carried far to the eastward of the true position of Australia. In another map, the east coast of Australia is similarly misrepresented; and, strangely enough, because on the fancied eastward extension the mapmaker wrote "Coste des Herbaiges," it has been suggested that some voyager in the sixteenth century had been to Botany Bay—a place quite innocent of pasture in its natural state. In a map to illustrate the voyages of Drake and Cavendish, New Guinea is represented as an island anterior to the voyage of the Spaniard Torres, who (having been separated from his commander, Quiros) sailed between Australia and New Guinea in 1606, but supposed the coast of Australia to be a series of islands; a supposition which proves that the maps of 1542 were not generally known, or were not trusted by the navigators of 1606. In the same manner islands were seen in the Pacific and were supposed by Quiros to be portions of a continent. In 1606, it seems that a Dutchman commanding the Duyfhen, sent out to explore New Guinea, sighted a part of Australia and assumed that it was a part of New Guinea. From all such casual and uncertain glimpses but little real knowledge could be gained. If the lands thus seen had been occupied by inhabitants with whom trade could have been established results would have ensued even from these glimpses; but, as it was, they must be looked upon merely as a kind of hearsay unworthy of the title of discoveries.
It is certain that the Dutch had no knowledge of a strait between New Guinea and the South Land, for when they sent Tasman, in 1644, to explore, they told him that they thought there was no such strait.
There is no doubt, however, that in 1616 the Dutchman Dirk Hartog, on a voyage from Holland to India, saw and landed on Australian soil at Shark Bay, and left a record of the fact which was found afterwards by his countryman, Van Vlaming, in 1697, and by the French navigator, Hamelin, in 1801. Other Dutch mariners saw other parts of the coast, and Nuyts Land and Cape Leeuwin are memorials of the fact. The name of another Dutchman (Carpenter) was given to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Captain Pelsaert, of the ship Batavia, escaping in a boat, was said to have left shipwrecked comrades at Houtman's Abrolhos
