A Voyage to Terra Australis/Volume 1/Introduction/Section 3

by Matthew Flinders

 

PRIOR DISCOVERIES IN TERRA AUSTRALIS.

 

SECTION III.

SOUTH COAST.

Discovery of Nuyts. Examination of Vancouver : of D'Entrecasteaux. Conclusive Remarks.

 

Nuyts
1627.
(Atl. Pl. I.)No historical fact seems to be less disputed, than that the South Coast of New Holland was first discovered in January 1627: whether it were the 26th, according to De Hondt, or the 16th, as is expressed on Thevenot's charts is of very little import. It is generally said, that the ship was commanded by Pieter Nuyts; but as Nuyts, on his arrival at Batavia, was sent ambassador to Japan, and afterwards made governor of Formosa, it seems more probable that he was a civilian, perhaps Company's first merchant on board, rather than captain of the ship: the land discovered has, however, always borne his name.

The Dutch recital says,—"In the year 1627, the South Coast of the Great South Land was accidentally discovered by the ship the Gulde Zeepaard, outward-bound from Fatherland, for the space of a thousand miles."

This discovery has always been considered as of importance. A memoir was published at Amsterdam in 1718, "to prove, that Nuyts' Land, being in the fifth climate, between 34° and 36° of latitude; it ought to be, like all other countries so situated, one of the most habitable, most rich, and most fertile parts of the world."^[1] The journal of this discovery seems to have been lost; or possibly was either suppressed or destroyed, according to what is thought to have been the Dutch policy of that time. It was, therefore, from the chart, and the above passage in the recital, alone, that any particulars could be drawn. If the extent of a thousand miles were taken to be in a straight line, and to commence at Cape Leeuwin, the end of Nuyts' Land would reach nearly to the longitude of 135° east of Greenwich; but if, as was probable, the windings of the shore were included, and a deduction made of one-sixth to one-seventh in the distance, then the Isles of St. Francis and St. Peter might be expected to be found between the 132nd and 133rd degrees of east longitude.

 

Vancouver
1791.With the exception of Mons. de St. Alouarn, who is said to have anchored near Cape Leeuwin in 1772, the south coast of Terra Australia, though occupying much attention from geographers, seems to have been left unvisited from 1627 to 1791. In this year, captain George Vancouver, being on his way to North-west America, made the South Coast on Sept 26, at Cape Chatham, in latitude 35° 3′ south, and longitude 116° 35′ east, not many leagues beyond where Nuyts appears to have commenced his discovery. He sailed eastward, from thence, along the shore, till the 28th; when he anchored in a sound, to which was given the name of King George the III.

The country in the neighbourhood of the Sound, and of its two harbours, was found to be agreeably variegated in form; to be clothed with grass and wood; and, though generally more barren than fertile, yet affording many spots capable of cultivation. No considerable river was discovered; but fresh water was every where abundant for domestic purposes; and the climate was judged to be as healthy as the temperature was found to be agreeable. Kanguroos did not appear to be scarce; nor were the woods ill tenanted by the feathered tribes; and reptiles and other noxious animals were not numerous. Amongst the aquatic birds, black swans and wild ducks held a distinguished place; but, like the land animals, were very shy: sea and shell fish were in tolerable abundance.

None of the inhabitants were seen; but from the appearance of their deserted huts, they were judged to be the same miserable race as those of the North-west and East Coasts. No marks of canoes, nor the remains of fish, even shell fish, were found near their habitations; and this circumstance, with the shyness of the birds and quadrupeds, induced a belief that the natives depended principally upon the woods for their subsistence.

Captain Vancouver quitted King George's Sound on Oct. 11, and proceeded eastward in the examination of the coast; but unfavourable winds prevented him from doing this so completely as he wished, and some parts were passed unseen; and the impediments to his progress at length caused the examination to be quitted, in favour of prosecuting the main design of his voyage. The last land seen was Termination Island, in latitude 34° 32′ and longitude 122° 8′. The coast to the north of this island appeared much broken; but, although in Nuyts' chart a considerable group of islands were laid down in about that situation, captain Vancouver rather supposed it to be a continued main land.^[2]

So far as this examination extended, the general form of the coast was found to correspond with that of the old chart; nor was any material error found in Nuyts' latitude. A further, and more extended confirmation of the Dutch navigator's discovery, and of its having been well laid down, considering the period at which it was done, was obtained in the following year.

 

D'Entrecasteaux.
1792.The French rear-admiral Bruny D'Entrecasteaux, having been sent out with the ships La Recherche and L'Espérance in search of the unfortunate La Pérouse, made the south coast of New Holland on Dec. 5, 1792, about twenty-eight leagues to the north-west of Cape Chatham.^[3] The coast, from the South-west Cape to the longitude of Termination Island, was explored by the admiral, with all the minuteness that the state of the weather could permit; and he was, generally, able to keep the shore closer abord than captain Vancouver had done, and to supply the deficiencies in his chart. The broken land to the north of Termination Island was found to be conformable to what Nuyts had laid down: it made part of a very extensive group of islands, one of which afforded timely shelter to the French ships on Dec. 9, from a gale which had arisen at southwest.

They remained a week at this anchorage, whilst the naturalists explored the surrounding country, and the surveyors examined such of the islands as were visible from the ships. Seals, pinguins, and some kanguroos were seen; but no fresh water, accessible to shipping, could any where be found; the country within their reach being sandy and sterile. From Dec. 17 to 24, the ships were occupied in coasting eastward, along the outskirt of the group of islands, and then found it to terminate at 2½° of longitude from its commencement. The main land at the back of the islands had been generally visible, but at too great a distance for the precise form of the coast to be ascertained, or to allow of fixing the positions of, or even seeing, many of the inner islands and reefs.

This group is the first of the two marked upon the chart of Nuyts; and admiral D'Entrecasteaux praises the general accuracy of the Dutch navigator, in that "the latitude of Point Leeuwin, and of the coast of Nuyts' Land, were laid down with an exactness, surprising for the remote period in which they had been discovered." This liberal acknowledgment renders it the more extraordinary, that in the appellation which it was judged proper to give to this extensive group, the French admiral had not rather thought of doing honour to the original discoverer, or to the Gulde Zeepaard, than to his own ship; more especially, as his examination was far from being complete. This would have been more conformable to his general practice; but Archipel de la Recherche was the name adopted.

Beyond the archipelago, the South Coast was found to trend east-north-eastward; without any island lying off it, or presenting any place of shelter. The shore was either a steep calcareous cliff, of an equal height, or low and sandy, with a few naked hillocks behind; and above these, no hill, nor any thing of the interior country, could be discerned. "It is not surprising," says D'Entrecasteaux, "that Nuyts has given no details of this barren coast; for its aspect is so uniform, that the most fruitful imagination could find nothing to say of it."

1793.Frustrated in his expectation of procuring fresh water, and having no more than sufficient, at a short allowance, to reach Van Diemen's Land, the admiral abandoned the investigation of the South Coast, on Jan. 3; being then in latitude 31° 49′ south, and longitude 131° 38½′ east of Greenwich.

In the otherwise excellent charts constructed by M. Beautemps-Beaupré, geographical engineer on board La Recherche, there is an extraordinary omission, arising either from the geographer, or the conductor of the voyage. In the first 12° of longitude no soundings are marked along the coast; whilst, in the last 5°, they are marked with tolerable regularity: the cause of this difference is not explained.

In comparing the French chart with that of Nuyts, it appeared that the rear-admiral had not proceeded so far along this coast as the Dutch navigator had done; for he did not see the islands of St. Francis and St. Peter, nor the reef marked about thirty leagues to the west of them. The point, however, where D'Entrecasteaux's examination terminated, was, in all probability, within a few leagues of that reef; and the end of Nuyts' discovery would be between 133° and 134°, to the east of Greenwich.

 

Conclusive
Remarks.The South Coast was not known, in 1801, to have been visited by any other than the three navigators, Nuyts, Vancouver, and D'Entrecasteaux.^[4] The coast line, from Cape Leeuwin to near the longitude of 132°, was generally so well ascertained, and the charts of Vancouver and D'Entrecasteaux appeared to be so good, that little remained in this space for future visitors to discover. At two places, the country and productions near the sea-side had also been examined; though no communication had any where been obtained with the inhabitants. It was known also from Nuyts, that at 133° or 134° of east longitude, commenced a second archipelago; and that the coast began there to assume an irregular form; but in what direction it trended, whether to the south-eastward for Bass' Strait, or northward for the Gulph of Carpentaria, was altogether uncertain.

The great point, then, which required to be ascertained, was the form of the land from longitude 133° to 146° east, and from south latitude 32° to 38½°; comprising a space of two hundred and fifty leagues in a straight line. What rendered a knowledge of this part more particularly interesting, was the circumstance of no considerable river having been found on any of the coasts of Terra Australis previously explored: but it was scarcely credible that, if this vast country were one connected mass of land, it should not contain some large rivers; and if any, this unknown part was one of two remaining places, where they were expected to discharge themselves into the sea.

The apparent want of rivers had induced some persons to think, that Terra Australis might be composed of two or more islands, as had formerly been suspected by the Dutch, and by Dampier; whilst others, believing in the continuity of the shores, thought this want might arise from the interior being principally occupied by a mediterranean sea; but it was generally agreed, that one end of the separating channels, or otherwise the entrance, if such existed, into the supposed sea, would most likely be found in this unexplored part of the South Coast.

Besides the solution of this important geographical problem, something remained to be done upon the parts already seen. The main land behind the first archipelago, as also the inner islands, were yet to be examined for harbours, where refreshment for ships might be obtained; a comparison of the persons and usages of the inhabitants, with those in other parts of this vast country, was desirable; and, although little utility could be drawn from the known productions at the two points visited, it might reasonably be hoped, that an investigation of a coast so extensive, would not fail to produce much useful information.

Many circumstances, indeed, united to render the south coast of Terra Australis one of the most interesting parts of the globe, to which discovery could be directed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its investigation had formed a part of the instructions to the unfortunate French navigator La Pérouse, and afterwards of those to his countryman D'Entrecasteaux; and it was, not without some reason, attributed to England as a reproach, that an imaginary line of more than two hundred and fifty leagues extent, in the vicinity of one of her colonies, should have been so long suffered to remain traced upon the charts, under the title of Unknown Coast. This comported ill with her reputation as the first of maritime powers; and to do it away was, accordingly, a leading point in the instructions given to the Investigator.

 

1. Hist. des Nav. aux Terres Australes. Tome I. page 429.
2. For captain Vancouver's account of his proceedings and observations on the South Coast, see his Voyage round the World, Vol. I. page 28–57.
3. When the Investigator sailed, the journal of M. Labillardière, naturalist in D'Entrecasteaux's expedition, was the sole account of the voyage made public: but M. de Rossel, one of the principal officers, has since published the voyage from the journals of the rear-admiral, and it is from this last that what follows is extracted.
4. It afterwards appeared, that lieutenant James Grant had discovered a part of it in 1800, in his way to Port Jackson with His Majesty's brig Lady Nelson.