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EARLY PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH KNOWLEDGE OF NEW GUINEA. DUTCH POSSESSIONS IN THE EAST. "DUYFKEN" VISITS CERAM TO COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT NEW GUINEA (1603). "DUYFKEN'S" VOYAGE TO NEW GUINEA (1605-6). NINE MEN KILLED BY NATIVES IN NEW GUINEA PROPER. TORRES STRAIT PASSED UNOBSERVED. SOUTHWARD ALONG EASTERN SHORE OF GULF OF CARPENTARIA. A MAN KILLED BY NATIVES AT CARPENTIER INLET. "DUYFKEN" TURNS BACK AT CAPE KEERWEER.

"THE discovery of NEW GUINEA is most commonly credited to the Portuguese. In the early days, these people—then famous for their brave efforts in exploration and settlement—held Malacca[1] and the Spice Islands (i.e., the Moluccas). In 1527, one Jorgo de Meneses was sent from Malacca to the latter islands. He attempted a new route by going round the north of Borneo, and is said to have then discovered New Guinea. He called the new island Papua, because of the fact that the natives of the Molucca Islands called the New Guinea aborigines 'Papuans,' on account of their woolly hair. Next in order came the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Saavedra, in 1537. In 1545 his countryman Ortis de Retes, proceeding to take a more southerly course to the Moluccas, in order to catch more favourable winds, sighted the island, and imagined he was the discoverer, and named it Nueva Guinea. The island first appeared on Mercator's chart of 1569."[2]

The Dutch had been more or less in possession of Java since 1597, but even within the first decade the necessity for expansion had begun to be felt, and had a spur been needed it would have been supplied by the rivalry excited by the comings and goings of the Spanish and Portuguese. The Dutch "General United East India Company," founded in 1602, was a power in the East for three centuries, until its functions were absorbed by the Government of the Netherlands.

On 0th April, 1602, at Banda Island, on board the ship "Gelderlant," a general meeting of ships' officers was held by order of Admiral Wolphert Hermanszoon. The meeting drew up instructions for the yacht "Duyfken" [sic], Skipper Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, and Supercargo Claes Gaeff.

The ship was to proceed to the island of Ceran [sic], calling at certain ports, e.g., Queuin, Quelibara, Quelilonhen and Goulegoulij, where trade might be expected, and to enquire whether anything was to be had besides sago, what was the commerce of

[1) (Malay Peninsula.)]

[2) "Kaiser's Lost Domain, Late German New Guinea. Early Settlement and Development," in Sydney Morning Herald, 27th May, 1916.]

the port and to what places, what commodities were in demand, how far their navigation had extended, if they knew anything of Nova Guinea, and if they had sent ships there or had been visited by ships from that country.

The above instructions were entered in the "Gelderlant's" log of 10th April, 1602, and under date 15th May following a

note gives what appears to be a brief summary of the report brought back by the "Duyfken":—

"They [the Ceramites, when interrogated] can say nothing definite respecting the island of New Guinea, but say that white people live on the south side, inhabited by Portuguese, but they had seen no Portuguese ships. They can give no information about their [the New Guineans'] commerce and products."[1]

The language of the note is somewhat involved, but it may be taken to mean "white people, possibly Portuguese." Portugal had been in possession of the Molucca Islands, then usually referred to as the Spice Islands, since 1512, and it is more than likely that in the course of nearly a century her sailors had acquired some knowledge of the not very distant southern coast of New Guinea proper and had even spent some time on the land.

In 1605, Jan Willemszoon Verschoor, Manager of the Dutch East India Company at Bantam, Java, sent out the "Duyfken" on a voyage of discovery, under command of WILLEM JANSZOON. The Subcargo (Junior Supercargo?) was JAN LODEWIJS VAN ROSINGIJN.

There is much room for doubt as to whether the "Duyfken" was (1) the 60-ton yacht of the expedition which was equipped in 1603, was commanded by Steven van der Hagen, and came out to the East Indies, or (2) the 30-ton yacht attached to the expedition which left the Texel in Holland on 2nd April, 1595, and which sailed by Madagascar, reaching the south-west coast of Sumatra on 1st June, 1596, called at Bali in 1597, turned back on 26th February of that year, and returned to Holland via the south coast of Java and the Cape of Good Hope, reaching the Texel on 14th August, 1597.[2]

No description of van der Hagen's 60-ton "Duyfken" is available, beyond the statement of her tonnage. The Texel "Duyfken" is described as "a small yacht of 30 tons, carrying 20 men, and having 2 large and 6 small guns, with 2 bombards," and her master was Simon Lambertsz(oon) Mau. The other vessels of the expedition were of 400, 400, and 200 tons respectively. It is reasonable to suppose that this "Duyfken" acted as a tender to the larger vessels, and it is unlikely that in addition to her armament and twenty men she could have had carrying

[1) The Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia, 1606-1765, by J. E. Heeres, LL.D., Professor at the Dutch Colonial Institute, Delft. Published by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society in Commemoration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of its Foundation. Leiden, E. J. Brill; London, Luzac and Co., 1889, p. 3.]

[2) Collingridge, pp. 216, 222, 240.]

capacity for native "trade" and stores for her crew sufficient for a voyage of seven months. In the course of the voyage on which she is first heard of, she probably drew supplies periodically from the larger ships of the expedition. I incline, therefore, to the opinion that the 60-ton yacht was the one which Willem Janszoon commanded from November, 1605, to June, 1606.

The "Duyfken" left BANTAM for New Guinea on 28th November, 1605, and was back at BANDA ISLAND in or before June, 1606. Janszoon visited KEI and ARU ISLANDS and made the coast of NEW GUINEA in 5° south latitude. He then followed the land south-eastward, passing TORRES STRAIT without settling the question of whether or not there was a passage, although less than six months later TORRES left the New Hebrides and made for the strait, evidently guided by previous information. Still under the impression that he was off the New Guinea coast, Janszoon kept the land in sight to 131 degrees of south latitude. Instructions drawn up for the use of ABEL TASMAN in 1644 refer to the "Duyfken's" voyage in these terms:—

"It being ascertained that vast regions were for the greater part uncultivated and certain parts inhabited by savage, cruel, black barbarians, who slew some of our sailors, so that no information was obtained touching the exact lie of the country or the commodities obtainable or in demand there; our men having, from want of provisions and other necessaries, been compelled to return and abandon the discovery they had begun, only registering in their chart, by the name of KEERWEER, the extreme point of the discovered land in 13¾° south latitude[1] [correctly, 13° 58' S.]."

JOHN SARIS, an English shipmaster, resided in Bantam for five years in the capacity of factor for the English East India Company, which had been established in 1600.[2] He kept a diary, in which the following entries obviously deal with the "Duyfken," although the vessel is not named:—

"18th Nov., 1605 [old style = 28th November, new style].—Heere departed a small Pinasse of the Flemmings[3] for the discovery of the land called Nova Guinea, which, it is said, affordeth great store of Gold.]

"15th June, 1606 [old style = 25th June, new style].—Heere arrived Nockhoda [i.e., Skipper] Tingall, a Kling man from Banda, in a Java Juncke...He told me that the Flemmings[3] Pinasse which went upon discovery for Nova Ginny was returned to Banda, having found the iland; but on sending their men on shoare to intreate of Trade, there were nine of them killed by the Heathens, which are man-eaters. So they were constrained to returne, finding no good to be done there."

The States of Holland and West Friesland had given the (Dutch) GENERAL UNITED EAST INDIA COMPANY certain advice

[1) Quoted by Heeres, p. 5.]

[2) Observations of Captain John Saris of Occurrents which happened in the East Indies during his Abode at Bantam, from October, 1605, till October, 1609, in Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas, His Pilgrimes. By Samuel Purchas, B.D., vol. iii, p. 490, of new edition. Glasgow, James Maclehose and Sons, MCMV.]

[3) Heeres, translating into Dutch, substitutes "Hollandse" for "FIemnings."]

touching a charter for the Australia Company, and a Memorandum, dated 2nd August, 1618, was laid before the East India Company as a basis for the reply. It is argued in this document that the Australia Company should be excluded from the southern parts between the meridian of the east end of Ceylon and that lying 100 miles east of the Solomon Islands, because the East India Company had already busied itself with this part of New Guinea, instancing the explorations, about 1606, by the "Duyve" ("Duyfken") by Skipper Willem Janszoon and Supercargo Jan Lodovijkszoon van Rosingijn, "who made sundry discoveries on the said coast of Nova Guinea, as is AMPLY SET FORTH IN THEIR JOURNALS." Heeres remarks that therefore the journals of the expedition must have been extant in 1618. They were extant, I have no doubt, in 1623, when CARSTENSZOON sailed the "Pera" along the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Indeed, a close reading of the "Pera's" log gives the impression that the "Duyfken's" charts and journals were the daily study of the officers of the "Pera." Yet there is no reference in Tasman's instructions, drawn up in 1644, to the charts and journals of the "Duyfken."

The "Pera's" log, hereinafter quoted at length, contains the following entry, dated 11th May, 1623:—

"In the afternoon we sailed past a large river (which the men of the 'Duyfken' went up with a boat in 1606, and where one of them was killed by the missiles thrown by the blacks). To this river, which is in lat. 11° 48', we have given the name of REVIER DE CARPENTIER[1] in the new chart."

[1) This river is now named the SKARDON (see Queensland 4-mile Map, Sheet 21A).]

I take this to be evidence of Carstenszoon's familiarity with the "Duyfken's" charts and journals.

There is no absolute certainty that any of the "Duyfken's" men, who "went up" the Carpentier River "in a boat," set foot on the land. The man killed by missiles may have been speared in the boat. If any of the crew landed, this is the EARLIEST RECORDED LANDING Of white men in Australia.

The exact locality of the greater disaster which, according to the Kling skipper, resulted in the death of nine of the "Duyfken's" crew, is not stated. It may, however, be presumed that the slaughter took place at CAPE KEERWEER, and finally determined the abandonment of the enterprise. The loss of nine men, added to the loss of one at the Carpentier River, must have left a 30-or even a 60-ton vessel very short-handed.

The probability that the Duyfken "made still another voyage to New Guinea, including possibly the Cape York Peninsula, has been argued from the following passage in A Narrative and journal of the Voyage made from Bantam to the Coast of Choromandel and other Parts of India, by PAULUS VAN SOLT, in the Years 1605, 1606, 1607, 1608:—

"On the 4th of March, 1607, through God's mercy, arrived before the Castle [of Victoria, Amboyna]...Here we found the yacht Duyfken' which had come from Nova Guinea [was van Nova Guinea gekommen]."[1]

When van Solt arrived at Amboyna, only nine months had elapsed since the "Duyfken" had put in to Banda on her return from her famous voyage. She might very well have made another voyage to New Guinea in that time, but on the other hand, she may only have been pointed out to van Solt as the vessel which had made the adventurous and disastrous voyage, the fame of which had not yet been forgotten.

At the time when Torres made his way through the strait between New Guinea and Australia—a strait which had probably been known to others before him—and when Janszoon sailed past the western opening of the passage and coasted Australia for 250 miles to the south, never doubting that he was following the coastline of New Guinea, Queen Elizabeth was not long dead and William Shakespeare was still a living force. The events occurring in the Cape York Peninsula some three centuries later were contemporaneous with the gay adventure of Germany in setting forth, carrying "sword and fire, red ruin and the breaking up of realms," for the acquisition of "world-domination," her title being that she was strong enough to take whatever she coveted, and found instead the "downfall" which had been ironically alluded to in her boasting as the absurd and wholly unimaginable alternative.

Through the first three centuries of Australian history, contemporary events in Europe affected more or less the course of exploration. The reader will be apt to reflect, as an example, on the bearing of the Napoleonic wars on the career of Flinders, and I venture to assert that Australian history is no isolated phenomenon, but will be best understood by a reader who can picture to himself what, at any given date, was happening in other portions of the globe.

[1) Heeres, p. 6.]