As to the soil and vegetable productions upon several points near the sea, from Rottenest, northward to 161/2, there was tolerably good general information; the inhabitants, also, had been seen; and, at one place, communication with them had been obtained.  The accounts did, certainly, not give any flattering prospect, that much interesting knowledge was likely to be acquired under these heads, unless a strait, or inland sea, were found; but the accounts were not only confined as to place, but, with the exception of Dampier’s, were very imperfect; and the great extent of the coasts, in the richest climates of the world, excited hopes that a close investigation would not only be of advantage to natural history, but would bring to light something useful in the mineral or vegetable kingdoms.

In the case of penetrating the interior of Terra Australis, whether by a great river, or a strait leading to an inland sea, a superior country, and perhaps a different people, might be found, the knowledge of which could not fail to be very interesting, and might prove advantageous to the nation making the discovery.

PRIOR DISCOVERIES IN TERRA AUSTRALIS.

SECTION III.

SOUTH COAST.

Discovery of Nuyts. 
Examination of Vancouver: 
of D’Entrecasteaux. 
Conclusive Remarks.

NUYTS. 1627. (Atl.  Pl.  I.)

No historical fact seems to be less disputed, than that the South Coast of New Holland was first discovered in January 1627:  whether it were the 26th, according to De Hondt, or the 16th, as is expressed on Thevenot’s chart, is of very little import.  It is generally said, that the ship was commanded by PIETER NUYTS; but as Nuyts, on his arrival at Batavia, was sent ambassador to Japan, and afterwards made governor of Formosa, it seems more probable that he was a civilian, perhaps Company’s first merchant on board, rather than captain of the ship:  the land discovered has, however, always borne his name.

The Dutch recital says—­“In the year 1627, the South Coast of the Great SOUTH LAND was accidentally discovered by the ship the Gulde Zeepaard, outward-bound from Fatherland, for the space of a thousand miles.”

This discovery has always been considered as of importance.  A memoir was published at Amsterdam in 1718, “to prove, that NUYTS’ LAND, being in the fifth climate, between 34 deg. and 36 deg. of latitude; it ought to be, like all other countries so situated, one of the most habitable, most rich, and most fertile parts of the world.” * The journal of this discovery seems to have been lost; or possibly was either suppressed or destroyed, according to what is thought to have been the Dutch policy of that time.  It was, therefore, from the chart, and the above passage in the recital, alone, that any particulars could be drawn.  If the extent of a thousand miles were taken to be in a straight line, and to commence at Cape Leeuwin, the end of Nuyts’ Land would reach nearly to the longitude of 135 deg. east of Greenwich; but if, as was probable, the windings of the shore were included, and a deduction made of one-sixth to one-seventh in the distance, then the Isles of St. Francis and St. Peter might be expected to be found between the 132nd and 133rd degrees of east longitude.