Off one of the islands near Sebu the survivors of Magellan's expedition decided to burn the shipConcepcion, as too few men were left to work it. There then remained 115 men for the working of the two remaining ships of the squadron, theTrinidadand theVictoria. These two vessels forthwith sailed to the Island of Panglao (off Bohol) where they noticed that the natives were black-skinned and like negroes. Thence they passed to the large southern island of Mindanao, whose principal chief at once made friends with them. The abundance of gold in the possession of the natives of Mindanao was duly noted. From Mindanao the expedition sailed to the little Kagayan islands in the Sulu Sea, where the people had blowpipes with tiny poisoned arrows, daggers with their hafts adorned with gold and precious stones, and wore armour made of buffalo hide. They were more or less Muhammadans, but called the Spaniards "holy beings". The two ships next visited the long island of Palawan, which seemed to their crews the Land of Promise, because they had suffered great hunger before they found it, and were even on the point of abandoning their ships and going on shore that they might not be consumed with famine. Fortunately the king of this country made peace with them quickly. After slashing himself slightly in the breast with a Spanish knife, and touching the tip of histongue with it in token of truest peace, he invited them to do the same. His people went naked, but they cultivated the fields carefully. They were well armed with blowpipes and thick wooden arrows tipped with fish bones and bamboo, and poisoned. They possessed very remarkable poultry, large and very tame, which were regarded with such veneration that they were seldom eaten, the cocks being kept for fighting with one another. These Palawan people distilled a wine or spirit from rice, which was very strong. They possessed goats and pigs as well as fowls, and grew quantities of rice, ginger, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, bananas, and different kinds of edible roots. Passing from Palawan to the coast of North Borneo, and stopping off the town of Brunei, the expedition was greeted at one place by a chief who sent to meet the Spanish ships a very beautiful prau, the bow and stern of which were illuminated with gold, while it hoisted a white and blue banner surmounted with peacocks' feathers. This prau contained a band of musicians and eight old men who were chiefs. These came on board the Spanish ships and took seats on a carpet, presenting the Spaniards with a painted wooden jar full of betel paste, jasmine, and orange blossoms, a covering of yellow silk cloth, two cages full of fowls, a couple of goats, three jars of arrack (rice spirit), and bundles of sugar cane. They gave some presents to the other ships, and, after embracing the Spaniards, took their leave. Six days later the king of this district sent three more praus with great pomp, which encircled the ships whilst bands of music were played and drums beaten. Amongst the food given to the Spaniards were "tarts made of eggs and honey". The king and queen of this region—the sultanate of Brunei—were sent green velvet robes, violet velvet chairs,a good many yards of red cloth, writing-books of paper and a gilded writing-case, needlecases, drinking-glasses, and caps.
The Spaniards, being invited to land, dispatched a party on shore, who found elephants awaiting them, on which they rode to the house of the governor of the port, where they slept on beds with cotton mattresses and cotton sheets, and had an excellent supper. The next day elephants were supplied to bring them to the king's palace, where they found 300 foot soldiers with naked swords guarding the king. A brocade curtain was drawn aside from a large window, and through it they could see the Sultan of Brunei seated at a table chewing betel. They were told they could not speak to the king, but they could send their message through his courtiers. One of these would communicate it to the brother of the governor, and this man would send it by means of a speaking-tube through a hole in the wall to another official who was in the king's chamber. They were taught to make three obeisances to the king with their hands clasped above their heads, raising first one foot and then the other, and then kissing their hands towards him.
The king was graciously pleased from a distance to reply to their greetings, that since the King of Spain desired to be his friend he was willing that they should have food and water and permission to trade. After they had returned to the governor's house nine men arrived from the king carrying a splendid repast on large wooden trays. Each tray contained ten or twelve porcelain dishes full of veal, chickens, peacocks, and fish, in all thirty-two different kinds of meat, besides fish and vegetables. After each mouthful of food the visitors drank a small cupful of rice spirit and ate sweetmeats with gold spoons. Duringthe night their sleeping quarters were lit with torches of white wax in tall silver candlesticks, and also with oil lamps, each containing four wicks. Two men sat by each lamp to snuff it continually during the night. They were sent back the next morning on elephants to the seashore, while native vessels conveyed them back to the ship.
The town of Brunei (now a miserable place) was a water city like Venice, the houses being raised on poles rammed into the mud. The king was a Muhammadan, and, as can be seen, his state enjoyed a very large measure of Eastern civilization, derived from traffic with the Arabs, from ancient Indian influence, and from direct trade with China.
A few days later, however, the Spaniards took fright at the approach of a fleet of a hundred praus, cut their cables and hoisted their sails. They were pursued by one or two of the native boats, but they soon beat these off with their guns. In attacking these vessels they captured a number of prisoners, some of whom they released; retaining, however, nineteen Malays (three of them women) for the purpose of taking them to Spain.[34]
As to the Malay junks or ships with which they had now come into contact, Pigafetta writes an interesting description. The hull of the vessel was built of planks fastened together with wooden pegs, the carpentry being very clever and neat; but at a height of about 15 inches above the water level the construction was continued with large bamboos. The masts were of bamboo and the sails were of bark cloth, or palm-leaf matting.
North Borneo, like the Philippines, had long been semi-civilized by intercourse with China. All well-to-do people possessed porcelain dishes and cups, and the Muhammadan Malays used bronze money impressed with Chinese characters. The Bornean Malays had a curious habit of taking small doses of mercury (quicksilver), not only to cure illnesses, but in the belief that it prevented sickness by purging the body. Pigafetta also relates that the Sultan of Brunei possessed two pearls as large as hens' eggs, so round, however, that they would not stand still on a table. These pearls came from the south-western islands of the Philippine archipelago. They had belonged to the king of the principal island of the Sulu archipelago, whose daughter had married the Sultan of Brunei, and had unwisely boasted of her father's pearls as big as hens' eggs. Her husband determined to get possession of them, by force if necessary, so had assembled a fleet of 500 praus (or, as another variant of the story puts it, 50), and sailing by night he surprised the King of Zolo, or Sulu, and two of his sons, and carried them off to Brunei, where he held them as captives until the pearls were delivered to him.
Pigafetta realized the immense size of the Island of Borneo—the second largest island in the world, only New Guinea being of greater area if Australia be considered a continent—he was informed that it took three months to sail round it in a Malay prau. It was a region that produced camphor,[35]cinnamon, ginger, myrobalans,[35]oranges,lemons, water-melons, cucumbers, gourds, and many other vegetables and fruits; buffaloes, oxen, swine, goats, fowls, geese (derived from China), deer, elephants, and horses.
After leaving Brunei the two ships directed their course towards the Sulu archipelago, which lies between North Borneo and Mindanao. They seem to have made little scruple of behaving like pirates towards any Malay prau which could not offer much resistance. In this way they captured a vessel full of coconuts, which was a great resource to them in the way of food. They found a perfect port for repairing ships in Bungei, one of the Sulu Islands. Here they stayed for forty-two days, everyone labouring hard, their greatest fatigue, however, being the journey backwards and forwards to the forest barefoot (probably because their shoes were worn out) to hew timber for the ship's needs. On the island of Bungei they found many wild boars (of the speciesSus longirostris), with very long heads 2½ feet in length, and with big tusks. There were also huge crocodiles, and on the seashore immense Tridacna clam shells, the actual flesh of one of these clams (a clam is something like an oyster) weighing as much as 44 pounds. Here also they observed the marvellous leaf-insects, which Pigafetta not unnaturally imagined to be a miracle of nature, leaves which became alive and walked about when they fell to the ground. He kept one of these in a box for nine days, and at the end of that time the leaf-insect was still active, though no doubt it soon died, since he believed it fed on nothing but air.[36]
Stopping off the coast of the large island of Mindanao, the southernmost part of the Philippines, they again captureda Malay vessel (killing several of its seamen) apparently only for the purpose of getting information about the right course to pursue in order to reach the Spice Islands. From these captives they obtained, besides other information, the story that in the southern parts of Mindanao existed a race ofhairymen who were fierce fighters and used bows and arrows with great effect. They also possessed swords or daggers, and when they were successful in battle they cut out the hearts of their slain enemies and ate them raw, seasoned with the juice of oranges or lemons. These hairy people were called Benaian.
Sailing away from Mindanao the two Spanish ships encountered a furious storm, and in their terror the crews lowered all the sails and offered up fervent prayers to God for their safety. "Immediately our three patron saints of San Nicolau, San Elmo, and Sta. Clara appeared to us like torches of light on the maintop, mizentop, and foretop.[37]We promised a slave each to St. Elmo, San Nicolau, and Sta. Clara, and offered alms to each saint." After this the storm abated and the ship found a welcome refuge in a harbour, where again they captured forcibly Malay seamen to show them the way to the Molucca Islands.
At last, on 8 November, 1521, they reached the five islands known as Maluk or Molucca, and on that date came to an anchor in a harbour of Tidore, where they fired a tremendous salute with their artillery. The next day the king of the island—evidently well used to Europeans and their ways—came off in a prau, and a deputation of Spaniards went in a small boat to meet him. They foundhim seated under a silk awning which sheltered him on all sides, and in front of him squatted one of his sons holding the royal sceptre, and on either side were persons with jars ready to pour water over his hands, while two others held gilded caskets filled with betel paste. The king bade the white men welcome, and said that he had dreamt some time ago that ships were coming to the Molucca Islands from remote parts, and from that assurance he determined to consult the moon, whereupon he had seen the ships coming. He then came on board; all kissed his hand and led him to the stern, where he was honoured with a red velvet chair and given a yellow velvet robe made after the Turkish fashion. The king professed his desire to become the most loyal friend and vassal of the King of Spain, and declared that henceforth his island would no more be called "Tadore" (or Tidore), but Castilla, because of the great love which he bore to the mighty sovereign of Spain.
This Malay chief of Tidore was a Muhammadan, about forty-five years old, well built, of royal presence, and much skilled in astrology. He was clad in a shirt of delicate white muslin, the ends of the sleeves embroidered in gold. Round his waist, and reaching to the ground, was a coloured cloth, while a silk scarf was wrapped round his head, and above it was placed a garland of flowers. He asked for a royal banner and a signature of Charles V, and he would then place his dominions, which included the Island of Ternate, under the direction of Spain. He would also load up the ships with cloves, so that they might return to Spain with good commerce.
Eight months previously a notable personage had died in the Island of Ternate, poisoned by the orders of this same King of Tidore. He was a Portuguese, Francesco Serr[~ao], who had been, curiously enough, a most intimatefriend of Magellan, and who was apparently the brother of the Jo[~ao] Serr[~ao], or Juan Serrano, the commander of theConcepcion, who had been left behind and perhaps killed at Sebu. Francesco Serr[~ao] had been sent as captain of a Portuguese ship to the Moluccas in 1511, and had remained in those islands partly on account of disasters having happened to his ship. In course of time he became a very great man, and the Prime Minister, so to speak, of the King of Ternate. He had married a woman from the Island of Java. It was he who had strongly incited Magellan to attempt to reach the Moluccas by way of South America and the Pacific. But Serrano, having excited great jealousy by his powerful influence over the King of Ternate, was poisoned by this same King of Tidore, now so friendly towards theTrinidadand theVictoria; and soon afterwards the King of Ternate was likewise got rid of by means of poison, and so the monarch of Tidore was the chief person then in the archipelago of the Moluccas.
Whilst remaining at Tidore to load up with cloves, Pigafetta collected some information about the large island of Jilolo lying to the east.[38]He describes it as being inhabited both by Muhammadan Malays (on the coast) and by Papuan heathens (in the interior), and says it was very rich in gold, and that it grew enormous bamboos as thick round as a man's thigh, the segments of which were often filled with water that was very good to drink.
When the King of Tidore heard of their piracies, and of the number of Malay seamen they had captured, he dealt with the question humanely and diplomatically,suggesting that all these prisoners should be returned by him to their island homes, where they could make known the greatness and splendour of the kingdom of Spain. This the Spaniards consented to do, reserving only the people from Brunei, who, as already related, were brought to Seville. As the king was a very zealous Muhammadan, they also killed all the swine on board to please him, and he in return gave them a large number of goats and fowls, besides quantities of vegetable food, including sago derived from the sago palm, which was the principal nourishment of these Molucca Malays.
In the Island of Ternate there arrived presently a Portuguese in a Malay prau, who gave them very interesting information derived from the visit a year previously of a Portuguese ship. The survivors of Magellan's expedition learnt then that the main facts of their voyage had become known to the King of Portugal some time after their departure, and that ships had been sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to other places to prevent their passage. When it was learnt that they had rounded South America and made their way across the Pacific, an attempt was made to dispatch a Portuguese fleet of six ships to the Molucca Islands to capture Magellan's expedition. But this fleet was prevented from accomplishing its purpose through its being detained in the Red Sea by the necessity of fighting a Turkish fleet.
Whilst the two ships stayed at Tidore many festivities took place in connection with the visits of chiefs or kings of the other Molucca Islands. These Malay princes came in their praus, some of which had three tiers of rowers on each side, in all 120 rowers, and they hoisted great banners made of white, yellow, and red parrot feathers. Gongs of bronze and brass were sounded and timed to the rowers'actions. Sometimes the praus would be filled with young girls, female slaves (though not feeling any of the misery of slavery), who were to be presented as household servants to the daughters of chiefs betrothed to this and that heir apparent. The kings of the islands sat on rich carpets, no doubt received by indirect trade from Persia. They wore cloths of gold and silk manufactured in China, and the women were clad in beautiful silk garments from the waist to the knees. They brought with them, amongst other presents for the King of Spain, "two extremely beautiful dead birds". These were as large as thrushes, with a small head and a long beak. They were of a tawny colour, but with beautiful long plumes of a different tint.[39]The natives who brought them called them the Birds of God, and said that they came from the terrestrial Paradise. This was probably the first mention in our European literature of Birds of Paradise.
At last the ships were ready to go, in December, 1521.Juan del Cano(or de Elcano, as it is sometimes written), an officer hitherto scarcely mentioned, had been elected captain of theVictoria, and the command of theTrinidadhad been given to Espinosa, replacing Carvalho, the pilot, who had behaved very badly in regard to the captured natives as well as towards the members of the expedition. [It was Carvalho who refused to stay and ransom poor Juan Serrano.] TheVictoriaset sail on her way towards Timor and the Indian Ocean, when her cruise was suddenly stopped by the news that her consort theTrinidadhad suddenly developed a dangerous leak. They found the water rushing in as through a pipe, and pumping wasuseless. The kindly King of Tidore sent down divers, who remained more than half an hour under water, endeavouring to find the leak. Some of these even remained an hour under water (this no doubt was a great exaggeration), and, by wearing their long hair loose, attempted to find the leak by letting it be drawn by the suction of the water towards the place. But it was decided at last that theVictoriashould start for Spain and theTrinidadremain behind for repairs.[40]TheVictoriatherefore left with a crew of forty-seven Europeans and thirteen Malays, chiefly from Borneo.
TheVictoriaon her way to Timor passed the Shulla Islands (Xulla), and heard from their Malay pilots that the inhabitants were naked cannibals. In other islands there were pigmies (negritos); others, again, were more civilized, producing rice, pigs, goats, fowls, sugar cane, and a delicious food made of bananas, almonds, and honey, wrapped in leaves and smoke-dried, then cut into long pieces. Buru Island was noted (though they did not land there) as inhabited by Muhammadan Malays on the coast and cannibal savages in the interior; also the Banda Islands, producing mace and nutmeg. After leaving the vicinity of Buru theVictoriaencountered a fierce storm, which drove them to seek refuge in a harbour of a lofty island[41]which was inhabited by savage, bestial people, eating human flesh and going naked, except that theirwarriors wore armour made of buffalo hide and goatskins. They dressed their hair (like the New Zealanders) high up on the head, held in position by long reed pins, which they passed from one side to the other. Their beards were wrapped in leaves and thrust into small bamboo tubes. They were the ugliest people Pigafetta had seen, and were armed with bows and arrows of bamboo. Nevertheless they behaved in a friendly way to these Spaniards and sold them quantities of provisions, beeswax, and pepper.
On 26 January, 1522, theVictoriareached the Island of Timor, where it laid in a great supply of buffaloes, pigs, and goats. The people, though going almost naked, wore many gold and brass armlets and ear-rings, and bamboo combs in their hair adorned with gold rings.
On 11 February, 1522, theVictoriasailed away from Timor into the great Indian Ocean. She was only a little vessel of 85 tons, and she had to buffet her way amidst various storms and high waves across the southern Indian Ocean, as far as the forty-second degree of south latitude before she could beat up north and round the Cape of Good Hope. The sufferings on board were terrible, the ship leaked badly and the pumps were always going, the provision of buffalo meat had putrefied, as they had had no salt to preserve it. There was little other food than rice. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope it took them a further two months before they could land anywhere to obtain fresh provisions, and twenty-one men died of scurvy and starvation during this terrible period. At last, constrained by their despairing condition, they stopped off the Island of Sant Iago, in the Cape Verde archipelago, which for some time had been a settlement of the Portuguese. Here they sent a boat ashore for food, with a concocted story to deceive the Portuguese into believing that theVictoriawas a ship coming from Spanish America and driven out of her course by storms. But on its second voyage to the shore the boat, containing thirteen men, was detained, because, having no money, they offered cloves in payment of the things they purchased. Seeing from a distance that the men had been arrested, the captain of theVictoriafelt obliged to abandon them to their fate and hastily sailed away.
At last, on 8 September, 1522, theVictoria, having sailed into Spain up the Guadalquivir River, dropped anchor at the quay of Seville and discharged all her artillery in crazy joy at this return to the Motherland. On the following day all the survivors of this wonderful expedition—eighteen in number—went in shirts and barefooted, each man holding a candle, to visit the shrines of Santa Maria de la Victoria and of St. Mary of Antiquity in two different churches. As to the thirteen men left behind, they were not so ill treated after all by the Portuguese, but were ultimately dispatched to Seville, so that it may be said of the five ships which started with Magellan in 1519 to reach the Moluccas by way of the Pacific Ocean only one returned to Spain—theVictoria, theTrinidadhaving been lost near the Spice Islands; while of the original 265 men (more or less) who left Spain in 1519 only 36 returned to Spain after circumnavigating the globe—18 in theVictoria, 13 in Portuguese ships from the Cape Verde Islands, and 5 survivors from theTrinidadsent back by the Portuguese from Malaysia.
In spite of all these disasters, however, the cargo of cloves and spices brought back by theVictoriasufficed, not only to pay the whole cost of the equipment of the original expedition of five ships, but left a profit of about £200 in value over and above.
This fact, as well as the information (no doubt much exaggerated) about the Philippines and Borneo and the gold to be met with in these islands, made a deep impression on the Court of Spain, and not many years elapsed before further attempts were made to reach Malaysia across the Pacific from Spanish America, the Spaniards being precluded by their agreement with Portugal from adopting the more convenient route round the Cape of Good Hope.
As already related, the Spaniards and Portuguese were out of their reckoning in regard to longitude when they supposed that any part of the Philippines or the Moluccas lay to the east of 130° of E. longitude, and consequently within the domain of Spain. They believed that the Moluccas did come within the Spanish sphere, while the Philippines were, by the same reckoning, Portuguese. After a good deal of wrangling the matter was settled in 1529. A considerable sum of money was paid by Portugal to Spain, the Spanish claim to the Spice Islands was withdrawn, and nothing was said about the Philippines. This archipelago, a few years afterwards, was tacitly recognized as within the Spanish sphere, which also included the lands afterwards to be styled New Guinea.
Borneo thus became part of the Portuguese "sphere of influence" (as it would now be called), though this large island had first been visited by Magellan in Spanish ships. The Portuguese attempted to enter into relations with the then powerful Muhammadan sultanate of North Borneo (Brunei), but (according to the Portuguese chronicler, Barros) their efforts came to nothing through a very curious mischance. Realizing that the Sultan of Brunei was a very powerful prince, a Muhammadan, andtherefore much in touch, through Arab and Persian traders, with the civilized world, it was resolved to send him, by the embassy dispatched from Ternate to Brunei in 1528, a selection of really superior and costly presents. Amongst these was a large piece of tapestry illustrating in a most lifelike manner the marriage of Catherine of Aragon (afterwards the unhappy wife of Henry VIII) to Arthur, Prince of Wales—the first link, possibly, in the long history of the relations between the British and North Borneo. But the figures thus portrayed by the needles and wool of industrious Spanish women seemed to the superstitious Malay sultan a work of subtle magic. He believed them to be real persons sent to sleep by the spell of a magician, and that some night they would be released from their enchantment, come to life, and slay him as he slept. So the Portuguese envoy was dismissed, the presents declined, and no political relations entered into between North Borneo and the Portuguese. This was one reason, probably, why the Dutch, not having been preceded by the Portuguese, got no foothold in North Borneo, and therefore left this side of the island open to British administrative enterprise in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Spanish research in the Pacific was resumed five years after the return of Sebastian de Elcano in theVictoriain the autumn of 1522. In 1528 two Spanish ships, intending to sail from Mexico to the Philippines, were blown out of their course in a storm and accidentally discovered the Hawaii Islands. They were wrecked there, and such of the crews as were saved from drowning—amongst them were several Spanish women—could not get away from Hawaii, and settled down there for the rest of their lives, marrying the people of the country, andno doubt leaving a strain of Castilian blood in the ruling classes of these cannibal islands.
Hawaii was, however, again visited by Spanish ships in the middle of the sixteenth century; and when, long afterwards, the archipelago was rediscovered by Captain Cook, the people were found to be practising several Spanish customs. The real fact is that Spain knew a good deal about the Oceanic islands in the sixteenth century, but out of jealous dread that her monopoly of the Pacific Ocean might be invaded by other European nations she kept this geographical knowledge, set forth in her charts and logbooks, hidden in her State archives, only to be revealed in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when there was no longer anything to conceal from the adventurous French and English.
In 1542 the Philippines were again visited by Spanish ships under the command ofLopez de Villalobos, who penetrated to the large northern island of Luzon. On his return to Mexico he named this archipelago after Philip, the heir to the Spanish throne. In 1564 an expedition underLopez de Legaspiwas dispatched from the west coast of Mexico to the Philippines for their conquest and their conversion to Christianity. Four ships conveyed 400 Spanish soldiers and a few friars or missionaries. Between 1565 and his death in 1572 Legaspi had actually achieved the wonderful feat of founding the city of Manila in the large island of Luzon, and making the Spanish power predominant over all this large archipelago. A number of the natives became converted to Christianity, and only the Sulu Islands and Palawan remained Muhammadan.
In 1579 a new portent appeared in the Far East. In the month of November there arrived at the Island ofTernate, from nowhere, as it seemed, an English ship, theGolden Hinde, commanded byFrancis Drake. This most remarkable English adventurer—then only thirty-four years old—had been purser to a ship trading to the north of Spain when he was only eighteen, and by the age of twenty-two had not only made a voyage to Guinea, but was commanding a ship as captain in an attack on the Spaniards off the coast of Mexico. In 1577 he had navigated the Straits of Magellan in theGolden Hinde(originally thePelican, which he renamed thus as a remembrance of the heraldic device of Sir Christopher Hatton and a mark of joy at having safely reached the Pacific Ocean), had sailed up the west coast of South America, attacking and plundering Spanish ships and towns "till his men were satiated with plunder"; and, failing to find another Magellan's Straits in North-west America to take him back to the Atlantic, had boldly sailed from the coast of New Albion (the modern State of Washington) aslant the Pacific Ocean and steered a straight course for the Moluccas.
The Portuguese, of course, were then predominant in the Spice Islands and elsewhere in Malaysia, and with them Drake had no quarrel. He therefore sailed on to Java (after nearly coming to grief by striking a rock off the coast of Celebes), and from Java made his way round the Cape of Good Hope to the Guinea coast, and thence to the Azores and England. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on board theGolden Hindeat Deptford, after the queen had partaken of a banquet on board the famous ship which had sailed round the world in two years and ten months.
His voyage was a splendid answer to the Spaniards, who believed themselves perfectly safe from interferencein the waters of the "great Southern Ocean", and who forbade the rest of the world to trade with America and Australasia. Within eighteen years it was to be followed up by Dutch and British attacks, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, on the Portuguese and Spanish monopoly of intercourse with the East Indies and Malaysia. It is, however, only fair to mention that in the matter of commercial morality the British, French, and Dutch were no more enlightened than the Spaniards. Each sought in turn to make their oversea dependencies regions closed to the trade of other nations than themselves, and even to restrict the commerce of their Asiatic, African, and American colonies to privileged persons or companies.
The Spaniards who sailed to the Moluccas in the two remaining ships of Magellan's squadron had practically got into touch with Papuasia, with the lands of New Guinea and its surrounding islands; and had realized that in this direction there lay a new Negroland, a "New Guinea", in fact. Exactly when the New Guinea coast was reached from the west—whether byAlvaro de Saavedrathe Spaniard in 1528, or in 1511 and 1526 by the Portuguese who had taken possession of the Moluccas—is not known; nor by whom this very appropriate name was first given. Probably it was named "Nueva Guinéa" in 1546 by a Spanish captain—Ortiz de Retez—who mapped a portion of its northern coast. The impression that this vast island—the biggest in the world—was first called "New Guinea" by Torres when he reached its southern shores in 1607 is incorrect; he, seemingly, was only recognizing a land already named thus for its great superficial resemblance to West Africa. But the Spaniards had heard rumours from the Malay seacaptains of a vast land eastward of the Moluccas where there was gold in abundance, besides beautiful birds and curly-haired black people. They jumped to the fantastic conclusion that here lay, not only the Earthly Paradise, but also the Ophir from which Solomon had derived his gold. Mingled with these beliefs was the ever-growing conviction that in this direction must lie a great Southern Continent; and to search for this an expedition was dispatched in 1567 from Callao, the principal port of Peru, under the command ofAlvaro de Mendaña de Neyra, with the express purpose of discovering the great Antarctic continent and the "Islas de Salomon". Mendaña voyaged for eighty days across the Pacific, more or less through the equatorial belt, and thus discovered and named the Solomon Islands[42]to the east of New Guinea, believing that they might prove to be the Ophir from which Solomon had derived gold. His expedition surveyed the southern portion of the group, giving to three of the large islands the Spanish names, which they still bear, of San Cristoval, Guadalcanal, and Ysabel.
Juan Fernandezwas a Spanish pilot who appears to have given some study to the Straits of Magellan. About 1572 he was venturing out some distance into the Pacific Ocean from the coast of South America, and thus discovered the two little islands which have ever since borne his name, and which proved for a time such an important harbourage and resting place for the Dutch and English navigators who flouted the prohibition of Spain to enter the great Southern Ocean. Fernandez conceived the idea that there must be some large extent of land in the southern half of the Pacific Ocean, and he may have sighted Easter Island, or some other Pacific archipelago, and have believed that it was an indication of the coast line of this Terra Australis.
Mendaña de Neyra, who had returned to the coast of Peru in 1570, was very anxious to organize at once another expedition to extend his discoveries. He was not enabled to do so until the year 1595, when he again started from the coast of Peru with a fleet and a number of Spaniards who were to colonize the Solomon Islands. On his way thither he discovered the Marquezas archipelago (which now belongs to France). Sailing along a course which was more or less that of the tenth degree of south latitude, his ship at last reached the little island of Santa Cruz, the northernmost of an archipelago which is now associated with the group of the New Hebrides. Here, for some reason, his expedition came to a stop, and he landed and attempted to establish a portion of his crew as settlers. But the climate, or some other cause of ill health, brought about the death of Mendaña and many of his companions. He had been accompanied on this cruise by his young wife, who played a heroic part in rescuing the remainder of the expedition. AfterMendaña's death, one of his pilots,Pedro Fernandez de Quiros(a Portuguese), brought the remains of the Spanish fleet to Manila in the Philippines. Then in one vessel he boldly sailed back across the Pacific to Peru, and thence made his way to Madrid, where he revealed to the Spanish Government the stories gathered from Malays regarding the existence of a great Southern Continent. He obtained permission from the Court to search for this Terra Australis, and for this purpose returned to South America and started on his quest from Callao (Peru) in 1605. The Viceroy of Peru associated with him, practically as admiral in command of the expedition,Luis Vaez de Torres, as well as a second ship. Directing his voyage across the southern Tropics instead of the northern, de Quiros discovered a small island, which long afterwards was renamed Osnaburg by Cook. A few days afterwards he passed one or more islands of the Tahiti archipelago, which he named "Sagittaria", probably from the month (February, under the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius) in which they were discovered. Sailing on westwards he next reached the group of the New Hebrides. This he believed to be a portion of the coast of the Southern Continent, and he named its largest island[43]Australia del Espiritu Santo, or Australia of the Holy Ghost, this being the first time that the word Australia came into being. He did not pursue his investigations any farther, because his ship's crew mutinied and forced him to sail back again to Mexico.
But his admiral, Luis Vaez de Torres, suddenly abandoned by the ship which had de Quiros on board, was lesscertain about the actual discovery of this continent, so in 1606-7 he pursued a westward course and thus passed through that strait which separates northern Australia from New Guinea, and thence sailed to the Philippines. He was consequently the discoverer of what is now the British province of Papua, and of the important Torres Straits.
For a long time the Spaniards kept these explorations as State secrets, for they were becoming very much alarmed at the progress in oversea exploration of the Dutch and English. The existence, therefore, of Torres Straits, separating the Australian Continent from the huge Island of New Guinea, remained practically unknown to the world of Europe until the voyages of Captain Cook, more than 150 years later. In fact, Cook, when he rediscovered and mapped the strait between North Australia and New Guinea, was not aware that he had been preceded in that direction by Torres. When, however, this fact was made clearly known through the archives of Spain, the name of the bold Spanish seaman was very appropriately (in 1796) given to a strait of water which is one of the most noteworthy passages from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans, and which may some day become of great importance in the world's history.
In the Malay Archipelago and the Spice Islands both Portuguese and Spanish were attacked by the Dutch, and gradually dispossessed from the end of the sixteenth century onwards. The Dutch had established themselves in the Moluccas in place of the Portuguese between 1604 and 1609, in which year the Portuguese were driven from the Nutmeg Islands of Banda. The Hollanders were followed almost immediately by the English. The merchant adventurers of both nations (who were seamen, soldiers, and pirates at will) soon penetrated to the western peninsulas of New Guinea and ousted the Portuguese from Java, Celebes, and southern Timor, but at first made little or no attempt to pass beyond Malaysia in search of the southern continent. By the conquest of Malacca in 1641 the Dutch had become practically masters of the Malay Archipelago, the Spaniards being confined to the possession of the Philippines (which they administered from the west coast of America across the Pacific),[44]and the Portuguese only lingering on in the islands of Timor and Flores, while the English had been expelled from the Spice Islandsand Java, and merely retained a precarious foothold in Sumatra. Encouraged by these successes to seek for further lands that might be conquered, settled, or traded with, the Dutch began to take up the quest for the Terra Australis as soon as they were established as the masters of the Moluccas and Banda.
In 1615 a bold Dutch navigator,Jacob le Maire(of French extraction), determined, in spite of the prohibition of the Dutch East India Company, to find his way independently to the seas and lands of southern Asia by way of the extremity of South America. He sailed in company with another sea captain,Schouten, and together they discovered and named Staten Island and the celebrated Cape Horn, the southernmost extremity (a little island) of South America, and since famous as the stormiest cape in the world's seas. From this point they followed closely the coast of South America till they got into equatorial latitudes, and then steered boldly across the Pacific Ocean, either not noticing or actually not seeing the many islands or islets that must have been near their course. Apparently the first land they sighted was the north-east coast of New Guinea, after which they got among the Spice Islands and thus eventually reached Batavia, where they were so severely punished by their fellow countrymen for their splendid adventure that Le Maire ultimately died before he could reach Holland. Previous to this date, however, the Dutch had evidently known something about the Australian Continent[45](of which it was generally believed that New Guinea was a portion), and they no doubt derived this knowledge from information given tothem by Malay pilots, and picked up from the Portuguese; for in a work published in 1598 by the Dutch historian, Cornelius Wytfliet, the following passage occurs: "The Terra Australis is the most southern of all lands, and is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait.... It is ascertained 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." There is a tradition also that in 1606 a Dutch ship, theDuyfkenorLittle Dove, which was on its way from Java to the western part of New Guinea, was driven out of her course by a typhoon and sighted the north-east coast of Australia (Cape York Peninsula) as far south as Cape Turnagain. Some of the crew landed, but were repulsed by the savage natives. In the year following the arrival of le Maire at Batavia, a Dutch ship, theEendracht, under the command of a navigator called Hertoge, or Hartog, by a similar cause was blown out of his course and touched the north-west coast of Australia at points now known as Shark Bay and Hartog Island. In 1622-3 theLeeuwin(Lioness), another Dutch vessel, penetrated along the west coast of Australia about as far south as Cape Leeuwin. In 1623 an expedition, under a captain namedCartenz, set out for the Southern Continent and explored and named the Gulf of Carpentaria, in north Australia, the name being derived from Carpentar, who was then the Governor of the Dutch East Indies (the authority says "West" Indies). Between 1622 and 1628 other Dutch expeditions, one of them underPieter Nuyts, explored the South Australian coast ("Nuytsland") as far as the Eyre Peninsula. But from here to Cape York the east coast of Australia remained absolutely unknown till the coming of Captain Cook.
Abel Janszoon Tasman, the greatest Dutch explorer of Australasia (his middle name was equivalent in English to Johnson), was born about 1603 at Lutjegast, near Groningen, in Friesland, not far from the modern German boundary. He was married twice, first when a young man (the second time when he was twenty-nine years old), and about the age of twenty-one joined the service of the Dutch East India Company and started for Java. He revisited Holland in 1637 and returned to the Malay Archipelago in 1638. Although he had started in life as a common sailor he must have acquired a good education by some means or other, for his journals show him to have been possessed of a singularly beautiful and even handwriting, he was a clever draughtsman (assuming the many sketches in the logbook to be by him), and he had thoroughly mastered the science of navigation, so much so, that soon after his arrival in the East Indies in 1634 he was singled out for work of importance and responsibility. In 1638 he made, in company with another commander, a remarkable voyage of exploration to Japan along the coasts of China, and in 1642 he was selected to command the expedition which was to make such important discoveries in Australasia.
His principal vessel, theHeemskerk[46], described as a yacht, was probably of only 150 tons capacity; the second of the two ships, theZeehaen(Seahen) was a third smaller than theHeemskerk. With these two small ships he left Batavia (Java) on 14 August, 1642, and sailed right across the Indian Ocean to the Island of Mauritius (the home ofthe Dodo), then occupied by the Dutch, wishing, no doubt, to take as wide a scope as possible for the discovery of the great Southern Continent. From Mauritius he sailed east and south, and did not sight the West Australian coast at all, his course trending so much to the south that instead he crossed the great Australian Bight[47]and first saw land off the west coast of Tasmania, in the vicinity of what is now known as Macquarie Harbour. He at once conferred on this land the name of Anthonij Van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies, and the principal promoter of this exploring expedition. He overlooked the passage to the north (Bass's Strait), and directed his course southwards. On 25 November, 1642, the two ships came to an anchor off the west coast of Tasmania for consultations between the commanders. On the succeeding days they sailed round the south coast of Tasmania, and on 2 December stopped again and sent a pilot in a pinnace with four musketeers and six rowers (all of them well armed) together with another boat commanded by an officer, and containing six more musketeers, to the shore of a large bay (probably Storm Bay) to see if fresh water, vegetables, and timber could be obtained. On the return of these boats the officers reported that they found the land covered with vegetation, but with no signs of cultivation. They brought back with them various wild vegetable products which seemed suited for use as pot-herbs, besides a good supply of fresh water. They reported that they had heard certain human sounds, and noises resembling the music of a trumpet or small gong, but they saw no human beings, though there were notchedtrees, the notches having been made with implements of sharpened stone, to form steps enabling persons to climb the trees and take the birds' nests. These notched steps (very wide apart) were so fresh and new that they could only have been cut a few days before. On the ground they saw the footprints of clawed animals and other traces showing that there were beasts in the forest. In the interior numerous trees were observed which had deep holes burnt into them, as if to make of them fireplaces and shelters. They also saw smoke rising in clouds from natives' fires. On 3 December a flagstaff was set up on the shore of Frederick Henry Bay, and possession of this new land was solemnly taken on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.
Then they sailed away from what they believed to be the southernmost extremity of Australia, and on 13 December, 1642, they saw "a large high-lying land bearing south-east ... at about 16 miles distance". This was the great southern island of New Zealand,[48]but it was encountered by Tasman at its northernmost extremity and close to the North Island. He sailed, in fact, right into the gulf (then named theZeehaen'sBight) between two islands, which finds its outlet to the south in Cook's Strait. He overlooked this outlet and believed the gulf to be only a great indentation. Ultimately he sailed northwards past the west coast of the North Island to its northernmost extremity, which he named Cape Maria Van Diemen. At some distance from this were threetiny islets, the size of which he exaggerated. He named them the Three Kings' Islands. On 18 December the two ships came to an anchor about a mile from the shore, off the coast of what is now called Massacre or Golden Bay, not far from the modern settlement of Waitapu. It was sunset, and calm, and as the twilight faded they saw lights on shore and two native boats coming towards them, the men in which began to call to them in rough, "hollow" voices. This people also blew several times on an instrument (probably a conch shell), the sound from which was like that of a Moorish trumpet. The seamen from the ships trumpeted back to them in reply, but when it was dark the native canoes paddled back to the shore. Early the next morning a canoe manned by fifteen natives approached to within a short distance of the ships and called out several times. But the Dutchmen could not understand their language, as it bore no resemblance to the vocabulary of words used in the Solomon Islands, which had been collected through the industry of Anthonij Van Diemen and supplied to Tasman with his other instructions.[49]As far as they could observe, these New Zealanders were of ordinary height, with rough voices and strong bones, the colour of their skin being between brown and yellow. They wore tufts of black hair right on the tops of their heads, tied fast in the manner of the Japanese, but somewhat longer and thicker, each topknot of hair being surmounted by a large white feather. Each of their boats consisted of two long, narrow canoes fastened side by side. Over these twin canoes were placed planks onwhich the paddlers sat. The New Zealanders, though naked from the shoulders to the waist, wore some kind of clothing (in contrast to the nearly always naked Melanesians). This seemed to be made of a stuff something like woven cotton, or else matting.
In spite of offered presents and friendly greetings these two boats would not come alongside the ship. Later on, seven more canoes came off from the shore, one of which was high and pointed in front. With these nine canoes paddling round and round the two ships, and manned by a number of able-bodied armed men, the Dutchmen became a little uneasy, and the skipper of theZeehaensent out his quartermaster in a small boat with six seamen to advise the officers of theHeemskerknot to allow too many natives to come on board, if they wished to do so. But suddenly the little boat of theZeehaenwas violently attacked by one of the New Zealand canoes, with the result that one Dutch seamen was knocked overboard, four were killed, while the remainder, thrown into the sea, swam back to their ship. The natives then started for the shore, taking one of the dead bodies with them (which they no doubt afterwards ate in a cannibal feast). None of the shots fired from theZeehaenorHeemskerktook effect. The small boat of theZeehaenwas recovered, and the two Dutch ships then set sail, despairing of entering into any friendly relations with these people, or getting fresh water at this place. As they sailed out of the bay they saw twenty-two canoes near the shore, of which eleven, swarming with people, were making for the ships. They kept quiet until some of the foremost canoes were within reach of the guns, and then fired one or two shots without doing much damage, though the natives at once turned their canoes back,hoisted a kind of sail, and made with all speed for the shore. "To this murderous spot we have accordingly given the name of Moordenaers Bay."[50]