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Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.Major, Richard Henry

History

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

Name: Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.
Author: Major, Richard Henry

Major, Richard Henry

Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography -- Portuguese; Voyages and travels

EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS. 3236, ENTITLED “THE ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM
  DAMPIER, WITH OTHERS [1686–87], WHO LEFT CAPTAIN SHERPE IN THE SOUTH
                                 SEAS,
 AND TRAVALED BACK OVER LAND THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF DARIEN,” pp. 445 to
                                  450.


[Sidenote: December 1687–88.]

Wee stood away to the southward, intending to see New Holland, and mett
nothing worth observing till the first day of December, and then, being
in latit. 13° 50´, wee were close aboard a showle, which wee lay by for
in the night; it lyes S. by W. from the N.W. end of Timore about seventy
leagues. Wee steered to weather it but could not, therefore bore away to
the eastward of it; it lyes in a triangle, with many sharp rocks about
water, and on the south side is a small spitt of land.

This showle is laid downe within twenty leagues of New Holland due
south, but wee made our course south, yett run into latitude 16° 50´
before wee made land, which is forty odd leagues; so that by our runn,
except wee had a current against us, which wee did not perceive, New
Holland is laid downe nearer then it should be to those islands in the
south seas by forty leagues.

The fourth day of January 1687–88 wee fell in with the land of New
Holland in latitude 16° 50´, the land low and a deepe sandy bay, but no
shelter for us, therefore wee runn downe along the shore which lyes N.E.
by E., about twelve leagues; then wee came to a point with an iland by
it, but soe neare the maine that wee could not goe within it a league;
to the westward of this pointe is a showle a league from the maine.

From this pointe the land runs more easterly and makes a deepe bay with
many ilands in it; the sixth day wee came into this bay, and anchored
about foare miles to the eastward of the forementioned pointe, in
eighteen fathome water, a mile from the shoare, good clean sand.

I drew a drafte of this land and the bay where we road, but at the
Necquebar,[27] when we oversett our prows, I lost it and some others
that were not in my book; those that I had placed in my book were all
preserved, but all wett.

Wee sent our boate ashoare to speak with the natives, but they would not
abide our comeing, soe wee spent three dayes in seekeing their houses,
being in hopes to allure them with toyes to a comerce.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

Major, Richard Henry

Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography -- Portuguese; Voyages and travels

EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS. 3236, ENTITLED “THE ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM
  DAMPIER, WITH OTHERS [1686–87], WHO LEFT CAPTAIN SHERPE IN THE SOUTH
                                 SEAS,
 AND TRAVALED BACK OVER LAND THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF DARIEN,” pp. 445 to
                                  450.


[Sidenote: December 1687–88.]

Wee stood away to the southward, intending to see New Holland, and mett
nothing worth observing till the first day of December, and then, being
in latit. 13° 50´, wee were close aboard a showle, which wee lay by for
in the night; it lyes S. by W. from the N.W. end of Timore about seventy
leagues. Wee steered to weather it but could not, therefore bore away to
the eastward of it; it lyes in a triangle, with many sharp rocks about
water, and on the south side is a small spitt of land.

This showle is laid downe within twenty leagues of New Holland due
south, but wee made our course south, yett run into latitude 16° 50´
before wee made land, which is forty odd leagues; so that by our runn,
except wee had a current against us, which wee did not perceive, New
Holland is laid downe nearer then it should be to those islands in the
south seas by forty leagues.

The fourth day of January 1687–88 wee fell in with the land of New
Holland in latitude 16° 50´, the land low and a deepe sandy bay, but no
shelter for us, therefore wee runn downe along the shore which lyes N.E.
by E., about twelve leagues; then wee came to a point with an iland by
it, but soe neare the maine that wee could not goe within it a league;
to the westward of this pointe is a showle a league from the maine.

From this pointe the land runs more easterly and makes a deepe bay with
many ilands in it; the sixth day wee came into this bay, and anchored
about foare miles to the eastward of the forementioned pointe, in
eighteen fathome water, a mile from the shoare, good clean sand.

I drew a drafte of this land and the bay where we road, but at the
Necquebar,[27] when we oversett our prows, I lost it and some others
that were not in my book; those that I had placed in my book were all
preserved, but all wett.

Wee sent our boate ashoare to speak with the natives, but they would not
abide our comeing, soe wee spent three dayes in seekeing their houses,
being in hopes to allure them with toyes to a comerce.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

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