24 chapters
7 hour read
Selected Chapters
24 chapters
EARLY VOYAGES TO TERRA AUSTRALIS, NOW CALLED AUSTRALIA.
EARLY VOYAGES TO TERRA AUSTRALIS, NOW CALLED AUSTRALIA.
You have kindly permitted me to dedicate to you this result of my investigations respecting the early explorations of Australia. To none can a book on such a subject be more appropriately offered than to yourself. To you geographers are pre-eminently indebted for the promotion of Australian exploration in recent times, while your ever-memorable scientific anticipation of the discovery of the Australian gold fields must connect your name inseparably with the history of a country, whose future gre
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
When, at a period comparatively recent in the world’s history, the discovery was made that, on the face of the as yet unmeasured ocean, there existed a western continent which rivalled in extent the world already known, it became a subject of natural enquiry whether a fact of such momentous importance could for so many thousands of years have remained a secret. Nor was the enquiry entirely without response. Amid the obscurity of the past some faint foreshadowings of the great reality appeared to
55 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY PHILIP THE THIRD, KING OF SPAIN, BY DR. JUAN LUIS ARIAS, RESPECTING THE EXPLORATION, COLONIZATION, AND CONVERSION OF THE SOUTHERN LAND.
A MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY PHILIP THE THIRD, KING OF SPAIN, BY DR. JUAN LUIS ARIAS, RESPECTING THE EXPLORATION, COLONIZATION, AND CONVERSION OF THE SOUTHERN LAND.
Sire ,—The memorial of the Doctor Juan Luis Arias showeth: That in consideration of the great advantage which will accrue to the service of Your Majesty, to the extension of the Catholic Church, and to the increase of our holy faith, from the conversion of the gentiles of the southern land, which is the principal obligation to which Your Majesty and your crown are pledged, he now earnestly begs (great as have been his former importunities) to solicit Your Majesty’s consideration to that which is
45 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
RELATION OF LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES, CONCERNING THE DISCOVERIES OF QUIROS, AS HIS ALMIRANTE. DATED MANILA, JULY 12th, 1607. A TRANSLATION, NEARLY LITERAL, BY ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE, ESQ., FROM A SPANISH MANUSCRIPT COPY IN HIS POSSESSION.
RELATION OF LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES, CONCERNING THE DISCOVERIES OF QUIROS, AS HIS ALMIRANTE. DATED MANILA, JULY 12th, 1607. A TRANSLATION, NEARLY LITERAL, BY ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE, ESQ., FROM A SPANISH MANUSCRIPT COPY IN HIS POSSESSION.
Being in this city of Manila, at the end of a year and a half of navigation and making discovery of the lands and seas in the southern parts; and seeing that the Royal Audience of Manila have not hitherto thought proper to give me dispatches for completing the voyage as Your Majesty commanded, and as I was in hopes of being the first to give yourself a relation of the discovery, etc.; but being detained here, and not knowing if, in this city of Manila, I shall receive my dispatches, I have thoug
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK OF DISPATCHES FROM BATAVIA; COMMENCING JANUARY THE 15TH, 1644, AND ENDING NOVEMBER THE 29TH FOLLOWING.
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK OF DISPATCHES FROM BATAVIA; COMMENCING JANUARY THE 15TH, 1644, AND ENDING NOVEMBER THE 29TH FOLLOWING.
Instructions for the commodore, Captain Abel Jansz Tasman, the skipper chief-pilot, Franz Jacobsz Visser, and the counsel of the yachts Limmen and Zeemeuw , and the tender De Brak , destined for a nearer discovery of Nova Guinea, and the unknown coasts of the discovered east and south lands, together with the channels and the islands supposed to be situated between and near them. The several successive administrations of India, in order to enlarge and extend the trade of the Dutch East India Com
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS PELSART, IN THE BATAVIA, ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, AND HIS SUCCEEDING ADVENTURES.
THE VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS PELSART, IN THE BATAVIA, ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, AND HIS SUCCEEDING ADVENTURES.
The Directors of the East India Company, encouraged by the successful return of the five ships of General Carpenter, richly laden, caused eleven vessels to be equipped the very same year, 1628, for the same voyage: amongst which, there was one ship called the Batavia , commanded by Captain Francis Pelsart. He sailed from the Texel on the 28th of October 1628; and, as it would be tedious to the reader to give him a long account of a passage so well known as that to the Cape of Good Hope, I shall
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VOYAGE OF GERRIT THOMASZ POOL TO THE SOUTH LAND.
VOYAGE OF GERRIT THOMASZ POOL TO THE SOUTH LAND.
On the 26th of March, 1636, there arrived two shallops, the Amsterdam and the Weasel , sent from Amboina, with orders to Governor Acoley at Banda, to give to the commander of these ships, Gerard Thomasz Pool, such information concerning the South Land as might be necessary for him to perform a voyage thither, under the orders of the honourable Company. After he had received the desired instructions, and had been furnished with sufficient provisions and other necessaries, he sailed with those ves
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ACCOUNT OF THE WRECK OF THE SHIP “DE VERGULDE DRAECK” ON THE SOUTHLAND, AND THE EXPEDITIONS UNDERTAKEN, BOTH FROM BATAVIA AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, IN SEARCH OF THE SURVIVORS AND MONEY AND GOODS WHICH MIGHT BE FOUND ON THE WRECK, AND OF THE SMALL SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED THEM.
ACCOUNT OF THE WRECK OF THE SHIP “DE VERGULDE DRAECK” ON THE SOUTHLAND, AND THE EXPEDITIONS UNDERTAKEN, BOTH FROM BATAVIA AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, IN SEARCH OF THE SURVIVORS AND MONEY AND GOODS WHICH MIGHT BE FOUND ON THE WRECK, AND OF THE SMALL SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED THEM.
The ship De Vergulde Draeck , equipped by the Chamber of Amsterdam, having sailed on the 4th of October, 1655, from Tessel to East India, with a rich cargo, including 78,600 guilders in cash, in eight boxes, was wrecked very suddenly on the 28th of April, at night, at the beginning of the first day-watch, on the coast of the Southland, on a reef stretching out to sea about one mile and a half, latitude 30⅔°. Of one hundred and ninety-three souls only seventy-five, among whom were the skipper Pie
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
DESCRIPTION OF THE WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH LAND, BY THE CAPTAIN SAMUEL VOLKERSEN, OF THE PINK, “WAECKENDE BOEY,” WHICH SAILED FROM BATAVIA ON THE FIRST OF JANUARY, 1658, AND RETURNED ON THE 19TH OF APRIL OF THE SAME YEAR.
DESCRIPTION OF THE WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH LAND, BY THE CAPTAIN SAMUEL VOLKERSEN, OF THE PINK, “WAECKENDE BOEY,” WHICH SAILED FROM BATAVIA ON THE FIRST OF JANUARY, 1658, AND RETURNED ON THE 19TH OF APRIL OF THE SAME YEAR.
The South Land has, on its coasts, downs covered with grass and sand so deep, that, in walking, one’s foot is buried ankle-deep, and leaves great traces behind it. At about a league from the shore there runs a reef of rock, on which here and there the sea is seen to break with great force. In some places there is a depth of from one, one and a half, to two fathoms, so that a boat can pass, after which the depth becomes greater up to the shore; but it is everywhere a dangerous coral bottom, on wh
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EXTRACT TRANSLATED FROM BURGOMASTER WITSEN’S “NOORD EN OOST TARTARYE.”
EXTRACT TRANSLATED FROM BURGOMASTER WITSEN’S “NOORD EN OOST TARTARYE.”
“The north-west part of New Guinea, in 1½° south latitude, and beyond it to the south-east, was for the first time rightly explored in the year 1678, by order of the Dutch East India Company, and found almost everywhere to be enriched with very fine rivers, lakes, bays, etc., but, judging from its outward aspect, the country itself seems to be barren and uncultivated, being in few spots either planted or fenced in. In many parts of the interior there are extremely high mountains, which are seen
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, IN 1687–88, BEING AN EXTRACT FROM HIS “NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,” PUBLISHED IN LOND., 1697, 8vo., pp. 461.
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, IN 1687–88, BEING AN EXTRACT FROM HIS “NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,” PUBLISHED IN LOND., 1697, 8vo., pp. 461.
Being now clear of all the islands, we stood off south, intending to touch at New Holland, a part of Terra Australis Incognita, to see what that country would afford us. Indeed, as the winds were, we could not now keep our intended course (which was first westerly and then northerly) without going to New Holland, unless we had gone back again among the islands; but this was not a good time of the year to be among any islands to the south of the equator, unless in a good harbour. The 31st day we
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS. 3236, ENTITLED “THE ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM DAMPIER, WITH OTHERS [1686–87], WHO LEFT CAPTAIN SHERPE IN THE SOUTH SEAS, AND TRAVALED BACK OVER LAND THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF DARIEN,” pp. 445 to 450.
EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS. 3236, ENTITLED “THE ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM DAMPIER, WITH OTHERS [1686–87], WHO LEFT CAPTAIN SHERPE IN THE SOUTH SEAS, AND TRAVALED BACK OVER LAND THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF DARIEN,” pp. 445 to 450.
Wee stood away to the southward, intending to see New Holland, and mett nothing worth observing till the first day of December, and then, being in latit. 13° 50´, wee were close aboard a showle, which wee lay by for in the night; it lyes S. by W. from the N.W. end of Timore about seventy leagues. Wee steered to weather it but could not, therefore bore away to the eastward of it; it lyes in a triangle, with many sharp rocks about water, and on the south side is a small spitt of land. This showle
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH TO NEW HOLLAND IN 1696.
SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH TO NEW HOLLAND IN 1696.
Of this expedition, which owes its origin to the loss of the ship De Ridderschap van Hollandt , between the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia, in the year 1685, reports are to be found in various works, as in Witsen, Valentijn, the Historische Beschrijving der Reizen , perhaps also in some others. No coherent account, however, appears to exist, although we read in the last-mentioned work that a narrative of the voyage was published in 1701, at Amsterdam. [28] The project originally formed was, that
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX I.
The Commissioners of the Chamber of Amsterdam have reported, how the said Chamber, in accordance with and to fulfil what their Nobilities have by resolution of the 10th of last month been ordered to do, concerning the sending of a ship to the South Land, or the land of d’Eendracht, having examined and also heard and taken the advice of Commander Hendrich Pronck and Skipper Willem de Vlamingh, is of opinion; firstly, as regards the South Land, that for certain reasons it should not be undertaken
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II.
Touching the report of the Commissioners, who, in compliance with the Commissarial resolution of the 8th c., have given due attention to the subject of the search and inquiry after the ship De Ridderschap van Hollandt , and to the inquiry to be connected therewith, viz., as to the nature of the South Land, and of the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, and matters connected therewith, together with the sending of an expedition thither for the purpose of the inquiry;—on deliberation and in conform
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE MADE TO THE UNEXPLORED SOUTH LAND, BY ORDER OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY, IN THE YEARS 1696 AND 1697, BY THE HOOKER DE NYPTANG, THE SHIP DE GEELVINK, AND THE GALIOT DE WESEL, AND THE RETURN TO BATAVIA.
EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE MADE TO THE UNEXPLORED SOUTH LAND, BY ORDER OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY, IN THE YEARS 1696 AND 1697, BY THE HOOKER DE NYPTANG, THE SHIP DE GEELVINK, AND THE GALIOT DE WESEL, AND THE RETURN TO BATAVIA.
On the morning of the 29th December (1696) at half-past two o’clock, we discovered the South Land, to east north-east of us at from four to five miles distance. We found the country low, the main coast stretching from south to north. Our people observed a remarkable fish here, about two feet long, with a round head and a sort of arms and legs and even something like hands. They found also several stems of plants. They cast anchor in from fourteen to fifteen fathoms. At nearly half a league from
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, IN 1699, BEING AN EXTRACT FROM “A VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND, ETC., IN THE YEAR 1699.” VOL. III, 3RD ED., 1729, pp. 75–107.
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, IN 1699, BEING AN EXTRACT FROM “A VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND, ETC., IN THE YEAR 1699.” VOL. III, 3RD ED., 1729, pp. 75–107.
Having fair weather, and the winds hanging southerly, I jog’d on to the eastward to make the Cape. On the third of June we saw a sail to leeward of us, shewing English colours. I bare away to speak with her, and found her to be the Antelope , of London, commanded by Captain Hammond, and bound for the Bay of Bengal, in the service of the New East India Company. There were many passengers aboard, going to settle there under Sir Edward Littleton, who was going chief thither: I went aboard, and was
52 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A WRITTEN DETAIL OF THE DISCOVERIES AND NOTICEABLE OCCURRENCES IN THE VOYAGE OF THE FLUYT “VOSSENBOSCH,” THE SLOOP “D’WAIJER,” AND THE PATSJALLANG “NOVA HOLLANDIA,” DESPATCHED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, Aº. 1705, FROM BATAVIA BY WAY OF TIMOR TO NEW HOLLAND; COMPILED AS WELL FROM THE WRITTEN JOURNALS AS FROM THE VERBAL RECITALS OF THE RETURNED OFFICERS, BY THE COUNCIL EXTRAORDINARY, HENDRICK SWAARDECRON AND CORNELIS CHASTELIJN, COMMISSIONED FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND FORMING THEIR REPORT TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, JAN VAN HORN AND THE COUNCIL OF INDIA.
A WRITTEN DETAIL OF THE DISCOVERIES AND NOTICEABLE OCCURRENCES IN THE VOYAGE OF THE FLUYT “VOSSENBOSCH,” THE SLOOP “D’WAIJER,” AND THE PATSJALLANG “NOVA HOLLANDIA,” DESPATCHED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, Aº. 1705, FROM BATAVIA BY WAY OF TIMOR TO NEW HOLLAND; COMPILED AS WELL FROM THE WRITTEN JOURNALS AS FROM THE VERBAL RECITALS OF THE RETURNED OFFICERS, BY THE COUNCIL EXTRAORDINARY, HENDRICK SWAARDECRON AND CORNELIS CHASTELIJN, COMMISSIONED FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND FORMING THEIR REPORT TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, JAN VAN HORN AND THE COUNCIL OF INDIA.
My Lords.—Before entering into a detail of matters of note occurring on the abovementioned voyage, it may not perhaps be superfluous to offer a few preliminary observations, in order to throw a clearer light upon the subject; briefly these:—that the above mentioned vessels having, in accordance with the instructions delivered to their crew by your excellency, on the twentieth of January of this year, weighed anchor from the port of Batavia on the 23rd of the same month, heard on their way, at Re
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX I
APPENDIX I
TO HIS EXCELLENCY, AND THE NOBLE COUNCILLORS OF THE NETHERLANDISH INDIA. We take the liberty of informing you, that, in sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia with the company’s late ship Zeewyck , we were wrecked on a reef on the ninth of June, 1727, at seven o’clock in the evening, in the first watch. The reef against which the vessel struck, is surrounded by a very high and heavy surf, and runs in the shape of a half moon. On the inner side lie many small islands, called Frederick Hout
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II.
My High Excellency, together with the Council of the Netherlandish India, I pray of you most urgently to send me help and assistance against these robbers of the money and goods from the wreck Zeewyk , who have divided the money and goods among themselves. I am stark naked; they have taken every thing from me. O, my God! They have behaved like wild beasts to me, and everyone is master. Worse than beasts do they live; it is impossible that on board a pirate ship things can be worse than here, bec
36 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX III.
APPENDIX III.
At five o’clock this afternoon we received a letter by the patchialang De Veerman , very unexpectedly and fortunately, from the former skipper and under-merchant of the ship Zeewyk , bound for these parts, written in the Straits of Sunda, but undated, reporting the wreck of the ship on the reef lying before the Islands Frederick Houtman’s Abrolhos, near the Southland, at 28° L., on the 9th of June of last year. The crew having afterwards fetched several necessaries from the wreck, made from the
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX IV.
APPENDIX IV.
The Trials. About two hundred years have elapsed since the instructions here mentioned were drawn up, and still these cliffs belong to the “doubtfuls.” To what is this to be attributed? Do they in reality not exist at all? The Governor-General, Antonio Van Diemen, to whom the science of geography is so deeply indebted, did not doubt their existence. He thus writes to the governor of Mauritius, Adrian van der Hael, on the 2nd of September, 1643. “The yacht Cleen Mauritius has, like the former shi
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ON THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA BY THE PORTUGUESE IN 1601.
ON THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA BY THE PORTUGUESE IN 1601.
Extract from a letter addressed to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H. , “ On the Discovery of Australia by the Portuguese in 1601, five years before the earliest discovery hitherto recorded; communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, by Richard Henry Major, Esq., F.S.A. ,” now distributed to the Members of the Hakluyt Society for insertion as a Supplement to the Volume of “Early Voyages to Terra Australis,” by the same author ....
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Discovery of Australia by the Portuguese IN 1601.
Discovery of Australia by the Portuguese IN 1601.
Of the discoveries made by the Dutch on the coasts of Australia, our ancestors of a hundred years ago, and even the Dutch themselves, knew but little. That which was known was preserved in the “ Relations de divers Voyages Curieux ” of Melchisedech Thevenot (Paris, 1663–72, fol.); in the “ Noord en Oost Tartarye ” of Nicholas Witsen, (Amst. 1692–1705, fol.); in Valentyn’s “ Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien ” (Amst. 1724–26, fol.); and in the “ Inleiding tot de algemeen Geographie ” of Nicolas Struyk, (A
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter