Part 1 (1/2)
Adventures in Southern Seas
by George Forbes
INTRODUCTORY
In the year 1801 was found by the chief coxswain of the ”Naturalist” (a shi+p coe of discovery performed by order of the Emperor Napoleon I), at Shark's Bay, on the coast of West Australia, a pewter plate about six inches in diaraved Dutch inscription, of which the following is a translation:
”1616
”On the 25th of October arrived here the shi+p 'Endraght', of Ao Gilles Miebas Van Luck; Captain Dirk Hartog, of Aain on the 27th of the sao; Janstins first pilot
”Peter Ecoores Van Bu, in the year 1616”
No connected account of the voyages of Dirk Hartog is extant, but the report of the discovery of this pewter plate suggested the task of coators, in which Dirk Hartog is frequently referred to, and which is probably as correct a history of Hartog's voyages as can be obtained The aborigines of New Holland, as Australia was then called, judging by the description given of the on the pewter plate, appear to have been a es than those subsequentlyat Botany Bay, and the di whoer than those of the ratory tribes of Australian blacks in more modern times The ”sea spider” described by Van Bu in his second adventure was probably the octopus, which attains to great size in the Pacific The ”hopping aniaroos, hich Australians are now familiar
Captain Dampier, in 1699, first mentions the water serpents referred to by Van Bu ”In passing,” he says, ” three water serpents swi about in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown spots
Next day o water serpents, different in shape fro as aa red head, which I have never seen any before or since”
From an examination of the Dutch records, it would appear that a shi+p named the ”Arms of Amsterdam” drove past the south coast of New Guinea in the year 1623 This is, perhaps, the voyage described by Van Bu to the Island of Geantic mass of ice seen by Van Bu in the South is particularly interesting, since it laciers in the Antarctic regions break off into the sea
The north portion of New Guinea was for the first tihtly explored in the year 1678, by order of the Dutch East India Company, and found almost everywhere to be enriched with very fine rivers, lakes, and bays About the north-western parts the natives were discovered to be lean, and of middle size, jet-black, not unlike the Malabars, but the hair of the head shorter and somewhat less curly than the Kafirs' ”In the black of their eyes,” says a report given of this voyage, ”gleams a certain tint of red, by which may, in some measure, be observed that blood-thirsty nature of theirs which has at different ti men, whom they have surprised, o entirely naked, without the least shas, who are richly dressed The heathens of Nova Guinea believe there is some divinity in serpents, for which reason they represent them upon their vessels”
The ”Golden Sea-horse” is mentioned as one of the Dutch shi+ps said to have taken part in the discovery of Australia between the years 1616 and 1624 Other vessels noted are the ”Endraght”, ”Zeewolf”, ”Arms of Amsterdam”, ”Pera”, and ”Arnhei touched at the 'Great Southern Continent' as well as at the islands of the South Seas
The 'Place of the Painted Hands', the objective of the third voyage of Van Bu with Dirk Hartog to New Holland, is referred to by the late Mr Lawrence Hargrave, who s discovered in Australia, in a collection of paa”, now in the possession of the Mitchell Library at Sydney ”There are picture-writings,” he says, ”which have reist discovering theirThey are not as ancient as those on theIf they are read in the light of aof surprising interest By ere they chiselled? What is theira cross--the symbol of Spanish conquest On an ironstone rock-face on the Shoalhaven River are many 'hands' These have been there to the o near them Gold is still washed in this river, and possibly these hands, or fingers, refer to the days worked here washi+ng gold, or to the nuold obtained You will understand these 'hands'
are not carved, but painted with soment that has withstood the weather for some hundreds of years”
The Malays locate the Male and Female Islands visited by Van Bu, an account of which appears in many ancient manuscripts fro the islands of Engarno, to the south of Sue round the world, undertaken in 1271, and both Spanish and Dutch explorers refer to them in the accounts of their travels of more recent date
In ”The Discovery of Australia” (a critical docu the priority of discovery in Australasia by Europeans before the arrival of Lieutenant Jaridge, uese attempts at settlement upon the Great Southern Continent--'Terra Australis'
Staten Land was the naiven to New Zealand in honour of the States of Holland, and the monstrous birds seen there were probably the now extinct moa The Cannibal Islands are doubtless Fiji The data and references to chronicles in this work are genuine, and the result of a careful study of rare and (in some cases) unique books andof the Public Library at Sydney, said to be the most comprehensive collection known of accounts of discoveries in South Seas
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ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN SEAS
CHAPTER I