no written documents to confirm them; while in the seventeenth
century there is documentary evidence that its coasts were touched
upon or explored by a considerable number of Dutch voyagers, but
the documents immediately describing these voyages have not been
found."

The period of known Dutch discovery begins with the [Sidenote: 1644]
establishment of the Dutch East India Company, and a knowledge of the west
coast of Australia grew with the growth of the Dutch colonies, but grew
slowly, for the Dutchmen were too busy trading to risk ships and spend
time and money upon scientific voyages.

In January, 1644, Commodore Abel Janszoon Tasman was despatched upon his
second voyage of discovery to the South Seas, and his instructions, signed
by the Governor-General of Batavia, Antonio Van Diemen, begin with a
recital of all previous Dutch voyages of a similar character. From this
document an interesting summary of Dutch exploration can be made. Tasman,
in his first voyage, had discovered the island of Van Diemen, which he
named after the then Governor of Batavia, but which has since been named
Tasmania, after its discoverer. During this first voyage the navigator
also discovered New Zealand, passed round the east side of Australia
without seeing the land, and on his way home sailed along the northern
shore of New Guinea.

But to come back to the summary of Dutch voyages found in Tasman's
instructions: During 1605 and 1606 the Dutch yacht _Duyphen_ made two
exploring voyages to New Guinea. On one trip the commander, after
coasting New Guinea, steered southward along the islands on the west side
of Torres Straits to that part of Australia, a little to the west and
south of Cape York, marked on modern maps as Duyphen Point, thus
unconsciously--for he thought himself still on the west coast of New
Guinea--making the first authenticated discovery of the continent.

Dirk Hartog, in command of the _Endragt_, while on his way from Holland to
the East Indies, put into what Dampier afterwards called Sharks' Bay, and
on an island, which now bears his name, deposited a tin plate with an
inscription recording his arrival, and dated October 25th, 1616. The plate
was afterwards found by a Dutch navigator in 1697, and replaced by
another, which in its turn was discovered in July, 1801, by Captain
Hamelin, of the _Naturaliste_, on the well-known French voyage in search
of the ill-fated La Perouse. The Frenchman co