KNEW THESE SEAS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 86, 8 October 1930, Page 9

KNEW THESE SEAS

OLD DUTCH SAILOES DESCENDANTS COMING A squadron of Dutch ships is now approaching Melbourne. Though twenty years have passed since a previous visit by Dutch warships was made to these waters', these Dutchmen, are only following in tha footsteps of their predecessors; for Dutchmen were the first to Australian shores— and their early impressions were far from favourable, says a writer in the "SunNews Pictorial." . . In all the discussions and arguments that have raged around the discovery of Australia, one fact has emerged,-and that is that the Dutch seamen were the first to sight our shores, the first to return and report the existence of the great land which, however, they held almost in contempt. For iv their reports they compared the "arid coasts and man-eating savages" of Australia with the tropical luxuriance and riches of the Dutch East Indies, from whence their finding o£ Australia was made. The real pioneer, the man who accidentally and quite unthinkingly led the way to the discovery and exploitation of .the Great Southern Continent was a Dutch sea captain, De Brouwer, engaged in the traffic between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indian possessions. It had been tha custom for these captains to round the Cape of Good Hope and then to follow the African coast to the north before striking east for India and the islands. "EASTING." ' But De Brouwer, about the year 1611, tried another route. He found that, "after rounding the Cape, there was a prevailing ■westerly wind which would bowl him along to the east; and he ''ran down his easting" for several thousand miles before turning up north for the Indies. '•' The new route "caught on" among th« Dutch navigators, and the practice of running down the easting after -leaving tha Cape of Good Hope became the custom. But such a route had the inevitable insult of bringing some of the ships in sight of the west coast of Australia, and. the oldest name, the first name ever to appear on a chart or map of Australia, is the name of one of these ships, "Eendracht," and that of her captain, Dirck Hartog— names which survive to this day. The good ship Eendracht and her captain were the predecessors of the Hoyal Netherlands squadron now visiting these shores. •. ■ Three years later, two more Dutch ships commanded by De Houtman, while on a voyage to Batavia, also stumbled on the unknown coast, a little to the south of ■which Perth now stands. They coasted northwards and discovered that dangerous shoal which, over three centuries later, still bears the name of Houtman's "Ab'rolhos" or "Open your eyes." And thereafter ship after ship made the coast, and gradually filled in • the b^nks. But the Dutch always retained an unfavourable opinion of this new land. It was barren, it was dangerous, it was monotonous; but they left their funny old Dutch names on the map, and to this day, for 4000 miles from the norkh-west right round the.Leeuwin, past the Bight and the land of Pietr Nuyts, the map-is studded with old Dutch names. ■ ■ FINE SAILORS. But though these hardy old seamen were splendid navigators, brave and intrepid, and worthy" of their great contemporaries, Van Tromp, De Ruyter, and Evertsen, their knowledge was limited, their navigating instruments crude, their ships ill-founded. Most important of all, they had no real conception of the "land against which they had stumbled on their way to the East Indies. Their impressions of it -were unfavourable, and they Jiad.no thoughts save for the rich Indies whither they were bound. But their deeds live after them, and their names survive on our maps to-day to remind us of these pioneer voyages. Now, 314 years after the Eendracht first sighted our coasts, three ships of the Dutch Navy visit them again; But iv what different circumstances! Instead of "arid coasts" Admiral de Kayser and his company find instead a great Dominion* and instead of "man-eating savages" a civic reception at the Town Hall!