J. E. Heeres - The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606 1765

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In some such fashion the history of the Dutch wanderings and explorations
on the coasts of Australia might be divided into chronological periods.
The desire of being clear has, however, led me to adopt another mode of
treatment in this Introduction: I shall one after another discuss the
different coast-regions discovered and touched at by the Netherlanders.

III.

THE NETHERLANDERS IN THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA[*]

[* As regards the period extending from 1595-1644, see also my Life of
Tasman, Ch. XII, pp. 88ff.]

We may safely say that the information concerning the Far East at the
disposal of those Dutchmen who set sail for India in 1595, was
exclusively based on what their countryman JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN, had
told them in his famous _Itinerario_. And as regards the present
Australia this information amounted to little or nothing.

Unacquainted as he was with the fact that the south-coast of Java had
already been circumnavigated by European navigators, VAN LINSCHOTEN did
not venture decidedly to assert the insular nature of this island. It
might be connected with the mysterious South-land, the Terra Australis,
the Terra Incognita, whose fantastically shaped coast-line was reported
to extend south of America, Africa and Asia, in fact to the southward of
the whole then known world. This South-land was a mysterious region, no
doubt, but this did not prevent its coast-lines from being studded with
names equally mysterious: the charts of it showed the names of Beach [*],
the gold-bearing land (provincia aurifera), of Lucach, of Maletur, a
region overflowing with spices (scatens aromatibus). Forming one whole
with it, figured Nova Guinea, encircled by a belt of islands.

[* That the Dutch identified Beach with the South-land discovered by them
in 1616, is proved by No. XI A of the Documents (p. 14).]

{Page v}

So far the information furnished by VAN LINSCHOTEN [*]. At the same time,
however, there were in the Netherlands persons who had other data to go
by. In 1597 CORNELIS WIJTFLIET of Louvain brought out his _Descriptionis
Plolomaicae augmentum_, which among the rest contained a chart on which
not only Java figured as an island, but which also represented New Guinea
as an island by itself, separated from Terra Australis. The question
naturally suggests itself, whether this chart [**] will justify the
assumption that the existence of _Torres Strait_ was known to WIJTFLIET.
I, for one, would not venture to infer as much, seeing that in other
respects this chart so closely reproduces the vague conjectures touching
a supposed Southland found on other charts of the period, that
WIJTFLIET'S open passage between New Guinea and Terra Australis cannot, I
think, be admitted as evidence that he actually knew of the existence of
Torres Strait, in the absence of any indications of the basis on which
this notion of his reposed. Such indications, however, are altogether
wanting: none are found in WIJTFLIET'S work itself, and other
contemporary authorities are equally silent on the point in question
[***].

[* See No. I of the Documents, with charts Nos. 1 and 2.]

[** COLLINGRIDGE, Discovery, p. 219, has a rough sketch of it.]

[*** Cf. also my Life of Tasman, p. 89, and Note 8.]

After this digression let us return to the stand-point taken up by the
North-Netherlanders who first set sail for the Indies in 1595. They "knew
in part" only: they were aware that they knew nothing with certitude. But
their mercantile interests very soon induced them to try to increase and
strengthen their information concerning the regions of the East. What
sort of country after all was this much-discussed New-Guinea, they began
to ask. As early as 1602 information was sought from the natives of
adjacent islands, but these proved to have "no certain knowledge of this
island of Nova Guinea" [*]. The next step taken was the sending out of a
ship for the purpose of obtaining this "certain knowledge": there were
rumours afloat of gold being found in New Guinea!

[* See No. II of the Documents.]

On the 28th of November 1605 the ship Duifken, commanded by Willem
Jansz., put to sea from Bantam with destination for New Guinea. The ship
returned to Banda from its voyage before June of the same year. What were
the results obtained? What things had been seen by Willem Jansz. and his
men? The journal of the Duifken's voyage has not come down to us, so that
we are fain to infer its results from other data, and fortunately such
data are not wanting. An English ship's captain was staying at Bantam
when the Duifken put to sea, and was still there when the first reports
of her adventures reached the said town. Authentic documents of 1618,
1623, and 1644 are found to refer to her voyage. Above all, the journal
of a subsequent expedition, the one commanded by Carstensz. in 1623,
contains important particulars respecting the voyage of his predecessors
in 1605-6. [*]

[* See pp. 28, 42, 43, 45 _infra_. I trust that these data will go far to
remove COLLINGRIDGE'S doubt (Discovery p. 245) as to whether the ship
Duifken sailed farther southward than 8 deg. 15'.]

On the basis of these data we may safely take for granted the following
points. The ship Duifken struck the south-west coast of New Guinea in
about 5 deg. S. Lat., ran along this coast on a south-east course [*], and
sailed past the narrows now known as Torres Strait. Did Willem Jansz.
look upon these narrows as an open strait, or did he take them to be a
bay only? My answer is, that most probably he was content to leave this
point altogether undecided; seeing that Carstensz. and his men in 1623
thought to find an "open passage" on the strength of information given by
a chart with which they had been furnished. [**] This "open passage" can
hardly refer to anything else than Torres Strait. But in that case it is
clear that Jansz. cannot have solved the problem, but must have left it a
moot point. At all events he sailed past the strait, through which a few
months after him Luiz Vaez de Torres sailed from east to west.

[* As regards the names given on this expedition to various parts of this
coast, see my Life of Tasman, pp. 90-91, and chart No. 3 on p. 5
_infra_.]

[** See pp. 47, 66 _infra_.]

{Page vi}

Jansz. next surveyed the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria as far as
about 13 deg. 45'. To this point, the farthest reached by him, he gave the
name of Kaap-Keerweer [Cape Turn-again]. That skipper Jansz. did not
solve the problem of the existence or non-existence of an open passage
between New Guinea and the land afterwards visited by him, is also proved
by the circumstance that even after his time the east-coast of the Gulf
of Carpentaria was also called New Guinea by the Netherlanders. Indeed,
throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch discoverers continued in
error regarding this point. They felt occasional doubts on this head [*]
it is true, but these doubts were not removed.

[* See _inter alia_ a report of a well-known functionary of the E.I.C.,
G. E. RUMPHUS, dated after 1685 in LEUPE Nieuw-Guinea, p. 86: "The Drooge
bocht [shallow bay], where Nova-Guinea is surmised to be cut off from the
rest of the Southland by a passage opening into the great South-Sea,
though our men have been unable to pass through it owing to the shallows,
so that it remains uncertain whether this strait is open on the other
side."]

The Managers of the E.I.C. did not remain content with this first attempt
to obtain more light [*] as regards these regions situated to eastward,
the Southland-Nova Guinea as they styled it, using an appellation
characteristic of their degree of knowledge concerning it. But it was not
before 1623 that another voyage was undertaken that added to the
knowledge about the Gulf of Carpentaria: I mean the voyage of the ships
Pera and Arnhem, commanded by Jan Carstensz. and Willem Joosten van
Colstjor or Van Coolsteerdt. [**]

[* See pp. 6, 7-8, 13 and note 2 _infra_.]

[** See the Documents under No. XIV (pp. 21 ff.), and especially chart
No. 7 on p. 46.]

On this occasion, too, the south-west coast of New Guinea was first
touched at, after which the ships ran on on an eastern course. Torres
Strait was again left alongside, and mistaken for a Drooge bocht,[*]
"into which they had sailed as into a trap," and the error of New Guinea
and the present Australia constituting one unbroken whole, was in this
way perpetuated. The line of the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria,
"the land of Nova Guinea", was then followed up to about 17 deg. 8' (Staten
river), whence the return-voyage was undertaken [**]. Along this coast
various names were conferred. [***]

[* As regards the attempts to survey and explore this shallow water, see
_infra_ pp. 33-34]

[** See p. 37 below.]

[*** As regards this, see especially the chart on p. 46.--Cf. my Life of
Tasman, pp. 99-100.]

In the course of the same expedition discovery was also made of
Arnhemsland on the west-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and almost
certainly also of the so-called Groote Eyland or Van der Lijns island
(Van Speultsland) [*] The whole of the southern part of the gulf
remained, however, unvisited.

[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 101-102; and pp. 47-48 below.]

{Page vii}

The honour of having first explored this part of the gulf in his second
famous voyage of 1644 is due to our countryman Abel Janszoon Tasman
together with Frans Jacobszoon Visscher and his other courageous
coadjutors in the ships Limmen Zeemeeuw and Brak. [*] Abel Tasman's
passagie [course] of 1644 lay again along the south-west coast of New
Guinea; again also Tasman left unsolved the problem of the passage
through between New Guinea and Australia: Torres Strait was again
mistaken for a bay. The east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria was next
further explored, and various new names were conferred especially on
rivers on this coast, which most probably got the name of Carpentaria
about this time; of the names then given a great many continue to figure
in modern maps. After exploring the east-coast, Tasman turned to the
south-coast of the gulf. In this latter case the results of the
exploration proved to be less trustworthy afterwards. Thus Tasman mistook
for a portion of the mainland the island now known as Mornington Island;
the same mistake he made as regards Maria Eiland in Limmensbocht. For the
rest however, the coast-line also of the south-coast was delineated with
what we must call great accuracy if we keep in mind the defective
instruments with which the navigators of the middle of the seventeenth
century had to make shift. The west-coast of the gulf, too, was skirted
and surveyed in this voyage; Tasman passed between this coast and the
Groote (Van der Lijn's) eiland.

[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 115-118, and especially chart No. I of the
Tasman Folio. Much information may also be gathered from chart No. 14 of
the present work, since it registers almost the whole amount of Dutch
knowledge about Australia circa 1700.]

The entire coastline enclosing the Gulf of Carpentaria had accordingly
now been skirted and mapped out. The value of Tasman's discoveries in
this part of Australia directly appears, if we lay side by side, for
instance, the chart of the upper-steersman De Leeuw [*], who formed part
of the voyage of 1623, or Keppler's map of 1630 [**]; and Tasman's chart
of 1644 [***], or Isaac De Graaff's made about 1700 [****], which last
gives a pretty satisfactory survey of the results of Tasman's voyage of
1644 so far as the Gulf of Carpentaria is concerned. Although Tasman's
expedition of 1644 did not yield complete information respecting the
coast-line of the Gulf, and although it is easy to point out
inaccuracies, the additions made by this voyage to our knowledge on this
point are so considerable that we may say with complete justice that
while the discovery of the east-coast of the Gulf is due to Jansz. (1606)
and Carstensz. (1623), it was Tasman who made known the south-coast and
the greater part of the west-coast.

[* No. 7 on p. 46.]

[** No. 6 on p. 10.]

[*** Chart No. I in the Tasman Folio.]

[**** No. 14 below.]

More than a century was to elapse before Dutch explorers again were to
visit the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1756 the east- and west-coast of it
were visited first by Jean Etienne Gonzal and next by Lavienne Lodewijk
van Assehens [*]. The expedition is of little interest as regards the
surveying of the coast-line, but these explorers got into more frequent
contact with the natives than any of their predecessors--what especially
Gonzal reports on this subject, is certainly worth noting. Gonzal also
first touched at the south-west coast of New Guinea, and next, again
without becoming aware of the real character of Torres Strait, sailed to
the east-coast of the Gulf, skirting the same up to about 13 deg. S. Lat.,
after which he crossed to the west-coast. What he did there is of little
interest. Van Asschen's experiences are of even less importance for our
present purpose. One remark of his, however, is worth noting: he states
namely that he found the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria [**] to be
"fully 12 miles more to eastward" than the charts at his disposal had led
him to believe; and it would really seem to be a fact that Tasman had
placed this coast too far to westward.

[* See No. XXXVI _infra_.]

[** The names there conferred by him on various parts of the coast, may
be sufficiently gathered from Document No. XXXVI.]

{Page viii}

IV.

THE NETHERLANDERS ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AUSTRALIA.

In a previous work [*] I have attempted to show that the discovery of
Arnhemsland must beyond any doubt be credited to the voyage of the yacht
Arnhem, commanded by Van Colster or Van Coolsteerdt, which took place in
1623. Since the Journal and the charts of this voyage are no longer
available, we are without the most important data for determining with
certainty between what degrees of longitude the Arnhemsland then
discovered was situated. To westward of it must be sought Van Diemens-
and Maria's-land, touched at in 1636 by Pieter Pieterszoon with the ships
Cleen Amsterdam and Wesell) [**]. There can be no doubt that Pieterszoon
must have sailed far enough to westward to have passed Dundas Strait, and
to have reached the western extremity of Melville Island (Roode hoek =
red point). He took Dundas Strait to be not a strait, but a bay, and
accordingly looked upon Melville Island not as an island, but as a
portion of the mainland (Van Diemensland) [***].

[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 100-102, and the Documents under No. XIV, 2
_infra_.]

[** See the Documents under No. XXV.]

[*** Maria-land lies immediately to eastward of Van Diemens-land, and to
westward of Arnhems-land.]

In the course of these two voyages of 1623 and 1636, therefore, the whole
of the north-west coast from Melville Bay to Melville Island was surveyed
by Dutch ships. But in the absence of charts made on these voyages it is
impossible for us to say with certainty, whether the coastline can have
been traced with correctness. On this point also more light is thrown by
the well-known chart of 1644, in which the results of Tasman's voyages
are recorded. Tasman sailed along the whole of the coast, but in this
case too, his observations were not on all points accurate. Thus the
situation of Wessel-eiland and the islets south of it, with respect to
the mainland, is not given correctly by him; nor has he apprehended the
real character of Dundas Strait and of Van Diemen's Gulf, so that also
according to him Melville island forms part of the mainland. But for the
rest Tasman's chart also in this case approximately reproduces the
coast-line with so much correctness, that we find it quite easy [*] to
point out on the maps of our time the results of the Dutch voyages of
discovery in this part of the Australian coast.

[* Chart No. 14 below may also be of excellent service here.]

Far more accurate, however, than Tasman's chart is the chart which in
1705 was made of the voyage of the ships Vossenbosch, de Waijer and
Nova-Hollandia, commanded by Maarten van Delft [*]. This chart may at the
same time be of service to elucidate Tasman's discoveries and those of
his predecessors. It is to be regretted, therefore, that it only embraces
a comparatively small portion of the north-west coast, namely the part
extending from the west-coast of Bathurst island and the western
extremity of Melville island to the eastern part of Coburg peninsula and
Croker-island. This time again the real character of Dundas Strait and
Van Diemens Gulf were not ascertained [**].

[* See the Documents under No. XXXIII and Chart No. 15.]

[** I subjoin the names of localities that are found in this chart, since
the reproduction had to be made on too small a scale to allow of the
names being distinctly visible to the naked eye. Going from west to east
they are the following: Kliphoek, Duivelsklip, Droge Hoek, Boompjeshoek,
Wille Hoek, Noordhoek van Van Diemens Land, Waterplacts, Vuyle Bocht,
Vuijl Eijland, Hoek van Goede Hoop, Hoefyzer Hoek, Fortuyns Hoek, Schrale
Hoek, Valsche Westhoek, Valsche Bocht, Bedriegers Hoek, Westhoek van 3
Bergen's bocht of Vossenbos Ruyge Hoek, Orangie Hoek, Witte Hoek,
Waterplacts, Alkier liggen drie bergen, Toppershoedje, Oosthoek van Drie
Bergens bocht, Scherpen Hoek, Vlacke Hoek, Westhoek en Costhoek (van)
Mariaes Land, Maria's Hoek, de Konijnenberg, Marten Van Delft's baai,
Pantjallings Hoek, Rustenburg, Wajershoek, Hoek van Onier, Hoek van
Canthier, P. Frederiksrivier, Jan Melchers Hoek. Pieter Frederiks Hoek,
Roseboomshoek, W. Sweershoek, Hoek van Calmocrie.]

{Page ix}

V.

THE NETHERLANDERS ON THE WEST- AND SOUTH-WEST COAST OF AUSTRALIA

In the year 1616 the Dutch ship Eendracht, commanded by Dirk Hartogs on
her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia unexpectedly touched at
"divers islands, but uninhabited" and thus for the first time surveyed
part of the west-coas of Australia[*]. As early as 1619 this coast, thus
accidentally discovered, was known by the name of Eendrachtsland or Land
van de Eendracht. The vaguenes of the knowledge respecting the coast-line
then discovered, and its extent, is not unaptly illustrated in a small
map of the world reproduced as below, and found in {Page x} GERARDI
MERCATORIS _Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica mundi et
fabricati figura. De novo...auctus studio_ JUDOCI HONDIJ (Amsterodami;
Sumptibus Johannis Cloppenburgij. Anno 1632) [**]. If, however, we
compare this map of the world with KEPPLER'S map of 1630 [***], we become
aware that Hondius has not recorded all that was then known in Europe
respecting the light which since 1616 European explorers had thrown on
the question of the western coast-line of Australia. In Keppler's map,
namely, besides the English discovery of the Trial rocks (1622) [****],
and the name "'T Landt van Eendracht" in fat characters, passing from the
north to the south, we meet with the following names, which the smaller
letters show to have been intended to indicate subordinate parts of
Eendrachtsland: Jac. Rommer Revier [*****], Dirck Hartogs ree, F.
Houtmans aebrooleus and Dedells lant. What is more, Keppler's map also
exhibits the south-west coast of Australia.

[* See on this point the Documents sub No. VII (pp. 8f.).--It will hardly
be denied that these pieces of evidence may justly be called "documents
immediately describing" Hartogs's dicsovery.]

[** For my knowledge of this remarkable atlas I am indebted to Mr. ANTON
MENSING, member of the firm of Messrs. Frederik Muller and Co., of
Amsterdam. These gentlemen kindly enabled me to reproduce this chart for
the present work. I received it too late to allow of its being placed
among the charts accompanying the various documents.]

[*** See Chart No. 6 on p. 10 below.]

[**** See under No. XIII (p. 17) below.]

[***** See on this point p. 54 _infra_ (No. XXII A and note 3).]

[Map No. 18. Typus orbis terrarum uit GERARDI MERCATORIS Atlas...De
Novo...emendatus...studio JUDOCI HONDIJ, 1632.]

Whence all those names? The answer to this question, and at the same time
various other new features, are furnished by the chart of Hessel
Gerritsz. of 1627 [*] and by the one dated 1618 [**], in which
corrections have been introduced after date. The 1627 chart is specially
interesting. Gerritsz., at the time cartographer in ordinary to the
E.I.C., has "put together this chart of the Landt van d'Eendracht from
the journals and drawings of the Steersmen", which means that he availed
himself of authentic data [***]. He acquitted himself of the task to
admiration, and has given a very lucid survey of the (accidental)
discoveries made by the Dutch on the west-coast of Australia. In this
chart of 1627 the Land of d'Eendracht takes up a good deal of space. To
the north it is found bounded by the "Willemsrivier", discovered in July
1618 by the ship Mauritius, commanded by Willem Janszoon [****].
According to the chart this "river" is in about 21 deg. 45' S. Lat., but
there are no reliable data concerning this point. If we compare Hessel
Gerritsz's chart with those on which about 1700 the results of Willem De
Vlamingh's expedition of 1696-7 were recorded [*****] we readily come to
the conclusion that the ship Mauritius must have been in the vicinity of
Vlaming Head (N.W. Cape) on the Exmouth Gulf. From Willem Janszoon's
statements it also appears that on this occasion in 22 deg. an "island (was)
discovered, and a landing effected." The island extended N.N.E. and
S.S.W. on the west-side. The land-spit west of Exmouth Gulf may very
possibly have been mistaken for an island. From this point then the
Eendrachtsland of the old Dutch navigators begins to extend southward. To
the question, how far it was held to extend, I answer that in the widest
sense of the term ('t Land van Eendracht or the South-land, it reached as
far as the South-coast, at all events past the Perth of our day) [******].
In a more restricted sense it extended to about 25 deg. S.' Lat. In
the latter sense it included the entrance to Shark Bay, afterwards
entered by Dampier, and Dirk Hartogs island, likewise discovered by Dirk
Hartogs.

[* No. 4 on p. 9 _infra_.]

[** No. 5 (folding map).]

[*** It is evident that he did not use all the data then available. Thus,
for instance, he left unused those furnished by the Zeewolf (No. VIII,
pp. 10 ff. below), and those of the ship Leiden (No. XV, p. 49).]

[**** See the Documents under No IX (pp. 12f.).]

[***** Nos. 13 and 14]

[****** Chart No. 14]

{Page xi}

More to southward we find in the chart of 1627 I. d'Edels landt, made in
July 1619 by the ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam, commanded by Frederik De
Houtman and Jacob Dedel [*]. To the north of Dedelsland the coast is
rendered difficult of access by reefs, the so-called (Frederik De)
Houtmans-Abrolhos (now known as the Houtman Rocks), also discovered on
this occasion [**]. To the south, in about 32 deg. S. Lat. [***] Dedelsland
is bounded by the Landt van de Leeuwin, surveyed in 1622 [****]. Looking
at the coast more closely still, we find in about 29 deg. 30, S. Lat. the
name Tortelduyff (Turtle Dove Island), to the south of Houtmans Abrolhos,
an addition to the chart dating from about 1624 [*****].

[* See the documents sub No. XI (pp. 14 ff.). If NORDENSKIOeLD had known
these documents, he would have withheld the second alinea on p. 199 of
his interesting _Periplus_.--The doubts, also, concerning Frederik De
Houtman's share in the discoveries on the west-coast of Australia,
expressed by COLLINGRIDGE (_Discovery_ p. 304), CALVERT (_Discovery_, p.
25), and others, are now likely to be set at rest.]

[** They were then held to lie in 28 deg. 46'. On this point see also the
documents of PELSAERT'S shipwreck (No. XXIII, pp. 55 ff).]

[*** About this latitude, between 32 deg. and 33 deg. S. Lat., also De Houtman
and Dedel estimated themselves to be, when they first came upon land.
They afterwards ran on on a northerly course.]

[**** See the documents sub No. XII (p. 17).]

[***** See No. XVI (p. 50) below, and the highly curious charts Nos. Nos.
16 and 17.]

So much for the highly interesting chart of Hessel Gerritsz of the year
1627. If we compare with it the revised edition of the 1618 chart, we are
struck by the increase of our forefathers' knowledge of the south-west
coast. This revised edition gives the entire coast-line down to the
islands of St. Francois and St. Pieter (133 deg. 30' E. Long. Greenwich),
still figuring in the maps of our day: the Land of Pieter Nuyts,
discovered by the ship het Gulden Zeepaard in 1627 [*].

[* See No. XVIII (p. 51) below.]

North of Willemsrivier, this so-called 1618 chart has still another
addition, _viz_. G. F. De Witsland, discovered in 1628 by the ship Vianen
commanded by G. F. De Witt [*]. In this case, too, it is difficult to
determine exactly the longitudes between which the coast-line thus
designated is situated. [**] But with great distinctness the chart
exhibits the chain of islands of which the Monte Bello and tha Barrow
islands are the principal, and besides, certain islands of the Dampier
Archipelago, afterwards so called after the celebrated English navigator.
I would have these observations looked upon as hints towards the more
accurate determination of the site of this De Wit's land, and they may be
of the more value since the small scale of the chart renders an exact
determination of it exceedingly difficult.

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