Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: / A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

by Richard Henry Major

It would seem that another of the outward bound ships referred to in the Dutch recital, as visiting the coasts of New Holland, was commanded by Edel, and the land there discovered, which was on the west coast, was named the land of Edel. From Campbell’s edition of Harris’s voyages, we learn that this discovery was made in 1619. It appears from Thevenot’s chart, published in 1663, to have extended from about 29° northward, to 26½, where the land of Eendragt commences, but in Van Keulen’s chart, published near the close of the century, it is made to extend still more southward, to 32° 20´, which Thevenot’s chart would attribute rather to the discovery made three years later (1622) by the ship Leeuwin (the Lioness).

The great reef lying off the coast of Edel’s Land, called Houtman’s Abrolhos, was discovered at the same time. The name was doubtless given after the Dutch navigator Frederick Houtman, although we find no trace of his having himself visited this coast. The Portuguese name Abrolhos, meaning “open your eyes,” was given to dangerous reefs, implying the necessity of a sharp look out.

The name of the commander of the Leeuwin has not yet appeared in any published document that has met the editor’s eye. The land to which the name of that vessel was given, extended from 35° northward, to about 31°; but as we have already stated, in Van Keulen’s and later charts, the northern portion of this tract has been included in the discovery by Edel.

For the nearer discovery of Eendraght’s Land, the Dutch recital informs us that the governor general, Jan Pietersz Coen, dispatched in September, 1622, the yachts De Haring and Harewind; but this voyage was rendered abortive by meeting the ship Mauritius, and searching after the ship Rotterdam.

In January 1623, the Dutch recital informs us, the yachts Pera and Arnhem, under the command of Jan Carstens, were despatched from Amboina by order of his Excellency Jan Pieterz Coen. Carstens, with eight of the Arnhem’s crew, was treacherously murdered by the natives of New Guinea; but the vessels prosecuted the voyage, and discovered “the great islands, Arnhem and the Spult.” Arnhem’s Land forms the easternmost portion of the north coast of New Holland, lying to the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria. In a chart inserted in Valentyn’s Beschryvingh van Banda, fo. 36, is laid down the river Spult in Arnhem’s Land, in about the position of Liverpool River, with which, in all probability, it is identical; and the country in its vicinity is probably what is here meant by the Spult.

The ships were then “untimely separated”, and the Arnhem returned to Amboina. The Pera persisted, and “sailed along the south coast of New Guinea to a flat cove situate in 10° south latitude, and ran along the west coast of this land to Cape Keer Weer; from thence discovered the coast further southwards, as far as 17 degrees, to Staten River. From this place, what more of the land could be discerned seemed to stretch westward.” The Pera then returned to Amboina. “In this discovery were found everywhere shallow water and barren coasts; islands altogether thinly peopled by divers cruel, poor, and brutal nations, and of very little use to the Dutch East India Company.”

The first discovery of the south coast of New Holland was made in 1627. The Dutch recital says: “In the year 1627, the south coast of the great south land was accidently discovered by the ship the Gulde Zeepaard, outward bound from Fatherland, for the space of a thousand miles.” The journal of this voyage seems to have been lost. The editor has spared no pains, by inquiry in Holland and Belgium, to trace its existence, but without success; and the only testimony that we have to the voyage is derived from the above passage and Dutch charts, which give the name of Pieter Nuyts to the immense tract of country thus discovered. Nuyts is generally supposed to have commanded the ship; but Flinders judiciously remarks that, as on his arrival at Batavia, he was sent ambassador to Japan, and afterwards made governor of Formosa, it seems more probable that he was a civilian—perhaps the Company’s first merchant on board—rather than captain of the ship. In estimating the thousand miles described in the recital, allowance must doubtless be made for the irregularities of the coast, embracing from Cape Leeuwin to St. Francis and St. Peter’s Islands.

The next discovery upon the western coasts was that of the ship Vianen, one of the seven which returned to Europe under the command of the Governor-General, Carpenter. In this year, the Dutch recital informs us that the coast was seen again accidentally, in the year 1628, on the north side, in the latitude 21° south, by the ship Vianen, homeward bound from India, when they coasted two hundred miles without gaining any knowledge of this great country; only observing “a foul and barren shore, green fields, and very wild, black, barbarous inhabitants.”

This was the part called De Witt’s Land; but whether the name were applied by the captain of the Vianen does not appear. The President De Brosses, whose account, however, is too full of blunders to follow very implicitly, says, “William de Witt gave his own name to the country which he saw in 1628 to the north of Remessen’s River; and which Viane, a Dutch captain, had, to his misfortune, discovered in the month of January in the same year, when he was driven upon this coast of De Witt, in 21° of latitude, and lost all his riches.” The name of De Witt was subsequently retained on this part of the coast in all the maps.

In Thevenot’s Recueil de divers Voyages curieux, 1663, is given an account, translated from the Dutch, of the shipwreck of the Batavia, Captain Francis Pelsart, in the night of June 4, 1629, on the reef still known as Houtman’s Abrolhos, lying between 28° and 29° S. lat., on the west coast of Australia. A loose and incorrect translation of this account, is given in vol. i, p. 320, of Harris’s Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca (Campbell’s edition), but a new translation is supplied, in its proper chronological place, in the present volume. At daylight, the shipwrecked sailors saw an island at about three leagues distance, and, still nearer, two islets, to which the passengers with some of the crew were sent. As no fresh water was found on these islets, Pelsart put to sea on the 8th of June, in one of the boats which he had had covered with a deck, and sailed to the main land for the purpose of seeking for water. He found his latitude at noon to be 28° 13´ south. The coast, which bore N. by W., he estimated to be eight leagues from the place of shipwreck. It was rocky and barren, and about of the same height as the coast of Dover. He essayed to put in at a small sandy bay, but the surf and unfavourableness of the weather compelled him to keep off the shore. He then steered north, but the abruptness of the shore, and the breakers which he found along the coast, prevented his landing for several days, till at length on the 14th of June, being then in 24° latitude, he saw some smokes at a distance, and steered towards them, but the shore was still found to be steep and rocky, and the sea broke high against it; at length six of his men leaped overboard, and with great exertion reached the land, the boat remaining at anchor in twenty-five fathoms. The sailors, while busily engaged in seeking for water, perceived four natives creeping towards them on their hands and feet; but suddenly, on one of the sailors appearing on an eminence, they rose up and fled, so that those who remained in the boat could see them distinctly. They were wild, black, and entirely naked.