The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 | Page 9

or Van Coolsteerdt, which
took place in 1623. Since the Journal and the charts of this voyage are

no longer available, we are without the most important data for
determining with certainty between what degrees of longitude the
Arnhemsland then discovered was situated. To westward of it must be
sought Van Diemens- and Maria's-land, touched at in 1636 by Pieter
Pieterszoon with the ships Cleen Amsterdam and Wesell) [**]. There
can be no doubt that Pieterszoon must have sailed far enough to
westward to have passed Dundas Strait, and to have reached the
western extremity of Melville Island (Roode hoek = red point). He took
Dundas Strait to be not a strait, but a bay, and accordingly looked upon
Melville Island not as an island, but as a portion of the mainland (Van
Diemensland) [***].
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 100-102, and the Documents under No.
XIV, 2 infra.]
[** See the Documents under No. XXV.]
[*** Maria-land lies immediately to eastward of Van Diemens-land,
and to westward of Arnhems-land.]
In the course of these two voyages of 1623 and 1636, therefore, the
whole of the north-west coast from Melville Bay to Melville Island was
surveyed by Dutch ships. But in the absence of charts made on these
voyages it is impossible for us to say with certainty, whether the
coastline can have been traced with correctness. On this point also
more light is thrown by the well-known chart of 1644, in which the
results of Tasman's voyages are recorded. Tasman sailed along the
whole of the coast, but in this case too, his observations were not on all
points accurate. Thus the situation of Wessel-eiland and the islets south
of it, with respect to the mainland, is not given correctly by him; nor
has he apprehended the real character of Dundas Strait and of Van
Diemen's Gulf, so that also according to him Melville island forms part
of the mainland. But for the rest Tasman's chart also in this case
approximately reproduces the coast-line with so much correctness, that
we find it quite easy [*] to point out on the maps of our time the results
of the Dutch voyages of discovery in this part of the Australian coast.
[* Chart No. 14 below may also be of excellent service here.]

Far more accurate, however, than Tasman's chart is the chart which in
1705 was made of the voyage of the ships Vossenbosch, de Waijer and
Nova-Hollandia, commanded by Maarten van Delft [*]. This chart may
at the same time be of service to elucidate Tasman's discoveries and
those of his predecessors. It is to be regretted, therefore, that it only
embraces a comparatively small portion of the north-west coast,
namely the part extending from the west-coast of Bathurst island and
the western extremity of Melville island to the eastern part of Coburg
peninsula and Croker-island. This time again the real character of
Dundas Strait and Van Diemens Gulf were not ascertained [**].
[* See the Documents under No. XXXIII and Chart No. 15.]
[** I subjoin the names of localities that are found in this chart, since
the reproduction had to be made on too small a scale to allow of the
names being distinctly visible to the naked eye. Going from west to
east they are the following: Kliphoek, Duivelsklip, Droge Hoek,
Boompjeshoek, Wille Hoek, Noordhoek van Van Diemens Land,
Waterplacts, Vuyle Bocht, Vuijl Eijland, Hoek van Goede Hoop,
Hoefyzer Hoek, Fortuyns Hoek, Schrale Hoek, Valsche Westhoek,
Valsche Bocht, Bedriegers Hoek, Westhoek van 3 Bergen's bocht of
Vossenbos Ruyge Hoek, Orangie Hoek, Witte Hoek, Waterplacts,
Alkier liggen drie bergen, Toppershoedje, Oosthoek van Drie Bergens
bocht, Scherpen Hoek, Vlacke Hoek, Westhoek en Costhoek (van)
Mariaes Land, Maria's Hoek, de Konijnenberg, Marten Van Delft's baai,
Pantjallings Hoek, Rustenburg, Wajershoek, Hoek van Onier, Hoek van
Canthier, P. Frederiksrivier, Jan Melchers Hoek. Pieter Frederiks Hoek,
Roseboomshoek, W. Sweershoek, Hoek van Calmocrie.]
{Page ix}
V.
THE NETHERLANDERS ON THE WEST- AND SOUTH-WEST
COAST OF AUSTRALIA
In the year 1616 the Dutch ship Eendracht, commanded by Dirk
Hartogs on her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia

unexpectedly touched at "divers islands, but uninhabited" and thus for
the first time surveyed part of the west-coas of Australia[*]. As early as
1619 this coast, thus accidentally discovered, was known by the name
of Eendrachtsland or Land van de Eendracht. The vaguenes of the
knowledge respecting the coast-line then discovered, and its extent, is
not unaptly illustrated in a small map of the world reproduced as below,
and found in {Page x} GERARDI MERCATORIS _Atlas sive
Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica mundi et fabricati figura. De
novo...auctus studio_ JUDOCI HONDIJ (Amsterodami; Sumptibus
Johannis Cloppenburgij. Anno 1632) [**]. If, however, we compare
this map of the world with KEPPLER'S map of 1630 [***], we become
aware