Here we shall take a brief retrospect of -the pro gress of discovery of the various countries comprised under this general denomination ; treating, in the first place, of what was known previous to the commence ment of the eighteenth century ; and then we shall draw some general conclusions concerning the pro ducts of Australasia, and the manners of the natives. The different properties of the countries, and their inhabitants, .will be resumed, in greater detail, under other articles of our work.
of The extent and importance of New-Holland just . ly claim priority of consideration, theugh we possess 0. no evidence in favour of its being earlier known than the rest ; which leads us to remark, that more of the Australasian countries than one having been recog nised during the same voyage, we are precluded from observing that strict chronological order which is so desirable in historical inquiries. The discovery of New Holland has commonly been ascribed to Dutch navigators of the seventeenth century. M. de Brosses refers it to an earlier period, judging it probable that it was discovered by Pa:dower de Gonneville in 1503, who sailed from Honfleur in June of that year. Off the Cape of Good Hope he was assailed by a furious storm, in which he lost his reckoning, and was driven into an unknown sea. As he saw the birds flying from the south, he sailed towards that quarter, and reached an extensive country, which he called South ern India. There he spent six months, refitting his vessel, and lived on friendly terms with the inhabi tants. On comparing the meagre accounts which he gives of their manners, and those of any of the Aus tralasians according to the earliest narratives, we con clude that they are of a different race, and had made much greater advancement in civilization. A set of maps, constructed in the year 1542, or perhaps ear lier, has been lately found, wherein some part of New Holland is supposed to be laid down. But we are so little acquainted with these maps, that we can not venture to maintain an opinion concerning them : at the same time we ought to remark, that repeated instances occur, as will be seen in the course of this article, where later navigators claim the merit of dis Coveries which belong, so far as we can judge, to those who have lived centuries before them.
Early in the seventeenth century, the Spanish na vigator Quivos is conjectured to have seen the north, or north-east coast of New Holland. In the year 1606 he traversed the Australasian seas, with a fleet under his command ; and, on attending to his tract, the fact is far from improbable. But the Dutch were the first who became acquainted with any ex tent of coast, or the nature of the country. Soon after Quivos left that region, they made several suc cessive voyages to it, and gave those names to the north and western parts of New Holland which are retained to the present day. Doubts were started, whether any of them ffectcd a landing previous to Pelsart, in 1629. These have been removed by the French finding a tin platter on an island called Dirk Hartigh's Island, close to NewHolland, in 1801, which bore the following inscription rudely graven : " 1616, On the 25th of October, the ship Endraght of Am sterdam arrived here ; first merchant Gilles Miehais Van Luck ; Captain Dirk Hartighs of Amsterdam. She sailed on the 27th of the same month. Ballwin supercargo ; Janstins chief pilot ; Pieter Ecoores Van Bue year 1616." Hartighs' * vessel
was on a voyage to India at the time of touching on the coast, which in the Dutch charts is called Land6 D'Eendraght. As the inscription ascertains the name of his vessel, what is called tilt Concord's Coast probably received that appellation from some other vessel in company, or from some future navigator, contrary to general belief. In 1618, another Dutch man, Zeachen, ran along the north coast of New Holland, which was then, or soon afterwards, called Arnheim, or Van Diemen's Land ; and several of his countrymen, in the years immediately subsequent. extended the knowledge of this great island. Edel's Land was called after a navigator of that name in 1619 ; Leuwin's Land was discovered in 1622 ; and Peter de Nuytz, in a vessel named the Golden Horse, fixed the position of different points in 1627, which the latest voyagers acknowledge to be uncommonly correct. William de Wit, Vianen, -and Carpenter, a Dutch general, were on the south and west -coasts in 1627 and 1628. In the subsequent year, Francis Pelsart, commanding a ship, which was separated in a storm from ten others, approached the west coast of Holland. There, in lat. 28° south, he was cast away on Frederic Houtman's Shoals, which the French affirm about eight leagues from the main land. The crew and passengers were saved by the boats, and carried to a small island, about three leagues distant, which we apprehend to be the island Turtle Dove ; but finding no water there, Pelsart examined a number of others, where he got some in the cavities of the rocks, though unfit for use. A few days afterwards, having put a deck on his boat, which was unable to stand the sea, and having ascer tained the position of the islands to be 2b° 13' south, he stood on for the land. Stormy weather and a rocky shore prevented him from landing from the 9th of June to the 15th. In 22° 17' south latitude, he saw the savages at a distance, who fled whenever he and his people approached ; and lie found the re mains of their provisions beside fires on the beach. Circumstances, which it is unnecessary now to reca pitulate, induced Pelsart to run -for the coast of Java, which lie saw on the 27th. Having obtained assist ance from Batavia, he returned to the island in Sep tember, and brought away the survivors of the ship wrecked persons. Most of those who had escaped the shipwreck had been cruelly murdered by means of the supercargo. The chief discoveries which the Dutch made in A ustralasia during the seventeenth century, were those by Abel Jansan Tasman, in 164.2 ; and the large island, or continent, of which we speak, received the name of New Holland in 1614•. Tasman sailed from Batavia in August 16.4.2, with two vessels under his command, the Heemskirk and Zeehaan. On the 24th of November, when in latitude 42° 25' south, and east longitude 163° 50', he saw land, bearing north-cast, ten miles distant, which he called Van Diemen's Land. Running along the coast, he anchored in a bay, which he call ed Frederic Henry's Bay, in latitude 43° 10', and longitude 167° 5:5'. He saw no people, but lofty trees, with "deep notches, which the natives had cut to assist them in climbing. This land, discovered by Tasman, was long esteemed the southern part of New Holland ; but later discoveries have proved it,to be quite a different country.