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Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: / A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook. cover

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: / A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

Chapter 13: APPENDIX I.
By Richard Henry Major
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About This Book

The volume assembles translated documents, manuscript-map extracts, official reports, voyage journals, and shipwreck narratives that record early European contact with the southern continent prior to Cook. An editor’s introduction contextualizes cartographic evidence and documentary gaps, and the selections present navigators’ observations of coasts, search and rescue expeditions, and successive coastal surveys, accompanied by contemporary maps and binding instructions. The material exposes uncertainties in attribution, instances of concealment or lost records, and evolving geographic knowledge as crews charted and revisited the island and adjacent lands. Readers are offered primary-source testimony illustrating how seafaring reports, maps, and administrative dispatches combined to shape early understandings of the region’s coastline.

APPENDIX I.

EXTRACT FROM THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE XVII.
Thursday, December 8th, 1695.

The Commissioners of the Chamber of Amsterdam have reported, how the said Chamber, in accordance with and to fulfil what their Nobilities have by resolution of the 10th of last month been ordered to do, concerning the sending of a ship to the South Land, or the land of d’Eendracht, having examined and also heard and taken the advice of Commander Hendrich Pronck and Skipper Willem de Vlamingh, is of opinion; firstly, as regards the South Land, that for certain reasons it should not be undertaken from Batavia, as previously thought proper, and in favour of which this Assembly has declared itself by its missive of Nov. 10 last, to the General and Council, but from the Cape of Good Hope, and on the 1st of Oct. next year; that for this purpose should be equipped and prepared, in order to go to sea next March, a frigate and two galiots, under command of and accompanied by the before-mentioned skipper De Vlamingh, with such instructions as should be deemed necessary. That the said frigate should be provided with a Greenland shallop—supposed to be better adapted for putting into harbour and landing than the ordinary shallops in the use of the Company. Secondly, that De Vlamingh should be directed in his instructions to touch at the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, as lying directly on his track, on his way from the cape to the South Land, to examine their situation, and also, whether any traces of the crew of missing vessels, especially of the Ridderschap van Hollandt, are to be found.

After deliberation, the resolution was passed:—That all the above written shall be further examined by Commissioners, and report be made of their considerations and resolutions; and for which hereby are requested and commissioned: from the Chamber Amsterdam, Messrs. Hooft, Geelvinck, Fabritius, and Velsen; from the Chamber Zeelandt, Messrs. Boddart and Schorer; and from the other Chambers, those who shall be commissioned by them; with the addition of Mr. van Spanbrock from the principal participators.