Title: A Short History of Australia
Author: Ernest Scott (1868-1939)
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
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Title: A Short History of Australia
Author: Ernest Scott (1868-1939)
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
PREFACE
This Short History of Australia begins with a blank space on the map,
and ends with the record of a new name on the map, that of Anzac. It
endeavour to elucidate the way in which the country was discovered, why
and how it was settled, the development of civilized society within it,
its political and social progress, mode of government, and relations,
historical and actual, with the Empire of which it forms a part.
The aim of the author has been to make the book answer such questions as
might reasonably be put to it by an intelligent reader, who will of
course have regard to the limitations imposed by its size; and also to
present a picture of the phases through which the country has passed. At
the same time it is hoped that due importance has been given to
personality. History is a record of the doings of men living in
communities, not of blind, nerveless forces.
In a book written to scale, on a carefully prepared plan, it was not
possible to deal more fully with some events about which various readers
might desire to have more information. On some of these the author would
have liked to write at greater length. The student who works much at any
section of history finds many aspects which require more adequate
treatment than they have yet received. In Australian history there are
large spaces which need closer study than has yet been accorded to them.
It is hoped that the bibliographical notes at the end of the volume,
brief though they be, will assist the reader, whose thirst is not
assuaged by what is to be found within these covers, to go to the wells
and draw for himself.
An excellent Australasian Atlas, published while this book was in
preparation, has been found useful by the author. Dr. J. G. Bartholomew
and Mr. K. R. Cramp, who have produced it, call it an Australasian
School Atlas [Note: The maps on pages 22, 79, 119, 221, and 230 are
copied from this atlas.](Oxford University Press, 1915); but the author
ventures to commend its series of beautiful historical maps (pp. 47-54)
to any reader of this History who desires to obtain in a convenient form
more geographical information than is afforded by the maps herein
engraved.
THE UNIVERSITY,
MELBOURNE,
July 16, 1916.
CONTENTS
LIST OF MAPS
CHRONOLOGY
LIST OF GOVERNORS AND MINISTERS
I. THE DAWN OF DISCOVERY
Early maps of the southern regions--Speculations as to Antipodes--
Discovery of sea-route to the East Indies--Discovery of the Pacific--
The Portuguese and Spaniards--Discovery of the Solomon Islands--Quiros
at the New Hebrides--Torres Strait.
II. THE DUTCH AND NEW HOLLAND
Spain and the Netherlands--Cornelius Houtman's voyage to the East
Indies--The Dutch settled at Java--The DUYFKEN in the Gulf of
Carpentaria--Brouwer's new route to the Indies--Dirk Hartog in
Shark's Bay--Discovery of Nuytsland--Leeuwin's Land discovered--Wreck
of the English ship TRIAL--Tasman's voyages--New Holland.
III. DAMPIER AND COOK
Cessation of Dutch explorations--Policy of Dutch East India Company--
Dampier's first voyage to Australia in the CYGNET--His voyage in the
ROEBUCK--Cook's voyages--Discovery of New South Wales--Botany Bay--Voyage
of the RESOLUTION--Popularity of Cook's VOYAGES.
IV. THE FOUNDATION OF SYDNEY
Effect of the revolt of the American colonies--The problem of the
loyalists--Stoppage of the transportation of criminals to America--Banks
suggests founding a convict settlement in New Holland--Matra's plan--
Young's plan--Determination of Government to establish a settlement
in New Holland--Pitt's policy--Phillip appointed Governor--Sailing of
the First Fleet--Phillip rejects Botany Bay and selects Port Jackson--
Laperouse in Botany Bay--Phillip's task and its performance--His faith
in the future--His retirement.
V. THE CONVICT SYSTEM
The New South Wales Corps--Grose and Paterson--Hunter Governor of New
South Wales--Trading monopolies--System of transportation--The
assignment system--Tickets of leave--Political prisoners--Irish rebels.
V1. GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNORS
System of government--An autocracy--Hunter's governorship--His
difficulties--Recalled--King's governorship--The rum traffic--Bligh's
governorship--John Macarthur--His arrest and trial--Deposition of Bligh.
VII FURTHER EXPLORATIONS
Attempts to cross the Blue Mountains--Blaxland's success--Evans
discovers the Bathurst Plains--Voyages of Bass and Flinders in the
TOM THUMB--Bass discovers coal--Discovery of Bass Strait and
Westernport--Bass and Flinders circumnavigate Tasmania in the NORFOLK--End
of Bass--Voyage of the LADY NELSON--Murray discovers Port Phillip--
Flinders's voyage in the INVESTIGATOR--Discovery of Spencer's and
St. Vincent's Gulfs and Kangaroo Island--Meeting with Baudin in Encounter
Bay--Circumnavigation of Australia--The name Australia--Flinders in
Mauritius--His liberation and death.
VIII. THE EXTENSION OF SETTLEMENT
Baudin's expedition--Effect of French operations--Settlement at Risdon
Cove--First Port Phillip Settlement--Foundation of Hobart--Settlement of
Port Dalrymple--Napoleon's order to 'take Port Jackson'--Sea power and
the security of Australia--The ASTROLABE at Westernport--Governor
Darling's commission--Alteration of boundaries of New South
Wales--Westernport and King George's Sound settlements--Whole of
Australia claimed as British territory.
IX. THE LAST OF THE TYRANTS
Macquarie governor of New South Wales--British military forces sent to
Australia--Demand for a council--The emancipist question--The Governor's
policy--His difficulties with military officers--Trial by jury--Quarrels
with the Bent brothers--Emancipist attorneys--Macquarie's autocracy.
X. THE DAWN OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
Uneasiness in England concerning the convict system--Commissioner
Bigge's inquiries--New South Wales Judicature Act--The first Legislative
Council--Chief Justice Forbes--Enlargement of the Council--Wentworth--His
AUSTRALIAN--The Governor and the press--Governor Darling--Trial by
jury--Robert Lowe--His ATLAS newspaper--His visions of Imperial relations.
XI. THE PROBLEM OF THE RIVERS
Oxley's explorations on the Lachlan and the Macquarie--Immigration
policy--Oxley in Moreton Bay--Foundation of Brisbane--Lockyer explores
the Brisbane River--Explorations of Hume and Hovell--Alan Cunningham
explores the Liverpool Range--Sturt's explorations--He discovers the
Darling--Discovery of the Murray--Its exploration to the sea--The naming
of the Murray--Mitchell discovers Australia Felix--The Hentys at
Portland.
XII. THE FOUNDING OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Stirling's examination of the Swan River--Proposals for colonization--
Thornas Peel's project--The Peel River colony--The site of Perth--Early
difficulties--Peel's failure--Stirling's governorship--Western Australia
and the eastern colonies--Shortage of labour--New land regulations--Desire
for convict immigrants--A penal colony--Dissatisfaction with the
transportation system.
XIII. SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND THE WAKEFIELD THEORY
Wakefield's LETTER FROM SYDNEY--His theory of colonization--The Colonial
Office and Wakefield's Principle--Act to establish South Australia--
Colonists at Kangaroo Island--Colonel Light selects site of Adelaide--
Recall of Governor Hindmarsh--Gawler's governorship--Grey appointed
Governor--His reforms.
XIV. THE PORT PHILLIP DISTRICT
The Henty family--Batman in Port Phillip--His 'treaty' with the
natives--He determines on 'the place for a village'--Fawkner's party on
the Yarra--Official objection to Port Phillip Settlement--Captain
Lonsdale takes charge--Bourke names Melbourne--Latrobe appointed
superintendent--Batman's reward and death.
XV. FROM VAN DIEMEN'S LAND TO TASMANIA
Death of Collins and Paterson--Davey Lieutenant-Governor--The rule of
Colonel Arthur--The convict system--Macquarie Harbour--Port Arthur--
Bushranging--The black war--Arthur's black drive--Robinson's work among
the aboriginals--Irish political prisoners--The Dorsetshire labourers--
Jorgensen--Tasmania named.
XVI. THE LAND AND THE SQUATTERS
Land grants--Who the squatters were--Pastoral districts and licences--
Bourke's policy--Special surveys--The pound per acre system--Gipps's
policy--Conquest of Australia by the colonist--Ridley's stripper--Farrer's
Federation wheat--John Macarthur and the wool trade--The aboriginals.
XVII. THE END OF CONVICTISM
Sir William Molesworth's committee on transportation--Effect of the
committee's report--Order in Council discontinuing transportation to
Australia--Effect of new policy--The new prison system--'Pentonvillains'--
Convicts shipped to Port Phillip--Growth of anti-transportation
feeling--Gladstone's policy--The RANDOLPH in Hobson's Bay--Resistance
to landing of 'exiles'--Lord Grey and the colonies.
XVIII. SELF-GOVERNMENT
Sir Charles Fitzroy 'Governor-General'--The Act for the Government of
New South Wales--The Legislative Council--Boundaries of districts--
Dissatisfaction in Port Phillip--Earl Grey elected member for
Melbourne--Colonial self-government--Australian Colonies Government
Act--The naming of Victoria--Inauguration of self-government--Wentworth's
new constitution--His proposed house of baronets--The Victorian
constitution--Responsible government.
X1X. GOLD
Strzelecki finds gold among the mountains--W. B. Clarke's
prognostications--Gold found in the Port Phillip district--Official
disfavour of gold discoveries--Hargreaves's Discoveries--Ballarat--
Bendigo--Wonderful finds--Inrush of Chinese--The digging days--Digging
licences--Riot on the Turon--Unrest at Ballarat--The Eureka Stockade--The
miner's right--Gold-mining as an industry--Gympie--Mount Morgan--
Coolgardie--The Golden Mile--Broken Hill--The Burra.
XX. THE HEART OF THE CONTINENT
Flinders's plan--George Grey's journeys--Eyre's journey to Central
Australia--His tramp across the desert--Sturt's journey to the
interior--McDouall Stuart reaches the centre--He crosses the continent--
Leichhardt's explorations--His fate--Mitchell and the Barcoo--Death of
Kennedy--Burke and Wills--Angus Macmillan in Gippsland--Strzelecki--The
Forrest brothers--Ernest Giles.
XXI. QUEENSLAND
Settlement at Moreton Bay--Its abandonment--The Gladstone Colony at Port
Curtis--Separation of Queensland from New South Wales--The new colony
proclaimed--Its boundaries--Bowen's governorship.
XXII. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
Adjustment of boundaries--Queensland secures the Barklay Tableland--South
Australia undertakes to administer the Northern Territory--Darwin
founded--The overland telegraph line--Port Essington.
XXIII. DEMOCRACY AT WORK--(a) GOVERNMENT
Free scope left to the colonies--The protection afforded them--
Napoleon III and his supposed designs on Australia--The SHENANDOAH
incident--The ballot--Constitutional reforms--Women enfranchised--Elective
and nominee councils--Cowper's quarrel with the Council in New South
Wales--McCulloch's protection policy in Victoria--David Syme--The
Victorian constitutional struggle--The Darling grant--Payment of members--
Black Wednesday--Reform of Victorian Council.
XXIV. DEMOCRACY AT WORK--(b) LAND, LABOUR, AND THE POPULAR WELFARE
Immigration--Anti-Chinese legislation--First inter-colonial conference--
Land legislation--Torrens Real Property Act--Labour questions--Trade
union congresses--Labour politics--Great maritime strike--The Labour
Party--Wages board system--Education, 'free, compulsory, and secular'--
The Universities--Sea-routes and steam-ships--Railways and gauges.
XXV. PAPUA AND THE PACIFIC
A 'Monroe doctrine' for the Pacific--French annexation of New
Caledonia--The New Hebrides--New Guinea--Captain Morseby's discoveries--
The colonies and New Guinea--Queensland's awakened interest--Gold
discoveries--German intentions--McIlwraith orders annexation of New
Guinea--Action disavowed by British Government--Strong feeling in
Australia--German annexations--Lord Granville's surprise--Kanaka
labour--'Blackbirding'--Queensland regulates the labour traffic.
XXVI. THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS FEDERATION
Lord Grey's proposal--The federal spirit--The Federal Council--Its
limitations--Henry Parkes--Federal Convention of 1891--Defection of New
South Wales--Corowa Conference--Convention of 1897-8.
XXVII. THE CONSTITUTION
Responsible government and federation--The task of the Convention--Types
of federal government--The Senate--The House of Representatives--Provision
against deadlocks--The High Court--The Governor-General--Federal powers--
The name 'Commonwealth'--New South Wales and the constitution--
G. H. Reid's attitude--Referendums--Conference of premiers--The Bill
before the Imperial Parliament--The Commonwealth proclaimed--First
Parliament opened.
XXVIII. THE COMMONWEALTH--(a) PARTIES AND PERSONALITIES
The three parties--The Barton Ministry--Reid and the Opposition--Watson
and the Labour Party--The White Australia policy--Kanaka labour--
C. C. Kingston--Conciliation and Arbitration Bill--First Deakin
Government--Watson Government--The Reid-McLean Government--Second Deakin
Government--Retirement of Watson--Fisher leader of Labour Party--First
Fisher Government--The 'Fusion' (Deakin-Cook) Government--Second Fisher
Government--Cook Government--A ride for a fall--Dead-lock--Third Fisher
Government--Hughes Government--The great European War.
XXIX. THE COMMONWEALTH--(b) THE WHEELS OF POLICY
The federal capital--Choice of Dalgety--Choice revoked and Canberra
finally selected--Papua and the Northern Territory--The Kalgoorlie to
Port Augusta railway--The amendment of the constitution--The referendums--
Defence policy--The naval agreement--Compulsory military service--The
Kitchener and Henderson reports--The new naval squadron--The AUSTRALIA--
The SYDNEY-EMDEN fight at Cocos.
XXX. AUSTRALIA IN THE GREAT WAR
Outbreak of war--The double dissolution--'The last man and the last
shilling'--Third Fisher Government--The A.I.F--The SYDNEY-EMDEN fight--
Defence of the Suez Canal--The Dardanelles--The Gallipoli campaign--
'Anzac'--On the Somme--Monash's Army Corps--Battles in France--The
Palestine campaign--The Australian soldier--The split in the Labour
Party--Conscription Referenda--The cost in men and money--The mandates--
The Bruce Government.
XXXI. FROM THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Events in Europe from 1919 to 1939--Soldier Settlement and Assisted
Migration--The 'boom years' of the 'twenties--The Great Depression--The
'Premiers' Plan--The 'Lang Plan' and the 'New Guard'--Ottawa Conference--
Recovery from Depression--Dearth of Social Legislation--The Second
World War.
XXXII. IMPERIAL RELATIONS AND THE AUSTRALIAN SPIRIT
British colonial policy--Grey--Disraeli--'A person named Rogers'--'The
crimson thread of kinship'--Colonial Conference of 1887--Second Colonial
Conference--Preferential duties--The old colonial system and the new--
Soudan contingent--Australia and the South African War--Anzac--Race
sentiment among Australians--Poetry and painting.
EPILOGUE
From tyranny to freedom--Implications of responsible government--A process
of political evolution--The Balfour definition of 1926--The Statute of
Westminster, 1931--The British Commonwealth of Nations--Dominion status--
Advantages and obligations.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
APPENDIX
The original plan for a settlement of small holdings--The growth of large
estates--Organization on capitalist basis--Rise of trade unions--Effect
of gold discoveries on social conditions--The growth of trade unions
after 1850--The depression of the 'nineties and the 'Great Strikes'--The
growth of industrial arbitration and the rise of the Labour Party--William
Lane and 'New Australia!--The development of a 'middle class'--The growth
of social services--Education, health and social welfare--The standard of
living in Australia.
* * * * *
LIST OF MAPS
ROBERT THORNE'S MAP, 1527
MAP PUBLISHED AT PARIS, 1587
PLANCIUS'S MAP (AMSTERDAM), 1594
HONDIUS'S MAP, 1595
MAP OF JAVE LA GRANDE, 1542
MAP ILLUSTRATING FIRST DUTCH DISCOVERIES
MAP ILLUSTRATING VOYAGE OF VAN NECK'S FLEET TO DUTCH EAST INDIES 1598-1600
MAP OF NEW HOLLAND
TASMAN'S VOYAGES
PORTION OF COOK'S CHART OF NEW SOUTH WALES
NEW HOLLAND AND NEW SOUTH WALES AS KNOWN AFTER COOK'S VOYAGES
BOTANY BAY AND PORT JACKSON
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
VOYAGES OF BASS AND FLINDERS
FREYCINET'S MAP, SHOWING 'TERRE NAPOLEON'
HOBART AND PORT DALRYMPLE
WESTERNPORT AND PORT PHILLIP
KING GEORGE'S SOUND
MELVILLE ISLAND
INLAND EXPLORATIONS, 1815-28
STURT's DISCOVERIES ON THE DARLING AND THE MURRAY
EXPLORATIONS OF EYRE, STURT, STUART, GREGORY, BURKE, AND WILLS
EXPLORATIONS OF FORREST AND GILES
FOUNDATION OF THE SIX STATES (SIX DIAGRAMS)
ISLAND GROUPS OF THE PACIFIC
THE GALLIPOLI PENINSULA
* * * * *
CHRONOLOGY
1486. Diaz rounds Cape of Good Hope.
1497. Vasco da Gama sails to India via the Cape.
1512. Portuguese discover the Moluccas.
1520. Magellan enters the Pacific.
1567. Alvarez discovers the Solomon Islands.
1595. Cornelius Houtman pilots Dutch ships to the East Indies.
1598. Dutch established at Java.
1606. Quiros discovers the New Hebrides.
Discovery of Torres Strait.
The DUYFKEN in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1611. Brouwer's new route to the East.
1616. Dirk Hartog on the Western Australian coast.
1622. English ship TRIAL wrecked off the west coast.
1627. Nuytsland discovered.
1636. Van Diemen Governor of Dutch East Indies.
1642. Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand.
1644. Tasman in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1688. Dampier in the CYGNET in Australian waters.
1699. Dampier in the ROEBUCK in Shark's Bay.
1768. Cook's ENDEAVOUR voyage.
1770. Cook's discovery of New South Wales.
1772. Cook's RESOLUTION voyage.
1779. Banks suggests founding a convict settlement at Botany Bay.
1782. End of the American War of Independence.
1783. Matra's plan of colonization in New South Wales.
1785. Sir George Young's plan.
1786. Determination to found a settlement at Botany Bay.
1788. Foundation of Sydney.
Laperouse in Botany Bay.
1789. Establishment of New South Wales Corps.
Settlement of Norfolk Island.
1792. End of Phillip's governorship.
1792-5. Administration of Grose and Paterson.
1795. Hunter Governor of New South Wales.
1795-6. Bass and Flinders make voyages in the TOM THUMB.
1797. John Macarthur buys merino sheep.
Discovery of coal.
1798. Bass discovers Bass Strait and Westernport.
Bass and Flinders circumnavigate Tasmania in the NORFOLK.
1800. King Governor of New South Wales.
Voyage of the LADY NELSON from England.
Flinders's voyage in the INVESTIGATOR.
1802. Murray discovers Port Phillip.
Flinders meets Baudin in Encounter Bay.
1803. Flinders circumnavigates Australia.
Wreck of the PORPOISE.
Flinders imprisoned in Mauritius.
Collins's Port Phillip Settlement.
Sydney GAZETTE, first Australian newspaper, published
1804. Foundation of Hobart.
Settlement at Port Dalrymple.
1806. Bligh Governor of New South Wales.
1807. Arrest of John Macarthur.
1808. Mutiny in New South Wales; deposition of Bligh.
1809. Macquarie Governor of New South Wales.
1810. Extinction of New South Wales Corps.
Liberation of Flinders.
1813. Blaxland discovers a way across the Blue Mountains.
Evans discovers the Bathurst plains.
Davey Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land.
1814. Death of Flinders.
Establishment of Civil Court in New South Wales.
1816. Bank of New South Wales founded.
1817 Oxley explores the Lachlan.
1818 Oxley explores the Macquarie.
1819 Commissioner Bigge in New South Wales.
1821 Brisbane Governor of New South Wales.
1823. New South Wales Judicature Act passed.
Oxley in Moreton Bay.
1824. Wentworth's AUSTRALIAN.
Foundation of Brisbane.
1824. Annexation of Bathurst and Melville Islands.
Hume and Hovell's expedition to Port Phillip.
1825. Alteration of western boundary of New South Wales.
Lockyer explores the Brisbane River.
Arthur Governor of Van Diemen's Land.
1826. The ASTROLABE at Westernport.
Settlement at Westernport.
Darling Governor of New South Wales.
1827. Lockyer's Settlement at King George's Sound.
Darling's law to regulate the press.
Alan Cunningham explores the Liverpool Range and the
Darling Downs.
Stirling examines the Swan River.
1828. Enlargement of the Legislative Council of New South Wales.
Westernport Settlement abandoned.
Sturt discovers the Darling.
1829. Annexation of the Swan River.
Whole of Australia claimed as British territory.
The PARMELIA conveys first immigrants to Swan River.
Publication of Wakefield's LETTER FROM SYDNEY.
1830. Accession of William IV.
Act establishing trial by jury in New South Wales.
Sturt explores the Murray to the sea.
Perth founded.
Governor Arthur's 'Black Drive.'
1831 First steamship, the SOPHIA JANE, arrived in Sydney from England.
1834. Act to establish Colony of South Australia.
The Hentys settle at Portland.
The Dorsetshire labourers transported.
1835. John Batman in Port Phillip.
1836. Mitchell explores Australia Felix.
Adelaide founded.
Lonsdale takes charge of the Port Phillip Settlement.
Bourke's grazing licences policy.
1837. Accession of Queen Victoria.
Melbourne named.
House of Commons Committee on Transportation.
1837-40. George Grey's explorations in Western Australia.
1838. Gawler Governor of South Australia.
Military settlement at Port Essington.
1839. Latrobe appointed superintendent of Port Phillip.
Strzelecki finds traces of gold.
1839. Death of John Batman.
Lord Durham's report on the state of Canada.
McMillan's first expedition to Gippsland.
Abandonment of Moreton Bay Settlement.
1840. Order in Council discontinuing transportation to Australia.
Eyre starts for the centre of the continent.
Strzelecki's journey through Gippsland.
1841. Grey appointed Governor of South Australia.
1842. Robert Lowe in New South Wales.
Act for the Government of N.S.W. and Van Diemen's Land passed.
1843. Ridley invents the stripper.
1844. Convicts shipped to Port Phillip.
Sturt's journey to the interior.
Leichhardt's first exploring expedition.
1845. Grey appointed Governor of New Zealand.
Burra copper mine discovered.
1846. Fitzroy 'Governor-General' of Australia.
Lieutenant Yule hoists British flag in New Guinea.
1847. Gold found in Port Phillip.
The Gladstone Colony at Port Curtis.
1848. Melbourne elects Lord Grey to the Legislative Council.
Leichhardt's last expedition.
1849. The RANDOLPH in Hobson's Bay: resistance to convict immigration.
Port Essington abandoned.
1850. Western Australia becomes a penal colony.
University of Sydney founded.
Australian Colonies Government Act passed.
Railway from Sydney to Goulburn built.
1851. Separation of Victoria from New South Wales.
Hargreaves digs for gold on Summerhill Creek.
Gold found at Ballarat.
The diggings commence.
1852. University of Melbourne founded.
1853. Tasmania named.
Town of Gladstone founded.
French annexation of New Caledonia.
1854. The Eureka Stockade.
Hobson's Bay railway built.
1855. Transportation to Norfolk Island ceased
1855. New constitutions come into effect in New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, and Tasmania.
Ballot Act passed in Victoria.
First anti-Chinese legislation passed.
1858. Torrens Real Property Act passed.
1859. Colony of Queensland proclaimed.
Kingsley's GEOFFREY HAMLYN published.
1860. McDouall Stuart reaches the centre of the continent.
1861. Burke and Wills expedition.
Cowper's quarrel with the New South Wales Legislative Council.
1862. McDouall Stuart crosses the continent to Port Darwin
Duffy's Land Act.
1863. South Australia undertakes to administer the Northern Territory.
New Caledonia a convict colony.
1865. McCulloch proposes protection in Victoria.
1867. End of transportation to Western Australia.
Gold discovered at Gympie.
The Darling grant controversy.
1868. First Queensland Act to regulate Kanaka labour
1869. John Forrest's journey in search of Leichhardt.
1870. British troops withdrawn from Australia.
Adam Lindsay Gordon died.
1872. Overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Port Darwin constructed.
1873. John Forrest explores the interior.
Moresby's discoveries in New Guinea.
Stephens's 'free, compulsory, and secular' Education Act.
1874. University of Adelaide founded.
John Forrest's journey from Perth to Adelaide.
Fiji annexed by Great Britain.
Clarke's FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE published.
1875. Ernest Giles's inland journey.
1877. Dispute as to payment of members in Victoria.
High Commissionership of the Pacific established.
Brunton Stephens's poem, THE DOMINION OF AUSTRALIA, published.
1878. 'Black Wednesday' (January 8).
1879. First Australian Trade Union Congress.
1880. Capture of the Kelly Gang.
1880. Payment of members carried in Victoria.
1881. Reform of the Victorian Legislative Council.
1882. Discovery of Mount Morgan.
The Kimberley gold rush.
Henry Clarence Kendall died.
1883. Silver discovered at Broken Hill.
McIlwraith annexes New Guinea.
1884. German annexation of Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, the Bismarck
Archipelago, and Samoa.
1885. Federal Council established.
Soudan contingent from New South Wales.
1887. Anglo-French Condominium in the New Hebrides.
First Colonial Conference.
1888. Inter-colonial Conference on Chinese immigration.
ROBBERY UNDER ARMS published.
1890. Great maritime strike.
University of Tasmania founded.
1891. First Federal Convention.
1892. Coolgardie gold-field discovered.
1893. Corowa Conference on Federation.
1894. Women's enfranchisement in South Australia.
1895. Victorian Wages Board system established.
Paterson's THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER published.
1896. Henry Lawson's IN THE DAYS WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE published.
1897. The second Colonial Conference.
1897-8. The Federal Convention.
1898. First Federal Referendum.
1899. Second Federal Referendum.
First Labour Government (Queensland).
Australian contingents sent to South African War.
1900. The Commonwealth Constitution before the Imperial Parliament.
1901. (May 9) First Commonwealth Parliament opened.
1902. Immigration Restriction Act passed.
Third Colonial Conference.
1903. First Deakin Government.
Amended Naval Agreement.
1904. The Watson Government.
Reid-McLean Government.
Dalgety selected as site for federal capital.
1905. Second Deakin Government.
1906. Amended Anglo-French agreement as to New Hebrides.
1907. Act for construction of Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta railway passed.
Imperial Conference.
1908. First Fisher Government.
Revocation of choice of Dalgety, and Canberra finally selected
as site of federal capital.
1909. Third Deakin Government.
Imperial Defence Conference.
Compulsory military service instituted in Australia.
Lord Kitchener's report.
1910. University of Brisbane founded.
Second Fisher Government.
1911. Referendum for amendment of constitution.
Admiral Henderson's naval report.
Imperial Conference.
1912. University of Perth founded.
1913. Cook Government.
Referendum for amendment of constitution.
The AUSTRALIA completed.
1914. Third Fisher Government.
Great European War.
Fight between the SYDNEY and EMDEN at Cocos (November).
1915. Hughes Government.
Anzac.
1916 First Conscription Referendum.
1917 Second Conscription Referendum.
Transcontinental Railway opened.
1918 Great battle on the Somme (August 8); capture of Mont St. Quentin
by Australian forces.
Defeat and surrender of Germany.
1919 Ross and Keith Smith fly from England to Australia by aeroplane.
1920 Visit of the Prince of Wales to Australia.
1923 End of Hughes Government.
Stanley Bruce Prime Minister.
1924 Visit of Special Service squadron of the Royal Navy to Australia.
1927 Federal Parliament opened by Duke of York at the Commonwealth
capital, Canberra.
1928 Flight by Bert Hinkler from England to Australia, and by Kingsford
Smith and Ulm from America to Australia and from Australia
to New Zealand.
1929 J. Scullin Prime Minister.
1930 First Australian-born Governor-General appointed: Sir Isaac Isaaes.
1931 Statute of Westminster.
1932 Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
J. A. Lyons Prime Minister.
Imperial Conference at Ottawa.
1934 Victorian Centenary celebrations attended by Duke of Gloucester.
1935 Italy attacks Abyssinia.
Jubilee of King George V.
1936 Death of King George V; accession and later abdication of King
Edward VIII; accession of the Duke of York as King George VI.
1938 The 'Munich Crisis.'
1939 Death of J. A. Lyons; R. G. Menzies becomes Prime Minister.
Second World War begins.
1940 Australian forces share in North African campaigns.
1941 Tobruk.
A. W. Fadden Prime Minister, August-October.
John Curtin Prime Minister.
1942 Darwin bombed and Rabaul captured by Japanese
Battle of El Alamein.
1943 Italy defeated and Mussolini overthrown.
1944 Invasion of Europe and Battle of Normandy.
Defeat of Referendum on increased powers for Commonwealth.
General MacArthur lands in the Philippines.
1945 Defeat of Germany (May).
United Nations' Charter signed.
1946 Powers in regard to social services granted to Commonwealth
by referendum.
1948 Forty-hour week effective throughout Australia.
1949 New Guinea placed under international trusteeship.
Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme begun.
1950 Basic wage increased by 1 pound a week and female rate raised
to 75 per cent. of male rate.
1951 Transfer of Heard and MacDonald Islands to Australia confirmed.
1952 Death of King George VI.
A.N.Z.U.S. Pacific Pact ratified.
1953 Atomic Energy Bill enacted.
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11.
Commonwealth Medical Benefits Scheme begun.
System of quarterly cost of living adjustments abandoned.
1954 Visit to Australia of H.M. the Queen and H.R.H. the
Duke of Edinburgh.
First permanent Australian station on the Antarctic continent
established at Mawson.
First uranium treatment plant opened at Rum Jungle.
1955 Australian Aluminium Production Commission's works at Bell Bay,
Tasmania opened.
Cocos Islands taken over as Commonwealth Territory.
1956 Huge bauxite deposits found at Weipa River, North Queensland.
Television transmission begins in Sydney.
Olympic Games held in Melbourne.
1957 Construction begun of standard gauge rail link between
Melbourne and Albury.
* * * * *
LIST OF GOVERNORS AND MINISTRIES
GOVERNORS OF NEW SOUTH WALES
(Before Responsible Government)
1788 Arthur Phillip.
1795 John Hunter.
1800 Philip Gidley King.
1806 William Bligh.
1810 Lachlan Macquarie.
1821 Sir Thomas Brisbane.
1825 Sir Ralph Darling.
1831 Sir Richard Bourke.
1838 Sir George Gipps.
1846 Sir Charles Fitzroy.
1855 Sir William Denison.
(Since Responsible Government)
1861 Sir John Young.
1868 Earl of Belmore.
1872 Sir Hercules Robinson.
1879 Sir Augustus Loftus.
1885 Lord Carrington.
1891 Earl of Jersey.
1893 Sir Robert Duff.
1895 Viscount Hampden.
1899 Earl Beauchamp.
1902 Sir Harry Rawson.
1909 Lord Chelmsford.
1913 Sir Gerald Strickland.
1917 Sir Walter Davidson.
1924 Sir Dudley de Chair.
1929 Sir Philip Game.
1934 Sir Alexander Hore-Rutliven.
1936 Sir David Murray Anderson.
1937 Lord Wakehurst.
1946 Sir John Northeott.
1967 Sir Eric Woodward.
GOVERNORS OF TASMANIA
(Lieutenant-Governors before Responsible Government)
1803 David Collins (Hobart jurisdiction).
William Paterson (Port Dalrymple jurisdiction).
1810 G. A. Gordon (Port Dalrymple jurisdiction).
Joseph Foveaux (Hobart jurisdiction).
1813 Thomas Davey (with jurisdiction over whole island).
1817 William Sorell. 1824 Sir George Arthur.
1837 Sir John Franklin.
1843 Sir John Eardley-Wilmot.
1847 Sir William Denison.
(Governors after Responsible Government)
1855 Sir Henry Fox Young.
1861 Sir T. Gore Brown.
1869 Sir Charles Du Cane.
1875 Frederick A. Weld.
1881 Sir George Strahan.
1887 Sir Robert Hamilton.
1893 Viscount Gormanston.
1901 Sir Arthur Havelock.
1904 Sir Gerald Strickland.
1909 Sir Harry Barron.
1913 Sir William Ellison-Macartney.
1917 Sir Francis Newdegate.
1920 Sir William Allardyce.
1924 Sir James O'Grady.
1933 Sir Ernest Clark.
1945 Sir Hugh Binney.
1951 Sir Ronald Cross.
GOVERNORS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
(Before Responsible Government)
1831 Sir James Stirling (Lt. Governor since 1828).
1839 John Hutt.
1846 Andrew Clarke.
1847 Frederick Irwin.
1848 Charles Fitzgerald.
1855 Sir Arthur Kennedy.
1862 John Stephen Hampton.
1869 Frederick A. Weld.
1875 Sir William Robinson.
1877 Sir Harry Ord.
1880 Sir William Robinson.
1883 Sir Frederick Broome.
(Since Responsible Government)
1890 Sir William Robinson.
1895 Sir Gerard Smith.
1901 Sir Arthur Lawley.
1903 Sir Frederick Bedford.
1909 Sir Gerald Strickland.
1913 Sir Harry Barron.
1917 Sir William Ellison-Macartney.
1920 Sir F. Newdegate.
1924 Sir William Campion.
1931 Sir John Northmore.
1933 Sir James Mitchell (Lt. Governor).
1951 Sir Charles Gairdner.
GOVERNORS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
(Before Responsible Government)
1835 John Hindmarsh.
1838 George Gawler.
1841 Sir George Grey.
1845 Frederick Holt Robe.
1848 Sir Henry Young.
(Since Responsible Government)
1855 Sir Richard MacDonnell.
1862 Sir Dominick Daly.
1869 Sir James Ferguson.
1873 Sir Anthony Musgrave.
1877 Sir William Jervois.
1883 Sir William Robinson.
1889 The Earl of Kintore.
1895 Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton.
1899 Lord Tennyson.
1903 Sir George Le Hunte.
1909 Sir Day Bosanquet.
1914 Sir Henry Galway.
1920 Sir W. E. G. A. Weigall.
1922 Sir Tom Bridges.
1927 Sir Alexander Hore-Ruffiven.
1933 Sir Winston Dugan.
1939 Sir Malcolm Barclay Harvey.
1944 Sir Willoughby Norrie.
1953 Sir Robert George.
GOVERNORS OF VICTORIA
(Before Responsible Government)
1839 Charles Joseph La Trobe (Lt. Governor).
1854 Sir Charles Hotham.
(After Responsible Government)
1856 Sir Henry Barkly.
1863 Sir Charles Darling.
1866 Viscount Canterbury.
1873 Sir George Bowen.
1879 Marquis of Normanby.
1884 Sir Henry Loch.
1889 Earl of Hopetoun.
1895 Earl Brassey.
1901 Sir George Sydenham Clarke (Lord Sydenham).
1904 Sir Reginald Talbot.
1908 Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael (Lord Carmichael).
1911 Sir John Pleetwood Fuller.
1914 Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley (Urd Stanley).
1921 Earl of Stradbroke.
1926 Lord Somers.
1934 Lord Huntingfield.
1939 Sir Winston Dugan.
1949 Sir Dallas Brooks.
GOVERNORS OF QUEENSLAND
1859 Sir George Bowen.
1868 Samuel Wensley BIackall
1871 Marquis of Normanby.
1875 William Wellington Cairns.
1877 Sir Arthur Kennedy.
1883 Sir Anthony Musgrave.
1889 Sir Henry Norman.
1896 Lord Lamington.
1902 Sir Herbert Chermside.
1905 Lord Chelmsford.
1909 Sir William McGregor.
1914 Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams.
1920 Sir Matthew Nathan.
1927 Sir Thomas Goodwin.
1932 Sir Leslie Wilson.
1946 Sir John Lavarack.
GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
1901 Earl of Hopetoun (afterwards Marquis of Linlithgow).
1903 Lord Tennyson.
1904 Lord Northeote.
1908 Earl of Dudley.
1911 Lord Denman.
1914 Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson (Viscount Novar).
1920 Lord Forster.
1925 Lord Stonehaven.
1931 Sir Isaap Alfred Isaaes.
1936 Sir Alexander Hore-Ruffiven (Lord Gowrie).
1945 The Duke of Gloucester.
1947 Sir William McKell.
1953 Sir William Slim.
PREMIERS OF NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTRIES
1856 (June). Sir Stuart Donaldson.
1856 (August). Sir Charles Cowper.
1856 (October). Sir Henry Parker.
1857 Sir Charles Cowper.
1859 William Forster.
1860 Sir John Robertson.
1861 Sir Charles Cowper.
1863 Sir James Martin.
1865 Sir Charles Cowper.
1866 Sir James Martin.
1868 Sir John Robertson.
1870 Sir Charles Cowper.
1870 (December). Sir James Martin.
1872 Sir Henry Parkes.
1875 Sir John Robertson.
1877 Sir Henry Parkes.
1877 (August). Sir John Robertson.
1877 (December). James S. Farnell.
1878 Sir Henry Parkes.
1983 Sir Alexander Stuart.
1885 Sir George Dibbs.
1885 Sir John Robertson.
1886 Sir Patrick Jennings.
1887 Sir Henry Parkes.
1889 Sir George Dibbs.
1889 (March). Sir Henry Parkes.
1891 Sir George Dibbs.
1894 Sir George Reid.
1899 Sir William Lyne.
1901 Sir John See.
1904 Thomas Waddell.
1904 (August). Sir Joseph Carruthers.
1907 Sir Charles Wade.
1910 J. S. T. McGowen.
1913 W. A. Holman.
1920 John Storey.
1921 James Dooley.
1922 Sir George Fuller.
1925 John Lang.
1927 T. R. Bavin.
1931 John Lang.
1932 B. S. B. Stevens.
1939 A. Mair.
1941 W. J. McKell.
1947 J. McGirr.
1952 J. J. Cahill.
PREMIERS OF VICTORIAN MINISTRIES
1855 William Clark Haines.
1857 Sir John O'Shanassy.
1857 (April). W. C. Haines.
1858 Sir John O'Shanassy.
1859 William Nicholson.
1860 Richard Heales.
1861 Sir John O'Shanassy.
1863 Sir James McCulloch.
1868 Sir Charles Sladen.
1868 (July). Sir James McCulloch.
1869 John Alexander MacPherson.
1870 Sir James McCulloch.
1871 Sir Charles Gavan Duffy.
1872 James C. Francis.
1874 George Briscoe Kerferd.
1875 Sir Graham Berry.
1875 (October). Sir James McCulloch.
1877 Sir Graham Berry.
1880 James Service.
1880 (August). Sir Graham Berry.
1881 Sir Bryan O'Loghlen.
1883 James Service.
1886 Duncan Gillies.
1890 James Munro.
1892 William Shiels.
1893 Sir James Patterson.
1894 Sir George Turner.
1899 Allan McLean.
1900 Sir George Turner.
1901 Sir Alexander Peacock.
1902 Sir William Irvine.
1904 Sir Thomas Bent.
1909 John Murray.
1912 William Alexander Watt.
1913 (December 9). G. A. Elmslie.
1913 (December 22). W. A. Watt.
1914 Sir Alexander Peacock.
1917 John Bowser.
1918 Harry S. W. Lawson.
1924 Sir Alexander Peacock.
1924 (July). George Michael Prendergast.
1924 (November). John Allan.
1927 E. J. Hogan.
1928 Sir William McPherson.
1929 E. J. Hogan.
1932 Sir Stanley Argyle.
1935 A. A. Dunstan.
1943 (October). J. Cain.
1943 (October). A. A. Dunstan.
1945 I. Macfarlan.
1945 J. Cain.
1947 T. Hollway.
1950 J. McDonald.
1952 J. Cain.
1955 H. E. Bolte.
PREMIERS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MINISTRTES
1856 B. T. Finnis.
1857 John Baker.
1857 (September 1). Robert Torrens.
1857 (September 30). R. D. Hanson.
1860 T. Reynolds.
1861 E. M. Waterhouse.
1863 (July 4). Francis Dutton.
1863 (July 15). Sir H. Ayers.
1864 A. Blyth.
1865 (March). Francis Dutton.
1865 (September). Sir EL Ayers.
1865 (October). John Hart.
1866 J. P. Boucaut.
1867 Sir H. Ayers.
1868 (September). J. Hart.
1868 (October). Sir H. Ayers.
1868 (November). H. B. T. Strangways.
1870 J. Hart.
1870 (November). Arthur Blyth.
1872 Sir H. Ayers.
1873 A. Blyth.
1875 J. P. Boucaut.
1876 John Colton.
1877 J. P. Boucaut.
1878 William Morgans.
1881 Sir John Bray.
1884 J. Colton.
1885 Sir John Downer.
1887 Thomas Playford.
1889 Sir John Cockburn.
1890 T. Playford.
1892 F. W. Holder.
1892 (October). Sir John Downer.
1893 Charles Cameron Kingston.
1899 V. L. Solomon.
1899 (December). F. W. Holder.
1901 J. G. Jenkins.
1905 Richard Butler.
1905 (July). Thomas Price.
1909 A. H. Peake.
1910 John Verran.
1912 A. H. Peake.
1915 Crawford Vaughan.
1917 A. H. Peake.
1920 Sir Henry Barwell.
1924 J. Gunn.
1926 L. L. Hill.
1927 R. L. Butler.
1930 L. L. Hill.
1933 R. L. Butler.
1938 Sir Thomas Playford.
PREMIERS OF QUEENSLAND MINISTRIES
1859 R. E. W. Herbert.
1866 (February). A. Macalister
1866 (July). R. E. W. Herbert.
1866 (August). A. Macalister.
1867 R. M. Mackenzie.
1868 Sir Charles Lilley.
1870 A. H. Palmer.
1874 A. Macalister.
1876 George Thorn.
1877 John Douglas.
1879 Sir Thomas McIlwraith.
1883 Sir Samuel Griffith.
1888 (June). Sir Thomas McIlwraith.
1888 (November). B. D. Morehead.
1890 Sir Samuel Griffith.
1893 (March). Sir Thomas McIlwraith.
1893 (October). Sir Hugh Nelson.
1898 J. T. Byrnes.
1898 J. R. Dickson.
1899 (December 1). A. Dawson.
1899 (December 7). Sir Robert Philp.
1903 Sir A. Morgan.
1906 W. Kidston.
1907 Sir Robert Philp.
1908 W. Kidston.
1911 D. F. Denham.
1915 T. J. Ryan.
1919 E. G. Theodore.
1925 W. N. Gillies.
1925 (November). W. McCormack.
1929 A. E. Moore.
1932 W. Forgan Smith.
1942 F. A. Cooper.
1946 E. M. Hanlon.
1952 V. C. Gair.
1957 G. F. R. Nicklin.
PREMIERS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MINISTRIES
1890 Sir John Forrest.
1901 (February). George Throssell.
1901 (May). George Leake.
1901 (November). A. E. Morgans.
1901 (December). George Leake.
1902 Sir Walter James.
1904 Henry Daglish.
1905 C. H. Rason.
1906 Sir Newton Moore.
1910 Frank Wilson.
1911 John Scaddan.
1916 F. Wilson.
1917 H. B. Lefroy.
1918 H. B. Colebatch.
1919 Sir James Mitchell.
1924 P. Collier.
1930 Sir James Mitchell.
1933 P. Collier.
1936 J. C. Willeock.
1945 F. J. S. Wise.
1947 D. R. McLarty.
1953 A. R. G. Hawke.
PREMIERS OF TASMANIAN MINISTRIES
1856 W. T. N. Champ.
1857 T. G. Gregson.
1857 (April). W. P. Weston.
1857 (May). Francis Smith.
1860 W. P. Weston.
1861 T. D. Chapman.
1863 James Whyte.
1866 Sir Richard Dry.
1869 J. M. Wilson.
1872 F. M. Innes.
1873 Alfred Kennerley.
1876 Thomas Reibey.
1877 Sir Philip Fysh.
1878 W. R. Giblin.
1878 W. L. Crowther.
1879 W. R. Giblin.
1884 Adye Douglas.
1886 J. W. Agnew.
1887 Sir Philip Fysh.
1892 Henry Dobson.
1894 Sir Edward Braddon.
1899 Sir Neil Lewis.
1903 W. P. Propsting.
1904 J. W. Evans.
1909 Sir Neil Lewis.
1909 (October 20). John Earle.
1909 (October 27.) Sir N. Lewis.
1912 A. E. Solomon.
1914 J. Earle.
1916 Sir W. H. Lee.
1922 J. B. Hayes.
1923 J. A. Lyons.
1928 J. C. MePhee.
1934 (March). Sir Walter Lee.
1934 (June). A. G. Ogilvie.
1939 (June). E. Dwyer-Gray.
1939 (December). R. Cosgrove.
1947 E. Brooker.
1948 R. Cosgrove.
PRIME MINISTERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
1901 Sir Edmund Barton.
1903 Alfred Deakin.
1904 John Christian Watson.
1904 (August). Sir George Reid.
1905 Alfred Deakin.
1908 Andrew Fisher.
1909 Alfred Deakin.
1910 Andrew Fisher.
1913 Sir Joseph Cook.
1914 Andrew Fisher.
1915 William Morris Hughes.
1923 Stanley Bruce.
1929 James Scullin.
1932 Joseph Aloysius Lyons.
1939 (April). Sir Earle Page.
1939 (April). Robert Gordon Menzies.
1941 (August). Arthur W. Fadden.
1941 (October). John Curtin.
1945 Joseph Benedict Chifley.
1949 Robert Gordon Menzies.
* * * * *
A SHORT HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER I
THE DAWN OF DISCOVERY
Early maps of the southern regions--Speculations as to Antipodes--
Discovery of sea-route to the East Indies--Discovery of the Pacific--
The Portuguese and Spaniards--Discovery of the Solomon Islands--Quiros
at the New Hebrides--Torres Strait.
There was a period when maps of the world were published whereon the
part occupied by the continent of Australia was a blank space. On other
maps, dating from about the same time, land masses were represented
which we now know to have been imaginary. Let us look at four examples.
The first is a map drawn by Robert Thorne in the reign of Henry VIII
(1527). He said in an apology for his work that 'it may seem rude,' and
so it was; but it serves the purpose of proving that Thorne and the
Spanish geographers from whom he derived his information knew nothing
about a continent near Australia. Sixty years later a map published at
Paris showed a portion of New Guinea, but still the place occupied by
Australia was left as open ocean. A Dutch map published at Amsterdam in
1594 did indeed indicate a large stretch of southern land, and called it
Terra Australis, but it bore no resemblance to the real continent either
in shape or situation. In 1595 a map by Hondius, a Dutchman living in
London, was published to illustrate the voyage of Francis Drake
round the globe. It represented New Guinea as an island, approximately
in its right position, though the shape of it was defective. To the
south of it, and divided from it by a strait, appeared a large mass of
land named Terra Australis. The outline is not much like that of the
continent of Australia, but it was apparently copied from an earlier
Dutch map by Ortelius (1587), upon which were printed words in Latin
stating that whether New Guinea was an island or part of an austral
continent was uncertain. Many other early maps could be instanced, but
these four will suffice to exhibit the defective state of knowledge
concerning this region at the end of the sixteenth century.
By that time the belief had grown that there probably was a large area
of land in the southern hemisphere. Much earlier, in the Middle Ages,
some had seriously questioned whether there could possibly be antipodes.
Learned and ingenious men argued about it, for and against, at
considerable length; for it was much easier to write large folios in
Latin about the form of the earth than to go forth in ships and find
out. One famous cosmographer, Cosmas Indicopleustes, scoffed at the very
idea of there being countries inhabited by people who walked about with
their feet opposite to those of Europeans and their bodies (as he
imagined) hanging downwards, like flies on a ceiling. How, he asked,
could rain 'be said to "fall" or "descend," as in the Psalms and
Gospels, in those regions where it could only be said to come up?'
Consequently he declared ideas about antipodes to be nothing better than
'old wives' fables.'
Another class of speculators maintained that there necessarily must be
antipodes, because the globe had to be equally poised on both sides of
its own centre. As there was a large mass of land, consisting of Europe,
Asia, northern Africa, and North America, on the one side of the
Equator, they argued that there had to be a balance of earth at the
opposite extremity.
To understand how speculation was set at rest and Australia came to be
discovered, it is necessary to bear in mind a few facts connected
with the expansion of European energy in maritime exploration, trade,
and colonization.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a great and wonderful
series of events opened new sea-routes and fresh lands to the enterprise
of mankind. There was keen competition to secure the profits arising
from trade with the East--from the silk and cotton fabrics of China and
India, the spices, gold, jewels and metal work, the rice and sugar, and
many other things which European peoples were glad to purchase and
oriental lands could supply. This trade had in earlier years come partly
overland, along caravan routes to the Levant, partly by water to the Red
Sea, and then through Egypt to Alexandria. The goods were collected by
Venetians, Genoese, and other merchants, chiefly Italians, in vessels
plying in the Mediterranean, and sold to European buyers. But the
Portuguese discovered that by sailing round Africa they could bring
commodities from the East cheaper and safer than by the old routes. They
had made many voyages down the west coast of Africa during the fifteenth
century, until at last, in 1486, Bartholomew Diaz steered his ships
round the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1497 Vasco da Gama beat that record
by conducting two vessels all the way to India and back to Lisbon.
That was one important step towards the discovery of Australia--the
finding of the way to the East from Europe by sea.
It was for the purpose of discovering a still shorter route to the east
that Christopher Columbus, a Genoese in the service of Spain, proposed
to sail west. He argued that if the world were round, a ship sailing
west, straight towards the sunset, must come upon the shores of further
Asia. His reasoning was right, but there was one immense factor which it
was impossible for him to anticipate. He could not know that the path to
the East by the westward passage was blocked by the continent of
America. Columbus, indeed, never did realize that fact to the day of his
death. He never knew that he had found a new world. He always
believed that he had discovered what we may call the back door of Asia.
The Spaniards, having possessed themselves of America through the
discoveries of Columbus and his successors, were still dissatisfied when
they realized that this new continent was not the Orient whence their
Portuguese rivals drew so rich a trade; and for many years they
searched for a strait through it or a way round it. When their explorers
crossed the narrow isthmus of Panama they saw before them an ocean
hitherto unknown to Europeans. This, then, was the sea which Columbus
had striven to reach when his track was barred by the American
continent. This was the sea which it was necessary to traverse to get to
the spice islands by the western route. Columbus was now dead, but Spain
had other gallant navigators in her service. One of them, Ferdinand
Magellan, in 1520, led the way down the east coast of South America,
through the narrow passage named after him, and into what he for the
first time called Mare Pacificum, the quiet sea.
That was the next important step towards the discovery of Australia--the
finding of the Pacific.
To realise the importance of these two series of discoveries, look at a
map showing the position of Australia in relation to South America and
South Africa, and remember that the main purpose of voyagers by either
route was to get as quickly and as safely as possible to the parts with
which there was rich trade to be done--to Ceylon, India, China, Japan,
Java, the Phillipines, and the Spice Islands. It will be seen that
neither the Portuguese sailing round the Cape into the Indian Ocean, nor
the Spaniards sailing round South America into the Pacific, would be
likely to see the coasts of Australia unless they were blown very far
out of their true course, or unless curiosity led them to undertake
extensive voyages of exploration. Taking the two sides of a triangle to
represent the two routes, Australia lay upon the centre of the base line.
That several ships did, accidentally or in pursuit of geographical
knowledge, make a passing acquaintance with parts of Australia during
the sixteenth century is suggested by a few charts, though we do not
know the name of any navigator who did so.
A curious French map of which six copies are known to exist, dated 1542,
presents an outline of a country lying south of Java and inscribed 'Jave
la Grande,' the great Java. On a copy which was presented to King Henry
VIII (by some one who came to England in the suite of Anne of Cleves, it
is conjectured), Java itself was marked by way of distinction as 'the
lytil Java,' or Java the small. It is certain that the French map-maker
worked from Portuguese information, not from original observations of
his own. Allowing for some defects, the map makes it probable that at
least one Portuguese ship had sailed not only along the north-western
coast of Australia, but also along the east coast, from Cape York to the
south of Tasmania, two centuries and a half before the celebrated voyage
of Captain Cook.
In 1598 Cornelius Wytfliet, in a book published at Louvain, wrote as
follows: 'The Australis Terra is the most southern of all lands, and
is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are hitherto
but little known, since after one voyage and another that route has been
deserted, and seldom is the country visited unless sailors are driven
there by storms. The Australis Terra begins at two or three degrees from
the Equator, and is maintained by some to be of so great an extent that
if it were thoroughly explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of
the world.' Those from whom the Louvain geographer drew his information
seem to have had a correct knowledge of the division of New Guinea by a
strait from the land to the south of it, but they imagined that the
southern continent was far vaster than was actually the case. The
supposed Terra Australis of these old cosmographers was indeed a
continent stretching right round the South Pole.
The evidence concerning Australian discovery before the seventeenth
century is so clouded with doubt that it has been asserted to be unworthy
of credence. It has been argued that there is 'no foundation beyond mere
surmise and conjecture' for believing that any part of this country
was known to Europeans until the Dutch appeared upon the scene in 1606.
We certainly do not know the name of any sailor who made discoveries
prior to that date, nor of any ship in which they were made. We have
only a few rough charts, the statement of Cornelius Wytfliet, and
the persistence of a vague tradition. Yet this evidence, unsatisfactory
as it is, cannot be ignored. It is not unlikely that Portuguese
ships sailed along the west, north, and east of Australia, and that
persons on board made sketches of the coastline. There are difficulties
about accepting the map dated 1542 as a representation of Australia.
It brings the land called 'Jave la Grande' too near to the island
of Java, and it projects the most northerly tongue of that mass
between Java and Timor, whereas in fact there is no northern cape of
Australia within hundreds of miles of the gap between those islands. But
the man who drew the chart of the world of which this formed part used
materials obtained from sources unknown to us. He may have had to piece
together information from several rough seamen's charts. He may have
made mistakes in fitting the parts. We cannot tell. These early
intimations are
Faint as a figure seen at early dawn
Down at the far end of an avenue.
It may be thought that, if the Portuguese had really found a great new
land to the southward of the spice islands, they would be proud of the
achievement and would proclaim it to the world. But, on the contrary,
their policy was to conceal the whereabouts and the resources of the
countries which they discovered. They desired to secure for their own
profit the whole of the trade with the East. Especially were they
suspicious of the Spaniards, their neighbours in Europe, their rivals in
oversea empire. The Portuguese being the first to discover the
sea-route to the east round the Cape of Good Hope, and the Spaniards
being the first to discover the way to America across the Atlantic,
both realized that their interests would be bound to clash. Where
was to be the dividing line between their respective spheres of
operation? Pope Alexander VI settled their differences in 1493 by
appropriating to the Portuguese all the discoveries to the east of a
certain meridian, whilst the Spaniards were to take all that lay to the
westward of that line. A little later the two nations voluntarily agreed
to an amendment of the Pope's award, and fixed upon a meridian 370
leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands as the line separating their two
dominions.
But, while this line drawn through the Atlantic did very well before the
discovery of the Pacific Ocean, the agreement needed readjustment after
Magellan sailed out of the Atlantic into the Pacific. The Moluccas were
regarded as a very valuable possession on account of the spices yielded
by them. The Portuguese, who had discovered these islands in 1512,
contended that they were theirs. The Spaniards, however, contended that
the Moluccas were on the western side of the line of partition; they
were, urged the King of Spain, 'in his part of those countries which
pertained unto him according to the Pope's bull.' Consequently there was
'great contention and strife between the Spaniards and the Portugals
about the spicery and division of the Indies.' King John of Portugal,
records a contemporary Spaniard, 'what of stoutness of mind and what for
grief, was puffed up with anger, as were also the rest of the Portugals,
storming as though they would have plucked down the sky with their
hands, not a little fearing lest they should lose the trade of spices if
the Spaniards should once put in their foot.' After much dispute the
King of Spain and the King of Portugal each married the other's sister,
'whereat this matter waxed cold.' The Portuguese kept the Moluccas and
paid a sum of money to the Spanish King for the dropping of his claim to
them; whereat, says the Spanish chronicler, 'some marvelled, others were
sorry, and all held their peace.' But the Spanish traders did not
acknowledge that their rights had been surrendered by this amicable
financial and nuptial bargain between the two kings, though it was for
the moment expedient for them to hold their peace.
In view of these disputes between the rivals as to the possession of
lands in the Pacific, and as the agreement of the kings did not imply
any principle of permanent settlement by the two nations concerning this
part of the globe, it was clearly in the interest of the Portuguese, if
they did discover Australia, to publish nothing about it. The Spaniards
would have had quite as good a claim to this country as to the Moluccas,
and would have insisted that the sum which the Portuguese had paid on
account of those islands by no means covered the large country to the
south. The dispute about the Moluccas was ended in 1529, and the map
comprehending 'Jave la Grande' is dated 1542. If, between those two
dates, the Portuguese became aware of the existence of a large area of
new country, was there not good reason for their suppressing what they
knew? Indeed, no Portuguese map is known to exist showing any country
in the vicinity of Australia. The 1542 map is of French origin. though
the French had no navigators of their own on voyages of this kind so
early. How the French cartographer procured his data we do not know;
ingenious guesses have been made, but we cannot depend upon them.
Apart from their jealousy of the Spaniards, the Portuguese pursued the
general policy of keeping secret their charts and sailing directions.
They did not want to have people of other nations interfering in the
trade of the Orient. A pilot or other person who gave to a foreigner
information concerning the route taken by Portuguese ships on the voyage
to the East Indies was liable to be punished by being put to death. We
cannot wonder, then, that the history of Portuguese activity in
Australasian waters is obscure.
Not until 1606 do we reach certain ground. In that year both Dutch and
Spanish vessels were voyaging within sight of the Australian coast;
and here at last we get in touch with people whom we know by name, and
with first-hand contemporary documentary evidence which we can read
and analyse.
The story of the Spanish voyage is this. The viceroys who were sent out
to govern the American possessions of that country were accustomed to
despatch expeditions to discover new lands. In 1567 an expedition from
Peru under the command of Alvaro de Mendana had discovered the Solomon
Islands, to the east of New Guinea. According to one account of the
voyage, Alvaro would appear to have thought that he had actually
discovered the Great Southern Continent of which men suspected the
existence. 'The greatest island that they discovered was according unto
the first finder called Guadalcanal, on the coast whereof they sailed 150
leagues before they could know whether it were an island or part of the
mainland; and yet they knew not perfectly what to make of it, but think
that it may be part of that continent which stretcheth to the Straits of
Magellan; for they coasted it to eighteen degrees and could not find the
end thereof. The gold that they found was upon this island or mainland;
but because the Spaniards understood not the language of the country, and
also for the Indians were very stout and fought continuously against
them, they could never learn from whence that gold came, nor yet what
store was in the land.'
Alvaro, named the group of islands the Solomons with the deliberate
purpose of alluring other Spaniards to settle there--'to the end that the
Spaniards, supposing them to be those isles from whence Solomon fetched
gold to adorn the temple at Jerusalem, might be the more desirous to go
and inhabit the same.' Alvaro, indeed, thought that it would be
advantageous to establish a Spanish colony at the Solomons; so in 1595 he
brought another expedition into the Pacific with that purpose in view. On
his second voyage he discovered the Marquesas Island, but he could not
now find the Solomons where he had been twenty-eight years before. It was
no uncommon circumstance in those days for a navigator to lose his
way at sea; and Alvaro had not been sufficiently precise in his reckoning
to know their exact whereabouts. He died at Santa Cruz, a small group of
islands south-east of the Solomons, before he had rediscovered the object
of his quest.
One of the officers on this second expedition of Alvaro was Pedro
Fernandez de Quiros. He was one of those Spaniards who believed that
there was a Great Southern Continent which, from the vicinity of the
Solomons, 'sretcheth to the Straits of Magellan.' The acquisition
of this continent would, he urged, be full of advantage for Spain. He
laid his case before King Philip III, and as a result was commissioned to
command three ships for the purpose of colonizing Santa Cruz and
searching for the continent.
On December 21, 1605, the expedition sailed from Callao in Peru. The
officer second in command was Luis de Torres. But Quiros was not able to
manage his crew. They were mutinous, and, as Torres tells us in his
relation of the voyage, 'made him turn from the course.' When the ships
reached the island of Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides, they parted
company. At midnight on June 11, Quiros's flagship, the ST. PETER AND
ST. PAUL, slipped out of harbour, 'and,' says Torres, 'although the next
morning we went out to seek for them and made all proper efforts, it was
not possible for us to find them, for they did not sail on the proper
course nor with good intention.' It is to be inferred from Torres's
language that Quiros's mutinous crew had compelled him to sail back to
Peru, leaving behind the two other ships, with Torres in command of them.
What was he to do now that the leader of the expedition had departed? Was
he tamely to abandon the voyage, and steer back to Callao? Torres
resolved that he would not return until he had achieved some amount of
exploration. At this determination he arrived 'contrary to the
inclinations of many, I may say of the greater part'; but he added, with
a touch of pride in his own capacity for command, and also with a spice
of scorn for the failure of Quiros, 'my condition was different from that
of Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros.'
Torres, therefore, after satisfying himself that the land whereat they
had been lying was an island, and not a portion of a continent, sailed
till he fell in with the southern coast of New Guinea. Then for two
anxious months he threaded his way through the reefs and islands of the
intricate and dangerous strait which separates that country from
Australia. He sighted the hills of Cape York (which he took to be a
cluster of islands), made an acquaintance with the savage islanders of
the strait, and, emerging into the open sea, steered at length for the
Philippines, where he wrote an account of the voyage.
Quiros stoutly professed that he had discovered the Great Southern
Continent, and in 1610 a narrative of the voyage was published wherein it
was announced that 'all this region of the south as far as the Pole '
should be called 'Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.' The word 'Austrialia'
was intended to pay a compliment to Philip III of Spain (a Hapsburg
sovereign, and as such a member of the House of Austria) as well as to
convey the meaning that this new land was a southern continent. The word
was chosen, says Quiros, 'from his Majesty's title of Austria.' But
Torres could have told him, and perhaps did, that he had by no means
discovered a continent, but merely an island of no very large
proportions. Quiros had never been within five hundred miles of the real
continent. Torres had seen it, but did not know that he had.
But the dawn of discovery had now broken.
CHAPTER II
THE DUTCH AND NEW HOLLAND
Spain and the Netherlands--Cornelius Houtman's voyage to the East
Indies--The Dutch settled at Java--The DUYFKEN in the Gulf of
Carpentaria--Brouwer's new route to the Indies--Dirk Hartog in
Shark's Bay--Discovery of Nuytsland--Leeuwin's Land discovered--Wreck
of the English ship TRIAL--Tasman's voyages--New Holland.
The entrance of the Dutch into the East as explorers, colonists, and
merchants was connected with European events of very great importance.
The Reformation was principally an affair of churches and forms of
religious belief, but it also had far-reaching consequences touching
politics, commerce, and all the manifold interests of mankind. Its
influence extended throughout the known world, and led to the discovery
of regions hitherto unknown.
During the third quarter of the sixteenth century Philip II of Spain was
engaged in a bitter, bloody struggle with his subjects in the
Netherlands. Thousands of them broke away from the ancient Church of
which he was a devoted champion. Philip, loathing heresy, set himself to
'exterminate the root and ground of this pest,' and his ruthless Spanish
soldiery carried out their master's injunctions with such pitiless
ferocity that their effort to crush the revolt stands as one of the most
awful phases of modern history. For over thirty years the Spanish sword
was wet with the blood of the people of the Netherlands. In the southern
provinces, Brabant and Flanders, Protestantism was suppressed; but the
north, Holland and Zealand successfully defied the gloomy, conscientious
fanatic who issued his edicts of persecution from Madrid.
The Dutch people at the time of the revolt did the largest sea-carrying
trade in Europe. Their mercantile marine was numerous, and was manned by
bold and skilful sailors. A very considerable part of their commerce
consisted in fetching from Lisbon goods brought by the Portuguese from
the East, and distributing them throughout the continent. It was a very
profitable business, and it quite suited the Dutch that the Portuguese
should enjoy a monopoly in oriental trade as long as they themselves kept
the major part of the European carrying trade. They grew rich and
increased their shipping, and the growth of their wealth and sea-power
enabled them the better to defy Philip II.
Failing, therefore, to subjugate the Dutch by sword and cannon, Philip
resolved to humble them by stifling their trade. In 1580 the throne of
Portugal had fallen vacant, and a Spanish army which crossed the frontier
had forced the Portuguese to accept Philip as king. For sixty years to
come--until the Portuguese regained their independence in 1640--the
gallant little country which had achieved such glorious pre-eminence in
commerce and discovery remained in 'captivity' to Spain. The control thus
secured by Philip over the colonies and the shipping of Portugal enabled
him to strike the desired blow at the Dutch. In 1584 he commanded that
Lisbon should be closed to their ships. Barring against the heretic
rebels the port whither came the goods from which they had derived such
abundant gains, he thought he could chastise them for their disobedience
by the ruin of their commerce.
But Philip wholly underestimated the spirit and enterprise of the Dutch
people. They had baffled the best of his generals, beaten the choicest of
his troops, and captured his ships upon the sea. They were now prepared
to scorn his new menace by fetching direct the commodities which they had
hitherto obtained from Lisbon. First they tried to find a new route to
the East by a passage north of Europe, but were blocked by the ice of the
Arctic Sea. If they were to succeed they must force their way into the
trade by the Portuguese route in the teeth of Spanish opposition.
Many Dutch sailors had served on Portuguese vessels. Though the
Portuguese tried to keep their sailing routes secret, and had never
published maps, they had often had to avail themselves of the services of
Dutch mariners; and these men knew the way. One of them, Cornelius
Houtman, had actually been a pilot in the oriental trade. Another
Dutchman, John Linschoten, had lived for fourteen years in the East
Indies, and upon his return published at Amsterdam (1595) a remarkable
book called ITINERARIO, wherein he told all he knew. Several Englishmen
had also wandered about the seas and lands of Asia, often having painful
experiences, and their adventures had been described in Richard Hakluyt's
PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, AND DISCOVERIES, published in 1589. So
that in various ways the Dutch already knew more about the Indies than
King Philip supposed, and they were ready to act boldly in putting their
knowledge to practical uses.
A company of Amsterdam merchants fitted out a fleet of four ships,
placed them under Cornelius Houtman's direction, and sent them on a
voyage to the spice islands. They were over two years away, from April
1595 to July 1597, but they did great things for Holland. They were the
first Dutch ships to round the Cape of Good Hope and to visit Madagascar,
Goa, Java, and the Moluccas. Cornelius Houtman and his brother Frederick
were important pioneers of Dutch energy in the East. We have the name of
the latter on the map of Australia at Houtman's Abrolhos, the long shoal
off the west coast of the continent. Abrolhos, in Portuguese, means
literally 'open eyes,' and was given because this was part of a coast
where it was needful to keep a sharp look-out. The use of the word by
Dutchmen is in itself interesting, as indicating that, in consequence of
the service in which they acquired their experience, the employment of a
Portuguese sea-term seemed most convenient to them.
Here, then, was another step on the way to the discovery of Australia--the
forcing of an entry into the eastern trade by the Dutch.
Houtman having shown the road, others were quick to follow. Before the
end of the sixteenth century the Dutch had established themselves at Java
(1598) and seven companies had been formed to make profits from the
eastern trade. Fleet after fleet sailed forth from Holland. They were
well armed and efficiently manned; they were quite prepared to
fight their way against the Spaniards and the Portuguese. This they
successfully did, both in the East, where at Malacca in 1606 they
destroyed a fleet of their rivals, and in European waters, where at
Gibraltar Bay in 1607 a large Spanish fleet was annihilated by a small
Dutch squadron commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk. With wonderful rapidity
the new-comers supplanted the Portuguese as the principal European power
in eastern seas.
In the first half century of their activity a spirit of investigation
accompanied their commercial enterprise. They explored, charted, and
published. A series of most beautiful maps was produced by Hollanders,
adding to the world's geographical knowledge. Partly accidentally, partly
as the result of explorations, they pieced together an outline of the
northern, and western coasts of the continent which lay to the south of
the spice islands.
The first Dutch vessel known to have visited part of the Australian
coast was the DUYFKEN (i.e. the Little Dove), despatched to examine the
coasts and islands of New Guinea. This yacht, which was commanded by
Willem Jansz, was actually in Torres Strait in March 1606, a few weeks
before Torres sailed through it. But provisions ran short, and nine of
the crew were murdered by natives, who Were found to be 'wild, cruel,
black savages'; so that the DUYFKEN did not penetrate beyond Cape
Keer-weer (i.e. Cape Turn-again), on the west side of the Cape York
Peninsula. Her captain returned in the belief that the south coast of
New Guinea was joined to the land along which he coasted, and Dutch maps
reproduced this error for many years to come.
A knowledge of the west coast was gradually gained through a series of
accidents, happy and otherwise. Naturally, when the Dutch first sailed
into these seas they followed the route which the Portuguese had always
pursued. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope they ran along the coast of
Africa north-east as far as Madagascar, and then struck across the
Indian Ocean. But this route was painfully long. A ship would often find
herself becalmed for weeks together in the tropics. The heat was
intensely oppressive, the crews suffered severely from scurvy and
dysentery, and it was no uncommon circumstance for a ship to lose
60 per cent. of her people on the voyage. The cargo frequently
deteriorated, and the vessels became foul and gaping at the seams.
A voyage would sometimes last over a year; the minimum time was
nine months. An Englishman who visited the Portuguese settlements
in 1584 noted that ships which missed the July monsoons were generally
unable to cross the Indian Ocean, but had to return to St. Helena;
'albeit,' he recorded as a marvellous thing, 'in the year of our
Lord 1580 there arrived the ship called the LORENZO, being wonderful sore
sea-beaten, the eighth of October, which was accounted as a miracle for
that the like had not been seen before.' A route thus full of impediments
to safe and speedy navigation was so inconvenient that the Dutch realized
the importance of finding a better one. The Dutch map illustrating the
voyage of Van Neck's fleet in 1598-1600, indicates the route followed.
In 1611 Hendrik Brouwer, a commander of marked ability who subsequently
became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, made a discovery. He
found that if, after leaving the Cape, he steered due east for about
three thousand miles, and then set a course north for Java, he had the
benefit of favourable winds, which enabled him to finish the voyage in
much less time than the old route required. Brouwer wrote to the
directors of the Dutch East India Company pointing out that he had sailed
from Holland to Java in seven months, and recommending that ships'
captains should be instructed to take the same course in future. The
directors followed his advice; and from the year 1613 all Dutch
commanders were under instructions to follow Brouwer's route.
The bearing of this change on the discovery of the west coast of
Australia will be immediately apparent to any one who glances at a map of
the southern Indian Ocean. The distance from the Cape of Good Hope to
Cape Leeuwin is about 4,300 miles. A vessel running eastward with a free
wind, and anxious to make the most of it before changing her course
northward, would be very likely to sight the Australian coast.
That is precisely what occurred to the ship EENDRAGT (i.e. Concord). Her
captain, Dirk Hartog, ran farther eastward than Brouwer had advised,
reaching Shark's Bay and landing on the island which to this day bears his
name. He erected there a post, and nailed to it a tin plate upon which
was engraved the record that on October 25, 1616, the ship EENDRAGT from
Amsterdam had arrived there, and had sailed for Bantam on the 27th. Dirk
Hartog's plate was found by Captain Vlaming, of the Dutch ship GEELVINK,
eighty years later. The post had decayed, but the plate itself was
'unaffected by rain, air, or sun.' Vlaming sent it to Amsterdam as an
interesting memorial of discovery, and erected another post and plate in
place of it; and Vlaming's plate in turn remained until 1817, when
Captain Louis de Freycinet, the commander of a French exploring
expedition, took it away with him to Paris.
Dirk Hartog's discovery was recognised by the seamen of his nation as one
which conduced to safer navigation. Brouwer's sailing direction had left
it indefinite at what point the turn northward should be commenced. But
now there was a landmark, and amended instructions were issued to Dutch
mariners that they should sail from the Cape between the latitudes of
thirty and forty degrees for about four thousand miles until the 'New
Southland of the EENDRAGT' was sighted. 'The land of the EENDRAGT'
--'T'Landt van de EENDRAGT'--that was the first name given by the Dutch
to this country; and it so appears upon several early maps of the world
published at Amsterdam.
In this way the western coasts of Australia were brought within sight of
the regular sailing track of vessels from Europe; and as soon as that
occurred the finding of other portions of the coast was only a matter of
time. Of course all the captains did not reach the coast at the same
spot. Violent winds would sometimes blow a vessel hundreds of miles out
of her planned course. Both going to and coming from the East Indies
ships would discover fresh pieces of coastline in quite a chance manner.
Thus, De Wit sailing homeward from Batavia in 1628 in the VYANEN was by
headwinds driven aground upon the north-west coast, and had to throw
overboard a quantity of pepper and copper, 'upon which through God's
mercy she got off again without further damage.' That bit of coast was
named 'De Wit's Land.' In 1627 the GULDEN SEEPAART, having 'on board a'
high official, Pieter Nuyts, discovered a portion of the southern coast,
as far as the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis at the head of the
Great Australian Bight, from the southwest corner, which was already
named Leeuwin's Land because a ship of that name (LEEUWIN, meaning the
Lioness) discovered that particular portion in 1623.
It was during the same period that the first English ship of which there
is any record in connection with Australia appeared off the coast and
met with disaster. Upon a Dutch chart of 1627 is marked a reef north-west
of Dirk Hartog's Island, with the information that the English ship TRIAL
was wrecked there in 1622. ('Hier ist Engels Schip de TRIAL
vergaen in Junius 1, 1622.') She must have been a vessel of good size,
since she carried a company of 133. Forty-six of them were saved in boats
which made their way to Batavia, where their arrival on July 5 was
reported by the Dutch Governor-General to the managers of the East
India Company. 'The said ship TRIAL,' said the report, 'ran on these
rocks in the night time in fine weather, without having seen land, and
the heavy swells caused the ship to run aground directly, so that it got
filled with water. The forty-six persons afore-mentioned put off from her
in the greatest disorder with the boat and pinnace each separately,
leaving ninety-seven persons in the ship, whose fate is known to God
alone.' That was the unfortunate commencement of the acquaintance of the
English with Australia--nearly a century and a half before Captain Cook
sailed along the east coast.
In the history of Australian discovery the name of one Dutch navigator
stands pre-eminent. It is that of Abel Tasman Born in 1603, in a little
village whose lush pastures were sheltered behind the dykes of Friesland,
he grew up whilst the Hollanders were achieving their well-earned
victory over the detested Spaniards. His countrymen were firmly
established in the East Indies when he first saw the light; and the
Company's service offered excellent opportunities to a well-trained,
intelligent young sailor such as he became. Tasman's rise was very
speedy. Commencing as an ordinary seaman, within two years he had become
the captain of a vessel. There were no more capable men afloat at this
time than were the Dutch, and the sharp merchants who directed the
East India Company's affairs would not have entrusted one of their ships
to any but a first-class navigator. From the rapidity of Tasman's
promotion and the special class of work for which he was selected in the
East, we may safely infer that he stood out as a keen, bold, trustworthy,
and vigorous-minded commander.
It was fortunate for the fame of Tasman that during his career in the
Indies the direction of the government there was in the hands of Anthony
van Diemen. This most distinguished of the Dutch Governor-Generals
attained office in 1636, and held it till 1645. He ruled not only with a
desire to promote the strength and profit of the Netherlands in the
East, but also with the keenest anxiety to find out what was to be known
about the undiscovered lands of the South Seas. The instructions which he
issued to the officers whom he employed in this service were marked by
ripe wisdom, shrewd business instincts, and a discerning application of
such knowledge, as had been accumulated by previous investigators. He
enjoined 'great circumspection' in the treatment of natives. 'Slight
misdemeanours on the part of such natives, such as petty thefts and the
like, you will pass unnoticed, that by doing so you may draw them unto
you, and not inspire them with aversion to our nation. Whoever aspires 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.' At the same time he did not forget that the managers of the
company in Holland looked to him to do more than expand the boundaries of
human knowledge. They were commercial people, whose main concern was to
make profit. So Van Diemen directed that, if gold and silver were found,
and the natives did not understand the value of them, they were to be
kept ignorant. 'Appear as if you were not greedy for them, and if gold
or silver is offered in any barter you must feign that you do not value
those metals, showing them copper, zinc, and lead, as if those metals
were of more value with us.'
By 1642, when Tasman was commissioned to command the first voyage of
exploration, he had already had nearly ten years of service in the East,
and had rendered distinguished service to his nation there. Van Diemen
placed two ships under his command, the HEEMSKERK and the ZEEHAEN, and
sent with him as pilot Franz Visscher, an experienced officer, who drew
up the plan of the voyage. The object of it was to explore with the hope
of opening up fresh avenues for trade and of finding a more convenient
route to South America, where the Dutch were aiming at the extension of
their commerce in defiance of Spain. Sailing from Batavia on August
14, 1642, Tasman's ships made a wide circuit in the Indian Ocean,
touching at Mauritius, and then running southward until they encountered
tempestuous weather. They reached the high latitude of 49 degrees, when,
upon Visscher's advice, Tasman decided to move back again into warmer
seas. In latitude 42 they scudded along before westerly gales until, on
November 24, the look-out man gave warning of land ahead. They wore, in
fact, within sight of the country which its discoverer named Van Diemen's
Land, and which now bears the name of Tasman himself. His landfall is
believed to have been near the entrance of Macquarie Harbour, on the west
coast of the island, within sight of the two mountains which Flinders in
1798 named, after Tasman's ships, Mounts Heemskerk and Zeehaen.
Coasting round the south of the island, Tasman planted the flag of Prince
Frederick Henry, the Standtholder of the Netherlands, as a symbol of
taking possession; and on December 4 he sailed east. Nine days later he
sighted the west coast of the south island of New Zealand and anchored
in Massacre Bay--so called because three of his crew were killed there by
Maoris. 'This is the second land we have discovered,' recorded Tasman in
his journal; 'it appears to be a very fine country.' His name for it was
Staten Land, in honour of the States-General of Holland. To the sea
between Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand the discoverer gave the name
of Abel Tasman's Passage, in the erroneous belief that New Zealand was
part of the Great Southern Continent--the mysterious Terra Australis
Incognita--and that this stretch of ocean was simply a strait between it
and New Holland. In recent years the British Admiralty has, very
appropriately, upon its charts, adopted the name of Tasman Sea for the
waters between Australia and New Zealand.
After leaving New Zealand Tasman sailed into the Pacific, calling at the
Friendly Islands, and thence made his way home round by the north coast
of New Guinea, reaching Batavia on June 15, 1643, after a voyage of ten
months, in which he had achieved discoveries of capital importance.
In a second voyage of 1644 Tasman set out to find a passage between New
Guinea and the land to the southward of it, which the Dutch now fully
understood to be of vast extent. They did not of course know that Torres
had actually been through the passage thirty-eight years before: that was
a fact of which they could not be aware. If Tasman could find a strait
he was to sail through it, and travel as far as Van Diemen's Land, thence
making for the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis, and returning to
Batavia by the coast of the Land of the EENDRAGT. It is evident that if
Tasman had accomplished this task, he would have demonstrated Australia
to be an island continent, and the whole mystery about Terra Australis
would have been cleared up. But for reasons which are not apparent (the
journals of Tasman's 1644 voyage are not extant, so that we do not know
what his difficulties were), he did not find the passage, and returned to
Batavia in August without penetrating to the Pacific by that route. He
probably gave the name Carpentaria to the land which he concluded was
joined to New Guinea, thus honouring a former Governor-General, Pieter
Carpenter (1622-8).
After Tasman's voyages the Dutch commenced to use the name New Holland
for the land which they believed to comprehend Van Diemen's Land and the
entire region north of De Wit's Land; though they had never been upon the
east coast.
The great period of Dutch exploration in Australasia ended with Tasman
and Van Diemen. There are no names to compare with theirs for breadth of
scope and splendour of accomplishment. But a very great piece of work had
been done. The Dutch had, by accidental discoveries and by planned
investigations, gained a knowledge of the coastline of Australia from
the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Bight, and had added New Zealand and Van
Diemen's Land to the sphere. The map as Tasman left it in 1644 remained
practically unaltered until after Cook's voyage of 1770.
CHAPTER III
DAMPIER AND COOK
Cessation of Dutch explorations--Policy of Dutch East India Company--
Dampier's first voyage to Australia in the CYGNET--His voyage in the
ROEBUCK--Cook's voyages--Discovery of New South Wales--Botany Bay--Voyage
of the RESOLUTION--Popularity of Cook's VOYAGES.
The Dutch having achieved so much, how was it that they did not complete
the discovery of the whole of Australia? Why did the spirit of
investigation which had animated Van Diemen flicker out when he was no
more? The great Governor-General died in 1645, the year after Tasman's
second voyage. The explorer himself lived on till 1659, but he was not
again employed in discovery work, nor did he live to see his own
brilliant exploits eclipsed by others of his nation.
The answer is that further voyages of discovery were discouraged by the
managers of the East India Company, because they were expensive and did
not produce immediate profits. Though the Dutch nation stood at the back
of the Company, and though its managers and principal officers were
appointed by the Government of the Netherlands, these managers themselves
were commercial men. 'Merchants being at the helm, merchandise was
accounted a matter of State,' wrote a contemporary.
Indeed, had Van Diemen lived a few months longer, he would have received
a letter from the managers administering to him a chilling rebuke for the
expense he had already incurred. Voyages to discover new lands did not
increase the Company's profits. They cost money, and brought in no
return. Van Diemen had hoped to pay for them by discoveries of gold and
silver. There was plenty of both in New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, and
New Zealand--mountains of silver and shimmering masses of gold, more
than Solomon, Croesus, the Pharaohs, and the Grand Mogul together had
ever dreamt of. But it had to be found; it was not lying among the
pebbles on the beaches; and the black and painted savages who inhabited
these countries knew nothing about it. They were not people with whom
profitable business could be done. They were too low down in the scale of
civilization even for barter. Why, then, bother about these remote and
unremunerative countries? asked the commercial gentlemen in Amsterdam.
There was sure profit, and plenty of it, to be made out of the nutmegs of
Amboyna, the cloves of Ceylon, the rice of India, the pepper of the
Moluccas, the cinnamon of Java, the silks of China, and all the other
rich merchandise of the abounding East. Discovery was all very well, but
it yielded simply nothing per cent.
Van Diemen would perhaps have been very angry--certainly he would have
been sorry--if he had read the letter which came from the managers
shortly after they received the news of Tasman's voyage of 1644; but he
was dead before it reached Java, and was spared the knowledge of this
official censure. 'We see that your worships have again taken up the
further exploration of the coast of New Guinea in the hopes of
discovering silver and gold mines there,' wrote the Company. 'We do not
expect great things of the continuance of such explorations, which more
and more burden the Company's resources, since they require increase of
ships and 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, try and derive profit from the same, such things
involve a good deal more, demanding excessive expenditure and large
numbers of hands. These plans of your worships 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.'
There can be no doubt that some of the choice and ardent spirits among
the Hollanders, in Europe as well as in the East, deeply regretted this
relinquishment of all effort that did not bring in gain. Witsen, the
principal director of the Company at the end of the seventeenth century,
said in a letter: 'It is money only, not learned knowledge, that our
people go out to seek over there, the which is sorely to be regretted.'
But he and his like could not change the general disposition of his
colleagues and countrymen. For the Dutch, henceforth, New Holland was
simply a land which they sighted in voyaging to and from the East Indies.
The vast coastline may have excited their curiosity, but did not prompt
them to investigate the resources of the country. They never saw the
coasts which were most inviting in appearance, those of the south and the
east. They only looked upon the west and the north, and carried away
impressions of sterility.
In 1688, while King James II was still reigning in England, the shores of
Australia received a visit from a company of buccaneers who included an
Englishman with a talent for picturesque writing and an inborn love of
adventure--William Dampier. He and his companions on the CYGNET (Captain
Swan) had been pursuing a career of sheer piracy in the China seas. They
had stolen the very ship in which they sailed, and had committed such
offences as would have justified the Spaniards, if they had been caught,
in giving each of them sufficient rope with a noose at the end of it, and
sufficient yard-arm accommodation, to end their most nefarious courses.
But it would have been a pity if Dampier had met with that fate, since it
would have deprived posterity of a very delightful book of travels. There
were quite good reasons why the CYGNET should for a while get out of the
way of ships which might be looking for her; so her company determined to
sail to the quiet region of New Holland, 'to see what that country would
afford us.'
Dampier's experience of Australia was not considerable on this voyage.
The ship dropped anchor on the northwestern shore, somewhere near
Melville Island, and stayed there for some weeks to enable her to be
careened. His picturesque pen gives a lively account of the natives whom
he and his companions encountered. It was found to be impossible to
'allure them with toys to a commerce,' nor had they any kind of
provisions to supply. There was no valuable plunder to be had here, and
the pirates were glad to get away after cleaning the ship, mending the
sails, and taking aboard fresh water. Dampier, even on this expedition,
showed himself many degrees superior to his companions. He was ever an
inquirer, and the making of maps and drawings had a continual fascination
for him. 'I drew a draft of this land,' he tells us; but he lost it with
other papers when a boat was capsized later.
A very strange mistake was made by Dampier about the name of the Land of
The Eendragt, which he found upon Dutch charts. As we have seen, the name
was that of a ship. But Dampier, in common with most seamen of his period,
believed the legends which were current as to there being coasts of
lodestone which mysteriously drew ships towards them. In his first volume
of VOYAGES, therefore, Dampier referred to the fact that 'the Dutch call
part of this coast the land of the indraught,' because it 'magically drew
ships too fast to it.'
The importance of this first acquaintance of Dampier with Australia lay
in the schemes which he evolved as the result of it. When he returned to
England he published an account of his travels, which evoked a large
amount of interest, and made him a person of some consequence. Leading
men of affairs were glad to converse with him, and he used his
opportunities to promote a voyage of discovery to New Holland under his
own command. He had influential patrons, the Admiralty were convinced
that there was advantage in the project, and in 1699 the ship ROEBUCK was
placed at his disposal for the purpose.
In this vessel Dampier made his second and more extensive acquaintance
with Australia. Had he carried out his original intention of approaching
the country by the route round the Horn and through the Pacific, he would
have discovered the east coast, and the importance of the ROEBUCK'S
voyage would have been enormously increased. But Dampier himself dreaded
the cold of the Horn passage--he had been accustomed to warm seas--and
his crew grumbled about having to sail that way. So he chose the route
round the Cape of Good Hope, which brought him on to the western coasts
of the continent, where the Dutch had been before him.
He made land on August 6 at Shark's Bay, which he so named because his
men caught and ate shark there and they took care that no waste should be
made, but thought it, as things stood, good entertainment.' The
description which Dampier gave in the book published after his return was
the best account of New Holland made available up to his time. True, he
did not find the country in any way attractive. 'If it were not for that
sort of pleasure which results from the discovery even of the barrenest
spot upon the globe, this coast of New Holland would not have charmed me
much.' The natives were utterly repellent. They were black, ugly,
fly-blown, blinking creatures, the most unpleasing human beings he had
ever encountered, 'though I have seen a great variety of savages.'
Dampier was four months on the west and north-west coasts, which he
traversed for a thousand miles, but he did not see anything encouraging.
Then, 'it being the height of the dry season, and my men growing
scorbutic for want of refreshments, so that I had little encouragement to
search further, I resolved to leave this coast.' The end of the voyage
was unfortunate, for the ship, a thoroughly rotten old craft, was wrecked
on the way home, and the commander had nothing to report to the Admiralty
that was likely to induce the making of colonisation experiments in
Australia.
After Dampier, Australia remained in obscurity for nearly three quarters
of a century. The Dutch had no use for it, and the English betrayed no
more than a languid curiosity concerning it. A few romancers allowed
their imagination to weave fantastic fables about it. The best-known
example is that of Swift, who printed a map with GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
showing the position of Lilliput where Gulliver was wrecked,
corresponding precisely with the south-west coast of Australia. Swift
copied his map from Dampier, and makes Gulliver say that he was a cousin
of that adventurous buccaneer.
The veil is lifted again by the appearance in these seas of one of the
great navigators of history, James Cook.
In the year 1769 there would occur an astronomical event of which
the Royal Society of London desired that careful observation should be
made. The orbit of the planet Venus would cross the face of the sun, and
the phenomenon could be watched in particularly favourable circumstances
in the south seas. The Society therefore requested the Admiralty to
furnish a ship to go south, equipped with trained observers and
instruments, to watch this interesting transit of Venus. The request was
granted, a collier called the EARL OF PEMBROKE, 370 tons, was bought for
2,800 pounds, she was renamed the ENDEAVOUR BARK, and was re-fitted for
the special service for which she was commissioned.
James Cook, who was selected to command the expedition, had already won
the confidence of the Admiralty by some excellent charting work which he
had done in the St. Lawrence, at Newfoundland, and at Labrador. His rank
in the Navy when he made this famous voyage was lieutenant, though he
will always be known as Captain Cook; and the vessel was officially
entered as the ENDEAVOUR BARK to distinguish her from another ship of the
Navy called the ENDEAVOUR, though history knows but one of that name. The
voyage evoked unusual interest; the poet Goldsmith referred to it in the
prologue to a play:
In these bold times when Learning's sons explore
The distant climate and the savage shore;
When wise astronomers to India steer,
And quit for Venus many a brighter here.
Cook's instructions directed him to sail to Tahiti, in the Pacific, to
enable the transit of Venus to be observed, and then 'to prosecute the
design of making discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean by proceeding to
the south as far as the latitude of 40 degrees.' That meant that he was
to search for the supposed Terra Australis Incognita, the great continent
which some believed to extend round the pole. If he found no land there,
he was to sail to New Zealand, explore it, and then return to England 'by
such route as I should think proper.' So that he was not expressly
instructed to explore New Holland. He was given a free hand to make such
investigations as might seem to him to be advantageous, after completing
the specified programme.
The voyage commenced on August 26, 1768, and the transit of Venus was
successfully observed on June 1, 1769. It is from that point that Cook's
movements become historically interesting. He ran south to look for the
supposed continent, but, finding no land, made for New Zealand, where he
remained, charting and exploring, for nearly six months. Cook
demonstrated that that country consisted of two large islands, divided by
a strait, and he charted the whole of it, doing this work so well,
despite the difficulty of surveying a rough coast from a ship like the
ENDEAVOUR, that a later French navigator, passing along the coast with
Cook's chart in hand, confessed that 'I found it of an exactitude and of
a thoroughness of detail which astonished me beyond all power of
expression.' His circumnavigation of both islands demolished the theory
which many had entertained before his time, that the land discovered by
Tasman would be found to be a fragment of a great antarctic continent.
After leaving New Zealand, on March 31, 1770, Cook decided to sail for
the east coast of New Holland, that east coast which the Dutch had never
explored, and which was not laid down upon any mariner's chart. Cook knew
that there was original work to do there. Obviously, as the west coast of
New Holland had been so well known to navigators from the Netherlands,
there must be an east coast also. Cook was certainly unaware of the
existence of any maps suggesting the possibility that the Portuguese had
been upon this coast more than two centuries before. Nor is it true that
his discovery was a happy accident, as has sometimes been represented.
His own words prove that his purpose was deliberately shaped. He resolved
to sail westward from New Zealand 'until we fall in with the east coast
of New Holland, and then to follow the direction of that coast to the
northward, or what other direction it might take us, until we arrive at
its northern extremity.' The plan could hardly have been laid down in
clearer terms.
At six o'clock in the morning on Thursday, April 20, Lieutenant Hicks,
who was on watch, sighted the coast of New Holland. The date given in
Cook's log and journal is April 19, but it must be remembered that,
Australia having been approached by sailing west from Europe, round Cape
Horn, ship's time was out of relation to Greenwich time, and Cook had not
so far made a correction. He did not correct his time till he arrived at
Batavia. Moreover, he dated events in the nautical manner of reckoning,
and the nautical day began at noon. The date given in his log is
therefore a day behind the civil calendar,
There is also some doubt about the exact locality of Cook's Australian
landfall. He named the 'southernmost point of land we had in sight,'
Point Hicks, because 'Lieutenant Hicks was the first who discovered this
country.' But unfortunately Cook stated the latitude and longitude of his
Point Hicks incorrectly. He wrote that he 'judged' the point to be where
as a matter of fact there is no land at all, but only open ocean. We have
therefore to infer what Cook's Point Hicks was from his descriptive
words. The 'southernmost point' in sight of the ENDEAVOUR at the time
was that which figures on Admiralty charts as Cape Everard.
Rounding Cape Howe, the ENDEAVOUR sailed north along the east coast, and
on Sunday, April 30 (April 29 by Cook's log) anchored in Botany Bay at
three o'clock in the afternoon. There was a tradition in Cook's family
that the first to land was his wife's cousin, Isaac Smith, who sailed as
a midshipman. The lad went in the boat from the ship to the shore, and as
the prow ran up the beach, Cook said, 'Now then, Isaac, you go first.'
The name originally given to the place was Stingray Harbour, but
afterwards, in consequence of the number of new plants collected by the
botanists, it was called Botany Bay; and it appears under that name in
Cook's charts. Joseph Banks, who, with the professional botanist
Solander, was responsible for these collections, recorded that they were
'immensely large,' and they evoked so much interest in Europe that the
great Swedish botanist Linnaeus wrote that 'the new-found country ought
to be called Banksia.' A stay of a week was made in the harbour. The ship
then continued her voyage northward, past the entrance to Port Jackson
(which was marked down and named after George Jackson, an Admiralty
official), and so on for nearly four months of difficult navigation along
a totally unknown coast which Cook was confident no European had ever
seen before.
Cook did not claim that he accomplished a feat of discovery when he took
his ship through Endeavour Strait. The authentic record of Torres' voyage
was found in the Spanish archives at Manilla in 1762; but, though Cook
had not seen a translation of it at this time, he knew that the matter of
the separation of New Guinea was by many regarded as uncertain. So he
cautiously wrote that 'as I believe it was known before, but not
publicly, I claim no other merit than the clearing up of a doubtful
point.' After threading his way through the labyrinth of reefs and
islands, and getting into safe water, Cook landed at Possession Island on
August 23 (by the log August 22), and 'took possession of the whole
eastern coast by the name of New Wales,' or, as he wrote in a letter and
in two copies of his journal, 'New South Wales.'
During his next voyage in the RESOLUTION (1772-4) Cook paid another visit
to New Zealand, but did not on this occasion approach the coast of
Australia. He was inclined to settle the question whether Van Diemen's
Land was an island or part of the mainland. But he was deterred from so
doing by the advice of Furneaux, the commander of the ADVENTURE, which
accompanied him on this voyage. Furneaux had become separated from the
RESOLUTION during rough weather, and, in making for Queen Charlotte's
Sound, New Zealand, which had been fixed upon as a rendezvous, had
actually sailed in the eastern entrance of the strait which divides
Australia from Tasmania. But he reported his conviction that New Holland
was not divided at that point, and Cook, believing him, was deprived of
the honour of discovering the southern coasts of Australia, as he would
undoubtedly have done had he acted on his own impulse.
The VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN COOK were the most popular books of the kind ever
published up to his time. The freshness of the scenes described, the
wonder of the discoveries made, the fulness and clearness of observation
displayed, the vital and attractive personality revealed by the writings,
made the volumes delightful for youthful and mature minds alike. They
were translated into many languages. Kings and cabin-boys came under
their spell. Louis XVI of France and Napoleon the Great read them, in
common with poor lads who could only borrow them for a few hours'
enchantment. It has often been written that Cook 'discovered Australia,'
and the statement is not infrequently repeated nowadays, when there are
so many reasons for knowing better. Literally, of course, it is not true;
but in a deeper sense it is. The Dutch had indeed found and mapped
portions of the continent, but all their reports about it were repellent.
Cook's, however, were alluring. He saw the country in what he truly
described as a pure state of nature. 'The industry of man has had nothing
to do with any part of it, and yet we find all such things as nature hath
bestowed upon it in a flourishing state. In this extensive country it can
never be doubted but what most sorts of grain, fruit, roots, etc., of
every kind, would flourish were they once brought hither, planted, and
cultivated by the hands of industry; and here is provender for more
cattle, at all seasons of the year, than ever can be brought into the
country.'
So that Cook not only discovered the entire east coast of the
continent--and that was a larger piece of geographical discovery, made
at one time, than has ever been achieved by one navigator before or
since--but he discovered its abounding possibilities as a place for the
habitation of civilized mankind. That was the most splendid result of his
great voyage of 1770.
CHAPTER IV
THE FOUNDATION OF SYDNEY
Effect of the revolt of the American colonies--The problem of the
loyalists--Stoppage of the transportation of criminals to America--Banks
suggests founding a convict settlement in New Holland--Matra's plan--
Young's plan--Determination of Government to establish a settlement
in New Holland--Pitt's policy--Phillip appointed Governor--Sailing of
the First Fleet--Phillip rejects Botany Bay and selects Port Jackson--
Laperouse in Botany Bay--Phillip's task and its performance--His faith
in the future--His retirement.
Just as the discoveries made by the Dutch upon the west and north coasts
of Australia were closely connected with the Reformation in Europe, so
the settlement established by the English at Port Jackson in 1788 was
related to other events of great importance in world history.
The War of Independence which resulted from the revolt of the American
colonies ended in 1782; and it produced two kinds of complications, both
of which turned the attention of British ministers to the vast empty
continent in the south seas. The first was the question of the American
loyalists; of those colonists who had remained faithful to the British
connection during the dark days of the war, and were now in dire straits.
The triumphant Americans behaved very harshly towards fellow-countrymen
who had fought against them. Their property was confiscated, debts owing
to them could not be recovered, and thousands of them were driven from
the land. The greater number of the loyalists, over 50,000, went to
Canada, Nova Scotia, and the West Indies, but many accompanied the
British troops to England at the conclusion of the war. Most of these
were herded together in utter destitution in London, and what to do
with them was a problem which the Government had to face.
The second complication rose out of the unsettlement of the English penal
system by the stoppage of the transportation of convicts to America. It
had been the regular practice during the eighteenth century to ship large
numbers of offenders against the law to the colonies. There was such an
eager demand for labour there that contractors were willing to take
convicts at no expense to the Government, knowing that they could sell
them to planters for as much as 20 pounds per head. Between 1717 and the
War of Independence at least 50,000 English convicts were received into
America. Several colonies protested against the traffic, and their
legislatures even passed laws to put an end to it, but in such instances
the home Government exercised its power of vetoing colonial statutes.
Now that America had separated from the British Empire this means of
disposing of criminals was no longer available. But the English law still
prescribed transportation as a punishment, and judges continued to
inflict such sentences. The prisons were wholly insufficient to hold the
condemned persons. Edmund Burke, speaking in Parliament in 1786, said
that the jails were crowded beyond measure. 'There was a house in London
which consisted at this time of just 558 members; he did not mean the
House of Commons, though the numbers were alike in both, but the jail of
Newgate.' Reform in one, he added, would not be less agreeable than
reform in the other. Thousands of prisoners were crowded into wretchedly
insanitary hulks which were purchased to serve as receptacles. Every
month saw more and more sentences of transportation inflicted, more hulks
filled with offenders, and still there was no place to which they could
be exiled. There were said to be 100,000 persons in England under
sentence of transportation. That must have been an exaggeration; but
still, the problem was acute. The Government caused an examination to be
made of sites in Southwest Africa, where it was suggested that penal
settlements might be founded. Some hundreds of convicts were in fact
landed in Africa, but the places chosen were simply abodes of plague,
pestilence, and famine, Burke eloquently asked the Government how they
could reconcile it with justice that persons whom the rigour of the law
had spared from death 'should after a mock display of mercy be compelled
to undergo it by being sent to a country where they could not live, and
where the manner of the death might be singularly horrid; so that the
apparent mercy of transporting those wretched people to Africa might with
justice be called cruelty--the gallows of England would rid them of their
lives in a far less dreadful manner than the climate or the savages of
Africa would take them.'
Thus the problem of settling the American loyalists and that of dealing.
with the convicts occupied the attention of the Cabinet of William Pitt
at the same time.
Sir Joseph Banks was the first to make the suggestion that in New Holland
could be found a suitable place for convict settlement. In 1779 he gave
evidence before a committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider
the convict question; and he then recommended that Botany Bay would be
'best adapted' for the purpose. He remembered Botany Bay with pleasure
because of the plants he had collected there. But the Government was too
much engaged with other pressing business at that time to act upon the
suggestion.
Four years later another man, a Corsican who had been with Cook in the
ENDEAVOUR, directed attention to the suitableness of Botany Bay with a
view of relieving the Government of their second embarrassment. James
Maria Matra, in a letter to Lord Sydney, Secretary of State for the Home
Department, in 1783, pointed out that the distress of the American
loyalists might be relieved by sending them out to populate the empty
spaces of New Holland. There was plenty of room for them; there was scope
for commerce with India, China, and Japan; and they might, under British
protection, build up in the south estates and fortunes to replace those
of which they had been deprived in America. The subject had been
discussed with some of the Americans, who agreed that the proposal
offered the most favourable prospects that had yet occurred to promote
their happiness.
Lord Sydney had an interview with Matra, and discussed the scheme with
him. It would seem that he viewed the convict trouble as more serious
than that affecting the loyalists, and Matra saw that he would be more
likely to attain the settlement of New Holland by amending his scheme. He
therefore added to it a postscript, wherein he pointed out that in New
Holland there were abundant possibilities for the founding of a colony
for the reception of convicts.
In 1785 Admiral Sir George Young submitted to the Government a detailed
plan for the settlement of both loyalists and convicts in New South
Wales. The fact that New Holland was such a long distance from Europe
appeared to him to be a particularly strong argument in favour of it. He
thought that, by sending the convicts there, England would get rid of
them 'for ever.'
The failures on the west coast of Africa and the arguments in favour of
New Holland induced the Government in 1786 to resolve to make an
experiment in this country; and the King's speech to Parliament in
January 1787 definitely announced that a plan had been formed for
transporting a number of convicts 'in order to remove the inconvenience
which arose from the crowded state of the jails in different parts of the
kingdom.' About the fate of the loyalists nothing was said. The
Government missed the opportunity of conferring advantages upon a number
of people who had brought distress upon themselves by following their
consciences in supporting a losing side, and at the same time of peopling
a new country with a stock experienced in colonization.
It would be pleasant if we could attribute to so great a man as Pitt the
vision of a far-seeing Imperial statesmanship in the deciding of this
issue; but in truth there is no evidence that he had even a glimmering
idea that England was founding a great new nation in the southern seas.
He was a practical politician immersed in the problems and perplexities
of the hour. One of the vexing questions confronting his Cabinet was that
of the disposal of the felons, and the Minister responsible, Lord Sydney,
recommended the plan of sending them to New Holland. Pitt assented, and
showed just such a measure of interest in the project as the head of a
Government might be expected to take in a scheme projected by a
colleague. Once, in the House of Commons, he apologized for not having
furnished some information about transportation which had been asked for
on the ground of 'a very great hurry of public business.' On another
occasion he defended the scheme because 'in point of expense no cheaper
mode of disposing of the convicts could be found.' 'No cheaper
mode'--there was no imperial imagination in that; but it was eminently
practical. It would have been eternally to Pitt's honour if, remembering
the plight of the American loyalists, he had given precedence to their
claims, and had heeded the warning of Bacon that 'it is a shameful and
unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men to be
the people with whom you plant.' But he was not consciously planting a
colony so much as disposing of a difficulty. Yet, if we estimate the
importance of political things by their endurance, their ultimate value,
their large and expanding effect upon human affairs, the founding of New
South Wales was the most important of all the policies taken in hand by
Pitt's Government at this time. Out of the settlement authorised in 1786
grew the Commonwealth of Australia.
It is very remarkable that, even after the new colony had been founded,
the Government had not entirely abandoned the sending of convicts
elsewhere. It had not apparently made up its mind that Botany Bay was to
be the only receptacle. The correspondence of Grenville, Pitt's Foreign
Minister, contains a letter written by him as late as November 1789,
wherein he said (DROPMORE PAPERS, vol. i. p. 543). 'The landing convicts
in the territories of the United States, even if the masters of the ships
perform their contracts for so doing, is an act highly offensive to a
country now foreign and independent; and as such very improper for this
Government to authorise. And it is, besides, an act of extreme cruelty to
the convicts, who, being turned ashore without any of the necessaries of
life, are either left to starve, or (as has sometimes been the case) are
massacred by the inhabitants. And as to transporting to the King's
American colonies, you may depend upon it that, after the example set
them by Admiral Milbanke, none of our governors will suffer any of these
people to be landed in their governments.' The case referred to by
Grenville related to the sending of eighty Irish convicts to
Newfoundland, where the Governor, Milbanke, refused to allow them to
land, ignoring an Irish Act of Parliament of 1786 which authorised the
sending of convicts to America or to such place out of Europe as should
be appointed. The significant fact is that these Irish convicts were sent
to Newfoundland after the new colony in Australia had been established.
Arthur Phillip, a captain in the Navy, was selected to be the first
Governor of New South Wales, the limits of which were stated by his
commission to extend from Cape York to the southern extremity of the
country, and westward as far as the 135th degree of longitude. The
territory thus defined embraced about one-half of the continent, and it
did not include any of the western portion which the Dutch had named New
Holland. Indeed, at this time it was not known that the country was one
great island. Many considered that a strait would be found dividing New
Holland from New South Wales. The Government may well have considered
that they were acting with caution in placing the western boundary of the
colony at the 135th degree. There was no desire as yet to appropriate the
whole of Australia.
On May 13, 1787, the 'First Fleet 'sailed from England. It consisted of
the SIRIUS, the SUPPLY, three store ships, and six transports carrying
the convicts: eleven vessels in all. Phillip arrived in Botany Bay on
January 18, 1788, and two days later the whole of the ships were safely
at anchor there. The total company which arrived was over 1,000. The
staff of officers, marines, and extra hands, with women and children,
numbered 290, and the convicts who reached Botany Bay were 717, of whom
520 were males. This was the stock with which the new colony was settled.
An examination of Botany Bay speedily convinced Phillip that the place
was unsuitable. The openness of the bay, the inferior quality of the
soil, and the swamps with which the coastal land was surrounded, would
have made settlement there unsuccessful. Phillip therefore determined to
go north and inspect Port Jackson, the harbour which Cook had marked down
upon his chart, but had not entered, There his seaman's eye was delighted
with the prospect, and his administrative intelligence perceived that the
required conditions were fully met. He found what he described as 'the
finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may
ride in the most perfect security,' and a deep cove in proximity to a
supply of fresh water. To this he gave the name of Lord Sydney; and it
became for many years to come the place of exile of many thousands of
offenders who, as the poet Campbell wrote, were 'doom'd the long isles of
Sydney Cove to see.' A little later Phillip found a place which he
considered worthy to bear the name of the Prime Minister. To the north of
Port Jackson he entered Broken Bay, and there looked upon 'the finest
piece of water I ever saw, and which I honoured with the name of
Pittwater.'
The position chosen by Phillip was in every way worthy of the
enthusiastic praise which he bestowed upon it. It lay upon the south side
of a great sheet of water, which, broken into many deep and sheltered
bays, and surrounded by timbered terraces, was beautiful to the eye, and
offered illimitable scope as a seat of commerce. The shores had a
deep-water frontage of 200 miles. In 'the dark backward and abysm of time'
it had been the estuary of a river flowing into the ocean many miles
east of the present coastline, but the sinking of the floor of the sea in
the course of ages had brought it to its present level, and made it a
many-fronded harbour.
While the First Fleet was lying at anchor in Botany Bay, just after the
return of the Governor from Port Jackson, two strange vessels were seen
approaching. Their appearance aroused much curiosity. Seine thought they
might be Dutchmen prepared to dispute the landing of the British, and
speculated as to whether there would have to be a fight. Phillip guessed
that they were French exploring ships under the command of the Comte de
Laperouse, and he proved to be right. He was at that time, on the morning
of January 24, making plans for transferring his whole company to the
site, which he had chosen at Sydney Cove, and did not consider it
expedient to wait for the strangers, but hurried off to complete his
preparations.
Laperouse brought his two vessels into Botany Bay, and came to anchor
there just as Captain Hunter of the SIRIUS, whom Phillip had left in
charge, was sailing out. The reason for the visit of the French to Botany
Bay is quite clear from the letters and journals of Laperouse. He had
been pursuing discovery work in the Pacific, and at one of the islands of
the Samoa group two boats' crews had met with disaster. They had all been
massacred by natives, and the long-boats had been smashed. Laperouse
carried in the holds of his ships the frames and planks of two new boats,
and desired to find a quiet harbour where he could fit them together. He
wished to avoid a landing at any South Sea island where natives might be
encountered, because his men were very angry about the loss of their
companions, and if there had been another encounter, with loss of life,
he would have been left with insufficient strength for the manning of
both his ships, and would have been compelled to beach and destroy one of
them. Having been a close student of the voyages of Cook, he remembered
that navigator's description of Botany Bay, and decided to go there and
build his new long-boats. The idea that Laperouse entertained any
intention of claiming the place for the French, or of founding a
settlement anywhere, is pure fable. The French remained in Botany Bay
till March 10, on excellent terms with the British officers who visited
them, and then sailed again into the Pacific, to meet their death upon
the coral reefs of Vanicoro.
On January 26 Phillip unfurled the British flag at Sydney with simple
ceremony, the King's health was drunk, and work began. The process of
clearing the ground and erecting shelters was taken in hand with the
utmost vigour. The Governor himself, while the work progressed, lived in
a small canvas house which was neither wind nor water proof. The
officers, marines, and convicts camped in tents made principally from old
sail-cloth which had been brought from England for the purpose. Spaces
were cleared for the sowing of corn, trees were cut down for the
building of wooden huts, stores were landed from the ships, labour was
organized for shaping a disciplined community out of fractious elements
and replacing wild forest and scrub with a planned, orderly township. On
February 7 the Governor's commission was read, and he took the oaths
required by law before an assemblage of the whole population, civil,
military, and convicts. One of the oaths which he was required to take
was that abjuring the Pretender. This was the last occasion when it was
taken by a Governor within the British Empire, for Charles Edward Stuart
had died on January 31, 1788, a week before Phillip solemnly abjured him
and his claims to the British throne.
To few men has been given so great an opportunity as that which fell to
Arthur Phillip. He was the founder of a new European State in a land
where civilized man had never lived before. There was not one among
all the subjects of King George III whose place in history was more
assured than his. The ambition to live in the memory of posterity for
ages is common among mankind. Monuments of bronze and marble, public
bequests and endowments, gifts and foundations, are favourite modes of
cheating oblivion; and the age in which this history was being worked out
saw many great reputations made and many efforts to perpetuate fame by
various means. But who amongst them all did a piece of work to compare
with Phillip's? And who amongst them all overcame such difficulties with
such imperfect material, and reaped so small a material reward?
The difficulties arose chiefly from the character of the men with whom he
had to work, and the irregularity and insufficiency of the supplies while
the infant colony was dependent upon out