The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 | Page 8

(Van Speultsland) [*] The whole of the southern part of the gulf
remained, however, unvisited.
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 101-102; and pp. 47-48 below.]
{Page vii}
The honour of having first explored this part of the gulf in his second
famous voyage of 1644 is due to our countryman Abel Janszoon
Tasman together with Frans Jacobszoon Visscher and his other
courageous coadjutors in the ships Limmen Zeemeeuw and Brak. [*]
Abel Tasman's passagie [course] of 1644 lay again along the
south-west coast of New Guinea; again also Tasman left unsolved the
problem of the passage through between New Guinea and Australia:
Torres Strait was again mistaken for a bay. The east-coast of the Gulf
of Carpentaria was next further explored, and various new names were
conferred especially on rivers on this coast, which most probably got
the name of Carpentaria about this time; of the names then given a

great many continue to figure in modern maps. After exploring the
east-coast, Tasman turned to the south-coast of the gulf. In this latter
case the results of the exploration proved to be less trustworthy
afterwards. Thus Tasman mistook for a portion of the mainland the
island now known as Mornington Island; the same mistake he made as
regards Maria Eiland in Limmensbocht. For the rest however, the
coast-line also of the south-coast was delineated with what we must
call great accuracy if we keep in mind the defective instruments with
which the navigators of the middle of the seventeenth century had to
make shift. The west-coast of the gulf, too, was skirted and surveyed in
this voyage; Tasman passed between this coast and the Groote (Van der
Lijn's) eiland.
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 115-118, and especially chart No. I of
the Tasman Folio. Much information may also be gathered from chart
No. 14 of the present work, since it registers almost the whole amount
of Dutch knowledge about Australia circa 1700.]
The entire coastline enclosing the Gulf of Carpentaria had accordingly
now been skirted and mapped out. The value of Tasman's discoveries in
this part of Australia directly appears, if we lay side by side, for
instance, the chart of the upper-steersman De Leeuw [*], who formed
part of the voyage of 1623, or Keppler's map of 1630 [**]; and
Tasman's chart of 1644 [***], or Isaac De Graaff's made about 1700
[****], which last gives a pretty satisfactory survey of the results of
Tasman's voyage of 1644 so far as the Gulf of Carpentaria is concerned.
Although Tasman's expedition of 1644 did not yield complete
information respecting the coast-line of the Gulf, and although it is easy
to point out inaccuracies, the additions made by this voyage to our
knowledge on this point are so considerable that we may say with
complete justice that while the discovery of the east-coast of the Gulf is
due to Jansz. (1606) and Carstensz. (1623), it was Tasman who made
known the south-coast and the greater part of the west-coast.
[* No. 7 on p. 46.]
[** No. 6 on p. 10.]

[*** Chart No. I in the Tasman Folio.]
[**** No. 14 below.]
More than a century was to elapse before Dutch explorers again were to
visit the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1756 the east- and west-coast of it were
visited first by Jean Etienne Gonzal and next by Lavienne Lodewijk
van Assehens [*]. The expedition is of little interest as regards the
surveying of the coast-line, but these explorers got into more frequent
contact with the natives than any of their predecessors--what especially
Gonzal reports on this subject, is certainly worth noting. Gonzal also
first touched at the south-west coast of New Guinea, and next, again
without becoming aware of the real character of Torres Strait, sailed to
the east-coast of the Gulf, skirting the same up to about 13° S. Lat.,
after which he crossed to the west-coast. What he did there is of little
interest. Van Asschen's experiences are of even less importance for our
present purpose. One remark of his, however, is worth noting: he states
namely that he found the east-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria [**] to
be "fully 12 miles more to eastward" than the charts at his disposal had
led him to believe; and it would really seem to be a fact that Tasman
had placed this coast too far to westward.
[* See No. XXXVI infra.]
[** The names there conferred by him on various parts of the coast,
may be sufficiently gathered from Document No. XXXVI.]
{Page viii}
IV.
THE NETHERLANDERS ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF
AUSTRALIA.
In a previous work [*] I have attempted to show that the discovery of
Arnhemsland must beyond any doubt be credited to the voyage of the
yacht Arnhem, commanded by Van Colster