PRIOR DISCOVERIES IN TERRA AUSTRALIS.
SECTION I.
NORTH COAST.
Preliminary
Information.The late Hydrographer to the Admiralty, Alexander Dalrymple, Esq., in his curious Collection concerning Papua, published with a translation, a paper which furnishes more regular and authentic accounts of the early Dutch discoveries in the East, than any thing with which the public was before acquainted. This interesting paper was procured by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks; and is a copy of the instructions to commodore Abel Jansz Tasman, for his second voyage of discovery: It is dated January 29, 1644, from the Castle of Batavia, and signed by the governor-general Antonio Van Diemen, and by Vander Lyn, Maatsuyker, Schouten, and Sweers, members of the council. The instructions are prefaced with a recital, in chronological order, of the previous discoveries of the Dutch, whether made from accident or design, in Nova Guinea, and the Great South Land; and from this account, combined with a passage from Saris,[1] it appears, that—
1606On the 18th of November 1605, the Dutch yacht, the Duyfhen, was dispatched from Bantam to explore the islands of New Guinea;
