Adventures in Southern Seas | Page 2

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 made a very interesting study of picture-writings discovered in Australia, in a collection of pamphlets entitled "Lope de Vega", now in the possession of the Mitchell Library at Sydney. "There are picture-writings," he says, "which have remained for hundreds of years without any archaeologist discovering their meaning. They are not as ancient as those on the monuments of the Egyptians, but they are equally interesting. If they are read in the light of a message to posterity, they may yet reveal something of surprising interest. By whom were they chiselled? What is their meaning? The more recent discoveries show an oval encircling a cross--the symbol of Spanish conquest. On an ironstone rock-face on the Shoalhaven River are many 'hands.' These have been there to the memory of the oldest inhabitant. No aboriginal will go near them. Gold is still washed in this river, and possibly these hands, or fingers, refer to the days worked here washing gold, or to the number of 'quills' of gold obtained. You will understand these 'hands' are not carved, but painted with some pigment 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 from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, as being the islands of Engarno, to the south of Sumatra. Marco Polo speaks of them in his voyage 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 documentary and historic investigation concerning the priority of discovery in Australasia by Europeans before the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in the Endeavour in the year 1770), by George Collingridge, may be found accounts of Spanish and Portuguese attempts at settlement upon the Great Southern Continent--'Terra Australis'.
Staten Land was the name first given 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 and manuscripts in the Mitchell Wing of the Public Library at Sydney, said to be the most comprehensive collection known of accounts of discoveries in South Seas.
G. F.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY II. THE BLACK CANNIBALS OF NEW HOLLAND III. THE ONLY WHITE MAN IN NEW HOLLAND IV. THE SEA SPIDER V. THE VOYAGE CONTINUED VI. THE FIGHT ON THE SANDS VII. THE SPIRIT OF DISCORD VIII. PEARL ISLAND IX. MUTINY X. I EMBARK ON A SECOND VOYAGE XI. A SECOND VOYAGE WITH HARTOG TO THE SOUTH XII. THE SEA SERPENT XIII. THE FLOATING ISLAND XIV. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE XV. THE SEAWEED SEA XVI. THE ISLAND OF GEMS XVII. QUEEN MELANNIE XVIII. A QUEEN'S FAVOURITE XIX. I BECOME CHIEF COOK XX. THE SNAKE GOD XXI. A PLAN OF ESCAPE XXII. THE NIGHT OF THE SACRIFICE XXIII. AT THE MERCY OF THE SEA XXIV. HOW MY SECOND VOYAGE ENDED XXV. I ARRIVE AT AMSTERDAM XXVI. HAPPILY MARRIED XXVII. ONCE MORE TO THE SOUTH XXVIII. THE MOLUCCA ISLANDS XXIX. THE VOYAGE CONTINUED XXX. A SPANISH SETTLEMENT XXXI. THE PLACE OF THE PAINTED HANDS XXXII. MAROONED XXXIII. CAPTAIN MONTBAR XXXIV. WE AGAIN EXPLORE THE CAVES XXXV. I AM KIDNAPPED XXXVI. THE MALE AND FEMALE ISLANDS XXXVII. A TASK IS SET ME XXXVIII. THE SLAYING OF THE GREAT CROCODILE XXXIX. I BECOME A VICTIM OF DOMESTIC INFELICITY XL. THE YELLOW PARCHMENT XLI. THE RUBY MOUNTAINS XLII. THE VALLEY OF SERPENTS XLIII. WE AGAIN LEAVE NEW HOLLAND XLIV. THE ISLANDS OF ARMENIO XLV. SUMATRA XLVI. MAHOMET ACHMET XLVII. KING TRINKITAT XLVIII. STATEN LAND XLIX. THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS L. AGAIN AT THE MOLUCCAS LI. GETTING BACK OUR OWN LII. CONCLUSION

ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN SEAS
CHAPTER I
I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY
Let those who read this narrative doubt not its veracity. There be much in Nature that we wot not of, and many strange countries to explore. The monsters who roamed the earth in ancient times, as their fossil bones attest, are still to be seen in those regions hitherto unvisited by white men, and in the fathomless depths of uncharted seas leviathans find a home.
Peter Ecoores Van Bu was born upon the island of Urk, in the Zuider Zee, in the year 1596, and was brought up a fisher-lad until the coming to the island of a priest, to whom my parents, ambitious for my advancement, entrusted my education