Early Australian Voyages [17]
islands; which, however, did not engage us to alter the resolution we had taken of sailing north, to the height of 17 degrees south latitude, and from thence to shape a west course, without going near either Traitor's Island, or those of Horne, we having then a very brisk wind from the south-east, or east-south- east.
I cannot help remarking upon this part of Captain Tasman's journal, that it is not easy to conceive, unless he was bound up by leis instructions, why he did not remain some time either at Rotterdam or at Amsterdam Island, but especially at the former; since, perhaps, there is not a place in the world so happily seated, for making new discoveries with ease and safety. He owns that he traversed the whole island, that he found it a perfect paradise, and that the people gave him not the least cause of being diffident in point of security; so that if his men had thrown up ever so slight a fortification, a part of them might have remained there in safety, while the rest had attempted the discovery of the Islands of Solomon on the one hand, or the continent of De Quiros on the other, from neither of which they were at any great distance, and, from his neglecting this opportunity, I take it for granted that he was circumscribed, both as to his course and to the time he was to employ in these discoveries, by his instructions, for otherwise so able a seaman and so curious a man as his journal shows him to have been, would not certainly have neglected so fair an opportunity.
CHAPTER XI: AND AN ARCHIPELAGO OF TWENTY SMALL ISLANDS.
On February 6th, being in 17 degrees 19 minutes of south latitude, and in the longitude of 201 degrees 35 minutes, we found ourselves embarrassed by nineteen or twenty small islands, every one of which was surrounded with sands, shoals, and rocks. These are marked in the charts by the name of Prince William's Islands, or Heemskirk's Shallows. On the 8th we were in the latitude of 15 degrees 29 minutes, and in the longitude of 199 degrees 31 minutes. We had abundance of rain, a strong wind from the north-east, or the north- north-east, with dark cold weather. Fearing, therefore, that we were run farther to the west than we thought ourselves by our reckoning, and dreading that we should fall to the south of New Guinea, or be thrown upon some unknown coast in such blowing misty weather, we resolved to stand away to the north, or to the north- north-west, till we should arrive in the latitude of 4, 5, or 6 degrees south, and then to bear away west for the coast of New Guinea, as the least dangerous way that we could take.
It is very plain from hence, that Captain Tasman had now laid aside all thoughts of discovering farther, and I think it is not difficult to guess at the reason; when he was in this latitude, line was morally certain that he could, without further difficulty, sail round by the coast of New Guinea, and so back again to the East Indies. It is therefore extremely probable that he was directed by his instructions to coast round that great southern continent already discovered, in order to arrive at a certainty whether it was joined to any other part of the world, or whether, notwithstanding its vast extent, viz., from the equator to 43 degrees of south latitude, and from the longitude of 123 degrees to near 190 degrees, it was, notwithstanding, an island. This, I say, was in all appearance the true design of his voyage, and the reason of it seems to be this: that an exact chart being drawn from his discoveries, the East India Company might have perfect intelligence of the extent and situation of this now-found country before they executed the plan they were then contriving for preventing its being visited or farther discovered by their own or any other nation; and this too accounts for the care taken in laying down the map of this country on the pavement of the new stadthouse at Amsterdam; for as this county was henceforward to remain as a kind of deposit or land of reserve in the hands of the East India Company, they took this method of intimating as much
I cannot help remarking upon this part of Captain Tasman's journal, that it is not easy to conceive, unless he was bound up by leis instructions, why he did not remain some time either at Rotterdam or at Amsterdam Island, but especially at the former; since, perhaps, there is not a place in the world so happily seated, for making new discoveries with ease and safety. He owns that he traversed the whole island, that he found it a perfect paradise, and that the people gave him not the least cause of being diffident in point of security; so that if his men had thrown up ever so slight a fortification, a part of them might have remained there in safety, while the rest had attempted the discovery of the Islands of Solomon on the one hand, or the continent of De Quiros on the other, from neither of which they were at any great distance, and, from his neglecting this opportunity, I take it for granted that he was circumscribed, both as to his course and to the time he was to employ in these discoveries, by his instructions, for otherwise so able a seaman and so curious a man as his journal shows him to have been, would not certainly have neglected so fair an opportunity.
CHAPTER XI: AND AN ARCHIPELAGO OF TWENTY SMALL ISLANDS.
On February 6th, being in 17 degrees 19 minutes of south latitude, and in the longitude of 201 degrees 35 minutes, we found ourselves embarrassed by nineteen or twenty small islands, every one of which was surrounded with sands, shoals, and rocks. These are marked in the charts by the name of Prince William's Islands, or Heemskirk's Shallows. On the 8th we were in the latitude of 15 degrees 29 minutes, and in the longitude of 199 degrees 31 minutes. We had abundance of rain, a strong wind from the north-east, or the north- north-east, with dark cold weather. Fearing, therefore, that we were run farther to the west than we thought ourselves by our reckoning, and dreading that we should fall to the south of New Guinea, or be thrown upon some unknown coast in such blowing misty weather, we resolved to stand away to the north, or to the north- north-west, till we should arrive in the latitude of 4, 5, or 6 degrees south, and then to bear away west for the coast of New Guinea, as the least dangerous way that we could take.
It is very plain from hence, that Captain Tasman had now laid aside all thoughts of discovering farther, and I think it is not difficult to guess at the reason; when he was in this latitude, line was morally certain that he could, without further difficulty, sail round by the coast of New Guinea, and so back again to the East Indies. It is therefore extremely probable that he was directed by his instructions to coast round that great southern continent already discovered, in order to arrive at a certainty whether it was joined to any other part of the world, or whether, notwithstanding its vast extent, viz., from the equator to 43 degrees of south latitude, and from the longitude of 123 degrees to near 190 degrees, it was, notwithstanding, an island. This, I say, was in all appearance the true design of his voyage, and the reason of it seems to be this: that an exact chart being drawn from his discoveries, the East India Company might have perfect intelligence of the extent and situation of this now-found country before they executed the plan they were then contriving for preventing its being visited or farther discovered by their own or any other nation; and this too accounts for the care taken in laying down the map of this country on the pavement of the new stadthouse at Amsterdam; for as this county was henceforward to remain as a kind of deposit or land of reserve in the hands of the East India Company, they took this method of intimating as much