In the year 1718 a Mons. Jean Pierre Purry, of Neufchatel, published a work entitled, Mémoire sur le Pays des Caffres et la Terre de Nuyts par rapport à l’utilité que la Compagnie des Indes Orientales en pourroit rétirer pour son Commerce, followed by a second memoir in the same year. These publications were explanatory of a project he entertained of founding a colony in the land of Nuyts. The scheme had been submitted to the Governor-General, Van Swoll, at Batavia, but was discountenanced. It subsequently met the same fate when laid by its author before the Directors of the Dutch East India Company at Amsterdam. M. Purry shortly afterwards brought his proposition before the West India Company, and it was supposed by some that the voyage of Roggeween to the South Seas in 1721 was a result of this application; but it is distinctly stated by Valentyn that it was an entirely distinct expedition. In 1699 Roggeween’s father had submitted to the West India Company a detailed memoir on the discovery of the southern land; but the contentions between Holland and Spain prevented the departure of the fleet destined for the expedition, and it was forgotten. Roggeween, however, who had received his father’s dying injunctions to prosecute this enterprize, succeeded at length in gaining the countenance of the directors, and was himself appointed commander of the three ships which were fitted out by the company for the expedition. According to Valentyn, the principal object of this voyage was the search for certain “islands of gold,” supposed to lie in 56 degrees south latitude; but the professed purpose was distinctly avowed by Roggeween to be directed to the south lands. Although the expedition resulted in some useful discoveries, it did not touch the shores of New Holland.
The last document in the collection here printed is a translation from a little work published in Dutch, in 1857, by Mr. P. A. Leupe, Captain of Marines in the Dutch Navy, “The Houtman’s Abrolhos in 1727,” detailing the disasters of which those dangerous shoals had been the cause.
It will be seen that we have been unable to supply any descriptive account of discoveries on the eastern coast of Australia. That it was really discovered, and in all probability by the Portuguese, in the early part of the sixteenth century, we have already endeavoured to show. During more than two centuries from that period, it was probably never visited by any European. The honour of exploring that portion of the great island was reserved for the immortal Cook, who first saw that coast on April 19th, 1770, but a reference to such well known explorations certainly does not fall within the scope of antiquarian investigation. The like may be said of the first visit to Van Diemen’s Land, subsequent to Tasman’s discovery in 1642, which was made by Marion a hundred and thirty years later.
In conclusion, it would be inappropriate to omit the remark that it is to that most able and distinguished voyager, Matthew Flinders, to whose valuable work, A Voyage to Terra Australis, the editor has been greatly indebted for help in this introduction, that we have to give the credit for the compact and useful name which Australia now bears. In a note on page 111 of his introduction, he modestly says, “Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term [Terra Australis], it would have been to convert it into Australia, as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth.”
It has been the habit, for the most part, of editors of works for the Hakluyt Society, to endeavour to elucidate their text by introductions, which have often reached to a considerable length. A very slight consideration of the nature of the subjects which the Society professes to deal with, will show the reasonableness, nay, even the necessity of such introductions. When the attention of a reader is invited to the narrative of a voyage, however interesting and curious in itself, which carries him back to a remote period, it is but reasonable that he should have explained to him the position which such a narrative, arbitrarily selected, holds in the history of the exploration of the country treated of. To do this satisfactorily is clearly a task requiring no little labour, and although it may necessarily involve a somewhat lengthy dissertation, certainly calls for no apology. Nevertheless, the simple fact of an introduction bearing a length at all approaching to that of the text itself, as is the case in the present volume, does, beyond question, at the first blush, justly require an explanation. All the publications of our Society consist of previously unpublished documents, or are reprints or translations of narratives of early voyages become exceedingly rare. But it is evidently matter of accident to what length the text may extend, while it is equally evident that the introductory matter illustrative of a small amount of text may be, of necessity, longer than that required to illustrate documents of greater extent. This is strikingly the case with the subject of the present volume. It has been matter of good fortune that the editor has been enabled to bring together even so many documents as are here produced, in connection with the early discoveries of Australia, while the enigmatical suggestions of early maps, unaccompanied by any descriptive matter to be found after diligent research, has necessitated an inquiry into their merits, which, though lengthy, it is hoped will not be deemed unnecessary. This so called introduction in fact, in a great measure, consists of matter, which, if supplied by original documents, would form a component part of the text itself.
The editor cannot close his labours on this most puzzling subject of the “Early Indications of Australia,” without expressing an earnest hope that further researches may yet result in the production of documents, as yet undiscovered, which may throw a light upon the history of the exploration of this interesting country in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and, if possible, solve the great mystery which still hangs over the origin of the early manuscript maps so fully treated of, and it is hoped not without some advance towards elucidation, in this introduction.
INDICATIONS OF AUSTRALIA,
ETC.