The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 Part 3

These principles are found set forth with more amplitude than anywhere else in the instructions drawn up for Tasman and his coadjutors in 1642 and 1644 [**]. The voyages, then planned, were to be undertaken "for the enlargement, increase and improvement of the Dutch East India Company's standing and commerce in the East."

[* See below, p. 21, Note 1.]

[** See these instructions in my Life of Tasman, pp. 131 ff. and 147 ff.]

In the instructions for Tasman's voyage of 1644 the G.-G. and Counc., who drew them up, could still refer to "the express commands of the 'Heeren Maijoores" [*] to "attempt the discovery of Nova Guinea and other unknown Eastern and Southern lands." And it is a fact certainly, that in the first half of the seventeenth century the Governors-General who planned these exploratory voyages were in their endeavours supported by the Managers of the E.I.C. in the mother country [**]: it was especially Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1619-1623 and 1627-1629), Hendrik Broulwer (1632-1636) and Antonio van Diemen (1636-1645), who were most efficiently backed in their efforts for this purpose by their princ.i.p.als at home.

Among these Governors-General Van Diemen holds the foremost place as regards the furtherance of discoveries by Netherlanders in the Far East: in the Pacific and on, "the mainland coasts of Australia." It is, with complete justice, therefore, that a foreign author mentions the name of Van Diemen as "a name which will ever rank among the greatest promotors of maritime discovery".[***]

[* Meaning the Managers of the E.I.C.]

[** See also the instructions for the voyage of 1636, p. 64 _infra_.]

[*** BURNEY, Chronological History, III, p. 55. Speaking of Van Diemen, we must not omit to call the reader's attention to sentiments such as the following: "Whoever endeavours to discover unknown lands and tribes, had need to be patient and long-suffering, noways quick to fly out, but always bent on ingratiating himself" (p. 65 _infra_), a piece of advice elsewhere taking the form of a command, e.g. p. 66: "You will not carry off with you any natives against their will". And, sad to say, such injunctions were often imperiously necessary!]

And this same eminent manager of the Company's interests in India lived to see at the end of his official career far narrower views about colonial policy not only take root in the mother-country (where isolated opinions that way had found utterance long before), but even get the upper hand in the Company's councils. Van Diemen's policy came ultimately to be condemned in the Netherlands, whatever homage might there be paid to his eminent talents, whatever acknowledgment vouchsafed to his great merits! It may almost be called a matter of course that great differences of opinions were bound surely, if slowly, to crop up between the Managers on one hand, and able Governors-General on the other, touching the line of conduct to be followed by the Netherlanders in the East. The Managers were in the first place the directors of a trading company: they hardly looked beyond the requirements of a purely mercantile policy. Eminent Governors-General on the contrary were conscious {Page xvi} of being more than this: they were not only the representatives of a body of merchants, they were also the rulers of a colonial empire which in the East was looked up to with dread, with hatred also sometimes, to be sure, but at the same time with respect and awe! There lay the ultimate cause of the fundamental difference of opinion respecting the colonial policy to be followed [*]. Van Diemen dreamt a bold dream of Dutch supremacy in the East and of the East India Company's mastery "of the opulent Indian trade." To this end he deemed necessary: "hara.s.sing of the enemy [**], continuation and extension of trade, together with the discovering or new lands." But if he had lived to read the missive [***], his grand projects would have received an effectual damper as he perused the letter addressed to him by the Lords Managers, on September 9, 1645, and containing the pa.s.sage following: "[We] see that Your Wors.h.i.+ps have again taken up the further exploration of the coast of Nova Guinea in hopes of discovering silver- and gold-mines there. We do not expect great things of the continuation of such explorations, which more and more burden the Company's resources, since they require increase of yachts and of sailors. Enough has been discovered for the Company to carry on trade, provided the latter be attended with success. We do not consider it part of our task to seek out gold- and silver-mines for the Company, and having found such, to try to derive profit from the same; such things involve a good deal more, demanding excessive expenditure and large numbers of hands...These plans of Your Wors.h.i.+ps somewhat aim beyond our mark. The gold- and silver-mines that will best serve the Company's turn, have already been found, which we deem to be our trade over the whole of India..."

[* I have dealt at some length with this subject in Vol. III ('s-Gravenhage, NIJHOFF, 1895) of my _Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleiscken Arckipel_, pp. LVI ff.]

[** The eighty years' war was still going on]

[*** Van Diemen died April 19, 1645.]

Is it wonderful that, where the supreme authorities of the E.I.C.

regarded matters in this light, there was no longer question of exploratory voyages of any importance? The period of the great voyages of discovery undertaken by Netherlanders, accordingly terminates with Van Diemen's death. It is true that occasionally voyages of this nature were planned [*]; that Australia--not to go further afield--was also visited now and then in later times, but such visits either bore an incidental character, or formed part of expeditions undertaken for other purposes [**], the occasion being then used to "obtain once for all some full and reliable information touching the situation and coast-lines" of lands previously discovered.

[* See p. 72 and Note below: 1645 and 1646.]

[** Now, for instance (No. XXVIII, 1648), for the purpose of seeking another route than the customary one from Batavia to Banda, at another time (No. XXIX, 1656-1658) to inquire into the fate of a s.h.i.+pwrecked crew; or to prevent the voyages of William Dampier from entailing unpleasant consequences for the Dutch E.I.C. (1705, No. x.x.xIII).--Thus, in 1718, a Swiss of the name of J. P. Purry submitted to the Managers of the E.I.C. proposals for the further discovery of Nuytsland. The proposal was duly reported on, but ultimately laid aside _(Resolutions of the "Heeren XVII", Oclober 3, 1718, and March 11 1719; Resolution of the Amsterdam Chamber, April 17, 1719)_.]

Still, we must not omit to mention that at the close of the seventeenth century a desire to contribute to the enlargement of geographical knowledge for a moment got a voice in the question of equipping vessels for expeditions sent out for this purpose. And this scientific impulse originated in the mother-country [*]. The impulse was undoubtedly given by the well-known burgomaster of Amsterdam and Manager of the E. I. C., _Nicolaas Corneliszoon Witsen, LL D_, author of the work ent.i.tled {Page xvii} _Noord en Oost Tartarije_. He took a diligent part in the preparations for the voyage of skipper De Vlamingh: "We are having the vessels manned mainly with unmarried and resolute sailors; I have directed a draughtsman to join the expedition that whatever strange or rare things they meet with, may be accurately depicted". And Witsen anxiously awaited the outcome of De Vlamingh's expedition. He was disappointed by the results: the commander had indeed "surveyed and made soundings on the coasts, but had made few landings." At the same time Manager Witsen mentions not without some satisfaction the results of this voyage, meagre though they may be in his eyes, in letters to friends both at home and abroad, imparting to them what he has learned on the subject [**]. A few years later, however, he bitterly complains of the indifference of many of his countrymen in those days: "What does Your Wors.h.i.+p care about curious learning from India," he grumbles in a letter to one of his friends [***] "no, sir, it is money only, not learned knowledge that our people go out to seek over there, the which is sorely to be regretted."

[* _Resolution of the "Heeren XVII", August 25, 1692; see also p. 60 infra._]

[** As regards this see J F GEBHARD _Het leven van Witsen_ I., pp. 480 f.: II. pp. 260 f. (Letter of Witsen to "Dr. Martin Lister, fellow of the Colledge of Physicians and R. S., concerning some late observations in Nova Hollandia" October 3, 1698), pp. 299 f. (Letter to Gijsbert Cuper at Deventer, 1698?) pp. 407, 414, 416]

[*** Witsen to Cuper, August 1, 1712 (GEBHARD p. 480).]

"The which is sorely to be regretted!"...The times of Van Diemen had failed to return; the spirit by which he was imbued no longer presided over the debates on colonial matters. But his name is indissolubly bound up with the palmy days of Dutch discovery in the Far East, initiated by the East India Company.

Fortunately, in our time Holland again bears a part in what is done by cultured Europe for the scientific exploration of the unknown regions of the world. In this field of inquiry the nineteenth century has again beheld her sons take a place which the achievements of their forefathers have as it were by right of inheritance a.s.signed to them.

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DOc.u.mENTS.

I.

(1595) DUTCH NOTIONS RESPECTING THE SOUTH-LAND IN 1595.

_Itinerario, Voyage ofte Schipvaert, van JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien [Itinerary, Voyage or Navigation of J. H. v.

L. to Eastern or Portuguese India]_...t' Amstelredam. By Cornelis Claesz opt Water, in 't Schrijf-boeck by de Oude Brugghe. Anno CIC.IC.XCVI (1596?-Ed.)[*].

[* There may have been an earlier edition of this book. At all events, the Netherlanders who in 1595 undertook the first voyage from Holland to India, were acquainted with the work either in ma.n.u.script or in print.

See the journal of this voyage, kept by Frank Van der Does, one of the sharers of the expedition, and printed in the second volume of J. K. J.

De JONGE'S well-known book: De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indie [The Rise of the Dutch power in the East Indies] ('s Gravenhage, Amsterdam MDCCCLXIV), pp. 287-372. It may safely be a.s.sumed that Van Linschoten's book contains everything that the Dutch knew of the East, when in 1595 Dutch vessels were first sent out to those remote regions. Charts Nos 1 (a part of the _Orbis terrarum combmdiosa descriptio_. Antverpiae apud joafiem Baptistam Vrient), and 2 (a part of the _Exacta & accurata delineatio c.u.m orarum maritimarum tum eijam locorum terrestrium quae in regionibus Chiua...una c.u.m omnium vicinarum instilarum descriptjone ut sunt Sumatra, Java utraque_...) give a survey of this knowledge so far as our present purpose is concerned. I have made use of a copy of Van Linschoten's work in the library of the Leyden University.]

Pag. 25. Chapter the Twentieth.

Concerning the island of Java Mayor, together with its commodities, merchandise and dealings, weights, coins and value of the same, and other particulars.

[Map No. 1. Gedeelte der (Part of the) _Orbis terrae compendiosa describtio_]

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South-south-east, facing the farthest extremity of the island of Samatra, south of the line _equinoctial_, lies the island called _Java Mayor_, or great _Java_...This island begins in 7 degrees Lat.i.tude South, and extends east by south a length of 150 miles but of its breadth nothing is known up to now, since it has not yet been explored, nor is this known to the inhabitants themselves. Some suppose it to be a mainland, [forming part] of the land called Terra incognita, which would then extend hitherward from beyond the _C de boa Esperanca_ but of this there is no cert.i.tude hitherto, so that it is usually accounted an island...

[Map No. 2. Gedeelte der (Part of the) _Exacta & accurata delineatio c.u.m orarum maritimarum tum etjam locorum terrestrium, quae in regjonibus China...una c.u.m omnium vicinarum insularum descriptjone ut sunt Sumatra, Java utraque_]

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II.

(1602). NOTICES OF THE SOUTH-COAST OF NEW GUINEA IN 1602.

_Journal or Daily Register_, begun on the 22nd day of April, A.D. 1601, kept on board the sho Gelderlant...

This 10th day of April 1602.

The meeting of the Plenary Council [*] having been convened by order of the Lord Admiral [**] to resolve to dispatch the yacht called Duyffken to the island of Ceram, the Council have drawn up the Instructions following, which Supercargo Master Claes Gaeff [and] skipper Willem Cornelisz Schouten will have to act up to.

[* The joint council of all the s.h.i.+ps forming the flotilla to which the Gelderland belonged.]

[** Wolphert Hermanszoon.]