Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/363

 Discovery of Australia by the Portuguese

IN 1601.

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H.

British Museum,

March 1st, 1861.



Of the discoveries made by the Dutch on the coasts of Australia, our ancestors of a hundred years ago, and even the Dutch themselves, knew but little. That which was known was preserved in the "Relations de divers Voyages Curieux" of Melchisedech Thevenot (Paris, 1663-72, fol.}; in the "Noord en Oost Tartarye" of Nicholas Witsen, (Amst. 1692-1705, fol.); in Valentyn's "Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien" (Amst. 1724-26, fol.); and in the "Inleidning tot de algemeen Geographic" of Nicolas Struyk, Amst. 1740, 4to.). We have, however, since gained a variety of information, through a document which fell into the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, and was published by Alexander Dalrymple (at that time hydrographer to the Admiralty and the East India Company), in his collection concerning Papua. This curious and