£ 421 >

AUSTRALASIA.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVxlTIONS

From the Work of the Preftdent De Brosses *■

16 1 r jpHAT we may leave nothing unattempted that may further the knowledge

'J X of the regions hitherto fpoken of, we fhall include in this article fuchimperfect notices of the Dutch navigations to the Terra Auftralis, as we have beenable to pick up, though few of them are very confiderable, or of length fufficient toform feparate journals. Though the principal difcoveries of thefe vaft regions, whichhe to the fouth of the Molucca Illands, are undoubtedly due to the Dutch navigators,yet we have but very few of their journals, as they have induftrioufly concealed fromother nations, and even from their own countrymen, the informations brought by theirnavigators, for the reafons we have already mentioned in our firfl book. Were wepoffeffed of the journals of thofe Dutch feamen who have vifited the coafts of thefouthern regions, they would afford us many ufeful hints refpe&ing geography, andother objects of curiofity. The belt thing we have of this fort, is the chart given byThevenot, at the end of Pelfart’s journal, in the firfl volume of his collections. Thisjournal, and that of Abel Tafman, the reader will find below, in the order of time.But we fee, by Thevenot’s preface, that he had in his poffeffion feveral other journalsRelative to the fame fubjedt. “ The Terra Auftralis (fays he), which makes a fifthP a rt of our globe, has been difcovered at different times. That part of it, called^itlandt, was firft feen in 1628. The land of Peter Nuytz the 16th of January 1627,.•Omen's Land in November 1642, and New Holland in 1644. The Chinefe wereacquainted with this country formerly, for we find Marco Polo , the Venetian,Mentions feveral great illands lying to the fouth-eaft of Java, which he mull haveEarned from the Chinefe, as well as what he fays of Madagafcar ; for this nation didydiat the Europeans do now, traverfing all thefe Indian feas, quite to the Cape of GoodHop e , to ex t e nd their commerce, or to make new difcoveries. Pelfart, whofe relationls Subjoined, was thrown on this coaft more by accident than defign; but we lhall giveafterwards the voyages of Charpentier and Van Diemen, to whom the principal honour°* this difcovery belongs. He brought away with him gold, china-ware, and otherCu riofities, which made people at firft imagine that thefe were the produce of theSentry, whereas they were in truth part of the cargo of a carrack which had beenhipwrecked on that coaft. People imagine this country to be very rich, becaufe the

* Hift. de Nav. tranflated by Callander.

Dutch