Page:History of West Australia.djvu/14

 6 and other navigators discovered the ocean route to the East Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Trade was established, and fleets were constantly sailing to and from these centres. There is every probability that during some of the voyages many boats had been carried close to the west coast of Australia. When more knowledge of prevailing winds was obtained the outward bound ships made a latitude south of the Cape of Good Hope. They would then take advantage of the prevailing west winds of the Great Southern Ocean. Naturally holding to these as long as possible, they would go east as far as the Islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, and then make a north-easterly course to Java, Timor, and the Malaccas. The trade or monsoonal winds would at certain seasons of the year undoubtedly bring them close to the Australian coast.

A Frenchman—Binot Paulmier de Gonneville, a native of Honfleur—claims to have made the earliest discovery. In June, 1503, eleven years after the first voyage of Columbus, De Gonneville left France on a voyage to the South Seas. Off the Cape of Good Hope he said he met with such severe storms that he was carried, in 1503-4, to a great land which he named Southern India. After a time he returned to France, taking with him a native prince. The claim of De Gonneville is not recognised, for the land he described was probably Madagascar. Magalhaens, better known as Magellan, early in the sixteenth century endeavoured to secure the support of his countrymen (the Portuguese) in fitting out an expedition to voyage round the world, during which he expected to discover many new lands and untold wealth and glory for Portugal. They paid little attention to his representations, and he thereupon went to Spain, where he made similar efforts. Finally, after the Portuguese did their utmost to prevent his voyage under the Spaniards, he sailed away in charge of a small Spanish fleet.

In 1520 he doubled Cape Horn, and voyaged round the world. When approaching the East Indies he is reported to have sighted a southern continent, which maps in existence show was named Magellanica. This claim is a little more reasonable than that of De Gonneville. Considering the evidence of six Portuguese maps of the sixteenth century, there is every reason to suppose that the gloom surrounding Australia was pierced between the years 1512 and 1542. These maps exhibit a large coastline south and south-east of Java, divided from it by a narrow strait, to which the name Great Java is attached. The prevailing winds, and the consequent easier course, had almost certainly carried the Portuguese within sight of Australia. There are many reasons why they did not then claim the honour of so important a discovery. The Portuguese, although unable to make use of their discoveries, owing to their large trade with the East Indies, were anxious that lands of such magnitude and importance should not be acquired by any other nation. Humboldt wrote that kings of Portugal even forbad, on pain of death, the exportation of marine charts showing the course to Calicut in India. All charts and books were therefore concealed. A similar accusation was subsequently made against the Dutch East India Company by the English ambassador, Sir William Temple, who contended that when the Dutch were in the ascendancy the demands of their trade among the islands prevented their opening up relations with this large continent. Dutch writers of the present century seek to prove the fallacy of Temple's allegations.

That Australia was known to the Portuguese in the sixteenth century is evident; and Mr. Major, referring to the six maps, writes:—

"Our surmises, therefore, lead us to regard it as highly probable that Australia was discovered by the Portuguese between the years 1511 and 1529, and almost to a demonstrable certainty that is was discovered before the year 1542."

A further conclusive proof that it was known prior to authenticated discoveries is found in an article entitled "Terra Australis," published in 1598, in Cornelius WytflictWytfliet [sic]'s Descriptionis Ptoleimaicæ Augmentum, Louvain. One passage runs—

"The Australis Terra is the must southern of all lands, and is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are hitherto but little known, since after one voyage and another that route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited except when sailors are driven there by storms. The Australis Terra begins at two or three degrees from Equator, and is maintained by some to be of so great an extent that if it were thoroughly explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of world."

The sixteenth century was allowed to wane and die without any navigator being known to specially visit Australia. It is quite possible that vessels had been wrecked during storms on her rocky boundaries, but if so, the passengers with the ships were overwhelmed by the ocean waves. It was, however, early in the seventeenth century that the first detailed discovery was made. The natives of the East Indies had meanwhile become familiar with Portuguese, Dutch, and Spaniards alike, but the pristine silence of southern oceans was often rudely broken by the cries of conflicting ships' companies. The Spaniards and the Portuguese were in deadly enmity and slaughtered each other with impunity. Nor was that all. For much more than a century the East Indies supplied a hunting ground for bloodthirsty Europeans, who constantly preyed upon the weaker and ignorant natives. In their greed for wealth, and in their brute love for slaughter, they thought nothing of devastating towns and murdering the inhabitants. Privateers and buccaneers roved the southern seas, and Englishmen were not backward in the deadly game then carried on. But while this was proceeding, navigators of the same noble caste as Columbus were making their useful voyages, and taking back to Europe astounding news of divers rich great countries. Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English all deserve honour for their services to navigation in the Southern Hemisphere, and especially, so far as Australia is concerned, the Dutch and English. It is remarkable that more wrecks did not occur while they were prosecuting their adventurous search, for knowing nothing of the Australian coast, nor of the gales which periodically blow so strongly, there was the possibility of their at any moment sinking to the bottom of the ocean. So far away from their homes, and trusting their lives to comparatively fragile vessels they had much to chance. But they were cautious men, possessing qualities which fitted them for almost any position a community can offer; and those of their journals which are extant prove that they possessed no mediocre literary ability. And with all their caution they were remarkably courageous, and permeated with an intense love of adventure.

To Pedro Fernandez De Quiros Australia owes much of the honour for her first becoming known with certainty to Europeans. De Quiros was either a native of Portugal or Spain, but in the employ of the latter country. In 1595 he sailed as chief pilot under Alvaro de Mendana from Peru on a voyage of discovery, when Mendana found the Marquesas and Queen Charlotte’s Islands. At the Island of Santa Cruz, Mendana failed in an attempt to establish a Spanish colony, and there he died. De Quiros returned to Spain and strenuously advocated the fitting out of a well equipped expedition for the scanning of the oceans, and also to determine the existence of the Great South Land. The Spanish monarch Philip III., after much deliberation, caused two well armed vessels and a corvette to be placed under his charge. On the 21 December, 1605, De Quiros left Callao, with Luis Vaez de Torres in command of the second ship—the Almarante. This little fleet was probably the strongest and best armed which had up to this time