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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

The first spring after wee came hither wee hail’d our ship into a sandy
bay, where shee lay dry all the neepe tides, for it flows there right up
and downe above five fathome; the flood setts north by east, and the ebb
setts S. by W.

There are many turtle and manatoe in this bay, which our strikers
supplyed us with all the time we lay here, and one time they mett some
of the natives swimming from one iland to the other, and tooke up foure
of them and brought aboard, whoe tooke noe notice of any thing that wee
had noe more than a bruite would; wee gave them some victualls, which
they greedily devoured, and being sett out of the ship ran away as fast
as their leggs (for the ship was now dry on the sand) could carry them.
Wee mett divers of them on the ilands, for they could not run from us
there, but the women and children would be frighted at our approach.

Wee tarried here till the twelfth day of February, in which time wee
cleaned our ship, mended our sailes, and filled our water; and when our
time drew neare to depart from thence, I motioned goeing to Fort St.
George, or any settlement where the English had noe fortification, and
was threatened to be turned a shoare on New Holland for it; which made
me desist, intending, by God’s blessing, to make my escape the first
place I came neare, for wee were now bound into India for Cape Comorin,
if wee could fetch it.




  SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH TO NEW
                            HOLLAND IN 1696.

              _Extracted from MS. Documents at the Hague._


Of this expedition, which owes its origin to the loss of the ship _De
Ridderschap van Hollandt_, between the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia, in
the year 1685, reports are to be found in various works, as in Witsen,
Valentijn, the _Historische Beschrijving der Reizen_, perhaps also in
some others. No coherent account, however, appears to exist, although we
read in the last-mentioned work that a narrative of the voyage was
published in 1701, at Amsterdam.[28]

The project originally formed was, that the expedition should set out
from Batavia, and the Directors of the Council of the Seventeen write on
this understanding in their dispatch of November 10th, 1695, to the
Governor-General and Council of India; but in the assembly of December
8th and 10th of that year[29] that plan was abandoned, and it was
resolved that, “for various reasons,” the expedition should be
undertaken from the Cape of Good Hope, under the command of William de
Vlamingh, with orders to land at the islands of Tristan d’Acunha, on
this side of the Cape, and also at the islands of St. Paul and
Amsterdam, to examine and to survey them.

For this purpose three ships were fitted out: the frigate _De
Geelvinck_, commodore Willem de Vlamingh; the hooker _De Nijptang_,
Captain Gerrit Collaert; and the galiot _Weseltje_, Captain Cornelis de
Vlamingh, son of the commodore.

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

The first spring after wee came hither wee hail’d our ship into a sandy
bay, where shee lay dry all the neepe tides, for it flows there right up
and downe above five fathome; the flood setts north by east, and the ebb
setts S. by W.

There are many turtle and manatoe in this bay, which our strikers
supplyed us with all the time we lay here, and one time they mett some
of the natives swimming from one iland to the other, and tooke up foure
of them and brought aboard, whoe tooke noe notice of any thing that wee
had noe more than a bruite would; wee gave them some victualls, which
they greedily devoured, and being sett out of the ship ran away as fast
as their leggs (for the ship was now dry on the sand) could carry them.
Wee mett divers of them on the ilands, for they could not run from us
there, but the women and children would be frighted at our approach.

Wee tarried here till the twelfth day of February, in which time wee
cleaned our ship, mended our sailes, and filled our water; and when our
time drew neare to depart from thence, I motioned goeing to Fort St.
George, or any settlement where the English had noe fortification, and
was threatened to be turned a shoare on New Holland for it; which made
me desist, intending, by God’s blessing, to make my escape the first
place I came neare, for wee were now bound into India for Cape Comorin,
if wee could fetch it.




  SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH TO NEW
                            HOLLAND IN 1696.

              _Extracted from MS. Documents at the Hague._


Of this expedition, which owes its origin to the loss of the ship _De
Ridderschap van Hollandt_, between the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia, in
the year 1685, reports are to be found in various works, as in Witsen,
Valentijn, the _Historische Beschrijving der Reizen_, perhaps also in
some others. No coherent account, however, appears to exist, although we
read in the last-mentioned work that a narrative of the voyage was
published in 1701, at Amsterdam.[28]

The project originally formed was, that the expedition should set out
from Batavia, and the Directors of the Council of the Seventeen write on
this understanding in their dispatch of November 10th, 1695, to the
Governor-General and Council of India; but in the assembly of December
8th and 10th of that year[29] that plan was abandoned, and it was
resolved that, “for various reasons,” the expedition should be
undertaken from the Cape of Good Hope, under the command of William de
Vlamingh, with orders to land at the islands of Tristan d’Acunha, on
this side of the Cape, and also at the islands of St. Paul and
Amsterdam, to examine and to survey them.

For this purpose three ships were fitted out: the frigate _De
Geelvinck_, commodore Willem de Vlamingh; the hooker _De Nijptang_,
Captain Gerrit Collaert; and the galiot _Weseltje_, Captain Cornelis de
Vlamingh, son of the commodore.

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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