The Early Discoverers

#1.# To the people who lived four centuries ago in Europe only a very

small portion of the earth's surface was known. Their geography was

confined to the regions lying immediately around the Mediterranean, and

including Europe, the north of Africa, and the west of Asia. Round these

there was a margin, obscurely and imperfectly described in the reports

of merchants; but by far the greater part of the world was utterly

u known. Great realms of darkness stretched all beyond, and closely

hemmed in the little circle of light. In these unknown lands our

ancestors loved to picture everything that was strange and mysterious.

They believed that the man who could penetrate far enough would find

countries where inexhaustible riches were to be gathered without toil

from fertile shores, or marvellous valleys; and though wild tales were

told of the dangers supposed to fill these regions, yet to the more

daring and adventurous these only made the visions of boundless wealth

and enchanting loveliness seem more fascinating.



Thus, as the art of navigation improved, and long voyages became

possible, courageous seamen were tempted to venture out into the great

unknown expanse. Columbus carried his trembling sailors over great

tracts of unknown ocean, and discovered the two continents of America;

Vasco di Gama penetrated far to the south, and rounded the Cape of Good

Hope; Magellan, passing through the straits now called by his name, was

the first to enter the Pacific Ocean; and so in the case of a hundred

others, courage and skill carried the hardy seaman over many seas and

into many lands that had lain unknown for ages.



Australia was the last part of the world to be thus visited and

explored. In the year 1600, during the times of Shakespeare, the region

to the south of the East Indies was still as little known as ever; the

rude maps of those days had only a great blank where the islands of

Australia should have been. Most people thought there was nothing but

the ocean in that part of the world; and as the voyage was dangerous and

very long--requiring several years for its completion--scarcely any one

cared to run the risk of exploring it.





De Quiros. There was, however, an enthusiastic seaman who firmly

believed that a great continent existed there, and who longed to go in

search of it. This was De Quiros, a Spaniard, who had already sailed

with a famous voyager, and now desired to set out on an expedition of

his own. He spent many years in beseeching the King of Spain to furnish

him with ships and men so that he might seek this southern continent.

King Philip for a long time paid little attention to his entreaties, but

was at last overcome by his perseverance, and told De Quiros that,

though he himself had no money for such purposes, he would order the

Governor of Peru to provide the necessary vessels. De Quiros carried the

king's instructions to Peru, and two ships were soon prepared and filled

with suitable crews--the Capitana and the Almiranta, with a smaller

vessel called the Zabra to act as tender. A nobleman named Torres was

appointed second in command, and they set sail from Peru, on a

prosperous voyage across the Pacific, discovering many small islands on

their way, and seeing for the first time the Coral Islands of the South

Seas. At length (1606) they reached a shore which stretched as far as

they could see both north and south, and De Quiros thought he had

discovered the great Southern Continent. He called the place "Tierra

Australis del Espiritu Santo," that is, the "Southern Land of the Holy

Spirit". It is now known that this was not really a continent, but

merely one of the New Hebrides Islands, and more than a thousand miles

away from the mainland. The land was filled by high mountains,

verdure-clad to their summits, and sending down fine streams, which fell

in hoarse-sounding waterfalls from the edges of the rocky shore, or

wandered amid tropical luxuriance of plants down to the golden sands

that lay within the coral barriers. The inhabitants came down to the

edge of the green and shining waters making signs of peace, and twenty

soldiers went ashore, along with an officer, who made friends with them,

exchanging cloth for pigs and fruit. De Quiros coasted along the islands

for a day or two till he entered a fine bay, where his vessels anchored,

and Torres went ashore. A chief came down to meet him, offering him a

present of fruit, and making signs to show that he did not wish the

Spaniards to intrude upon his land. As Torres paid no attention, the

chief drew a line upon the sand, and defied the Spaniards to cross it.

Torres immediately stepped over it, and the natives launched some arrows

at him, which dropped harmlessly from his iron armour. Then the

Spaniards fired their muskets, killing the chief and a number of the

naked savages. The rest stood for a moment, stupefied at the noise and

flash; then turned and ran for the mountains.



The Spaniards spent a few pleasant days among the fruit plantations,

and slept in cool groves of overarching foliage; but subsequently they

had quarrels and combats with the natives, of whom they killed a

considerable number. When the Spaniards had taken on board a sufficient

supply of wood and of fresh water they set sail, but had scarcely got

out to sea when a fever spread among the crew, and became a perfect

plague. They returned and anchored in the bay, where the vessels lay

like so many hospitals. No one died, and after a few days they again put

to sea, this time to be driven back again by bad weather. Torres, with

two ships, safely reached the sheltering bay, but the vessel in which De

Quiros sailed was unable to enter it, and had to stand out to sea and

weather the storm. The sailors then refused to proceed further with the

voyage, and, having risen in mutiny, compelled De Quiros to turn the

vessel's head for Mexico, which they reached after some terrible months

of hunger and thirst.





Torres. The other ships waited for a day or two, but no signs being

seen of their consort, they proceeded in search of it. In this voyage

Torres sailed round the land, thus showing that it was no continent, but

only an island. Having satisfied himself that it was useless to seek for

De Quiros, he turned to the west, hoping to reach the Philippine

Islands, where the Spaniards had a colony, at Manila. It was his

singular fortune to sail through that opening which lies between New

Guinea and Australia, to which the name of "Torres Strait" was long

afterwards applied. He probably saw Cape York rising out of the sea to

the south, but thought it only another of those endless little islands

with which the strait is studded. Poor De Quiros spent the rest of his

life in petitioning the King of Spain for ships to make a fresh attempt.

After many years he obtained another order to the Governor of Peru, and

the old weather-beaten mariner once more set out from Spain full of

hope; but at Panama, on his way, death awaited him, and there the

fiery-souled veteran passed away, the last of the great Spanish

navigators. He died in poverty and disappointment, but he is to be

honoured as the first of the long line of Australian discoverers. In

after years, the name he had invented was divided into two parts; the

island he had really discovered being called Espiritu Santo, while the

continent he thought he had discovered was called Terra Australis. This

last name was shortened by another discoverer--Flinders--to the present

term Australia.





The Duyfhen. De Quiros and Torres were Spaniards, but the Dutch also

displayed much anxiety to reach the great South Continent. From their

colony at Java they sent out a small vessel, the Duyfhen, or Dove,

which sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and passed half-way down

along its eastern side. Some sailors landed, but so many of them were

killed by the natives that the captain was glad to embark again and sail

for home, after calling the place of their disaster Cape Keer-weer, or

Turnagain. These Dutch sailors were the first Europeans, as far as can

now be known, who landed on Australian soil; but as they never published

any account of their voyage, it is only by the merest chance that we

know anything of it.





Other Dutch Discoverers. During the next twenty years various Dutch

vessels, while sailing to the settlements in the East Indies, met with

the coast of Australia. In 1616 Dirk Hartog landed on the island in

Shark Bay which is now called after him. Two years later Captain Zaachen

is said to have sailed along the north coast, which he called Arnhem

Land. Next year (1619) another captain, called Edel, surveyed the

western shores, which for a long time bore his name. In 1622 a Dutch

ship, the Leeuwin, or Lioness, sailed along the southern coast, and

its name was given to the south-west cape of Australia. In 1627 Peter

Nuyts entered the Great Australian Bight, and made a rough chart of

some of its shores; in 1628 General Carpenter sailed completely round

the large gulf to the north, which has taken its name from this

circumstance. Thus, by degrees, all the northern and western, together

with part of the southern shores, came to be roughly explored, and the

Dutch even had some idea of colonising this continent.





Tasman. During the next fourteen years we hear no more of voyages

to Australia; but in 1642 Antony Van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch

possessions in the East Indies, sent out his friend Abel Jansen Tasman,

with two ships, to make new discoveries in the South Seas. Tasman first

went to the Island of Bourbon, from which he sailed due south for a

time; but finding no signs of land, he turned to the east, and three

months after setting out he saw a rocky shore in the distance. Stormy

weather coming on, he was driven out to sea, and it was not till a week

later that he was able to reach the coast again. He called the place Van

Diemen's Land, and sent some sailors on shore to examine the country.

These men heard strange noises in the woods, and saw trees of enormous

height, in which notches were cut seven feet apart. These they believed

to be the steps used by the natives in climbing the trees, and they

therefore returned to report that the land was exceedingly beautiful,

but inhabited by men of gigantic size. Tasman, next day, allowed the

carpenter to swim ashore and set up the Dutch flag; but having himself

seen, from his ship, what he thought to be men of extraordinary stature

moving about on the shore, he lost no time in taking up his anchor and

setting sail. Farther to the east he discovered the islands of New

Zealand, and after having made a partial survey of their coasts, he

returned to Batavia. Two years after he was sent on a second voyage of

discovery, and explored the northern and western shores of Australia

itself; but the results do not seem to have been important, and are not

now known. His chief service in the exploration of Australia was the

discovery of Tasmania, as it is now called, after his name. This he did

not know to be an island; he drew it on his maps as if it were a

peninsula belonging to the mainland of Australia.





Dampier. The discoveries that had so far been made were very

imperfect, for the sailors generally contented themselves with looking

at the land from a safe distance. They made no surveys such as would

have enabled them to draw correct charts of the coasts; they seldom

landed, and even when they did, they never sought to become acquainted

with the natives, or to learn anything as to the nature of the interior

of the country. The first who took the trouble to obtain information of

this more accurate kind was the Englishman, William Dampier.






When a young man Dampier had gone out to Jamaica to manage a large

estate; but not liking the slave-driving business, he crossed over to

Campeachy, and lived for a time in the woods, cutting the more valuable

kinds of timber. Here he became acquainted with the buccaneers who made

the lonely coves of Campeachy their headquarters. Being persuaded to

join them, he entered upon a life of lawless daring, constantly fighting

and plundering, and meeting with the wildest adventures. He was often

captured by the American natives, still more often by the Spaniards, but

always escaped to enter upon exploits of fresh danger. In 1688 he joined

a company of buccaneers, who proposed to make a voyage round the world

and plunder on their way. It took them more than a year to reach the

East Indies, where they spent a long time, sometimes attacking Spanish

ships or Dutch fortresses, sometimes leading an easy luxurious life

among the natives, often quarrelling among themselves, and even going so

far as to leave their captain with forty men on the island of Mindanao.

But at length the time came when it was necessary to seek some quiet

spot where they should be able to clean and repair the bottoms of their

ships. Accordingly, they landed on the north-west coast of Australia,

and lived for twelve days at the place now called "Buccaneers'

Archipelago". They were the first Europeans who held any communication

with the natives of Australia, and the first to publish a detailed

account of their voyage thither. Growing tired of a lawless life, and

having become wealthy, Dampier bought an estate in England, where he

lived some years in retirement, till his love of adventure led him forth

again. The King of England was anxious to encourage discovery, and

fitted out a vessel called the Roebuck, to explore the southern seas.

Dampier was the only man in England who had ever been to Australia, and

to him was given the command of the little vessel, which sailed in the

year 1699. It took a long time to reach Australia, but at last the

Roebuck entered what Dampier called Shark Bay, from an enormous shark

he caught there. He then explored the north-west coast as far as Roebuck

Bay, in all about nine hundred miles; of which he published a full and

fairly accurate account. He was a man of keen observation, and delighted

to describe the habits and manners of the natives, as well as

peculiarities in the plants and animals, of the various places he

visited. During the time he was in Australia he frequently met with the

blacks and became well acquainted with them. He gives this description

of their appearance:--



"The inhabitants are the most miserable wretches in the universe, having

no houses nor garments. They feed upon a few fish, cockles, mussels, and

periwinkles. They are without religion and without government. In figure

they are tall, straight-bodied and thin, with small, long limbs."



The country itself, he says, is low and sandy, with no fresh water and

scarcely any animals except one which looks like a racoon, and jumps

about on its long hind legs. Altogether, his description is not

prepossessing; and he says that the only pleasure he had found in this

part of his voyage was the satisfaction of having discovered the most

barren spot on the face of the earth.



This account is, in most respects, correct, so far as regards the

portion of Australia visited by Dampier. But, unfortunately, he saw only

the most inhospitable part of the whole continent. There are many parts

whose beauty would have enchanted him, but as he had sailed along nearly

a thousand miles without seeing any shore that was not miserable, it is

not to be wondered at that he reported the whole land to be worthless.

He was subsequently engaged in other voyages of discovery, in one of

which he rescued the famous Alexander Selkirk from his lonely island;

but, amid all his subsequent adventures, he never entertained the idea

of returning to Australia.



Dampier published a most interesting account of all his travels in

different parts of the world, and his book was for a long time the

standard book of travels. Defoe used the materials it contained for his

celebrated novel, Robinson Crusoe. But it turned away the tide of

discovery from Australia; for those who read of the beautiful islands

and rich countries Dampier had elsewhere visited would never dream of

incurring the labour and expense of a voyage to so dull and barren a

spot as Australia seemed to be from the description in his book. Thus we

hear of no further explorations in this part of the world until nearly a

century after; and, even then, no one thought of sending out ships

specially for the purpose.





Captain Cook. But in the year 1770 a series of important discoveries

was indirectly brought about. The Royal Society of London, calculating

that the planet Venus would cross the disc of the sun in 1769, persuaded

the English Government to send out an expedition to the Pacific Ocean

for the purpose of making observations which would enable astronomers to

calculate the distance of the earth from the sun. A small vessel, the

Endeavour, was chosen; astronomers with their instruments embarked,

and the whole placed under the charge of James Cook, a sailor whose

admirable character fully merited this distinction. At thirteen he had

been a shopkeeper's assistant, but, preferring the sea, he had become an

apprentice in a coal vessel. After many years of rude life in this

trade, during which he contrived to carry on his education in

mathematics and navigation, he entered the Royal Navy, and by diligence

and honesty rose to the rank of master. He had completed so many

excellent surveys in North America, and, besides, had made himself so

well acquainted with astronomy, that the Government had no hesitation in

making their choice. That it was a wise one, the care and success of

Cook fully showed. He carried the expedition safely to Tahiti, built

fortifications, and erected instruments for the observations, which were

admirably made. Having finished this part of his task, he thought it

would be a pity, with so fine a ship and crew, not to make some

discoveries in these little-known seas. He sailed south for a time

without meeting land; then, turning west, he reached those islands of

New Zealand which had been first seen by Tasman. But Cook made a far

more complete exploration than had been possible to Tasman. For six

months he examined their shores, sailing completely round both islands

and making excellent maps of them.



Then, saying good-bye to these coasts at what he named Cape Farewell, he

sailed westward for three weeks, until his outlook man raised the cry of

"land," and they were close to the shores of Australia at Cape Howe.

Standing to the north-east, he sailed along the coast till he reached a

fine bay, where he anchored for about ten days. On his first landing he

was opposed by two of the natives, who seemed quite ready to encounter

more than forty armed men. Cook endeavoured to gain their good-will, but

without success. A musket fired between them startled, but did not

dismay them; and when some small shot was fired into the legs of one of

them, though he turned and ran into his hut, it was only for the purpose

of putting on a shield and again facing the white men. Cook made many

subsequent attempts to be friendly with the natives, but always without

success. He examined the country for a few miles inland, and two of his

scientific friends--Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander--made splendid

collections of botanical specimens. From this circumstance the place was

called Botany Bay, and its two headlands received the names of Cape

Banks and Cape Solander. It was here that Captain Cook, amid the firing

of cannons and volleys of musketry, took possession of the country on

behalf of His Britannic Majesty, giving it the name, "New South Wales,"

on account of the resemblance of its coasts to the southern shores of

Wales.



Shortly after they had set sail from Botany Bay they observed a small

opening in the land; but Cook did not stay to examine it, merely marking

it on his chart as "Port Jackson," in honour of his friend Sir George

Jackson. The vessel still continued her course northward along the

coast, till they anchored in Moreton Bay. After a short stay, they again

set out towards the north, making a rough chart of the shores they saw.

In this way they had sailed along thirteen hundred miles without serious

mishap, when one night, at about eleven o'clock, they found the sea grow

very shallow; all hands were quickly on deck, but before the ship could

be turned she struck heavily on a sunken rock. No land was to be seen,

and they therefore concluded that it was upon a bank of coral they had

struck. The vessel seemed to rest upon the ridge; but, as the swell of

the ocean rolled past, she bumped very heavily. Most of the cannons and

other heavy articles were thrown overboard, and, the ship being thus

lightened, they tried to float her off at daybreak. This they were

unable to do; but, by working hard all next day, they prepared

everything for a great effort at the evening tide, and had the

satisfaction of seeing the rising waters float the vessel off. But now

the sea was found to be pouring in through the leaks so rapidly that,

even with four pumps constantly going, they could scarcely keep her

afloat. They worked hard day and night, but the ship was slowly sinking,

when, by the ingenious device of passing a sail beneath her and pulling

it tightly, it was found that the leakage was sufficiently decreased to

keep her from foundering. Shortly after, they saw land, which Captain

Cook called "Cape Tribulation". He took the vessel into the mouth of a

small river, which they called the Endeavour, and there careened her. On

examining the bottom, it was found that a great sharp rock had pierced a

hole in her timbers, such as must inevitably have sent her to the bottom

in spite of pumps and sails, had it not been that the piece of coral

had broken off and remained firmly fixed in the vessel's side, thus

itself filling up the greater part of the hole it had caused. The ship

was fully repaired; and, after a delay of two months, they proceeded

northward along the coast to Cape York. They then sailed through Torres

Strait, and made it clear that New Guinea and Australia are not joined.





Subsequent Visits. Several ships visited Australia during the next

few years, but their commanders contented themselves with merely viewing

the coasts which had already been discovered, and returned without

adding anything new. In 1772 Marion, a Frenchman, and next year

Furneaux, an Englishman, sailed along the coasts of Van Diemen's Land.

In 1777 Captain Cook, shortly before his death, anchored for a few days

in Adventure Bay, on the east coast of Van Diemen's Land. La Perouse,

Vancouver, and D'Entrecasteaux also visited Australia, and, though they

added nothing of importance, they assisted in filling in the details. By

this time nearly all the coasts had been roughly explored, and the only

great point left unsettled was, whether Van Diemen's Land was an island

or not.