The first Englishman to land on New Holland was William Dampier in 1688. In very bad company, namely, a crew of buccaneers who left Captain Sharpe and travelled across the Isthmus of Darien, he visited the west coast of New Holland, where they remained over a month refitting and cleaning their ship. Dampier does not seem to have been on the best of terms with his shipmates, for some difference of opinion arising as to the final destination of their voyage, he "was threatened to be turned ashore on New Holland for it, which made me desist, intending, by God's blessing, to make my escape the first place I came near." His notes on this occasion refer chiefly to the natives seen, whose personal appearance and habits he considers alike equally disgusting and repulsive.
Towards the end of the year 1696, William de Vlaming, in search of the
RIDDERSCHAP, a missing ship supposed to have been wrecked on the coast of
New Holland, came to the Great South Land. He found and named the Swan
River, this being the first mention ever made of black swans, two
specimens of which were captured and taken to Batavia. At Dirk Hartog's
Road, he found, as before-mentioned, the tin plate left by that captain,
and after a careful examination of the coast so far as the North-west
Cape, left for Batavia.
Dampier now reappears on the scene in charge of the ROEBUCK—a ship sent out by the English Government in 1699. His account of his voyage is very minute and circumstantial, but he still retains his aversion to the unfortunate natives, of whom he always speaks with the greatest scorn. Some of his statements are slightly doubtful, to say the least of it, as, for instance, one concerning the capture of a large shark, "in which we found the head and bones of a hippopotamus, [Note, below] the hairy lips of which were still sound and not putrified, and the jaw was also firm, out of which we pluckt a great many teeth, two of them eight inches long and as big as a man's thumb, small at one end and a little crooked, the rest not above half so long."
[Note: M. Malte Brun calls him "the learned and faithful Dampier," and, in corroboration of the hippopotamus story, mentions that Bailly, when exploring the Swan River, "heard a bellowing much louder than that of an ox from among the reeds on the river side, which made him suspect that a large quadruped lay somewhere near him." It is remarkable that in the several accounts of the early Dutch visits to the northern coast no mention is made of alligators, although they are so common to all the inlets and rivers of that region, the name CROCODILS EYLANDEN on one old chart being the sole exception.]
Dampier disputes the accuracy of the "draught of Tasman's" that he had with him in many particulars, and constantly advances his theory of the existence of a strait dividing New Holland into two parts, probably taking this idea, as before indicated, from the old map of the DAUPHIN.
In 1705, the ships VOSSENBACH, WAYER, and NOVA HOLLANDIA were sent out to investigate the north coast, under the command of Martin van Delft. The journals of the voyage have not been found, although a report of the notable events that happened was laid before the Governor-General of the East India Council. This was the last voyage of exploration undertaken by the Dutch, and closes the history of the early discovery of New Holland. The existence of the Southern Land was definitely established, and it remained for the English and French nations to determine its size and formation with accuracy, and fill up the gaps on the coast line.
Sixty-five years passed before Captain Cook sailed through the Endeavour Strait, finally settling the question of the separation of this continent from New Guinea, and during that period New Holland, so far as we know, was unvisited.
The association of Captain Cook with this continent is too well-known to need more than a passing reference in this introduction. He proved the insularity of the South Land, and examined the long-neglected east coast.
In. 1777, Mons. de St. Alouarn anchored near Cape Leeuwin, but no details of his visit have been preserved.
In 1791, Captain George Vancouver touched on the south coast, and gave the name of King George's Sound to that well-known harbour; thence he sailed eastward. In the following year Rear-Admiral Bruny D'Entrecasteaux, in search of the hapless La Perouse, who so narrowly missed appropriating New Holland for the French, made an elaborate survey of part of our south coast.
Before the close of the century, Bass and Flinders—fit companions—had commenced their daring exploits in the little TOM THUMB, and finally, with the sloop NORFOLK, established the existence of the strait named after the enterprising young surgeon.
In the year 1799, Flinders went north in the NORFOLK sloop, and followed up Cook's discoveries in Moreton Bay. In 18oi he was appointed to the INVESTIGATOR (formerly the XENOPHON), and sailed from Spithead on the voyage which was to render him one of the leading figures in Australian history.
Reaching Cape Leeuwin he commenced his survey of the south coast, discovering and naming the two Gulfs of Spencer and St. Vincent. The former he at one time thought would lead him through the continent into the Carpentarian Gulf. He reached Port Jackson in May, the year after he left England, and active preparations were soon afterwards commenced to prepare the ship for her long northern cruise.
In July, 1802, the INVESTIGATOR, with the LADY NELSON as tender, left Sydney Cove; the object of the voyage being to thoroughly survey the eastern and northern coasts. Flinders rounded Cape York, and after a close examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which, like Spencer's Gulf in the south, deluded him for a time with the false hope of affording an inlet into the interior, brought his work to an end at Cape Wessel, in consequence of the rotten state of his ship. He called at Coepang in Timor, whence, after obtaining some supplies, he made for Port Jackson by way of the west coast.
Throughout this cruise it is evident that Flinders was much impressed by the notion advanced by Dampier, that New Holland (meaning the north-west portion) was separated from the land to the south by a strait opening north of Shark's Bay. "Unless," says Dampier, "the high tides and indraught thereabout should be occasioned by the mouth of some large river, which hath often low lands on each side of the outlet, and many islands and shoals lying at its entrance; but I rather thought it a channel or strait than a river." To quote the words of Flinders:—
"This opinion he supports by a fair induction from facts, and the opening of twelve miles wide, seen by Vlaming's two vessels, near the same place, and in which they could find no anchorage, strongly corroborated Dampier's supposition."
Later information had demonstrated that the supposed strait could not lead into the great ocean eastward, as the English navigator (Dampier) had conjectured, but it was thought possible that it might communicate with the Gulf of Carpentaria, and even probable that a passage existed from thence to the unknown parts of the south coast beyond the Isles of St. Francis and St. Peters.
"In the case of penetrating the interior of TERRA AUSTRALIS, either by a great river, or a strait leading to an inland sea, a superior country, and perhaps, a different race of people might be found, the knowledge of which could not fail to be very interesting, and might prove advantageous to the nation making the discovery."
This was the goal of Flinders' ambition, the vision that haunted him always—the discovery of a mediterranean sea.
There being no ship in Port Jackson fit to continue the survey work left uncompleted by the INVESTIGATOR, Flinders determined to return to England, and obtain a suitable vessel from the Admiralty. He and twenty-two of his men and officers embarked as passengers in the PORPOISE, and left Port Jackson in company with the Batavian-bound ships CATO and BRIDGEWATER.
They sailed on the 10th of August, 1803, and on the night of the 17th, the PORPOISE and CATO struck on a reef, and became complete wrecks. The crews escaped to a sand-bank adjoining the reef, and here they were left