Australasia, then, may be subdivided into the fol lowing Groups and Islands : 1. Notasia, or New Holland.
2. Van Dieman's land.
3. Papua, or New Guinea.
4. New Britain, New Ireland, and neighbouring Islands.
5. Solomon's Islands.
6. Hebrides,.
7. New Caledonia. a. New Zealand, and Isles to the southward.
9. Kerguelen's Islands, or Islands of Desolation.
10. St •Paul and Amsterdam.
11. Numerous reefs and Islets of Coral scattered over the Australasian Sea.
I. The first attempt to explore this Island, which, from its size, may be considered as the fifth continent of the earth, is unquestionably due to the Dutch ; for, although some part of the northern coast may have been seen by the early navigators of Spain and Portugal, there is no direct testimony in favour of such discovery. There are two charts in the British Museum which belonged to the Harleian Collection, one French, without date, which was probably the original, and the other English, apparently a copy; the latter is dedicated to the King of England, and bears date 1542 ; in both of these charts is marked down an extensive tract of country to the southward of the Moluccas, under the name of Great Java, agree• iug more nearly with the position and extent of New Holland than any other land. The farm given to the north-west part of the coast approaches nearest to the truth, a part, indeed, which may have been seen by these early navigators in their return from the Moluccas, long before the date of the English chart. It is a singular coincidence in geographical nomen clature, that on the east coast of the French chart, something like a Botany Bay should be designated under the name of Caste des Herbaiges. The Abbe Prevost, in the Histoire Generale des Voyages, and the President De Brosses, in his Histoire des Nevi gations aus Terre: Australis, are not very happy in advancing a claim in favour of Paulovier de ville, a French Captain, to the discovery of this Terra Australis in 1504. It was the coast of Madagascar upon which Gonneville, as is evident by their own accounts, was driven.
The best and most authentic abstract of the Dutch discoveries, on the coasts of New Holland, is con tained the instructions given by the Governor General of Batavia to Commodore Abel Jansen Tasman, and published by Mr Dalrymple in his Collection concerning Papua. From this document, itnesn, that the Dutch government of Bantam, in ; divatched the Duyf hen yacht to explore the of New Guinea. Returning to the southward, along the Islands on the northern side of Torres' Strait, she came to that part of the Great South Land, which is now called, Cape York ; but all these lands were then thought to be connected, and to form the southern coast of New Guinea. " Thus,"
says Captain Flinders, " without being conscious of it, the commander of the Duyf hen made the first authenticated discovery of any part of the Great South Land, about the month of March 1606." About the same place, and in the same year, Torres, a Spanish navigator, being second in command to Fernandez de Quiros, saw the Terra Australis, but had as little knowledge of the nature of his discove ry as the commander of the Duyf hen. He passed the strait, however, which divides this Terra Austra. lis from New Guinea, whose existence was not ge nerally known till 1770, when it was again discover ed and passed by our great circumnavigator Captain Cook. Of this, and his other discoveries, Torres addressed an account to the King of Spain; and, as it afterwards appeared, had taken the precaution to lodge a copy of it in the archives of Manilla ; for, when that city was surrendered to the British forces in 1762, Mr Dalrymple snatched from oblivion this interesting document of early discovery ; and as a just tribute to the enterprising Spanish navigator, he gave to this passage the name of Torres Strait, by which it is now universally known.
In 1617 the Dutch sent a second expedition, but " with little success ;" the journals of which were lost. In 1623, the yachts Pere and Arnheim were dis patched from Amboyna, under the command of Jan Carstens, who, with eight of the Arnheim's crew, was treacherously murdered by the natives of New Guinea; but the vessels prosecuted the voyage, and discovered the great Islands Arnheim and the Spult. The Arnheim returned to Amboyna ; the Pent per sisted, and ran along the west coast of New Guinea, at they thought, but it was New Holland, to Cape Keer-veer, or Turn-again, and from thence explored the coast farther southward, as far as 17°, to Staten River. " In this discovery were found everywhere shallow water and barren coasts, Islands altogether thinly peopled by divers cruel, poor, and brutal na tions ; and of very little use to the (Dutch East In dia) Company." The next expedition sent by the Dutch was from Banda in the year 1636, when Gerrit Tomaz Pool proceeded with the yachts Klein Amsterdam, and Wesel, and nearly at the same place, on the coast of New Guinea, met the same fate which had befallen Carstens ; but the supercargo, Pieterson, continued the voyage, and discovered the coast of Arnheim, or Van Dieman's land, in 11° south, and sailed along the shore 120 miles, without any inhabitants.