Byte 19: The Great Southern Land Bites Back – Discovery 1606

So we come to 1603 and a Dutchman named Willem Janszoon. In the last years before the formation of the Dutch East India Company he set sail for the East Indies as the captain of the Duyfken.

This ship was a lightly armed Barque 65 feet in length with a 110 tonne displacement and shallow draft. Her career was to be short (1595 to 1608), but noteworthy in terms of our historical journey.

By the time of Janszoon’s departure in 1603 she had already sailed twice from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies, been engaged in a naval battle with the Portuguese and undertaken a voyage of exploration where she got separated from the fleet, finding her way home alone in early 1603.

However, the plucky little Duyfken founder her way into the history books when Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade in the East Indies. He was to sail the Duyfken beyond the ends of the known lands, to the east and south. The Duyfken’s shallow draught (some eight feet) made her perfect for coastal exploration.

So in 1605, the Duyfken sailed under the command of Willhelm Janszoon from the trading port of Bantam in modern day Indonesia towards the west coast of New Guinea. Janszoon took with him a hand picked crew for this voyage to unknown lands.

Reaching New Guinea, they encountered a densely wooded land. The dependable Duyfken followed the coast and at one point they dropped anchor in an inlet and sent a boat crew to shore to explore and forage. It was then they were attacked by natives who fired arrows relentlessly at Janszoon’s  crew. In response the crew  raised their muskets, fired and fell back towards their boat loosing with eight dead. Despite the set back, the Duyfken and crew pressed on along the coast. However, they ran into difficulty when they met an opposing current running from the east around the New Guinea coast, forcing them to turn south east.

Very soon they encountered a totally different landscape. For mile after mile after mile they charted a barren land, without colour and, seemingly, people.

But it is finally here, in 1606, we have our first authenticated European sighting of the Great Southern Land. Janszoon and his crew had inadvertently sailed south and were following the west coast of the Australia’s York Peninsular.

Over the following days they charted some 300 miles of coastline until running low on supplies they decided to turn about at Cape Keerweer (Cape Turnaround). They sailed back up coast reaching the mouth of the Batavia River. Again they were met with trouble. Desperate for food and supplies they sent a longboat ashore, but again they were met by local natives. This time they did not wait for an attack and fired, leading to the natives retaliating and spearing one of the oarsmen.

It was here that Janszoon, now with less than half of his original crew, decided enough was enough. They were low on supplies and the surrounding lands offered little in sustenance, but a lot of trouble. It was time to turn for home. However, they were still a long way from a friendly shore.

Despite the situation, the crew rallied under Janszoon, and headed to the closest port, that of Aru.

Finally, Europeans had made it to the shores of the Great Southern Land…and Janszoon was not finished yet…he was to return…

Byte 18: The Rise of the Raj – British East India Company – Early 1600’s

With regard to a presence in the Indian Ocean, the British were slow out of the blocks, but actually the first to raise capital and share the risk of trading with the far distant  East Indies

The British East India Company was granted an Royal Charter by Elizabeth I  in December 1600.  This was after one successful trip around the Cape of Good Hope by a British merchant group, and another where all the ships were lost at sea.

In the last years of the sixteenth century, a group of London merchants met and formed a corporation raising capital to purchase ships and finance future voyages to the East Indies. In December 1600 Queen Elizabeth I  awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on all British trade for a period of fifteen years.

However, the entry into the spice trade was not easy. The British were third in line behind the Dutch and the Portuguese who were each well established in the region, having established trading posts and local relationships (if that can be said).  As the British moved in hostilities arose wit  both the Dutch and the Portuguese. This was costly and impacted on profits, and this was probably the reason why the British, in the end, confined themselves to exploiting the trade opportunities with India where the other European powers were less entrenched.

All said, this was to be a strategic move that resulted in the British East India Company becoming one of the worlds most successful companies of all time. They effectively became a defacto government ruling over millions of people across the Indian sub-continent.

With this move by the British towards India, the British will recede from our journey of discovery, but they will come to the fore later, not so much with economic exploitation as their goal, but exploration and glory for king and country.

But glory in these times still meant for counties of the East Indies, at best absorption into a European sphere of influence, at worst, conquest and ruthless exploitation.

Byte 17: Enter the Dutch – Power without Glory – 1602

We have reached the early 1600’s on our journey in search of the Land Down Under…

No longer is Asia a lonely place for Europeans. The seas are gradually being tamed, but what of the locals and the competition?

The year 1602 is especially significant for it bought a new power into the Indian Ocean. And it came came forth with all the fury of an angry storm sweeping accross the Indian Ocean..

This was the year the Dutch East India Company was created. This company was effectively granted what could be called “extra governmental authority”. It was a government within a government, created for national, political and economic purposes. Perhaps the first ever private army, fully owned and operated by the Dutch public.

The Dutch East India Company charter presented the company with a monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean, with the rights to make war and peace, administer justice, coin money and levy troops. With huge profits to be made controlling the trade between East and West  (spices, opium, Chinese porcelain etc.) armed protection became a feature of the Dutch East India Company (and the British East India Company). Indeed,the company soon controlled an armed force that dwarfed the one back at home.

It was estimated that at its height the Dutch East India Company possessed some 50,000 civilian employees, an army of 40 warships, up to 20,000 sailors and perhaps 10,000 solders.

The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, as it was known locally, was granted a 21 year monopoly on trade in the Indian Ocean. The rational for such a monopoly, it must be said, was sound. Single voyages were high risk, and such risks were best shared. Also, prices need to be managed. To much product at one time could see prices tumble. So supply and demand needed to be balanced.

So in 1602 stock was issued for the first time. This raised some 6.5m guilders from the public (a huge sum) with the company also able to issue bonds to finance its short term funding requirements (creating a template for the modern stock exchange) .

Within a few years Dutch Trading Posts began to be established across Asia. The first was in Indonesia.

By 1610 it was thought necessary to appoint a Governor General for Asia, and soon after the Dutch East India Company began to flex its muscle to achieve its economic ambitions.  In Jakarta they expelled Banten forces at gun point to establish Batavia and a centre for the companies activities in Asia. They also deported the native inhabitants of the Banda Islands (source of nutmeg) with an ambition of using slave labour.

By the mid 1600’s the Company was well on the way to dominating Indian Ocean trade, with trading posts established from Iran, to India, South Africa and Siam (Thailand), to name but a few…

With the scent of profit in the air, the waters north of the Great Southern land were transforming into an economic and political battleground. Not a time for the faint hearted, nor for the locals, caught on the wrong side of the ledger…

Byte 16: In Sight of Cape York, Australia? 1606

So where are we in the year 1600?

Has Australia been discovered by Europeans already? Are we all done with this search for the Land Down Under?

The Portuguese are the favorites at this stage you must say. But exactly when and who? And why have they not announced such a momentous achievement to the world?  Why is not some dashing Portuguese discoverer hailed as a hero in the texts of the time?  One argument regarding Portuguese silence is that this discovery was treated as a state secret. Too valuable to share with their competitors. Sharing routes of expeditions to the East was severely punished at the time.

But if no one has reached the shores of Australia, how do we explain the following description by Cornelius Wytfliet of this Great Southern Land in  ”Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum”, published in 1598:

“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 when 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.”

It is within reason that Australia had been accidentally visited during the sixteenth century and this is supported by the Dieppe maps to an extent. One French map of dated 1542, presents an outline that might support at least one Portuguese ship sailing from Cape York to Tasmania.

So in the year 1600 we have boastful claims of seamen and privateers, a few intriguing charts and the statement of Cornelius Wytfliet as milestones of achievement.

However, let’s  move into a new century. Here, surely, we are bound to find a  seaman we can be more confidently say sailed within sight of, or strode ashore on, this Great Southern Land.

Enter Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. A Spanish seaman with an unshakable belief in the existence of the Great Southern Land. In 1598 he petitioned King Phillip III of Spain to commission an expedition to find this mythical continent. Successful in gaining the King’s assent, he sails three ships from Peru in 1605 to claim this continent for Spain and the Church. Second in command was Luis de Torres.

All was not well, however, on Quiros’s ship. During the voyage it appears Quiros’s crew mutinies, and he is forced  to sail back to Peru, leaving Torres in command of the remaining two ships.

Torres was known as an able seaman. He apparently searched for his lost commander and then sailed towards the southern coast of New Guinea through the strait that now bear his name. Intriguingly, he did seem to know of the strait – that it would lead him back to the open seas and to eventually the Philippines. This knowledge again leads to the prospect that someone, most likely the Portuguese, has previously circumnavigated New Guinea and charted their voyage.

But  did Torres hug the New Guinea coast line, or venture along the Australian Coast line further to the south? Strong arguments exist; based on the prevailing winds (north east trade winds) that he is likely to have sailed through the Endeavour Straight, past Thursday Island. This would have put him in sight of Cape York, the northern tip of Australia.

Torres did not claim to discovery Australia. If he saw it he did not recognise his find. Indeed, much of  his account of his trip gathered dusk in the Spanish archives and his voyage achieved little celebration. That is until by various hands, it is likely his notes found there way in the 1760’s to Joseph Banks and then to Captain Cook .

On the other hand, Torres’s disappearing Captain Quiros, announced in 1610 that he had discovered the large southern continent. In doing so he proclaimed it “Austrialia del Espiritu Santo” (in honour of Phillip III, a member of the “House of Austria”).

Not so it must be said!

So is Torres our discoverer? Or, at least first European to sight Australia?  Well, the argument although not conclusive, is sound.

However, you get that sneaking feeling, that just by knowing the strait between New Guinea and Australia existed, that those Portuguese had probably been there before.  And if the trade wind logic applies to Torres, well it must apply to the Portuguese as well.

I am suspecting we may never know…but let’s keep searching anyway ….

Byte 15: Move over France & England – the Portuguese Really Discovered Australia! – 1522

João de Barros sits down to write a manuscript about the Portuguese in India and Asia around 1550, and some 225 years later a Mr John Mason, of Belfast, rides along the coast of Southern Australia near  Warrnambool. What is the connection?

Well, it starts with the noted historian Barros, writing his work Décadas da Ásia, where he mentions a Portuguese sailor named Cristóvão de Mendonça.

Mr. Mason, on the other hand writes of a curious site as he rides his horse along the coast in 1846. A ship wreck.

Mr. Mason writes:

“Sir, Riding along the beach from Port Fairy to Warrnambool in the summer of 1846, my attention was attracted to the hull of a vessel embedded high and dry in the Hummocks, far above the reach of any tide.  It appeared to have been that of a vessel about 100 tons burden, and from its bleached and weather-beaten appearance, must have remained there many years.  The spars and deck were gone, and the hull was full of drift sand.  The timber of which she was built had the appearance of cedar or mahogany.”

So we come to the view that the Portuguese in fact discovered Australia in 1522.  That  Mendonca sailed the eastern coast of Australia in 1522, and that the Mahogony ship so described by Mr Mason is really a wrecked Portuguese caravel.

And the glue to this story?  The Dieppe Maps. A number of world maps produced in Dieppe, France between the 1540s and 1560s. These exquisite maps were thought to be based on Portuguese maps, based on such travels as Mendonca and Testu to name but two potential sources.

So, from such sources comes the punch line: in 1521-4 Mendonça captained a fleet of three caravels which eventually sailed and charted the east coast of Australia.

Why is this not widely known?  The theory is that at the time the Portuguese jealously guarded such cartographic knowledge. It was their nations so called “competitive edge”.  Such knowledge was only drawn into the hands of other nations through bribery and corruption. Such was the way we think the resultant chartings of Mendonca’s voyage found their way into the Dieppe maps (where there is said to be a good representation of parts of Queensland).

Furthermore, it is thought that one of Mendonça’s caravels met its doom near Warrnambool the wreck having been variously sighted (although no longer) and dubbed the legendary “Mahogany ship”.

So we have the enticing story, albeit with thin evidence, that perhaps the French and/or the Portuguese have well and truly “pipped Captain Cook to the post” in discovering Australia…

Don’t forget to vote below…

Byte 15: Quick Poll – Who Landed First?

A question based on our story so far. Which European country do you think reached Australia’s shores first? Deliberately or accidentally.  Let’s see what you are thinking so far….blog some reasons if you have time….

We will take another poll after a few more bytes of history and see if our collective views have changed… as we draw closer to the colonisation of this vast Southern Land…

Byte 14: Time to Spice it Up -1500-1550

So here we are in the first half of the  1500’s and our story centers around the Spice Islands.  We have the Portuguese, the Spanish and the French on stage, with the British and the Dutch soon to make their entrance.  Not far to the south, still shrouded in mystery, is the Great Southern Land hidden by what we know today as Papua New Guinea.

So what draws these European’s to this far away group of islands?

Spices of course. Spices such as cloves, nutmeg and mace among others. All of these grew on a number of volcanic islands of the Moluccas; now the known as the Maluku Province – a part of the modern day nation of Indonesia.  Highly valued and highly priced, they have been traded with distant Europe since Roman times.

Archaeology points to these Islands having contact with such far away lands as the Indian subcontinent since at least 200BC. By the time Europe reaches the islands directly, trade involves a web of Chinese and Muslim interests – all keenly aware of the profits to be made.  And profits there were. Spices reaching Europe would be marked up by around 1000%.

Not bad business, despite the distance and risks!

In  1511 Afonso de Albuquerque defeats the last Sultan of Malacca and drives him from the city thus ending around 100 years of Sultinate rule and providing a base for Portuguese (and Christian) expansion across the island group.  Soon the Banda Islands are located and sailed for with profits clearly in mind (the only known source of nutmeg and mace).

So commences the Portuguese establishment of forts and trading stations throughout the islands and the European battle for “spicery”.

So why not add just a dash of Spanish, Dutch and English to this “spicy” dish of history…

But one thing is clear, it is not the spirit of adventure that is driving this story forward. It is  the naked quest for profit, driven by greed and avarice…. so disappointing really…

Byte 13: The French & Captain Cook’s Secret Map – 1530-1570

So Guillaume Le Testu (c.  1512- 1573), a Frenchman, was the first European to discover Australia!

Possible – may be – perhaps, but not likely is the considered view. Although lets did a little deeper into the story…

Testu was one of those typical colorful characters that sailed the oceans in the Elizabethan Age. He was a privateer, out for money and adventure on behalf of his country and himself. Andre Thevet, cosmographer to Henry II, boasted of having often sailed with him, and always styles him as “renomme pilote et singulier navigateur!”

For the sake of our story let’s describe him as an explorer, navigator, and finally a fine cartographer.  He met his end in 1573, when with Frances Drake, he attacked a Spanish convoy, was captured and killed.  However, important to our story is that Testu produced one of the fine Dieppe maps in 1555 which seemed to describe “Jave la Grande”, or the mythical Terra Australis.

But here is the twist…

Alexander Dalrymple, a hydrographer to the Admiralty in his memoirs in 1786 noted a similarity between the names Captain Cook names gave to parts of New Holland (Terra Australis) and those in the Tetsu’s map. He points out such similarities as: ”Bay of Isles is in the MS. called R. de beaucoup d’Isles.”

Dalrymple summaries sarcastically his observations on Captain Cook’s achievements: “So that we may say with Solomon, “‘There is nothing new under the sun’”.

Whilst  Dalrymple was jealous of Cooks appointment to the Endeavour and had reason to malign Cook, the similarities are worth noting. So the name Testu should not be unknown in our journey towards the Great Southern Land. Not only for the map itself and the relationship with Captain Cook, but for the following question – From what source did he draw the map? Did he visit Terra Australis? And when?

The argument for Testu being the (or one of the first) European visitors to the west coast of Australia is based on this 1555 map and the fact that he produced other maps in1536 and 1542 thought to be based on his earlier trip to the Spice Islands around 1531. Was his knowledge of Terra Australis based on these voyages and an actual visit to the mythical land? Or are they based on the stories and voyages of others, such as Binot Paulmier de Gonneville between 1503 and 1504?

We will never probably know exactly how close Testu got to Terra Australis.  But let’s leave this byte with the thought that perhaps the French made it to this distant land, or they had a hand in providing to Captain Cook with a little information that assisted him on his latter, much more famous journey…

Byte 12: Introducing the Great Southern Land & its People

A little about the history of the Great Southern Land….

Australia, as we now know it, covers some 3 million square miles (7.7 million square kilometres) of land. It is thought that in a period of lower sea levels (70-40,000 years), when Australia was perhaps joined to New Guinea and within reach of Asia by canoe, man first reached the continent. From these beginning emerged some 250 nations of Australian aboriginals.

A diverse range of nations and languages and a rich oral history developed over many thousands of generations. Across these generations the basis of the aboriginal culture was hunting and gathering with a limited use of stone tools. However, that does not mean it was unchanging. Rather it adapted so as to be finely in tune with the diverse range of environments that existed across the vast land.

The population over time reached stability, and harmony with the environment, and was never thought to be more than 750,000 in number.

Almost invisible to any outside modern culture was the aboriginal’s complex oral history, their reverence and oneness with the land, and their belief in the Dreamtime- a fusion of faith, knowledge and ritual that dominated their lives and approach to the outside world.

When the white man arrived, the aboriginal nations knew nothing, and had drawn virtually nothing, from the vast range of civilisations that had risen and fallen in parallel to their history .

For the Australian aboriginal an ocean horizon had bounded their culture from time immemorial.  To the expansionist, white explorers sailing inevitably towards this Great Southern Land, they stood naked, with virtually nothing the white man could comprehend, or value.

We are now witness to the age of European discovery and the aboriginals are unique, of their own time, and totally vulnerable….

Byte 11: Discovery – Spanish & Portuguese – 1500-1550

With their East African and Indian positions established the Portuguese continue to the east, past India reaching Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, Java and then the Spice Islands (Moluccas). It is 1511 in our voyage of discovery.

However, the Spanish are not idle. Following the discovery of America by Columbus, they are pushing their explorations westward at the same time.

Enter Magellan, who presents his plan to the Spanish King Charles V of a westerly trip to reach Asia and the Spice Islands (a voyage previously rejected by the Portuguese King). It is accepted and he sets off with five ships in 1519. This trip results in the first circumnavigation of the globe (albeit at the cost of three of the ships, Magellan himself and the majority of his crew).

Magellan’s expedition reaches the vicinity of the Spice Islands (with well established Portuguese trade and trading establishments) and commences a dispute over their respective “spheres of influence”. Some years prior Pope Alexander VI.  had arbitrated an agreement between each party generously bestowing one-half of the undiscovered world upon the Spanish, and the other half upon the Portuguese (Treaty of Tordesillas). As luck would have it however, the claims overlap at the valuable Spice Islands.

This come to a head when the surviving ships of Magellan’s fleet reach the Moluccas in 1521. The Spanish claim that these islands are within its own hemisphere. The Portuguese disagree.  Inevitable conflict begins between the two.

Then in 1527, Fernand Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, sends an armed fleet from New Spain led by Alvaro de Saavedra. On leaving the Spice Islands, well laden with goods, he runs many leagues along the Northern Coast of New Guinea.

Around the same time, Jorge de Menezes from Portugal pulls his ship to the shore of New Guinea to wait out a fierce storm. He names where he stops Ilhas dos Papuas .

By 1530 both Spain and Portugal  were as close as Papua New Guinea…and the British and Dutch were still yet to come…