Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/30

 xxvi AN INTRODUCTORY over all Europe, and naturally, for up to that time no such tales of the sea had appeared in print. There was none of the romance about them which made the voyages of the great dis- coverers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries seem so mar- vellous ; but they were distinguished from all other works of the • kind by the author's power of observation and the graphic style of his narrative, which almost rivalled that of his contemporary De Foe.* Other navigators might have been as exact in their nautical and astronomical calculations, but they did not enter into competition with him in the art of story-telling — an art which lost none of its power from being clothed in the homely language of a sailor. So far as New Holland was concerned, his account of it became stereotyped in the memory of his countrymen ; an unfortunate fact for the country itself, since the impression left behind was as unfavourable as it could well be. The land rose up before the reader's imagination in the shape of a barren, sandy region, '^ destitute of Water, except you make Wells," and of everything else that could make a new country attractive to either trader or traveller ; inhabited, too, by a race of beings described as the lowest and most degraded type of mankind. Such were the ideas associated with every mention of New Holland, down to the time when the lieutenant in command of the Endeavour determined to explore its eastern coast on his way home from New Zealand. It is not a very difficult task to identify the known geography of the country at that time ; and it is well worth the trouble to do so, in order to get some clear idea of the opinions held by Cook and his companion^ on the subject. We have only to recall to mind the various works then in circulation, and to glance in imagina- tion at the book-shelves in the cabins of the Endeavour. The little library on board, we may be sure, comprised every work of any value to the geographer and naturalist in the South Sea. First on Fernandez in 1681, looks like the first rough sketch of Robinson Crusoe. It is worth while to compare his description, which will be found in his Voyage round the World, vol. i, pp. 84-92, ed. 1729, with Do Foe's. The story of Alexander Selkirk appeared in Captain Woodes Rogers's Voyage Round the World (1712), p. 124. Digitized by Google
 * Bampiep's account of the Moskito Indian who had been left ashore at Juan