Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/35

 New Holland in 1688. After accidents by flood and field, Dampier found his way to England, where he was well received, and the government gave him the command of an exploring vessel—the Roebuck. Reaching the west coast of Australia at the bay which he called Shark Bay, he examined the shore and the islands. He explained that on no part of the coast he saw was there any possibility of barter with the natives, who had nothing to give in exchange. No man then thought it desirable to occupy the land for its own sake. Dampier earned from foreigners the highest reputation for skill and exactitude. De Brosses exclaimed: "Ou trouve t'on de navigateurs comparables à Dampier?"

The greater part of a century elapsed before anything more than casual visits and desultory notes were to be made by a voyager to Australia, and that voyager was an Englishman—James Cook. Chosen to command the Endeavour, 370 tons, sent to the South Sea to observe the transit of Venus, Cook sailed from Plymouth (26th Aug., 1768). The observations on the transit were made at Tahiti in 1769. Cook's instructions were to proceed southwards after the astronomical observations were concluded. If he found no land before reaching the fortieth south parallel he was to go westward and explore New Zealand; thence he was to return to England by such route as he might think proper. These orders he obeyed, reaching New Zealand on the 6th Oct., 1769; and surveying New Zealand until the 31st March, 1770.

Bearing in mind that all that was known of Australia was that Tasmania was supposed to be part of the mainland, that only portions of the south and west coast were known, and that the northern shores had merely been seen near Arnhem Land, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and Cape York, the reader will appreciate the magnitude of Cook's discoveries. Encountering rough weather, and carefully sounding at night, Cook sighted the mainland of Australia on the 19th April, 1770, in latitude 38° south, longitude 211° 7", and called it Point Hicks, after the first lieutenant, who first saw it, "To the southward we could see no land,