E-text prepared by James Tenison
A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
by
First published August 1920 by George
G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 39-41 Parker
Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2
Reprinted July 1924
Printed in Great Britain by Neill & Co. Ltd., Edinburgh
In the year 1801 was found by the chief coxswain of the "Naturalist" (aship commanded by Captain Hamelin on a voyage of discovery performed byorder of the Emperor Napoleon I), at Shark's Bay, on the coast of WestAustralia, a pewter plate about six inches in diameter, bearing aroughly engraved Dutch inscription, of which the following is atranslation:
"1616
"On the 25th of October arrived here the ship 'Endraght', of Amsterdam; first supercargo Gilles Miebas Van Luck; Captain Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam. She set sail again on the 27th of the same month. Bantum was second supercargo; Janstins first pilot.
"Peter Ecoores Van Bu, in the year 1616."
No connected account of the voyages of Dirk Hartog is extant, but thereport of the discovery of this pewter plate suggested the task ofcompiling a narrative from the records kept by Dutch navigators, inwhich Dirk Hartog is frequently referred to, and which is probably ascorrect a history of Hartog's voyages as can be obtained. Theaborigines of New Holland, as Australia was then called, judging by thedescription given of them by Van Bu, the author of the writing on thepewter plate, appear to have been a more formidable race of savagesthan those subsequently met with by Captain Cook on his landing atBotany Bay, and the dimensions of the tribe among whom Van Bu was heldcaptive were certainly larger than those of the migratory tribes ofAustralian blacks in more modern times. The "sea spider" described byVan Bu in his second adventure was probably the octopus, which attainsto great size in the Pacific. The "hopping animals" are doubtless thekangaroos, with which Australians are now familiar.
Captain Dampier, in 1699, first mentions the water serpents referred toby Van Bu. "In passing," he says, "we saw three water serpents swimmingabout in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown spots.Next day we saw two water serpents, different in shape from such as wehad formerly seen; one very long and as big as a man's leg in girth,having a red head, which I have never seen any before or since."
From an examination of the Dutch records, it would appear that a shipnamed the "Arms of Amsterdam" drove past the south coast of New Guineain the year 1623. This is, perhaps, the voyage described by Van Bu tothe Island of Gems. The gigantic mass of ice seen by Van Bu in the Southis particularly interesting, since it may have been the first sight ofthe ice barrier from which glaciers in the Antarctic regions break offinto the sea.
The north portion of New Guinea was for the first time rightly exploredin the year 1678, by order of the Dutch East India Company, and foundalmost everywhere to be enriched with very fine rivers, lakes, andbays. About the north-western parts the natives were discovered to belean, and of middle size, jet-black, not unlike the Malabars, but thehair of the head shorter and somewhat less curly than the Kafirs'. "Inthe black of their eyes," says a report given of this voyage, "gleams acertain tint of red, by which may, in some measure, be observed thatblood-thirsty nature of theirs which has at different times caused somu