The notes of burgomaster Witsen show, that the North-west Coast was visited by Tasman; and as they give the earliest information of the inhabitants, and are curious in themselves, they are here transcribed from Mr. Dalrymple's Papua.
"In lat. 13° 8' S. lon. 146° 18'" (probably about 129½° east of Greenwich), "the coast is barren. The people are bad and wicked, shooting at the Dutch with arrows, without provocation, when they were coming on shore: It is here very populous."
"In 14° 58' S. lon. 138° 59' (about 125° east), the people are savage, and go naked: none can understand them."
"In HOLLANDIA NOVA,* in 17° 12' S. (lon. 121° or 122° east) Tasman found a naked, black people, with curly hair; malicious and cruel, using for arms, bows and arrows, hazeygaeys and kalawaeys. They once came to the number of fifty, double armed, dividing themselves into two parties, intending to have surprised the Dutch, who had landed twenty-five men; but the firing of guns frightened them so that they fled. Their prows are made of the bark of trees: their coast is dangerous: there are few vegetables: the people use no houses."
[* This expression indicates, that the before-mentioned places were not then included under the term NEW HOLLAND by Witsen: he wrote in 1705.]
"In 19° 35' S. long. 134° (about 120°, apparently), the inhabitants are very numerous, and threw stones at the boats sent by the Dutch to the shore. They made fires and smoke all along the coast, which, it was conjectured, they did to give notice to their neighbours of strangers being upon the coast. They appear to live very poorly; go naked; eat yams and other roots."
DAMPIER. 1688.
The buccaneers with whom our celebrated navigator, WILLIAM DAMPIER, made a voyage round the world, came upon the north-west coast of Terra Australis, for the purposes of careening their vessel, and procuring refreshments. They made the land in the latitude of 16° 50', due south from a shoal whose longitude is now known to be 122¼° east. From thence, they ran along the shore, N. E. by E. twelve leagues, to a bay or opening, where a convenient place was found for their purpose. Dampier's description of the country and inhabitants of the place, where he remained from Jan. 5. to March 12., is contained in the account of his voyages, Vol. I. page 462 to 470; and renders it unnecessary to do more than to mark its coincidence or disagreement with what is said, in the above note from Tasman, of the inhabitants and country near the same part of the coast.
Dampier agrees in the natives being "a naked, black people, with curly hair," like that of the negroes; but he says they have "a piece of the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their waists, and a handful of long grass, or three or four green boughs full of leaves, thrust under their girdle, to cover their nakedness." Also, "that the two fore teeth of the upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old and young: neither have they any beards;" which circumstances are not mentioned in the note from Tasman. Dampier did not see either bows or arrows amongst them; but says, "the men, at our first coming ashore, threatened us with their lances and swords; but they were frightened by firing one gun, which we did purposely to scar them." Of "their prows made of the bark of trees," he saw nothing. On the contrary, he "espied a drove of these men swimming from one island to another; for they have no boats, canoes, or bark logs." The English navigator is silent as to any dangers upon the twelve leagues of coast seen by him; but fully agrees in the scarcity of the vegetable productions, and in the circumstance of the natives using no houses.
VLAMING. 1696.