being conscious of it, the commander of the Duyfhen made the first authenticated discovery of any part of the great South Land, about the month of March 1606; for it appears, that he had returned to Banda in, or before, the beginning of June, of that year.

TORRES 1606

LUIS VAES DE TORRES, a Spanish navigator, was the next person who saw Terra Australis; and it is remarkable, that it was near the same place, and in the same year; and that he had as little knowledge of the nature of his discovery, as had the Duyfhen.

Torres was second in command to Pedro Fernandez de Quiros; when he sailed with three vessels, from the port of Callao in Peru, in the year 1605. One of the purposes of their expedition was to search for the TIERRA AUSTRAL; a continent which was supposed to occupy a considerable portion of that part of the southern hemisphere lying westward of America.

After the discovery of several islands, Quiros came to a land which he named AUSTRALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO, supposing it to be a part of the great Southern Continent; but this, on his separation from the admiral, Torres found could be no other than an island; and then continued his course westward, in prosecution of the research.

About the month of August 1606, and in latitude 11½° south, he fell in with a coast, which he calls "the beginning of New Guinea;" and which appears to have been the south-eastern part of the land, afterwards named Louisiade, by Mons. DE BOUGAINVILLE, and now known to be a chain of islands. Unable to pass to windward of this land, Torres bore away along its south side; and gives, himself, the following account of his subsequent proceedings.

"We went along 300 leagues of coast, as I have mentioned, and diminished the latitude 2½°, which brought us into 9°. From hence we fell in with a bank of from 3 to 9 fathoms, which extends along the coast above 180 leagues. We went over it along the coast to 7½ S. latitude, and the end of it is in 5°. We could not go further on for the many shoals and great currents, so we were obliged to sail S. W. in that depth to 11°. S. latitude. There is all over it an archipelago of islands without number, by which we passed, and at the end of the 11th degree, the bank became shoaler. Here were very large islands, and there appeared more to the southward: they were inhabited by black people, very corpulent, and naked: their arms were lances, arrows, and clubs of stone ill fashioned. We could not get any of their arms. We caught in all this land 20 persons of different nations, that with them we might be able to give a better account to Your Majesty. They give much notice of other people, although as yet they do not make themselves well understood.

"We were upon this bank two months, at the end of which time we found ourselves in 25 fathoms, and in 5° S. latitude, and 10 leagues from the coast. And having gone 480 leagues, here the coast goes to the N. E. I did not reach it, for the bank became very shallow. So we stood to the north."*

[* See the letter of Torres, dated Manila, July 12, 1607, in Vol. II. Appendix, No I. to Burney's "History of Discoveries in the South Sea;" from which interesting work this sketch of Torres' voyage is extracted.]

It cannot be doubted, that the "very large islands" seen by Torres, at the 11th degree of south latitude, were the hills of Cape York; or that his two months of intricate navigation were employed in passing the strait which divides Terra Australis and New Guinea. But the account of this and other discoveries, which Torres himself addressed to the King of Spain, was so kept from the world, that the existence of such a strait was generally unknown, until 1770; when it was again discovered and passed by our great circumnavigator Captain Cook.

Torres, it should appear, took the precaution to lodge a copy of his letter in the archives of Manila; for, after that city was taken by the British forces, in 1762, Mr. Dalrymple found out, and drew from oblivion, this interesting document of early discovery; and, as a tribute due to the enterprising Spanish navigator, he named the passage TORRES' STRAIT; and the appellation now generally prevails.

ZEACHEN. 1618.

ZEACHEN is said to have discovered the land of Arnhem and the northern Van Diemen's Land, in 1618; and he is supposed, from the first name, to have been a native of Arnhem, in Holland; and that the second was given in honour of the governor-general of the Indies.* But there are two important objections to the truth of this vague account: first, no mention is made of Zeachen in the recital of discoveries which preface the instructions to Tasman; nor is there any, of the North Coast having been visited by the Dutch, in that year: secondly, it appears from Valentyn's lives of the governors of Batavia, that Van Diemen was not governor-general until January 1, 1636.

[* Hist. des Navigations aux Terres Aust. Tome 1. p. 432.]

CARSTENS. 1623.

The second expedition, mentioned in the Dutch recital, for the discovery of the Great South Land, "was undertaken in a yacht, in the year 1617, with little success;" and the journals and remarks were not to be found. In January 1623, the yachts Pera and Arnhem, under the command of JAN CARSTENS, were despatched from Amboina, by order of His Excellency Jan Pieterz Coen. Carstens, with eight of the Arnhem's crew, was treacherously murdered by the natives of New Guinea; but the vessels prosecuted the voyage, and discovered "the great islands ARNHEM and the SPULT."* They were then "untimely separated," and the Arnhem returned to Amboina. The Pera persisted; and "sailed along the south coast of New Guinea, to a flat cove, situate in 10° south latitude; and ran along the West Coast of this land to Cape Keer-Weer; from thence discovered the coast further southward, as far as 17°, to STATEN RIVER. From this place, what more of the land could be discerned, seemed to stretch westward:" the Pera then returned to Amboina. "In this discovery were found, every where, shallow water and barren coasts; islands altogether thinly peopled by divers cruel, poor, and brutal nations; and of very little use to the (Dutch East-India) Company."

[* In the old charts, a river Spult is marked, in the western part of Arnhem's Land; and it seems probable, that the land in its vicinity is here meant by THE SPULT.]

POOL. PIETERSEN. 1636.

GERRIT TOMAZ POOL was sent, in April 1636, from Banda, with the yachts Klyn Amsterdam and Wezel, upon the same expedition as Carstens; and, at the same place, on the coast of New Guinea, he met with the same fate. Nevertheless "the voyage was assiduously continued under the charge of the supra-cargo Pieterz Pietersen; and the islands Key and Arouw visited. By reason of very strong eastwardly winds, they could not reach the west coast of New Guinea (Carpentaria); but shaping their course very near south, discovered the coast of Arnhem, or Van Diemen's Land, in 11° south latitude; and sailed along the shore for 120 miles (30 mijlen), without seeing any people, but many signs of smoke."

TASMAN. 1644.

This is all that appears to have been known of the North Coast, when ABEL JANSZ TASMAN sailed upon his second voyage, in 1644; for the instructions to him say, that after quitting "Point Ture, or False Cape, situate in 8° on the south coast of New Guinea, you are to continue eastward, along the coast, to 9° south latitude; crossing prudently the Cove at that place. Looking about the high islands or Speult's River, with the yachts, for a harbour; despatching the tender De Braak, for two or three days into the Cove, in order to discover whether, within the GREAT INLET, there be not to be found an entrance into the South Sea.* From this place you are to coast along the west coast of New Guinea. (Carpentaria,) to the furthest discoveries in 17° south