The Explorers (4 page)
The first was undertaken in the year 1606 with the yacht
Duyffken
⦠on which voyageâ¦the unknown south and west coasts of Nova Guinea were discovered over a length of 220 miles from 5 to 13
degrees southern latitude, it being only ascertained that vast regions were for the greater part uncultivated, and certain parts inhabited by savage, cruel, black barbarians who slew some of our sailors, so that no information was obtained touching the exact situation of the country and regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there; our men having, by want of provisions and other necessaries, been compelled to return and give up the discovery they had begun, only registering in their chart the name of Cape Keer-weer, the extreme point of the discovered landâ¦
Coal-Black and Stark Naked, 1623
In 1623 another Dutch mariner Jan Carstensz, sailing in the yacht
Pera
, entered the Gulf of Carpentaria, pushing further south than Jansz. After passing the verdant Spice Islands and glimpsing the eternal snows of New Guinea's highest mountains, he was gravely disappointed by the arid country of western Cape York. Worse, the âcoal-black and stark naked' inhabitants were implacable, repulsing Carstensz's attempts to go âlandinward' in order to complete his explorations. The crew of the
Pera
kidnapped an Aboriginal man, whose fate, like that of so many others, is not recorded. The theme of kidnapping was to become a recurring tragedy of Australian exploration.
We join Carstensz on a deserted and forbidding part of the coast.
MayâOn the 3rdâ¦I went ashore myself with ten musketeers, and we advanced a long way into the wood without seeing any human beings. The land here is low-lying and without hills as before, in latitude 15° 20'. It is very dry and barren for, during all the time we have searched and examined this part of the coast to our best ability, we have not seen one fruit-bearing tree, nor anything that man could make use of: there are no mountains or even hills, so that it may be safely concluded that the land contains no metals, nor yields any precious woods, such as sandalwood, aloes or columba.
In our judgment this is the most arid and barren region that could be found anywhere on the earth. The inhabitants, too, are the most wretched and poorest creatures that I have ever seen in my age or time; as there are no large trees anywhere on this coast, they have no boats or canoes whether large or small. This is near the place which we touched at on the voyage out on Easter Day, April the 16th; in the new chart we have given to this spot the name Waterplaets.â At this place the beach is very fine, with excellent gravelly sand and plenty of delicious fishâ¦
In the morning of the 5th the wind was
E
, course held
N
; at noon we were in 14° 5' latitude; shortly after the wind went over to
W
, upon which we made for the land and cast anchor in two fathom; I went ashore myself in the pinnace which was duly armed. The blacks here attacked us with their weapons, but afterwards took to flight, upon which we went landinward for some distance, and found divers of their weapons, such as assegais and callaways, leaning against the trees. We took care not to damage these weapons, but tied pieces of iron and strings of beads to some of them, in order to attract the blacks who, however, seemed quite indifferent to these things, and repeatedly held up their shields with great boldness and threw them at the muskets. These men are, like all the others we have lately seen, of tall stature and very lean to look at, but malignant and evil-naturedâ¦
In the morning of the 7th the wind was
SE
with fine weather. The skipper went ashore with the pinnace, with strict orders to treat the blacks kindly, and try to attract them with pieces of iron and strings of beads; if practicable, also to capture one or more. When at noon the men returned they reported that on their landing more than 100 blacks had collected on the beach with their weapons, and had with the strong arm tried to prevent them from coming ashore. In order to frighten them, a musket was accordingly fired, upon which the blacks fled and retreated into the wood, from where they tried every means in their power to surprise and attack our men. These natives resemble the others in shape and figure: they are quite black and stark naked, some of them having their faces painted red and others white, with feathers stuck through the lower part of the noseâ¦
In the morning of the 8th, the wind being
ESE
with good weather, I went ashore myself with ten musketeers. We saw numerous footprints of men and dogs (running from south to north). We accordingly spent some time there, following the footprints aforesaid to a river where we gathered excellent vegetables or pot-herbs. When we had got into the pinnace again, the blacks emerged with their arms from the wood at two different points; by showing them bits of iron and strings of beads we kept them on the beach, until we had come near them, upon which one of them, who had lost his weapon, was by the skipper seized round the waist, while at the same time the quartermaster put a noose round his neck, by which he was dragged to the pinnace.
The other blacks, seeing this, tried to rescue their captured brother by furiously assailing us with their assagais. In defending ourselves we shot one of them, after which the others took to flight, upon which we returned on board without further delay. These natives resemble all the others in outward appearance: they are coal-black and stark naked with twisted nets round their headsâ¦
We cannot, however, give any account of their customs and ceremonies, nor did we learn anything about the thickness of the population, since we had few or no opportunities for inquiring into these matters. Meanwhile I hope that with God's help Your Worships will in time get information touching these points from the black we have captured, to whose utterances I would beg leave to refer you.
Woeful Diurnal Annotations, 1629
François Pelsaert described his account of the loss of the
Batavia
on the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia as his âwoeful diurnal annotations'.
After the shipwreck he took the pinnace, leaving most of the survivors on the islands, and made his way to Batavia (now Jakarta). In his absence these first Europeans to live in Australia turned on each otherâconspirators massacred 125 of their fellows, thereby proving that the Dutch could be every bit as barbarous and cruel as the Aborigines of their imaginings.
Pelsaert returned some months later to rescue the survivors and punish the miscreants. He was no deliberate explorer but this time he had more leisure to examine the nature of the strange islands where his ship had met disaster. The âcats' he encountered were tammar wallabies, the first members of the kangaroo family to be observed closely by Europeans.
On the 4th of June, it being Whitmonday, with a light, clear full moon, about two hours before daybreakâ¦I felt the ship's rudder strike the rocks with a violent horrible shockâ¦I rushed up on deck, and found all the sails atop, the wind south-west. Our course during the night had been north-east by north, and we were now lying amidst thick foam. Still, at the moment, the breakers round the ship were not violent, but shortly after the sea was heard to run upon us with great vehemence on all sides.
When day broke, we found ourselves surrounded by cliffs and shoalsâ¦I saw no land that I thought would remain above water at high tide, except an island, which by estimation was fully three miles from the ship. I therefore sent the skipper to two small islets or cliffs in order to ascertain whether our men and part of our cargo could be landed there. About nine o'clock the skipper returned, informing me that it was well-nigh impossible to get through the rocks and cliffs, the pinnace running aground in one place, and the water being several fathom deep in another. As far as he could judge, the islands would remain above water at high tide. Therefore, moved by the loud lamentations raised on board by women, children, sick people and faint-hearted men, we thought it best first to land the greater part of our peopleâ¦
It was determined, as shown by the resolution, that we should try to find fresh water in the neighbouring islands or on the mainland coast in order to save their lives and our own; and that, if no water should be found, we should in that case at the mercy of God with the pinnace continue our voyage to Batavia, there to make known our calamitous and unheard-of disastersâ¦
November 1629âOn the 15th the wind was
SSW
, with seemingly fine weather. Therefore, in the name of God, we weighed anchor and set sail from these luckless Abrolhos for the mainland on an
ENE
courseâ¦The sea abounds in fish in these parts: they are mainly of three kinds, but very different in shape and taste from those caught on other coasts. All the islands about here are low-lying atolls or coral-islets and rocks, except two or threeâ¦
We found in these islands large numbers of a species of cats, which are very strange creatures; they are about the size of a hare, their head resembling the head of a civet-cat; the forepaws are very short, about the length of a finger, on which the animal has five small nails or fingers, resembling those of a monkey's forepaw. Its two hindlegs, on the contrary, are upwards of half an ell in length, and it walks on these only, on the flat of the heavy part of the leg, so that it does not run fast. Its tail is very long, like that of a long-tailed monkey; if it eats, it sits on its hindlegs, and clutches its food with its forepaws, just like a squirrel or monkey.
Their manner of generation or procreation is exceedingly strange and highly worth observing. Below the belly the female carries a pouch, into which you may put your hand; inside the pouch are her nipples, and we have found that the young ones grow up in this pouch with the nipples in their mouths. We have seen some young ones lying there which were only the size of a bean, though at the same time perfectly proportioned, so that it seems certain that they grow there out of the nipples of the mammae, from which they draw their food, until they are grown up and are able to walk. Still, they keep creeping into the pouch even when they have become very large, and the dam runs off with them when they are hunted.
In these two islands we also found a number of grey turtledoves, but no other animals. Nor is there any vegetation beyond brushwood, and little or no grass. This and what has hereinbefore been related is all that we have experienced and met with about these Abrolhos.
Men of Extraordinary Stature, 1642
