, OF WHICH I ONLY SAW THOSE ON THE COAST, ARE CONSTRUCTED, IN

AN OVAL FORM, OF THE BOUGHS OF TREES, AND ARE ROOFED WITH DRY REEDS. THE

DIAMETER OF ONE WHICH I MEASURED WAS ABOUT FOURTEEN FEET AT THE BASE.

"THEIR LANGUAGE IS SOFT AND MELODIOUS, SO MUCH SO AS TO LEAD TO THE

INFERENCE THAT IT DIFFERS VERY MATERIALLY, IF NOT RADICALLY, FROM THE

MORE SOUTHERN AUSTRALIAN DIALECTS, WHICH I HAVE SINCE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY

TO INQUIRE INTO. Their gesticulation is expressive, and their bearing

manly and noble. They never speared a horse or sheep belonging to us,

and, judging by the degree of industry shown in their paintings, the

absence of anything offensive in the subjects delineated, and the careful

finish of some articles of common use, I should infer that, under proper

treatment, they might easily be raised very considerably in the scale of

civilisation.

"A REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCE IS THE PRESENCE AMONGST THEM OF A RACE, TO

APPEARANCE, TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND ALMOST WHITE, WHO SEEM TO EXERCISE NO

SMALL INFLUENCE OVER THE REST. I am forced to believe that the distrust

evinced towards strangers arose from these persons, as in both instances

when we were attacked, the hostile party was led by one of these

light-coloured men."

We need only draw the attention of the reader to the close resemblance

between the description of De Gonneville's "Australians" and that of

Grey's in many particulars, especially in their tribal organization, the

form of their houses, [Note, below] their language, and the fact of the

existence among them, as leaders of the tribes, of that race of almost

white men also observed about the same parts by Captain King, who thinks

that they are of Malay origin.

[Note: Callender, in his translation omits a passage referring to the

form of the huts of the Australians, which De Gonneville says were "EN

FORME DE HALLES," i.e., in the form of covered markets such as seen in

the villages of Normandy, which are generally oval structures.]

There are certain discrepancies, however, which cannot be explained away,

unless it is taken into consideration that Grey visited those coasts

three hundred and thirty years after the French sailor, and that during

that interval of time the customs of the inhabitants cannot fall to have

undergone a change. It may be also that the light-coloured people seen

amongst them are but the remnants of once numerous tribes, probably of

Malay origin, as these latter have left undeniable marks of their having

not intermixed with the native races throughout the whole of northern

Australia. One of the points of dissemblance which might be pointed out

is the fact that De Gonneville describes them as using bows and arrows,

which is at variance with our knowledge of the arms of the Australians,

and equally differs from Grey's description of the same; but this

objection exists also as regards the inhabitants of Madagascar, who,

besides, had already attained a much higher degree of civilisation than

that described by De Gonneville--being acquainted with the use of iron,

the manufacture of cotton and silk goods, fine mats, and many other

articles of value among civilised people. The Madagascar natives never

made use of the skins of animals as an article of dress, whilst this

custom is common to the aborigines of all parts of Australia, where the

kangaroo, opossums, native bears, and emus, furnish them with the

material, with which they could manufacture these garments of skins or

beds of feathers described by De Gonneville. But if the theory is

accepted, which we are about to put forward regarding the inhabitants of

this part of Australia--that at the time of De Gonneville's visit a

people of Malay origin inhabited it in fairly large numbers, of which the

light-coloured natives seen by Grey are the descendants, and that with

their disappearance from that district some of their customs disappeared

with them, the natives of the present day retaining only those best

suited to their actual mode of life--then the Norman captain's narrative

will become intelligible. Besides, as regards the use of bow and arrow,

certainly known to the Malays, although the intercourse of the latter

with other tribes on the north Australian coast has been undoubtedly

frequent, nowhere have the Australian natives adopted that kind of arm,

whilst in New Guinea and all over Northern Polynesia the bow and arrow is

the inevitable war accoutrement of the savage, who certainly obtained the

knowledge of it from his Malay forefathers. No wonder, then, that in the

district explored by Grey, these arms should have given way to the

equally effective boomerang, throwing-stick, and spears, and other

weapons of the North Australian savage.

The theory we have just submitted with regard to the country round the

Glenelg River and that of the Prince Regent having been at one time

inhabited by a different and superior race is no idle one, and is proved

by the discoveries of remarkable paintings made by the same Lieutenant

Grey in the caves near the mouth of the abovenamed rivers.

Again we shall have to quote this excellent author, whose clear and

concise descriptions are of such value, and refer the reader to the

following passages in the diary of his explorations in that part of the

Australian Continent:--

"On this sloping roof the principal figure (1) which I have just alluded

to was drawn. In order to produce the greater effect, the rock about it

was painted black, and the figure itself coloured with the most vivid red

and white. It thus appeared to stand out from the rock, and I was

certainly surprised at the moment that I first saw this gigantic head and

upper part of a body bending over and staring grimly down on me.

"It would be impossible to convey in words an adequate idea of this

uncouth and savage figure; I shall, therefore, only give such a succinct

account of this and the other paintings as will serve as a sort of

description to accompany the annexed plates.

"Length of head and face 2 ft. 0 in.

"Width of face 0 ft 17 in. (sic)

"Length from bottom of face to navel 2 ft 6 in.

"Its head was encircled by bright red rays, something like the rays which

one sees proceeding from the sun when depicted on the signboard of a

public house. Inside of this came a broad stripe of very brilliant red,

which was coped by lines of white; both inside and outside of this red

space were narrow stripes of a still deeper red, intended probably to

mark its boundaries. The face was painted vividly white and the eyes

black, being, however, surrounded by red and yellow lines. The body,

head, and arms were outlined red, the body being curiously painted with

red stripes and bars.

"Upon the rock which formed the left hand wall of this cave, and which

partly faced you on entering, was a very singular painting (2), vividly

coloured, representing four heads joined together. From the mild

expression of the countenances, I imagined them to represent females, and

they appeared to be drawn in such a manner and in such a position as to

look up at the principal figure which I have before described. Each had a

very remarkable head-dress, coloured with a deep, bright blue, and one

had a necklace on. Both of the lower figures had a sort of dress, painted

with red, in the same manner as that of the principal figure, and one of

them had a band round the waist. Each of the four faces was marked by a

totally distinct expression of countenance, and although none of them had

mouths, two, I thought, were otherwise rather good-looking. The whole

painting was executed on a white ground, and its dimensions were:--

"Total length of painting 3 ft. 6¾ in.

"Breadth across two upper heads 2 ft. 6 in.

"Breadth across two lower heads 3 ft. 1½ in.

These remarkable paintings attracted Grey's attention, and led him

wondering as to their origin. The solution to that problem he has however

left to others. (Fig 1, see Appendix.)

According to him, the first two frescoes--i.e., those situated on the

roof of the cave, representing the principal figure, and that

representing the four persons (probably women), are one subject. A glance

at their position, and the expression of their faces, leads one to accept

Grey's opinion as not only admissible, but as the only accurate one. The

group of women is placed in an attitude of prayer, or of submission

towards the central figure, also representing a woman, as all except the

head-dress, which is a little different, exactly resemble the others; it

is also evident that the artist wished to represent a religious subject.

It is necessary to remark that the people among which these drawings have

been found belong to an almost savage race, and in admitting that they

may be the work of a superior race that once inhabited these parts

(which, by the way, is the opinion of Sir George Grey), yet this superior

race could hardly be any other but some Malay tribe. Among these latter,

as well as among all savage, or semi-savage people, woman is considered

as a being of an inferior order, more fit to become a slave than to be

worshipped, and as the Malays had either adopted for centuries past,

either one of two creeds, that of Buddhism from the Hindoos, or that of

Mahomet from the Arabs, we look in vain, save in the former, and that in

only one or two well-known instances, which cannot for a moment be

entertained here, for the worship of a woman. The Malay religious

artistic subjects that we know of are of an order far above that of which

we have a sample here, and there is no resemblance at all in their

paintings with anything depicted in these caves.

There are several points of importance with regard to these pictures, to

which we beg to direct the reader's attention. In the first place, the

perfect oval shape of the head; secondly, the colour of the face, which

is painted VIVIDLY WHITE, evidently for some purpose; and thirdly, the

fact that the kind of dress worn over the bodies exactly resembles that

described by De Gonneville as worn by the women of the Southern Indies,

made of some kind of matted material, sometimes also of skins, or of

feathers, girt above the haunches and reaching to the knee. (Fig. 2, see

Appendix.)

Compare, also, the date assigned by Grey to these pictures-two or three

centuries, and this coincidence will appear still more remarkable.

But to return to the subject. It is difficult, if not impossible to

credit the natives at the time of Grey's visit as being the authors of

these paintings. The eminent traveller absolutely discredits such a

possibility, and attributes them to a far distant epoch, and a totally

different race. The perfect oval shape of the faces was not drawn so

without a purpose, and neither were they painted so vividly white, if the

artist had not desired to pourtray types of a race certainly not existing

at present on the the Australian continent. It is difficult to admit that

it might be of Malay origin, as tile head-dress, or to describe it more

perfectly, the AUREOLA surrounding the head, is met with in Buddhist

paintings or sculptures only as surrounding the head of gods, who can

always be recognised by their peculiar and constant characteristics, and

nowhere are these AUREOLAS surrounded with the rays in the shape of

"FLAMÈCHES," which confront us in the drawing of the principal figure.

(Fig. 3, see Appendix.) It resembles, indeed, much better Grey's own

description:--

"Its head was encircled by bright red rays, something like the rays which

one sees proceeding from the sun, when depicted on the sign board of a

public house."

There is evidently here some strange mixture of European and Malay art,

the former exhibited in the remarkable AUREOLAS which so commonly

surround the heads of saints in the old images, in painted church windows

of the middle ages, and the times of De Gonneville, and the latter in the

kind of dress over the body, which appears to be meant to represent some

sort of matted stuff. This painting is not the work of a native artist;

it is unlikely that it could be the work of Malays, in the third place

there is in its position and its peculiar appearance such a striking

touch of an European conception, mingled with barbaric surroundings, that

one is almost inclined to the belief that we are here in the presence of

a subject of religious, nay, a Christian order.

This deduction may need additional evidence, and if the reader will

kindly follow with us Lieutenant Grey's steps, he will be placed in the

presence of a still more remarkable painting, which we shall presently

describe.

"The cave was twenty feet deep, and at the entrance seven feet high and

about forty feet wide. As before stated the floor gradually approached

the roof in the direction of the bottom of the cavern, and its width also

contracted so that at the extremity it was not broader than the slab of

rock which formed a natural seat. The principal painting in it was the

painting of a man ten feet six inches in length, clothed from the chin

downwards in a red garment which reached to the wrists and ankles; beyond

this red dress the feet and hands protruded, and were badly executed.

"The face and head of the figure were enveloped in a succession of

circular bandages, or rollers, or what appeared to be painted to

represent such. These were coloured red, yellow, and white, and the eyes

were the only features represented on the face. Upon the highest bandage,

or roller, a series of lines were painted in red, but although so

irregularly done as to indicate that they have some meaning, it is

impossible to tell whether they were intended to depict written

characters or some ornament for the head. This figure was so drawn on the

roof that its feet were just in front of the natural seat, whilst its

head and face looked directly down on anyone who stood in the entrance of

the cave, but it was totally invisible from the outside. The painting was

more injured by the damp and atmosphere, and had the appearance of being

much more defaced and ancient than any of the others which we have seen.

There were two other paintings, one on each side of the rocks, which

stood on either side of the natural seat: they were carefully executed,

and yet had no apparent design in them, unless they were intended to

represent some fabulous species of turtle; for the natives of Australia

are generally fond of narrating tales of fabulous and extraordinary

animals, such as gigantic snakes, etc." (Fig. 4, see Appendix.)

With this drawing, as well as in the others, it is evident that native

talent had nothing to do. Neither had, in all probability, the Malays, as

the form of the dress and its colour are incompatible with anything we

know of these people. Then again the same AUREOLA surrounds the head of

the figure, and we are inclined to think that this drawing is due to the

same artist who painted those already described. Although Grey believes

that it is a more ancient production, the face of it having suffered more

than the other is in all probability due to it being more exposed to

atmospheric, or other influences, rather than to its greater antiquity.

There are, however, some very interesting points to examine in this

drawing, and in the first place our attention is drawn to the curious

signs inscribed on the AUREOLA surrounding the head.

At first sight, an illiterate person would at once exclaim, "these are

Latin characters."

G I T I L F

Five out of six undoubtedly are such, and the sixth appears to be part of

an unfinished or defaced letter, probably F or E. This is evidently very

remarkable, and more so is the fact which a closer examination discloses

that near the right shoulder of the figure two additional characters, C D,

also undoubtedly of Latin form, are there inscribed, proving the

European origin of this drawing, which resembles exactly those paintings

of the middle ages, representing some holy monk or nun in their

habilaments, of a coarse, brown cloth, the hands, and still more so the

feet in that, position which painters of religious subjects have rendered

us so familiar with on the old church windows, and other paintings of

those times. The practice of printing the name of the saint on the

AUREOLA encircling the head is also a common one, and perhaps we may find

there an explanation of that painting, which will also prove the others

to be of like origin. These characters are, undoubtedly, Latin, whichever

way one might like to turn them, and their appearance in such a spot is

not due to chance alone. It would be a difficult task to attempt to

explain their meaning, but, perhaps, a further exploration of these

singular caves may bring to light information leading to their

identification and explanation. Suffice it to say that they certainly

tend to show the European and Christian character of these paintings, the

first one probably representing the holy women praying before the Virgin,

and the other some holy nun, as the line over the chin seems to indicate

the well-known head-dress. It may be objected that the Virgin could

hardly have been pourtrayed in such a costume, to which the answer may be

made, that it was a common custom at the time, among the disciples of

Francis Xavier who evangelised India, to represent the Virgin and the

saints in the costume of the country, in order to bring them in an easier

way to the conception of the native mind, a practice, need it be added,

which brought on the head of the Jesuits the most severe condemnation.

If such is the case, and if these paintings are, as we believe, the work

of Europeans, we might look in their vicinity for some other and still

more convincing proof of their origin.

Such is afforded also, and the evidence is telling.

For the last time we shall quote the same eminent author, and at page 205

of vol. 1. of his work, we read:--

"After proceeding some distance, we found a cave larger than the one seen

this morning; of its actual size, however, I have no idea, for being

pressed for time I did not attempt to explore it, having merely

ascertained that it contained no paintings. I was moving on when we

observed a profile of a human face and head, cut out in a sandstone rock

which fronted the cave; this rock was so hard that to have removed such a

large portion of it with no better tool than a knife and hatchet made of

stone, such as the Australian natives generally possess, would have been

a work of very great labour. The head was two feet in length, and sixteen

inches in breadth in the broadest part; the depth of the profile

increased gradually from the edges where it was nothing, to the centre

where it was an inch and a half. The ear was rather badly placed, but

otherwise the whole of the work was good, and far superior to what a

savage race could be supposed capable of executing. The only proof of

antiquity that it bore about it was that all the edges of the cutting

were rounded and perfectly smooth, much more so than they could have been

from any other cause than long exposure to atmospheric influences.

"After having made a sketch of this head I returned to the party."

Now let us examine, without prepossession or prejudice, this remarkable

sculpture, THE ONLY HEAD SCULPTURED IN ROCK EVER FOUND IN AUSTRALIA.

This profile is that of an European, the purity of the lines, the perfect

shape of the head, the straight and well-formed nose, the finely-cut lips,

the round chin, represent the most exact type of an European head that it

could be possible to imagine. Indeed, the fact alone that the natives

have no means of cutting out such a sculpture in the rock, is enough to

induce one to seek elsewhere for its author, and the head is certainly

not that of a Malay; the type is European, and that of the purest.

We shall go no further with this discussion, which the appearance of this

sculptured profile of an European head closes on our behalf better than

all volumes would do, and resume it in a few words.

De Gonneville, carried away by storms into unknown seas, lands on a coast

which he estimates is situated to the south of India, and the Islands of

Spices, and not far from the true course to the East Indies; at the

entrance of a fine river, and in a fertile country, whose inhabitants he

describes. They were in all probability of Malay stock, and there is no

difficulty so far to understand his female relative having married a

person of that race, the remnants of which have been met with since by

other travellers.

Three hundred and thirty-five years after De Gonneville's voyage, King

and Grey explore in the north-west part of Australia, a country whose

description well answers to that visited by De Gonneville, and NEVER SET

FOOT UPON BY EUROPEANS IN THE INTERVAL. There Grey finds a river such as

De Gonneville describes--a land inhabited by races that have preserved

many of the customs of the "Australians" described by the Norman

captain with whom, as a volunteer in the voyage, had travelled a certain

Nicole Le Fevre, a man of some learning' and a kind of artist, who had

pourtrayed strange beasts, etc., "utterly unknown in Christendom." In

that country', at a very short distance from the coast, Grey discovers

curious paintings, some strikingly resembling the pictures of saints as

represented on the Church windows of the time, one of them bearing some

very remarkable European letters and characters, and last of all he finds

there the head of an European sculptured in the hard rock, evidently with

instruments such as the natives do not possess.

What are we to conclude from these facts? That there is strong evidence

that De Gonneville, who could have landed nowhere else but on Australian

soil, had precisely landed on that part of the country visited by Grey,

and that the paintings discovered are the work of some of his companions.

But although such evidence is strong indeed, it is not yet absolutely

perfect, even for one desirous of solving the problem of fixing the exact

position of the spot visited by the Norman sailor. Others, perhaps, may

give a different interpretation to the figures and the characters

represented above; they are, however, worthy of attracting notice, and if

the result of this investigation is only to draw the attention of those

who are interested in ascertaining the previous history of the country

they inhabit and love, be they members of scientific societies or of

colonial governments, the task undertaken will not prove a thankless one.

One thing is settled, however, beyond the possibility of doubt, and that

is, that De Gonneville landed on no other soil but that of Australia, and

nowhere else but at the mouth of some of the north-western rivers.

The maps of the sixteenth century, known to have existed long before the

voyages of the Dutch and the English, bear witness to the fact that the

north-western part of the coast of Australia was sighted by the

Portuguese on their voyages to and from the East Indies and the Spice

Islands.

A critical examination of these charts, some of which have been

reproduced for the Public Libraries of the chief Australian cities from

the originals in the British Museums, tends to show--although most of the

names of features on the north-west coast are in French--that some of

them appear to have been translated from the Portuguese. The older of

these charts bears the date of the year 1542, but there are two more maps

in the "Bibliotheque Nationale de France" which are still more ancient.

One, which is the work of Guillaume Le Testu, a pilot of Dieppe, shows a

portion of the coast in a fairly correct position, indicating features

which can easily be recognised, although their longitude and latitude are

not exact; the names, which are all in French, do not exhibit any sign of

having been translated from any other language; and there is little doubt

that Le Testu, who published this chart in 1536, must have heard of the

expedition of De Gonneville, which could hardly have failed to attract

attention at the time among the sailors of note in the ports of the

Normandy coast. Considering the state of geographical science at that

epoch, the delineation of the north-west coast of the Australian

continent is certainly as accurate as that of the island of Java and

minor islands in those regions, which were much better known, and there

is in this fact evidence enough that the data upon which Le Testu, Jean

Rotz, and other cartographers worked, must have been fairly accurate. The

Norman pilot shows on his map the entrance of several rivers and features

which closely resemble the outline of this coast as at present known, but

except in the vicinity of the rivers mentioned, the coast on the south

and the north-east is prolonged without data, and merely indicates a

probable extension of land in these directions. The other maps agree

fairly well in this respect, the outlines of very small portions only of

the coast being--susceptible of identification at present. From these

facts we may infer that Guillaume Le Testu probably obtained much of his

information from the report of De Gonneville, whilst Rotz and the authors

of the maps in the British Museum had theirs from Portuguese sources, and

as the latters' delineation of the north-west coast is less accurate, it

may be that the Portuguese sailors, from whose reports this information

was obtained, merely sighted these coasts without attempting to land.

To close this discussion, it may be added, that in most instances the

early voyages of the Dutch or possibly the Portuguese to Western

Australia were the result of such accidents as befell De Gonneville, as

they were carried by storms out of their course to India or the Sunda

Islands, and thrown on the west coast of the Australian Continent.

The first claim to the discovery of the Australian Continent may be,

therefore, settled in favor of De Gonneville; although, there is little

doubt that the existence of a great southern land was suspected by the

Chinese, and also by the ancients. This great land, situated on the

opposite side of the world, was named by them ANTI-CHTON, and its

supposed inhabitants "Antichtones," and the fact of the possibility of it

being inhabited at all gave rise to a good deal of discussion among

ancient writers. They, however, agreed in the belief that "the fury of

the sun, which burns the intermediate zone," rendered it inaccessible to

the inhabitants of the world. Plinus, Pomponius Mela, Scipio, Virgilius,

Cicero, and Macrobius considered this land as habitable, and the two

last mentioned authors held the opinion that it was inhabited by a

different race of beings.

This question was also debated by the early Christian fathers, and

perhaps the most remarkable argument against the existence of the

ANTICHTONES will be found in the works of the celebrated theologian and

venerated father, St. Augustine, who devotes the whole of Chapter IX.,

Book XVI. of his admirable work, "De Civitate Dei," to the discussion of

this knotty question.

"Quod verò," writes St. Augustine, "Antipodes esse fabulantur, id est,

homines a contaria parte terrae, ubi sol oritur, quando occidit nobis,

adversa pedibus nostris calcare vestigia, nulla ratione credendum est.

Neque hoc ulla historica cognitione didicisse se affirmant, sed quali

ratiocinando conjectant, es quod intra con vexa coeli terra suspenda sit,

eum demque locum mundas habeat, et infirmum, et medium: et ex hoc

opinantur alteram terra pattern, quae infra est, habitatione hominum

carere non posse. Nec adtendunt, etiamsi figura conglobata et rotunda

mundus esse credatur, sive aliqua ratione monstretur; non tamen esse

consequens, ut etiam ex illa parte ab aquarum congerie nuda sit terra

devide etiamus nuda sit, neque hoc statum necesse esse, ut homines

habeat, Quoniam nulla modo Scriptura ista mentitur, quae narratis

praeteritis facis sidem, eo quod ejus praedicta complentur: nimisque

absurdurn est, ut dicatur aliquos hornines ex hae in illam partem, oceani

immensitate trajecta, navigare ac pervenive potuisse, ut etiarn illic ex

uno illo primo hornine genus institueretur hurnanurn?"

The substance of which is: "That there can be nothing more absurd than

the belief of some ancient writers who imagined that the land on the

opposite side of the world could be inhabited by human beings. Those who

made this assertion admit they have no historical fact to base it upon,

and that it is merely a logical deduction of philosophy. But if we accept

as true the principles upon which they base their arguments, is it to be

necessarily admitted that because these countries are habitable, that

they are in reality inhabited. As the Holy Scripture, which is our guide

in all matters of belief, makes no mention of this, and as it is an

accepted fact that the descendants of our first parents could not have

sailed to and reached these countries, how is it possible that they could

be inhabited."

Although the existence of a great Austral land was a subject of

philosophical and theological discussion among the ancients, they,

however, never attempted to sail across that ocean which was the limit of

the world they knew. It is possible that the Chinese may have been more

bold, but it is very doubtful whether they ever sailed so far south as to

land on the coast of the Australian continent. They have left no trace of

their passage, either on the land itself, or among its inhabitants.

Besides, the Chinese were never very enterprising sailors, the form of

their junks, their peculiar sails, and the scantiness of their nautical

knowledge prevented them from extending very far the radius of their

maritime explorations. Marco Polo is the authority generally quoted in

this matter, as he states that the people of Cathay knew of the existence

of a great land far to the southward, with the inhabitants of which they

were accustomed to trade. This is rather an indefinite description, and

might apply to New Guinea as well as to the Australian Continent. More so

to the former and the islands surrounding it on the north and east, where

evidence exists of the voyage of the Chinese traders and fishermen in

search of the precious trepang. But as these holothuriae are generally

found in the vicinity of the coral banks of Polynesia, to the eastward of

New Guinea, and not in the direction of the Australian coast, there is

much reason to think that the Chinese claim to the discovery of this

continent is purely mythical, although, like the ancients, they may have

believed in its existence as a logical deduction of philosophy.

CHAPTER XVI.

Captain Cook compared to former Visitors--Point Hicks--Botany Bay-First

natives seen--Indifference to Overtures--Abundant flora--Entrance to Port

Jackson missed--ENDEAVOUR on a reef--Careened--Strange animals--Hostile

natives--A sailor's devil--Possession Island-Territory of New South

Wales--Torres Straits a passage--La Perouse--Probable fate discovered by

Captain Dillon--M'Cluer touches Arnheim's Land--Bligh and Portlock--Wreck

of the PANDORA--Vancouver in the south--The D'Entrecasteaux

quest--Recherche Archipelago--Bass and Flinders--Navigation and

exploration extraordinary--The TOM THUMB--Bass explores south--Flinders

in the Great Bight--Bass's Straits--Flinders in the INVESTIGATOR--Special

instructions--King George's Sound--Lossof boat's crew--Memory

Cove--Baudin's courtesy--Port Phillip--INVESTIGATOR and LADY NELSON on

East Coast--The Gulf of Carpentaria and early Dutch navigators--Duyfhen

Point--Cape Keer-Weer--Mythical rivers charted--Difficulty in recognising

their landmarks--Flinders' great disappointment--A rotten ship--Return by

way of West Coast--Cape Vanderlin--Dutch Charts--Malay proas,

Pobassoo--Return to Port Jackson--Wreck of the PORPOISE--Prisoner by the

French--General de Caen--Private papers and journals

appropriated--Prepares his charts and logs for press--Death--Sympathy by

strangers--Forgotten by Australia--The fate of Bass--Mysterious

disappearance--Supposed Death.

The maritime exploration of our coast may be said to have fairly

commenced on the morning of the 19th of April, 1770, when Captain Cook

first sighted land. True we had many visitors before, [See Introduction.]

but none had given the same attention to the work, with an eye to future

colonisation, nor sailed along such an extent of shore.

The present coast of Gippsland was the place that first caught the

attention of Lieutenant Hicks on that eventful morning, and Point Hicks

received its name in commemoration of the incident.

From this point they sailed eastward, and at the promontory, where the

coast turned to the north, the name of Cape Howe was bestowed. Cook,

fresh from the shores of New Zealand and its more rugged scenery, was

pleasingly impressed with his distant view of Australia, but it must have

been the force of contrast only, as the portion of Australia first

sighted by him is devoid of interest. No available landing place was

seen; the shore was too tame, and for many days they coasted along,

looking for a break, or entrance, but none could he found where a safe

landing could be effected.

Botany Bay was the spot where the men from the ENDEAVOUR sprang on shore

for the first time, and although the flora of the surrounding country

brought joy to the heart of Mr. Banks, the botanist, it could not have

held out very high hopes of the future to the others.

Here they first saw the natives, "Indians," as Cook calls them, and hoped

to effect a peaceable landing. He says:--

"The place where the ship had anchored was abreast of a small village,

consisting of about six or eight houses; and while we were preparing to

hoist out the boat, we saw an old woman followed by three children come

out of the wood; she was loaded with firewood, and each of the children

had also its little burden. She often looked at the ship, but expressed

neither fear nor surprise. In a short time she kindled a fire, and four

canoes came in from fishing. The men landed, and having hauled up their

boats, began to dress their dinner, to all appearances, wholly

unconcerned about us, though we were within half-a-mile of them. We

thought it remarkable that of all the people we had yet seen, not one had

the least appearance of clothing, the old woman herself being destitute

even of a fig leaf.

"After dinner the boats were manned, and we set out from the ship. We

intended to land where we saw the people, and began to hope that as they

so little regarded the ship's coming into the bay, they would as little

regard our coming on shore. In this, however, we were disappointed, for

as soon as we approached the rocks, two men came down upon them to

dispute our landing, and the rest ran away."

For some time they parleyed with the blacks, and threw them nails, beads,

and other trifles, trying to make them understand that only water was

wanted, and no harm would be done them; but the natives refused all

offers of friendship, and three charges of small shot had to be fired at

their legs before they would even allow a peaceable landing.

Many expeditions were made inland for plants, birds, and flowers, also to

try if some intercourse could be established with the natives, but after

the first contest they would not come near enough to speak to. Nor did

they touch any of the presents--beads, ribbons, and cloth, that had been

left about and in their huts.

The great quantity of plants collected here by Mr. Banks induced Cook to

give it the name of Botany Bay. The King's colours were hoisted each day

of the stay, and the ship's name with the date of the year was inscribed

upon one of the trees near the watering place.

Having now provided a supply of fresh water, the anchor was weighed on

the 6th of May, and they sailed northward. Unaware of what he had missed,

Cook passed the entrance of Port Jackson, and followed up the coast for

over a thousand miles to the north, without incident or adventure, beyond

the routine work of the ship. But, on June 10th, this quiet was rudely

broken by the ENDEAVOUR running on a coral reef when off the site of the

present town of Cooktown. Fortunately a jagged point of coral stuck in

the hole made, and acted as a plug, otherwise this voyage of Cook's would

have proved his last, and the history of this continent been much delayed

and altered.

Passing a sail under the hull, and throwing guns and other stores

overboard, Cook got his ship once more afloat, and took her into the

mouth of a river (now the Endeavour River) where, on a convenient beach,

she was careened, and the carpenters set to work to repair her, whilst a

forge was set up, and the smiths occupied making bolts and nails. Many

animals strange to them were seen, and among them the first kangaroo. One

of the firemen who had been rambling in the woods, told them, on his

return, that he verily believed he had seen the devil.

"We naturally enquired in what form he had appeared, and his answer was

in so singular a style, that I shall set it down in his own words. 'He

was,' says John, 'as large as a one gallon keg, and very like it; he had

horns and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass that if I had

not been afeared, I might have touched him.' This formidable apparition we

afterwards discovered to have been a bat. They have indeed no horns, but

the fancy of a man who thought he saw the devil might easily supply that

defect."

Many excursions Mr. Banks and the men made inland, finding one very

useful plant, at the time when scurvy had appeared among them, a plant

that in the West Indies is called Indian Kale, and served them for

greens.

Some communication was established with the natives, but it ended as

usual by their commencing to steal, and having to be chastised for it. In

revenge they set fire to the grass, and the navigator very nearly lost

his whole stock of gunpowder. He was astonished by the extreme

inflammability of the grass and the consequent difficulty in putting it

out, and vowed if ever he had to camp in such a situation again, he would

first clear the grass around. Leaving the Endeavour River, Cook, after

passing through the Barrier Reef and again repassing it, as he says,

"After congratulating ourselves upon passing the reef we again

congratulate ourselves upon repassing it," landed no more until he had

left Cape York, and there on an island called "Possession Island," he

formally took possession of the east coast of New Holland, under the name

of New South Wales, for his Majesty King George III.

"AS I WAS ABOUT TO QUIT THE EASTERN COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, WHICH I HAD

COASTED FROM LATITUDE 38 DEG. TO THIS PLACE, AND WHICH I AM CONFIDENT NO

EUROPEAN HAD EVER SEEN BEFORE, I ONCE MORE HOISTED ENGLISH COLOURS, AND

THOUGH I HAD ALREADY TAKEN POSSESSION OF SEVERAL PARTICULAR PARTS, I NOW

TOOK POSSESSION OF THE WHOLE EASTERN COAST, FROM LATITUDE 38 DEG. TO THIS

PLACE, LATITUDE 10 DEG. 30 MIN., IN RIGHT OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE THE

THIRD, BY THE NAME OF NEW SOUTH WALES, WITH ALL THE BAYS, HARBOURS,

RIVERS, AND ISLANDS SITUATED UPON IT. WE THEN FIRED THREE VOLLEYS OF

SMALL ARMS, WHICH WERE ANSWERED BY THE SAME NUMBER FROM THE SHIP."

This ceremony concluded, and rejoicing in the re-discovery of Torres

Straits--the waters of which had borne no keel since the gallant Spaniard

had passed through--he sailed to New Guinea, Cook having thus completed

the survey of that portion of the South Land so long left a blank upon

the map, never returned--unless his visit to Van Dieman's Land, in 1777,

can be called a visit-to our shores, but the names he bestowed on the

many bays, headlands, and islands of the east coast have clung to them

ever since. So accurate were his surveys, even under extreme

difficulties, that he left little for his successors to do but

investigate those portions of the coast he had been forced to overlook.

But Cook's fame and career are such household words amongst all

English-speaking races, and the results of his visit to Australia so

extensive, that no space that this history could afford would be

sufficiently large to appreciate the merits of his work.

When Phillip landed in Botany Bay he was followed, as is well known, by

the distinguished French navigator, La Perouse, and although the name of

this unfortunate man does not enter largely into the history of our

colonisation, it is essential that it should come under notice. After a

short stay, La Perouse sailed from Australian shores, and of him and his

stately ships no tidings ever reached Europe. Years passed, and Captain

Dillon, the master of an English vessel trading amongst the South Sea

Islands, found a sword-belt in the possession of the natives; this led to

further investigations, and the hapless story was finally elucidated.

Wrecked on the coast of one of the islands, and all attempts to save the

ships having proved futile, the crews took to the boats, only to suffer

death from drowning or at the hands of the savages. The guns and other

heavy equipment were afterwards recovered, proving beyond doubt that that

was the end of the French vessels and their unhappy commander-the

Leichhardt of the sea.

In 1791, Lieutenant McCluer, of the Bombay Marine, touched upon the

northern coast of Arnheim's Land, but as he did not land, no result

accrued to the continent from his coming.

Before his advent, however, Captain Bligh, making his way home from the

spot where the mutineers of the BOUNTY had set him afloat, passed through

Torres Straits, and sighted the mainland of Australia. Situated as he

was, he could do little more than take hasty observations.

Two years afterwards, the PANDORA, under Captain Edwards, struck on a

reef in Torres Straits, and sank in deep water. Thirty-nine of the crew

were drowned, and the remainder, destitute of almost everything, made for

the coast of Australia in four boats. Edwards landed on Prince of Wales

Island, but not on the mainland. He finally reached Timor, with his

shipwrecked men, amongst whom were some of the mutineers of the BOUNTY.

Many of these men had been obliged to remain on board perforce, and in no

way participated in that famous mutiny. Their treatment by the captain of

the PANDORA, and afterwards by the English authorities, was both harsh

and unjust.

In 1792, the PROVIDENCE and ASSISTANT, Captains Bligh and Portlock,

sailed through the Straits, conveying the bread-fruit plant from Tahiti

to the West Indies. Serving in this expedition was Lieutenant Flinders.

In 1791, Captain George Vancouver, on his way to America, came to the

southern shore, and found and named King George's Sound. He landed and

examined the country, but saw nothing of any consequence, and, after a

short stay, sailed away to the eastward, intending to follow the coast

line, but was prevented by baffling winds.

In 1793, previously to the INVESTIGATOR, and in the year following Bligh

and Portlock, Messrs. William Bampton and Matthew B. Alt, commanders of

the ships HORMUZEER and CHESTERFELD, sailed from Norfolk Island, with the

intention of passing through Torres Straits by a route which the

commanders did not know had been before attempted.

The terrible dangers of the Straits encountered appear to have deterred

others from following them up to the time of the INVESTIGATOR.

Vancouver was quickly followed in the year 1792 by M. D'Entrecasteaux,

who, having with him the ships LA RECHERCHE and L'ESPÉRANCE, was in quest

of the fate of La Perouse. Off Termination Island-the last land seen by

Vancouver--a gale sprang up, and the French ships had to seek shelter.

They remained at anchor a week, and the officers made many excursions to

the islands now known as the Recherche Archipelago.

He sailed along some portions of the Great Bight, which he described as

of "an aspect so uniform that the most fruitful imagination could find

nothing to say of it." Water failing him, he steered for Van Dieman's

Land.

We now come across one of the grandest names in the history of our

colony. Bass, the surgeon of the RELIANCE, whose work has survived him in

the name of the well-known strait.

In a tiny cockle shell, the TOM THUMB, a boat of eight feet long, he and

Flinders, at first but an adventurous middy, cruised around the coast and

examined every inlet and opening visible, at the very peril of their

lives. It is almost equal to an imaginative story of adventures to read

the tale of their various trips, suffice it they did good work, and came

back safely to carry that work on with better and fuller means.

A voyage to Norfolk Island interrupted their further proceedings until

the next year, 1796. Bass and Flinders then again, in the TOM THUMB, left

to explore a large river, said to fall in the sea some miles to the south

of Botany Bay, and of which there was no indication in Cook's chart.

In 1797, Bass obtained leave to make an expedition to the southward and

was furnished with a whale boat and a crew of six men. Although he sailed

with only six weeks' provisions, by birds and fish caught, and

abstinence, he was enabled to prolong his voyage to eleven weeks, and his

labours were crowned with a success not to be expected from such frail

means. In the three hundred miles of coast examined from Port Jackson to

Ram Head, a number of discoveries were made that had escaped Captain

Cook.

From Ram Head--the southernmost part of the coast that had been examined

by Cook-Bass began to reap a rich harvest of important discoveries, and

another three hundred miles followed, the appearance of which confirmed

his belief in the existence of a strait between the continent and Van

Dieman's Land.

It was with great reluctance he returned before verifying this belief

beyond doubt of others.

In September, 1798, we find him on board the NORFOLK, associated with

Flinders, seeking to prove his theory. After many and strong head winds,

and much delay, the two had the supreme pleasure of greeting the westward

ocean, and returning to Port Jackson with the tidings.

Flinders says:--

"TO THE STRAIT WHICH HAD BEEN THE GREAT OBJECT OF RESEARCH, AND WHOSE

DISCOVERY WAS NOW COMPLETED, GOVERNOR HUNTER GAVE, AT MY RECOMMENDATION,

THE NAME OF 'BASS'S STRAITS.' THIS WAS NO MORE THAN A JUST TRIBUTE TO MY

WORTHY FRIEND AND COMPANION FOR THE EXTREME DANGERS AND FATIGUES HE HAD

UNDERGONE IN FIRST ENTERING IT IN THE WHALE BOAT, AND TO THE CORRECT

JUDGMENT HE HAD FORMED, FROM VARIOUS INDICATIONS, OF THE EXISTENCE OF A

WIDE OPENING BETWEEN VAN DIEMAN'S LAND AND NEW SOUTH WALES."

In 1799, Flinders, in the NORFOLK, followed up Cook's discoveries in the

neighbourhood of Glass House Bay, and in 1801 we must accompany him on

his great voyage round Terra Australis.

The north coast of Australia, both from its more interesting formation

and the lack of settlement, has received a good deal of attention from

our navigators of the present century, and by far the most fascinating

part of Captain Flinders' log refers to the north coast.

In 1802, we find him following the track of M. D'Entrecasteaux round the

Great Bight. Flinders seems to have been as much puzzled as he was

regarding the great extent of level cliffs passed. He conjectures that

within this bank, as he terms it, there could be nothing but sandy plains

or water, and that, in all probability, it formed a barrier between an

exterior and interior sea. He little thought how, some years afterwards,

a lonely white man would tramp round those barren cliffs, eagerly

scanning Flinders' chart for any sign of a break in their iron

uniformity.

On February 16th, 1801, Matthew Flinders was promoted to the rank of

commandant, and left England with the INVESTIGATOR, to prosecute his

voyage to Terra Australis. His instructions were:--

"To make the best of your way to New Holland, running down the coast from

130 degrees east longitude to BASS'S Straits, putting, if you should

find it necessary, into KING GEORGE THE THIRD'S HARBOUR for refreshments

and water, previous to your commencing the survey, and on your arrival on

the coast, use your best endeavour to discover such harbours as may be in

those parts, and in case you shall discover any creek or opening likely

to lead to an INLAND SEA OR STRAIT, you are at liberty either to examine

it or not, as you 'shall judge it most expedient, until a more favourable

opportunity shall enable you so to do.

"When it shall appear to you necessary, you shall repair to SYDNEY COVE,

for the purpose of refreshing your people, refitting the sloop under your

command, and consulting the Governor of New South Wales upon the best

means of carrying on the survey of the coast; and having received from

him such information as he may be able to communicate, and taken under

your command the LADY NELSON tender, which you may expect to find in

Sydney Cove, you are to recommence your survey by first diligently

examining the coast from BASS'S Straits to KING GEORGE THE THIRD'S

HARBOUR."