Adventures in Southern Seas

Adventures in Southern Seas

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Adventures in Southern Seas, by George
Forbes
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Adventures in Southern Seas A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
Author: George Forbes

Release Date: September 16, 2005 [eBook #16704]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN SEAS***
E-text prepared by James Tenison

ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN SEAS
A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

by
GEORGE FORBES
First published August 1920 by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 39-41
Parker Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2 Reprinted July 1924 Printed
in Great Britain by Neill & Co. Ltd., Edinburgh

INTRODUCTORY
In the year 1801 was found by the chief coxswain of the "Naturalist" (a
ship commanded by Captain Hamelin on a voyage 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 diameter,
bearing a roughly engraved Dutch inscription, of which the following is
a translation:
"1616
"On the 25th of October arrived here the ship 'Endraght', of Amsterdam;
first supercargo Gilles Miebas Van Luck; Captain Dirk Hartog, of
Amsterdam. She set sail again on the 27th of the same month. Bantum
was second supercargo; 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
compiling a narrative from the records kept by Dutch navigators, 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 them by Van Bu, the author of the writing on the
pewter plate, appear to have been a more formidable race of savages
than those subsequently met with by Captain Cook on his landing at
Botany Bay, and the dimensions of the tribe among whom Van Bu was
held captive were certainly larger than those of the migratory 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 animals" are doubtless
the kangaroos, with which Australians are now familiar.
Captain Dampier, in 1699, first mentions the water serpents referred to
by Van Bu. "In passing," he says, "we saw three water serpents
swimming about in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown
spots. Next day we saw two water serpents, different in shape from
such as we had formerly seen; one very long and as big as a man's leg
in girth, having a red head, which I have never seen any before or
since."
From an examination of the Dutch records, it would appear that a ship
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 Gems. The gigantic mass of ice seen by Van Bu in
the South is particularly interesting, since it may have been the first
sight of the ice barrier from which glaciers in the Antarctic regions
break off into the sea.
The north portion of New Guinea was for the first time rightly 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 times caused so much grief from
the loss of several of our young men, whom they have surprised,
murdered, carried into the woods, and there devoured. They go entirely
naked, without the least shame, except their rajahs or petty kings, 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 ships said to

have taken part in the discovery of Australia between the years 1616
and 1624. Other