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
This fragment of description is meagre enough; but it is all that we can
boast of possessing. It is further remarkable that those who have spoken
of the part of the coast visited by Tasman in this voyage, have led
their readers into a misconception by attributing the discovery of the
Gulf of Carpentaria to Carpenter, and of the northern Van Diemen’s Land
to the governor so named. So soon after the voyage as the year 1663, we
find Thevenot printing as follows: “We shall, in due course, give the
voyages of Carpenter and Diemen, to whom is due the principal honour of
this discovery. Van Diemen brought back gold, porcelain, and a thousand
other articles of wealth; which at first gave rise to the notion that
the country produced all these things: though it has been since
ascertained that what he brought was recovered from a vessel which had
been wrecked on these coasts. The mystery which the Dutch make of the
matter, and the difficulties thrown in the way of publishing what is
known about it, suggest the idea that the country is rich. But why
should they shew such jealousy with respect to a country which produces
nothing deserving so distant a journey?” La Neuville also, in his
_Histoire de Hollande_ (Paris, 1703, tom. ii, p. 213), speaking of Van
Diemen, says: “This latter not only examined the coasts of this great
land, but had two years previously sailed as far as 43 degrees towards
the antarctic pole, and discovered, on the 24th of November 1642, a new
country in the other continent, which now bears the name of Van Diemen’s
Land.” Here the very details clearly expose the nature of the mistake,
since the maps and the instructions to Tasman shew his second voyage to
have been in 1644, and the discovery of Van Diemen’s Land in 1642 is
known to be his beyond all dispute. The fact is moreover confirmed by
the identity of the names given to the tracts discovered in these two
voyages, viz. those of the principal members of the council and of Marie
van Diemen, to whom Tasman is supposed to have been attached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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