Supplementary Facts in the History of the Discovery of Australia

Abstract

On the 14th of March last I had the honour of laying before this Society some new facts which had fallen under my notice in connection with the early discoveries of the great continental Island of Australia. One of these new facts was the very promising circumstance that there had been found in the Royal Burgundian Library in Brussels, by M. Ruelens, one of the Conservators of the Library, who had obligingly communicated to me the fact, the original autograph report to King Philip III. of a discovery of Australia in 1601 by a Portuguese named Manoel Godinho de Eredia, which discovery I had been the first to make known to the world in a paper read before this Society on the 7th of March, 1861. The report was accompanied by maps and views and portraits, and as at the time of my announcing its discovery to you I had received through M. Ruelens an obliging promise from the Chevalier d'Antas, the Portuguese Minister in Brussels, that an extract should be sent me of that portion with which I was immediately concerned, I begged that the printing of my paper should be postponed until I should possess the opportunity of incorporating into it the translation of the said extract. My reason for appearing before you without waiting till I had examined the Report with my own eyes was, that, while I had no reason to entertain the shadow of a doubt as to the corroborative nature of its contents, I had a still more important announcement to make to you respecting a yet earlier discovery of Australia in the first half of the sixteenth century. Since then I have received the promised extract, and I am sorry to have to report to you that a more unsatisfactory document has never fallen under my notice. But, in order that you may rightly estimate both it and the case to which it refers, it will be necessary that I repeat to you the leading facts and circumstances of the whole story. Up to 1861, the earliest visit to the coasts of Australia known in history in connection with the name of any ship or captain, was that made by the Dutch yacht the “Duyphen,” or “Dove,” about the month of March, 1606. This vessel had been despatched from Bantam on the 18th of November, 1605, to explore the islands of New Guinea. Her course from New Guinea was southward along the islands on the west side of Torres Strait to that part of Terra Australis a little to the west and south of Cape York, but all these lands were thought to be connected and to form the west coast of New Guinea. The Commander of the “Duyphen,” of whose name we are ignorant, was of course unconscious of the importance of his discovery. Indeed, of the discoveries made subsequently 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 Melchisedeck Thevenot (Paris, 1663-72, fol.); in the “Noord en Oost Tartarye,” of Nicolas Witsen (Amst. 1692-1705, fol.); in Valentyn's “Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien” (Amst. 1724-26, fol.); and in the “Inleidning tot de algemeen Geographie” of Nicolas Struyk (Amst. 1740, 4to.). We have, however, since gained a variety of information, through a document which fell into the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, and was published by Alexander Dalrymple (at that time hydrographer to the Admiralty and the East India Company) in his collection concerning Papua. This curious and interesting document is a copy of the instructions to Commodore Abel Jansz Tasman for his second voyage of discovery. That distinguished commander had already, in 1642, discovered not only the island now named after him, Tasmania, but New Zealand also; and, passing round the east side of Australia, but without seeing it, sailed on his return voyage along the northern shores of New Guinea. In January, 1644, he was despatched on his second voyage, and his instructions, signed by the Governor-General Antonio Van Diemen and the members of the Council, are prefaced by a recital, in chronological order, of the previous discoveries of the Dutch. Prom this recital, combined with a passage from Saris, given in Purchas, vol. i. p. 385, we derive the above information respecting the voyage of the Duyphen, the date of which constituted it the first authenticated discovery of Australia with which a vessel's name could be connected. In 1861, however, I ventured to dispute this priority, and I think I cannot do justice to you and to myself better than by reciting the grounds on which I did so in the very words with which I then addressed you. They are as follows: “Within the last few days I have discovered a MS. Mappemonde in the British Museum, in which on the north-west corner of a country, which I shall presently show beyond all question to be Australia, occurs the following legend: Nuca antara foi descuberta o anno 1601 por mano (sic) el godinho de Evedia (sic) por mandado de (sic) Vico Rey Aives (sic) de Saldaha,” (sic) which I scarcely need translate, Nuca Antara was discovered in the year 1601, by Manoel Godinho de Eredia, by command of the Viceroy Ayres de Saldanha.