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A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook
Title: Western Australia: a history from its discovery to
the inauguration of the Commonwealth
Author: J.S. Battye (1871-1954)
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In view of the prominent part taken by Australia in the recent war, and the enthusiasm which the achievements of the Australian Forces have aroused throughout the Empire, the story of one of the great States of the Australian Commonwealth may not be without some general interest.
The work has been the result of over twenty years' research, undertaken, in the first instance, in conjunction with the Registrar-General (Mr. M.A.C. Fraser) and his Deputy (Mr. W. Siebenhaar) for the purpose of checking the historical introduction to the Year Book of Western Australia. It has since been continued in the hope that it may prove a contribution of more or less value to the history of colonial development. In the prosecution of the work, the files of the Public Record Office, London, were searched, and copies made of all documents that could be found which related to the establishment and early years of the colony. These copies are now in the possession of the Public Library of Western Australia, which contains also most of the published matter in the way of books and pamphlets dealing with the colony, as well as almost complete files of the local newspapers to date, and the original records of the Colonial Secretary's Office up to 1876. All of these have been at my disposal.
I have had, further, the opportunity of consulting official documents of the Government, and, by permission of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, secured through the kindness of his Excellency Sir F.A. Newdegate, have had access to all dispatches from the Colonial Office to the colonial authorities up to the year 1901. So far as possible every statement has been verified by documentary evidence, and every care exercised to make the whole work strictly accurate.
In addition to those mentioned, I have to express my obligation to the heads of Government Departments, more especially to the Under Secretary for Lands, Mr. C.G. Morris, and the Surveyor-General, Mr. H.S. King; to the Honourable J.W. Kirwan, M.L.C, for information concerning the federal movement in Western Australia; to Professor Ernest Scott and Dr. R.C. Mills for much helpful criticism; and to Miss M.E. Wood, of the Public Library of Western Australia, for invaluable assistance in checking references and in preparing the manuscript.
J.S.B.
PERTH.
September 30th, 1921.
CHAPTER 1. DISCOVERY OF AND EARLY VOYAGES TO AUSTRALIA.
CHAPTER 2. DISCOVERY OF AND EARLY VOYAGES TO AUSTRALIA (CONTINUED).
CHAPTER 3. ANNEXATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
CHAPTER 4. 1829 TO 1830. COLONISATION AND EARLY SETTLEMENT.
CHAPTER 5. 1831 TO 1838. ADMINISTRATION OF SIR JAMES STIRLING.
CHAPTER 17. FEDERAL MOVEMENT IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
1. DISPATCH FROM SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES TO CAPTAIN STIRLING, 30TH DECEMBER, 1828.
2. PROCLAMATION BY CAPTAIN STIRLING, DATED 18TH JUNE, 1829.
3. CONVICT SYSTEM.
4. STATISTICS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 1829 TO 1900.
5. PROSPECTUS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COMPANY AND DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIND.
[MAP OF SOUTH-WEST SHOWING GRANTS OF CAPTAIN STIRLING, THOMAS PEEL AND COLONEL LATOUR.]
PLATE 1. DIRK HARTOG'S PLATE, 1616.
1616. DEN 25 OCTOBER IS HIER AEN GECOMEN HET SCHIP D EENDRAGHT VAN AMSTERDAM DE OPPER KOPMAN GILLES MILBAIS VAN LUCK. SCHIPPER DIRCK HATICHS VAN AMSTERDAM DE 27 DITO TE SEIL GEGHN NA BANTUM DE ONDER COEPMAN JAN STINS DE OPPER STUIERMAN PIETER DOORES VAN BIL ANNO 1616.
Translation of the original inscription: On the 25th of October, 1616, arrived here the ship Eendracht, of Amsterdam: The first merchant, Gilles Milbais van Luyck: captain, Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail for Bantam; under merchant, Jan Stins; upper steersman, Pieter Dockes, of Bil; A.D. 1616.
PLATE 2. VLAMING'S PLATE, 1697.
1697 DEN 4 FEBREUARY IS HIER AEN GEKOMEN HET SCHIP DE GEELVINCK VOOR AMSTERDAM DEN COMANDER ENT SCHIPPER WILLEM DE VLAMINGH VAN VLIELANDT ADSISTENT JOANNES BREMER VAN COPPENHAGEN OPPER STUIERMAN MICHIL BLOEM VAN T STICHT BREMEN DE HOECKER DE NYPTANGH SCHIPPER GERRIT COLAART VAN AMSTERDAM ADSIST' THEO-DORIS HEIRMANS VAN DITO OPPERSTIERMAN GERRIT GERITSEN VAN BREMEN TE GALIOOT HET WEESELTIE GESAGH HEBBER CORNELIS DE VLAMINGH VAN VLIELANDT STUIRMAN COERT GERRITSEN VAN BREMEN EN VAN HIER GEZEYLT MET ONSE VLOT DEN VOORTS HET ZUYDLANDT VERDER TE ONDER SOECREN ENGE DISTINEERT VOOR BATAVIA. 12 (DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY LOGO ?)
Translation of the original inscription: On the 4th of February, 1697, arrived here the ship Geelvinck, of Amsterdam: Captain commandant, Wilhelm van Vlaming, of Vlielandt; assistant, Jan van Bremen, of Copenhagen; first pilot, Micheel Bloem Van Estight, of Bremen; the hooker Myptangh: Captain, Gerrit Collaert, of Amsterdam; assistant, Theodorus Heermans, of the same place; first pilot, Gerrit Gerritz, of Bremen. Sailed from here with our fleet on the 12th to explore the South Land and afterwards bound for Batavia.
1606:
Duyfken in Gulf of Carpentaria. First authenticated voyage to Australia.
1616:
Dirk Hartog in the Eendracht. First authenticated voyage to Western Australia.
1619:
Discovery of Abrolhos Islands by Houtman.
1622:
Voyage of Leeuwin.
Wreck of Trial.
1627:
Nuytsland discovered.
1628:
Discovery of De Witt Land.
Voyage of Pelsart in Batavia.
Pelsart wrecked on Abrolhos Islands.
1644:
Voyage of Tasman to North-West and North coasts.
1688:
Dampier in the Cygnet.
1696 to 1697:
Discovery of Swan River by Vlaming.
1699:
Dampier's second voyage.
1772:
Voyage of St. Alouarn.
1791:
Discovery of King George's Sound by Vancouver.
1792:
Voyage of D'Entrecasteaux.
1801:
Flinders' voyage in the Investigator.
Voyage of Geographe and Naturaliste.
1802:
Geographe joined by Casuarina.
1817:
Voyage of Freycinet in Uranie.
1817 to 1822:
Lieutenant King's survey voyages on the North-West coast.
1826:
Occupancy of King George's Sound by convicts from Sydney under Major Lockyer.
1827:
Examination of Swan River by Captain Stirling in H.M.S. Success.
1828:
Syndicate formed in London for colonisation of Swan River.
Decision of British Government to found colony.
Captain Fremantle in H.M.S. Challenger dispatched to take formal possession of Swan River.
Captain Stirling appointed Lieutenant-Governor.
1829:
February. Parmelia leaves England with officials and first settlers.
May. Formal possession taken by Captain Fremantle.
Act 10 George IV ch.22, authorising establishment of Legislative Council.
June. Arrival of Parmelia. Proclamation of colony.
August. Foundation of Perth and Fremantle.
1830:
Legislative Council constituted by Order in Council.
Executive Council constituted by Instructions under Sign Manual.
1831:
Lieutenant-Governor Stirling appointed Governor.
Convict settlement at King George's Sound withdrawn.
Agricultural Society established.
First newspaper issued.
1832:
Executive Council, Legislative Council, Civil Court established.
Duel between Clarke and Johnstone.
1833:
First issue of Perth Gazette--now West Australian.
1834:
First definite petition for convicts (from Albany).
Native disturbances--Battle of Pinjarra.
1837:
Bank of Western Australia established.
1837 to 1840:
Lieutenant Grey's explorations.
1838:
End of Governor Stirling's administration.
1839:
Arrival of Governor John Hutt.
1840:
Western Australian Company constituted to form settlement at Australind.
1841:
Eyre's overland journey to King George's Sound.
Bank of Western Australia amalgamated with Bank of Australasia.
Western Australian Bank founded.
Arrival of first Australind settlers.
1845 to 1848:
Expeditions of A.C., F.T., and C. Gregory.
1846:
Retirement of Governor Hutt.
Arrival of Governor Clarke.
Discovery of coal.
New Norcia Mission established.
1847:
Death of Governor Clarke.
1848:
Arrival of Governor Fitzgerald.
Discovery of lead and copper.
1843 to 1849:
Petition for the introduction of convicts.
1849:
Western Australia constituted a penal settlement.
1850:
Arrival of first convicts.
1851:
Commencement of pearling industry.
1854:
Austin's expedition to the Murchison.
1855:
Retirement of Governor Fitzgerald.
Arrival of Governor Kennedy.
1856:
A.C. Gregory's expedition from the Northern Territory to Victoria Plains.
Anglican Bishopric established.
1857 to 1858:
F.T. Gregory's survey of the Murchison and exploration of Gascoyne.
1861:
F.T. Gregory's expedition to the North.
1861 to 1868:
Settlement of the North-West.
1862:
Dr. Hampton succeeds Sir Arthur Kennedy as Governor.
1864:
Roebuck Bay Pastoral Association.
Camden Harbour Pastoral Association.
1865:
Denison Plains Association.
1866:
Hunt's expedition to Hampton Plains.
1868:
Cessation of transportation.
Resignation of Governor Hampton.
1869:
Arrival of Governor Weld.
First telegraph line erected.
John Forrest's expedition in search of Leichhardt.
1870:
Representative Government established.
John Forrest's overland journey to Adelaide.
1871:
Municipalities Act passed.
Elementary Education Act passed.
First railway built.
A. Forrest's journey to Esperance.
1872 to 1873:
Expeditions of Giles, Gosse, and Warburton.
1874:
John Forrest's expedition to the north.
Departure of Governor Weld.
1875:
Giles' overland expeditions.
Arrival of Governor Robinson.
1876:
Escape of Fenian convicts.
1877:
Sir Harry Ord succeeds Governor Robinson.
1879:
Exploration of Kimberley district by A. Forrest.
1880:
Kimberley district opened up.
Sir William Robinson succeeds Governor Ord.
1883:
Sir Frederick Broome succeeds Governor Robinson.
1885:
Federal Council Act passed.
1886:
Kimberley Goldfield proclaimed.
1888:
Yilgarn Goldfield proclaimed.
Pilbara Goldfield proclaimed.
1889:
Great Southern Railway opened (built on land-grant system).
1890:
July. Imperial Act conferring Responsible Government passed.
October. Sir William Robinson succeeds Governor Broome.
Responsible Government inaugurated.
December. First ministry appointed, John Forrest Premier.
1891:
Murchison Goldfield proclaimed.
1892:
Coolgardie Goldfield discovered.
Fremantle Harbour commenced.
1893:
Hannans (Kalgoorlie) Goldfield discovered.
1894:
Menzies Goldfield discovered.
Midland Railway opened (land-grant railway).
1896:
Great Southern Railway purchased by Government.
1899:
Goldfields Water Supply commenced (completed January 1903).
1900:
July. Federal referendum taken.
1901:
Commonwealth of Australia inaugurated 1 January.
DISCOVERY OF AND EARLY VOYAGES TO AUSTRALIA.
Although a large amount of research into the documentary annals of the world's history has taken place during the past half-century it is still not possible to assign, with any degree of accuracy, a definite date to the discovery of Australia.
From earliest times there have been traditions, probably engendered more by the spirit of prophecy than by fact, of the existence of a Great South Land. Aristotle, Strabo, and others have expressed the opinion that there existed south of the Equator areas of land at least equal in extent to those above it, and in the Astronomicon of Manilius (1:238 to 239) we find the lines:
"...Austrinis pars est habitabilis oris, Sub pedibusque jacet nostris."
These statements, however, were merely essays into the region of probabilities, and had not any known basis of fact. But to come down to a later period, it is possible to show from early manuscript maps and other sources that this belief in a southern continent was entertained long before the discoveries made during the sixteenth century. The Vicomte de Santarem, in his Essai sur l'histoire de la cosmographie et de la cartographie du moyen age, gives a list of these maps, upon which are to be found vague markings of an inhabited country described as the "opposite earth," which could not be reached owing to the torrid zone; and he points out that "the cartographers of the Middle Ages have submitted that as a reality which, even to the geographers of antiquity, was merely a theory."* Unfortunately, every effort to discover manuscripts that would bear out the assertions of these maps has so far been without success. Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, as the result of his travels, certainly did advance the claims of the Chinese to the discovery of a Great South Land, and there is perhaps some justification for the statement, as we know that for centuries prior to the European advent that nation had established extensive trade relations with the islands of the East Indies. That the country mentioned was Australia is, however, out of the question. Marsden's** explanation is probably the right one--that it refers to a portion of Cambodia, the products of which are gold, spices, and elephants.
(*Footnote. Major, R.H, Early Voyages to Terra Australis pages 14 to 15.)
(**Footnote. Marco Polo, Travels: translated by Marsden (Bohn's Library) Book 3 chapter 8 note.)
From the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, evidences of a more definite character are available. By this time the Portuguese and other navigators had found a way by sea round the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies, and were opening up avenues of trade in all directions. This meant the continual passage of ships to and fro, and it is not unlikely that many ships on their way to Java or other islands of the East came within sight of portions of the western Australian coast.
A claim to the discovery of Australia has been made on behalf of Magalhaens or Magellan, a Portuguese,* who sailed from San Lucar in 1519 by order of the Emperor Charles V, on a voyage round the world which lasted until 1522, and during the course of which Magellan himself was killed. Descriptions of this voyage were published by Maximilianus and by Pigafetta in 1536, and the information contained therein was used by Fernando Vaz Dourado in his atlas made in 1570.** In one of the maps in this atlas there is shown a coastline which is stated to have been discovered by Magellan in 1520 and which is claimed to be that part of Australia. This claim has been examined by Major and Dr. John Martin, and the result of that examination published by Major.*** Dr. Martin came to the conclusion that the coastline was not part of Australia, but was really part of New Guinea. He was strengthened in this belief by an old map of Mercator, upon which he found some names upon the coast of New Guinea similar to those upon Dourado's map. In Major's opinion the tract laid down as discovered by Magellan "is, in fact, a memorandum or cartographical side-note of the discovery by Magellan of Tierra del Fuego and, from its adopted false position on the vellum it was subsequently applied to New Guinea by Mercator."**** He admits that this surmise may possibly be incorrect, but considers that the only alternative is that the tract laid down is New Guinea and is clearly not Australia.
(*Footnote. Ayala, A. compendio geographico estadistico de Portugal, Madrid 1855 page 482. Quoted by Major Early Voyages page 21. See also ibid page 22 to
(**Footnote. Major, R.H. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 21.)
(***Footnote. Ibid pages 22 et seq.)
(****Footnote. Ibid page 26.)
Further support to the Portuguese claim, though not to Magellan, was given by M. Barbie du Bocage in a paper read before the French Institute in 1807 concerning an atlas drawn at Dieppe in 1547 by Nicholas Vallard, an extract from which paper is given by Major.* Having compared this atlas with other contemporary atlases, Barbie du Bocage came to the conclusion that all must have been copies from original Portuguese maps, and consequently that the discovery of the continent of New Holland belonged to the Portuguese. When, at a later date, Major considered the question of the discovery of Australia, six maps bearing upon the matter were known. Of these, four were in England and two in France.** Upon these there is shown a large coastline to the south and south-east of Java, separated from that island by a narrow strait, and to which the name Java la Grande is applied. A portion of this coastline bears a distinct resemblance to the north-west coast of Western Australia. This forms presumptive evidence, as the maps are all sixteenth-century maps, that navigators of some nationality had come within sight of the mainland of Australia during the first half of the sixteenth century.
(*Footnote. Ibid pages 35 to 45.)
(**Footnote. Ibid pages 26 et seq.)
In many respects the maps are similar, and give evidence of having been derived from the same source. From the fact that although admittedly French they contained names that looked like gallicized Portuguese, Major argued,* following Barbie du Bocage, that in all probability the original discovery was Portuguese because the Portuguese predominated at that time in those seas, and also because the French were not likely to have given Portuguese names to territories which they had themselves discovered. These considerations led him to "regard it as highly probable that Australia was discovered by the Portuguese between the years 1511 and 1529, and almost to a demonstrable certainty that it was discovered by the Portuguese before the year 1542."**
(*Footnote. Major, Further facts relating to the Early Discovery of Australia page 6. Archaeologia volume 44.)
(**Footnote. Major, Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 44.)
A seventh map, by Pierre Desceliers of Arques, dated 1550, which came into the possession of the British Museum in 1861, appeared to bear out this contention.* Upon this map there is shown an island, occupying the position of the Abrolhos Group off the west coast of Australia. Mr. Delmar Morgan, in a paper on the discovery of Australia read at the Berne Congress of Geographical Sciences in 1891 and reprinted in the Proceedings of the New South Wales branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia for 1892, referring more particularly to these islands, stated:
"The Portuguese navigator, Menezes, is commonly reported to have visited this part of the Australian coast in 1527, but it is most unlikely that he ever did so. Some authorities go so far as to declare that he actually charted these islands and reefs. They were charted, however, if not before, soon after his voyage, as they are marked on all these old Australian charts, although the word Abrolhos appears on Pierre Descelier's chart alone (1550). When the Dutch undertook their voyage to the East Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1595, Frederick Houtman, although merely commercial chief of the expedition, assumed the title of Captain-General, and history falsely conferred on him the glory of having conducted the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies. In the same way his name was prefixed undeservedly to the Portuguese discovery on the western coast of Australia, but at what period it would be difficult to determine."
(*Footnote. Major, Further Facts in the History of the Discovery of Australia page 3.)
There are two points about this statement which detract from its value as evidence of the Portuguese discovery. Menezes, during his voyage in the year 1526 or 1527, from Malacca to the Spice Islands, was carried by currents to the coast which has since been recognised as the north coast of New Guinea,* but there is no allusion in any reference which we possess regarding this voyage to a discovery of a great southern land. Secondly, the name marked against these islands on Descelier's map is Arenes and not Abrolhos. Collingridge** attempts to establish Arenes as a corruption of Abrolhos, which is a Portuguese term for rocky projections arising from the sea. This suggestion, which is scouted by Heeres,*** can scarcely be regarded seriously. It certainly does not in any way add to the merit of the Portuguese claim.
(*Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 44.)
(**Footnote. Collingridge Discovery of Australia page 192.)
(***Footnote. Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal by J.E. Heeres Amsterdam 1898. Life and Labours of Tasman page 97 note 1.)
The conclusion reached by Major was accepted by geographers and, as he says, "passed into history."* It was upset by Major himself in 1873 after an examination of an engraved map of the world by Orontius Finaeus, dated 1531, which had recently come into the possession of the British Museum. In the light of this new discovery he reexamined the names on the six maps referred to and decided that they were in Provencal French and not in gallicized Portuguese. This led him to "the inevitable conclusion that Australia was discovered by Frenchmen, and chiefly by the men of Provence, in or before the year 1531."**
(***Footnote. Major. Supplementary Facts in the History of the Discovery of Australia page 15. Archaeologia volume 44.)
(****Footnote. Major. Further Facts relating to the Early Discovery of Australia page 8. Archaeologia volume 44.)
On the whole, whilst the evidence points towards the acceptance of Major's conclusion that the French were the first discoverers, it is not sufficiently strong to enable it to be laid down as a fact. It does, however, seem to establish the point that something was known of the Australian coastline prior to what is regarded as the first authenticated discovery, which was made by the Duyfken in 1606. This contention is strengthened by the statement to be found in Cornelis Wytfliet's Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum, published in 1598:
"The Australis Terra is the most modern of all lands, and is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are hitherto but little known, since after one voyage and another that route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited except when sailors are driven there by storms. The Australis Terra begins at 2 or 3 degrees from the Equator, and is maintained by some to be of so great an extent that if it were thoroughly explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world."
The remainder of the sixteenth century was allowed to pass without any definite step being taken to increase the knowledge of the new country. That there were courageous spirits imbued with the thirst for discovery, who sought fame rather than the mere accumulation of wealth, is not to be doubted, but there is no record that Australia ever claimed their attention. The great majority of the adventurers, of whatever nationality, found more than sufficient occupation in exploiting the treasures of the Indies, and preferred rather to gather in the riches that were certain than undertake the search for those which were vague and chimerical. Those who were not content with the mild excitement of profitable trade found ample outlet for their buccaneering tendencies in looting one another.
Still, the spirit of discovery was not dead. The seventeenth century had scarcely opened when the tail was once more taken up, and resulted in the discovery of Cape York Peninsula by the Dutch vessel Duyfken about March 1606, followed by the discovery of Torres Straits and a portion of the mainland by Torres in a Spanish vessel, the Almirante, about August of the same year.* From this time we may safely say that the existence of a southern continent was definitely known, although its coastline was still indefinite and unexplored.
(*Footnote. Major. Early voyages to Terra Australis pages 74 to 75 and 80.)
Western Australia was, and indeed from its geographical position must have been, the first part of the continent to become actually known, lying as it does just off what was then the main trade route to the East. No better evidence can be found of this statement than a study of the map showing the prevailing winds. We notice that south of the Tropic of Capricorn the general direction of the wind is from the west, while just above the tropic we meet the south-east trades and monsoonal disturbances. Mariners but doubtfully acquainted with the seas in which they were sailing would have a tendency, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, to go east as far as possible before bearing northward to Java and Timor, thus hoping to secure the benefit of the wind in both directions and to avoid, if they could, the area of disturbance. This would apply particularly to the Dutch, whose information of the route was first gained by the study of navigation and not by its actual practice; and it explains in great measure the frequency of Dutch names on the west coast of Australia. It is more than probable that the first knowledge of the new continent many of them had was when they felt it under their keels.
It is curious to note how great a part the struggle for the control of the East Indian trade played in the gradual determination of the coastline of the continent. Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and French in turn endeavoured to come from the commerce and resources of those regions of marvellous wealth, and from the possible discovery of the Abrolhos by Menezes in 1527 we have the same procession of nationalities in the progress of Australian discovery.
Early in the seventeenth century we find important changes taking place in the political conditions of Europe. The great naval strength of Spain, and the mighty influence consequent upon it, had made her, in the sixteenth century, the dominant power in the Low Countries, and a successful rival of Portugal in the trade of the world. With the new era, however, the glory of Spain was rapidly to wane, and the nation so long trodden under the Spanish heel was not only to become free but to challenge both her naval and commercial supremacy.
The long-striven-for and hardly-won independence of the Netherlands had roused all the strength and energy of the people, and the dogged determination that had ended Spanish oppression found continued opportunity in the desire to lift Holland to a proud position among the nations. The northern provinces were free, but Spain had for the time regained control of the southern, and had made her implacable hatred felt by repeated acts of cruelty, from which many of the inhabitants sought relief in flight. Among these were a number of Antwerp merchants who had for many years been indirectly connected with the trade to the Indies. The opposition of these men was strengthened by two of the most potent of human passions--the bitter hatred of exiles and the fanatic attachment to religious faith. They saw that Spain could best be crippled by curtailing her overseas trade or by depriving her of it altogether, and that in the result the southern provinces might be freed and the Protestant faith strengthened.
This, at first the idea of a few, gained general support when the Spaniards forbade Dutch traffic with Spain, which even during the wars had never altogether ceased. Geography, hydrography, and navigation became subjects of earnest study, and schools were formed with the express purpose of endeavouring to find a way to India and other Spanish possessions. The outcome of this movement was the foundation in 1602 of the Dutch East India Company, under whose flag many important voyages and discoveries were to be made.*
(*Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis pages 76 to 78.)
Of the Dutch voyages prior to this time no certain information is available. The English Ambassador at the Hague in the time of Charles II, Sir William Temple,* gave it as his opinion that "a southern continent has long since been found out," which he said was "as long as Java and is marked on the maps by the name of New Holland, but to what extent the land extends, either to the south, the east, or the west, we do not know." To the same authority we are indebted for the declaration that the Dutch East India Company "have long since forbidden, and under the greatest penalties, any further attempts at discovering that continent, having already more trade than they can turn to account, and fearing some more populous nation of Europe might make great establishments of trade in some of these unknown regions, which might ruin or impair what they have already in the Indies."** This statement has been vigorously denied by the Dutch, but the fact remains that of the voyages made by the Company little was known until the publication of the instructions issued by the Governor-General at Batavia to Tasman, on his second voyage in 1644. This curious document was found by Sir Joseph Banks in 1770 when turning over the old archives at Batavia, and was published by Sir Alexander Dalrymple in his Collections Concerning Papua. From it we learn that in 1606 the Duyfken made the first AUTHENTICATED discovery of that great land*** which at the instance of the famous navigator, Matthew Flinders, is now designated Australia. The Captain of this vessel, Willem Jansz, prepared a careful chart of the voyage, showing that he sailed along the coast of New Guinea, then went southward along the coast of Cape York Peninsula to Cape Keer-Weer (Turn again) but was prevented from landing even for water owing to the cruel and treacherous nature of the savages, who murdered some of the crew. The results of Torres' voyage not being known at the time, the captain considered that the whole coast traversed was a portion of New Guinea.
(*Footnote. Temple, Sir W. Works, London 1720 volume 1 page 163.)
(**Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 163.)
(***Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 3.)
The second voyage, according to the Book of Dispatches, was that made in a yacht from Batavia by order of the Fiscal d'Edel in 1617. Of this, however, nothing certain is known, as the journals and remarks could not be found.*
(*Footnote. In the portion relating more particularly to the Dutch voyages, the author is chiefly indebted to the following authorities: a. Major, R.H. Early Voyages to Terra Australis. b. Heeres, J.E. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia, 1606 to 1675, London 1899. c. Historical introduction to the Official Year Book of Western Australia, 1902 to 1904. The last named was submitted to Dr. W.G.S. Byvanck, the Chief Librarian of the Royal Library at the Hague, who made various corrections which have been incorporated in the text. Dr. Byvanck's original letter is filed in the Registrar-General's Department of Western Australia. 530/97.)
No further attempts at discovery were made from Batavia until 1623, but in the meantime outward-bound ships touched at various portions of the coast in 1616, 1618, 1619, and 1622. Of these voyages but little information is now available. The most important of them all, from a romantic as well as from an historic point of view, is that of Dirk Hartog in 1616, commanding the ship Eendracht, of some 360 tons burden. Having entered the roads leading into Shark Bay (so named at a later period by Dampier) this navigator discovered and named Dirk Hartog Island. The large island at the entrance to the bay then, or subsequently, named Dorre Island was also discovered by him, as well as the portion of the mainland opposite which, if not then named, was certainly known as Eendrachts-Land as soon afterwards as 1618.* On the north end of the island bearing his name Hartog left a tin plate as witness to his visit. This was nailed to a post and remained in position for nearly a century before being again seen by the eye of civilised man. It bore the following inscription:
"On the 25th of October, 1616, arrived here the ship Eendracht, of Amsterdam: The first merchant, Gilles Milbais van Luyck: captain, Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail for Bantam; under merchant, Jan Stins; upper steersman, Pieter Dockes, of Bil; A.D. 1616."
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 8. Some doubt as to the authenticity of Dirk Hartog's voyage, based chiefly upon researches by Mr. George Collingridge, has been raised by the Reverend J. Bryant in the Scottish Geographical Magazine for March 1917 volume 33 pages 120 to 121. Mr. Collingridge's argument, however, scarcely seems to combat the evidence of Heeres (Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia) or the fact that Eendrachtsland is marked on the chart of Gerritz made in 1627.)
To continue the history of this plate, it may be said that when Van Vlaming, captain of the Geelvinck (of whose voyage it will be necessary to speak later) visited the island in 1697--the first visit, so far as we know, after the erection of the plate--he took the original plate away to Batavia, replacing it by a new one, on which the old inscription was copied and the following new one added:
"On the 4th of February, 1697, arrived here the ship Geelvinck, of Amsterdam: Captain commandant, Wilhelm van Vlaming, of Vlielandt; assistant, Jan van Bremen, of Copenhagen; first pilot, Micheel Bloem Van Estight, of Bremen; the hooker Myptangh: Captain, Gerrit Collaert, of Amsterdam; assistant, Theodorus Heermans, of the same place; first pilot, Gerrit Gerritz, of Bremen. Sailed from here with our fleet on the 12th to explore the South Land and afterwards bound for Batavia."
(The above are translations of the original inscriptions. See Plates 1 and 2.)
Still another century later, in 1801, during the French voyage of discovery made by Baudin in the Geographe and Naturaliste, Van Vlaming's plate was seen. The two vessels became separated, and Captain Hamelin, of the Naturaliste, sent three men onto Dirk Hartog island for the purpose of signalling the other ship. The boatswain on his return from the island brought back the tin plate, which he had found on the north point half buried in the sand and close to an oaken post to which originally it seemed to have been attached. Hamelin copied the inscription and then replaced it in position on a new post. He also placed on the north-east of the island a new plate giving the name of his ship and the date of arrival.* The old plate remained for a while longer, but was not to be found when King** made a careful search for it in 1822. It afterwards transpired that Freycinet had removed it in 1818 and had deposited it for safekeeping in the museum of the French Institute at Paris. This fact is recorded in the minutes of the Institute for 1821, but apparently the plate has been lost, as every effort since made to discover it has been futile.*** The same fate was believed to have befallen the original plate of Dirk Hartog, which had been carried to Batavia. Fortunately, however, it was found in 1902 in the State Museum at Amsterdam by Mr. F.F.L. de Balbian.****
(*Footnote. Peron. Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes 1801 a 1804; Historique volume 1 pages 194 a 195.)
(**Footnote. King, P.P. Narrative of a Survey of the Inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia 1818 to 1822 volume 2 page 180.)
(***Footnote. See letter from Dr. A. Grandidier, Secretary of the Institute (filed in Registrar-General's Office, Western Australia.)
(****Footnote. Western Australia Year Book 1902 to 1904 page 4.)
Reverting now to the historical narrative, it would appear that in July 1618 the outward-bound ship Mauritius* made some discoveries on the west coast, more particularly of "Willem's River" (probably the Ashburton) near the North-West Cape. As the journals and remarks were lost, no further particulars of this voyage are available.
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia pages x, 12 to 13.)
In the following year, 1619, a fleet of eleven vessels under the command of Frederick Houtman, in the Dordrecht, claims to have discovered a series of reefs lying off the west coast, to which the name Frederick Houtman's Abrolhos* was given. These consist of a cluster of rocky islets with surrounding reefs, and are situated west and north-west of Champion Bay. It is very doubtful whether this was really the first discovery of these islands.** It will be remembered that on at least one map of the sixteenth century they are vaguely defined, and the term Arenes given them. Major*** is of opinion that there is no evidence that Houtman ever visited the group at all, but that the islands were named after him, in 1619, by Jacob d'Edel, to whom their discovery was really due. This view, however, must give way before the researches of Professor Heeres,**** who prints two letters from Houtman, both dated Jacatra, 7 October 1619, the one to Prince Maurice and the other to the managers of the East India Company. In these he describes his visit to the islands. "On the 29th" (July) he writes, "deeming ourselves to be in open sea, we shaped our course north-by-east. At noon we were in 29 degrees 32 minutes southern latitude; at night, about three hours before daybreak, we again unexpectedly came upon a low-lying coast, a level country with reefs all round it. We saw no highland or mainland, so that this shoal is to be carefully avoided as very dangerous to ships that wish to touch at this coast. It is fully ten miles in length, lying in 28 degrees 46 minutes."
(*Footnote. The term Abrolhos is a contraction of the Portuguese abri vossos olhos (keep your eyes open) a most necessary precaution, and a term applied by them to outlying coastal dangers.)
(**Footnote. See supra.)
(***Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 86.)
(****Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia pages 14 to 16.)
The supercargo of the Amsterdam, one of Houtman's fleet, was Jacob d'Edel, or Dedel, after whom the portion of the coast between Shark Bay and Champion Bay, then discovered, was named Edel Land. The letter forwarded by this supercargo from Jacatra to the managers of the East India Company, bearing the same date as Houtman's, has perhaps a peculiar interest for Western Australia, as it contains the suggestion, certainly the first, that the new land from its general appearance might prove to be gold-bearing. In it, inter alia, d'Edel writes, after describing his meeting with Houtman at the Cape and their journey together till they "came upon the south lands situated behind Java":
"We anchored in 14 fathom in 32 1/2 degrees latitude, the bottom being level and hard; in full sight of the land the sea was 100 fathom deep. We used our best endeavours to make a landing, which, however, could not conveniently be done owing to the steep coast...We then made all sail, and the wind coming round a little we stood out to sea, not deeming it advisable to continue longer inshore in this bad weather with such large heavy ships and such costly cargoes as we had entrusted to our care, and with great peril to lose more precious time; but being contented with having seen the land, which at a more favourable time may be further explored with more fitting vessels and smaller craft. We have seen no sign of inhabitants, nor did we always keep near the coast, since it formed large bays which would have taken up much time. Still, we kept seeing the coast from time to time until 27 degrees we came upon the land discovered by the ship Eendracht, which land in the said latitude showed as a red, muddy coast, WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE SURMISES OF SOME OF US, MIGHT NOT UNLIKELY PROVE TO BE GOLD-BEARING, A POINT WHICH MAY BE CLEARED UP IN TIME."*
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 16.)
The next voyage of interest was that of the Leeuwin in 1622. This vessel rounded the cape since known as Cape Leeuwin at the south-west corner of the continent, and continued along the coast as far east as King George's Sound. The name Leeuwin's Land was applied to the portion then examined, and on Gerritz' map it is said to consist of "dunes with trees and underwood at the top" and "lowland seemingly submerged by the tide."*
(*Footnote. Ibid page 17.)
On 5 July of the same year there arrived at Batavia a boat containing ten men, who formed part of the crew of an English ship, the Trial; this was followed some few days later by the pinnace of the same ship with thirty-six men on board. The men stated that they had lost and abandoned their ship with ninety-seven men and the cargo on some rocks in 20 degrees 10 minutes southern latitude and in the longitude of the western extremity of Java, that the ship ran on the rocks at night time in fine weather, and that they had met with the accident through following the course of Dutch ships.* It is probable that while right as to latitude the sailors were considerably at fault in their longitude, as the rocks have since been identified as the south-west portion of Monte Bello Reef, which runs north and south to the north of Barrow Island. A Dutch yacht, the Hasewint, was instructed to search for the place, but for some reason it never made a start. The instructions given to the commander of the yacht are of a most interesting nature, and had the voyage been carried out in accordance with them, the history of Australia, or at least the western part of it, might have been entirely different. The captain received orders to give names fitting and worthy from a Dutch point of view to the places he should visit, and to take possession of them in the name of the United Provinces. That of course, had it been done, would have meant annexation by the Dutch of practically the whole of Western Australia, as the orders embraced the whole coastline south if necessary to 50 degrees southern latitude, and eastward as far as possible if the coast turned in that direction. From the standpoint of future British settlement it is perhaps fortunate that the voyage never took place. Apart from that phase of the question, however, the voyage would have been productive of great results, and a more or less definite knowledge of the possibilities of Western Australia would have been known to the world nearly two centuries earlier. The thoroughness with which the voyage was conceived and the advantages hoped to be gained may be gathered from the following extract from the instructions:**
"The main object for which you are dispatched on this occasion is that from 45 or 50 degrees, or from the furthest point to which the land shall be found to extend southward within these latitudes, up to the northern-most extremity of the South Land, you will have to discover and survey all capes, forelands, bights, lands, islands, rocks, reefs, sandbanks, depths, shallows, roads, winds, currents, and all that appertains to the same, so as to be able to map out and duly mark everything in its true latitude, bearings, and conformation. You will, moreover, go ashore in various places and diligently examine the coast in order to ascertain whether or not it is inhabited, the nature of the land and the people, their towns and inhabited villages, the divisions of their kingdoms, their religion and policy, their wars, their rivers, the shape of their vessels, their fisheries, commodities, and manufactures, but specially to inform yourselves what minerals such as gold, silver, tin, lead, and copper, what precious stones, pearls, vegetables, animals, and fruits these lands yield and produce."
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 18.)
(**Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 19.)
Farther on they were directed to inquire as carefully as possible into the question of whether the land would yield gold, as had previously been suggested, and also to endeavour to procure and bring back to Batavia some of the natives.*
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 21.)
The expedition failed to set out owing, it is said, to unforeseen causes,* but the existence of the instructions is particularly valuable, giving as they do a complete and comprehensive statement of the Dutch colonial policy of the time. The principal end in view may have been, as was stated, that of discovery, but there is ample evidence that commercial interests were not lost sight of, nor were possible political results altogether overlooked.
(*Footnote. Ibid page 21 note 1.)
The next mention we have of the new land was that made by the captain of the Wapen van Hoorn in the same year, 1622. This vessel had left Texel for the east in the previous December, and on arrival at her destination reported having been "in extreme peril near Eendracht Land."*
(*Footnote. Ibid page 15.)
The knowledge of the west coast was extended during 1623 by the Leyden and the Tortelduyff, both of which reported having sighted the South Land. In the same year Arnhem Land, including the present Northern Territory of the Commonwealth, was discovered by Jan Carstensz. During an attempt at exploration some members of the party were killed, and the expedition returned with the information that "in this discovery were found everywhere shallow water and barren coasts; islands altogether thinly populated by divers cruel, poor, and brutal natives, and of very little use to the Company."*
(*Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 45.)
Nothing further is known until 1627, when the Gulden Zeepaard, under the command of Francois Thyssen, sighted the south coast just beyond Cape Leeuwin and made an exhaustive examination of the coastline for about one thousand miles eastward, giving to the part explored the name of Nuyts Land,* in honour of the chief passenger, Pieter Nuyts, who was afterwards Ambassador to Japan and subsequently Governor of Formosa. In Nuyts Land was embraced all that territory lying at the head of the Great Australian Bight.
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 51.)
In the second half of the same year, on 22 July 1627, the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies sailed from Table Bay with the ships Galias, Utrecht, and Texel. All went well up to 10 August, when the rudder of the Galias broke, and the ship becoming unmanageable, the other vessels passed out of sight. Repairs being effected, the next day she proceeded on her course alone, and on 5 September came suddenly upon the Land of Eendracht, which by the reckoning of the chart should have been nearly 350 miles farther east. The Governor's experience on this voyage and his nearness to shipwreck led him to request the Company to give particular attention to correcting the miscalculations in the chart--a work that seems to have been very urgently required. Accuracy of observation and charting was therefore enjoined upon succeeding captains, with a result beneficial alike to navigation and geography.* Towards the end of 1627 the Wapen van Hoorn, which had been in peril near the coast of Eendracht Land in 1622, again sighted the same portion of the coast, although, according to the chart, the land should have been in quite a different direction. This fact led to observations being taken which helped to make the chart more correct.**
(*Footnote. Ibid page 52.)
(**Footnote. Ibid page 53.)
Early in the following year Captain de Witt in the Vianen, homeward bound, touched the shore on the north-west coast in the neighbourhood of the present town of Roebourne, and after making a cursory examination for some fifty miles gave it the name of De Witt Land.*
(*Footnote. Ibid pages xi, 54.)
The same year, 1628, was also to witness the commencement of one of the most important and exciting voyages made to the new land. On the whole, the history of early Australian discovery is a calm and quiet story, without trace of adventure, recording nothing of an eventful nature beyond the sighting and superficial examination of stretches of isolated and uninteresting coast. But there are some exceptions, and perhaps the greatest of these is the tragic voyage of the Batavia, whose passengers and crew formed the first white settlers on Australian soil, albeit involuntarily, and for many of them with dire results.
The relation of this voyage, probably compiled from Pelsart's Journal, was first published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1647, and was repeatedly republished during the succeeding few years. It was used by Thevenot in 1663 in compiling a French version for his Receuil de divers voyages curieux, and all English accounts were merely abridgements of this until 1897, when Mr. W. Siebenhaar, of Perth, undertook a complete translation of the Dutch account. The description of the voyage is taken from that document.* Pelsart's Journal was recently published by Professor Heeres, but the fact and particulars of the shipwreck were omitted as being already sufficiently known.
(*Footnote. This was printed in the Western Mail (Perth) Christmas Number 1897.)
In 1628 General Pieter Carpentier returned safely from the East Indies with five richly-laden merchant ships, and this, combined with the fact that the Government had recently succeeded in releasing three ships from an embargo laid upon them by the English a year previously, led the authorities to determine to send another fleet of eleven ships to the East, with which General Jacob Specks was to sail. Two ships and a yacht being soon ready to sail, the senate sent them to Texel so as to lose no time. These vessels were the Batavia (under Francois Pelsart) the Dordrecht (under Isaac van Swaenswyck) and the Assendelft (under Cornelis Vlack). They left Texel for their destination on 28 October 1628. With the details of the first part of the voyage we need not concern ourselves. Nothing out of the ordinary happened except that the ships became separated, which was so usual an occurrence as to cause little excitement. The Batavia continued her course alone, and on Whit-Monday, 4 June 1629, reached southern latitude 28 degrees 28 1/3 minutes, about nine miles from the mainland. Here the ship was amongst the perilous banks of the Abrolhos, and shortly before sunrise she struck the reef. The usual trials and tribulations attendant upon shipwrecks occurred, intensified by the drunkenness and lawlessness of the soldiers and sailors, but eventually the whole company was landed on two small islands situated about three leagues from the ship. After considerable difficulty, provisions and merchandise, including treasure, were landed, but it was impossible to secure sufficient water. The forty people on the smaller island had only eighty cans, and the 180 refugees on the larger had even less, so that from the beginning the scarcity of water had to be faced. On this account a great deal of dissatisfaction arose, particularly as there was no water to be found on the islands, and very little hope of securing any until rain came, or unless the ship went to pieces and some of the barrels were to float to the islands. Some of the crew desired to take the boat and search the other islands and the mainland, but Pelsart was not at first favourable to this idea, feeling that he was responsible for the safety of both the people and the merchandise. Ultimately after much pressure he yielded, and it was decided that they should try the mainland for water, and if they found none to continue the voyage to Batavia to seek assistance for those left on the islands.
Before carrying this resolution into effect, the commodore (Pelsart) wished to sail across to the other island to acquaint the people there was the decision arrived at. The crew at first objected to this, but at length were induced to start. When nearing the other shore, however, they renewed their objections and definitely refused to land, evidently afraid of some untoward result. Pelsart was therefore compelled to return to the first island. The next morning, in company with some others, he set out early, after leaving a note of their intentions, to search for water. For three days they sought among the islands, but without success. Such fresh water as there was in the rocky holes of the islands round about had been spoilt by seawater during the storm. Then, on 9 June, they steered for the mainland, but were not able to land owing to the roughness of the coast and the persistence of the storm. Many efforts were made to effect a landing, but without avail, "for the breakers were too strong and the coast too steep and jagged, without any foreland or inlet, as is usually found on other coasts, so that it seemed to them a bare and cursed country, devoid of green or grass." The current bore them farther to the northward than they desired, and on the 14th, on approaching the coast, they observed a good deal of smoke, and endeavoured to run in, hoping to find men and water. To land being impracticable on account of the breakers, six men determined to swim for the shore, and all succeeded in reaching it. A day's search left them exhausted and unsuccessful. In the evening "they happened upon four people, who were creeping toward them on their hands and feet." These fled upon the approach of the sailors, who on their return to the boat described them as "black savages, quite naked, leaving themselves uncovered like animals." The next day they were fortunately able to land, and managed to collect about twenty gallons of water. They next resolved to go farther inland in the hope of securing more in the mountains, but the search was vain, as there was no appearance of water, "for behind the mountain chain the country was flat again, bearing neither trees nor vegetation nor grass, and being everywhere covered with high anthills built of earth, which in the distance were not unlike Indian huts. There were also such multitudes of flies that one could not keep them out of one's eyes." They next saw eight black people, each carrying a stick in his hand. These approached them to a musket shot's distance, but "when they saw our people coming toward them they took to their heels and would neither speak nor stop."
Oppressed by a sense of his own danger and fearing for the safety of those left on the islands, Pelsart followed the coastline in the hope of reaching the river of Jacob Remmessens,* which according to his charts was close at hand. North-easterly winds prevented him from reaching it, and finally he determined to try to make Batavia for assistance. This difficult task he accomplished and after sighting Java on 27 June, reached Batavia on 5 July. The next day he made his appearance before the Court, and having informed the Governor-General and Council of his misfortunes, requested speedy help to save the shipwrecked people, and to secure as much as possible of the merchandise. In a few days the frigate Sardam was assigned to him, and after manning and victualling her he left on his return to the Abrolhos on the 15th of the month.
(*Footnote. No definite date can be assigned to the discovery of this river. As Heeres points out, it must have been known before 1628 or 1629 as it is mentioned by Pelsart, but could not have been much earlier as the name is not found on Gerritz' charts of 1618 and 1627. Modern maps show no river of any size at that point. It is possible that Exmouth Gulf was mistaken for the mouth of a river. J.S.B.)
In the meantime, however, there was great trouble among those left behind on the islands. After the shipwreck the supercargo, Jerome Cornelisz, with several accomplices, had formed the intention of refloating the ship and using her for piracy, a trade which in those days was far from being unremunerative. To this end they remained on the vessel for some ten days, until, in fact, she began to fall to pieces, and they had considerable difficulty in gaining the shore. Cornelisz then, as supercargo, took command of the company, which at that time was spread over three islands. This distribution on three islands rose from the fact that a few days previously some of the men, in charge of a soldier, Webbye Hays, had gone off to a third in search of water.
Realising that the Batavia could not now be used for their purpose, Cornelisz and his associates determined upon the murder of all those opposed to their schemes, and upon the seizure of the yacht in which they expected Pelsart to return from Batavia. Selecting those upon whom he could depend, a contract was made out to which they agreed. The wording of this bond, really an agreement to commit wholesale murder, is so curious that it may be interesting to insert it in full:
"We, the undersigned, in order to take away all distrust that exists or might exist amongst us, bind ourselves herewith, ON THE SALVATION OF OUR SOULS, AND ON THE SOLEMN OATH THAT GOD SHALL TRULY HELP US TO BE TRUE TO EACH OTHER IN EVERYTHING AND TO LOVE EACH OTHER AS BROTHERS; also promising not to do each other any injury whatsoever in person or possession without first verbally declaring to each other the breach of the peace, in knowledge thereof we have signed this contract on the 12th July, 1629, on the island Bataviae's Kerkhof."
The signatures followed. They then proceeded to murder all those on the island with the exception of thirty men and four boys, so that the name of the island as set down in the contract--Batavia's graveyard--was both sinister and significant.
Meanwhile, Webbye Hays and party, who were away looking for water, were after twenty days successful in finding it, and made three fires as a signal. As this happened to be on the day of the general murder, Cornelisz and his friends were probably too busy to notice them. Some who escaped the carnage managed to get across to Hays on rafts and take him the dreadful news. Having with these reinforcements some forty-five men under him, he resolved to place himself in a position of defence from attack. Those on the remaining island, either not being aware of what had transpired or being too weak to defend themselves, were attacked by a party of Cornelisz' ruffians, and all but seven boys and six women were murdered. The chests of merchandise were then opened, and the worthy band attired themselves gaudily in scarlet cloth, with gold and silver embroidery.
The ringleader, however, recognised that there could be no safety for him until Webbye Hays and party were put out of the way. Consequently, having assumed the title and authority of Captain-General, he sent an expedition of twenty-two armed men against them. These were successfully repulsed by the practically defenceless band. Cornelisz then had recourse to strategy, and by letter secretly offered some of the men large rewards in return for treachery. These letters were shown to Hays, and a trap was accordingly laid. Cornelisz was induced to come to the island to settle the terms, and on arrival he himself was taken prisoner and some of his men killed.
At this stage, 13 September, the Sardam with Pelsart arrived at the Abrolhos, the commodore being pleased to find from the presence of smoke that some at least of his people were still alive. Before he could land, Webbye Hays and three others came on board and gave him an account of the whole tragedy, further informing him that the ruffians were already on their way to surprise and seize the ship. These, when they arrived, were captured, a fate which also quickly befell the remainder of the band. An examination into all the circumstances was then and there made, and as carrying the miscreants back to Batavia would have meant crowding the frigate too much, Cornelisz and those closely associated with him were put to death on Seal Island, after being subjected to the refinements of what one almost feels compelled to admit was well-merited torture. Among them they had murdered no fewer than 125 innocent people. The frigate then returned to Batavia, stopping her course to maroon two of the conspirators on the coast near Champion Bay. These two men were the first white inhabitants of the continent so far as is known. It is curious that the first white settlement in Australia also consisted of persons largely of the same class.*
(*Footnote. The instructions issued to the commanders of the yachts Klein Amsterdam and Wesel, which were sent out in 1636 for further investigation of the north coast of Australia, contained the direction to grant a passage home to the two Dutch criminals put ashore on the west coast by Pelsart. See Heeres, Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 66.)
During the years following, particularly in 1629, 1632, and 1635, various places on the west coast were either touched at or sighted by Dutch ships, but these did not contribute anything new in the way of information.* The next important voyage was that of Abel Janszoon Tasman (who had discovered Van Diemen's Land in 1642) and Franz Visscher, with the yachts Limmen, Zeemeeuw, and De Brak. It was for this voyage, which took place in 1644, that the Dutch Book of Dispatches, previously referred to, and from which much of our knowledge of the voyages of the Dutch East India Company is derived, was compiled. The object of the expedition was to explore the north-west and north coasts of the new continent, and to proceed eastward to determine whether New Guinea was a separate island or part of the mainland. Tasman's Journal of this voyage had unfortunately been lost, so that such information as we possess about the voyage is rather meagre, and is taken from a work published in 1705 by Burgomaster Witsen, who quotes Tasman as the authority for his statements. These refer chiefly to the natives, who are described as "possessing rude canoes made of the bark of trees, but no houses; to live poorly, go naked, and eat yams and other roots."**
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 62.)
(**Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 98.)
From the map published by Thevenot in 1663, which it is said was forgery taken from that done in inlaid work on the pavement of the new Stadt Haus in Amsterdam, we may get a fair idea of his route. He certainly did not ascertain whether New Guinea was separated from the mainland,* but he examined the northern coastline from Arnhem Land to Exmouth Gulf, taking in De Witt Land and part of Eendracht Land, and embracing the districts now known as the Kimberleys and the North-West. He also appears to have landed in what we call Carnot and Roebuck Bays. To him we owe the name New Holland, which was applied by the Dutch only to the western portion of the continent, the coastline of which had been fairly accurately determined. The part to the east, which was still thought to be connected with New Guinea, continued to be called South Land.**
(*Footnote. Tasman, Abel Janszoon. Journal edited by Heeres Amsterdam 1898 page 117.)
(**Footnote. Ibid page 118 and Chart Number 1; also Heeres, Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 12.)
From this time to the end of the century the interest of the Dutch in coastal exploration seems to have flagged. The sterile nature of the country promised but little in the way of wealth, and though the territory was still included in the lands of the Dutch East India Company, it was left undisturbed to the occupation of the savages. An exploratory voyage was made by the Leeuwerik in 1648, and in 1649 the Vergulde Draeck, laden with rich merchandise and money, was wrecked in latitude 30 degrees 40 minutes and 118 lives were lost. In the hope of securing assistance, seven of the survivors managed to reach Batavia, leaving sixty-eight behind them to protect the cargo and treasure. Relief ships were dispatched in 1657 and 1658, but many of these met with disaster of one kind or another, and all returned from the search unsuccessful. The first of these vessels, the Witte Valck and Goede Hoop, sailed down the coast for some distance, but returned after losing a boat and eleven men. The Vinck, from the Cape to Batavia, was instructed to search, but also failed. The Waeckende Boey and the Emeloort visited the mainland in 1658 on the same mission, but with abortive results.* The first of these vessels foolishly abandoned a boat and fourteen men during bad weather, and only four of them got back to Batavia, the remainder succumbing to incredible suffering and privation. In the same year the Elburg joined in the search with the same negative result. Many of these ships observed wreckage of various kinds floating about, which evidently came from the Vergulde Draeck, but nothing was ever heard of the unfortunate castaways. There was, however, some result from the attempts in improved charts of the coastline.**
(*Footnote. Rottnest Island was discovered during this voyage of the Waeckende Boey (see Heeres page 79) but was not named.)
(**Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis pages 105 to 106; Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia pages xii, 73 to 76 and 81.)
Some twenty years later the Vliegende Swaan* coasted the north-west of the continent on her voyage from Ternate to Batavia.
(*Footnote. Ibid page 82.)
DISCOVERY OF AND EARLY VOYAGES TO AUSTRALIA (CONTINUED).
Up to the end of the seventeenth century English maritime enterprise in the Pacific Ocean and Southern Seas had been almost a negligible quantity, confined chiefly to occasional voyages of adventure; and any English interest in, or even knowledge of, the new South Land could scarcely be said to exist. Curiously enough, that English interest was in the first place stimulated by one who at that period of his life was in every respect a buccaneer--William Dampier. But pirate though he practically was, he had some of the qualities of a hero, and he possessed that faculty for accurate observation that made his remarks and opinions on places visited of special value to his country.
Born in 1652 of a respectable family in Somerset, Dampier as a young man gained some experience of the sea both in the merchant service and in the navy. In 1674 he went to Jamaica to assist in the management of a plantation, but the life was so devoid of adventure that in the following year he went back to sea. In 1697 he joined the buccaneers and made various expeditions in the Pacific with the avowed object of plundering the Spanish settlements. Some four years later he took service with one Cook on a cruise round the world. Finding that the vessel was too small for the purpose, they ran along the coast of Africa in the hope of meeting a more suitable craft. At sierra Leone they fell in with a Dutch ship carrying thirty-six guns, and without qualms of conscience forcibly took possession of her and ran out to sea.* Dampier's narrative says nothing of this, but would lead us to believe that the voyage was one of discovery only, instead of being, as it really was, one of piracy. Cook died in 1684, and Davis, who took his place, joined forces with a Captain Swan of the Cygnet, and for twelve months they scoured the South American coast in company. After that they parted, as Swan wished to try the Mexican coast and then go across the Pacific towards the East Indies. With him went Dampier, filled, according to his narrative, with a desire for discovery. Reaching the Philippine Islands in June 1686, they remained there until early in the following year, when dissatisfaction became rife among the crew, owing partly to the prolonged inactivity and partly to the methods of Captain Swan. In the end Captain Teat, the chief mate, with a number of the crew, amongst whom were the surgeon and Dampier, sailed away with the ship, leaving Swan and about thirty-six men stranded on Mindanao.** After a course of piracy in the China Seas and the East Indian Archipelago, they decided to turn to the south, intending to touch at New Holland in order to "to see what that country would afford us."***
(**Footnote. Dictionary of National Biography sub nomen Dampier.)
(**Footnote. Dampier. New voyage round the World third edition London 1698 pages 372 to 374.)
(***Footnote. Ibid page 461.)
The landing took place in the north-west corner of King Sound, at the spot now known as Cygnet Bay. Here the ship was beached for cleaning and repairs, and it is curious that apparently by accident the captain found the one place on the whole north-west coast suitable for that purpose. During the stay there, lasting until 12 March, Dampier appears to have found the society of his fellow-buccaneers uncongenial, and to have occupied his time in making a careful exploration of the surrounding country.
"New Holland," he tells us, "is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent; but I am certain that it joins neither to Asia, Africa, nor America. The part of it that we saw is all low, even land, with sandy banks against the sea; only the points are rocky, and so are some of the islands in this bay."*
(*Footnote. Ibid page 463.)
Dampier's observations on the country and the natives are singularly correct, and have a particular value as giving the first definite and accurate information known concerning any portion of this vast continent.
The soil he describes as dry and sandy,
"destitute of water, except you make wells; yet producing divers sorts of trees. But the woods are not thick nor the trees very big. Most of the trees we saw are dragon-trees, as we supposed, and these, too, are the largest trees of any there. They are about the bigness of our large apple trees...and the rind is blackish and somewhat rough...The other sorts of trees were not known to any of us. There was pretty long grass growing under the trees, but it was very thin. We saw no trees that bore fruit or berries."*
(*Footnote. Dampier. New voyage round the World third edition London 1698 page 463.)
Of the natives, whom he must have observed with very great care, he writes:*
"The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these, who have no houses and skin garments, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth, ostrich eggs, etc., as the Hodmadods have; and setting aside their human shape, they differ little from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small long limbs. They have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids are always half-closed to keep the flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them off...They have great bottle noses, pretty full lips, and wide mouths. The two fore teeth of their upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old and young. They are long-visaged...Their hair is black, short, and curled.
"They have no sort of clothes, but a piece of the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their waists, and a handful of long grass, or three or four small green boughs full of leaves, thrust under their girdle to cover their nakedness.
"They have no houses, but lie in the open air without any covering, the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy...They do live in companies, twenty or thirty men, women, and children together. Their only food is a small sort of fish which they get by making weirs of stones across little coves or branches of the sea, every tide bringing in the small fish, and there leaves them a prey to these people, who constantly attend there to search for them at low water...There is neither herb, root, pulse, nor any sort of grain for them to eat that we saw, nor any sort of bird or beast that they can catch, having no instruments wherewithal to do so.
"I did not perceive that they did worship anything. These poor creatures have a sort of weapon to defend their ware or fight with their enemies, if they have any that will interfere with their poor fisheries...Some of them had wooden swords; others had a sort of lance. The sword is a piece of wood shaped somewhat like a cutlass. The lance is a long straight pole, sharp at one end and hardened afterwards by heat. I saw no iron nor any other sort of metal."
(*Footnote. Dampier. New Voyage round the World third edition London 1698 pages 464 to 466.)
After leaving Cygnet Bay, Dampier desired to proceed on a voyage to England, but this did not meet with the approval of his companions. A quarrel occurred, and in the result he, with two others, was put ashore on the Nicobar Islands.* Here they suffered many trials and privations, but ultimately succeeded in getting away, and in 1691 Dampier arrived back in England after an absence of nearly nine years.
(**Footnote. Dampier. New Voyage round the World third edition London 1698 pages 482 to 483.)
Some years passed without incident until the Dutch became anxious about the fate of a missing ship, the Ridderschap van Holland, and in 1696 Willem van Vlaming was instructed by the East India Company to proceed with the Geelvinck and two other vessels to examine carefully the South Land or the Land of Eendracht and also to inquire into the fate of the Ridderschap van Holland, which had left the Cape for Batavia in 1694.* On Christmas Day, 1696, they sighted land, and on 29 December anchored off the shore of a large island, upon which they landed on the following day. On exploring it they were struck with the large number of rats' (wallabies) nests to be seen, and gave it the name of Rottenest Island. Some pieces of wreckage were discovered, but there was nothing by which they could identify the vessel they were endeavouring to trace. From the higher parts they could see the mainland distinctly, and from the smoke rising here and there from among the trees they gathered that natives were present. On 5 January 1697, Vlaming with eighty-six well-armed men landed on the shore somewhere in the neighbourhood of Cottesloe Beach, and going eastward came upon what they described as "a large basin of brackish water." On the banks of this they met with traces of natives in the shape of footprints, a fire still burning, and a hut that would have disgraced a Hottentot, but the aborigines themselves were not to be seen. They camped near the fire, and on the following day separated into three parties for exploratory purposes and went off in different directions. They met again at night having made no discovery of any importance beyond proving that the "basin of brackish water" was really a river. On the 9th they brought the ships in and anchored just off the mouth of the river, which Vlaming and a party explored on the following days for a distance of some fourteen or sixteen leagues. They were rewarded by the discovery of numbers of that hitherto unknown prodigy of Nature, the fabulous black swan mentioned by Juvenal. Several specimens were examined, and three were taken alive to Batavia. From the presence of these birds Vlaming named his discovery the Black Swan River. However, having, according to the narrative, "found neither good country nor seen anything worthy of note," Vlaming continued his voyage northward, examining the shore carefully for traces of the lost ship, and occasionally landing to make some exploration of the coast. On 4 February they reached Shark Bay, and on Dirk Hartog Island found the plate previously referred to. This they took away, leaving another in its place. Resuming the voyage they reached the North-West Cape, and on the 21st of the month set the course direct for Batavia, after firing guns "as a signal of farewell to the miserable South Land."** To Vlaming thus belongs the discovery of the Swan River, the most important so far of all the discoveries on the mainland.
(*Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 83 note 1. Also Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 107.)
(**Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis pages 120 to 133 extract from Vlaming's Journal. Vlaming's Journal was not printed by Heeres because it had already been printed in 1701 and a translation was included in Major's Early Voyages to Terra Australis.)
Meanwhile Dampier had not been idle. For some years after his arrival in England he was engaged in preparing a record of his voyage and adventures from 1683 to 1691. This was published in 1698 as A New Voyage Round the World. From it the English gained their first accurate knowledge of these new South Lands. At this time the Government had decided to fit out a ship for an exploratory voyage round the world, and Dampier was recommended for the command. He was accordingly directed to draw up proposals for such a purpose, and suggested that as little was known of the Terra Australis an examination of that territory should be included. The suggestions were approved, and Dampier was appointed to the command in 1698.*
(*Footnote. Dictionary of National Biography volume 14 page 4.)
Dampier left England in the Roebuck on 14 January 1699, and after touching at the Canary and Cape Verde Islands directed his course to Bahia in Brazil. From that port he made a long sweep round the Cape of Good Hope towards the west coast of Australia.* His first intention was to proceed westward through the Straits of Magellan or round Tierra del Fuego, in order to begin his discoveries upon the eastern and least-known side of the Terra Australis. He found, however, that it was not possible to go that way, as owing to the time of the year in which he left England he would have been compassing South America in a very high latitude in the depth of winter.** He therefore went eastward round the Cape. The same reason, the fear of severe winter weather, made him decide to go northwards along the coast of New Holland instead of southward.*** It is interesting to note that if Dampier had adhered to his original intention it is more than probable that he would have had the credit of discovering the eastern coast of Australia.
(*Footnote. Dampier. Voyage to New Holland in 1699 London 1703 pages 2 et seq.)
(**Footnote. Dampier. Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland in 1699 London 1729 page 124.)
(***Footnote. Ibid page 125.)
On 1 August Dampier sighted land, and on the 5th anchored in the bay to which, owing to the prevalence of sharks, he gave the name Shark's Bay (now known as Shark Bay).* Some eight days were spent in making trips to the mainland in search of water, but without result. During this time he surveyed a portion of the Bay and collected a good deal of valuable information about the coastal country, as well as interesting data concerning the fauna and flora. He tells us that the land was gently undulating, with stretches of sand along the seaboard, changing to a reddish soil of sandy nature farther inland. Upon this grew plants, grass, and shrubs, but no trees above ten feet in height. Of the tree blossoms blue was the predominating colour, and small and beautiful flowers of various hues, different from anything he had previously seen, abounded everywhere.** The only large birds were some eagles, cormorants, pelicans, gulls, and ducks. The land animals were few in number, consisting in the main of kangaroos and lizards. The kangaroos were new to natural history, and Dampier's description of them is the first known. "The land animals," he writes, "were only a sort of raccoons, different from those of the West Indies, chiefly as to their legs; for these have very short forelegs, but go jumping upon them as the others do, and, like them, are very good meat.*** The only other animals he saw were large lizards (or guanos, as he terms them) against which, as food, the sensitive stomach of a buccaneer appears to have rebelled.
(*Footnote. Dampier. Voyage to New Holland in 1699 London 1703 page 124.)
(**Footnote. Dampier. Voyage to New Holland in 1699 pages 121 and 122.)
(***Footnote. Ibid pages 122 to 123.)
Water not being available, he decided on the 14th to continue his voyage north, keeping as close to the shore as he could in the hope of finding more fertile country and an abundant supply of water.* From time to time he sent the boats ashore for supplies, but only once did he obtain sufficient to replenish the casks. On the 21st he reached some islands, now called Dampier Archipelago, situated off the present town of Cossack, and on the 31st again landed some 150 miles south of his former anchorage in Cygnet Bay. Here he had a small brush with some natives, in the course of which a sailor was speared and a native shot.
(*Footnote. Ibid page 129.)
Being still greatly concerned about the shortage of water, and disgusted with the sterile nature of the land, Dampier felt compelled to abandon any further exploration of the coast.* In accordance with this resolution he set sail early in September for Timor and New Guinea. On the voyage home the Roebuck was wrecked on the island of Ascension, but the navigator succeeded in reaching England, and in 1703 published an account of his voyage.
(*Footnote. Ibid page 154.)
His observations with regard to the coast and the information he brought back concerning the country and its inhabitants have been proved to be remarkably reliable, and may be regarded as some compensation for his failure to achieve fully the actual objects of his mission. Whether the new land was a succession of islands or a continent was a question yet to be solved, and the passage between New Guinea and Australia was still unknown.
His unfavourable reports about the land and his opinion of its wretched inhabitants, whom he described as "the miserablest people in the world,"* did not give any encouragement to the Government to pursue its investigations. Consequently we hear of no further voyages under the English flag until 1770, when Captain Cook discovered and took possession of the more fertile country on the east coast.
(*Footnote. Dampier. New Voyage round the World London 1698 page 464.)
A remark made by Dampier when seeking a passage among the islands of the archipelago that bears his name, that "among so many islands we might have found some sort of rich mineral or ambergris,"* has given rise to a curious inaccuracy in many official and other publications concerning the gold discoveries of Western Australia. It is stated that Dampier, a DUTCH buccaneer, discovered gold on the north-west coast in 1688, and that on account of this discovery the Dutch charts of the region were marked Provincia aurifera.** Though the region is so marked on some of the sixteenth-century charts, it is really the result of a geographical blunder, due to a misreading of part of Marco Polo's De regionibus orientalibus." This actually refers to Lower Siam, but was ignorantly transferred by early geographers to an imaginary great southern continent.*** Dampier was not Dutch. Neither does he make any mention in his narrative of a discovery of gold. Had he done so it is scarcely probable that English interest in the new country would have ceased after his report.
(*Footnote. Dampier. Voyage to New Holland in 1699, London 1703 page 138.)
(**Footnote. Western Australian Year Book (official) 1902 to 1904 page 10. The statement is made in Western Australia in 1891 by F. Hart page 42.)
(***Footnote. Letter from Mr. C.H. Cook, Department of Maps and Drawings, British Museum, to the Registrar-General of Western Australia--quoted in Year Book previously mentioned.)
In 1718 one Hans Purry of Neufchatel, published a work in which he proposed the establishment of a Dutch colonial settlement in the south-west corner near Cape Leeuwin. This idea was submitted to the authorities of the East India Company at Batavia and Amsterdam, and being declined by them was unsuccessfully urged upon the West India Company.* The inducements offered were not commensurate with the expense, and the frugal Dutch mind was not prepared to spend money on something that offered little or no prospect of return.
(*Footnote. Major. Early Voyages to Terra Australis page 115.)
Probably owing to the unpromising reports brought back by navigators, Dutch interest may from this time be said to have ceased, though, as the century progressed, Dutch vessels either sighted or touched at isolated portions of the coast, and some had the misfortune to be wrecked there. In 1711 the Zuytdorp* was supposed to have struck somewhere on the Abrolhos, that area of extreme danger to early navigators, and in 1727 the Zeewyck came to grief on a reef in the same Group.** Of this vessel numerous relics have from time to time been found by various explorers and others, and they now form an interesting exhibit in the Western Australian Museum.
(*Footnote. Western Australian Year Book 1902 to 1904 page 11.)
(**Footnote. Heeres. Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia page 91.)
In 1755 and 1765 casual Dutch visits were recorded, but they were without incident.*
(*Footnote. Ibid page 91.)
Almost coincidentally with the cessation of Dutch enterprise France became active in the Southern Seas. Thenceforward, up to the time of the actual annexation and settlement of Western Australia by Great Britain, the competing nations in these waters, as in so many parts of the world, were the English and the French.
The first French ship to touch at any portion of the Australian coast was Le Gros Ventre in March 1772, under the command of Captain de St. Alouarn,* in whose honour the St. Alouarn Islands were named at a later date by D'Entrecasteaux.**
(*Footnote. Western Australian Year Book 1902 to 1904 page 11. Note. Doubts have been expressed as to the authenticity of St. Alouarn's voyage in Australian waters. It is included here on the authority of Dr. A. Grandidier, Secretary of the French Institute, who revised the portion relating to the French voyages of discovery which was included in the historical section of the Year Book. See also Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1921 pages 152 to 153.)
(**Footnote. D'Entrecasteaux. Voyage redige par Rossel Paris 1808 volume 1 page 177.)
For some years after this there is no record of any navigator visiting the western shores. The discoveries of Cook in 1770, and his favourable reports on the fertile nature of the country, had turned attention to the eastern side of the continent, and whatever efforts were made in the way of exploration were directed toward that part.
In 1789 the British Government decided to send out an exploring expedition to the South Seas with the object of adding to the knowledge gained by Captain Cook. Captain Henry Roberts was placed in charge of the proposed expedition, with Lieutenant George Vancouver as second in command.* Both these officers had served under Captain Cook. A vessel then being built was purchased, named the Discovery, and fitted out under Vancouver's superintendence.** In April 1790, when the vessel was almost ready to proceed on her voyage, news was received that the Spaniards, who in 1775 had extended their researches northward along the north-west coast of America, had interfered with British commerce on that coast, and had seized English vessels and factories in Nootka Sound. In consequence of this the fleet known as the Spanish Armament was organised, and the officers and men who had been appointed to the Discovery were placed on active service. This caused the postponement of the proposed voyage. The rapid equipment of the fleet seems to have had an effect upon the Spanish authorities, who offered restitution for the depredations and an acknowledgment of equal trading rights with Spain in seas over which that nation had previously claimed exclusive rights.*** "It was deemed expedient that an officer should be sent to Nootka to receive back in form the restitution of the territories on which the Spanish had seized, and also to make a correct survey of the coast from the 30 degrees of north latitude north-westward of Cook's River; and further to obtain every possible information that could be collected respecting the natural and political state of that country."**** Vancouver, who had been promoted to the rank of commander, was selected for this duty and was at once appointed to the Discovery, to which was attached the armed tender Chatham under the command of Lieutenant Broughton. His commission***** directed him to proceed forthwith to the Sandwich Islands and there to remain until the end of January 1792, awaiting further instructions with regard to the Nootka Sound matter. If such instructions should not be received by that time he was to proceed to the north-west coast of America for the purpose of acquiring a more complete knowledge of it, particularly with regard to water communications with the eastern side of the continent and also with regard to settlements made by any European nation within the area to be examined (latitude 60 North and 30 North).
(*Footnote. Vancouver. Voyage of Discovery 1790 to 1795 volume 1 page 7.)
(**Footnote. Dictionary of National Biography volume 58 page 96.)
(***Footnote. Vancouver. Voyage of Discovery 1790 to 1795 volume 1 page 10.)
(****Footnote. Ibid pages 10 and 11.)
(*****Footnote. Ibid pages 17 et seq.)
Vancouver and Broughton left London at the end of January 1791, and as the choice of route was left to Vancouver's judgment* they went by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and on 26 August 1791 they had their first view of Australia--that of a conspicuous promontory with high cliffs dropping almost perpendicularly into the sea. This they named Cape Chatham, after the earl of that name, who at that time presided over the Admiralty. Though describing the promontory as a cape, Vancouver was in some doubt whether it was not really an island,** a doubt afterwards proved to be well founded. Passing this and following an eastward course, while keeping as near the shore as possible in the hope of discovering a safe anchorage, they entered a fine natural harbour on the 28th and bestowed upon it the name of King George III Sound. Landing on the 29th, they noticed that there was a further inner harbour and a second extension toward the north-east. The day being the birthday of the Princess Royal, they named the inner portion Princess Royal Harbour. Vancouver then, in the name of the king, took formal possession of all the country "from the land we saw north-westward of Cape Chatham so far as we might explore its coasts." On the same day the narrow entrance to the north-eastern extension was discovered and the had been renamed Oyster Harbour, on account of the number of oysters found there.***
(*Footnote. Dictionary of National Biography volume 58 page 96.)
(**Footnote. Vancouver. Voyage of Discovery volume 1 page 30.)
(***Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 35 to 36.)
The ships remained at anchor for about a fortnight, during which a close examination of the harbours was made, and the coastline for some distance inland explored. The land in places seemed barren or covered with a "deadly green herbage, with here and there a few grovelling shrubs or dwarf trees scattered at a great distance from each other.* This, Vancouver admits, might not have originated from sterility of the soil, but as the result of a bushfire which it was evident had recently passed over it, especially as the surrounding country presented a far more fertile and pleasing aspect. Fresh water was abundant, and kangaroos, ducks, and fish not scarce. The climate was temperate and agreeable. Of shrubs and plants a great variety was found, which "afforded Mr. Menzies (the naturalist of the expedition) much entertainment and enjoyment."** Natives they did not actually meet, but one or two deserted villages were seen, as well as single habitations, giving them the impression that the aborigines were a wandering people, trusting greatly to the natural products of the soil for food, and not expert either at hunting or fishing.
(*Footnote. Vancouver. Voyage volume 1 page 34.)
(*Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 51. Note. In 1883 a wooden tablet was erected by the Governor, Sir William Robinson, over an old well on the beach by the channel connecting Middleton Bay and Oyster Harbour. This, it is believed, marks the spot where "George Vancouver, an illustrious navigator, watered H.M.S. Discovery in October 1791.")
Before leaving the Sound, Vancouver deposited on the mainland opposite the anchorage a sealed bottle containing a parchment record of his visit, and a second bottle containing a similar record on Seal Island, where he thought the natives would be less likely to get it.* Flinders, during his visit to King George III Sound in 1801, made a search for these bottles, but was unable to find either of them. On the mainland, however, he found a piece of sheet copper inscribed "August 27, 1800. Chr. Dixson--ship Elligood," from which he inferred that the bottle had been previously discovered and removed.**
(*Footnote. Vancouver. Voyage volume 1 page 40.)
(**Footnote. Flinders. Voyage to Terra Australis volume 1 pages 54 to 56.)
After leaving King George III Sound, Vancouver and Broughton continued their voyage eastward along the south coast until they reached an island to which the name Termination Island was given, owing to the fact that through want of time they were compelled to terminate their researches along the Australian coast at this point, and to proceed "without further delay towards the Pacific ocean."*
(*Footnote. Vancouver. Voyage of Discovery pages 42 to 44.)
In addition to the places mentioned, Point Possession, Cape Howe, Mount Gardner, The Eclipse, Breaksea, Seal, and Michaelmas Islands, and nearly every prominent headland or island from Cape Leeuwin to 122 degrees east longitude owe their names to this voyage, which, from the standpoint of accuracy of observation and attention to detail, was one of the most important made to the shores of Western Australia.
About this time the French Government began to be anxious about the fate of the expedition under La Perouse, which had not been heard of since leaving Botany Bay in 1788. The general impression was that the expedition had met with disaster, but in order to have the matter cleared up two ships, the Recherche and the Esperance, were fitted out for a search and placed under the command of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux.* Leaving France in September 1791, D'Entrecasteaux proceeded by way of the Cape of Good Hope and reached the coast of Tasmania, anchoring in Storm Bay on 21 April 1792. From there he went to the Solomon Islands, the Moluccas, and the East Indian Archipelago, and then turned southward down the coast of Western Australia. He did not, however, sight the Australian coast until December 1792, when he came within hail of a point which was named D'Entrecasteaux Point, lying north-west of Chatham Island. Continuing his course to the eastward, he skirted the coast as far as Termination Island, where he sheltered from a storm, and then turned off to Tasmania again.** Several places on the south coast were charted and named on this voyage, to which the discovery of the Recherche Archipelago is due.***
(*Footnote. D'Entrecasteaux. Voyage (Paris 1808) volume 1 page 19 instructions.)
(**Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 177 et seq and Atlas Chart Number 1.)
(***Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 180. Note. Labillardiere, the botanist, who was one of the naturalists attached to the expedition, also published an account of the voyage.)
English maritime activity in the Southern Seas was now in full swing, and English association with the new South Land definitely established. Perhaps no one did more to bring about an accurate knowledge of, at any rate, the coastal districts of the continent than Matthew Flinders, to whom we owe its present name. Though we are concerned only with his connection with the west, he was responsible for the discovery of practically the whole of the south coast. In many respects Flinders was not unlike Dampier--if we except the latter's buccaneering proclivities. Bold and intrepid as an explorer, he was at the same time a careful observer, shrewd and painstaking, as well as accurate in detail, so that the information he procured proved of the greatest value in extending the vague knowledge then existing concerning this still practically unknown country.
Flinders left Spithead on 18 July 1801, in the Investigator, the old Xenophon, a sloop of 344 tons. On 7 December he reached what he termed Cape Leeuwin,* as being the south-western and most projecting part of Leeuwin Land, and from there to King George III Sound, where he arrived on 9 December, he carefully surveyed the intermediate coast, naming various points. He remained at the Sound for some days, which were spent in charting Princess Royal and Oyster Harbours, and in establishing friendly relations with the aborigines. A short vocabulary of the native language was prepared, and information collected as to their habits. Their manners he describes as "quick and vehement and their conversation vociferous, like that of most uncivilised people. They seemed to have no idea of any superiority we possessed over them. On the contrary they left us, after the first interview, with some appearance of contempt of our pusillanimity, which was probably inferred from the desire we showed to be friendly with them.**
(*Footnote. Flinders. Voyage to Terra Australis volume 1 page 49.)
(**Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 56.)
Flinders left King George III Sound on 5 January 1802,* and proceeded upon his voyage eastward. In the course of his voyage he completed the discovery of the south coast and made careful charts of the whole.
(*Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 74.)
On board the Investigator with him were Robert Brown, well known as a botanist, and William Westall, the famous painter; while one of his officers was (Sir) John Franklin, afterwards Governor of Tasmania and a famous explorer, who ended his career amid Arctic snows.
For one thing Flinders will always be remembered--that he gave to Australia her present name. Various appellations had been bestowed upon her--Magellanica, Java la Grande, Great South Land, and Terra Australis. After Tasman's voyage in 1644 the western portion was called New Holland, the eastern still retaining the name of Terra Australis. Subsequent to Cook's discoveries the eastern part received the name of New South Wales, the remainder being still New Holland. The meridian dividing the two, according to the patent to the first Governor of New South Wales, was 135 degrees east longitude,* almost identical with the old line of separation laid down after Tasman's voyage. Having proved the east and west to be parts of one continent, Flinders readopted the name of Terra Australis for the whole, including New South Wales and New Holland, and, in its most extensive sense, Van Diemen's Land as well. At a later date, in 1814, in the published account of his voyage, he suggested the name Australia, which he had previously used in correspondence, "as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."** After this the name came into general use for the continent, though in official documents, even up to 1851, it sometimes included Tasmania.***
(*Footnote. Historical Records of Australia series 1 volume 1 page 1 Governor Phillip's first commission.)
(**Footnote. Flinders. Voyage to Terra Australis volume 1 page 3 and note. See also Professor Scott's Life of Matthew Flinders chapter 30, in which the use of the word before Flinders' time is discussed.)
(***Footnote. Scott. Life of Flinders pages 428 to 429.)
Following upon the knowledge gained through the voyage of D'Entrecasteaux, the French Government determined to send out a further expedition, which left Havre in October 1800, with the object of more fully exploring the coast of New Holland and collecting scientific information concerning its natural history and inhabitants.* This consisted of two vessels, the Geographe under Commodore Nicholas Baudin and the Naturaliste commanded by Captain Hamelin, with whom was associated Lieutenant Louis de Freycinet. The ships reached the south-west coast in 1801, and many of the topographical features of that portion of the continent bear names which identify them with this voyage.** Having been driven out of Geographe Bay by a storm, the vessels became separated. Baudin in the Geographe went to Shark Bay and from there worked northward as far as Cape Leveque, leaving the coast at that point for Timor. Here they were joined by the Naturaliste, which, according to Freycinet, had waited at Rottnest for a time expecting the arrival of the other vessel. Whilst waiting they had devoted some days to the exploration of the Swan River with the intention of tracing its source. They seem to have reached the junction of the Helena with the Swan when the leader, M. Heirisson, felt compelled to return, as the provisions were running short. The name of a member of the party being Moreau, the title Moreau Inlet was bestowed upon the Canning River, while the islands upon which the present Perth Causeway stands were called the Heirisson Islands. The view from the top of Mount Eliza was described as particularly striking and beautiful, and the fertile nature of the soil about Guildford was commented upon. At the point where they abandoned their journey up the river, about sixty miles from the mouth, the stream was narrow, only about eight feet deep, and the water salt.*** Leaving Rottnest they made a further investigation of the entrance to Shark Bay, and on Dirk Hartog Island Captain Hamelin found the plate left by Vlaming more than a century previously.****
(*Footnote. Biographie universelle (Paris 1811) volume 3 page 538 and Nouvelle biographie universelle (Paris 1853) volume 4 page 771. See also Peron, F. Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes 1800 a 1804 (Paris 1807) volume 1 chapitre 1.)
(**Footnote. Peron. Voyage volume 1 pages 66 et seq.)
(***Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 178 to 184.)
(****Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 194 to 195.)
In November 1801 the two vessels left Timor for a more detailed examination of the Australian coast, and after a survey of a portion of Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait, arrived at Sydney during the latter part of 1802. A small ship, the Casuarina, was chartered there and placed under the command of Freycinet.* Baudin then, with the Geographe and Casuarina, explored that part of the south coast known to the French as Terre Napoleon and proceeded onwards to Western Australia, making detailed examination of most of the western side of the continent from King George's Sound in the south to the Holothuria Banks in the extreme north. The care bestowed upon this work may be gauged by the number of prominent features of the west coast which still bear French names.**
(*Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 417.)
(*Footnote. Peron. Voyage volume 2.)
No further record exists of any voyage to Western Australia until the year 1817, when the French Government dispatched Captain Freycinet in the corvette Uranie on a voyage of discovery and scientific investigation. In the course of this cruise Freycinet anchored in Shark Bay (called by the French le Baie des Chiens Marins) towards the end of 1818. He then proceeded along the north-west coast on his way to the islands of the South Seas, calling at Sydney on his return. Judging from the letters of M. Arago,* one of the members of the expedition, the Western Australian coast failed to meet with their approval. "Its outline," he says, "is uniform, without breaks, almost without difference, and always very low. At the first view you take in an immense distance; but beware of looking for any enjoyment. This search would be merely wasting your strength, without finding the least relief."
(*Footnote. Arago. Narrative of Voyage round the World 1817 to 1820 Letter 53.)
The number of French expeditions that touched at one part or another of the western coast of Australia began to arouse something like suspicion in the English mind, and consequently the British Government started to take a livelier interest in that part of the continent. The completion of the survey of the whole coastline, so ably begun by Captain Flinders, was deemed to be of utmost importance, and in 1817 the Admiralty in conjunction with the Colonial Office decided upon an expedition for that purpose.* Lieutenant Philip Parker King was appointed to the command,** and from that date until 1822 was busily engaged in carrying out the work. In pursuance of his instructions King left Sydney in December 1817, in the cutter Mermaid, of only 84 tons, having with him Allan Cunningham as botanist, and as officers Lieutenants Bedwell and John Septimus Roe,*** the latter of whom afterwards became the first Surveyor-General of the colony. The cutter reached King George III Sound on 20 January 1818. Here King remained twelve days, which were spent in procuring wood and water and making various excursions into the surrounding country, giving Roe his first experience of what was afterwards to be his life's work--the survey of Western Australia. The usual directions led down by the Admiralty about the planting of seeds were carried out, but without permanent effect, as three years later not a trace of the garden was to be found. Leaving the Sound, King was prevented by sickness among the crew from making any further examination until he reached the north-west coast.**** This was then accurately charted and various points named. At the same time excursions to the mainland were made at various places, and friendly intercourse, wherever possible, established with the natives. On 4 March he anchored in Nicol Bay***** for the purpose of making researches, and then went along the north coast and on to Timor, after leaving which he made all speed back to Sydney to replenish the stores. Two important questions had been set at rest by this voyage--the openings behind Rosemary Island and the nature of Van Diemen's Gulf.****** Owing to the loss of the anchors, King found it impossible to make a detailed examination of Exmouth Gulf or land upon Depuch Island,******* so favourably noticed by Peron. Many rivers, bays, and ports had been discovered, and the exploration of the interior had revealed good pastoral country. "The thickly-wooded shores of the north coast," says King, "bore a striking contrast to the sandy, desert-looking tract we had previously seen, and inspired us with the hope of finding at some future time a still greater improvement of country between the two extremes."********
(*Footnote. Earl Bathurst to Governor Macquarie Dispatch Number 87 8 February 1817 Historical Records of Australia series 1 volume 9 page 207.)
(**Footnote. Ibid.)
(***Footnote. King, P.P. Narrative of a Survey of the Inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia 1818 to 1822 volume 1 page 38.)
(****Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 20.)
(*****Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 52.)
(******Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 144 to 145.)
(*******Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 145.)
(*******Footnote. Ibid volume 1 page 149.)
The Mermaid left Sydney on the second voyage in May 1819, and in the following September reached Cambridge Gulf, so named after the Duke of Cambridge.* Here King thought he had made a great discovery, believing that it must terminate in a river of some kind. Instead of that he found it barren and useless, the surrounding country being devoid of vegetation, the soil sandy and salt, the water undrinkable, and the gulf itself tailing off on all sides into a series of mud flats. Leaving there he sailed westward along the north coast, examining and naming as he passed Sir Graham Moore Islands, Eclipse Islands (from an eclipse of the moon taking place while there) Vansittart Bay, Admiralty Gulf, and Port Warrender.** At this point King decided to leave the coast for the time, the scarcity of water and the absence of provisions having caused sickness among the crew. He therefore set sail for Timor, and thence returned to Sydney, having examined on his trip a further 540 miles of the northern coastline. In the following year a third voyage was undertaken for the purpose of extending the survey to Warrender, and in the course of this York Sound (after the Duke of York) Careening Bay (where the ship was repaired) Prince Regent River, and many other places were named and examined.*** A serious leak in the cutter compelled King to abandon the work, and he returned again to Sydney, arriving there at the end of the year, having narrowly escaped shipwreck at the entrance to the Heads. Unfortunately, owing to the unseaworthiness of the cutter, the amount of work done on this survey was but small. King's desire to complete his labour was, however, unabated, and in 1821 he again left Sydney for the north-west coast, this time in the brig Bathurst, purchased for the purpose by the Government. With a larger vessel and an increased crew, the expedition was much better equipped, and the commander was able to spend a longer time at the scene of his operations. The coast, as far down as Cape Latouche Treville,**** was examined and surveyed, after which King sailed across to the Mauritius to refit, returning at the end of 1821 to King George's Sound.***** From there he sailed along the west coast, checking many points of previous surveys until he arrived at the Swan River, where he anchored for a while. Resuming his voyage he examined, with a good deal of accuracy, the intervening shore until he reached the Abrolhos, and finally Dirk Hartog Island. Here he landed and searched without success for Vlaming's plate,****** and then proceeded northward to Cape Leveque, thus practically completing the survey of the whole Western Australian coast from King George's Sound to Cambridge Gulf, with the exception of that part lying between Depuch Island and Cape Villaret. What Cook, Bass, and Flinders had done for the eastern and southern coasts, King, following upon the earlier Dutch, French, and English navigators, had done for the western and northern, so that the Admiralty was in possession of fairly comprehensive charts of the whole Australian coastline.
(*Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 306 et seq.)
(**Footnote. Ibid volume 1 chapter 8.)
(***Footnote. Ibid volume 1 pages 412 et seq.)
(****Footnote. Ibid volume 2 chapter 2.)
(*****Footnote. Ibid volume 2 page 119.)
(******Footnote. Ibid volume 2 page 181.)
With Lieutenant King the long line of discoverers may be said to have ended. Practically everything in the way of interior exploration had yet to be undertaken, but the few voyages that afterwards took place to these shores were in the nature of looking for satisfactory places of settlement rather than of discovering new territory, or else were for the purpose of checking and correcting existing surveys.
ANNEXATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
Although the existence of the western side of the continent had been known for certainly two, and possibly three, centuries, it was not until the third decade of the nineteenth century--some forty years after the foundation of the colony of New South Wales--that the British Government decided to take steps to found a settlement there. That the matter had not previously engaged the attention of the Home authorities was in all likelihood due to the unsatisfactory reports of the new territory brought back by navigators, who, confining themselves to the uninviting coastline, seem to have had neither the time nor the inclination to make any examination of the interior, and so missed the fertile inland districts. When, however, a strong suspicion arose that other nations were casting their eyes towards the Southern Seas, the English Government seems to have realised that a few settlements on the eastern coast would be deemed scarcely sufficient, in the opinion of others, to establish a claim to the whole of this vast continent as British territory. There is very little doubt that the settlements at King George's Sound and the Swan River were, in the first place, due to the activity being displayed by the French in Australian waters.
It was rumoured that Captain Baudin had contemplated establishing a settlement on the southern coast or in Tasmania in 1802,* and an exhaustive examination of the north-west coast had, it will be remembered, been made by Freycinet in 1818. In 1825 we find that another expedition consisting of the Thetis and Esperance, commanded respectively by De Bougainville and Du Camper, was cruising along the southern coast. These voyages gave rise to the belief that France, recognising that maritime power depended greatly on the possession of suitable colonies, was looking for the opportunity of establishing a settlement in Australia. The belief may have been further strengthened by a suspicion that in the minds of Frenchmen the Napoleonic dream of an Indian conquest had not, perhaps, altogether vanished. In that case a colony on the west coast of Australia would, in conjunction with the Mauritius, have formed a strategic base of some value. Such a colony would also have been the means of introducing a formidable competitor into the trade relations then being fostered between India and the newly-established penal colony in New South Wales. Whatever the reasons may have been, there is no doubt that they aroused in the minds of members of the British Government a fear that the French were looking for suitable places of settlement on the western coast of Australia. The Secretary of State, Lord Goderich (afterwards Earl of Ripon) writing in 1833 with regard more particularly to Western Australia, said:
"The present settlement at Swan River owes its origin, as you may perhaps be aware, to certain false rumours which had reached the Government of the intention of a foreign power to establish a colony on the west coast of Australia. The design was for some time given up entirely on the ground of public economy, and would not have been resumed but for the offer of a party of gentlemen to embark in an undertaking of this nature at their own risk, upon receiving extensive grants of land and on a certain degree of protection and assistance for a limited period being secured to them by this Government."**
(*Footnote. Rusden, G.W. History of Australia volume 1 pages 326 et seq.)
(**Footnote. Dispatch to Governor Stirling 8 March 1833 Number 21 filed in Governor's Office, Perth. See also Accounts and Papers 1840 volume 33 page 69.)
Further, Lord John Russell* tells us that, during his tenure of the Colonial Office, a gentleman attached to the French Government called upon him and asked what part of Australia was claimed by Great Britain, to which he replied, "the whole." As Russell was Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1839 to 1841, it seems strange that that question should have been asked at so late a period, though it is possible that scientific researches of French navigators at the beginning of the century may have been present in the Frenchman's mind.
(*Footnote. Russell. Recollections and Suggestions 1875 page 203.)
Unfounded as the suspicions have since been proved to be, they were undoubtedly strong enough at the time to move the British authorities to take action. The movements of the French were closely watched, and at the same time settlement both in Australia and New Zealand was pushed on, so as to deprive France of the chance of gaining a foothold on Australasian soil.
The fear of such a possibility caused General Darling to draw the attention of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the matter and ask that steps be taken to avert it. Recognising that in case of dispute Great Britain would have difficulty in establishing her claim to the west coast, he forwarded a letter in which he said:*
"It will not be easy to satisfy the French, if they are desirous of establishing themselves here, that there is any objection to their doing so on the west coast, and I therefore beg to suggest that the difficulty would be removed by a commission describing the whole territory as within the Government."
(*Footnote. Rusden. History of Australia volume 2 page 6. Probably contained in a letter to Under Secretary Hay, dated 9 October 1826. See Historical Records of Australia volume 12 pages 639 and 700.)
(The territory of New South Wales, it may be mentioned, extended westward only to the 135 degrees east longitude.) On 1 March 1826, the Secretary of State, Lord Bathurst, addressed one dispatches upon the subject to Governor Darling, and, at the same time, wrote a more or less private and confidential communication.* The first of these dispatches instructed the Governor to commence immediate preparations for the formation of a settlement at Western Port, using whatever means he might think best. In the second dispatch Darling was instructed to endeavour to procure correct information respecting the country immediately adjoining Shark Bay, ostensibly for the purpose of establishing a base to which convicts, reconvicted of lighter crimes at Botany Bay, might be sent and "that possession may be gained of a port which it may hereafter be found important to have retained." In the private communication the secretary said:
"The sailing of two French ships on a voyage of discovery have [sic] led to the consideration how far our distant possessions in the Australian seas may be prejudiced by any designs which the French may entertain of establishing themselves in that quarter, and more especially on that part of the coast of New South Wales which has not as yet received any colonists from this country. I allude to that line of coast which extends to the westward from the western point of Bathurst Island in 129 degrees east longitude...As this tract of shore is understood to be for the most part barren and devoid of all circumstances which could invite a settlement, it is probable, if the French Government should entertain any serious intention of forming an establishment on that side of the continent, any island with so advantageous a port as Western Port would not be overlooked by them...In giving those instructions you will observe that I have carefully avoided any expression which might be construed, in the event of the instructions being hereafter referred to, as an admission of there not having been a preoccupancy by us before the French may have admitted to establish themselves there, and you will regulate your language accordingly. The establishment to be formed at Shark Bay, is, as you are aware, partly for a different obje