The Story of Geographical Discovery: How the World Became KnownJacobs, Joseph
History
The Story of Geographical Discovery: How the World Became Known
Jacobs, Joseph
Discoveries in geography
day signs of their explorations in the names of islands, bays,
and capes. Dirk Hartog, in the _Endraaght_, discovered that Land
which is named after his ship, and the cape and roadstead named
after himself, in 1616. Jan Edels left his name upon the western
coast in 1619; while, three years later, a ship named the _Lioness_
or _Leeuwin_ reached the most western point of the continent, to
which its name is still attached. Five years later, in 1627, De
Nuyts coasted round the south coast of Australia; while in the
same year a Dutch commander named Carpenter discovered and gave
his name to the immense indentation still known as the Gulf of
Carpentaria.
But still more important discoveries were made in 1642 by an expedition
sent out from Batavia under ABEL JANSSEN TASMAN to investigate
the real extent of the southern land. After the voyages of the
_Leeuwin_ and De Nuyts it was seen that the southern coast of the
new land trended to the east, instead of working round to the west,
as would have been the case if Ptolemy's views had been correct.
Tasman's problem was to discover whether it was connected with the
great southern land assumed to lie to the south of South America.
Tasman first sailed from Mauritius, and then directing his course
to the south-east, going much more south than Cape Leeuwin, at
last reached land in latitude 43.30° and longitude 163.50°. This
he called Van Diemen's Land, after the name of the Governor-General
of Batavia, and it was assumed that this joined on to the land
already discovered by De Nuyts. Sailing farther to the eastward,
Tasman came out into the open sea again, and thus appeared to prove
that the newly discovered land was not connected with the great
unknown continent round the south pole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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