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.
Major, Richard Henry
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography -- Portuguese; Voyages and travels
not made in a spirit of friendship, but from selfish and ulterior
motives. Hence Sequeira and his party were compelled to make their
escape in haste, and proceeded to four or five other small islands in
the neighbourhood, at which they met with a like reception. The map will
show these plainly to the north of Celebes. Resolving after these
rebuffs to return to Ternate, they encountered a terrific storm, which
drove them, to the best of their calculation, three hundred leagues,
_into an open sea_, with not a single island in sight, _but constantly
towards the east_. At length one night they struck upon an island and
unshipped their rudder. They met with a most friendly reception from the
natives, who are described as of a light, rather than a dark, colour,
and clothed. The island is stated to have been large, and the natives
pointed to a mountain to the westward in which they said there was gold.
The Portuguese remained in the island four months, until the monsoon
enabled them to return to Ternate.
Now, had Sequeira been driven by the storm towards Endeavour Strait, as
presumed by M. Barbié du Bocage, a glance at the map will show us that
his course would have been south-east instead of east, and that not
through an open sea in which no island could be seen, but one bestudded
with islands. In fact, so definite is the whole account as given in
detail by Barros, that, as we have shown, his course under the driving
of the tempest may be palpably traced in accordance therewith on modern
maps as due east to the north of the Moluccas, and through an open sea,
and is clearly at variance with the inference of M. Barbié du Bocage,
who seems not to have consulted Barros at all upon the subject. To what
island, the reader will ask, was Sequeira driven? Let the modern map be
consulted, and the course described will bring us to the island Tobi,
otherwise known as Lord North’s Island. A course so clearly defined is
in itself a very strong point in the question, even though we may have
to show some discrepancies between the description of the island on
which Sequeira was thrown and that which we have in recent times
received of Lord North’s Island. Let the reader, however, in connexion
with Barros’ description of the course, take the following remarkable
statement, as quoted in the 6th volume of the _Ethnography and Philology
of the United States Exploring Expedition_, by H. Hale, in which, under
the article “Tobi, or Lord North’s Island,” at p. 78, the following
account is given, and he will perhaps not dissent from the editor in
thinking it possible that this was the island on which Sequeira was
driven.
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