PART I. HISTORICAL SKETCH IT Tis impossible to say who were the first discoverers of Australia, although there is evidence that the Chinese had some knowledge of the continent as far back as the Thirteenth Century. The Malays also would seem to have been acquainted with the northern coast; while Marco Polo, who visited the East at the close of the Thirteenth Century, makes reference to the reputed existence of a great southern continent. There is in existence a map, dedicated to Henry the Eighth of England, on which a large southern land is shown, and the tradition of a Terra Australis appears to have been current for a long period before it enters into authentic history. In 1503, a French navigator named Binot Paulmyer, Sieur de Gonneville, was blown out of, his course, and landed on a large island, which was claimed to be the great southern land of tradition, although Flinders and other authorities are inclined to think that it must have been Madagascar. The Portuguese also advance claims to be the first discoverers of Australia, but so far the evidence cannot be said to establish their pretensions. As early as 1598, Wytfliet describes the Australis Terra as the most southern of all lands, and proceeds to give some circumstantial particulars respecting its geographical relation to New Guinea, venturing the opinion that, were it thoroughly explored, it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world. Early in the Seventeenth Century, Phillip the Third of Spain sent out an expedition from Callao, in Peru, for the purpose of searching for a southern continent. The little fleet comprised three vessels, with the Portuguese pilot, De Quiros, as navigator, and De Torres as admiral, or military commander. They left Callao on the 21st December, 1605, and in the following year discovered the island now known as Espiritu Santo, one of the New Hebrides Group, which De Quiros, under the impression A that it was indeed the land of which he was in search, named “Terra Austrialia del Espiritu Santo." Sickness and discontent led to a mutiny on De Quiros' vessel, and the crew, overpowering their officers during the night, forced the captain to navigate his ship to Mexico. Thus abandoned by his consort, De Torres, compelled to bear up for the Philippines to refit, discovered and sailed through the strait that bears his name, and may even have caught a glimpse of the northern coast of the Australian Continent. His discovery was not, however, made known until 1792, when Dalrymple rescued his name from oblivion by bestowing it upon the passage which separates New Guinea from Australia. De Quiros returned to Spain to re-engage in the work of petitioning the king to despatch an expedition for the purpose of prosecuting the discovery of the Terra Australis. He was finally successful in his efforts, but died before accomplishing his work, and was buried in an unknown grave in Panama, never being privileged to set his foot upon the continent the discovery of which was the inspiration of his life. The same year that De Torres sailed through the strait destined to make him famous, a little Dutch vessel called the Duyfhen, or dove, set sail from Bantam, in Java, on a voyage of discovery. This ship entered the Gulf of Carpentaria, and sailed south as far as Cape Keerweer, or turn-again. Here some of the crew landed, but being attacked by natives, made no attempt to explore the country. In 1616, Dirk Hartog discovered the island bearing his name. In 1622 the Leeuwin, or lioness, made some discoveries on the south-west coast; and during the following year Jan Carstens, with the yachts Pera and Arnhem, explored the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Arnhem Land, a portion of the Northern Territory, still appears on many maps as a memento of this voyage. Among other early Dutch discoverers were Van Edels; Poel, in 1629, in the Gulf of Carpentaria; the unknown captain of the Gulde Zeepaard, along the southern coast, which he called Nuyts Land; De Witt; and Pelsart in the Batavia. Pelsart was wrecked on Houtman's Abrolhos; his crew mutinied, and he and his party suffered greatly from want of water. The record of Pelsart's voyage is interesting from the fact that he was the first to carry back to Europe an authentic account of the western coast of Australia, which he described in any but favourable terms. In 1642, Abel Janszen Tasman took up the work of Dutch discovery, and added Tasmania (long known as Van Diemen's Land), and New Zealand, to the geographical knowledge of the day. He subsequently made a voyage to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and examined the northern coast, and an account of this voyage is said to be in the possession of Prince Lucien Bonaparte. On The first English navigator to sight the Australian continent was William Dampier, who made a visit to these shores in 1688, as supercargo of the Cygnet, a trader, whose crew had turned buccaneers. his return to England he published an account of his voyage, which resulted in his being sent out in the Roebuck in 1699 to further prose |