The search for water was unsuccessful, and the sailors swam back to the boat, though much bruised by the waves and the rocks. They then again set sail, keeping outside of the shoals. On the morning of the 15th, they discovered a cape, off which lay a chain of rocks, stretching out four miles into the sea, and beyond this another reef, close to the shore. Finding here an opening where the water was smooth, they put into it, but with great risk, as they had but two feet of water with a stony bottom. Here in the holes of the rocks they found fresh rain water, of which they collected forty gallons. There were evident traces of the natives having been there but a short time before. On the 16th of July, they endeavoured to collect more water but without success. There were no signs of vegetation on the sandy level country to be seen beyond, and the ant hills were so large, that they might have been taken for the houses of the natives. The quantity of flies was so great, that they could with difficulty free themselves from them. Eight savages, carrying sticks or spears in their hands, came within musket shot, but fled when the Dutch sailors moved towards them. When Captain Pelsart found there was no hope of procuring water, he again weighed anchor, and got outside of the reef by a second opening more to the north; for having observed the latitude to be 22° 17´, his intention was to seek for the river of Jacob Remessens near the north-west cape, but the wind changing to north-east, he was compelled to quit the coast. Being now four hundred miles from the place of shipwreck, and having barely water enough for their own use, he determined to make the best of his way back to Batavia for assistance.
Meanwhile, by a fortunate accident, one of them who had been left on the Abrolhos chanced to taste the water in two holes, which water had been supposed to be salt, as it rose and fell with the tide. To their inexpressible joy it proved to be fit to drink, and afforded them an unfailing supply. Captain Pelsart afterwards returned to the Abrolhos in the yacht Saardam, from Batavia; but finding a shameful conspiracy on foot, he was compelled to execute some, and two men were set on shore on the opposite main land. In the instructions subsequently given to Tasman for his voyage in 1644, he was directed “to inquire at the continent thereabouts after two Dutch men, who, having forfeited their lives, were put on shore by the Commodore Francis Pelsart, if still alive. In such case, you may make your enquiries of them about the situation of those countries; and if they entreat you to that purpose, give them passage hither.”
Gerrit Tomaz Pool, or Poel, was sent in April of this year from Banda, with the yachts Klyn, Amsterdam, and Wezel upon the same expedition as Carstens; and at the same place on the coast of New Guinea he met with the same fate. Nevertheless, “the voyage was assiduously continued under the charge of the super cargo Pieterz Pietersen; and the islands Key and Arouw visited. By reason of very strong eastwardly winds, they could not reach the west coast of New Guinea (Carpentaria); but shaping their course very near south, discovered the coast of Arnhem or Van Diemen’s Land, in 11° south latitude; so named from the governor general Van Diemen, who was sent out this year, and sailed along the shore for one hundred and twenty miles (thirty mijlen), without seeing any people, but many signs of smoke.”
A short account of this voyage is given by Valentyn, in his volume on Banda, p. 47, a translation of which will be found at p. [75] of the present volume.
Abel Janszen Tasman, who, in the year 1642, had made the two great discoveries of south Van Diemen’s Land—in these days more correctly named after himself, Tasmania,—and of New Zealand, was again sent out in 1644, for the express purpose of examining the north and north-western shores of New Holland. His instructions, of which we have already repeatedly spoken, say, that “after quitting Point Ture, or False Cape, situate in 8 degrees on the south coast of New Guinea, you are to continue eastward along the coast to 9 degrees south latitude, crossing prudently the cove at that place. Looking about the high islands or Speults River, with the yachts for a harbour, despatching the tender De Braak for two or three days into the cove, in order to discover whether, within the great inlet, there be not to be found an entrance into the South Sea. From this place you are to coast along the west coast of New Guinea, to the furthest discoveries in 17 degrees south latitude, following the coast further, as it may run west or southward. But it is to be feared you will meet in these parts with the south-east trade winds, from which it will be difficult to keep the coast on board, if stretching to the south-east; but, notwithstanding this, endeavour, by all means to proceed, that we may be sure whether this land is divided from the great known south continent or not.” Thus it became part of Tasman’s duty to explore Torres Straits, then unknown, though possibly suspected to exist. That they had unconsciously been passed through by Torres, in 1606, we have already seen. Tasman, however, failed, as will be presently shewn, in making the desired exploration, and it was not till 1770 that the separation of New Holland from New Guinea was established by Captain Cook. In the remaining portion of his duty, Tasman fully succeeded, viz., in establishing the continuity of the north-west coast of the land designated generally “the great known south continent,” as far south as about the twenty-second degree. It is greatly to be regretted that the account of this interesting voyage has not been published. The Burgomaster Witsen, in a work on the migrations of the human race, which appeared in 1705, gives some notes on the inhabitants of New Guinea and New Holland, in which Tasman is quoted among those from whom he gained his information; thus showing that Tasman’s narrative was then in existence. M. Van Wyk Roelandszoon, in a letter addressed to the editor of the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, dated 26th July, 1825, states, that many savans du premier ordre had for a long time sought in vain for the original papers of Abel Tasman. One young, but very able fellow-countryman of his, had even made a voyage for that express purpose to Batavia, in the hope that they might be found there, but he unfortunately died shortly after his arrival at that place. M. Van Wyk continues, “we still live in the hope of receiving some of these documents.” This hope, however, was not realized, and the efforts of the editor of the present volume, which have been exerted in influential quarters for the same object, have been equally unsuccessful. But, although we have to regret the loss or non-appearance of any detailed account of this most important voyage, the outline of the coasts visited by Tasman is laid down, though without any reference to him or his voyage, on several maps which appeared within a few years after the voyage was performed. The earliest representation which the editor has found anywhere mentioned, although in all probability it was preceded by others published in Holland, was on the mappemonde of Louis Mayerne Turquet, published in Paris in 1648. It was also represented on a planisphere, inlaid in the floor of the Groote Zaal, in the Stad-huys at Amsterdam, a building commenced in 1648. The site adopted for this remarkable map was peculiar, and scarcely judicious; for though it gratified the eyes of the enterprising burghers, with the picture of the successful explorations of their countrymen, it exposed the representation itself to almost unceasing detrition from the soles of their feet. This outline was also given in the map entitled Mar di India, in the 1650 edition of Janssen’s Atlas, 5 vol. supplement. It also occurs in a large Atlas in the King’s Library in the British Museum, by J. Klencke, of Amsterdam, presented to King Charles the Second, on his restoration in 1660, and also in a chart inserted in Melchisedech Thevenot’s Relation de divers voyages curieux, 1663. From these maps it is apparent that it was from this voyage that the designation of New Holland was first given to this great country. In a map by Van Keulen, published at the close of the seventeenth century, a portion of Tasman’s track with the soundings is given, but this also is without reference to Tasman himself. It has, however, been the good fortune of the editor of the present volume to light upon a document which, in the absence of Tasman’s narrative, and his own original chart, is the next to be desired: viz., an early copy, perhaps from his own chart, with the tracks of his two voyages pricked thereon, and the entire soundings of the voyage of 1644 laid down. A reduction of this chart is here given. It forms Art. 12 in a miscellaneous MS. collection marked 5222 in the department of MSS. in the British Museum. It bears no name or date, but is written on exactly the same kind of paper, with the same ink, and by the same hand, as one by Captain Thomas Bowrey, in the same volume, done at Fort St. George in 1687. It is observable, that in the preface to a work by Captain Bowrey, on the Malay language, he says, that in 1688, he embarked at Fort St. George, as a passenger for England, having been nineteen years in the East Indies, continually engaged in navigation and trading in those countries, in Sumatra, Borneo, Bantam, and Java. The twofold blunder, both as to fact and date, contained in the sentence inserted in the middle of the chart, “This large land of New Guinea was first discovered to joyne to ye south land by ye Yot Lemmen as by this chart Francois Jacobus Vis. Pilot Major Anno 1643” is self-evidently an independent subsequent insertion, probably by Bowrey himself, and therefore by no means impugns the inference that the chart is otherwise a genuine copy. The soundings verify the track, and show that Tasman regarded the first point of his instructions as to the exploration of the “great inlet,” either as of less importance or of greater danger than the subsequent portion, as to establishing the continuity of the lands on the north and north-west coasts of “the great known southern continent.”
It is worthy of remark, that the map by Klencke, already referred to, leaves the passage towards Torres Strait open, while in the map here given it is closed. The missing narrative of Tasman alone could explain this discrepancy, or show us the amount of authenticity to be ascribed to either of these maps; but it appears to the editor, that the track laid down with the soundings, gives to the map here given the claim to preference, while the very depth of the imaginary bight here drawn, instead of the strait, throws it out of the line of exploration in the voyage whose track is described. From the notes of the Burgomaster Witsen (1705), we derive the only fragment of an account of this most important voyage. From thence we gain the earliest information respecting the inhabitants. The translation is given by Dalrymple, in his volume on Papua. It is as follows: “In latitude 13 degrees, 8 minutes south, longitude 146 degrees, 18 minutes (probably about 129½ degrees 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 degrees, 58 minutes south, longitude 138 degrees, 59 minutes (about 125 degrees east) the people are savage, and go naked: none can understand them. In 16 degrees, 10 minutes south, the people swam on board of a Dutch ship, and when they received a present of a piece of linen, they laid it upon their head in token of gratitude. Every where thereabout all the people are malicious. They use arrows and bows, of such a length that one end rests on the ground when shooting. They have also hazegayes and kalawayes, and attacked the Dutch, but did not know the execution of the guns.