Early Australian Voyages: Pelsart, Tasman, Dampier Part 2

CHAPTER X: AND TWO ISLANDS, TO WHICH HE GIVES THE NAME OF AMSTERDAM AND ROTTERDAM

On the 21st, being in the lat.i.tude of 21 degrees 20 minutes south, and in the longitude of 205 degrees 29 minutes, we found our variation 7 degrees to the north-east. We drew near to the coast of the most northern island, which, though not very high, yet was the larger of the two: we called one of these islands Amsterdam, and the other Rotterdam. Upon that of Rotterdam we found great plenty of hogs, fowls, and all sorts of fruits, and other refreshments. These islanders did not seem to have the use of arms, inasmuch as we saw nothing like them in any of their hands while we were upon the island; the usage they gave us was fair and friendly, except that they would steal a little. The current is not very considerable in this place, where it ebbs north-east, and flows south- west. A south-west moon causes a spring-tide, which rises seven or eight feet at least. The wind blows there continually south-east, or south- south-east, which occasioned the _Heemskirk's_ being carried out of the road, but, however, without any damage. We did not fill any water here because it was extremely hard to get it to the ship.

On the 25th we were in the lat.i.tude 20 degrees 15 minutes south, and in the longitude of 206 degrees 19 minutes. The variation here was 6 degrees 20 minutes to the east; and, after leaving had sight of several other islands, we made that of Rotterdam: the islanders here resemble those on the island of Amsterdam. The people were very good-natured, parted readily with what they had, did not seem to be acquainted with the use of arms, but were given to thieving like the natives of Amsterdam Island. Here we took in water, and other refreshments, with all the conveniency imaginable. We made the whole circuit of the island, which we found well-stocked with cocoa-trees, very regularly planted; we likewise saw abundance of gardens, extremely well laid out, plentifully stocked with all kinds of fruit-trees, all planted in straight lines, and the whole kept in such excellent order, that nothing could have a better effect upon the eye. After quitting the island of Rotterdam, we had sight of several other islands; which, however, did not engage us to alter the resolution we had taken of sailing north, to the height of 17 degrees south lat.i.tude, and from thence to shape a west course, without going near either Traitor's Island, or those of Horne, we having then a very brisk wind from the south-east, or east-south-east.

I cannot help remarking upon this part of Captain Tasman's journal, that it is not easy to conceive, unless he was bound up by leis instructions, why he did not remain some time either at Rotterdam or at Amsterdam Island, but especially at the former; since, perhaps, there is not a place in the world so happily seated, for making new discoveries with ease and safety. He owns that he traversed the whole island, that he found it a perfect paradise, and that the people gave him not the least cause of being diffident in point of security; so that if his men had thrown up ever so slight a fortification, a part of them might have remained there in safety, while the rest had attempted the discovery of the Islands of Solomon on the one hand, or the continent of De Quiros on the other, from neither of which they were at any great distance, and, from his neglecting this opportunity, I take it for granted that he was circ.u.mscribed, both as to his course and to the time he was to employ in these discoveries, by his instructions, for otherwise so able a seaman and so curious a man as his journal shows him to have been, would not certainly have neglected so fair an opportunity.

CHAPTER XI: AND AN ARCHIPELAGO OF TWENTY SMALL ISLANDS.

On February 6th, being in 17 degrees 19 minutes of south lat.i.tude, and in the longitude of 201 degrees 35 minutes, we found ourselves embarra.s.sed by nineteen or twenty small islands, every one of which was surrounded with sands, shoals, and rocks. These are marked in the charts by the name of Prince William's Islands, or Heemskirk's Shallows. On the 8th we were in the lat.i.tude of 15 degrees 29 minutes, and in the longitude of 199 degrees 31 minutes. We had abundance of rain, a strong wind from the north-east, or the north-north-east, with dark cold weather. Fearing, therefore, that we were run farther to the west than we thought ourselves by our reckoning, and dreading that we should fall to the south of New Guinea, or be thrown upon some unknown coast in such blowing misty weather, we resolved to stand away to the north, or to the north-north- west, till we should arrive in the lat.i.tude of 4, 5, or 6 degrees south, and then to bear away west for the coast of New Guinea, as the least dangerous way that we could take.

It is very plain from hence, that Captain Tasman had now laid aside all thoughts of discovering farther, and I think it is not difficult to guess at the reason; when he was in this lat.i.tude, he was morally certain that he could, without further difficulty, sail round by the coast of New Guinea, and so back again to the East Indies. It is therefore extremely probable that he was directed by his instructions to coast round that great southern continent already discovered, in order to arrive at a certainty whether it was joined to any other part of the world, or whether, notwithstanding its vast extent, viz., from the equator to 43 degrees of south lat.i.tude, and from the longitude of 123 degrees to near 190 degrees, it was, notwithstanding, an island. This, I say, was in all appearance the true design of his voyage, and the reason of it seems to be this: that an exact chart being drawn from his discoveries, the East India Company might have perfect intelligence of the extent and situation of this now-found country before they executed the plan they were then contriving for preventing its being visited or farther discovered by their own or any other nation; and this too accounts for the care taken in laying down the map of this country on the pavement of the new stadthouse at Amsterdam; for as this county was henceforward to remain as a kind of deposit or land of reserve in the hands of the East India Company, they took this method of intimating as much to their countrymen, so that, while strangers are gaping at this map as a curiosity, every intelligent Dutchman may say to himself, "Behold the wisdom of the East India Company. By their present empire they support the authority of this republic abroad, and by their extensive commerce enrich its subjects at home, and at the same time show us here what a reserve they have made for the benefit of posterity, whenever, through the vicissitudes to which all sublunary things are liable, their present sources of power and grandeur shall fail."

I cannot help supporting my opinion in this respect, by putting the reader in mind of a very curious piece of ancient history, which furnishes us with the like instance in the conduct of another republic.

Diodorus Siculus, in the fifth book of his Historical Library, informs us that in the African Ocean, some days' sail west from Libya, there had been discovered an island, the soil of which was exceedingly fertile and the country no less pleasant, all the land being finely diversified by mountains and plains, the former thick clothed with trees, the latter abounding with fruits and flowers, the whole watered by innumerable rivulets, and affording so pleasant an habitation that a finer or more delightful country fancy itself could not feign; yet he a.s.sures us, the Carthagenians, those great masters of maritime power and commerce, though they had discovered this admirable island, would never suffer it to be planted, but reserved it as a sanctuary to which they might fly, whenever the ruin of their own republic left them no other resource. This tallies exactly with the policy of the Dutch East India Company, who, if they should at any time be driven from their possessions in Java, Ceylon, and other places in that neighbourhood, would without doubt retire back into the Moluccas, and avail themselves effectually of this n.o.ble discovery, which lies open to them, and has been hitherto close shut up to all the world beside. But to proceed.

CHAPTER XII: OCCURRENCES IN THE VOYAGE.

On February 14th we were in the lat.i.tude of 16 degrees 30 minutes south, and in the longitude of 193 degrees 35 minutes. We had hitherto had much rain and bad weather, but this day the wind sinking, we hailed our consort the _Zee-Haan_, and found to our great satisfaction that our reckonings agreed. On the 20th, in the lat.i.tude of 13 degrees 45 minutes, and in the longitude of 193 degrees 35 minutes, we had dark, cloudy weather, much rain, thick fogs, and a rolling sea, on all sides the wind variable. On the 26th, in the lat.i.tude of 9 degrees 48 minutes south, and in the longitude of 193 degrees 43 minutes, we had a north- west wind, having every day, for the s.p.a.ce of twenty-one days, rained more or less. On March 2nd, in the lat.i.tude of 9 degrees 11 minutes south, and in the longitude of 192 degrees 46 minutes, the variation was 10 degrees to the east, the wind and weather still varying. On March 8th, in the lat.i.tude of 7 degrees 46 minutes south, and in the longitude of 190 degrees 47 minutes, the wind was still variable.

CHAPTER XIII: HE ARRIVES AT THE ARCHIPELAGO OF ANTHONG JAVA.

On the 14th, in the lat.i.tude of 10 degrees 12 minutes south, and in the longitude of 186 degrees 14 minutes, we found the variation 8 degrees 45 minutes to the east. We pa.s.sed some days without being able to take any observation, because the weather was all that time dark and rainy. On March 20th, in the lat.i.tude of 5 degrees 15 minutes south, and in the longitude of 181 degrees 16 minutes, the weather being then fair, we found the variation 9 degrees eastward. On the 22nd, in the lat.i.tude of 5 degrees 2 minutes south, and in the longitude of 178 degrees 32 minutes, we had fine fair weather, and the benefit of the east trade wind. This day we had sight of land, which lay four miles west. This land proved to be a cl.u.s.ter of twenty islands, which in the maps are called Anthong Java. They lie ninety miles or thereabouts from the coast of New Guinea. It may not be amiss to observe here, that what Captain Tasman calls the coast of New Guinea, is in reality the coast of New Britain, which Captain Dampier first discovered to be a large island separated from the coast of New Guinea.

CHAPTER XIV: HIS ARRIVAL ON THE COAST OF NEW GUINEA.

On the 25th, in the lat.i.tude of 4 degrees 35 minutes south, and in the longitude of 175 degrees 10 minutes, we found the variation 9 degrees 30 minutes east. We were then in the height of the islands of Mark, which were discovered by William Schovten and James le Maire. They are fourteen or fifteen in number, inhabited by savages, with black hair, dressed and trimmed in the same manner as those we saw before at the Bay of Murderers in New Zealand. On the 29th we pa.s.sed the Green Islands, and on the 30th that of St. John, which were likewise discovered by Schovten and Le Maire. This island they found to be of a considerable extent, and judged it to lie at the distance of one thousand eight hundred and forty leagues from the coast of Peru. It appeared to them well inhabited and well cultivated, abounding with flesh, fowl, fish, fruit, and other refreshments. The inhabitants made use of canoes of all sizes, were armed with slings, darts, and wooden swords, wore necklaces and bracelets of pearl, and rings in their noses. They were, however, very intractable, notwithstanding all the pains that could be taken to engage them in a fair correspondence, so that Captain Schovten was at last obliged to fire upon them to prevent them from making themselves masters of his vessel, which they attacked with a great deal of vigour; and very probably this was the reason that Captain Tasman did not attempt to land or make any farther discovery. On April 1st, we were in the lat.i.tude of 4 degrees 30 minutes south, and in the longitude of 171 degrees 2 minutes, the variation being 8 degrees 45 minutes to the east, having now sight of the coast of New Guinea; and endeavouring to double the cape which the Spaniards call Cobo Santa Maria, we continued to sail along the coast which lies north-west. We afterwards pa.s.sed the islands of Antony Caens, Gardeners Island, and Fishers Island, advancing towards the promontory called Struis Hoek, where the coast runs south and south- east. We resolved to pursue the same route, and to continue steering south till we should either discover land or a pa.s.sage on that side.

It is necessary to observe, that all this time they continued on the coast, not of New Guinea but of New Britain, for that cape which the Spaniards called Santa Maria is the very same that Captain Dampier called Cape St. George, and Caens, Gardeners, and Fishers Islands all lie upon the same coast. They had been discovered by Schovten and Le Maire, who found them to be well inhabited, but by a very base and treacherous people, who, after making signs of peace, attempted to surprise their ships; and these islanders managed their slings with such force and dexterity, as to drive the Dutch sailors from their decks; which account of Le Maire's agree perfectly well with what Captain Dampier tells us of the same people. As for the continent of New Guinea, it lies quite behind the island of New Britain, and was therefore laid down in all the charts before Dampier's discovery, at least four degrees more to the east than it should have been.

CHAPTER XV: CONTINUES HIS VOYAGE ALONG THAT COAST.

On April 12th, in the lat.i.tude of 3 degrees 45 minutes south, and in the longitude of 167 degrees, we found the variation 10 degrees towards the east. That night part of the crew were wakened out of their sleep by an earthquake. They immediately ran upon deck, supposing that the ship had struck. On heaving the lead, however, there was no bottom to be found.

We had afterwards several shocks, but none of them so violent as the first. We had then doubled the Struis Hoek, and were at that time in the Bay of Good Hope. On the 14th, in the lat.i.tude of 5 degrees 27 minutes south, and in the longitude of 166 degrees 57 minutes, we observed the variation to be 9 degrees 15 minutes to the east. The land lay then north-east, east-north-east, and again south-south-west, so that we imagined there had been a pa.s.sage between those two points; but we were soon convinced of our mistake, and that it was all one coast, so that we were obliged to double the West Cape and to continue creeping along sh.o.r.e, and were much hindered in our pa.s.sage by calms. This description agrees very well with that of Schovten and Le Maire, so that probably they had now sight again of the coast of New Guinea.

It is very probable, from the accident that happened to Captain Tasman, and which also happened to others upon that coast, and from the burning mountains that will be hereafter mentioned, that this country is very subject to earthquakes, and if so, without doubt it abounds with metals and minerals, of which we have also another proof from a point in which all these writers agree, viz., that the people they saw had rings on their noses and ears, though none of them tell us of what metal these rings were made, which Le Maire might easily have done, since he carried off a man from one of the islands whose name was Moses, from whom he learned that almost every nation on this coast speaks a different language.

CHAPTER XVI: ARRIVES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BURNING ISLAND, AND SURVEYS THE WHOLE COAST OF NEW GUINEA.

On the 20th, in the lat.i.tude of 5 degrees 4 minutes south, and in the longitude 164 degrees 27 minutes, we found the variation 8 degrees 30 minutes east. We that night drew near the Brandande Yland, _i.e_., burning island, which William Schovten mentions, and we perceived a great flame issuing, as he says, from the top of a high mountain. When we were between that island and the continent, we saw a vast number of fires along the sh.o.r.e and half-way up the mountain, from whence we concluded that the country must be very populous. We were often detained on this coast by calms, and frequently observed small trees, bamboos, and shrubs, which the rivers on that coast carried into the sea; from which we inferred that this part of the country was extremely well watered, and that the land must be very good. The next morning we pa.s.sed the burning mountain, and continued a west-north-west course along that coast.

It is remarkable that Schovten had made the same observation with respect to the driftwood forced by the rivers into the sea. He likewise observed that there was so copious a discharge of fresh water, that it altered the colour and the taste of the sea. He likewise says that the burning island is extremely well peopled, and also well cultivated. He afterwards anch.o.r.ed on the coast of the continent, and endeavoured to trade with the natives, who made him pay very dear for hogs and cocoa- nuts, and likewise showed him some ginger. It appears from Captain Tasman's account that he was now in haste to return to Batavia, and did not give himself so much trouble as at the beginning about discoveries, and to say the truth, there was no great occasion, if, as I observed, his commission was no more than to sail round the new discovered coasts, in order to lay them down with greater certainty in the Dutch charts.

CHAPTER XVII: COMES TO THE ISLANDS OF JAMA AND MOA.

On the 27th, being in the lat.i.tude of 2 degrees 10 minutes south, and in the longitude of 146 degrees 57 minutes, we fancied that we had a sight of the island of Moa, but it proved to be that of Jama, which lies a little to the east of Moa. We found here great plenty of cocoa-nuts and other refreshments. The inhabitants were absolutely black, and could easily repeat the words that they heard others speak, which shows their own to be a very copious language. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to p.r.o.nounce, because they make frequent use of the letter R, and sometimes to such a degree that it occurs twice or thrice in the same word. The next day we anch.o.r.ed on the coast of the island of Moa, where we likewise found abundance of refreshments, and where we were obliged by bad weather to stay till May 9th. We purchased there, by way of exchange, six thousand cocoa-nuts, and a hundred bags of pysanghs or Indian figs. When we first began to trade with these people, one of our seamen was wounded by an arrow that one of the natives let fly, either through malice or inadvertency. We were at that very juncture endeavouring to bring our ships close to the sh.o.r.e, which so terrified these islanders, that they brought of their own accord on board us, the man who had shot the arrow and left him at our mercy. We found them after this accident much more tractable than before in every respect. Our sailors, therefore, pulled off the iron hoops from some of the old water- casks, stuck them into wooden handles, and filing them to an edge, sold these awkward knives to the inhabitants for their fruits.

In all probability they had not forgot what happened to our people on July 16th, 1616, in the days of William Schovten: these people, it seems, treated him very ill; upon which James le Maire brought his ship close to the sh.o.r.e, and fired a broadside through the woods; the bullets, flying through the trees, struck the negroes with such a panic, that they fled in an instant up into the country, and durst not show their heads again till they had made full satisfaction for what was past, and thereby secured their safety for the time to come; and he traded with them afterwards very peaceably, and with mutual satisfaction.

This account of our author's seems to have been taken upon memory, and is not very exact. Schovten's seamen, or rather the petty officer who commanded his long boat, insulted the natives grossly before they offered any injury to his people; and then, notwithstanding they fired upon them with small arms, the islanders obliged them to retreat; so that they were forced to bring the great guns to bear upon the island before they could reduce them. These people do not deserve to be treated as savages, because Schovten acknowledges that they had been engaged in commerce with the Spaniards; as appeared by their having iron pots, gla.s.s beads, and pendants, with other European commodities, before he came thither. He also tells us that they were a very civilised people, their country well cultivated and very fruitful; that they had a great many boats, and other small craft, which they navigated with great dexterity. He adds also, that they gave him a very distinct account of the neighbouring islands, and that they solicited him to fire upon the Arimoans, with whom it seems they are always at war; which, however, he refused to do, unless provoked to it by some injury offered by those people. It is therefore very apparent that the inhabitants of Moa are a people with whom any Europeans, settled in their neighbourhood, might without any difficulty settle a commerce, and receive considerable a.s.sistance from them in making discoveries. But perhaps some nations are fitter for these kind of expeditions than others, as being less apt to make use of their artillery and small arms upon every little dispute; for as the inhabitants of Moa are well enough acquainted with the superiority which the Europeans have over them, it cannot be supposed that they will ever hazard their total destruction by committing any gross act of cruelty upon strangers who visit their coast; and it is certainly very unfair to treat people as savages and barbarians, merely for defending themselves when insulted or attacked without cause. The instance Captain Tasman gives us of their delivering up the man who wounded his sailor is a plain proof of this; and as to the diffidence and suspicion which some later voyagers have complained of with respect to the inhabitants of this island, they must certainly be the effects of the bad behaviour of such Europeans as this nation have hitherto dealt with, and would be effectually removed, if ever they had a settled experience of a contrary conduct. The surest method of teaching people to behave honestly towards us is to behave friendly and honestly towards them, and then there is no great reason to fear, that such as give evident proofs of capacity and civility in the common affairs of life should be guilty of treachery that must turn to their own disadvantage.

CHAPTER XVIII: PROSECUTES HIS VOYAGE TO CERAM.

On the 12th of May, being then in the lat.i.tude of 54 minutes south, and in the longitude of 153 degrees 17 minutes, we found the variation 6 degrees 30 minutes to the east. We continued coasting the north side of the island of William Schovten, which is about eighteen or nineteen miles long, very populous, and the people very brisk and active. It was with great caution that Schovten gave his name to this island, for having observed that there were abundance of small islands laid down in the charts on the coast of New Guinea, he was suspicious that this might be of the number. But since that time it seems a point generally agreed, that this island had not before any particular name; and therefore, in all subsequent voyages, we find it constantly mentioned by the name of Schovten's Island.

He describes it as a very fertile and well-peopled island; the inhabitants of which were so far from discovering anything of a savage nature, that they gave apparent testimonies of their having had an extensive commerce before he touched there, since they not only showed him various commodities from the Spaniards, but also several samples of China ware; he observes that they are very unlike the nations he had seen before, being rather of an olive colour than black; some having short, others long hair, dressed after different fashions; they were also a taller, stronger, and stouter people than their neighbours. These little circ.u.mstances, which may seem tedious or trifling to such as read only for amus.e.m.e.nt, are, however, of very great importance to such as have discoveries in view; because they argue that these people have a general correspondence; the difference of their complexion must arise from a mixed descent; and the different manner of wearing their hair is undoubtedly owing to their following the fashion of different nations, as their fancies lead them. He farther observes that their vessels were larger and better contrived than their neighbours; that they readily parted with their bows and arrows in exchange for goods, and that they were particularly fond of gla.s.s and ironware, which, perhaps, they not only used themselves, but employed likewise in their commerce. The most western point of the island he called the Cape of Good Hope, because by doubling that cape he expected to reach the island of Banda; and that we may not wonder that he was in doubts and difficulties as to the situation on of these places, we ought to reflect that Schovten was the first who sailed round the world by this course, and the last too, except Commodore Roggewein, other navigators choosing rather to run as high as California, and from thence to the Ladrone Islands, merely because it is the ordinary route.

In the neighbourhood of this island Schovten also met with an earthquake, which alarmed the ship's company excessively, from an apprehension that they had struck upon a rock. There are some other islands in the neighbourhood of this, well peopled, and well planted, abounding with excellent fruits, especially of the melon kind. These islands lie, as it were, on the confines of the southern continent, and the East Indies, so that the inhabitants enjoy all the advantages resulting from their own happy climate, and from their traffic with their neighbours, especially with those of Ternate and Amboyna, who come thither yearly to purchase their commodities, and who are likewise visited at certain seasons by the people of these islands in their turn.

CHAPTER XIX: ARRIVES SAFELY AT BATAVIA, JUNE 15, 1643.

On the 18th of May, in the lat.i.tude of 26 minutes south and in the longitude of 147 degrees 55 minutes, we observed the variation to be 5 degrees 30 minutes east. We were now arrived at the western extremity of New Guinea, which is a detached point or promontory (though it is not marked so even in the latest maps); here we met with calms, variable and contrary winds, with much rain; from thence we steered for Ceram, leaving the Cape on the north, and arrived safely on that island; by this time Captain Tasman had fairly surrounded the continent he was instructed to discover, and had therefore nothing now farther in view than to return to Batavia, in order to report the discoveries he had made.

On the 27th of May we pa.s.sed through the straits of Boura, or Bouton, and continued our pa.s.sage to Batavia, where we arrived on the 15th of June, in the lat.i.tude of 6 degrees 12 minutes south, and in the longitude of 127 degrees 18 minutes. This voyage was made in the s.p.a.ce of ten months.

Such was the end of this expedition, which has been always considered as the clearest and most exact that was ever made for the discovery of the Terra Australis Incognita, from whence that chart and map was laid down in the pavement of the stadt-house at Amsterdam, as is before mentioned.

We have now nothing to do but to shut up this voyage and our history of circ.u.mnavigators, with a few remarks, previous to which it will be requisite to state clearly and succinctly the discoveries, either made or confirmed by Captain Tasman's voyage, that the importance of it may fully appear, as well as the probability of our conjectures with regard to the motives that induced the Dutch East India Company to be at so much pains about these discoveries.

CHAPTER XX: CONSEQUENCES OF CAPTAIN TASMAN'S DISCOVERIES.