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The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

E >> Ernest Favenc >> The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888




"ITEM. They say that, intending to leave there some memorial that this
country had been visited by Christians, they erected a large wooden
cross, thirty-five feet high, and painted over, placed on an eminence in
view of the sea. This they did with much ceremony on the Day of
Pentecost, 504, the cross being carried by the captain and his officers,
all barefooted, accompanied by the King Arosca and the principal Indians,
after whom followed the crew, under arms, singing the Litany. These were
accompanied by a crowd of Indians, to whom they gave to understand the
meaning of this ceremony as well as they could. Having set up the cross,
they fired volleys of their cannon and small arms, charging the Indians
to keep carefully and honour the monument they had set up, and endeavoured
to gain them to this by presenting them with a number of baubles, which,
though of small value, were highly prized by them. On one side of this
cross were engraved the name of the Pope and that of our Sovereign, the
name of the Admiral of France, and those of the captain and all his crew.
On the other side appeared the Latin verses following, made by the above
Nicole Le Fevre, signifying the date of this transaction--

"HIC sacra paLMarIUs, post UIt gonIVILLabInotUs,
"GreX, foCIUs parIterqUe UtraqUe progenles.

"ITEM. They say that, having refitted their ship in the best way they
could, they prepared to return to France, and being willing, after the
manner of those who discover strange lands, to carry some of the natives
with them, they persuaded the king, Arosca, to let them have one of his
sons, promising to the father that they would bring him back in twenty
moons at farthest, with others who should teach them the use of firearms,
and how to make mirrors, axes, knives, and whatever else they admired
among the Christians. These promises determined Arosca to let his son,
called Essomeric, go along with them, to whom he gave for a companion an
Indian of thirty-five years of age, called Namoa. He and his people
convoyed them to the ship, giving them provisions, besides many beautiful
feathers and other rarities, in order to present to the King of France.
At parting, Arosca obliged them to swear that they would return in twenty
moons, and when the ship got under way the whole people gave a great cry,
and, forming the sign of the Cross with their fingers, gave them to
understand that they would carefully preserve the one set up among them.

"ITEM. They say that they left this southern country July 3rd, 1504, and
saw no land until the day after the Feast of St. Denis, during which time
they were much distressed by a malignant fever, of which their surgeon
and three more died, among whom was the Indian, Namoa. The young son of
Arosca also falling sick, they baptised him by the name of Binot, after
their captain, who stood godfather to him. This was done September 14th,
after which the young Indian grew better and arrived in France."

Callender further remarks:--

"Thus far the judicial declaration emitted by De Gonneville before the
Admiralty. The rest of the author's memoir is filled with exhortations to
the French to profit by this lucky discovery, and send the writer back to
the country of his ancestors; but this appears never to have been done.
The author seems to have begun this extract from De Gonneville's
declaration in that place where he talks of the manners of the
inhabitants, omitting what went before, though it is highly probable that
the navigator must have said something of the voyage outwards and the
portion of the country where he landed, which would have been of great
importance for us to know at this day. The French writer from whom we
have translated the above account informs us that the Count de Maurepas
caused search lately through all the records of the Admiralty in
Normandy, in order to find the original of this declaration, but an
interval of two centuries and a half, and the confusions occasioned by
the civil wars, had dispersed all the old papers, and all the information
that M. de Maurepas could obtain was that a tradition still subsisted
there that such a piece was once among the records, but they could give
no account of what was become of it. Thus the full account of an attempt
which Magellan some years after finished with success is entirely lost,
except the very lame extract we have been able to lay before the reader.
Our French author tells us he has seen another copy of this memorial at
the end of the dedication to Pope Alexander VII. The author signs his
name thus, at full length, 'Paulmier, Prêtre Indien Chanoine de l'Eglise
Cathédrale de Lizieux.' The proprietor of this copy has added a note,
testifying that this copy was given him by the author himself in 1664. He
commends him as a person of universal knowledge, and one who had
travelled all over Europe. He had made the history of navigation his
principal study, and was perfectly acquainted with it. In another note we
are told that Essomeric, the son of Arosca, lived to the year 1583, and
left posterity under the name of Binot. One of his grand-children, J. B.
Binot, was President of the Treasury of Provence, and left an only
daughter, who was m married to the Marquis de la Barbent, May 4th, 1725.
Our readers will not be surprised that we have entered into a detail of
facts in order to elucidate and confirm the truth of this first discovery
of the Terra Australis, especially as this account was never seen in our
language till now, and is therefore little known even to those who are
otherwise well acquainted with voyages made to this part of the world."


Callender, however, has omitted to translate the remainder of Des
Brosses' account, in which, among other facts, the important statement is
made that the priest Paulmier had become personally known to M. Flaconet,
who met him for the first time at the residence of the Lord Bishops of
Heliopolis and Beryte, where he often met him in company with M. de
Flacourt, who had commanded in Madagascar, and AI. Fernamel, father of
the Superior of the Foreign Missions. The good abbe was doing all in his
power to persuade these gentlemen to assist in sending a mission to these
Australians, and it also appears that he had communicated his views on
the subject to St. Vincent de Paul, who would have presented his memorial
to the Pope had he not been prevented by death.

Before attempting to fix the position of the country visited by De
Gonneville, it is necessary to refute here the various opinions expressed
on the subject which refer to countries other than the Australian
Continent. The most ancient is that brought forward by tile geographers,
Duval and Nolin, and the navigator, Bouvet, who place those lands almost
immediately to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. As there are no lands
thereabout, this opinion is hardly worth quoting but, considering the
very limited knowledge of the geography of that part of the world in
those days, the error may be readily understood. Others, basing their
opinion on the length of De Gonneville's voyage, have surmised that he
might have landed on some part of the coast of Tasmania or of New
Zealand, but this conclusion is equally untenable, as these islands are
not situated within calm latitudes, and are not near or even in the
direction of the "true course to the East Indies," which the French
sailor was satisfied he was not far off, as, under this belief, he, on
leaving the "Southern Indies" endeavoured to induce his crew to
continue their voyage. Besides, the description given of the inhabitants
and their manners, applies more to natives of a tropical or semi-tropical
climate than to those of such cold regions as New Zealand and Tasmania.

We are, therefore, confronted with only one more opinion, which is held
by most English geographers on the high authority of Admiral Burney.

"Let the whole account," says Burney, "be reconsidered without
prepossession, and the idea that will immediately and most naturally
occur is that Southern India, discovered by De Gonneville, was
Madagascar. De Gonneville, having doubled (passed round) the Cape, was by
tempests driven into calm latitudes, and so near to this land that he was
directed thither by the flight of birds. The refusal of the crew to
proceed to Eastern India would scarcely have happened if they had been so
far advanced to the east as New Holland."

It is difficult to conceive how Burney could have expressed such an
opinion, unless he was led to that conclusion by some errors in
Callender's translations. There is, in fact, a passage having reference
to the descriptions of the head-dress worn by the native women, in which
the Scotch geographer has given the following version of Des Brosses'
original:--


"The women and girls go bareheaded, with their hair neatly tied up in
tresses, mixed with flowers of most beautiful colours."?

The original narrative reads thus:--

"Et vont les femmes et filles tête nue, ayant les cheveux gentiment
teurchés de petits cordons d'herbes teintes de couleurs vives et
luisantes."


Which means:--


"The women and girls go bare headed, having their hair ornamented with
little strings of grass dyed in bright colours."


This, as will be seen, is a very different version. Callender evidently
did not understand the old Norman expression--GENITMENT TEURCHÉS, which
means "nicely ornamented," and translated it by the word that appeared to
him more akin in form, TRESSES, hence, "the hair neatly tied up in
tresses", which is a characteristic custom of the native women of the
island of Madagascar.

But this is a small matter. It is, however, more difficult to dispose of
another fact as telling against the Madagascar theory, which apparently
did not strike Burney. Gonneville states that he was driven into calm
latitudes, and after tedious navigation, was directed southward by the
flight of birds. It is only necessary here to compare dates in order to
show how misapplied would be this description to the latitudes within
which Madagascar is situated.

De Gonneville left Honfleur in June, 1503, and quilted Southern India on
the 3rd of July of the following year. As he stayed six months in that
country, his outward voyage had, therefore, lasted about seven months,
and he must have been in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope about
December, 1503, or January, 1504. As it is a well-known fact that
tempestuous weather is generally met with from the SOUTH-WEST and,
moreover, that the prevailing wind during that season of the year is from
the north-west, De Gonneville, whose true course lay to the north-east,
was probably driven much more toward the east than he expected, for he
expressly states that he was convinced he was not far from the true
course to the East Indies. Had the tempests blown from the SOUTH-EAST,
there would never, in all probability, have been any need discussing his
account, for he would have had none to render, as his ship would have
been driven very quickly against the East African coast, or the
south-east coast of Madagascar and wrecked.

It must be assumed that De Gonneville was, for his time, a man of great
ability, well versed in nautical matters, and the use of the primitive
instruments which were then known, and his opinion as, to the position of
his ship, and his desire to proceed to the East Indies, being inwardly
satisfied that he was not far from the object of his voyage, is certainly
entitled to some consideration, although, unfortunately, he has not left
any indication of the latitude or longitude of the country he visited. If
to this be added the facts that it is precisely in the season extending
from December to March, that the Madagascar latitudes are constantly
visited by hurricanes, and that the cyclones which originate in the
Indian Ocean burst over the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, and
generally travel towards these coasts, it will be apparent that the term
"calm latitudes" must necessarily apply to some other part of the Indian
Ocean. It is equally well-known that the belt which extends round the
globe between 10 deg. of latitude, north, and 10 deg. of latitude, south,
is in all parts of the ocean, and at all times, subject to very tedious
calms, though the waters may occasionally be ruffled by very heavy
hurricanes and storms. These facts force us to seek for the land visited
in the neighbourhood of these latitudes. The objection raised by the
sailors to proceed to the East Indies means nothing, as they had no idea
of their position, while as ignorant and superstitious men, tired of a
long and dangerous voyage, they had little reason to share in their
chief's confidence in his estimate of the locality they had reached, and
had no thought but that of returning homewards without facing again the
dangers of unknown seas.

Further arguments are not wanting to refute the Madagascar theory. In the
first place, the Portuguese, who discovered that island in 1506, and
explored its coasts in the following years, could not have Ion. remained
in ignorance of De Gonneville's voyage. The cross erected by his
companion was, perhaps, not destroyed; but, so short a period having
c-lapsed between their discoveries and the Norman captain's voyage, the
natives could scarcely have forgotten so important an event. The only
alternative theory would be that, in their explorations along the coast
of the island, the Portuguese were so unfortunate as to land everywhere
but near the spot where De Gonneville may be supposed to have resided. It
is stated, moreover, that the priest Paulmier wrote his memorial to the
Pope with the object of obtaining a Christian mission to the home of his
ancestors; but the Portuguese missionaries were preaching the Gospel in
Madagascar almost since the first visits of their countrymen to that
island, and it is self-evident that the Abbe, who was often in the
company of the priests who in Paris administered the foreign missions in
non-Christian countries, must have been aware of this fact; while M. de
Villermon positively states that he often met Paulmier in company with M.
de Flacourt who had been Governor of Madagascar where France had
established itself as far back as 1642. What would have been the
necessity, it may be asked, of praying that a Christian mission should be
sent to a country where missions had flourished for over a century, or of
founding a French colony in an island which was already occupied by
France, and had received resident governors ten years before the good
priest wrote?

But there is one last point which is sufficient in itself to remove all
doubts on the subject. Here, again, we must compare dates, and we find
that:--


"They left that country on the 3rd of July, 15o4, and did not see land
until the day after the Feast of St. Denis, i.e., 10th October, 1504."


De Gonneville's report to the Admiralty is dated 15th June, 1505, and
admitting that there was some delay between his landing at Honfleur and
the date of his report, which was signed by the principal officers of his
vessel, he could hardly have reached France before March or April of that
year. As he was, moreover, convinced that the country to which he had
given the name of Southern India lay to the south of the East Indies, it
is evident that on his return home his course must have been SOUTH-WEST,
which, had he started from the east coast of Madagascar, or, as D'Avezac
thinks, from that of South America, would have landed him on his starting
point. It is evident that the land he sighted after three months'
navigation could be no other than the Cape of Good Hope.

This is sufficient, we venture to think, to dispose of the Madagascar
theory, as it does also of the South American one, which, it may be
added, can hardly be admitted as possible, when the length of the return
voyage of De Gonneville (about twelve months) is taken into
consideration, together with the fact that the whole of the South
American coast within the region where De Gonneville might have landed
was explored and settled about the same time, and some record of his
voyage would certainly have been found.

Where, then, shall we look for this Southern India, for that fine river,
at the mouth of which De Gonneville remained six months, and for that
fine country which his companions explored in their journeys with the
natives?

A river of the size described pre-supposes a country of considerable
extent, and therefore De Gonneville could not have landed on any of the
islands lying between Madagascar and the Sunda Islands. It could not have
been either of the latter named, as they lie to the north, and not the
south of the calm latitudes referred to by De Gonneville. We are perforce
obliged to admit that, as it was not and cannot have been Madagascar, it
must have been Australia, and in all probability the north-west coast of
the continent, about the Prince Regent and Glenelg rivers, where the
explorers King and Grey found fine rivers and a rich country fairly
populated with a race of warlike natives. It is certainly difficult when
reading the description given of the "Australians," by De Gonneville, to
imagine that they could possibly have had any resemblance to the races we
are accustomed to meet with in almost all parts of Australia. Still less
could they have resembled the wretched creatures which Dampier found
inhabiting the west coast, between Cape Le veque and the North-west Cape,
and we must, therefore, look further north for a country and a race of
men answering better to the description of the Norman captain.

De Gonneville found a fine district, watered by a large river, and
inhabited by men who possessed a kind of rudimentary civilization, a
tribal organization, and obeyed some established individual authority. He
further tells us that they lived in villages, or agglomerations of huts
of the shape of the covered markets in the Normandy villages--that is to
say, oval or round, made of stakes driven into the ground, and the
intervals filled up with herbs and the leaves of trees; and that the
speech of these people is soft and melodious. He also speaks of the
birds, beasts, fishes, and other curious animals unknown in Christendom,
of which Master Nicole le Fevre, of Honfleur, who was a volunteer in the
voyage, had taken exact draughts. And, last of all, we are told that De
Gonneville induced the chief or king of the country to allow him to take
home his son and another Indian as a companion, promising to return with
them in twenty "moons" at furthest, and owing to the impossibility of
fulfilling that promise, he procured the young Australian an
establishment in France, and married him to one of his relatives, from
whom he had posterity. This last portion of the narrative would appear
the most incredible of all, if we had not official and documentary
evidence of its absolute truth, as it must certainly be presumed that the
Australian could not possibly have belonged to the wretched races with
whom we are familiar.


But, however difficult it may seem to reconcile the account of De
Gonneville with our general knowledge of the natives of Australia, the
task is not so hopeless as at first sight may appear; and we shall crave
the attention of the reader to the following description of the country
and the inhabitants of that part of North-west Australia which surrounds
the Glenelg. and Prince Regent and other rivers in their neighbourhood,
discovered and visited for the first time by Captain King and Lieutenant,
now Sir George, Grey, the latter exploring it to some distance inland in
the year 1838.

Referring to that part of the country, Lieut. Grey says in his "Expedition
in North-Western and Western Australia," p. 179:--


"The peak we ascended afforded us a very beautiful view: to the north lay
Prince Regent's River, and the good country we were now upon extended as
far as the inlets which communicated with this great navigable stream; to
the south and south-westward lay the Glenelg, meandering through as
verdant and fertile a district as the eye of man ever rested on. The
luxuriance of tropical vegetation was now seen to great advantage in the
height of the rainy season. The smoke of native fires rose in every
direction from the country which lay like a map at our feet; and when I
recollected that all those natural riches of soil and climate lay between
two navigable rivers, and that its sea coast frontage, not much exceeding
fifty miles in latitude, contained three of the finest harbours in the
world in which the tide rose thirty-seven and a half feet, I could not
but feel we were in a land singularly blessed by nature."


Could any description more closely adapt itself to the fine country,
fairly peopled (PEUPLÉE ENTRE DEUX) of which De Gonneville speaks.
Further, on page 195 g S of the same work, Grey says:--


"We at length reached a watershed connecting the country we had left with
that we were entering upon. . . This watershed consisted principally of a
range of elevated hills, from which streams were thrown off to the
Glenelg and to Prince Regent's River. The scenery here was fine, but I
have so often before described the same character of landscape that it
will be sufficient to say, we again looked down from high land on a very
fertile country, covered with a tropical vegetation, and lying between
two navigable rivers. I CAN COMPARE THIS TO NO OTHER AUSTRALIAN SCENERY,
FOR I HAVE MET WITH NOTHING IN THE OTHER PORTIONS OF THE CONTINENT WHICH
AT ALL RESEMBLE IT."


Referring to the fauna, the same authority says:--


"North Western Australia seems to be peculiarly prolific in birds,
reptiles, and insects, who dwell here unmolested. . . ."


After mentioning several kinds of kangaroos, opossums, native dogs, etc.,
the former of which animals are constantly hunted down by the natives,
Grey, speaking of the birds, says:--


"To describe the birds common to these parts requires more time than to
detail the names of the few quadrupeds to be found. Indeed, in no other
country that I have ever visited do birds so abound. Even the virgin
forests of America cannot, in my belief, boast of such numerous feathered
denizens. . . . The birds of this country possess, in many instances, an
excessively beautiful plumage, and he alone who has traversed these wild
and romantic regions, who has beheld a flock of many-coloured parrakeets
sweeping like a moving rainbow through the air, can form any adequate
idea of the scenes that then burst on the eye of the wondering
naturalist. As to fish, the rivers abound in many species of excellent
fish."


Could there be a more fitting description of that country which De
Gonneville and his companions explored along the coast and in the
interior to a distance of two days' journey, which "they found very
fertile and full of many birds, beasts, and fish hitherto unknown in
Christendom?" To what does this latter qualification apply? Certainly not
to birds, beasts, or fish of either South America or Madagascar, as the
American fauna was, to a certain extent, already known in Christendom,
and that of Madagascar, which resembles that of the east coast of Africa,
apart from a few species not particularly remarkable or numerous, was
also well-known to Europeans. These beasts, of which, to use the old
Norman phrase of "Master Nicole Le Fevre, avait pourtrayé les façons,"
must have struck him as very peculiar indeed when he refers to them as
"utterly unknown in Christendom," and we know well that no other country
can boast of a fauna so essentially different to that of any other part
of the world as the Australian Continent.

And now as to the natives of this part of Australia, i.e., the
neighbourhood of the Glenelg and Prince Regent's River. Grey, in page 251
of the above cited work, says:--


"My knowledge of the natives is chiefly drawn from what I have observed
of their haunts, their painted caves, and drawings. I have, moreover,
become acquainted with several of their weapons, some of their
implements, and took pains to study their disposition and habits as far
as I could.

"In their manner of life, their weapons, and mode of hunting, they
closely resemble the other Australian tribes with which I have since
become pretty intimately acquainted, WHILST IN THEIR FORM AND APPEARANCE
THERE IS A STRIKING DIFFERENCE. They are, in general, very tall and
robust, and exhibit in their legs and arms a fine, full development of
muscle which is unknown to southern races. They wear no clothes, and
their bodies are marked by scars and wales. They seem to have no regular
mode of dressing their hair, this appearing to depend entirely on
individual taste or caprice.

"THEY APPEAR TO LIVE IN TRIBES, SUBJECT, PERHAPS, TO SOME INDIVIDUAL
AUTHORITY, AND EACH TRIBE HAS A SORT OF CAPITAL OR HEAD-QUARTERS, WHERE
THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN REMAIN, WHILST THE MEN, DIVIDED INTO SMALL
PARTIES, HUNT AND SHOOT IN EVERY DIRECTION. The largest number we saw
together, including women and children, amounted to nearly two hundred.

"Their arms consist of stone-headed spears, of throwing-sticks, of
boomerangs or kileys, clubs, and stone hatchets.

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