Читать книгу Early History of the Colony of Victoria, Volume I - Francis Peter Labilliere - Страница 6

First Discovery of Australia uncertain—Cook first sights the coast of Victoria—Captain Hunter's doubts as to Tasmania being a peninsula—Vancouver proposes to ascertain the fact—His despatches to Lord Grenville on the subject—Mungo Park volunteers to explore in Australia—Letter of Sir Joseph Banks communicating the offer to the Government.

AUSTRALIA has had no Columbus. It is even doubtful if the first navigators who reached her shores set out with any idea of discovering a great south land. At all events, it would seem, their achievements were so little esteemed by themselves and their countrymen, that no means were taken to preserve their names in connexion with their discoveries. Holland long had the credit of bringing to light the existence of that island-continent, which until recent years was best known by her name.

In 1861, however, Mr. Major, to whom we are indebted for more recent research upon the subject, produced evidence which appeared to demonstrate that the Portuguese had reached the shores of Australia in 1601, five years before the Dutch yacht Duyphen, or Dove,—the earliest vessel whose name has been handed down—sighted, about March, 1606, what is believed to have been the coast near Cape York. Mr. Major, in a learned paper read before the Society of Antiquaries in 1872, indicated the probability that the first discovery was made "in or before the year 1531." The dates of two of the six maps from which Mr. Major derives his information are 1531 and 1542. The latter clearly indicates Australia, which is called Jave la Grande. New Zealand is also marked. The other maps, though without dates, doubtless relate to discoveries made a few years earlier. Mr. Major, in kindly explaining these interesting particulars to the author, also referred to a letter of Andrea Corsali, a Florentine, written in 1515, which leaves little doubt that Europeans had at that date got as far on the way to Australia as Banda, if not New Guinea. In a subsequent paper, in 1873—the original report of the pretented discoverer in 1601 having been found in Brussels—Mr. Major charges this Portuguese navigator, who claimed to have discovered, in 1601, a southern land in the position of Australia, with gross imposture; for he describes the country, which he calls Luça Antara, as containing many populous cities and towns, as abounding in gold, and with inhabitants addicted to cock-fighting.*

[* "Further Facts relating to the Early Discovery of Australia, communicated to the Society of Antiquaries." By Richard Henry Major, Esq., F.S.A.]

Two of the six maps referred to by Mr. Major, as indicating an early discovery of Australia, are probably those mentioned by Captain Flinders in the introduction to his "Terra Australis", where he says,—

"Within these last few years, however, two curious manuscript charts have been brought to light, which have favoured an opinion that Terra Australis had really been visited by Europeans nearly a century before any authentic accounts speak of its discovery. One of these charts is in French, without date; and, from its almost exact similitude, is probably either the original, or a copy of the other which is in English, and bears, with the date 1542, a dedication to the King of England. In it an extensive country is marked to the southward of the Moluccas, under the name of Great Java, which agrees nearer with the position and extent of Terra Australis than with any other land; and the direction given to some parts of the coast approaches too near to the truth for the whole to have been marked from conjecture alone. . . . . It may, at the same time, be admitted that a part of the west and north-west coasts, where the coincidence of form is most striking, might have been seen by the Portuguese themselves, before the year 1540, in their voyages to and from India."

On turning to Admiral Burney's work,** to which Flinders refers for the preceding statement, we find the history of the early discovery of Australia thus summed up:—

[** "Chronological History of Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific," published 1803.]

"All these circumstances justify and support the opinion that the northern and western coasts of New Holland were known, and were the Great Java of the sixteenth century. There are likewise reasons for supposing that the eastern coast had been seen; but they are not sufficient to authorize the insertion of any part of it in a chart of the discoveries made previous to 1579."

Burney has little doubt that some of the land seen "by Torres to the southward was part of the Great Terra Australis. And what renders this more remarkable is that, in this same year, 1606, a Dutch vessel saw land in 13¾° S., which was supposed to be a continuation of the land of Papua or New Guinea. The furthest seen by the Hollanders was named by them Cape Keer Weer (Cape Turn-Again). Accordingly, there is some reason to believe that the Great Terra Australis was twice seen in the year 1606, but, not being known as such, it cannot be said to have been then discovered."

Further on in the same volume the writer says,—

"Nothing was known with certainty concerning a southern continent previous to the year 1616. The land seen in 1606 by the Duyphen yacht, and named Cape Keer Weer . . . . was believed to be part of New Guinea; and a total ignorance seems to have prevailed in the world concerning the navigation of De Torres between New Guinea and the Great Terra Australis, besides that Torres himself supposed all the land seen by him to the south of New Guinea to be islands. "In the month of October, 1616, a ship named the Eendracht, commanded by Theodoric Hertoge, being on her passage outward bound from Holland to the East Indies, fell in with land about 25° S., which proved to be part of the western coast of the Great Terra Australis."

Though the date of the first discovery of Australia, and the name of the man who made it, have passed into an oblivion which, most probably, will never be penetrated, no such obscurity exists with regard to the occasion on which civilized men first saw any portion of that Australian territory of which we are going to treat. Unless some unknown navigators have never returned to tell the tale, or that all record of it has been lost, the famous Captain, then Lieutenant, Cook and his comrades were the first to set eyes upon the shores of the present colony of Victoria.

Sailing from Cape Farewell in New Zealand for the coast of what was then supposed to be the peninsula of Van Diemen's Land, the Endeavour, on the morning of Thursday, April 19th, 1770, sighted land near Point Hicks, which was called after the first lieutenant, who first saw it. The position of this headland is a little to the west of Cape Howe, the eastern extremity of the present colony. The great navigator did not stop to make any investigations, or to solve the mystery about Tasmania; but he turned away, and pursued his course along the east coast of Australia, discovering Botany Bay, April 27th, Port Jackson on the 6th, and Moreton Bay on the 16th May, and passing and naming York Cape August 21st. On that day he also took possession of "the whole eastern coast . . . . in right of his Majesty King George the Third, by the name of New South Wales." He then steered towards New Guinea.

A quarter of a century passed before anything was added to the little knowledge of Victoria acquired by Cook's glance at her coast. As, however, the earliest description, even though meagre, of places and persons of interest must, convey first impressions better than any subsequent writer can attempt, either more briefly or fully, to describe them, the following extract from "Cook's Voyage in 1770" should have a place in any complete history of the discoveries which we have to narrate:—

"Wednesday, 18th.—In the morning of the 18th we saw two Port Egmont hens and a pintado bird, which are certain signs of approaching land, and, indeed, by our reckoning, we could not be far from it, for our longitude was now one degree to the westward of the east side of Van Diemen's Land, according to the longitude laid down by Tasman, whom we could not suppose to have erred much in so short a run as from this land to New Zealand; and by our latitude we could not be above fifty or fifty-five leagues from the place where he took his departure. All this day we had frequent squalls and a great swell. "Thursday 19th.—At one in the morning we brought to and sounded, but had no ground with 130 fathoms. At six we saw land extending from N.E. to W. at the distance of five or six leagues, having eighty fathoms water with a fine sandy bottom. "We continued standing westward, with the wind at S.S.W. till eight, when we made all the sail we could, and hove away along the shore N.E. for the easternmost land in sight, being at this time in latitude 37° 58' S. and longitude 210° 39' W. The southernmost point of land in sight, which bore from us W. ¼ S., I judged to lie in latitude 38°, longitude 211° 7', and gave it the name of Point Hicks, because Mr. Hicks, the first lieutenant, was the first who discovered it. To the southward of this point no land was to be seen, though it was very clear in that quarter; and by our longitude, compared with that of Tasman, not as it is laid down in the printed charts, but in the extracts from 'Tasman's Journal', published by Rembrantse, the body of Van Diemen's Land ought to have borne due south: and, indeed, from the sudden falling of the sea after the wind abated, I had reason to think it did; yet, as I did not see it, and as I found this coast trend N.E. and S.W., or rather more to the eastward, I cannot determine whether it joins to Van Diemen's Land or not. "At noon we were in latitude 37° 50', longitude 210° 29' W. The extremes of this land extended from N.W. to E.N.E., and a remarkable point before N. 20 E. at the distance of about four leagues. This point rises in a round hillock, very much resembling the Earn Head at the entrance of Plymouth Sound, and therefore I called it by the same name. The variation by an azimuth taken this morning was 3° 7' E., and what we had now seen of the land appeared low and level; the sea-shore was a white sand, but the country within was green and woody. About one o'clock we saw three waterspouts at once; two were between us and the shore, and the third at some distance upon our larboard quarter. This phenomenon is so well known that it is net necessary to give a particular description of it here. "At six o'clock in the evening we shortened sail and brought to for the night, having fifty-six fathoms water, and a fine sandy bottom. The northernmost land in sight then bore N.E. by E. ½ E., and a small island lying close to a point on the main bore W., distant two leagues. This point, which I called Cape Howe, may be known by the trending of the coast, which is north on one side and south-west on the other; it may also be known by some round hills upon the main, just within it. "Friday, 20th.—-We brought to for the night, and at four in the morning made sail along the shore to the northward."

Although nothing was done for so many years to decide whether Tasmania was joined to Victoria—a question respecting which Cook seems scarcely to have raised a doubt—the subject did not wholly escape attention. The peninsula theory was evidently shaken some years before it was finally refuted. The first to question it seems to have been Captain John Hunter, who went out with the colonizing expedition to Botany Bay, as second captain of the Sirius, under Captain Phillip, whom he afterwards succeeded as Governor of New South Wales. Hunter was sent in command of that vessel for supplies to the Cape. He sailed from Port Jackson, October 2nd 1788, and re-entered it May 9th, 1789. On his return voyage he made the following observation:—

"In passing (at a distance from the coast) between the islands of Schooten and Furneaux and Point Hicks—the former being the northernmost of Captain Furneaux's observations here, and the latter the southernmost part which Captain Cook saw when he sailed along the coast—there has been no land seen; and from our having felt an easterly set of current, when the wind was from that quarter (north-west), we had an uncommon large sea; there is reason thence to believe that there is in that space either a deep gulf or a strait which may separate Van Diemen's Land from New Holland. There have no discoveries been made on the western side of this land in the parallel I allude to, between 39° 00' and 42° 00' S., the land there having never been seen." ***

[*** "Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island. By Captain John Hunter," published 1793.]

Captain Vancouver, in a despatch * to Lord Grenville, dated "Discovery, False Bay, Cape of Good Hope, August ye 9th, 1791," proposes to solve this geographical problem. He says,—

[* New South Wales Correspondence, Record Office.]

"Since receiving my instructions at Falmouth for the prosecution of our voyage, I have much regretted not being fortunate enough, in a further interview with your lordship, to have gained your final opinion respecting the examination of that extent of coast of the S.W. side of New Holland which in the present age appears a real blot in geography, particularly when we reflect on the many vessels that in this improved age of navigation have passed the meridians, we have every reason to suppose it occupies not more than 150 leagues to the south of it, without endeavouring to bring home any further information respecting that extensive country . . . ."

After avowing his ambition to acquire "every knowledge of the distant regions" he was going to visit, and stating that Cook's chart of the Sandwich Islands had left him "but a small field to occupy two winters in their further examination," he says,—

"And likewise as when I had the honour of communicating my wishes to prosecute such an examination, your lordship seemed highly to approve of the idea, it is my intention to fall in with the S.W. Cape of New Holland, and should I find the shores capable of being navigated without much hazard, to range its coast and determine whether it and Van Diemen's Land are joined, which, from all information at present extant, appears somewhat doubtful. I should be exceeding sorry to lose this opportunity of throwing some light on the above subject, having sufficient time before me to do it and reach the Sandwich Islands, refresh, &c., &c., prior to proceeding on the American coast, agreeable to my instructions.

"I shall, however, prescribe this design with the utmost caution, and, should I find it attended with intricacy and danger, ever having the object of our voyage in view, abandon it and proceed into the Pacific Ocean."

How far Vancouver carried out his proposed exploration of the Australian coast appears in a letter ** he addressed to Governor Phillip at Sydney, dated "Discovery at sea, 15th of October, 1792," and sent with another, headed "Discovery, Monterrey, 29th December, 1792." In this document the navigator thus briefly gives the first intimation of the existence of what must ultimately become one of the most important harbours and naval stations of the United Empire:—

[** Record Office.]

"On my passage into this ocean I visited a small part of the S.W. coast of New Holland, and there discovered one very excellent port, which I have honoured with the name of King George the Third's Sound. As I think from the situation the fertility of the country . . . . it may be worthy some further attention."

Having made this valuable addition to the geography of Australia, he followed the coast as far as Termination Island in long. 122° 8'; but, there being indications of boisterous weather, which he did not like to encounter on an unexplored coast, he sailed for Tasmania, and, passing to the south of that island as well as of New Zealand, one of his ships, the Chatham, discovered the islands which bear her name.

Before coming to expeditions which were successfully carried out, and some of which stand unsurpassed in the annals of exploration, one great traveller must be mentioned as offering to investigate the unknown regions of Australia. We cannot doubt that he would have achieved great success; and how different might have been his career had his proposal—which for some reason was not acted upon—been carried out! It has been forgotten, if it were ever publicly known, that Mungo Park volunteered to proceed as an explorer to Australia. In the N. S. Wales official correspondence,*** there is a letter to John King, Esq., of the Treasury, dated May 15th, 1798, from Sir Joseph Banks, communicating Park's offer and the very modest terms which he annexed to it. Sir Joseph, after speaking about the introduction of hops into N. S. Wales, and the fitting up of a plant cabin in the Porpoise, which was about to sail for that colony, remarks that, though the country had been possessed "more than ten years, so much has the discovery of the interior been neglected that no one article has hitherto been discovered, by the importation of which the mother country can receive any degree of return for the cost of founding and hitherto maintaining the colony." He then proceeds as follows, with respect to the exploration of the interior, and Mungo Park in connexion with it:—

[*** Record Office.]

"It is impossible to conceive that such a body of land, as large as all Europe, does not produce vast rivers, capable of being navigated into the heart of the interior, or, if properly investigated, that such a country, situate in a most fruitful climate, should not produce some native raw material of importance to a manufacturing country as England is.

"Mr. Mungo Park lately returned from a journey in Africa, where he penetrated further into the inland than any European before has done by several hundred miles, and discovered an immense navigable river running westward, which offers the means of penetrating into the centre of that vast continent, exploring the nations that inhabit it, and monopolizing their trade to our settlement at Senegambia, with a small force, and at an expense which must be deemed inconsiderable when compared with the object to be attained, offers himself as a volunteer to be employed In exploring the interior of New Holland, by its rivers or otherwise, as may in the event be found most expedient.

"His moral character is unblemished, his temper mild, and his patience inexhaustible, as he has proved during his African expedition; he is sufficiently versed in astronomy to make and to calculate observations to determine both latitude and longitude; he knows geography enough to construct a map of the countries he may visit, draws a little, has a complete knowledge of botany and zoology, and has been educated in the medical line.

"He is very moderate in his terms: he will be content with ten shillings a day and his rations, and happy if his pay is settled at twelve shillings. The amount of his outfit for instruments, arms, presents, &c., will not, I think, exceed 100l. He will want a decked vessel of about thirty tons under the command of a lieutenant, with orders to follow his advice in all matters of exploring. Such a vessel may easily be built in the country, if one already there, which is found to have very bad qualities as a sea-boat, cannot be made sufficiently trustworthy; and Lieutenant Flinders, a countryman of mine, a man of activity and information, who is already there, will, I am sure, be happy if he is intrusted with the command, and will enter into the spirit of his orders, and agree perfectly with Park. "The crew of such a vessel need not, in my opinion, consist of more than ten men—four for boat-keepers, and six to proceed in the country with one or both the commanders, as may happen when inland journeys are to be attempted. "If either or both these projects are carried into execution, I will readily undertake to draw up instructions for all parties, and to correspond with them during the execution of their plans, under the superintendence of your office, such hopes have I of material discoveries being made, and such zeal do I really feel for the prosperity of a colony in the founding of which I bore a considerable share."

Had Mungo Park gone out to Australia at the time in question, although he would have arrived too late to have anticipated the great exploit of Bass, which we must next proceed to notice, he would assuredly have reaped the laurels which have crowned other discoverers; and there is little doubt that Victoria would have formed an important part of the sphere of his explorations.