The Explorers (5 page)

In 1642 Abel Tasman, wanderer on the sea from Batavia, sailed into a great blank on the world map. At latitude 42°
S
he sighted a mountainous island. Among the tall timbers, his men found a tree with notches cut at five-foot intervals. They heard the sounds of trumpets and small gongs, and saw the pawprints of an animal like a tiger. Tasman's island is rather like the magical place Shakespeare dreamed up in
The Tempest
,‘full of noises, sounds and sweet airs', a land of preternatural imaginings and monstrous possibilities.

Tasman left the island destined to bear his name convinced it was inhabited by giants and, to judge by the gongs and tigers, somewhat similar to Java. He was not to know that he had crossed the most profound zoological barrier on the planet—Wallace's Line—the imaginary divide that separates the Australian region (with its eucalypts and kangaroos) from Asia (with its elephants and tigers). In Tasmania, men climbed trees by leaps and bounds, ascending from notch to notch with their toes and a stone hatchet. There, the currawong and bellbird called their melodious songs, and of course there were tigers—Tasmanian Tigers. We join Tasman near Storm Bay in the south-east of the island.

24 November—Good weather and a clear sky…In the afternoon, about four o'clock, we saw land bearing east by north of us at about ten miles distance from us by estimation. The land we sighted was very high…

25 November—This land being the first land we have met with in the South Sea, and not known to any European nation, we have conferred on it the name of Anthoony van Diemenslandt in honour of the Hon. Governor-General, our illustrious master, who sent us to make this discovery…

2 December—Early in the morning we sent our pilot-major Francoys Jacobsz in command of our pinnace, manned with four musketeers and six rowers, all of them furnished with spikes and side-arms, together with the cockboat of the
Zeehaen
with one of her second mates and six musketeers in it, to a bay, situated north-west of us at upwards of a mile's distance, in order to ascertain what facilities (as regards fresh water, refreshments, timber and the like) may be available there.

About three hours before nightfall the boats came back, bringing various samples of vegetables which they had seen growing there in great abundance, some of them in appearance not unlike a certain plant growing at the Cabo de Bona Esperance and fit to be used as pot-herbs, and another species with long leaves and a brackish taste, strongly resembling
persil de mer
or samphire. The pilot-major and the second mate of the z
eehaen
made the following report, to wit:

That they had rowed the space of upwards of a mile round the said point, where they had found high but level land, covered with vegetation (not cultivated but growing naturally by the will of God), abundance of excellent timber, and a gently sloping watercourse in a barren valley; the said water, though of good quality, being difficult to procure because the watercourse was so shallow that the water could be dipped with bowls only.

That they had heard certain human sounds and also sounds nearly resembling the music of a trump or a small gong not far from them, though they had seen no one.

That they had seen two trees about two or two and a half fathom in thickness, measuring from sixty to sixty-five feet from the ground to the lowermost branches, which trees bore notches made with flint implements, the bark having been removed for the purpose. These notches, forming a kind of steps to enable persons to get up the trees and rob the birds' nests in their tops, were fully five feet apart, so that our men concluded that the natives here must be of very tall stature, or must be in possession of some sort of artifice for getting up the said trees; in one of the trees these notched steps were so fresh and new that they seemed to have been cut less than four days ago.

That on the ground they had observed certain footprints of animals, not unlike those of tiger's claws; they also brought on board certain specimens of animal excrements voided by quadrupeds so far as they could surmise and observe, together with a small quantity of gum of a seemingly very fine quality, which had exuded from trees and bore some resemblance to gum-lac…

That in the interior they had in several places observed numerous trees which had deep holes burnt into them at the upper end of the foot, while the earth had here and there been dug out with the fist so as to form a fireplace, the surrounding soil having become as hard as flint through the action of the fire.

A short time before we got sight of our boats returning to the ships, we now and then saw clouds of dense smoke rising up from the land, which was nearly west by north of us, and surmised this might be a signal given by our men because they were so long coming back; for we had ordered them to return speedily, partly in order to be made acquainted with what they had seen and partly that we might be able to send them to other points, if they should find no profit there, to the end that no precious time might be wasted.

When our men had come on board again, we inquired of them whether they had been there and made a fire, to which they returned a negative answer, adding, however, that at various times and points in the wood they also had seen clouds of smoke ascending. So there can be no doubt there must be men here of extraordinary stature.

W
ILLIAM
D
AMPIER

The Miserablest People in the World, 1688

William Dampier, privateer, provided the first extended account in English of the Great South Land and its inhabitants when he landed on the northern Western Australian coast in January 1688. Both the land and the people clearly appalled him. His realistic description stands in contrast to the fantastical Dutch interpretations. Perhaps Dampier's bleak account helped create the great lacuna in the exploration of Australia, from the late seventeenth century until Cook arrived on the eastern seaboard in 1770.

New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent; but I am certain that it joins neither to Asia, Africa nor America. This part of it that we saw is all low even land, with sandy banks against the sea. Only the points are rocky and so are some of the islands in this bay.†

The land is of a dry sandy soil, destitute of water except you make wells, yet producing diverse sorts of trees; but the woods are not thick nor the trees very big…We saw no sort of animal, nor any track of beast, but once; and that seemed to be the tread of a beast as big as a great mastiff dog. Here are a few small land birds, but none bigger than a blackbird; and but few sea fowls. Neither is the sea very plentifully stored with fish unless you reckon the manatee and turtle as such.† Of these creatures there is plenty, but they are extraordinarily shy; though the inhabitants cannot trouble them much, having neither boats nor iron.

The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these, who have no houses, and skin garments, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth, ostrich eggs, etc., as the Hodmadods have.†† And, setting aside their human shape, they differ but little from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodied and thin, with small long limbs. They have great heads, round foreheads and great brows. Their eyelids are always half closed to keep the flies out of their eyes; they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face and, without the assistance of both hands to keep them off, they will creep into one's nostrils and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other people, and therefore they cannot see far unless they hold up their heads as if they were looking at something over them.

They have great bottle noses, pretty full lips and wide mouths. The two fore-teeth of their upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old and young; whether they draw them out, I know not. Neither have they any beards. They are long-visaged, and of a very unpleasing aspect, having no one graceful feature in their faces. Their hair is black, short and curled like that of the negroes, and not long and lank like the common Indians. The colour of their skins, both of their faces and the rest of their body, is coal-black, like that of the negroes of Guinea…

These people speak somewhat through the throat; but we could not understand one word that they said. We anchored, as I said before, on January the 5th, and seeing men walking on the shore, we presently sent a canoe to get some acquaintance with them, for we were in hopes to get some provision among them. But the inhabitants, seeing our boat coming, run away and hid themselves…

At last we went over to the islands, and there we found a great many of the natives. I do believe there were forty on one island, men, women and children. The men at our first coming ashore threatened us with their lances and swords, but they were frighted by firing one gun which we fired purposely to scare them. The island was so small that they could not hide themselves, but they were much disordered at our landing, especially the women and children, for we went directly to their camp. The lustiest of the women, snatching up their infants, ran away howling, and the little children run after squeaking and bawling; but the men stood still.

W
ILLEM DE
V
LAMINGH

A Land of Miracles, 1696–97

At the time of de Vlamingh's visit, unicorns, mermaids and giants were still found in the pages of respectable books of natural history. Despite Dampier's pragmatic assessments, the possibilities raised by the Great South Land remained monstrous: fish with arms and legs—even hands—like men, footprints half a metre long, and water as red as blood.

Willem de Vlamingh, master of the
Geelvinck
, captained the last large-scale voyage of exploration made by the Dutch East India Company. He had been despatched to investigate the fate of an East Indiaman lost off the coast of Western Australia. The expedition gives us a glimpse of the land beyond the shore, for de Vlamingh's men were the first Europeans to penetrate any distance inland. They found the uncanny ‘Land of Eendracht', with its elusive inhabitants and eerie environment, little to their liking. Here we join him as he sights Rottnest Island—his first taste of Australia.

December 1696—The 29th in the morning on the fifth glass…we raised the South Land
ENE
of us, about four to five miles, being low land and the shore here reaching
S
and
N.
Here our people saw a miraculous fish about two feet long with a round head and arms and legs of a kind, nay even something like hands; likewise several branches of vegetation. And we came to anchor at fourteen to fifteen fathoms, about half a mile off the island, on the south coast, good bottom, the wind
SW
by
S…

The 31st I rowed ashore again with our skipper, and having gone some distance into the interior of the island I found there a great variety of herbs of which a great many were not unknown to me and some of which were similar in smell to those at home; likewise also several trees and among these a kind whose wood had an aromatic fragrance, almost like
Lignum rhodii
.† The ground is covered with little or no soil, mostly white sand and rocky, in my opinion unsuitable for cultivation. There are few if any birds to be seen and no animals except a kind of rat as large as a common cat, whose dung is to be found in abundance all over the island;†† also very few seals and fish other than a kind of sardine and grey rock bream…While returning to the beach, the people found a piece of Dutch timber with nails still sticking in it, which it seems must be from a wrecked ship. On the mainland coast smoke was seen to rise up in several places, about three to four miles from us. The country appears much higher than it really is and looks like that of Holland.

The 1 st January our people fetched firewood and again saw smoke rising in several places on the mainland; also observed that there is a high and low tide here…